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By STEVE KRAH stvkrh905@gmail.com Bill Flatt does not try to fit a square peg in a round hole. The 17th-year head wrestling coach at South Bend Riley High School knows that each athlete is different. Flatt gets his Wildcats to play to their strengths and it has paid off with plenty of mat success. “I don’t try to put them into a mold,” Flatt said. “It’s not ‘here’s how I want all of you to wrestle.’ I emphasize their individuality.” Flatt encourages his wrestlers to find what style best suits them and go with that. He will be there to help them refine it. The veteran coach and is a former Mishawaka High School (Class of 1979) and Columbia University (Chicago) grappler. As an MHS junior, Flatt went 22-1 for Hall of Fame coach Al Smith. Flatt’s only loss came in the semistate semifinals to the defending state champion. After college, Flatt was an assistant to Smith for one season before taking over the Riley program. With all his time on and around the mat, Flatt knows that some wrestlers are better on their feet and others excel on top. “The guys who are good riders and pinners, when they are on bottom, I don’t want them getting to their feet and getting escapes,” Flatt said. “I want them to get the reversals to get into their best position and score from there. “I’m always looking to get them to their best positions, whichever that is. It may be a match-to-match situation.” With seniors Austen Laughlin (40-2 at 145 pounds) and Kassius Breathitt (38-4 at 152) and junior Tristan Goering (33-2 at 170) winning weight-class titles and senior RZ Teague (27-15 at 160) finishing fourth, again bolstered Riley as the Wildcats [laced third at the Mishawaka Sectional. Next up is the Rochester Regional. “The middle of our lineup has really set the tempo for the team,” Flatt said. That tempo helped the Cats go 17-8 in 2015-16 duals and is leading to wins in the postseason. “We want to just keep that momentum going,” Flatt said. “Get the points you need and get off the mat. This time of the year, it’s nothing but the W. Keep going to the right on that bracket. Go to the left and you lose another match and you’re done. So we want to keep going toward that championship bout.” Goering placed fourth at 160 at the 2015 IHSAA State Finals. Laughlin is a two-time State Finals qualifier and a 46-match winner in 2014-15. “Tristan’s run in the semistate and state finals last year was tremendous,” Flatt said. “For Austen, it’s all about confidence. He’s wrestled so much, there’s always another trick in his bag, one more thing he can do. He breaks people and just gets them to submit.” Ultra-competitors Laughlin, Breathitt, Teague and Goering are regular sparring partners during intense Riley workouts. “We hate losing,” Laughlin said. “That’s what motivates us to get better. It definitely gets heated in (the practice room).” When Breathitt looks at Laughlin, Teague and Goering, he sees driven athletes. “They’re determined,” Breathittt said. “They want to go places. They love the sport.” “We all work hard in here and push each other to be better,” Teague said. Goering said it’s a matter of iron sharpening iron. “Austen is one of the best on our team technically,” Goering said. “Kassius stays in really good position. RZ is a combination of the two. He’s real-rounded overall. My strengths are my athleticism, my explosiveness. I’ve been told I’m hard-nosed. I’m not the most skilled, but I go out there real hard and that tends to break guys down.” One bit of advice from Flatt that sticks with Goering is focusing on each period instead of the whole six-minute match. “If you win two minutes at a time, you will win the match,” Goering said. The junior also serves notice about the 2016-17 Wildcats and sees Riley having a good shot at ending Penn’s stranglehold on the top spots in the sectional and Northern Indiana Conference. “We’ll be better next year than we are this year,” Goering said. Laughlin said it is his ability to adapt to many styles and to go against teammates in practice that know how to scramble to helps him win close matches. While Breathitt is strong as a bottom wrestler, it’s also what he has between the ears that helps him be successful. “It’s that mental toughness and staying strong throughout the match no matter what happens,” Breathitt said. “You’ve got to believe in yourself. You’ve got to think that you can do it. “I’m pretty decent on my feet, but nobody can hold me down. I’m not staying on the mat. A sit-out hip-heist is kind of my go-to thing. I keep running those. I also have moves like Granbys and such.” Having drilled so much, Breathitt has confidence in his best set of moves. “I keep running it until they stop it,” Breathitt said. “I don’t like to change it up for other people. I like to keep doing what I’ve trained to do.” It’s a pretty smart group, too. Flatt said Breathitt, Teague and Goering are on the their way to academic all-state honors. Many Riley wrestlers compete throughout the year as a part of the South Bend Wrestling Club, which holds most workouts at Riley and South Bend Joseph. The current pack of Wildcats are continuing a strong tradition of South Bend’s South Side. From 1960-15, Riley racked up 53 indivudal State Finals. Jon Galloway (1964-65-66) was a three-time state champion for the Cats. Larry Katz (1963), Matt Wills (1991), Matt Nowak (1995) and George Malone (2007) also took state titles. “We just keep producing,” Flatt said. “We bring kids in, give them the idea they can be successful and try to put their name on (Riley Wrestling Wall of Fame) list.”

