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2005 USAW Junior Duals recap
Earlier Glen had asked me if I would do some type of write up on the duals. Here are my thoughts.
The team worked hard and gave a good accounting for the state. We should be pround. We did not bring the horses to deal with the top 10 level but we did well against the states that are not top 10. Iowa, Illinois, Oklahoma, PA, Ohio, NJ, etc were loaded with talent. None of them bring their entire first team so there is a slight window of opportunity for a top 3 finish, IF we could bring ALL our best wrestlers in the future. Right now, for the Juniors to place in the top 5 at National Duals, the entire Washington wrestling community needs to get behind it to get our very best to go, 2 deep. Everyone needs to be on the same page, the WSWA, the high school coaches, the club coaches, everyone. If that doesn't happen, the duals will continue to be a great learning experience for the kids on the team but we will probably be limited to breaking into 9-10th place each year. Either way, the duals are a great activity for the kids at any level and will help everyone of them prepare for next year's high school season. My hat is off to all the kids that made the trip this year and gave their all. You are all to be commended and I thank you for a great trip.
105 lbs. Brandon Truini - Elma High School Brandaon will be a Sophomore at Elma High School next year. We were glad to get Brandon to come along as the 105 as a 1st year Cadet. He found that it is a big jump from the Schoolboy Duals to competing at the Junior Duals. He always came out battling and I really enjoyed getting to know him. I sat beside him on the plane from Denver to Oklahoma and he quite a conversationalist.
One of the twins from the Tri-Cities that I didn't know much about until the duals. He is still learning the sport but lots of athleticism and a "won't quit" attitude. He wrestled against Matt Kyler in the PA dual and scored 8 points against Matt who is the defending Cadet FS National Champion. In the pictures on the site you will see the "shiner" he gave to Matt in the match. I took the picture of Matt after the bout when we talked about his trip to Everett with the Ohio All-Stars about 4 years ago.
Kris is a 2005 graduated Senior who came to the team and really helped out with some tough wins. He will be going to Fargo this summer and I wish him well. He has a high gut that when he locks it up and digs in the legs, the match is over.
What I said about Tyler Cowen goes for his twin brother Phillip. Great kids who that really fit in with the group and had great attitudes. One match he lost against a really tough kid and went running of the mat afterwards and down the center isle. Coach Anaya tried to get him to stop but he wouldn't. Gus looked at me and said "I don't know what he is crying about, he wrestled great." About two seconds later I looked down the isle and saw the reason. He wasn't crying. Phillip was leaning over the garbage can physically sick after a really tough loss. He came back smiling after his stomach felt better. He wrestled through that and other obstacles and always had a positive attitude. The Cowin boys each received a nickname from their teammates. :)
Anthony was one of the main hammers on the team. I don't know what his record was but I know he won most of his matches and he had lots of techs and falls. This was his first real wrestling since the state meet in Tacoma because after that meet he had to have surgery on both knees. He looked very healthy now, especially compared to when I saw him wrestle in Tacoma on one leg. He also came up to the coaches and said that he and Shane could drop a weight class if if would help the team, which it did. Anthony will be contending for a WIAA state title next year as a Senior after already placing twice in his career.
Brian is from Hoquium and wrestles for Coach Kirk Hartsell. For Brian, it was a learning experience at this level and he had to take on several national level wrestlers. He got to see first hand that there are some very bad boys out there when you get to Junior Nationals. It should really help him prepare for next year.
Shane is another kid that I had heard a lot about but had never gotten to really meet. He is from Olympia High School and he has been around my son's weight the past two years but they have never wrestled. He is a scrapper that fights through pain and adversity. Against PA in GR he took on a returning Fargo AA that also placed top 4 at Senior Nationals this year. Shane went toe to toe with him and beat him 5-4! He also decided to cut down to 125 just to help give the team more flexibility. He was 2nd to Cory Fish last year at state so keep your eye on him as he is a tough dude.
130 lbs. Jonny Gilbertson - Cascade High School in Everett Jonny started out well in GR with a couple of techs and a fall. He lost a match he shouldn't have because he kept trying to lateral drop the opponent and got countered each time (gave up 7 points on his throws). He kept coming back to tie it up after the counters but he finally lost it in OT. In freestyle we wrestled Oklahoma and he got lit up by a kid I hadn't heard of (Tyler Shinn) but I have now since Tyler didn't lose a match at duals and every kid he wrestled was tough. Jonny lost again against a rock from Michigan by and 11-7 score and then came our nightmare. He was wrestling a rough kid from Tennessee that won a lot of matches before the weekend was over. Jonny was down 1-0 when the guy tried to turn him. Jonny was defending well and then I saw him just go over and go limp for the fall. I knew right away he was hurt, although he never let out a sound. He was in a lot of pain so we put ice on it and I took him to the ER for an x-ray where we found out he broke a rib. He was done for the tournament, and for the year. This will be the 2nd Fargo in 3 years that he has had to miss due to a fracture.
