July 29, 2023 • 44 mins
Imagine stepping onto the wrestling mat, heart pounding, the crowd roaring, and knowing that this is the moment that could change your life. That's exactly what our guest, the legendary Jordan Crass, experienced in his eighth-grade year at Fargo, often referred to as the Mecca of wrestling. Through an engaging conversation, we explore the evolution of Greco and freestyle wrestling, the significance of Fargo wrestling, and how the pressure-cooker environment of a tournament can shape young athletes for college and life beyond.
As we wrestle our way through the episode, we touch upon the challenges and triumphs of rising stars such as Kale Roth, a promising Greco-Roman wrestler. From the grueling competition at Fargo to the hard-fought battles of Dawson from Cumberland and Will Schmitt, we unpack what it means to be a wrestler. We take a deep look at the burgeoning Wisconsin wrestling scene and give you an insider's view of the whirl of excitement and chaos that is a wrestling tournament.
But wrestling isn't just about the sport, it's also about the community and the opportunities it provides to young athletes. We talk about Crass Training and their various camps and events that offer invaluable experiences to Wisconsin's youth wrestlers. From the importance of having good mentors to dealing with a father who was a seasoned wrestler, we cover all the bases. We also share our views on the potential for toxic masculinity in the sport and the critical need for positive role models. So, put on your headphones, tie up your laces, and prepare for an episode that goes beyond the mat and into the heart of wrestling.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's go All right.
All right, we get this set Now.
I got some music playing here,so we're doing another episode
here with the man, the myth, thelegend.
Hey, nice, I'm digging that.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Watching it right now , yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
We got Jordan Kras with us here.
He has some, some.
Is that Greco going on in theback?
Nope, that's freestyle.
That's freestyle, nice, nice.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Nice, just run the gambit right now and again,
relive the glory day 45 minutesof glory here.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
So let's, I'm going to, I'm going to turn it, we're
going to talk, for I just cutthat off just abruptly, just bam
, we're done.
So talk Fargo.
This was my first experience.
Now you've had many experiences, obviously, at Fargo.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So Fargo is like a unicorn right, Like it's like
the coolest thing ever If youget some CIs on it and you hear
about it for years as a youngkid.
Fargo, fargo, and like the restof the retreat, it's like this
deadbeat little town in themiddle of nowhere and to us it's
like the Mecca right, it's theUtah that was still.
And you know, even as a littlekid, I remember as my older
(01:07):
brother went out there here andmy dad coming back and being
like, oh my God, it's justamazing, it's just amazing and
you know.
And then, so like I got to go,like my first year as an eighth
grader.
I was a kid and we got to goout there.
Okay, we were Greco guys, wewrestled Greco and Greco used to
be first and so Greco, allAmerican as an eighth grader and
(01:29):
then as the tattoo bet with mydad.
You know, my dad, my dad wouldhave been out there a couple of
times, watched my older brotherwrestle and me and my twin and
all of our buddies were likealways putting fake tattoos on
at tournaments and stuff and wewere like, hey, we want to.
If we get it, if we, if we pickall American at Fargo, can we
get a tattoo of my dad?
Don't want, mom, he's like,don't worry, like they'll never
(01:49):
do it, like not like they'llnever do it, but kind of like
we're pretty safe here.
Yeah, and we both did, and thesame bracket Awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah.
But now being out there as likea first time, like
understanding now I mean.
So we go to preseason nationalsin the super 32s?
And that's all folk style stuff, right, but you don't get to
see a lot of these guys inaction when it comes to
freestyle.
So we get to see you know wecould see schools, things like
that but then now see them inthe mix with those, with those
other guys out there, which wasmind blowing just watching the
(02:22):
matches, because it was greatmatches.
I mean, up and down the board wehad five, five champs, right,
and yeah, so we have five champsand juniors and not even just
the championship rounds,watching those guys perform and
just dominate all the waythrough you gotta put, you gotta
put 11 matches together.
Exactly, and that's that's someguys.
(02:42):
You know we could talk aboutbrackets and stuff like that,
but I mean every guy there thatI saw so far was not able to
touch the guys that we had right.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So yeah, we were pretty well yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
And so now in the years, in years past, like you
know, you're talking about whenGreco was first.
Like I mean, was the gym emptywhen Greco started then, and
then freestyle packed up?
It was all different, though.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I think, I think, I think with the change of the
tournament you see less guyswrestling Greco become the all
American freestyle.
They're a little banged up LikeI'm out of it.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
You know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
It's like yo, you go out there for Greco and a lot of
guys kind of used to use Greco.
I think is like the warmuptournament.
Okay, you know what I mean.
I think I dinged up a littlebit and Greco they'd maybe bow
out so they were healthy forfreestyle, you know, yeah, but
as many kids wrestle one styleback then most guys just to both
.
But I just did Greco, like Iwasn't just stuff, I just
(03:34):
wrestled Greco, oh really, andthat was like my favorite.
And because my club coach wasScott Arnason he's a big Greco
guy, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Greco and like kind of just instilled that love and
that passion in me.
And you know, so I kind of kidat dual team with him and that's
like a, it's like a renaissancething, you know, kind of be
with him as staff and get tocoach with him.
But yeah, so we've been throughit together.
You know he was my kid at coachout there at Fargo and then you
know, being out there with theboys now and going through and
(04:04):
you know, and the cadets are alot different than the juniors,
a lot of them is their firsttime at that a big tournament
like that, or, you know, I meana wick, mom and dad were pretty
strict through WWF on the.
You know you're not stayingwith your mom and dad and you're
staying with the team, you'restaying with your buddies and
you're learning how to do yourlaundry, manage your time and,
like you know, because like, themore we do for these kids at
this age to let, the more of adisservice we're doing to your
(04:25):
parents right, like we're tryingto prepare them for college and
get them ready to like handleall this on their own.
You know we don't want them tobe.
We want the parents to show uplike spectators.
Obviously, we want you there tolove and support your child and
your athlete.
But yeah, that will take care ofthem on the floor and we'll
take care of them at the hoteland you know.
So it's.
It's pretty cool, you know.
(04:45):
But they can ask take a littlemore than the juniors, you know,
by the time they're new.
If we do it, by the time they'renew, by the time they're
juniors, they're like these guys, right, I mean, they're super
obviously.
These guys train at AWA andit's a freaking phenomenal club
and those guys are hanging outhammers left and right and
they're doing an excellent job.
But these guys also just arejust very high character people
and that's a testament to theirparents.
I mean, we as wrestling coaches, we get to make an impact on
(05:08):
these guys, you know.
But but like I always say, likedude, we're just kind of warm.
Well, I actually got this frommy brother but he says, you know
, I'm just warming up the soup,like, like you two made the kid,
like this is your child.
Yeah, I'm just trying to do,you guys made the soup.
Yep, like, let's try to heat itup and get it nice and hot and
see what we can do with it.
But at a certain point I'm kindof limited.
(05:29):
You know, depending on what youbring me.
You know you bring me a highcharacter kid that's a hard
worker and got a good attitudeand gives us good effort, yeah,
you get great results.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Well and you guys work well.
I've noticed a lot that youguys kind of because you know
the asker and so well, you guyswork well together, as far as
even the guys, the guys from theroom, they know they, yeah guys
and they all work out together.
So it's good to see that.
I mentioned this on other shows.
It's really nice to see,finally, a gel.
You know we're in the samestate, right, we're all trying
(05:59):
to accomplish the same thing andnot every place is like that.
You know we got some of the oldschool guys that aren't like
that, but it only is workingEverything.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
A big part of it is for us.
You know we get out there, yeah, and it's like we're
high-fiving and hugging eachother, because it's like, dude,
when we were kids we were outhere high-fiving and hugging
each other, wrestling togetherwhen it matches, you know, when
you know stop signs for teamWisconsin, just have fun as
athletes and that's justtranscendent to having fun as
coaches, right?
And there's no animosity likewe're just trying to make sure
(06:29):
that these kids get greatopportunities and it's not about
Crass vs AWA or AWA vs Nazar.
It's about Wisconsin kidsgetting opportunities to wrestle
after high school, should theywant to.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
That's right, that's right, and but, aside from Fargo
, I've noticed with you guys,but as far as, like, I guess,
collaborations and things likethat, I mean it's the kids.
The kids are putting ittogether and reaching out to
each other.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, because media how to get to each other.
Yeah, you know what it means.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
It's good to see they do.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
They're looking for good partners and then you know
they support each other.
You know feel, you know thejust DM, you know each other's
stories that like oh he's a dogyeah.
They're not even that's in thesame club.