By STEVE KRAH stvkrh905@gmail.com A bond shared between siblings is a big part of why they are among the top wrestlers in their realm — big sister at the national and international level and little brother near the top of the high school pinnacle. Sarah Hildebrandt, 22, is a member of Team USA and trying to earn a spot for the 2016 Rio Olympics. The 2011 Penn High School graduate, just completed a national team training camp in Iowa City, Iowa, the site of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Wrestling on April 9-10. She is among those going for spots at 53 kg (116.8 pounds). Drew Hildebrandt, 18, is coming off a runner-up IHSAA State Finals finish at 113 pounds and a key role in Penn’s 2014-15 team state championship. Now a senior, the Central Michigan University-bound grappler is currently ranked No. 1 in his weight class in Indiana at 120 and was just named MVP of the Northern Indiana Conference for the NIC team champions. Sarah will have an overseas tour and a few tournaments leading up to the Olympic Trials. One is scheduled for the weekend of the IHSAA State Finals, Feb. 19-20, in Indianapolis. “Yo! I’m not going to that,” Sarah stated emphatically while visiting family for the holidays and watching her brother compete during break from training at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. “I’ve got to see my little brother.” Sarah, who got to coach from the corner at Mishawaka High School while her bro won an Al Smith Classic title in late December, is close to all her family members (Chris and Nancy have four children — Cory, Sarah, Amy and Drew). But the lofty wrestling goals and shared mat experiences have brought Sarah and Drew even closer. “We keep in touch (texts and phone calls etc.),” Sarah said. “We send each other silly stuff all the time. But before a competition, he will say, ‘I love you. You’re a beast.’ Drew knows I can do this. He’s been in this position. He trains with me. He knows me. “I love to hear from him . He’ll say, ‘Sarah, you’ve got this. Keep going.’ At the end of the tournament, he’ll say ‘I’m so proud of you.’” Through training and listening, Drew has benefitted from Sarah’s experience as a top grappler at King University and with the national team. Drew has adopted Sarah’s front headlock and slide-by to his bag of tricks. “People say, ‘you have a nasty slide-by’ and I say, ‘I learned it from my sister,’” Drew said. As a wrestler elementary school, Drew would get almost sick from anxiety before every match. With plenty of time in the spotlight since, that is no longer an issue. But Drew and Sarah do have anxious moments. “When she’s wrestling, I’m twice as nervous as when I’m wrestling and when I’m wrestling, she’s twice as nervous,” Drew said. On breaks from the national team — like the one in December — Sarah came into the practice room and shared her knowledge with all the Kingsmen, including head coach Brad Harper and his staff. “With the moves she shows us, she really focuses on the little things,” Drew said. “It’s more about the neutral position since she really doesn’t do bottom of top.” Harper, who started at Penn the same season as Sarah in 2007-08, appreciates the technician that she has become. “I told her back then that if she was going compete against boys, her technique and positioning had to be perfect,” Harper said. “She has taken that to heart. It has shown. She has even taken it to the next level.” Harper, a former standout at Mishawaka High School and Purdue University who has continued to coach Sarah past her high school days, said attention to detail is what she will need to have to earn a spot for Rio. “It’s about a lot of reps and a lot of practice and knowing you’re ready,” Harper said. “It’s hitting things over and over and over. That makes her makes her a great technician. She realizes her weaknesses and strengths.” Sarah said its her perfectionist tendencies that help her make adjustments and gives her confidence on the mat. “I love to just drill,” Sarah said. “Everybody knows I have a headlock and everybody knows I have a slide-by. Everyone in the country knows and people on the other side of the world know. But they don’t know the corrections I am making.” Sarah has also worked on her quickness. “I am a very heavy-footed wrestler,” Sarah said. “I’ve really focused on moving my feet, elevating the pace and moving in and out. The first time I executed it, people came up to me and said, ‘wow! you look like a different wrestler.’” Making Sarah and other Penn athletes better wrestlers is what Harper strives to do, not only with the teaching of technique, but with his encouragement. “That’s my secret sauce, it’s all about motivation,” Harper said. “I try to keep them focused on the ultimate goal.” With his current Penn grapplers — like Drew — that goal is individual and team championships. For Sarah, it’s an Olympic dream. Harper, who was in Las Vegas on a Friday night when Sarah qualified for the Olympic Trials and with his Penn team the next morning for a tournament in early December, likes to send motivational quotes. A recent one to the Hildebrandts came from legendary Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. The quote read: “It’s not the will to win that matters — everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.” The Harpers know Sarah as an athlete, but are very close with the whole Hildebrandt family. Sarah, best friend and national team training partner Jenna (Burkert) Lowry and others could be seen with Brad and wife Christina’s daughter and son — Mackenzie, 2, and Deuel, 5 months — at the Al Smith Classic. As a motivator and accountability partner, Harper watches film of Sarah and gives pointers. He talks to her about her diet (she has gone down a weight class), her training and her mental game. “We