high school

this weekend is my high school teams home wrestling tournament. its a pre big tournament with 10 teams from around the state. my brother called me last night and was talking to me about cause he is nervous about and he asked me well what did i eat before the tourny? because the parents make us a breakfast after weighins and i told him like fruit oj and some ceral thats it. he also asked what i did to get ready for big matchs cause i wrestled in our home tourny 4 years and didnt win it till i was a senior when i majored a kid who was ranked 6 when i was 2nd. i told him just dod what you do listen to music and take it one match at a time and you'll do what ya need to get done. kyel my brother told me hes got w ranked kids in his brackets so he told me he is nervous for it but i just tried gettin him to keep his head outta the gutter. so when this saturday comes kyle said he'll be txting me letting me know how hes doin and how the team is doin and i think he'll hold his own in our tourny

2nd dual

last night was our second dual of the season we were wrestling loras college at loras. that wednesday of practice miller told us we did a good job battling and getting it done against central but he said loras will be tougher and he was right but like he said before were tough and were not gunna let beat us and he asked us why were not gunna let lora beat us? he asked the whole team individually and my answer was because were tuff. after his speech we begain another practice. this practice was pre intense we hard drilled for half an hour and the wrestled hard for another half an hour and during that wrestling hard miller kept on getting on us saying your not tired! dont give stuff up and fight. after that practice he sat us down and was like man you gotta fight out there you gotta think that guys got a bat or somethin and hes gunna try and kill u what are you gunna do run away no your not a puss your gunna stand up and fight the guy ands make him regret ever steppin out on the mat with you. after he gave that speech practice was done and we headed home and last night when we wrestled at loras it worked we won 44-0 and no one gave up anything.

recruite

this tuesday we had a recruite his name was drew he was from high point new jersey. He came with us to the dual on tuesday and he was pre impressed on how well we did. that night he came and slept in coles room but before he went to bed we he talked to us and asked us a bunch of questions like why we picked wartburg? what do wee like about wartburg? what do we do for fun here? we all answered his questions and some answers where the same and others were different like i told him i picked here cause the coaches i knew werent leaving and i know there good and there gunna get me better. and after he asked us question we asked him questions like how big there high school is? how his wrestling career has been? whats his major and other. he told his his high school as 1400 kids in it ans his graduating class is 547. he said at state last here he had a back spasm in the first round and he had to inj default nout of the tourny which would suck, but he said hes determined to win it this year. he told us he wants to be a physical trainer so we had jase talk to him about some of the classes he'll have to take. while he was here he meet all use freshman and a bunch of the older wrestlers. before he left he said he really liked it here and hed keep in touch and let us know how his season goes and then we sent him on his way back to jersey

dual

it was tuesday it was our openind dual of the season. Varsity got ready for the dual while the rest of us had practice and then went and set up the mat for the dual. after we got the mat and all the cords and stuff out and set up we all got ready for the dual. we came back about an our later and found some seats and waited for the dual to start. As the national athem endede the they did introductions and and started the dual we started the dual in a good tempo and kist set the pase for the rest of the dual by getting a fall in the first period, after that we got a tech fall by kremer and another fall by marocha. groth got a fall and banks got a major and up next was one of our freshman friends who we hang out with all the time he got put in the lineup cause of some injuries. he was nervous comin in but did good and got the fall in the first period after that we started rollin we got 2 more majors by scott and azinger and the tate got the fall and house got the tech fall to end the dual. we dominated the dual 54-0 and miller was pre happy. when we started packing things up landon came out to talk to us and we just asked him like were you nervous/scared? and he was like yes i was very nervous cause keller siked him up sayin the kid was a brawler. we all laughed but were  happy for him and the rest of the team for doin as well as they did

season opener

this tuesday was our season opening dual against central here at wartburg. Coming into practice on monday after break was hard to do, cause i missed being home and not having practice for a couple of days. So when we came into practice coach miller started it with a speech he said in his speech, "we know were good, were ranked number 2 right now, but rankings dont mean anything anyone can come in here and beat us and not even be ranked, but were not gunna let that happen, cause were all here to do what we do best and wrestle hard and win". when he gave this speech millboy got really fired up and so did the team so after the speech and we started our warm up he walked around and just asked people like are we gunna win tomorrw? what are you gunna do to help us win? and everyones answer was diffent for the second one but everyones was the same for the first. so after practice that monday it brought back memories of high school how we always looked forward to our first home dual or just dual, it brought back times of doyles speeches and how he was the same as miller. When we left practice that monday everyone had the same mindset and we all knew we were gunna win tomorrow.

