Please list the WI HS wrestling coaches....

J Feiner · September 10, 2015, 12:14:22 PM

Ralph Liegel, from River Valley, was a Badger around 84-87.

Also, Scott Liegel is coaching at RV, also a Badger alum.

stp · September 11, 2015, 12:43:20 PM

Quote from: getyourpoints on September 11, 2015, 07:35:33 AM
STP,
I liked the question you posted, I was asking you to expand on why you asked it.
I have been beating the drum for a few years now that the reason WI is not an elite high school wrestling state is do to the lack of coaches with D1 experience. I agree with many of the post's on this thread that we have several D3 coaches that do an outstanding job, but there is a huge need for coaches with D1 experience in this state. We are only getting about 8-13 kids a year to the D1 level out of this state and I think a lack of D1 exposure with coaches is a part of the issue, this is less then a third of what our neighboring states are getting each year.

Thank you for posting this.

padre · September 12, 2015, 12:26:30 AM

There is only one D1 school in Wisconsin so I don't think you are going to find too many. I would also guess many of the Ohio schools were private and paid more than a normal public school coach.

While having a D1 coach would be great for any school...I would take a knowledgable coach that bleeds their school colors any day.

bulldog · September 14, 2015, 09:24:40 AM

Quote from: padre on September 12, 2015, 12:26:30 AM
There is only one D1 school in Wisconsin so I don't think you are going to find too many. I would also guess many of the Ohio schools were private and paid more than a normal public school coach.

While having a D1 coach would be great for any school...I would take a knowledgable coach that bleeds their school colors any day.

Jerry Wagner - Athens head coach - never wrestled a day in his life and had over 300 dual meet wins, 28 WIAA individual state champions plus many more accomplishments. Coach Wagner loved coaching. I think he could have been successful coaching any sport and I think his athletes would have done anything for him.

ecnorth · September 14, 2015, 11:05:28 AM

Looking on WECAN the other day I see there are nearly 30 wrestling coaching positions available at various levels (10 HS head coach). I don't imagine any former Div.1 wrestlers wanting to coach are being turned down.

bulldog · September 14, 2015, 11:29:06 AM

getyourpoint...coach Wagner may be the exception in this case. The point is that a coach doesn't need D1 wrestling experience to make a great coach. He need passion and desire. He needs a care to build a program and there are many coaches without D1 wrestling experience doing just that.

IMO - I do believe a motivated person could do just what Coach Wagner did in Athens. He was a student of the sport. He went to clinics and camps, he took notes and he was always willing to accept suggestions for his program, he made wrestling part of the Athens community...he bled Athens wrestling all year long. Coach Benitz (I believe) did the same thing in Rapids...he got people involved and found others in the community that shared his passion. Rapids IS wrestling when you talk to someone from Rapids. I do think a passionate coach that is supported by the school could build a strong program with no college wrestling experience. Not sure if they could what Coach Wagner did with no wrestling experience at all but maybe...

Your point about the "farm boys"...that was every sport 30++ years ago. Football was loaded with big kids from the farm in the 70's and 80's and Basketball had their big, tall farm boys filling the center position. So while HS sports may not be loaded with kids from the farm anymore coaching is still coaching...and there are schools with the "wrestling brothers"...I think it is still pretty strong...Colman (Blanchard), Stratford (Drexler), Merrill (Reinhardt), Wausau West (Umlauff)...Kraus, Yde, etc, etc. It may not be 5 FARM kids but there are families that are wrestling families and have a long history in the state

Handles II · September 14, 2015, 12:07:18 PM

Why is it always that farm boys were so big back then? I knew many farm boys that never touched 140lbs. We had lower weight classes and fewer weight classes "back then". I believe those two differences are major and also very telling about the actual truth of how "big" farm boys were.

There were quite a few coaches in the 50, 60's and 70's who had no wrestling experience that were able to build great teams. The difference is kids who came out as freshmen weren't 5 years and 300 matches behind the other kids as they might be now. There was no youth, no youth nationals. It made entering the sport (as a coach OR an athlete) easier. Fewer weights made it easier to fill weight classes.

Chris Hansen · September 14, 2015, 12:43:36 PM

Our only d1 program, UW-Madison, graduates less than 5 kids per year. How many of those kids are aspiring teachers? Very, very few as the UW is not known as a teaching college.
It would be a pipe dream to think our state would have any more coaches with d1 experience than what we currently have.

This year Hochstaetter is a History major. Horwath is Business. Those are our only two seniors and Horwath probably heads back to Minnesota anyway.

If we want coaches in Wisconsin to have college experience, it will be d3 college experience.

So where are we at on our list? We have roughly 340 head coaches 800 asst. coaches.
9 coaches with D1 experience and over 1100 without?

I do not know if Mel Dow reads the forum, but I'd be curious to know his "Athletic Directors" view. Would he rather have a coach with D1 experience or a solid teacher in the building with a solid wrestling background.

bulldog · September 14, 2015, 02:34:36 PM

The farm kids were not that big back then...compared to today. They just seemed big to us 105 pound wrestlers back then.

Dale Einerson · September 14, 2015, 02:38:46 PM

First and definitely most important, to me...did Lewie mention any other large wrestling families that came through his or his son's program?

I find myself making faces at the computer screen when I read that Ohio or Pennsylvania have more D1 experienced wrestlers as coaches, comparing it to Wisconsin. To this I say, please, do the math. Isn't this kind of the opposite of saying "Wisconsin has more undeveloped acreage?" Maybe we should start a few more D1 colleges in the state to fix this alleged problem...

Also, feel it is important to mention, beyond high school coaching experiences, there are clubs like Askren, Advance, that one up in River Falls, Halls, that have D1 experienced coaches. There are certainly more wrestlers touched today by club experiences than 15 years ago...

Coach Persike of Lodi went through UWSP. That Reinwand guy did okay at the UW...and I always found it fascinating that not only did Lodi have Coach Reinwand, but Laurent Soucie taught there as well.

Lewie wrestled at Stout, I believe, though I wouldn't bet a buck on it, that Scott did as well.

ecnorth · September 14, 2015, 02:45:33 PM

Just a thought, pretty sure Mike McCarthy, Bill Bellicek, Pete Carroll (others?) didn't play football in Division 1.

Dale Einerson · September 14, 2015, 03:43:04 PM

Not only that, they are not from Wisconsin either!

bigG · September 14, 2015, 04:54:49 PM

LOL. Good one, Dale.

Preparewrestlingcoach · September 15, 2015, 12:08:54 PM

Paul Haag- Deerfield wrestled at Nebraska quite awhile ago

Kevin Black · September 15, 2015, 02:08:52 PM

Thane Antczak is the River Falls middle school wrestling coach. He wrestled at Minnesota. His roommate worked out a few times with our MS and HS teams last year and wrestled at Missouri (Cody Farinella). He's no longer in Wisconsin. We have a volunteer who will help us some this year who was an All-American at Iowa State in the 70's. There are some old timers out there with a lot of wisdom and insight (regardless of where they wrestled).