talk everyday,” Sarah said. “He’ll ask me, ‘have you visualized today?’” Dropping down to 53 kg (about four pounds lighter than her previous class and her lowest weight since high school), Sarah made a total change to her routine. “I took the cut very, very seriously,” Sarah said. “I probably started three months out. I complete changed my diet, my cardio and my lifting.” She continued with wrestling workouts five days a week (twice a day three times) and went from 20 to 40 minutes of running on the treadmill and a sauna session each day. Then a funny thing happened. “The day of weigh-in, I was being nice to people. It was a whole new experience,” Sarah said. “(When cutting weight,) I can get a little cranky. I love being down at the other weight. I feel like I can move better.” While running back in northern Indiana, she noticed how training at 6,000 feet above sea level in Colorado helps. “I was running 2 to 3 mph faster here,” Sarah said. It has been quite a run for the Hildebrandts and that run still has miles to go. Here is a link to a previous story on Sarah Hildebrandt http://www.elkharttruth.com/sports/2010/02/11/Prep-Wrestling-Hildebrandt-winning-matches-breaking-ground.html

By STEVE KRAH stvkrh905@gmail.com David Eli got an up-close look at the big stage as a sophomore. The Elkhart Memorial High School wrestler placed seventh at 182 pounds at the 2014-15 IHSAA State Finals. A year wiser and stronger, Eli has his sights set on loftier heights in 2015-16. Working with a Brian Weaver-led coaching staff that includes former successful Memorial wrestlers, Eli is honing his skills for a tournament run. Eli spent the time between high school season attending Indiana State Wrestling Association Regional Training Center workouts at Penn and going to freestyle and folkstyle tournaments. Just before the start of the current Crimson Charger slate, he went to Las Vegas and went 8-2 in two divisions of the “Freak Show.” Competing at 200 pounds, he won the varsity division and placed fourth in the elite. That experience combined with plenty of time in the weight room led the a season filled with grueling training sessions and more victories on the mat. “We’ve been working real hard,” Eli said after a recent win at 182. “I feel like I’ve got conditioning on some guys.” Weight workouts — especially with his legs — have added the muscle to help put away opponents. His regular workout partner at Memorial has been senior 170-pounder Nick Ritchie and both have benefitted from pushing one another. “For David to get down to the State Finals again this year, he needs opponents that can push him to his limitations,” Weaver said. “Nick Corpe, Shane Hendrickson and Tieshawn Johnson can push David to his limitations, get him where he needs to get.” Corpe and Hendrickson are EMHS assistant coaches and Johnson is a 2014 Memorial graduate. Corpe was a state champion for the Chargers at 171 in 2004-05 and went on to compete at Purdue University. Hendrickson, a 2010 Memorial graduate and two-time semistate qualifier and Northern Lakes Conference champion, wrestled for Trine University. Johnson, who placed fifth at the 2013-14 State Finals at 195, wrestled at Indiana Tech. “It really helps me out, them coming into the room and working with me,” Eli said. Corpe has been impressed with Eli’s work ethic and athleticism. “He doesn’t miss any practices,” Corpe said of Eli. “He just keeps getting better. “He digs for his ties and gets to his positions. When he hits his moves, he’s explosive. He stays in control of the match.” While Eli has been successful with blast double, high crotch and headlock combinations, Corpe wants him to add to his arsenal. “To win a state title, you need more than one shot,” Corpe said. “You’ve got to be able to scramble and know your positions. On top, he’s good. He’s a strong kid. But it usually comes down to the feet game. You need to compete with everyone on your feet.” Eli has taken this to heart. “I can be one-dimensional,” Eli said. “I’m working on scoring from more positions. “No matter who I’m wrestling, I’ve got to make sure I’m finishing my shots. Everything needs to be crisp.” Hendrickson said it is the basics that make Eli so good. “He is one of the more fundamentally-sound wrestlers I’ve ever seen in high school,” Hendrickson said of Eli. “That’s what we continue to work on. Fundamentals — David has gone them down. That’s why he’s ranked so high. That’s why he’s going to do damage at the state tournament.” Hendrickson sees Eli stay in what he calls “power positions.” “He’s always in a good stance,” Hendrickson said. “He doesn’t expose his side or his hip as much as he can help it.” Weaver, who placed seventh at the State Finals at 130 in 1996, said Eli and other high school (folkstyle) wrestlers have benefitted from freestyle wrestling. “There are more angles to freestyle and you can lock hands,” Weaver said. “(Freestyle) helps with mat awareness. Anytime you expose your back to the mat, it’s two points. A freestyle match can go very quick. You have to keep yourself in very good position the entire match.” Some folkstyle matches become a contest of playing near the edge of the mat. That’s not the case in freestyle. “Freestyle does not allow you to play the out-of-bounds line,” Weaver said. “(The official) will blow the whistle and take you right back to the center. They don’t want the lag time. “I’m hoping that Indiana will go to the college rules where if you have any limb inside the circle, it’s still live wrestling. It will eliminate playing the out-of-bounds line game.” Taking his knowledge of freestyle and his work ethic, Eli is aiming high this season. Next up for Eli and the Chargers is a dual against Northridge Tuesday, Jan. 19, and the NLC Tournament Saturday, Jan. 23 — both at Memorial.

