From Craig Hellwege - General Manager

HUSKERLAND UPDATE - MARCH 2002

The kids season is in high gear now and the board is working hard to make Huskerland 17 the best one yet. We feel that Sapp Field House at UNO will provide an excellent venue for our two day state meet. We are also looking forward to enhancing on the two day format that we found to be so successful last year. The UNO coaching staff will conduct a clinic both days of the state meet. We will list times and clinicians at a later date on our website. This should be a great opportunity for your wrestlers to learn the technique that has made UNO a D-II power. This update has Huskerland 17 individual entry forms and club cover forms attached. It is very important that you read directions and mail your entries in a timely matter. For those who still need to make hotel reservations in Omaha for April 12-14 please consider using STI Sports. You can find STI Sports by clicking on their logo located on our website’s home page. Click on their logo, click on enter, click on Huskerland Wrestling Tournament XVII, then scroll down. There you will find 3 hotels with special rates for Huskerland clubs. By using this service your parents will obtain special rates and Huskerland will also be helped. Those who have already made reservations we would like you to consider looking at this option and cancel your other reservation. Things are going well with Camp Team registration with 54 clubs signed up as of 2-25-02. You can find which clubs have bought cards by going to www.campteam.com. Clubs not registered with Camp Team will not be considered for Top 10 recognition or TTT Awards. Note that to enter the state meet all wrestlers will need a Camp Team card and all coaches will need a card to obtain matside passes. Please don’t wait till the last minute to obtain cards so you can avoid entry hassles. The more clubs that obtain cards for all wrestlers and coaches the better the program will work for everyone. Additional information on Camp Team can be found here.

We have contracted several venders that we feel will help Huskerland financially and we highly encourage you to support them also. The venders selected offer great service and products and we are very comfortable recommending them for your club needs. The vender selected for the State Meet shirt sales is Kicks Sportswear of Crete, Nebraska. They are planning to provide the premeet order that puts your club name on the state meet design. Kicks has provided shirts for our workers for a number of years. I have always been very pleased with their colorful designs and they are excited for being selected to produce the 2002 Huskerland State Meet Shirts. Kicks was our 2000 State Meet vender at Kearney. You can get on their website by clicking on their logo located on our website’s home page. Their phone number is (402) 826-5432. The vender selected to produce medals and spell awards is ABC Trophies & Awards of Arlington, Nebraska. ABC was also selected last year to do awards and did an excellent job. ABC will supply us with medals and plaques. Their phone number is (402) 478-5565. The vender selected to sell wrestling gear and items is Sunflower Wrestling of El Dorado, Kansas. This will be their third Huskerland State Meet. You can get to their website by going to our website’s home page and clicking on their logo. Their phone number is (888) 211-1888. We have a new vender, Tiger Eye Photography of Lincoln, to shoot pictures. They plan to have 3 cameras with a crew of 10 that will do both award and action shots. They will process their photos on site so you can take them home with you. They have been working many Huskerland youth meets and are doing an excellent job with their craft. Their phone number is (402) 483-1483.

Huskerland Wrestling is making plans to take a team made up of our top wrestlers to the Middle School National Duals in Indianola, Iowa and a team to the Wrestling National Folkstyle Championships in Topeka, Kansas. Both events are scheduled for April 5-7, 2002. Chuck Sherer of Columbus will heading up the Iowa event. Albert Rodriguez of Kearney is heading up the Topeka event. Chuck is getting close to finalizing his team but Albert is still looking to add wrestlers to the team. It is our goal to minimize individual costs as much as possible. For More Information click HERE.  Huskerland wants to encourage as many of our wrestlers to attend USA Wrestling and AAU Wrestling State, Regional, and National Events. We feel it’s important for our wrestlers to do this for Nebraska wrestling to reach the next level.

Teams will be classed by number of state entries. They will be placed in a new 5 class system. The 10 clubs that send the most will be Class AA, the next 15 will be Class A, the next 20 will be Class B, the next 25 will be Class C, and the rest in Class D. If fewer than 100 clubs qualify for team awards the percentages using the numbers above will be used. Example: if just 80 clubs qualify, 10% of 80 would mean just 8 clubs in Class AA and 15% of 80 would mean just 12 clubs in Class A. Note that teams won’t be classified till after entries close. New for 2002 are the TTT Awards. Four clubs will be awarded plaques. Addition information about the TTT Awards can be found in the Update. We discontinued the family rate this year but we hope the clubs will help their own with the entry fees. Lexington High School is the site for the Huskerland Freestyle Classic on March 9th and Huskerland Duals on March 10th. The Classic is for wrestlers in Grades 9-12. Entry forms are available on our website. Teams for both Grades 3-5 and 6-8 can still get in the Duals but need to call Darrell Jennings at (402) 894-0981 ASAP.

I still have not gotten any nominations for the Huskerland Hall of Fame. There are many outstanding club leaders so please take a minute and get their stories to me. We didn’t get the Young Officials program going for this year but plans are in the works to create a top notch training program for 2003. We need pictures of 4x-5x-6x Mat Masters and State Championship Teams by March 15th to be put in the 2002 Program. Mail all pictures to Bobbi Hall, her address can be found on the list of Managers & Board Members. Also double check that our Mat Master listings and 2001 results are correct on our website so we will have things correct in the 2002 program. If you want to place an ad in the program please give Bobbi a call at (402) 438-1307. For club directors to obtain a Huskerland polo shirt this year they must send at least 4 wrestlers to the state meet and have paid Huskerland club dues. An addition this year will be meet t-shirts. Class C clubs will be given one meet t-shirt, Class B clubs will be given two meet t-shirts, Class A clubs will be given three meet t-shirts, and Class AA clubs will be given four meet t-shirts. It’s our hope these t-shirts end up with your top coaches. 

I had a great time at the State High School Championships cheering the East High Spartans to their first championship in 32 years. It appears with East returning 135 points the wait for the next title won’t take near as long. My son, Marcus, just missed qualifying for D-II Nationals. He placed 5th at the NCC Championships at 149. Six of his SDSU teammates did qualify for Nationals on Mar. 8-9 at Kenosha, WI. I’m planning to go to Albany, New York for the D-I National Championships later this month. I will also be making my first trip into New York City, can’t wait!