On behalf of the Franklin & Marshall Wrestling Program I would like to welcome you all to the 2010-2011 season. I would also like to thank all of our fans, wrestlers, parents, administrators, and alums for your support and guidance during the past few months.
Obviously, there have been some big changes made with our program and I would like to start by wishing Pete Schuyler the best of luck in all his future endeavors. Pete worked hard and gave this program 12 years of dedicated service and we will continue to build off of Pete's efforts.
Where to start?
Let me begin by saying how lucky I am to be involved with this program and how honored I feel to to be able to spend my days teaching your children, family members, or fellow Diplomats about our great sport. By now most of you have probably figured out how much I love coaching and how special this team is to me. I am always available to talk with parents, alums, and friends of the program to give updates and answer questions regarding the team and our plan moving forward. One of the biggest things I hope to accomplish this year is to strengthen the ties we have to our fans, family, and alums so that we are all involved in this rebuilding process and can all be catalysts for improvement and success both on the mats and in the classroom/real world.
Over the summer a lot of our guys made the commitment to train and work hard to improve their wrestling and overall strength + conditioning. Guys stayed here in Lancaster to train with me or set up satellite workout programs at the colleges near their internships. Matt Fullowan and I spent 3 weeks at my alma mater Cornell (#1 team in the nation) to work their wrestling camps and to train with some of their wrestlers. Matt was lucky enough to work out with Mack Lewnes (current #1 at 174lbs) as well as other college wrestlers from around the country. It was an invaluable experience for Matt to see how the best of the best train and live their lives and I hope he can take what he learned back to Lancaster and pass it along to the rest of the team.
As summer came to a close we started interviewing candidates for the head coaching job. I was asked to be involved in the process and this allowed me to pick the brains of some very impressive coaches along the way. When the dust settled Mike Rogers was selected as the new leader of F&M Wrestling. From the first time I met with Mike I knew we would work well together. I will never forget that magical Wed afternoon. The door to the office slowly opened, the angels began to sing, the sun began to shine, and birds started to chirp and flutter around the office. I knew something was about to happen, something BIG. When I looked up from my desk there he was. Mike Rogers. After an exchange of pleasantries we started to talk about our plan for the future. Short of finishing each other's sentences (Mike just typed the last part of that phrase) we were on the same page as far as our plan for rebuilding the program. We immediately went to work...
Fast forward about 3 weeks and things are in full swing. We just had our parents weekend and Mike was able to meet all of our wrestlers' families and friends. We had a nice BBQ and closed out the evening with a great dinner at the Brickyard. We also were able to put together our first wrestling open house. We had 10 recruits and their families come up for unofficial visits and we spent the day with them showing off all F&M has to offer. So far this week we have received nothing but positive feedback from the weekend and we are excited about the potential in this group of recruits. I will keep everyone updated on our efforts both in the room and on the recruiting trail. I will be back on the blog regularly and hope to interact with some of you through these posts or if you want to ask a specific question you can always email me @ mattg197@gmail.com
