News March 2004

HUSKERLAND UPDATE - MARCH 2004

With the high school season over the kid's programs now taking center stage, the rush is on to be ready for Huskerland 19. The Sports Center at UNK clearly provided the best venue I feel that we have had for the first 18 Huskerlands. UNK Head Coach, Marc Bauer, gave us great support and has arranged for us not only to come back this year but for 2005 and 2006 also! That will make at least four straight Huskerland State Meets at this venue. We have a home for the first time since we left the Devaney Sports Center in 1998! The UNK coaching staff will conduct a clinic after the first session on Saturday the State Meet. This update has Huskerland 19 individual Entry Forms with master and cover forms attached. It is very important that you read directions and mail your entries in a timely matter to Fred Hall who is serving as meet director for the third straight year. For those who still need to make room reservations in Kearney for April 8-10 please go to the Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce website, www.kearneycoc.org.  You can find the chambers website by clicking on their logo located on our website's home page also. I highly recommend you reserve rooms for your club as soon as possible especially for April 9th.

Things are going well with the Huskerland Wrestling/Camp Team registration with 135 clubs signed up as of 3-12-04. We have gained 10 of clubs from the Panhandle and have hope they will enter a number of their wrestlers at Kearney. Note you can find what clubs have joined, their Club Number, number of wrestlers & coaches who have paid for Camp Team season coverage by going to www.huskerland.org  and clicking on Participating Clubs. Their Meet Number, meet date, number of one day fees sold, and if they are using registered officials can also be found here. Note clubs that are not registered with Camp Team will not be considered club scoring or TTT Plaques. Note that to enter the state meet at the Huskerland club rates all wrestlers will need a Camp Team Roster Number and all coaches will need a Camp Team Roster Letter to obtain a matside passes. Wrestlers that don't obtain a Camp Team Roster Number by March 15th must pay the higher $25 Non-Huskerland rate and will not be scored. Coaches that don't obtain a Camp Team Roster Letter by March 15th must pay the higher $10 Non-Huskerland matside pass rate. Between sessions on Friday Camp Team representatives are providing a short session on ways to improve risk management. We have contracted most of our 2003 venders again and we highly encourage you to support them also. The vender for the State Meet shirt sales is the same as the last two years is Kicks Sportswear of Crete, Nebraska. They are planning to provide the premeet order that puts your club name on the state meet design. You can get on their website by clicking on their logo located on our website's home page. The vender for medals & awards for the fourth straight year is ABC Trophies & Awards of Arlington, Nebraska. Sunflower Wrestling will be selling wrestling equipment for the fourth straight year also.

The Huskerland Duals are at Lexington High School for the third straight year but have been moved from March 6-7 to March 13-14. Grades 6-8 will be run on Saturday afternoon and Grades 3-5 will be run on Sunday morning. The reason for moving the duals back a week was that many of the teams that came last year indicated they had schedule conflicts that would not allow them to come back. The reason for flipping grade groups is to allow wrestlers to enter the Nebraska USA Folkstyle Championships at Hastings also being held the weekend of the 13th and 14th. Check our website out for all the changes. Teams can still get in the Duals but need to call Duals Director, Darrell Jennings at (402) 894-0981 ASAP.

We did get the Youth Officials Program off the ground. We had hoped to get better numbers for this year but we knew it would not be easy going in. Chuck Sherer of Columbus has been organizing the program, grading tests, assigning mentors, and hiring state meet officials. Chuck is planning to meet with the coaches after the second session on Saturday to discuss the program with the goal to create a large pool of Youth Officials for 2005. Names of 2004 Youth Wrestling Officials along with names of registered officials who want to work youth events can be found HERE.

Huskerland Wrestling is making plans to take a team made up of Nebraska's top wrestlers to the USA Middle School National Duals in Danville, IL the weekend of March 26-28. The team we took last year brought home the Third Place Trophy. Jim Allen of Plattsmouth will heading up the team. For More Information call Jim at (402) 296-9139 or (402) 639-2737. Applications and additional info can be found HERE. We want to finalize the team by March 13th with final wrestle-offs at Lexington. Teams will be classed by number of state entries again. They will be placed in the 5 class system we have used the last two years.

