Here we go. . .

Well my digital companions we're getting ready for a big month.  As September winds down and October prepares to come roaring in we're getting ready to move to Sherman County (Moro Oregon), I'll celebrate my 10 annual 21st birthday, Wrestlers in Heppner will probably be certified (not positive when that will be done), I'm going to try like the dickens to get in a climbing/hiking trip of some sort in.  Add work, elk hunting?, and a fantasy wrestling draft in and it could be a whirlwind of a month.

We get the Uhaul on Wednesday, and hope to be moved in on Thursday/Friday.  I've got a meeting on Saturday, work Sunday and Monday, then I hope to get into the local school and talk to the AD, Principal, and maybe even the superintendent to see what their feelings are about a wrestling program.  I hope for a warm receptive welcome.  I have been told by another local coach that he may be able to help find me a practice mat, which would be huge if we could get that out of the way.

If you're jonesing for a wrestling fix check out the Oregon Wrestling Forum http://www.theowf.net/.  There's rankings for all the classes and an all class ranking as well.  That's also THE place to go to find results throughout the season.  See you all next month.

This Sucks

So I nearly cried the other day.  It suddenly hit me that I wouldn't be able to coach that much this year.  For the first time since 2005 my involvement in the sport that I love is going to be severely limited.  I'm working on call in Heppner and I plan to keep the job for a while at least, so on the occasion where I'm working a night shift I'll be able to go over and help the guys out at practice but other than that, I'll be stuck traveling to watch tournaments.  This sucks.  Heppner is the first team that I've been involved with that was on the rise.  The talent is cycling up, the current head coach is a great guy, that was fun to work with, they are building a new wrestling room (it'll most likely be used for other sports but it's being build and designed for wrestling).  In general the program is doing all the right things and headed in the right direction. 

Now I'm headed to a wrestling wasteland.  Guess that I'm going to have to get really comfortable behind the lens of my camera and spend the winter taking pictures instead of coaching (watch out Tony and Jedi), or do I dare contemplate getting certified again and putting on the striped shirt for a season?  Wow, I must really be desperate.

Lester to wrestle for bronze, Ruiz still alive in repechage at World Championships | TheMat.com - USA Wrestling

Lester to wrestle for bronze, Ruiz still alive in repechage at World Championships | TheMat.com - USA Wrestling

It's all becoming real.

Well we went to Sherman County, Kara had her interview yesterday, she was offered the job, accepted the position and her first day October 11th.  So in just over a month, 32 days we will move (for the third time in 12 months), unpack settle in and hopefully begin the process of reintroducing wrestling to Sherman County.  A week ago we were both freaking out a little bit because we couldn't find a place to live when we got there.  We were either looking at staying in Heppner for a while longer with Kara commuting over 90 miles (roughly 2 hours each way) or moving in with my mother-in-law.  Yes the options were that attractive.  However we somehow had the opportunity to not only find a spot to rent but we had our pick of two very nice homes that would both work out very well for us.  We chose a 2 bedroom 2,000 sq ft house that has a very nice 2 car garage, huge lot, fenced yard, underground sprinkler system, large utility room, HUGE master suite with a sliding glass door and private deck off of it, and a fantastic kitchen.  Oh and it also has a pellet stove AND a wood stove--time to fire up the chainsaw and start cutting again.

We're going to try to put both of the kids into one bedroom for now and see how that works--fingers crossed that they will cooperate with us.

Goal Setting gone wild.

OK so I’ve finally gotten the goals down on paper, at least a rough draft.  These probably will change, maybe even drastically, but it’s a starting point at least.  Now the hard part comes however—trying to achieve these goals.

Year 1

●     Run a 4+ week little guys program with an average attendance of 20 or more.

○     I strongly believe that a kids program is the heart and soul of every successful wresting program.  I plan on starting with developing and maintaining a strong kids program, building interest at a young age.  Every kid in the program gets a t-shirt and a ribbon/medal/trophy depending on what we get that year.

●     Have at least 3 high school kids interested in either USAW/ORWAY club wrestling or Freestyle wrestling tournaments.

○     If I’m going to be able to accomplish any of the goals I have set for later on I need to start getting interest at the high school level early on.  If I can get a couple young students passionate about the sport then they’ll each be able to convince one or two of their friends to join as well.  The key is finding passionate kids, or instilling passion in them.

●     Procure team gear:  Warm-ups, singlets, headgear.

○     If we’re going to have a team then we need to be able to look like a team.  I hate it when I see teams warming up with mis-matched warm-ups or different singlets.  Also with money being as tight as it is for school administrations they won’t be able to afford to purchase this for us.  If I can show them that we can stand on our own--at least financially--then I feel there is a much better chance that the administration would be willing to allow us to start an official team.

