Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Good Read

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/23/v-fullstory/2029102/coaching-car-wash-is-just-plain.html

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Touched by Greatness

Tonight, NCAA, US National & World Freestyle Champion Les Gutches will be joining us at F&M to do a clinic for the local wrestling community.  We are very lucky and excited to have Mr. Gutches, one of my child-hood idols, here to work with our Diplomat Wrestlers and to serve as a champion for the sport throughout the Lancaster wrestling community...(see bio/info below courtesy of themat.com)

Les Gutches named Director of Program Development for USA Wrestling



Les Gutches of Corvallis, Ore. has been named to the new position of Director of Program Development for USA Wrestling, the national governing body for wrestling in the United States.

Gutches, who has a strong business background and a lifetime in wrestling as an athlete and coach, will be responsible for developing new or expanded programs, events and activities for USA Wrestling. He will work closely with state associations to increase membership and programs in underdeveloped markets in all styles of the sport. He will also expand strategic partnerships with other organizations, and assist in promotion and marketing activities.

He will also oversee the State Services staff of the organization, and work with a talented team which includes Manager of State Services Tony Black, Membership Services Assistant Shonna Vest, Manager of Coaches Education Cody Bickley and State Services Assistant Marge Civil.

"Les Gutches has an incredible reputation for integrity and performance," said Rich Bender, USA Wrestling Executive Director. "He is a tremendous motivator, a wonderful father, a respected coach and one of our greatest champion athletes. His presence, leadership and work ethic will take USA Wrestling membership to new heights. We are excited to welcome Les Gutches to our team and are confident that his efforts will impact the entire wrestling community."

Gutches will begin at his new job at the USA Wrestling corporate headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo. on February 1.

"I have been involved with USA Wrestling from my time as a PeeWee wrestler through the Senior level. I also went into coaching and remained active in the organization," said Gutches. "To come back with the opportunity to help grow USA Wrestling and the sport in general is an exciting prospect to me. I have been in the business world for a number of years and am very excited to return to wrestling. I'm going to have the opportunity to combine my passion for the sport with an ability to apply my professional and academic experience. This is the perfect place for me."

Gutches comes to USA Wrestling after serving as four years as a commercial lender and credit analyst for Citizens Bank, Inc. in Corvallis. Among his duties was to generate and develop new business relationships for the company, as well as assisting business clients in measuring performance and strategic decision making.

He received a Masters of Business Administration from the Oregon State University's College of Business in 2006, where he was a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society. His undergraduate degree at Oregon State was in Anthropology with a minor in German Language and Literature. He was a three-time NCAA First-Team Academic All-American as an undergraduate.

He served eight years as an assistant wrestling coach at Oregon State, helping build the Beavers into one of the nation's top programs. Gutches helped coach five athletes to NCAA All-American honors. In addition to athlete instruction, he had responsibilities that included business and alumni relations activities for the program.

He was also a club coach with the Orange Crush Wrestling Club, working with athletes from the university as well as the Corvallis community. Gutches has also been an active clinician for many years, teaching young athletes on many levels.

"Membership is the lifeblood of USA Wrestling. Our membership allows USA Wrestling to invest in and grow the sport at all levels. It is exciting to me that I can make an impact in an area that is so important to the organization. I see this as a position where I can make a difference in the sport on a daily basis," said Gutches.

As an athlete, Gutches grew up within the USA Wrestling system, competing on the local, state and national level for many years in Oregon. In fact, he was the first athlete to win USA Wrestling national titles in all five existing age group levels at the time - Cadet, Junior, Espoir, University and Senior. He competed in the World Championships on four age-group levels, as well. He won a Cadet World silver medal in 1989 and an Espoir World bronze medal in 1993. Gutches won three state high school titles at South Medford High School

Gutches had a remarkable career at Oregon State Univ., winning NCAA titles in 1995 and 1996, and placing fifth in the 1994 NCAA Championships. He received the Dan Hodge Trophy as the nation's top college wrestler in 1996.

He became one of the best U.S. freestyle athletes of his era. His top achievement was winning the gold medal at the 1997 World Freestyle Wrestling Championships in Krasnoyarsk, Russia at 85 kg/187.25 pounds. He added a World bronze medal in 1999.

After his senior year in college, Gutches won both the U.S. Nationals and Olympic Team Trials to make the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team. He placed seventh in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Ga.

Gutches won all of the major events on the international circuit, including 1999 World Cup, the 1999 Pan American Games and the 1998 Goodwill Games. He also captured five straight U.S. Nationals titles.

Gutches was inducted as a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2009, and was a James E. Sullivan Award finalist in 1997. He was the 1997 Amateur Wrestling News Man of the Year, as well as Freestyle Wrestler of the Year for USA Wrestling and the U.S. Olympic Committee.