But after the experiencetogether, you know they really
start to bond, even just youknow, just sort of being, you
know being cheesy baby being inthe state.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
So that's enough about those other guys.
Let's talk about some of yourguys that went through Fargo.
What, what was?
Uh, yeah, what were some of theresults you had?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Well, you know we had , uh, we did.
Well, you know we we had somefour all-americans and Greco
nice.
Um, dale Corbin's an athletethat came to us about His
father's military man.
He's fortunate Station in FortMcCoy, I believe is like part of
the Tomah area, so he trains atour club and trains with Corey
Scanlon's club down there atlacrosse law, lacrosse
(07:45):
professors.
It's a fantastic club alsoabout half south to here and um,
so we both kind of co-train himand and he's a complete hamper
and you know he was that bloodrounds of that of that freestyle
tournament too.
Um, yeah, we've only had himfor like a year but I mean, he
just an easy kid to train, youget 100 out of him, but but he
was injured.
He had a bad back, lower backmuscle.
(08:06):
Oh really, and we ended up andthen that's why we ended up for
him.
But that's that happened in thefreestyle tournament.
You know you talk about a toughkid and being tough and
toughening it through, and dudemakes it all the way through To
the blood round and then hetakes a day off in between and
it makes his weight, doeseverything right to get his
weight back down, then weighs inand uh and uh in wrestles back,
go to an all-american finishand we ended up defaulting that
(08:27):
seventh, eighth place match justbecause he was pretty injured
and uh, you know, american man,what is?
uh, yeah, you know, and actuallywe're losing them.
Now he's heading out to wyomeand seminary out in pennsylvania
, um, or to start here, but he'sgot two little they're moving
it.
That just moved in and they'reall signed up and ready to rock
and roll and uh, and they'relittle hammers, a lot of fun.
They fit our, our 10, 12 agegroup pretty good.
(08:50):
So that'll be good additionsfor a couple years, right?
on, right on and then, uh, youknow, um From cadets, um, trying
to think about our other cadetsof kelv, denny, yep, yeah, he's
a wrestler from marshfield.
Yeah, third place man, and anddude, the only, the only match
he lost was that kid from ohio.
And I tell you what kelv is, asgood as it gets in that seat
(09:10):
belt position.
You know that, over-undergrounded on a knee and actually
he would.
Uh, maybe a year ago he wouldhave preferred the wizard
position to the seat, to havingthe seat belt.
Okay, but both found a way toget in.
The Seat belt is bigger and andbut when that position and
actually made some greatadjustments from the first time
he wrestled the ohio kid to thesecond time.
(09:31):
So we lost one match in thewhole tournament 111 Yep, um and
and uh, and then got the avenge.
That only lost for third, youknow.
So that's being a savage, youknow that's pretty tough.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Caleb's pretty cool.
Yeah, I sat and you know, youknow I briefly was able to talk
to his mom at the tournament.
But even wrestling with him andhaving him on the team with
Schoolboy, I mean he's alwaysand he's getting better like
it's not.
It's not like he's.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yes, it's always.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
It's always an ascend , so it's it's nice to see him
doing that Well.
He's I mean, god, he'sdedicated and focused, so I mean
it's fun to watch.
So now, another kid.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
He's quiet, he's, he's calm, he's cool, he's
collected.
When he does throw something inthere, it's usually pretty
funny.
Yeah, you know.
Yeah, he picks his spots, buthe's a cool kid.
Yeah, he works his butt off.
You know.
He trains also with valley leadout of marshfield, brad doles,
oh oh.
And then kody sees Really goodhigh school coach over there and
(10:26):
kody c and marshfield's got agreat tradition, great program.
Yeah, um, so that's uh, youknow he's got good backing there
in his hometown too.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, so what are, what are some of the experiences
that you got to witness withsome of your guys at fargo, like
what were some of the bigmoments that you had, because, I
mean, I know you.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
I know you For when an all-american was big, you
know, wrestle both styles,wrestle deep into freestyle, um,
you know, and then and thenkind of gets bounced out of the
tournament, kind of man.
I mean, he beat a tough kid,that an iron man placer, and uh,
the coaches from tennis chat,you know we're kind of kind of
recruiting them right therewatching them and they got done
(11:03):
and I went to college with themguys and they looked at me and
the cooper tech them prettyquick.
I really controlled the match,wasn't like he caught a low
ankle cross body and laced himup, you know, he just attacked
him, you know, and and I said,man, who was that kid?
I was like let's see somecooper news.
Oh yeah, he's like, let me gethis number.
Really, that's how far.
Yeah you're wrestling aroundthat you could be recruited from
(11:26):
from winning that round.
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, right exactly Do you?
Do you take?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
like what's that?
Let's get through to all myguys.
Yeah, that place, yeah, I'mgonna talk about quick so I
don't let miss anybody out whilewe're rolling Nope, in case
he's a guy that doesn't comevery much, but he's, but he's a
private lesson guy because he'sGreco specific when he does come
over.
Yeah, yeah, so, um, you want totalk about a tough, so be.
We thought this dude pulled hishamstring.
(11:52):
Yeah, um, he gets back, he getsinto the, to an MRI and into an
x-ray and they find out that hepulled.
He's starting to pull the boneapart.
Oh, so also attaches to thebone, is hamstring up under his
butt Mostly.
He's pulling the bone rightapart.
So, oh my god, that got deepinto the tournament and Greco,
and he's a Greco specific guy,but that kind of he had to bail.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
And then Kail Roth.
Yeah, this you are.
Just he is just getting started, bro.
Like I mean his wrestlingpotential and wrestling like his
wrestling potential has beenthere.
I feel like his wrestling IQ,like it's just like skyrocketed
in the last year and a half,like he knows where it's good,
he knows where he's not and he'svery disciplined.
(12:39):
The other thing is guys like thecrossfit superstar, like he's
up at 530 every morning, boxjumping really late clean.
He's a savage.
Yeah, oh Jesus, he hangs tightwith them shrewl boys and them
shrewl boys are savages.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
They're, uh, you know , that's certain.
I mean they're just, they'rejust workers, man, they love to
work out and uh, you look atthem, they walk in, they're all
just.
They all got the same build,you know I mean oh yeah, yolk,
right.
Yeah, you know.
It's like, if you can design aGreco Roman wrestler, that's
like what I'm looking for, right, like right just wide out
square had low center of gravity.
(13:14):
Why did you shit through themid-sections?
You can barely got him.
He's got laps so big you canbarely lift Lot and he's just.
But yeah.
So he had a great Grecotournament and he's a Greco
specific guy as well came outand you know it's kind of funny
because, like you know, I traina lot of Greco specific guys and
honestly he's a cooper's Pretty.
I mean, he really loves Greco.
Yeah, I think you know if hecomes out there and just
(13:36):
Russell's Greco, he places thelot higher because he's not beat
up from three days of freestylebeforehand and another wake cut
Right but but but the kid loveswrestling.
Yeah, like you couldn't tellsuper not to wrestle.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
You know, he's always , he's always flying man, that
kid is.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Some of that college coaches look at and they know is
about like, hey, who's the?
But listen, they don't want youto be the best that you're
going to be in high school,right, I mean, yeah, towards top
.
They're looking for the guysthat aren't afraid to throw
their hat in the ring.
Guys don't want to rip on ascrap.
You know what I mean.
Day in and day out, and youstart to get the results you
want when you're ready, whenyou're willing to scrap a lot,
you know it seems to show yeah,exactly, yeah, for sure.
(14:13):
Dawson from Cumberland was realclose.
He got deep into the tournament.
Um, we got hit with a dirtyinside trip.
I had a nightmare about it.
But yeah, His little brothergot experience out there, you
know.
So that was good.
Um will schmidt was out therewrestling another younger,
younger guy from our club butbut had a bad foot.
(14:34):
He's having surgery on it.
He kind of went out there, no,when he was going to be in a
tough spot.
But yeah, yeah, I mean I'mproud of everybody that went out
there.
Tristan drive went out there.
He's player wrestled some Grecoscrap hard one one.
Some lost some.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
But you know, if you can go out there and put a
couple of matches together, it'sa pretty respectable
performance I think yeah, well,I mean just to get into, like
talking about the level ofcompetition man, I mean coming
through the backside we lookpretty good, but you're still
going to be hitting those guyson the backside that are still
tough.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
You get to watch on grease spot.
Rest a little.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I did not.
No, I did not.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
He could at like one.
I think he was 182.
Okay, but he's a freakinghammer.
He was in the blood, Like Ithink he lost in the blood round
.