○     We’re not going to try to come up with anything exceedingly flashy just matching gear.  Regular sweats (pants and either full zip or hoodie jacket) with either a logo or team name will work just fine.  We may also look into purchasing mesh shorts, though I’m thinking in having the kids buy a “spirit pack” of shorts, shirt (hat?) each year. 

●     Find a mat--either raise the money and purchase one or find one that we can use on our terms.

○     The mat doesn’t need to be school colors, at least not yet, but we do need to be able to use the mat when and where we want to.  I also want a mat that can’t be “taken back” all of the sudden leaving us high and dry.  Eventually I want to get either a new mat or resurfaced mat with school colors and logo but that is going to have to wait a couple of years.

○     With all of the vacant public buildings in the area if we can just get a mat then we’ll have a spot that we can practice when we want to.  I’d much prefer to be able to just leave a mat rolled out so that it is ready for us even if we only have a couple of kids show up.

●     Find 5 additional dedicated community members to help with fundraising and building community support.

○     I’m not really looking for assistant coaches with this though that would be great.  What I really want are people who love wrestling and who also either have decent sized pocket books or sizable chunks of time to devote to help with fundraising and the leg/bookwork associated with any athletic organization.  I need people to sit at booths during the fair/rodeo, help with car washes, sell raffle tickets, ask for raffle donations, bake or buy items for bake sales, invite people to matches, and help to gin up community support for a program.  I’ll also need help running the kids program.  There is a booster’s club (all sport) and an athletic foundation (another type of booster club) already in place, what I need are people who have a passion for the sport that isn’t dependant solely upon a kid in school.

Year 2

●     Run a 4+ week little guys program with an average attendance of 25 or more.

○     I almost feel bad for only having a goal of 25 additional kids, I really felt like I should have stepped up this goal a little bit.  My real goal is to grow the club by 25% or more.  Part of the reason I left the number so low is that the number of kids in the area is finite.  The entire population is under 2000.  I don’t know maybe I’m just hoping to have one goal that is definitely attainable.  Who knows, this one may be changed at a later date.  I’d also like to think that by this time I am lengthening the kids program by a week or so and introducing a bit more technique.  The main goal for a kids program is to HAVE FUN.  Everyone is a winner--we’ll reward achievement and celebrate winners but we’ll also celebrate effort just as much, especially with the younger kids.

○     I’m thinking that maybe in year two depending upon what kind of high school or junior high program we have that I may try to expand the reach of my kids program to include surrounding areas.  I’m not sure yet but I’m thinking two nights a week in Sherman county, and two nights in Arlington or Condon?

●     Have at least 3 High school wrestlers that want to co-op with another school.

○     I’m stretching here I think but if I want to have a program at the high school by year three then I need to have some interest in year two.  I need to get a core group and I’d love to see them work out in a neighboring school that we co-op with.  Preferably a larger school so we don’t get any of the small school mentality that says:  “That may be what it takes to win at a big school but we’re a 1A school.”  I’ve seen it at a couple of different places and once it starts to creep in it’s nearly impossible to get out of your program.  However I would GLADLY give up the co-op if we could start a program in the high school in year two.  That is part of the reason I want to get warm-ups and singlets in year one.

●     Purchase team bags.

○     The last and probably least important part of a complete team uniform. They are nice to have and of the four teams that I’ve coached three of them had team bags.  Every one of the wrestlers liked them a lot, and it was a nice reward to give to the varsity guys.

●     Raise an additional $1,500 dollars.

○     If I can stay on top of the money then when it is time to buy new singlets/warm-ups ore a mat we’ll be able to do it.  I am also assuming that we’ll have to pay for our own travel expenses and entrance fees.  I want to be able to travel to good tournaments and afford to pay for the entry fees as well.  I would also like to start raising money early for a new mat--one with our logo and school colors.  Even if they have one at the school it is probably at least 15 years old, and in another couple of years it will need replacing.

Year 3

●     Continue to grow youth program and have at least two interested parents or other community members willing to help run the program.

○     Ideally I’d like to be able to pass off the youth wrestling to devoted community members who are willing to run it as a part of a comprehensive program (including the youth, junior high, and high school).  While I think that I can handle running all three programs for a couple of years (heck Russ Cozart has been doing all of it for eons) I would much rather have someone else buy into our program philosophy and come on board to help out.  I think this will probably end up being a parent and this is fine I’d almost rather find a devoted individual willing to run the program for longer than a year or two.

●     Have an official high school and junior high program.

○     This will probably be the toughest goal to achieve—or the easiest.  If I can get the administration on board this will be as “simple” as getting enough kids interested to have a team.  I’d really like to have at least 7 turn out the first year.  I may try to get on and volunteer to help the football team this year if at all possible, and if I think that I can stand to be away from my family that much.  If I can help out with the HS football team I should be able to recruit a couple of guys for a wrestling team.  After all 67% of all NFL linemen wrestled in HS and/or College.