By STEVE KRAH stvkrh905@gmail.com Plenty of practice and coaching reminders gave Jimtown High School wrestlers to succeed during a recent grueling stretch. The Jimmies placed 11th out of 32 teams in the 37th annual Al Smith Classic, held Dec. 29-30 at Mishawaka. Jimtown junior Kenny Kerrn took top honors at 145 pounds. On Saturday, Jan. 2, the Jimmies finished second out of 12 squads in the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association State Duals at Fort Wayne’s Memorial Coliseum. Jimtown edged Yorktown 31-30 in the semifinals before bowing 46-23 to Bellmont in the Class 3A finals. Jimtown head coach Mark Kerrn and his staff got the Jimmies ready for the tough week with quality mat time the week after Christmas and through visualization and confidence-building drills. Repetition in practice and time spent in the high school off-season at tournaments, camps and Indiana State Wrestling Association Regional Training Center sessions at Jimtown, Penn and Mishawaka continues to get the Jimmies ready for whatever they face during a match. “We work a lot in practice on situations,” Mark Kerrn said. “It’s about knowing what the score is and (getting an extra point or avoiding giving one up). We’ve been making good decisions.” Kerrn constantly talks about the effort it takes to be a Jimmie wrestler and the family bond that is being built though the shared hard work. “A lot of kids sacrificed (in the State Duals, especially against Yorktown),” Mark Kerrn said. “They were getting thrown in against better wrestlers, but they were unselfish.” In giving Yorktown its first-ever loss in State Duals competition in an event began in 2012-13, Jimtown got pin victories from sophomore Hunter Whitman (113), Kenny Kerrn (145) and senior Ben Davis (182), a major decision victory from junior Dalton Heintzberger (170) and decision triumphs from freshman Matt Gimson (120), senior Jarod Hayes (195) and junior Nick Mammolenti (heavyweight). The Jimmies yielded two pins to the Tigers, but no other “bonus” points (four for a major decision, five of a technical fall or six for a pin or forfeit). Mammolenti won 4-3 in overtime and freshman Hunter Watts (106) took the final match to overtime before losing 9-6 while giving up no extra points and helping Jimtown to a narrow win. “Going in I knew I had to win to give us (a chance to win) the match,” Mammolenti. After he was penalized for a fleeing — a call he disagreed with — the Jimmie heavyweight got fired up even more. “That really made me motivated to take (Yorktown’s Jacob Rhoades) down,” Mammolenti said. “I got up and turned around and shot at him and I don’t think he expected it. Then he was hurt. I just had to ride him out for another three seconds and it was over.” Mammolenti credits his progression in the sport to all the coaches who train with him in practice. Among those are Paul Bachtel, a state champion for Concord in 197x and a longtime Jimtown assistant. “If I can do anything on him, I can do anything on anybody,” Mammolenti said. Also contributing to Jimtown’s 2A runner-up finish were freshman Connor Gimson (126), senior Greden Kelley (132), senior Cole Watson (138), senior John Windowmaker (152), freshman Tyler Norment (160), freshman Aaron Martinez (also at 170) and junior Caleb Fowler (220). Jimtown followed up the performance in Fort Wayne with a practice filled with a little fun as well as work. With a day off of classes, the Jimmies wore “crazy” singlets and had a dodgeball tournament before being put through drills by assistant coach Anthony Lewis. “We try to break up the monotony as much as possible,” Lewis said. “We had just had a tough week — mental and physically.” Lewis, who wrestled for uncle Darrick Snyder at Mishawaka and joined the Jimtown staff in 2012-13 to help the Jimmies place fifth at State Duals and get Nick Crume an individual state championship, said the season is a progression. In early practices, coaches show wrestlers a large number of moves. As the season goes on, those moves are refined and a wrestler finds the combinations that works best for them. Practices become shorter, but more intense. The constant is the attack mode. “We try to push the pace and control the tempo in the match,” Lewis said. “Get the first takedown and then keep lighting the scoreboard up after that.” Mark Kerrn asks his youth athletes to give it their all during workouts, but he knows that there’s more to life. “We ask them everyday to touch the sign, just think about wrestling for two hours and then they go back to being a kid,” Mark Kerrn said. “It’s not wrestling 24/7.” But the dedication needs to be there as Mark’s son will attest. “You’ve got to love the sport of wrestling,” Kenny Kerrn said. “It’s an intense sport. You can’t dread it.” After a 3-1 day at the West Noble Super Dual (the loss came against 2015-16 IHSWCA State Duals 1A winner Prairie Heights) on Saturday, Jan. 9, the Jimmies look forward to the Northern Indiana Conference tournament Saturday, Jan. 16 at Mishawaka (the first NIC meet since Jimtown, Bremen, Glenn and New Prairie joined the conference in 2015-16) and then the IHSAA state tournament series. “The (Elkhart Sectional) is wide open,” Mark Kerrn said of the eight-team field. “There’s about five teams who could win. It just depends who is on that day.”