recap on tourny

after the tourny i got talked by the coaches. they were happy i did as good as i did being the only freshman in the bracket. they talked to me about what i couldve done better and what to do in certain situations. after they got done talking to me and on the way home i kept i kept replaying matchs and thinking what if i woulda done this? or what if this happened? and after a while on the way home i just quit thinking about the what ifs. as  we got back to wartburg the next day we went to practice and i worked on a lot of the things they talked to me about and i felt more comfortable on getting better in those situations. As i left practice coach miller came up and talked with me for awhile about how im right there and just a lil more to get over that hump. walking out of practice i thought about it and i relized hes right and i am i just need to push myself harder and work on getting better in certain situations,

2nd tounament day

Last Saturday we wrestled at Augsburg college in minnesota. We woke up at 5:30 in the morning showered and got ready to leave the hotel and go to the college. when we arrived at the college we waited around for weigh ins. final weighins came and we headed and weighed in and got ready to go for the day. when the tournament was about to start they called my bracket up they said there wasnt enough freshman so we were all gettin moved into the varsity or jv brackets. i got nervous when they told me i had gotten moved into the varsity bracket. I went back and they coachs just told me just go out there do my thing and win some matches. so while the day went along i kept thinking am i ready to wrestle other varsity kids? and all i could thing of is yes i can i wrestle with the best guy in the nation i can handle my own. so when i got called up my nerves turned into just anxiousness and i was out and wrestling against my first varsity match i was wrestling a kid from smsu and i wrestled good and got the fall early in the second period after that my next match was a gainst a pre good kid from grandview who was a 2x all american the match was back and forth the entire time and eventually went into overtime i almost got the takedown at the end of the period but time expired in double ot i rode him out so all i had to do was get out, we got into a scramble and i ended up escaping with 5 seconds left and won the match. i was in the semis after that match and i was wrestling uius all american from niacc in the semis. the match was close from start to finish but i gave up a cheap takedown and lost 6-4. i was now going for 3rd or 4th against wisconsin lacrosse kid and i just had nothing left in me and lost the match 5-0.










;15

second tourny

So last week we left for the Augsburg open in minneapolis, minnesota. We left friday at 4:00 for a 3 hour drive on the drive i slept most of the way and watched as the farther north we got the more snow i seen on the ground. on our way up after i woke up we talked about each others high school team and shared some stories from our high school years. Coach smith and coach Zastro were in our vans and they flipped shit with us back and forth the whole way up there and we heard some pre crazy stories they did in high school. As we shared the stories i remember back when i was in high school and how my high school coaches always told us stories about their high school and the stuff they did that was pre crazy. when i thought back i remember why i picked wartburg and how i feel like im back at home with the coaches up here acting the same as my coaches back home. It also made me wonder if all coaches are as laid back but also as intense as wartburg coaches? the only answer that i could come up with was my high school coaches but i dont know about other colleges. but the main question i hadabout our coaches are why are they so intense? and i answered that later that night when we were at the hotel by remebering what mike kremer told me, he said,"they are gunna make you the best you can be and there gunna be on ya to get there" and i relized hes right and they wanna make you just one tough sob and i cant wait to be one of those.

open practice today

today we had an open practice for all the parents of the wrestlers of this year. we went through a regualar practice for the parents and then we introduced ourselve to them by name and then where were from. we then had our captions say some things about how we plan to have the season go. and after the introducing we all went ot joes and got free pizza, wings, and pop for a fundraiser to suport our wrestling team. while there all the parents talked to each other trading stroys from where there from and where they've seen each other from. while all the parents were sittin around i thought back to when i was in high school how we used to have something like this it was called meet the wrestlers and we always had to go up and answer \questions from people in the audience some were like"how do you thing the season will go, or how has your coach prepared you so far mentally and physically?" while thinking back i answered those questions for this year and coach miller has worked us harder then before say the upper classman because he wants us to never get tired and allways be on the attack and thinking we will win and we will dominate every minute. this is why i love th sport and the coaches here and my family does as well