Yup, I mean he's, you know, andI tell them the boys, and like,
hey man, mayor Soltowin's inplace for a time they were here.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Right, that's the that's.
Oh my God.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
It'll be fine, like you can be fine, like it's not
over, it's okay, you know.
And that's getting nervous, youknow, I think I don't get
nervous, but I get nervous abouttheir expectations Like, oh,
I'm like, dude, you're right onthe right path.
Like just keep grinding.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah, exactly so that and that was kind of like the
view that I saw.
Even, like you know, I saw acouple of Will Smith's matches,
things like that.
But, like, like I said in thevideo I did, we're climbing,
like Wisconsin's not dropping.
We're climbing now and it'sonly getting better.
And watching you guys andwatching a couple of the other
matches I got so lost in justwatching all matches Like I
(15:58):
couldn't pick out who I wasdoing.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Well, if you're a fan out there too, it's like, oh
man, I'm watching the rainy kidfrom Kentucky wrestling the kid
from New Jersey and I'm justlike, yeah, we're going to get
an eight.
I got to run over there, yeah,so pretty chaos.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Was it were you guys able to at least stick to like
and I don't mean to sound likeyou guys are playing fair and
true, but stick to your athletes.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah, we have so many guys on our staff that are,
like, designated to like clubs.
Sure, you know what I mean.
Yeah, almost every one of Ben'smanager club managers has a
spot on the staff, right.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Because they have several, we tend to.
And then we have all kinds ofguys on the staff that are like
D two or D three coaches or youdon't have any high school
coaches or guys that are likethe freedom club coach Cody
Rowlett yeah Well, Rath came out, volunteers time to be out
there, and coaches like these atlove wrestling that want to
help.
And so we sit down a nightdraft and we everyone, we just
(16:58):
kind of go through the weightsand everybody, you know, there's
some pack, all like 26 of uscoaches into one little hotel
room and we go down the rosterand everyone says yeah, he
changed to my club or no, hedoesn't enter.
Okay, what neck of the woods ishe from?
Yeah, Maybe coach at cadetduels, maybe coach from that
junior duels.
Maybe you saw him at a campfrom.
Maybe he came down this collegeand you want to help.
You know, you just saw kinds ofdifferent ways and just you
(17:20):
know it's really about makingsure the athletes comfortable,
Right.
And there's a second, right,it's not just one guy, it's not
just two guys.
You know we're three deep oneach kid.
And then there's a massive textchain in which we kind of found
out in the beginning of thatfirst day of the freestyle
tournament they must have turnedlike a blocker on or something.
Yeah, when the turn man did, itget tough to get any single
(17:42):
through back.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Shit, that was tough.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I think that's what made flow change your mind.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Board.
I just had to watch the board.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah Right, that's what I was doing, just standing
around watching the board thewhole time Like God, and then
that skipped like holy shit.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, Go on for like a second and then go to the next
one and be like what the hell Icouldn't even read it.
Yeah, so nobody ever can add acoach.
You know that's something thatwe're always very admirable Like
man.
You know we don't want any kidto ever have to take them out
without a coach.
You know that's something wedon't have happened.
So yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
So when obviously you had some great success with,
with the kids that went outthere, and a lot of people look
at it differently, Like we're.
I mean, I've grown as far asknowing what winning and losing
really means and how it mattersand it doesn't matter.
It's all about the performance,and that's what I ask of Liam
is just 110% when you go compete.
I don't know technical anymore,that's what your coaches are
for, I just want 110%.
(18:38):
You know that's it Right.
So we see almost all that andevery kid that we had out there,
which you know, and it leaves alittle frustrated at the end.
You know it happens.
Yeah, you get.
You get that block in your mind, but at the same point, though
to now, that's a learning, youknow that's something you got to
take away.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
You know it always is , so it's always something to
take.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
What were some of?
What were some of the momentsthat you guys had like in the
back where, where you guys arekind of relaxing, chilling out
and like someone throws like aspaghetti noodle at someone's
face and then it starts a waterfight.
What any kind of fun storiesthat happened this year.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Well, you know, you know if Fargo were doing busy
running on the floor, you knowwhere we get that kind of.
That kind of is like at, likejunior duels, like did you they
had a big like slap fight with aburrito or a shelf, just slap
and shove the face back andforth, and it was like I know,
it's the littlest stuff and it'sfunny, though you come around
(19:30):
the corner and, like we alwayshide the guys back in a corner,
there underneath the mess.
They can kind of hang.
The bathrooms are there,there's some electrical they can
charge yourself, and they allkind of conglomerate back there
and you go back there at anygiven time and they're all
snacking and they're in thehuddle and you couldn't tell who
won or lost Cause they're alljust laughing, messing with each
other, and then but then it'sdifferent, you know, you get
(19:53):
down there in like the morningof the blood round and then
they're all down there and it'slike you could hear a drop man.
They're pretty serious, ready torock and roll, you know.
But it's cool to see howfriendly the kids are with each
other.
You know what I mean.
Like they're all making bestfriends, like these are guys
that you know go to each other'sweddings and they're gonna.
They're gonna visit each otherwith their kids when they're 35,
(20:16):
you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
It's.
I know that because I've madethose bonds through these trips.
You know what I mean and that'swhy I'm friends with the guys
that you know wigs and Ben andMax, and you know, and it's a
punishment of AB eighters.
You know Scott Armistead atNorthern exposure, you know, and
we had coaches like TerrySteiner was a coach one year,
(20:39):
yeah, yeah, and it was likeinsane.
You know, john Messonbrink wasa coach one year, so I got to
know John as a coach, you know,and where did he wrestle in
college Break?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Oh, that's right, okay that's, I couldn't remember
, but I was like shit, thisguy's got a background.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Man like he won, but I mean, yeah, he was John's
intense.
He's a fantastic coach inperson and just great human
being.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
He's listening to him talk.
He just said there's somethinghe says when he's talking.
It's like I can just take theinformation and you know I was
like hey.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Awesome man.
Well, yeah, so what?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
uh, yeah, so what?
What other types of things doescrass have going on right now?
Crass train you guys switchingover to folks, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yeah, I mean we're trying to pump up opportunities.
You know, and my brother saidto me he kind of gives me shit.
You know he's a good checkerfor me and check my shit and he
goes hey, you got to quit havingall them expensive camps
because your members are gonnarun out of money.
Dude, I said the camps are morefor the kids than our members.
Yeah, it's for the guys thatdon't want to spend two grand a
(21:41):
year to wrestle at a privateclub or you know what I mean, a
Box year or whatever and theywant to spend $150, go to a camp
and say have their kids stayovernight, I need three meals
and that's just some work.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
That's all we.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Is for the demographic.
That's like, not club kids,like I'm not trying to get all.
I mean, I would love all myclub kids to be here too.
Right, yeah, right, the real.
These are like for the guy.
That's like, yeah, I'm not an,I'm not a full year-round
wrestler, I just intransitioning between my
baseball and my football hasn'treally started yet.
Yep, come hit a bump man, getsome Matt time in.
(22:13):
These guys are wrestling at theD1 level.
So we got Gavin Drexler comingin the first weekend, mm-hmm.
The fifth, and then we gotGrayson Clark coming in the 12th
, and then that next Thursday wegot three go for the guys
coming in for the go for toughcamp, get a joke, boom, Kylian's
.
Yeah, we're just hammering outthree big camps, you know.
Then September 23rd, we'regonna have Seth Gross up nice
(22:35):
from a not Friday noon camp, andthen we have an event that
afternoon at the facility, awrestling event yet to be
disclosed, but we got somethingcoming.
So you know, we're just tryingto give.
Like I said earlier, you knowit's about giving Wisconsin kids
opportunities, and it's notjust kids that are at the
private club.
Like, you don't have to be amember here to get access to
training here.
(22:55):
Yeah, this is why I have theseextra camps, right, yeah, and
and yeah, maybe maybe you get akid to come in and think, yeah,
maybe I'll join a member herewherever.
But that's not really what it'sfor is for the college kids to
get an opportunity to do somecoaching.
Yeah, and help a little bit.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Well, a lot of a lot of.
It's the guys that are fromhere, you know, grayson Clark
and the guys from Minnesota.
They are bringing stuff backand I think that's the biggest
thing that we've been doing inthe state is Is bringing all
those guys D1 guys back and youguys who wrestled at a high
level to, yeah, bring them onwhatever.
Yeah, bring them on.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Sorry, I just guys walking to wrestle some old man,
so just give him a high.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
They can yell it's up , yeah, let's shit, but what do
you?
What do you guys have planned,are you guys?
Do you guys do a team?