TTT Plaques will again be given to the top club in each of the four high school classes but will be based on number of points scored by wrestlers from their school district. The Top Tributary Team awards were created to recognize those clubs who are being strong feeder programs for their high school teams. For club directors to obtain a Huskerland polo shirt this year they must send at least 5 wrestlers to the state meet and have paid Huskerland club dues. We will still give out meet t-shirts but will be based on the number of wrestlers entered in the State Meet. Clubs that enter 12 to 19 wrestlers will be given one meet t-shirt, clubs that enter 20 to 27 wrestlers will be given two meet t-shirts, and clubs that bring at least 28 wrestlers will be given three meet t-shirts. New for this year will be a special Mat Master Shirt that will be given out to the 4X, 5X, & 6X champs. Note three wrestlers are going for Number Six! They are Tyler Shanahan, Fremont WC, Austin Hergott, Norfolk Catholic WC, and Colby McCord, Louisville WC. Note Colby is also going for his sixth Champion of Champions medal also. Also double check that our Mat Master listings and 2003 results are correct on our website so we will have things correct in the 2004 program. Sorry that we have been so late getting the Mat Masters updated. The Tournament Calendar on our website is lacking in the number of events we normally have by this time of year but is growing a couple of meets everyday now. I regret not putting out a a January Update to push clubs to get things going a little faster. We had some major changes in how we operate this year that we should not have to deal with next year. Doug Denson is in the process of adding a couple of more Training Sites for this spring and summer. Doug ran one Training Site at Millard South last year with much success. Doug hopes to have everything in place by the Huskerland State Meet. Check the website for more information in late March. We are looking at doing some special thing for our milestone 20th State Meet. One thing we want to do for sure is to recognize all those who have attended every Huskerland State meet. Forms will be at the Head Table for those who have been 19 for 19!

What a great State High School State Meet! There is always a great deal of energy for the three days of excitement at the Devaney Center but with the tight team races clearly made this one more special. Millard South had a great state meet and was even in the lead Saturday morning but Lincoln East stepped it up winning an astounding 12 of 13 matches to wrap up their third straight title. I was very happy to see the Spartans have it wrapped up before the finals so I could root for the Patriots also. It was a fantastic three year run for the Spartans as they capping it off with a perfect season. Graduation will hit the Spartans hard with 10 seniors on the starting lineup. Millard South will return 11 of their 14 qualifiers making them clearly the team to beat next year and beyond. Omaha Skutt brought home a all class record 7th straight title while dominating the Class B field. With 8 qualifiers returning the SkyHawks will be looking to make it 8 straight titles. Class B had a great race for the Runner-up trophy with Aurora edging out Omaha Gross. It had been a long two weeks for the Huskies who lost their 19 year assistant coach, Jim Farrand, who passed away on February 9th from a heart attack. The Class C race boiled down to a city championship with David City High and David City Aquinas each qualifying 5 wrestlers for the finals. The Monarchs won 4 of their final matches to give them their third state title in the last 4 years. Winside kept it close with Howells but the Bobcats came up big in the Saturday morning consolations to earn them their first state wrestling championships. With 7 qualifiers back Howells will be looking to make it two straight! It is fun to see so many of the past Huskerland Champions do well in the State High School Meet. I want to note that both the new 4-Time Champions, Jason Katusin of Plattveiw and Chris Oliver of Creighton Prep, are past Huskerland Wrestling Champion of Champions.

At the college level the Huskers are currently ranked #2 for their highest ranking ever. Despite dropped a tight dual to the #1 Okie State Cowboys two weeks ago, Coach Manning has the guys in position to challenge for the top prizes at both the Big 12 and National Tournaments. I am making plans to attend both events and support the Huskers. The Big 12's are March 6th at Ames, IA and the Nationals are at St. Louis March 18-20. At UNO Coach Denny has his Maverick squad currently ranked #3 with all 10 starters being underclassman! They have a shot at all the marbles this year but appear to be the team to beat in 2004 for Division II.

Good News/Bad News: First the good news, I have informed the board that it is time for me to step down as Huskerland Director. Now the bad news, I'm looking at getting back into officiating with all the spare time I will have. The organization is clearly in the best shape it has ever been and thus making it a good time for me to start gearing my Huskerland duties down. I plan to remain on the board and work with Chuck Sherer on building a strong youth officials program plus be in charge of of our Hall of Fame yearly inductions. My wrestler, Marcus, got called up for active duty and has been deployed to Iraq. He is with the South Dakota Army National Guard which has finished their training at Ft. Carson in Colorado and flew to Kuwait on Saturday of the State High School Meet. I'm hoping his wrestling background will help him through the adversities he will have to deal with. All for now and hope to see you at Kearney!

Craig

*** Seeking pictures for all Huskerland Mat Masters going for their 5th or 6th State Championship. Please mail them to Katheryn Palmer by March 15th.
New 4X-Time Champs
** Mitchell Jennings - Millard South (98-00-02-03)
**** Quintin Cottle - Omaha Wstside (00-01-02-03)
** Alex Masilko - Lincoln Thunderbolts (00-01-02-03)
* Justin Hernandez - Lincoln Thunderbolts (98-00-02-03)
** Robert Eklund - Friend Lil Dawgs (99-00-01-03)
* Seth Olson - Tekamah-Herman (00-01-02-03)
Those we missed please forward information to Katheryn Palmer ASAP.
Katheryn Palmer - 5720 LaSalle - Lincoln, NE 68516

Craig craigh@huskerland.org

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