recap on the tourny

After the tourny i was pre pissed about how my finals match came out because i hate losing and thats the reason i picked wartburg cause they dont lose they know how to win and they do it. so i had a lot to think about on the way home "like do i have what it takes to go to the next level? could i have done better? what can i do better?" with all these questions to think about i spent the night thinkning about them on the ride home and in my dorm room. even though i got second and my other friends sam upah and jake morris got second, along with jase schassow landon williams and brett  yonkavic getting first and noah minkus and cole welter getting fourth. we all came back and talked about they day and threw around questions and just talking about what we coulda done better at. all in all second is good but its not what i came here to do so going back to the drawing board before our next open and preparing to win it my way.

wrestling first tourny

This saturday we wrestled our first tourny in our colloege career. We showed up around 7 and weighed in by weight at 7:30 and then we laid around till about 8:30. at that time the coaches had us start warming up and we drilled and wrestled hard and got ready for the day. before wrestling begain it brought back memories of high school by watching other teams warm up, seeing that one kid doing something really weird to warm up, and then the great saying came on over the microphone of 'Wrestlers clear the mats!" my body got goose bumbs after that saying and i went back to my corner and waited. As the tourny went on i waited till it was my turn and then it was coming up during my warms ups i mentally went through a match thinking "if i do this hes gunna do this, if he does this what am i gunna do?" and then my time came to strap up my wartburg singlet and represent my new school for the first time i went out there with a game plan and it worked i ended up pinning the kid in the 3rd period. after that i went and ate and prepared for my semis match and did the same thing and pinned this kid at the end of the second period. i was in the finals i thought "hey this is nothin new ive been here before i just gotta do what i gotta do." i was wrestling a kid from harper in the finals he was a lot bigger then me but i thought i could wear him out. the match didnt start my way he got an early take down and about 30 seconds of riding time before i got out and we ended the period that way. the next period he rode me for another 45 seconds before i got an escape so now he was up by 1 with riding time and we traded of shots and scrambles until the third period he chose down and got out right away on me so i picked up the pase and was shooting and he was fighting off my shots but i couldnt score it was coming to the ernd of the match so i took a desperat shot and he ended up scoring off my shot and he won the match i wasso mad after my match i didnt want to talk to anyone.

first tourny

this friday night we left for the loras open for our first tourny of the year. we brought all the freshman and some back up kids to wrestle. it brought back memories from high school when i would spend my friday night either watching our schools basketball team play or go home and just watch tv and go to bed. While on the way there we asked all the upper classman questions like how do they do check ins?, how do they wigh in like by tream or by weight? and we got all our questions answere before we got to our hotel. while at the hotel sam upah, jase schassow, jake morris and I all got in a room together and we watched tv and talked wrestling until we all fell asleep before the next day. the night i kept thinking am i ready for tomorrow? and answered yes im ready ive been practicing for 2 months for this and im with the best team in the nation so no ones as good as us. after i had answered that all i did was mentally prepare for my match all night.

state of fear

this week we started the book state of fear by michael crichton. Before we started it i thought it was gunna be another boring book like animal dream. i thought why do we have to read this book? whats the point in reading this book? but as i started reading the book i started to change my misconception on the book. i started to get into the book and reilized it was a good book. I also relized that the book has a point it is about saving the environment and global warming and about some eco terrorist group trying to control the world. Even though iv only read the first section of the book adn we are still reading the book i have learned a little bit about the environment and how to be more environmentally friendly. and even though ive only read the first section i would recommend this book to everyone.

football

so this weekend was our wartburgs homecoming. i was on the field being ball boy like every game and i got to see the emotion of the team when before during and after the game. it brought back memories from back when i was in high school and our homecoming except here was different. at our school we didnt win a gam for 3 years so we didnt really expect to win so about half our team really got fired up for it and the other half didnt while here the entire team was. everyone was jumpin up and down yellin hittin each other it was just unreall how involved and into the game they were. watching it and thinkin about my high school football season i was thinkin should i give football another shot? would it be as much or more fun in college? and after thinkin ya know and talkin it over with my friends sam and jase we came to the sam conclussion it would be tougher then nails to be a 2 sport athlete in college and we would miss wrestling and our first love is wrestling. talking this over i know i will always miss football but at least i can be on the field being ball boy and be right there with the team but wrestling is what i love and its what i wanna do.