●     Win half of our dual meets.

○     This is a big stretch I know, and I almost put a goal down of winning 1/3 of the dual meets but I just couldn’t set a goal for us to have a losing record.  50% or more I can deal with.  33%, I can’t aim that low.

●     Host one home dual meet.

○     Hopefully by this time I’ve built up some community support and I would love to be able to show the community what wrestling is first hand.  Maybe even get a couple of local bigger school JV teams to come and we could do a 4 way dual meet where the crowd could see some exciting duals.

●     “Travel” to one tournament where we either sleep on the mats or stay in a hotel.

○     Not sure which tournament this would be.  I would love to get up to Orofino (for a pod style tournament) but we may just head over to the Salem area and find a school to dual against on Friday and then sleep on their mats before a Saturday tournament.  It would be really cool if we could sleep raise the money to stay in a hotel I think that getting away and making a trip as a group does a lot to build team unity.  I also want to give the kids a memorable and fun experience for them to look forward to every year.  I want to start building traditions early on.

●     Start a freestyle/Greco club.

○     I piss and moan about our international wrestling lagging that I better darn well do my part to help.  Besides mat time never hurt anyone and if I can get a couple of kids an extra 20-50 matches a year that’s like wrestling an entire extra season and experience is something that we’ll need to build—the sooner the better.

Year 5

●     Qualify two wrestlers for state—place one.

○     What is the point of starting a program if you don’t aim to win?  If we can get a program started in year 3 then by year five we’ll have upperclassmen that have been with us for three years.  It’ll be time to see the fruits of our labor.

●     Finish in the top half of our district tournament.

○     Depending upon which district we’re put in (I’d like to go east to avoid Culver but geographically it makes MUCH more sense for us to stay in the central region and just deal with Culver) we’ll either face a very top heavy district, that fades fast or we’ll face a district that is fairly even at the top and then gradually drops off to not much at all.  Either way finishing in the top half is feasible and realistic.  It won’t be easy but then goals shouldn’t be easy should they?

●     Win over half of our dual meets.

○     This will continue to be our goal until our program is established.  Most of our duals will be against larger schools or the elite small schools.  So winning half is an accomplishment, especially early on.

●     Host at least two duals

○     The more we’re home the better.  We need to expose the community to as much wrestling as possible.  If we have to we’ll shove it down their throats—as politely as possible of course.

●     Host a home tournament.

Same as above but maybe we can make some money hosting the tournament as well.  Plus it will bring business into the community which is always a good thing.

●     Win one piece of tournament hardware.

○     This will be a goal every year.  We need to bring something home for all of our hard work.

●     Take the team to a summer camp.

○     I’d love to take them to one of the Oregon State camps.  Maybe make a trip out of it on the way back and camp/water ski somewhere or do something else fun on the way home.

Year 10

By year 10 we’ll be in what I call the “second generation” of wrestlers.  Meaning that the wrestlers we’ll have were just starting to wrestle when our high school program started.  They will have seen what it takes to win and our program will be well established.  That is why by year 10 I hope that we have seen some success and that we can begin to build upon that success.

●     Have two top 10 team finish at state.

●     Have one top 5 finish at state.

●     Finish top 2 in our district at least twice.

●     Place at 3 or more of the tournaments we attend.

Off to Sherman County.

Well the goal setting is taking a lot longer than I thought.  I spent a couple of hours yesterday working on them and I have about three pages written out, goals and explaniations of why I think they're necessary.  I am setting goals for:
1 year
2 year
3 year
5 year
10 year

I've finished with years 1-3 (for now, I'm sure I'll change them again before posting them) but I want to get them all down and on paper to see how well they mesh with each other before posting them for all to see.  We're headed to visit Kara's family for the Labor day weekend.  I'll be bringing my netbook with me and I hope to finish the goals while were there.  Since there isn't any computer access I won't be able to upload them until Monday at the earliest, but most likely it'll be Tuesday or Wednesday before I get them posted.  I may try to meet with some more people and chat with them about wrestling.  Kyle (Kara's brother) is a football coach--I'd love to get him excited about this since I think he could send a lot of his football kids my way, he's never wrestled though and I'm not sure how much of a fan he is.

I think that we'll probably end up driving around looking for somewhere to live and I'll most likely look for spots to practice as well, maybe try to look into some of the vacant buildings around and see if there is space to roll out a mat and maybe even put in a shower.

That's all for me now.  I hope that you all have a great labor day weekend, unless you are going camping in which case I hope it rains on you and that you have a miserable time, man I wish we were going camping this weekend, or better yet I wish I was going climbing.  The S. Sister, Borah Peak,  Adams, Middle Sister, Shasta, and Mt Lasen beckon me.