Lucas was someone I'm glad I got to know. He was the state champ at my son's weight although they didn't get to wrestle at the dome. I didn't know how good he really was, but I do now. He is damn good! He is a returning Cadet AA that beat a few other AA's in matches in the duals. One of the steadiest wrestlers on the team. He has a very nice personality but he can get absolutely ferocious on the mat when he wants to. Jonny told Luke that his opponent was trash talking about him before the match. Lucas locked him up on the whistle, RAN him to the edge of the mat, stopped and LAUNCHED him out of bounds for 3 points, and an injury default. I'll make sure I don't do anything to tick Lucas off in the future. :)
What can I say about Decker that most people don't already know? He has been around forever, has won 6-7 state FS titles (2 of those were against Jonny in the finals), placed at Nationals, been on 2-3 dual teams, etc. He was brought up by Ron Bessemer and will be going to the college in Illinois where Ron is now coaching this fall. Nathan was one of the main hammers on the team, like Anthony, Lucas, Patrick, Michael and Kurt. The memorable win here was against Oklahoma were he wrestled a defending Junior National Champ and pinned him. Not only did he pin him but he was ahead 10-3 when he did it. It will seem strange not to have Nathan in the weight above Jonny after all these years. His dad and I are friends so at least I'll continue to hear how things are going for him in college.
Michael is another Woolley kid that we go way back with. We met them (his family) back in 1997 when he and my son wrestled right down to the wire every weekend in FS tournaments. We all became friends and the next year Michael started coming to USA Everett to practice. We've had lots of weekends fishing and camping, riding 4-wheelers, etc. Michael has continued to work hard and improve and as a result, he now has two state finals to his credit with two more years of high school to go. Michael hasn't had as much FS/GR training lately but he did really well at the duals and pulled out some tough wins.
The third member of the team from the state champion Sedro Woolley Cubs. Patrick wrestle his usual tough way with lots of his patented tackdowns through out the tournament. Last year he was the National Cadet GR runner-up and lots of people knew who he was at the Duals. The Columbia College Coach was there talking to Patrick and watching him wrestle. I remember just a few years ago when the O'Neils were thrilled that Patrick took 5th at Western Regionals. Look at him now! One of the "stoppers" on the team.
Kurt has been around forever with many titles to his credit. I first saw him as a Bantam when I was coaching my son's workout partner in the state finals back when they were very young. JJ was wrestling "some kid named Swartz" in the 55lb finals and I thought he would just walk over him. I was wrong and Kurt went to to defeat JJ that day and several more times over the next 2 years. I knew who he was after that. He went on to win a couple of USAW National titles as a kid and his first WIAA title last year. Kurt is just a pleasure to watch wrestle. He is very well trained with a combination of aggressiveness throughout the match with the patience and smarts to know went to back off. He won a lot of matches with his non-stop attack with just a touch of reserve at the right times. I sure hope he be on the dual team next year because with another year of maturity, I'm not sure he can be beat.
Here is the comic of the group, and has been for many years. Kai would be out there wrestling with the biggest smile on the whole team. Win or lose, he had a great attitude all the time and boy, can he eat steaks! He is well trained, having grown up in the USA Everett club when Ron was coach and the past few years with Brent Barnes at Lake Stevens. He won some big matches but also helped the team out by keeping the other wrestlers loose with his carefree attitude.
I didn't know Bryan before the duals but he is another nice kid that really gives it his all. My memory of him is the look of determination when he won a tough match with a takedown in OT, or right at the end of the match. He had a good lead on the opponent but got taken to his back and almost lost. He refused to lay down and eventually got out of the hold. When the final whistle blew, he did a fist pump that would make Tiger Woods proud. I was really happy to see him win that match.
Another wrestle that I just met at the state meet in May. I have been wondering why I never heard of Pano until the last two years and I found out why. He had been living in Japan where his father is a lawyer and just moved back here prior to his Junior year of High School. He had a few tough times as the 171 weight class was really strong but overall did very well.
Tre didn't wrestle near as many matches as Pano but he wrestled tough whenever he got into the lineup. He plans on continuing to wrestle in college were he will enroll next year as a Junior because he already got 2 years of college completed through the running start program. I think he'll do well in Montana, both with wrestling and academics.
One of Coach Hartsell's wrestlers from his high school team. He shared the spot with Josh but got in the majority of matches. Always wrestled tough and won his share of matches although it was definitely a growth experience for him. He will be very tough at the dome this year after finishing 2nd to Millard last year.
Josh was an interesting kid to get to know a little more about. He is a very bright kid and plans to go to college on an academic scholarship but also wants to walk on for a wrestling team. Josh has only been wrestling for a short while so he knows that he is still on the steep part of the learning curve. He took some lumps but he did defeat Kai at the steak eating contest at the Golden Corral! He has a real good work ethic.
Jake has really put on some more muscle since finishing the high school season a few months ago. He wrestled high school at 171 but has been lifting a lot and was up to 199. He was still small for that weight (215) but gave a great accounting of himself and got the chance to wrestle some great wrestlers, including the #2 ranked guy at 215. What I remember about Jake is that he had to have the trainer come over to almost every match to stop the bleeding on his forehead that would start about 30 seconds into each match. He got to know the trainer on a first name basis since she worked on him every match.
I didn't get to see much of Mike wrestle because he got hurt in his first match. The big guy from NY got behind him on the initial series and then threw Mike over the top for 5 points, and a concussion! That was my first trip with a kid to the ER (on THIS TRIP), the second one was with my son two days later. It's too bad that Mike got hurt because wrestling the 275's that were there was a great way for Zack (the other heavy) to work on improving his skills.
If I remember correctly, Zack told me
he is pretty inexperienced having
only wrestled for a couple of years but you could see him gaining from the
matches as the tournament went on. He started to believe in himself and as
the tournament progressed, you could see the confidence growing. He will
be a much tougher 275 next year and the growth on the Duals will be a big part of that. |