social change wheel

so in this blog were supposed to blog about this social change wheel we got in class this week. this wheel has 8 different parts on it that all deal with something different. there were 2 areas on this wheel that applied to me when i was in high school and they were direct service and community building. i represented direct service cause when i was in high school my coach was really about helping and being apart of the community so a couple a times a year we valied cars at different places for school events, public events and high class events, we also helped with actions and helped serve food at those actions. Another thing we did was during fourth of july and ragbri we set up a booth and sold pizza for Bills pizza and smokehouse. I also showed community building cause during the floods all of us wrestlers helped sandbag all day at random places for whoever needed it. the main place we always sandbagged though was dairy queen cause janelle rathbun the owner was my neighbor and a huge supporter of wrestling and she always gave us free blizzards for it and she loved us for helping her. with these to skills that i showed during high school i always wonder in the future when coach doyle leaves will they do the same thing? will they help out with the flood? and i always thing yes cause i belive we as wrestlers have left a lecacy kinda by just being there and helping people out in those bad times and here at wartburg i already feel that vibe just around town there always lookin at the wrestlers if were helpin move stuff or just runnin around town we have team on our shoulders so we always got to act our best.

high school

This last friday i went to my high school last home football game and to watch my brother, my friend and workout buddy blaize and my best friend kelby. my brother plays jv so he got done right away and came up and talked to kelby and i, kelby who goes to isu and is goin to be an engineer is a year older then me but we've been best friends since my freshman year. we watched the game and saw our seniors last home game, it brought back lots of memories of my class and how we thought wed never get old and graduate. while at the game we talked to a lot of the seniors and hear o how much they missed us and the questions they had, like what do you think of this college? do you still keep in touch? how do you like it? and it makes you think like in my situation i love it here at wartburg and the friends i've made already have been awesome, but also i dont really keep in touch with anyone from back home except for my brother, kelby, and blaize but no one from my class. Another reason why i dont keep in contact with many from my class is because im only 1 out of 3 kids that cam to wartburg out of my class of 126 and i came here to meet new people and not be stuck hanging out with the same kids from high school. My friend blaize asks me about college as well but hes going for wrestling too, blaize and i were both getting d1 offers last year and we took a lot of visits together like to isu, wartburg, coe, but he never came with me to niu or uni and he just went on those visits this last month and he liked them. Blaize talks to me about college a lot and he his making his decision here soon and whatever he decides he'll make an impact wherever he goes. when i think about i never had someone i could talk to about college like blaize does and i honestly can say if you have someone helping you, it makes it a lot easier to decide.

fishing

this past sunday our wrestling team went to a community members pond that supports the wrestling team and is a booster. while at the fishing pond we had a compotition for biggest fish, longest fish, heavest fish and most fish, and the people that didnt catch fish would get their nams drawin out of a hatto win prizes. When we all saw the prizes they let us fish so we began we all just sat around and had a fun time just fishin and shootin the shit like me and my friends used to do sunday mornings after tournaments at R&R cafe in indee with the old people. It really made me miss of home but i feel like everyone on the wrestling team is my new family now cause we do everything together some of us have class together, we all wrestle together, and we all hang out together, but most important we all are friends and we all have each others backs. so after our 2 hours of fishing we did the prizes and unfortunatly i didnt catch any fish but i did get my name drawn and got a flashlight which will come in handy sometime. After fishing some other members of the community cooked us some food and we all ate and coach miller and two other community members gave us speeches and it really made me question myself with what they said, "they said the wrestling team is like a community in its own, and we bring people together and watch us compete. after hearing that i never thought id be somewhere like that cause in indee wrestlers were liked by on part of the community and not liked by another and i always used to ask "what have we done to make you not like us?, we work day in and day out to get better and you get made at us and blame us for things?" cause this last year our principal blamed us wrestlers for breaking into the caffiteria and eating food during christmas break, and christmas break is when we need to watch our weight the hardest so our head coach who iwas really close always talked to me and we always came to the same questions. "What can we do to get people to like us and get rid of that bad rep the wrestlers have?" the answer we came up with was never cause someones always gunna say o sos and so did this and hes on the wrestling team and what not so we decide we just gotta do our best and make good, smart decisions." So after we got done with our meal coach millergave use one question to answer for ourselves and you gotta ask it everyday and that question was "did i work hard enough today, to beat that one kid, to qualify for nationals, or hell win nationals?" and so far for these first 3 days of official practice i feel like ive given it my all and to win that national title in the future.