He and his wife Jennifer have two young children, Lexi (5) and Logan (2).

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Saturday, January 1, 2011

The Warden, Dhalsim, and A New Year

This past week we wrestled at the Wilkes Tournament.  In my opinion this tournament was not just important from a "gotta win" perspective, but as an example of the importance of sticking to a training regiment and the progress the team has made over the past 3 1/2 months.  As we learned last year, the combination of the holiday season, the end of the semester, and a long break at home away from the wrestling room equals disaster.  Last season the guys were given over a week off from training and didn't step back on a wrestling mat until the actual Wilkes Tournament.  Needless to say as a team we won a total of 3 matches, lost countless others due to silly mistakes, sloppy wrestling, conditioning, or all of the above.  Jake also got hurt which I believe was a direct result of the long vacation from the mats.  This was no one's fault directly, but what could have been a great start to the 2nd half of the season turned out to be a short day of misery and heart break.

Obviously this season has already been a 180 degree turn from last year, but as the semester came to close us coaches had some big decisions to make.  Taking into consideration the performance of the wrestlers over the first part of the season, how they did on "x' time off or what they looked like after time away from the school and the practice room and the importance of a strong performance at the Wilkes, a decision needed to be made.  Do we go the easy route and let the guys all go home for the break and have them meet us at the tournament hoping that the gains they made thus far would be enough to sustain them over the time off, or do we do make the unpopular call and bring them all back right away so they have time to train and prepare for the upcoming tournament?  As someone who tries to avoid playing the results which in our sport can really cloud a coaches accurate critique of his wrestlers performance over a more relevant sample size (his total body of work and match consistency) we clearly made the right choice bringing them back, and it was a choice we had discussed well before the semester end on a regular basis.  It must also be said that had we not been as successful as we were, the decision to bring them back was made to establish precedent and help change the culture of the program/the wrestlers own expectations and confidence.  All of our guys followed our program and training instructions over the break and most if not all of them performed at a high level at the tournament whether they met their expectations of fell a bit short.  Moving forward it will be that much easier to justify our training strategy and our guys will hopefully understand that their best interests are always being considered in our process.  As for our performance, we had 3 wrestlers who really showed they are improving and will be in the mix the rest of the year. 

Our two finalists were Jake Bucha and Matt Fullowan.  Jake and Matt came into the tournament from two opposite sides of the wrestling performance curve. Matt has had what I am sure he would describe as a slow start to his season, struggling to find his groove on his feet and in close matches.  Jake on the other hand, was rolling, entering the event undefeated and dominant the entire season.  In Matt's case, his struggles were more mental than physical and it was only a matter of time before he "clicked" and got back on the winning end of things.  Wilkes was this time.  His first match was against an old nemesis from his high school days, a multiple time state champ and blue chip recruit from NJ.  Matt started out fast and never lost position winning in close but solid fashion.  He took this momentum into the finals where he hit a tough opponent who found and exploited a weakness on their feet to end Matt's day with 2nd place.  Overall it was a strong showing for Matt and a great start to the "2nd Season".

Jake started the day the way he ended his last match before break.  By dominating the takedown battles and shutting down his opponent's offense and mat game.  In the finals Jake met an unorthodox wrestler who threw Jake off his game and handed him his first loss of the season.  While a loss is never welcomed, I do feel losing a match now can have more positive effects than negative in the big picture.  It will relieve the pressure of being undefeated, which believe it or not can be a major a stress factor match to match for a wrestler and from a coaching and game planning perspective it will definitely give us things to improve and work on to get Jake ready for EIWA's and qualifying for Nationals.  While the finals match is over and we are moving forward, I do have a picture of the kid Jake wrestled which as you can see illustrates his wacky wrestling style.



The last guy I am going to talk about is Colin "The Warden" Ely.  For those of you who don't know Colin or have not had the "pleasure" of watching him wrestle, he is the wrestling equivalent of one of those NHRA Funny Cars.  He is strong, powerful, explosive, and at any given second he could could give a coach a heart attack.  To be fair, Colin has improved his technique and overall wrestling performance more than anyone else on our roster and his results this season show it.  He has defeated multiple wrestlers who had beat him last year or early this year and while not the most conventional on the mat he has carved out a niche and makes it work.  This week he literally "locked down" all but one of the wrestlers he faced, scoring from his feet and on the mat, finishing a strong 3rd in tough weight class.  Below is a quick summation of his performance at the Wilkes:



As we kick off the new year, all of our guys are on campus training through the break in preparation for Davidson and Princeton 1/7 and 1/8.  I would like to the thank the parents, alumns, and friends of the program for their continued support of our program.  See you all on the mats, and as always, please feel free to call or write with any feedback or questions you might have.

Happy New Year,

Coach G