You guys still doing a team forthe state, like a dual team
that you guys would take aroundin the off season, is it?
Speaker 2 (23:46):
oh yeah, we chose this is funny because I just
sent out a thing today with OhioMiddle School Nationals.
We got a tryout coming up.
We're gonna do the trial onSeptember 30th, okay, and the
track Do a practice from 10 tonoon at the AT up here at the
Crest train, mm-hmm, and thenwe're gonna have a little lunch
break and then we're gonna havea 1 to 3 session and we're
working on building our team forthe Ohio Middle School National
(24:08):
Duel, which are in November.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
It's nice.
You guys are building for it.
That's good.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, we're trying to do like.
I've never been a big fan ofjust like Calling guys together
and having to meet at theairport and go to a tournament,
right?
Yeah, I like having a camp,sorry, getting to know each
other and then I can help them alittle better.
Matt side you know, what I mean.
I got a little you know theirskillset if I've got to work out
with them a few times, right,and for that one I kind of
(24:35):
partner with law Because becausehe's he's got that contract and
we're just fortunate enough tobe friends with them and they're
gonna let Our guys jump in onthat team and and what we want
to make it more competitive.
You know what I mean.
We want to make a morecompetitive team than we've had
in the past and, and we're doingthe same thing for the Virginia
Beach team, that we take outthe k-16.
We're teaming up with umAnthony Dalia down there.
(24:59):
Bird is there in memorialtraining center.
Oh yeah, yeah, the bad dude man,oh yeah, he ran in the circle
when we were kids the whole wayup um with us and and he goes
way back.
You know he's been to my farmas a little kid training for
weeks on it and he comes from atough boxing, an Italian boxing
family.
Um, they're mason trade, hisfather company, they're freaking
(25:23):
hammers and the dude's just agreat guy and he runs a.
Even he's got a little kid.
That's just a son in that agegroup and he's got a really good
age group of kids in thatdemographic.
You know that k through six,yeah, and he's been and cruisers
, little boys in that and, uh,danny, as area has got a little
boy in that.
So they're all coming back.
You know that that race team,park wrestling club team from
(25:44):
the, they're all coming back.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
His kid was on this team right here.
We won this down strike zonebecause I I couldn't find
anybody that was like a littlebit older that size and that kid
was Hammering other kids likenothing Like he's a ham.
He stood next to his trophy wasas tall as he was.
I was like you were destroyingguys.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, so you know we're and it's like.
I think, though like so, so tomclark might not agree to this,
but he might.
But so so tom's a superpassionate guy, right, he would
get, he would lose this shit andget kicked out of dual meat
tournament, right.
And so then they were like sothey're like well, we need to
(26:24):
get somebody to coach the teamthat doesn't have a kid on the
team.
So like they're not like losingthe and I don't know how I got
picked to coach that team.
But also I got picked to coachthat team and it was grace and
clark and braden, son and pegand like here above that it was
like gavin drexler and blainebrender.
So a couple of my guys werekind of on that team but it was
like predominantly an off-starteam that tom had developed them
out, the whole state, right.
(26:45):
And so I took that team a fewyears in a row to like Mcdonald
duals and baltimore.
And then, yep, our virginiabeach tournament holiday duals.
So like two term here for liketwo, three years in a row.
And it was literally like thislast group of guys.
It was like wins Koy haftywould be at the tournament.
(27:08):
Not, he was the wrestler team,but he'd be on like a different
team.
Yeah like riddle head mulvaneyum.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
That's a great team.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
All you know, luke dukes was on those teams, gunner
hoffman, in in smith, was onthose teams, so it was a good
mix of our kids and a good mixof those kids.
Yeah, yeah, for sure, that'show I landed the gig.
And it was like this guy mightbe crazier than tom.
You know he's gonna get kickedout.
Yeah, out on the benchsometimes, you know, and I'm
(27:38):
getting a lot better the older Iget.
But yeah, um, it's hard man,but dude.
So it was really gonna spendtime with these guys on their
last trip.
I got to go to junior duelswith them.
I got to go to um.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
So yeah, I think I think the, the group that is,
you know, I'm graduating andmoving up there.
Still Obviously there's a fewof them that are still going to
be here next year, but Knowingthe level that they're at, and
then, like I said, with thecoaches that we have now, the
you know, like you and the askerins, and we got even even out
in law, those guys, I mean,they're great at developing kids
.
You know, and that's thebiggest thing that I hear from
(28:12):
like other states, like we wantto develop kids and, right, you
guys have picked up the pace onthat sense, because I I only
remember you were talking aboutcamps.
I only remember camps.
I don't remember clubs.
We had mat rats, that was ityou know like, but we didn't
have, we didn't have thewrestling like we do now.
So you had to find camps to do,like you said.
It's just something that I'mtrying to, you know, get a leg
up on.
(28:32):
But now we've picked it up in,like I've shown a lot of respect
towards the fact that, like Isaid, you and asker are working
together, talking together more.
All the other teams arestarting to gel in it, because
it didn't used to be that waywhen Liam first started this,
there was always just ah and noweverybody is starting to kind
of come together.
It's awesome and it's great tosee you.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
This thing is like dude.
It's like we, if we do our jobsright, like I don't need to
take kids from anybody else.
I know I'll pick a kid off theback Yep, but even if they come,
I'll steal a kid frombasketball if I need another.
There's bad kids that walk intothe gym all the time and wish
they were tougher and look intowindows.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Well, you know, liam goes and works out at Ascrin.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
What's that?
And he wouldn't have basketballkids any day.
Just wave them in.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
It's come on.
Oh, for the month, it's come on.
Yeah, liam mixes it up.
He, he runs with Robert Leeonce in a while and then he's at
Ascrin and you know things likethat.
I think it's good to have thatexposure to all the different
coaching styles.
So much praise to you guys forthat.
So, but you, are you running apractice tonight?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
No, I just have guys in that can work out.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Oh yeah, open mats.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
That's right, open mat yeah yeah, I'm in the rest,
I'm gonna be in here, you know.
Yeah, but then I you can see medoing this because I'm looking
fast the camera, because I'mlike I can see them out.
They're sitting on their assesand I'm like getting in here to
sit on your ass.
You're near to rest.
You can sit on your ass at home.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Friday night at six o'clock and these are all high
school kids and they're here towrestle, so I can't be
complaining.
Yeah, that's right, wrestlingAnother shit high school kids
are doing on Friday night.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Are you like a Schwab ?
Do you get out there andwrestle with these guys still,
oh.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yeah, nice, yeah, I love nice.
Yeah, yeah, I'm actually alittle better shape.
You know, my son's coming upand and Mm-hmm, yeah, that's the
brink is really lit a fireunder me in terms of, like, I
want to be that coach for my sonwhen he's ready for me.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
I want to be in good shape orbuild on them.
I want to be able to Smack themaround and give it to him.
(30:35):
You know, I don't want him tobe able to roll me, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
There's no man, there's no like getting it done
back there.
So, yeah, with him, with him.
How is that blend with youbeing such a club coach and
having your son coming up, doyou?
Do you coach him like just offto the side, but like when
practice is going on, you letsomeone else handle it?
Speaker 2 (30:55):
No, you know, not really.
I'm pretty hands-on with someof them.
I mean I push them pretty hard.
Okay, well, you know, likejunior high season he's got
other coaches.
You know I would like it's kindof nice.
You know we do like six gradesincluded in junior high around
here.
So like even last year was likeI coached my practice but I
don't really coach my matchesoften.
Okay, you know what I mean.
Like his coach and I was juniorhigh coach in.
(31:15):
I'm fortunate that his juniorhigh coach is a friend of mine.
Let me trust in my twin brotherson the is coaching on the high
school staff that he'll go to.
So you know, I trust where he'sgoing.
I trust the guys that he's with.
You know and I Don't know.
You know, To me it's like youlearn.
You learn what you need to learnfrom wrestling in between the
four Pratt walls in practiceroom.
(31:36):
That's how you make the man youwanted out of wrestling like
the big man.
This is the wins and the medalsand stuff and that's all cool,
but like it happens inside thesefour walls right here, you know
what I mean.
Yep, so you know.
I just I just put a lot ofpressure on because you know
there could be pressure on thekid if his dad was was fairly
good at some point, you know,and there might be a little
pressure on it, but it's like Ijust want him to enjoy it.
(31:58):
You know, I want to be able tocall him when he's 25 and be
like hey, I bought us alltickets to go to the NCAA and
hopefully he's not like stillwrestling in college at 25, I
don't know, Overdue, right.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah right.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Shit, guys are 25 years old.