School

During my high school career iv never had to have time managment, it was always go to class, go to practice, go hang out with friends, and then come home and do homework. I never had that much homework in high school either so i never really worried about it. coming to college the first thing i learned was homework make sure you do it and get it done, cause your homework is a lot of your grade and helps you a lot on tests. so while at college i was told to get a planner and i did my first day here, it has come in handy so much for school work and practice schedualing. With a planner i can plan out my days and make sure i get optimule time for sleep and homework and study time. but also at college i always ask myself the question will i have enough time to get this all done and get a good nights sleep? and when i do get stuff done i always ask did it save, or did it send? cause you never know the server might be down or something could be broke so ive learned to always have a back up plan for saving stuff and turning stuff in for school. so at college id always make sure to use your planner cause it manages your life.

homecoming

this week is my schools homecoming and it feels so serieal that im missing it. like i spent 4 years of my life at that school and everyone always has a fun time at homecoming , and i miss it. my senior year i didnt get a change to particapate in any homecoming activities cause of my knee surgery but i was there cheerin on my class and the football team all the way. at my school we have different days of the week where you dress up differently like theres farmers day, decade day, toga day, then school spirit day and pajama day. my brother who is a freshman in high school this year tells me that the teachers and kids miss me and the shananagins i do during homecoming. I never thought that i would every miss high school homecoming and i do like when your younger you see all the older kids havin such a fun time and you cant wait till you get to do the stuff they do and when you get there you thing it will never end. my funnest times in high school was junior year cause i could do every thing, but senior  year i hated it so much cause i couldnt particapate or anything and during football i just felt like i let everyone down cause i couldnt play. homecoming is the greatest part of high school i think and i miss it but i want my brother to have more fun then me and ill be coming back to my home town tonight to watch our team win and celebrate homecoming

sports

coming out of high school i thought i was the best i won our traditional state tournament and was ranked 25th in the nation. I thought college youd be just like high school, but I was wrong. everyone in college is good and is getting better. for our first practice i thought id be in pre good shape and be able to hold my own but for the first practice i got beat up and was extremly tired. that night i came home and asked myself "why do i get out of possition so much?, Why am i so tired?, and why do you wrestle or why do you want too?" that for the last 2 weeks pratices have been a lot better i'm in better shape and the questions i ask myself are more like "what if i do this, or that and what will he do." Coach tj miller the head coaches son was the one who recruited me here and we talk everyday he alwasy tells me to keep my head up even when he beats the crap out of me at practice and it helps me stay possitive and try harder and question my limits. when i get done with practice everyday i always ask myself "did you work hard enough today, did someone work harder then you, will the work ethic you came in with today win you a national title?" these questions i ask myself everyday i dont have the answers for them yet cause i ask them everyday so the answers change. they help me so much in tricking my mind into going harder and to not be tired.

college

college has been a huge change comin from a small school and growing up knowing everybody. its been fun for the first week though and i've made lots of new friends in the same sport im in and people that arnt. balancing sports and school is gunna be tough for awhile but once a get a system ill be able to manage it all. my roomate noah is out for the same sport as me so we are managing our time together and starting to get a system going. we have wrestling practice 6 times a week now for pre season workouts so we all get in shape and its been hell. we wrestle hard and lift everyday and when your out of shape it sucks. Im behind a national runner up this year so my workouts conisists of working out with him and the national champ at the weight below me so i get beat up on but i get better everyday. the other freshman wrestlers are all in the same situation but we all hang out and talk about practice everday our goal is to be the dynasty class we want to win 4 national titles in a row so were alll training to achieve that goal.