Saint John’s Wrestling Family and Friends,
As I look over the past year, it makes me want next year to start early. I know that wishing time away is never a good thing, but the outlook for this program is getting brighter again. I have 2 former Johnnies who live in the area and have come back to coach as often as they can. Anthony Hennen is back for his second year, and Brady Mehr just finished his first season. It was nice to see one or both of them most days in the practice room and for most travel events. I hope the days of this one-man show are over. Both these coaches have seen leaner times while they were competing here. As we approached the end of the season, the number of wrestlers in the room was higher than when they started their seasons. When they made that comment it did put a small smile on my face. We will be graduating one Senior this year and have hopes of another 20 new athletes joining next fall. Ben Gilbertson our lone survivor from his incoming class of 10.
Looking back at the schedule we had more home events than the past few years. We started our first event, The Haws/Elton 4 team Rumble. The new format makes for a much shorter day, which is a pleasant change from the all-day grind of some of the opens. We posted a 3-1 dual record. The past few years those numbers were reversed. Johnnies wrestled well at the Regional this year. We had 6 guys in the blood round Friday night. I was hoping for a clean sweep and have 6 men standing on the podium the following day. My hope wasn’t strong enough to win a few of those matches, but it was nice to see so many still alive at that point. We had 2 freshmen wrestlers place 8th. All but one from the regional team will return next year. We will be returning to the line up several young wrestlers who suffered season ending injuries. 40 wrestlers on the team to start next year is a real goal. It has been a few years since we have seen the team that large.
The Johnnie wrestling golf outing is scheduled for August 2nd in Annandale, MN. This will be the reunion event for the 1980-84 and 2000-04 wrestlers/teams. 2 reunion groups rolled into one golf outing should make for the best event we have ever hosted. Call your teammates to get as many scheduled as possible. As I have mentioned in the past, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GOLF. Drive a cart for a group, drive a cart to see as many friends as you can. Or sit with me behind a bush near a tee off and use air horns during their back swings. Either way, make this event a priority for you and your teammates to reconnect.
It is now full-blown recruit season. Goal is to get as many Sr’s and Jr’s on campus as possible and sell them on the fact that this is the best college in the region, and we can and will have the best wrestling team too.
Coach Schiltz