Info from coaches, coaches' wives, and community members.

I've been able to talk to several people from the community that were involved with wrestling during the last go around and it's been fairly informative.  I have not had a chance to speak with the last head coach (though I talked to his wife quite a bit) because he's working out of town right now, but I have spoken to the assistant coach, and his wife (a former teacher in the local high school) as well as the coach's wife I mentioned above.

I have not yet spoken to the school administration.  I want to make that initial contact in person and after I've done a bit more leg work and have a detailed plan with some goals to take to them.  I want them to realize that I'm committed to seeing this through for the long haul and that I'm willing to work with them in a professional manner.  I want them to take me serious and to know that I am serious.

So here's what I have learned from speaking to others:

• They had roughly 70 kids showing up every week for kids club wrestling (that includes two towns from a neighboring county)
• There was never a junior high program to speak of.
• There is an "old" mat somewhere that we may be able to use.
• Their nice new competition mat (7 strip) is in Crook County with the Smith Rock wrestling club, except for one strip that cheerleaders are using for practice.
• Once the kids program was cut the high school program dwindled and died (duh).
• There were two coaches that did it all (with the help of their wives, one of them coached a kids club on her own) and when they couldn't find someone to take over the kids program they let it die.
• The administration cut the program and the last coach didn't leave on very good terms with the current administration.
• Surprise, surprise, surprise, money will be a serious issue.  Budgets are tight and getting tighter.  If we want to spend any money then we'll need to raise it ourselves.

I need to get in touch with some neighboring clubs still and eventually make a trip over to visit with the school administration.  I've been working on creating some goals for the program.  I'm a big goal person and if I have something to work towards and a definite end point then I'll push myself a lot harder to reach it.  I think that I've got the goals set but I'm a little hesitant to share them with anyone because half the time I think they are delusions of grandeur and the rest of the time I don't think they're lofty enough.  Maybe I'll grow a pair and post them tomorrow, maybe I'll find another excuse and think of something better to write about.

If you've ever been in my shoes and started a program let me know I'd love to pick your brain if you don't mind, and feel free to offer up any advice.

Full disclosure.

In an effort to be completely honest with you there are some things that I need to tell you all about my history with Sherman County (yes that is where we would be moving to).  It's not as though I've never been to the area or don't know anyone there.  In fact I'm very familiar with that area.  I was born in The Dalles hospital and lived in Grass Valley when I was first born.  I have an aunt and uncle that live outside of Kent where they raised both my cousins, my dad even went to Sherman high school where he was a baseball and basketball (gasp) star.  My wife graduated from high school there and her family still lives in Sherman county.  

So now that everything is out in the open I'll move on to more wrestling news.  I've talked to the assistant coach, his wife and the last head coach's wife as well.  When I can get a hold of the last head coach I'll let everyone know what happened to the last program.

Where do I begin?

The position is officially closed--they're not taking any more applications.  The hiring committee should have all the resumes by this Friday and I'm sure that interviews will follow soon after.  On a side note why the heck do people applying for a job in Oregon have to send their resumes to Kansas City for them to be reviewed and then sent back to Oregon again?  How idiotic is that?  Did someone ask if it was a government job?  Why yes it is.

Back to wrestling.  I have no idea where to begin with starting a wrestling program.  Here's the questions I am going to try to answer first:
There used to be a wrestling program at the school, what happened to it?
How willing is the administration going to be to letting a program back into the school?
Is there a mat?  Whose mat is it?  The school's?  A non-existent clubs? An individuals?
Is there interest at the high school level or do I need to start ginning up interest with youth before a high school team is possible?
Will the community support us?
Am I really ready to dive headfirst into this?  That one I can answer:  Absolutely I am, I can't imagine doing anything else.  If I'm going to live in a community then I'm going to have a wrestling team to support, and if they'll have me coach.  The real question is:  Is my wife ready for this?

I'm off to make some phone calls.  I need to get a hold of:

1. The last head coach.
2. Any of his assistants I can run down.
3. The school principal and AD.
4. The Adjacent schools and communities that have wrestling--I want to see if any of them are willing to co-op with us for a year or two until we can get our feet under us.

Lots to do, time to get off the computer and make some phone calls.

A land before wrestling. . .

So my wife has applied for a job in a different community, one without wrestling--sad as it may be they do exist.  Now it's not just a school district without wrestling, or a town without wrestling, but it's an entire county without wrestling--823 square miles with no wrestling.  I can't live in a community without wrestling, and I don't think that anyone should have to live in such a place.

I'm going to bring wrestling with me, and I'm going to try to keep you all informed of my progress.