You know, been in college forseven years.
There's also wrestling 26, 27,you know like what he's an adult
, you know, I'd like to be ableto call him.
And yeah, there's kids, I knowthat have such a toxic
relationship with wrestlingbecause of what their dads did
to them, you know you know, Ijust don't want that, you know
(32:34):
it's a bit of, I mean it's, it'shuge, it's one of those things.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
And I didn't have parents that were high like they
didn't play sports.
I mean, if they did, theyplayed through like middle
school or grade school, and Iwas it.
But knowing that my brother wasthat one that was up there,
that was, I had an older Well, Istill have an older brother,
but I was trying to come up tohim.
Well, and then as I got to highschool you know it's good
having him around as a partnerto either practice with
sometimes Sometimes you didn'twant to see my face, which it
(32:57):
can't argue with him, but it wasI became better, you know.
Then he was because of theopportunities that he gave me as
far as being a partner, and mydad would push us to a certain
extent of Just, you got to go topractice, you got to go to
practice, but my brother was theone that was like no dude, you
suck, you need to get better.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Okay, I had the luxury I had twin brother right
and then I had an older brotheron both of us right, yeah, and
like you know, I'm really closewith the mirror solos in part of
it is kind of the twin thing,like I get the twin thing right
and it's like you know I'm like,well, yeah, jesus Cole, you're
only good cuz the Connor likeshut up.
You know, it's like I justtease them like that.
(33:35):
You know, like when one ofthem's having a hard day, I
always tell them like yeah, well, your brother's, you know, and
it's always, I understand,demographic of like, hey, man,
like I remember going totournaments and get my ass
kicked and then having mybrother win and my parents
looking at me like oh, yeah.
I don't know, I can't like besorrowful for you because I want
(33:56):
him to be.
You know it's like a tough spotfor a parent.
You know big time.
Great job handling thatdemographic, obviously.
But and those boys areoriginally but like man's Ivory
thing is like just like builtfor wrestling.
You know what I mean.
It's just built for wrestling,so that's really.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Just a little bit.
I want to because I made a post, okay, and I posted about
because it wasn't anything I saw, far goes.
I've been watching a lot ofwrestling lately.
A lot I watched.
I watched Utah middle schoolconference Championships, dude,
okay.
So I've been watching somewrestling.
I Watched.
There was a match I saw wherethey you could tell their
friends because when they shookhands, when they got in the mat,
(34:38):
they shook hands like hey,buddy, you know like let's do
this, and they do the fall down,shit, right, yeah, and let the
other one pin them.
I know your friends are friends, I get it All right, but we're
also in a sport where it's like,just wrestle, just right, put
it out there on the line, youknow like an example the frickin
, jacob Herman, declan Cook,dude the wrestling.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
It's decided for a third and fourth and who's gonna
go from fifth and sixth andtheir best friends and training
partners.
And they did, you know, it justgot a little heavy, could make
weight again, so we bumped upand to wrestle the hermitator.
You know quite a battle.
I love those guys.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Yeah, I know.
So I haven't been able to watchthe match, but I had someone
tell me that was kind of on thatlevel, like it wasn't wrestled
very hard.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
It was almost like the really they.
It was like it was even, andthen they fought hard for like
the last minute.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
You know, yeah, that's what they said.
It was like circling just hand,you know, hand, fighting,
fighting or whatever.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
But they didn't give up If they had a plan or
anything.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
But it seemed like there was definitely like you
know, what I mean, like I Idon't know, it's just kind of a
bomber.
But at the same time, though,too, I mean just the level of
wrestling that was out there wascrazy.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
It kind of had all their guys move away from each
other last year, right, so thatthey could try to you know old a
title, right, and you know, andit's in the same vein of like
being friends, right.
So I mean, if what they didlike that was silly, then what
those guys did was silly, right,cause it's in that same vein,
You're right.
So to me, at some point yourcollege coach is going to make
you guys wrestle each other,right, like they're handing out
(36:13):
tickets right now and it's goingto be Sinclair versus Mirasola.
That's what Flo wants to see,right?
I mean, they don't want to seeanything but that, right, yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
You don't want to see , probably right?
You know what I mean.
Yeah, Kyle's not going to careif, uh, if, if Mirasola's
buddies with Sinclair whenSinclair's wrestling from
Cornell and they're going to goto hell.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, it's going to happen, man.
So I mean but but I get it, youknow they're, they're friends
and and um, if they'recomfortable with it, that's fine
(36:47):
.
You know, I had a twin brotherso I had to pull that a couple
of times.
There were a couple of times aweek full.
That was where my mom they werelike you guys aren't, aren't
wrestling each other, because wewrestled one time in
kindergarten and he beat me andI cried and we were like kind of
not friends for a little whilebecause of that, I think, you
know, and my parents were likewe're not going to put them in
that situation again.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
So there's a situation where somebody moved
forward in the bracket.
Both those medals were cominghome anyway to the same house in
the same training room, so itwas a matter of you're both
going to get thrown in thefucking closet with the rest of
the shit and we're going topractice tomorrow.
Right, we're really going toget into the fight tomorrow, not
the fight you had yesterday.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
So there's all kinds of ways to look at it, you know,
and everybody's entitled totheir own opinion.
And I think again you revertback to what's going to make the
athlete more comfortable, wherethe athlete can produce at the
next, you know, next best thing,what's next right?
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Yeah, agreed, totally .
Well, man, you got.
You got 37 minutes under yourbelt.
If there's some stuff you wantto touch on, I know you got
those camps coming up and thenyou got the.
You're doing some, doing sometryouts for what's the team name
for that travel team thatyou're doing?
Speaker 2 (37:53):
The one we're going to take to, we take it, we call
it.
The one that we take toVirginia Beach is just a crash
train team, but I'm probablygoing to rebrand it something to
include BAM's you know teamname in there.
Yeah, like a crash or something.
And then uh, uh, luck, luck.
Grass area wrestling thelacrasse nice.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Yes, love it, yeah, love it.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
That's awesome we're all in the same area and but
dude those guys, watch for thoseguys, because they got some
hammers coming up too Always,and our days of dominating Fargo
are just getting started.
I think these boys have done areally good job of of paving the
road and setting the bar high.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
And I think we're going to keep doing what we're
doing.
I think we're going to.
We're going to see more, moreyears like this.
You know, um, and I think youknow guys like Liam it's like
remind him, man like yo, thetwins didn't, didn't place their
freshman here, but they also100, right, right, they were at
like like I mean, it's a littledifferent up there.
You wrestle with the big boys.
You know a lot of the guys arethey're 160 pound.
(38:52):
You know cadets.
So a lot of them guys are fullythrough puberty already.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
And you're kind of not.
You know that Minnesota kid.
He probably used to wrestle inhigh school matches since
seventh grade and Liam wasgassed.
We talk about it all the time.
You know it's just it'sadvantages to be into having
certain circumstances towherever you are and whatever
you have.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
You know so, not you know the way, like the biggest
thing about Fargo is the weightcutting too.
I mean, you know they made itsuch a difficult year this year.
The way they did it was usuallyyou weigh in the day before,
then they wrestle, then youwould, they make weight the next
day, then if they win and theymake it to the end at the weigh
in metal day.
So instead it was like theydidn't know if they made a metal
(39:32):
till the third day, cause theblood run was that morning.
Then everybody in the bloodshad to make weight.
I was an.
I would like somebody to goback through and look at how I
do to miss weight.
That bet a lot of dudes missweight in the blood.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Good point, good point.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Like three days removed from that first weigh in
.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Right, and it's like if you could just hand those
first two weigh ins back to back.
That's the way I'd like it as awrestler.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Yeah, well, you keep the level.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
And then you have kids.
You know you have kids that arelike hey.
So I was like 0.8 over and nowI'm like a pound.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Point six I didn't eat anything.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
I didn't have anything.
And you're like, bro, I've donethis before.
I'm like I'm straight, likethree pounds of water in the
middle of the night at Fargo oneyear, as a cadet woke up in the
morning, four pounds over, likeI didn't do anything, like you
know what I mean.
Like I've been there, like themanagement thing, and just like,
hey, bro, like when you startthe fire, I'm the guy going to
(40:24):
come dig you out of the fire.
So don't lie to me, like youdon't know me.
Like I take the guys that arelike need the extra help, right,
I take them to work, take themto the gym late.
I already know me.
That's kind of like my thing islike getting the guys to be,
and so you know that's.
I could just spend a littlemore time with some of those
(40:45):
like like Declan's usuallycutting a little weight and uh,
and Jake is using, and so then Igot to hang with those guys a
little extra than some otherguys, you know.