By Steve Krah When the mat sport attracts a child, it often brings whole family with it. Once that flame is lit, it’s next impossible to extinguish. An interest sparked into just such a passion for the Culps of Columbia City. Two topics come up at family meal time. “Wrestling and racing,” Pat Culp said. “That’s all we talk about at our house.” Blane Culp, son of Pat and David, loves the mat and dirt track racing and runs a website (http://www.maximumdirt.com/) dedicated to the latter. But it’s the love of takedowns, turns and technical falls that has gone on to have a major impact on not only Whitley County but the whole Indiana wrestling community and beyond. Introduced to competitive wrestling around age 6, Blane Culp enjoyed early success. He placed second in his weight class in at the Indiana State Wrestling Association state tournament in his second year and was hooked. “I lost to a kid named (Angel) Ecobedo (who went on to become four-time IHSAA state champion at Griffith High School and then an NCAA champion and four-time collegiate All-American for Indiana University),” Blane Culp recalls. “I was probably the last one who came close to beating him in Indiana.” Blane’s older brother, Josh Ross, also was having a blast and winning matches. Around 1996, the Culps — Pat and husband Dave (who had been a wrestler at Lewis Cass High School, where he graduated in 1977) — started the Columbia City Wrestling Club. Blane and Josh were an active part of an organization that went on to be one of the bigger ones around the state with an enrollment consistently over 100. While other family members Kayla Culp, David Stahl and Shane Stahl would be involved on the mats at the club and/or high school levels, Josh would go on to compete at 140 pounds in the IHSAA State Finals in his senior year at Columbia City (1998) while 125-pounder Blane placed third in his final prep season (2004). Randy Kearby was the Eagles head coach for both boys. Blane went on to grappled for two seasons at IU. He was an assistant at Bloomington North High School and is now in his sixth years as head coach at Columbia City. With all the knowledge gained as a wrestler and coach, Blane throws a lot of information at his young Eagles and they incorporate what works best for them. “I show a lot of stuff and they take what they want,” Blane Culp said. “We have short stocky guys and tall skinny guys. Some run legs and some run cradles. All of our guys are different. “There is not a set style in Columbia City and I like that. That’s the way it was when I was in school. I wrestled one way, but could change it for someone else.” Columbia City wrestlers generally have three of four options to take on double leg takedowns or finishes and they refine those as the season gets closer to conference and state tournament time. “By the end of the year, they’re picking their set-ups and their finishes,” Blane Culp said. “Come January and February, they are fine-tuning their favorite moves. It’s no longer in my hands. It’s in their hands.” Pat Culp has kept a hand in the sport because she believes in it. “Wrestling builds self esteem,” Pat Culp said. “It’s really good for the kids. That’s why I stayed involved.” And involved she is. Pat Culp, the Columbia City club president, got so caught up in the fun and excitement that she began helping to organize wrestling tournaments outside her club and became an ISWA Pairing Developmental Director. “I love organizing events,” Pat Culp said. She routinely runs or oversees multiple tournaments — high school and club — at the same time. She trains workers and is available on-site or by phone as a trouble shooter. Mark Dunham, Kyle Keith and Jean Whetstone are other volunteers who keep Indiana wrestling events running like clockwork. While more and more tournaments use Trackwrestling for scoring, Pat Culp insists that workers know how to manually score a tournament in case something happens like a computer server going down. “We want to keep the tournament running without people realizing what’s going on,” Pat Culp said. “There are a lot of variables, but it’s a lot of fun.” She knows that not all tournaments are the same and she tries to cater to each director. Some are ran as duals and other with individual brackets. Scoring for advancement and match points can differ. One tournament might be rigid for location of matches and others might go with first available match or use a combination of the two. “I don’t put everybody in a box,” Pat Culp said. If things are going smoothly at a tournament, like the IHSWCA State Duals which she helped run Saturday, Jan. 2, in Fort Wayne, Pat can watch what’s happening on the mats. Blane has noticed. “It seems that moms enjoy wrestling more than what dads do sometimes,” Blane Culp said. “She’s watched all these (Columbia City) kids grow up. At semistate, I can see her across the arena when we are in a ‘ticket’ round, she’s still biting her nails. She’s still nervous for them. It’s like when I was in school. They’re still her boys.”