So I get to know that betterthan the other.
And it's just like you said.
You know, not that I I likethem any better than the other
kids around, but that just bysense of the environment I've
spent a little more time withthem, you know, so you get to
(41:07):
know them a little better.
But those kids are both savages.
They're going to be tough.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Yeah, oh yeah, for sure For sure the next be good.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Yep.
So like there's, there's never.
I can't say that there's ever akid, especially now at this
level, that I've ever doubtedany of their abilities.
I mean, they, these kids, havebeen through the, a lot of them
have been through the ringer.
You know and you know right, soit's definitely it was nice
being able to see that's kind ofit's got wondering about the
mix of like coaching.
It was nice to be able to seesome of you guys with kids that
you normally aren't around.
You know, like Liam.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
That's my favorite part.
I know all my guys.
I like new kids.
I like to talk to Liam, I liketo hang with the twins.
I like visiting with, likeCharlie Malar's a neat kid, you
know.
The man is a kid that I'vealways enjoyed up here as a
little guy.
Yeah, you know, really enjoyedJoel and his wife and the whole
(41:58):
family is always around andwilling to.
Hey, we're going to grab somelunch.
Do you want us to get yousomething like just like you
know they're back type of people.
You know all them.
Yeah, just like.
Yeah.
So, like you know, we got tokeep recruiting those people's
kids into wrestling and peoplelike that.
You know you are who you'resurrounding, right.
(42:19):
So it's like let's get morepeople like that involved in
wrestling.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
Couldn't agree more, man Couldn't agree more.
Well, I am going to let you go,dude.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Argo.
We'll be back next year readyto rock.
Yes Again.
Hey, come hit up the grasstrain for some camps the first
three weeks in August.
Members but non-members this isfor you.
This is for you that don't havea year long membership
somewhere and you need to hit atamp up before you get headed
back to school.
We got your end of the summeroptions covered here.
August 5th, august 12th, august17th Come hit us up.
(42:50):
Crash trainclub.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
If you, if you can't find it, go on social media.
You'll find them on Instagram.
I think he's on Facebook.
I mean, they got everything outthere, so scroll through and
find crass and getting figuredout.
So much appreciated.
Dude, I'm going to talk, I wantto talk to you for just a
second once we're done here, butI'm going to roll some sweet
music, because that's what I do,and then we're going to tell
(43:14):
people adios, so see you later.
Peace.
Let's go All right.
All right, we get this set Now.
I got some music playing here,so we're doing another episode
here with the man, the myth, thelegend.
Hey, nice, I'm digging that.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Watching it right now , yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
We got Jordan Kras with us here.
He has some, some.
Is that Greco going on in theback?
Nope, that's freestyle.
That's freestyle, nice, nice.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Nice, just run the gambit right now and again,
relive the glory day 45 minutesof glory here.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
So let's, I'm going to, I'm going to turn it, we're
going to talk, for I just cutthat off just abruptly, just bam
, we're done.
So talk Fargo.
This was my first experience.
Now you've had many experiences, obviously, at Fargo.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So Fargo is like a unicorn right, Like it's like
the coolest thing ever If youget some CIs on it and you hear
about it for years as a youngkid.
Fargo, fargo, and like the restof the retreat, it's like this
deadbeat little town in themiddle of nowhere and to us it's
like the Mecca right, it's theUtah that was still.
And you know, even as a littlekid, I remember as my older
(01:07):
brother went out there here andmy dad coming back and being
like, oh my God, it's justamazing, it's just amazing and
you know.
And then, so like I got to go,like my first year as an eighth
grader.
I was a kid and we got to goout there.
Okay, we were Greco guys, wewrestled Greco and Greco used to
be first and so Greco, allAmerican as an eighth grader and
(01:29):
then as the tattoo bet with mydad.
You know, my dad, my dad wouldhave been out there a couple of
times, watched my older brotherwrestle and me and my twin and
all of our buddies were likealways putting fake tattoos on
at tournaments and stuff and wewere like, hey, we want to.
If we get it, if we, if we pickall American at Fargo, can we
get a tattoo of my dad?
Don't want, mom, he's like,don't worry, like they'll never
(01:49):
do it, like not like they'llnever do it, but kind of like
we're pretty safe here.
Yeah, and we both did, and thesame bracket Awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah.
But now being out there as likea first time, like
understanding now I mean.
So we go to preseason nationalsin the super 32s?
And that's all folk style stuff, right, but you don't get to
see a lot of these guys inaction when it comes to
freestyle.
So we get to see you know wecould see schools, things like
that but then now see them inthe mix with those, with those
other guys out there, which wasmind blowing just watching the
(02:22):
matches, because it was greatmatches.
I mean, up and down the board wehad five, five champs, right,
and yeah, so we have five champsand juniors and not even just
the championship rounds,watching those guys perform and
just dominate all the waythrough you gotta put, you gotta
put 11 matches together.
Exactly, and that's that's someguys.
(02:42):
You know we could talk aboutbrackets and stuff like that,
but I mean every guy there thatI saw so far was not able to
touch the guys that we had right.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So yeah, we were pretty well yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
And so now in the years, in years past, like you
know, you're talking about whenGreco was first.
Like I mean, was the gym emptywhen Greco started then, and
then freestyle packed up?
It was all different, though.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I think, I think, I think with the change of the
tournament you see less guyswrestling Greco become the all
American freestyle.
They're a little banged up LikeI'm out of it.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
You know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
It's like yo, you go out there for Greco and a lot of
guys kind of used to use Greco.
I think is like the warmuptournament.
Okay, you know what I mean.
I think I dinged up a littlebit and Greco they'd maybe bow
out so they were healthy forfreestyle, you know, yeah, but
as many kids wrestle one styleback then most guys just to both
.
But I just did Greco, like Iwasn't just stuff, I just
(03:34):
wrestled Greco, oh really, andthat was like my favorite.
And because my club coach wasScott Arnason he's a big Greco
guy, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Greco and like kind of just instilled that love and
that passion in me.
And you know, so I kind of kidat dual team with him and that's
like a, it's like a renaissancething, you know, kind of be
with him as staff and get tocoach with him.
But yeah, so we've been throughit together.
You know he was my kid at coachout there at Fargo and then you
know, being out there with theboys now and going through and
(04:04):
you know, and the cadets are alot different than the juniors,
a lot of them is their firsttime at that a big tournament
like that, or, you know, I meana wick, mom and dad were pretty
strict through WWF on the.
You know you're not stayingwith your mom and dad and you're
staying with the team, you'restaying with your buddies and
you're learning how to do yourlaundry, manage your time and,
like you know, because like, themore we do for these kids at
this age to let, the more of adisservice we're doing to your
(04:25):
parents right, like we're tryingto prepare them for college and
get them ready to like handleall this on their own.
You know we don't want them tobe.
We want the parents to show uplike spectators.
Obviously, we want you there tolove and support your child and
your athlete.
But yeah, that will take care ofthem on the floor and we'll
take care of them at the hoteland you know.
So it's.
It's pretty cool, you know.
(04:45):
But they can ask take a littlemore than the juniors, you know,
by the time they're new.
If we do it, by the time they'renew, by the time they're
juniors, they're like these guys, right, I mean, they're super
obviously.
These guys train at AWA andit's a freaking phenomenal club
and those guys are hanging outhammers left and right and
they're doing an excellent job.
But these guys also just arejust very high character people
and that's a testament to theirparents.
I mean, we as wrestling coaches, we get to make an impact on
(05:08):
these guys, you know.
But but like I always say, likedude, we're just kind of warm.
Well, I actually got this frommy brother but he says, you know
, I'm just warming up the soup,like, like you two made the kid,
like this is your child.
Yeah, I'm just trying to do,you guys made the soup.
Yep, like, let's try to heat itup and get it nice and hot and
see what we can do with it.
But at a certain point I'm kindof limited.
(05:29):
You know, depending on what youbring me.
You know you bring me a highcharacter kid that's a hard
worker and got a good attitudeand gives us good effort, yeah,
you get great results.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Well and you guys work well.
I've noticed a lot that youguys kind of because you know
the asker and so well, you guyswork well together, as far as
even the guys, the guys from theroom, they know they, yeah guys
and they all work out together.
So it's good to see that.
I mentioned this on other shows.
It's really nice to see,finally, a gel.
You know we're in the samestate, right, we're all trying
(05:59):
to accomplish the same thing andnot every place is like that.
You know we got some of the oldschool guys that aren't like
that, but it only is workingEverything.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
A big part of it is for us.
You know we get out there, yeah, and it's like we're
high-fiving and hugging eachother, because it's like, dude,
when we were kids we were outhere high-fiving and hugging
each other, wrestling togetherwhen it matches, you know, when
you know stop signs for teamWisconsin, just have fun as
athletes and that's justtranscendent to having fun as
coaches, right?
And there's no animosity likewe're just trying to make sure
(06:29):
that these kids get greatopportunities and it's not about
Crass vs AWA or AWA vs Nazar.
It's about Wisconsin kidsgetting opportunities to wrestle
after high school, should theywant to.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
That's right, that's right, and but, aside from Fargo
, I've noticed with you guys,but as far as, like, I guess,
collaborations and things likethat, I mean it's the kids.
The kids are putting ittogether and reaching out to
each other.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, because media how to get to each other.
Yeah, you know what it means.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
It's good to see they do.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
They're looking for good partners and then you know
they support each other.
You know feel, you know thejust DM, you know each other's
stories that like oh he's a dogyeah.
They're not even that's in thesame club.
But after the experiencetogether, you know they really
start to bond, even just youknow, just sort of being, you
know being cheesy baby being inthe state.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
So that's enough about those other guys.
Let's talk about some of yourguys that went through Fargo.
What, what was?
Uh, yeah, what were some of theresults you had?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Well, you know we had , uh, we did.
Well, you know we we had somefour all-americans and Greco
nice.
Um, dale Corbin's an athletethat came to us about His
father's military man.
He's fortunate Station in FortMcCoy, I believe is like part of
the Tomah area, so he trains atour club and trains with Corey
Scanlon's club down there atlacrosse law, lacrosse
(07:45):
professors.
It's a fantastic club alsoabout half south to here and um,
so we both kind of co-train himand and he's a complete hamper
and you know he was that bloodrounds of that of that freestyle
tournament too.
Um, yeah, we've only had himfor like a year but I mean, he
just an easy kid to train, youget 100 out of him, but but he
was injured.
He had a bad back, lower backmuscle.
(08:06):
Oh really, and we ended up andthen that's why we ended up for
him.
But that's that happened in thefreestyle tournament.
You know you talk about a toughkid and being tough and
toughening it through, and dudemakes it all the way through To
the blood round and then hetakes a day off in between and
it makes his weight, doeseverything right to get his
weight back down, then weighs inand uh and uh in wrestles back,
go to an all-american finishand we ended up defaulting that
(08:27):
seventh, eighth place match justbecause he was pretty injured
and uh, you know, american man,what is?
uh, yeah, you know, and actuallywe're losing them.
Now he's heading out to wyomeand seminary out in pennsylvania
, um, or to start here, but he'sgot two little they're moving
it.
That just moved in and they'reall signed up and ready to rock
and roll and uh, and they'relittle hammers, a lot of fun.
They fit our, our 10, 12 agegroup pretty good.
(08:50):
So that'll be good additionsfor a couple years, right?
on, right on and then, uh, youknow, um From cadets, um, trying
to think about our other cadetsof kelv, denny, yep, yeah, he's
a wrestler from marshfield.
Yeah, third place man, and anddude, the only, the only match
he lost was that kid from ohio.
And I tell you what kelv is, asgood as it gets in that seat
(09:10):
belt position.
You know that, over-undergrounded on a knee and actually
he would.
Uh, maybe a year ago he wouldhave preferred the wizard
position to the seat, to havingthe seat belt.
Okay, but both found a way toget in.
The Seat belt is bigger and andbut when that position and
actually made some greatadjustments from the first time
he wrestled the ohio kid to thesecond time.
(09:31):
So we lost one match in thewhole tournament 111 Yep, um and
and uh, and then got the avenge.
That only lost for third, youknow.
So that's being a savage, youknow that's pretty tough.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Caleb's pretty cool.
Yeah, I sat and you know, youknow I briefly was able to talk
to his mom at the tournament.
But even wrestling with him andhaving him on the team with
Schoolboy, I mean he's alwaysand he's getting better like
it's not.
It's not like he's.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yes, it's always.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
It's always an ascend , so it's it's nice to see him
doing that Well.
He's I mean, god, he'sdedicated and focused, so I mean
it's fun to watch.
So now, another kid.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
He's quiet, he's, he's calm, he's cool, he's
collected.
When he does throw something inthere, it's usually pretty
funny.
Yeah, you know.
Yeah, he picks his spots, buthe's a cool kid.
Yeah, he works his butt off.
You know.
He trains also with valley leadout of marshfield, brad doles,
oh oh.
And then kody sees Really goodhigh school coach over there and
(10:26):
kody c and marshfield's got agreat tradition, great program.
Yeah, um, so that's uh, youknow he's got good backing there
in his hometown too.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, so what are, what are some of the experiences
that you got to witness withsome of your guys at fargo, like
what were some of the bigmoments that you had, because, I
mean, I know you.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
I know you For when an all-american was big, you
know, wrestle both styles,wrestle deep into freestyle, um,
you know, and then and thenkind of gets bounced out of the
tournament, kind of man.
I mean, he beat a tough kid,that an iron man placer, and uh,
the coaches from tennis chat,you know we're kind of kind of
recruiting them right therewatching them and they got done
(11:03):
and I went to college with themguys and they looked at me and
the cooper tech them prettyquick.
I really controlled the match,wasn't like he caught a low
ankle cross body and laced himup, you know, he just attacked
him, you know, and and I said,man, who was that kid?
I was like let's see somecooper news.
Oh yeah, he's like, let me gethis number.
Really, that's how far.
Yeah you're wrestling aroundthat you could be recruited from
(11:26):
from winning that round.
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, right exactly Do you?
Do you take?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
like what's that?
Let's get through to all myguys.
Yeah, that place, yeah, I'mgonna talk about quick so I
don't let miss anybody out whilewe're rolling Nope, in case
he's a guy that doesn't comevery much, but he's, but he's a
private lesson guy because he'sGreco specific when he does come
over.
Yeah, yeah, so, um, you want totalk about a tough, so be.
We thought this dude pulled hishamstring.
(11:52):
Yeah, um, he gets back, he getsinto the, to an MRI and into an
x-ray and they find out that hepulled.
He's starting to pull the boneapart.
Oh, so also attaches to thebone, is hamstring up under his
butt Mostly.
He's pulling the bone rightapart.
So, oh my god, that got deepinto the tournament and Greco,
and he's a Greco specific guy,but that kind of he had to bail.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
And then Kail Roth.
Yeah, this you are.
Just he is just getting started, bro.
Like I mean his wrestlingpotential and wrestling like his
wrestling potential has beenthere.
I feel like his wrestling IQ,like it's just like skyrocketed
in the last year and a half,like he knows where it's good,
he knows where he's not and he'svery disciplined.
(12:39):
The other thing is guys like thecrossfit superstar, like he's
up at 530 every morning, boxjumping really late clean.
He's a savage.
Yeah, oh Jesus, he hangs tightwith them shrewl boys and them
shrewl boys are savages.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
They're, uh, you know , that's certain.
I mean they're just, they'rejust workers, man, they love to
work out and uh, you look atthem, they walk in, they're all
just.
They all got the same build,you know I mean oh yeah, yolk,
right.
Yeah, you know.
It's like, if you can design aGreco Roman wrestler, that's
like what I'm looking for, right, like right just wide out
square had low center of gravity.
(13:14):
Why did you shit through themid-sections?
You can barely got him.
He's got laps so big you canbarely lift Lot and he's just.
But yeah.
So he had a great Grecotournament and he's a Greco
specific guy as well came outand you know it's kind of funny
because, like you know, I traina lot of Greco specific guys and
honestly he's a cooper's Pretty.
I mean, he really loves Greco.
Yeah, I think you know if hecomes out there and just
(13:36):
Russell's Greco, he places thelot higher because he's not beat
up from three days of freestylebeforehand and another wake cut
Right but but but the kid loveswrestling.
Yeah, like you couldn't tellsuper not to wrestle.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
You know, he's always , he's always flying man, that
kid is.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Some of that college coaches look at and they know is
about like, hey, who's the?
But listen, they don't want youto be the best that you're
going to be in high school,right, I mean, yeah, towards top
.
They're looking for the guysthat aren't afraid to throw
their hat in the ring.
Guys don't want to rip on ascrap.
You know what I mean.
Day in and day out, and youstart to get the results you
want when you're ready, whenyou're willing to scrap a lot,
you know it seems to show yeah,exactly, yeah, for sure.
(14:13):
Dawson from Cumberland was realclose.
He got deep into the tournament.