By STEVE KRAH stvkrh905@gmail.com Blake Glogouski wants to ascend to the top of the IHSAA wrestling hill and he wants to get there quickly. The Fairfield High School senior sees speed as one of his weapons as he looks to add to a prep resume that already includes two trips to Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis (he was a state qualifier as a freshman at 106 pounds and placed fifth at 113 as junior). He wants to compete “under the lights” this time around and speed will be part of the package. “I always push the pace,” Glogouski said. “My coaches always tell me to move faster than the opponent and don’t slow down.” Falcons assistant Jesse Espinoza is taken with the intensity and toughness packed into an athlete who clocks in at 5-foot-7 and plans to wrestle at 120 on the back side of the 2015-16 season. “It’s hard to explain,” Espinoza said. “He’s just one of those kids. You tell him to run through a brick wall and he’ll get through it. “If you are wrestling in the (practice) room and he gets hold of a leg, it doesn’t matter what you do to him he’s not going to let go of that leg.” Dan Glogouski, Blake’s father and another assistant on Fairfield head coach Jim Jones’ coaching staff, has watched his son became more of a leader to his teammates. Maturity and off-season work, including an appearance at the Disney Duals and workouts with older brother Forrest who will again be a teammate when he is joined by Blake at NCAA Division II Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, in 2015-16, have combined to make Blake a better Falcon since he went 52-3 last winter. “Mentally, he’s gotten better,” Dan Glogouski said of Blake. “It’s from growing up, being a senior, being that leader. He’s the guy most of the kids on the team look up to.” Blake tends to be quiet, but when he uses his deep voice, he commands attention. “He may be little, but he’s a mighty kid,” Dan Glogouski said of an athlete who was also an impact performer on offense, defense and special teams in football for Fairfield’s NECC big school division co-champions. While Blake regularly works out with junior 132-pounder Dillon Yoder, he does not shy away from larger wrestlers in practice. “He’s not scared of anybody,” Espinoza said. “Some kids will go after him, but after about 30 seconds or so they are done. “He kind of turns it on.” Blake Glogouski began the season at 126, but intends to drop down to 120 because he thinks it gives him a chance to be stronger and for the most success. Of course, he has the prerogative to change his mind. The highly-ranked grappler said his biggest area of improvement has come in takedowns. He uses about five or six and goes with the shots that opponents can’t easily stop. With two State Finals appearances, 125 high school victories and numerous Indiana State Wrestling Association laurels coming into his senior season, Blake knows he will see the best others can throw at him. “There’s definitely a target on my back,” Blake Glogosuki said. “I’ve just got to work harder.” As Glogouski and the Falcons head into the 2016 part of the calendar, the heat will go up in practice. “We’ll turn up the intensity in practice as we get closer to our conference tournament and on into sectionals,” Espinoza said. On Wednesday, Dec. 23, Glogouski became a four-time champion at Rochester’s John McKee Invitational. He was named the meet’s outstanding wrestler for the second time. Fairfield is scheduled to host Churubusco in dual Jan. 5 with the West Noble Super Dual Jan. 9 and Goshen Invitational Jan. 16, followed by the Northeast Corner Conference meet Jan. 23 and Elkhart Sectional Jan. 30. After that comes the Goshen Regional Feb. 6, Fort Wayne Semistate Feb. 13 and State Finals Feb. 19-20.

By STEVE KRAH stvkrh905@gmail.com Tanner DeMien likes to see his success even before he achieves it. The NorthWood High School sophomore wrestler has learned to use visualization to take him to the next level. As a freshman, he placed seventh at the IHSAA State Finals at 106 pounds and his sights are set even higher this winter. “I see myself running through my moves and getting my hand raised,” DeMien said. “I think about previous matches and how I can fix those mistakes.” Fourth-year NorthWood head coach Damon Hummel said DeMien has gotten better in many aspects of wrestling, but it is between the ears where he has shown the most improvement. Hummel said DeMien gets the mental game. “He understands how to go into a tournament (with four or five matches) and mentally prepare himself,” Hummel said. “Kids have a tendency to wear themselves out by the end of the day. He prepares himself to be better at the end of the day.” With his wrestling I.Q., Tanner is able to diagnose his issues about as quickly as Hummel and his staff. “He’s been around wrestling enough that he knows what to do and what not to do,” Hummel said. “He picks himself apart more than most coaches do.” Between matches at a super dual, Tanner will go into a quiet place and do visualization exercises and run the halls to keep his heart rate up. These are lessons that Tanner has learned from the many camps and off-season programs — he toured the western U.S. with the Ohio All-Star Travel Wrestling Team for 45 days last summer — he’s attended. Tanner, 16, is thankful for his father, Jason, who got him into wrestling as a 45-pound peewee at around age 6, for his help and guidance. “He’s a big part of what I am and what I’ve accomplished,” Tanner said of father, who is also a NorthWood volunteer assistant coach. “I give my props to him. He’s been teaching me ever since I can remember.” The DeMiens have heard highly-decorated coaches like Dan Gable speak on the importance of visualization. “A lot of camps we’ve been to have really talked about the mental game,” Jason DeMien said. “It’s seeing the match before you step on the mat.” While rotating between 106 and 113 pounds, Tanner has also refined his moves on the mat. “I’ve gotten better in the top position and I’m able to turn people and put them away,” Tanner said. “It’s more about technique than a strength thing. I want to get more points for my team.” Jason DeMien said his son has learned to apply more pressure on top, gotten good at escapes as well as movement on his feet. “As he has gotten older, he’s learned to get angles and work those really hard,” Jason DeMien said. Tanner goes into each practice with a game plan. He knows what he wants to concentrate on and he does so with intensity and is a believer in Hummel’s insistence on repetition. “If I’m going drill high crotch, I’d rather do that 50 times then run five moves 10 times each,” Tanner said. “It’s just getting a couple of moves down and running them.” Hummel calls Tanner a “drill king.” “He loves to hit the move and hit the move,” Hummel said. “We talk to all of our kids about repetition.” Hummel and his coaching staff do not throw the kitchen sink at the Panthers. The idea is to be proficient at the things they do and not how many things they do. “When you get close to January, there’s not much more you can teach the kids,” Hummel said. “They’ve learned what they’ve learned. Now we need to fine-tune everything. You need to be ready for sectional at the end of the year. “Kids think they can do everything, but you’ve got to teach them two or three good moves. Some of these kids can get a couple nice takedowns and go to state with that if you’re good at it. Practice intensity goes up while duration goes down. “When you’ve only got one guy per weight class, you can’t beat the heck out of them everyday in 2 1/2 practices,” Hummel said. “A lot of coaches believe in a lot of moves. We believe in a smaller move base and hit them harder and faster.” While Tanner sees plenty of mat time during the year, he is not just a wrestler. He plays tennis for NorthWood in the fall. “It’s great for a kid to do that,” Jason DeMien said of the multi-sport appoach. “It gives them a break from being on the mat where your body just gets worn down. Doing something different gives your mind a break.” Not that Tanner didn’t use his mental skills on the court. “There’s a lot of carryover between tennis and wrestling,” Jason DeMien said. “Tennis is a very mental sport and agility is huge. I noticed that his mental game was so much stronger than kids who have been playing a long time.” Look for Tanner and his NorthWood Panther teammates Wednesday, Dec. 23, at Rochester’s McKee Memorial Invitational and Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 28-29, at Mishawaka’s Al Smith Classic.

By STEVE KRAH stvkrh905@gmail.com A willingness to learn has led to steady improvement and a bright outlook for one Warsaw Tiger. Kyle Hatch began to make a name for himself on the Indiana high school wrestling scene during his freshman campaign at Warsaw. As a 106-pounder, he placed fourth at the prestigious Al Smith Classic at Mishawaka in late December and went on to finish eighth in the his division at the 2014 IHSAA State Finals. As a sophomore, the son of former two-time state finalist Dan Hatch (qualifier at 135 in 1991 and eighth place at 140 in 1992), grew to 120 and won the Al Smith and placed seventh in the state in 2015. Now it’s 2015-16 and Kyle Hatch has begun his junior season with several dominant performances, the most recent during the Raider Super Duals Saturday, Dec. 12, at Northridge. Kyle Hatch competed at both 145 and 138 pounds, but said he is likely to go at the lighter weight the rest of the way, including the Al Smith on Dec. 28-29. “Technique-wise I’d be OK (at 145), but the strength wasn’t always there,” Kyle Hatch said. Eighth-year Tigers head coach Justin Smith supports Hatch supports Hatch on his decision of weight — 138 or 145 — for the rest of the regular season and the IHSAA tournament series. “I think he would be successful wherever he went,” Smith said. “A lot of it is what he feels. If he has a lot of confidence at one weight class or the other and wants to charge in, we’re going to let him.” Kyle Hatch is improving as he goes along. “I’m still learning a lot,” Kyle Hatch said. “I’ve learned that I need to contain my hips and make sure they stay balanced and equal on each side.” That is advice from Smith and father Dan Hatch, a Warsaw assistant coach. Smith, who has been watching the young Hatch wrestle since “he was knee-high to a grasshopper (Kyle started in second grade and later excelled at Warsaw’s Lakeview Middle School), admires the way father and son operate. “They have a good relationship,” Smith said. “I just interject once in a while and give a fresh perspective.” Wrestling becomes even more of a family affair when you consider that Kyle’s cousin, Tyler Fitzpatrick, is a junior wrestler at NorthWood High School. Dan Hatch said the coaching staff likes for all Warsaw wrestlers to be able to break down their matches to be able to fix flaws. Sometimes this is done with video analysis. “Kyle can usually point out the stuff faster than the rest of us can,” Dan Hatch said. Smith, a former Homestead High School wrestler who was an assistant at his alma mater and head coach at Fort Wayne Wayne before going to Warsaw, sees an ability in Kyle Hatch to make necessary adjustments. “He works on every aspect of his wrestling — neutral position, bottom and top,” Smith said of the young Hatch. “He’s at the point where he doesn’t have to make wholesale changes. We just pick out little things that are going to make him more effective, things like putting the hips in.” Kyle Hatch has also learned to use his legs and his strength while on top to turn his opponent. “His strength is deceiving,” Smith said. “He does not have a lot of bulk in his upper body, but he is fast and strong.” Kyle Hatch notes that he’s getting better at takedowns and riding. His father said it’s hard to get much quality time working on escapes when you need someone capable of holding you down. Those opportunities are bound to come at the Al Smith. “I can’t wait for that.” Kyle Hatch said.

By STEVE KRAH stvkrh905@gmail.com “Who wants to learn?” Adam O’Neil invites his athletes to one side of the South Bend Clay High School wrestling room. There, the second person ever to win an IHSAA state mat title for the Colonials (Randy Goss was the first in 1964 and 1965) shares his knowledge as Clay’s first-year head wrestling coach. A little later, O’Neil gets in front of the group and tells them about stance. “Keep your chest up,” O’Neil tells them. “I don’t want hunching down, alright? We don’t want to see the Hunchback of Notre Dame. After all, an opponent can control, if a wrestler is hunched over. O’Neil also instructs his Clay grapplers how to sprawl and demonstrates with a series of “burpees”. But he stresses the basics. “Even the best guys have to do the basics,” says O’Neil. “We’ll get into the flow of the different moves and when we do them later. “I can only teach them what I know.” What O’Neil knew when he wore a Colonial singlet was strength and a solid stance and form and loads of mat know-how gained from coach Al Hartman, an Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Famer. It helped O’Neil win 154 matches. He went 45-0 as a senior in 2003-04, reigning as the 160-pound state champion. That season, O’Neil tied for first in single-season wins with Jaylin Allen, Shakir Carr, Joe Gallegos, Mitchell Hartman and Laquan Lunfiord. Gallegos and Allen were state runners-up in 2012 and 2013, respectively. O’Neil set Clay school records with 26 pins in both the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons. Any one of those accomplishments should give the 30-year-old instant credibility with these teenagers. But O’Neil doesn’t see it that way. “I still need to prove myself to them,” says O’Neil, who went into this season ranked No. 4 on Clay’s all-time win list (behind Mitchell Hartman’s 164, Jake Hartman’s 156 and Steve Salinas’ 156. Places 5 through 12 were held by Kevin Hartman, 145; Gallegos 142; Lunsford, 121; Ryan Salata, 114; Garret Gleuckert, 112; Jeremy Burnside, 112; David Elliot, 109; and Dustin Swindeman, 108). “One of my biggest challenges is getting all the kids in here at the same time and getting them to listen. I want them to focus and listen to what I’m saying. If they are not listening, they are not absorbing. “I’m only here a couple of hours a day with them. I try to have them learn as much as I can.” After two seasons as a Clay assistant, O’Neil has taken over the reigns of the program from Hartman (who is still involved, mostly at the junior high level). “It’s been a dream of mine to coach wrestling,” says O’Neil. “When I had the opportunity, I took it. Coach Hartman really helped me prepare for it. He pushed me to do it.” A frozen foods frozen manager for Martin’s Supermarkets during the day, O’Neil relies on assistant coach and Clay teacher Jay Love to take care of administrative details and monitor the wrestlers during the school day. “He helps me out a lot,” says O’Neil of Love. “He does paperwork and helps me recruit kids.” Love also helps teach the sport to the Colonials. The lessons have yielded a 9-1 start to 2015-16 season (5-0 at the South Bend Clay Super Dual and 4-1 at the Elkhart Central Turkey Duals). O’Neil said he considers two-time semistate qualifier Rishod Cotton plus Mason Cao and Andrew Taborn to be his top three wrestlers as the season begins. But it’s steady improvement from he group that he seeks. “Seeing them get better everyday is what I want,” says O’Neil. Before the practice closes, O’Neil gets his wrestlers in a circle for a chant. When the volume and enthusiasm are not right, he yells, “That was weak. Get back here.” Then they do it to O’Neil’s satisfaction: “Clay on 3. 1, 2, 3, Clay!”