Um, we got hit with a dirtyinside trip.
I had a nightmare about it.
But yeah, His little brothergot experience out there, you
know.
So that was good.
Um will schmidt was out therewrestling another younger,
younger guy from our club butbut had a bad foot.
(14:34):
He's having surgery on it.
He kind of went out there, no,when he was going to be in a
tough spot.
But yeah, yeah, I mean I'mproud of everybody that went out
there.
Tristan drive went out there.
He's player wrestled some Grecoscrap hard one one.
Some lost some.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
But you know, if you can go out there and put a
couple of matches together, it'sa pretty respectable
performance I think yeah, well,I mean just to get into, like
talking about the level ofcompetition man, I mean coming
through the backside we lookpretty good, but you're still
going to be hitting those guyson the backside that are still
tough.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
You get to watch on grease spot.
Rest a little.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I did not.
No, I did not.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
He could at like one.
I think he was 182.
Okay, but he's a freakinghammer.
He was in the blood, Like Ithink he lost in the blood round
.
Yup, I mean he's, you know, andI tell them the boys, and like,
hey man, mayor Soltowin's inplace for a time they were here.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Right, that's the that's.
Oh my God.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
It'll be fine, like you can be fine, like it's not
over, it's okay, you know.
And that's getting nervous, youknow, I think I don't get
nervous, but I get nervous abouttheir expectations Like, oh,
I'm like, dude, you're right onthe right path.
Like just keep grinding.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah, exactly so that and that was kind of like the
view that I saw.
Even, like you know, I saw acouple of Will Smith's matches,
things like that.
But, like, like I said in thevideo I did, we're climbing,
like Wisconsin's not dropping.
We're climbing now and it'sonly getting better.
And watching you guys andwatching a couple of the other
matches I got so lost in justwatching all matches Like I
(15:58):
couldn't pick out who I wasdoing.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Well, if you're a fan out there too, it's like, oh
man, I'm watching the rainy kidfrom Kentucky wrestling the kid
from New Jersey and I'm justlike, yeah, we're going to get
an eight.
I got to run over there, yeah,so pretty chaos.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Was it were you guys able to at least stick to like
and I don't mean to sound likeyou guys are playing fair and
true, but stick to your athletes.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah, we have so many guys on our staff that are,
like, designated to like clubs.
Sure, you know what I mean.
Yeah, almost every one of Ben'smanager club managers has a
spot on the staff, right.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Because they have several, we tend to.
And then we have all kinds ofguys on the staff that are like
D two or D three coaches or youdon't have any high school
coaches or guys that are likethe freedom club coach Cody
Rowlett yeah Well, Rath came out, volunteers time to be out
there, and coaches like these atlove wrestling that want to
help.
And so we sit down a nightdraft and we everyone, we just
(16:58):
kind of go through the weightsand everybody, you know, there's
some pack, all like 26 of uscoaches into one little hotel
room and we go down the rosterand everyone says yeah, he
changed to my club or no, hedoesn't enter.
Okay, what neck of the woods ishe from?
Yeah, Maybe coach at cadetduels, maybe coach from that
junior duels.
Maybe you saw him at a campfrom.
Maybe he came down this collegeand you want to help.
You know, you just saw kinds ofdifferent ways and just you
(17:20):
know it's really about makingsure the athletes comfortable,
Right.
And there's a second, right,it's not just one guy, it's not
just two guys.
You know we're three deep oneach kid.
And then there's a massive textchain in which we kind of found
out in the beginning of thatfirst day of the freestyle
tournament they must have turnedlike a blocker on or something.
Yeah, when the turn man did, itget tough to get any single
(17:42):
through back.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Shit, that was tough.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I think that's what made flow change your mind.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Board.
I just had to watch the board.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah Right, that's what I was doing, just standing
around watching the board thewhole time Like God, and then
that skipped like holy shit.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, Go on for like a second and then go to the next
one and be like what the hell Icouldn't even read it.
Yeah, so nobody ever can add acoach.
You know that's something thatwe're always very admirable Like
man.
You know we don't want any kidto ever have to take them out
without a coach.
You know that's something wedon't have happened.
So yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
So when obviously you had some great success with,
with the kids that went outthere, and a lot of people look
at it differently, Like we're.
I mean, I've grown as far asknowing what winning and losing
really means and how it mattersand it doesn't matter.
It's all about the performance,and that's what I ask of Liam
is just 110% when you go compete.
I don't know technical anymore,that's what your coaches are
for, I just want 110%.
(18:38):
You know that's it Right.
So we see almost all that andevery kid that we had out there,
which you know, and it leaves alittle frustrated at the end.
You know it happens.
Yeah, you get.
You get that block in your mind, but at the same point, though
to now, that's a learning, youknow that's something you got to
take away.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
You know it always is , so it's always something to
take.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
What were some of?
What were some of the momentsthat you guys had like in the
back where, where you guys arekind of relaxing, chilling out
and like someone throws like aspaghetti noodle at someone's
face and then it starts a waterfight.
What any kind of fun storiesthat happened this year.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Well, you know, you know if Fargo were doing busy
running on the floor, you knowwhere we get that kind of.
That kind of is like at, likejunior duels, like did you they
had a big like slap fight with aburrito or a shelf, just slap
and shove the face back andforth, and it was like I know,
it's the littlest stuff and it'sfunny, though you come around
(19:30):
the corner and, like we alwayshide the guys back in a corner,
there underneath the mess.
They can kind of hang.
The bathrooms are there,there's some electrical they can
charge yourself, and they allkind of conglomerate back there
and you go back there at anygiven time and they're all
snacking and they're in thehuddle and you couldn't tell who
won or lost Cause they're alljust laughing, messing with each
other, and then but then it'sdifferent, you know, you get
(19:53):
down there in like the morningof the blood round and then
they're all down there and it'slike you could hear a drop man.
They're pretty serious, ready torock and roll, you know.
But it's cool to see howfriendly the kids are with each
other.
You know what I mean.
Like they're all making bestfriends, like these are guys
that you know go to each other'sweddings and they're gonna.
They're gonna visit each otherwith their kids when they're 35,
(20:16):
you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
It's.
I know that because I've madethose bonds through these trips.
You know what I mean and that'swhy I'm friends with the guys
that you know wigs and Ben andMax, and you know, and it's a
punishment of AB eighters.
You know Scott Armistead atNorthern exposure, you know, and
we had coaches like TerrySteiner was a coach one year,
(20:39):
yeah, yeah, and it was likeinsane.
You know, john Messonbrink wasa coach one year, so I got to
know John as a coach, you know,and where did he wrestle in
college Break?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Oh, that's right, okay that's, I couldn't remember
, but I was like shit, thisguy's got a background.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Man like he won, but I mean, yeah, he was John's
intense.
He's a fantastic coach inperson and just great human
being.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
He's listening to him talk.
He just said there's somethinghe says when he's talking.
It's like I can just take theinformation and you know I was
like hey.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Awesome man.
Well, yeah, so what?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
uh, yeah, so what?
What other types of things doescrass have going on right now?
Crass train you guys switchingover to folks, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yeah, I mean we're trying to pump up opportunities.
You know, and my brother saidto me he kind of gives me shit.
You know he's a good checkerfor me and check my shit and he
goes hey, you got to quit havingall them expensive camps
because your members are gonnarun out of money.
Dude, I said the camps are morefor the kids than our members.
Yeah, it's for the guys thatdon't want to spend two grand a
(21:41):
year to wrestle at a privateclub or you know what I mean, a
Box year or whatever and theywant to spend $150, go to a camp
and say have their kids stayovernight, I need three meals
and that's just some work.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
That's all we.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Is for the demographic.
That's like, not club kids,like I'm not trying to get all.
I mean, I would love all myclub kids to be here too.
Right, yeah, right, the real.
These are like for the guy.
That's like, yeah, I'm not an,I'm not a full year-round
wrestler, I just intransitioning between my
baseball and my football hasn'treally started yet.
Yep, come hit a bump man, getsome Matt time in.
(22:13):
These guys are wrestling at theD1 level.
So we got Gavin Drexler comingin the first weekend, mm-hmm.
The fifth, and then we gotGrayson Clark coming in the 12th
, and then that next Thursday wegot three go for the guys
coming in for the go for toughcamp, get a joke, boom, Kylian's
.
Yeah, we're just hammering outthree big camps, you know.
Then September 23rd, we'regonna have Seth Gross up nice
(22:35):
from a not Friday noon camp, andthen we have an event that
afternoon at the facility, awrestling event yet to be
disclosed, but we got somethingcoming.
So you know, we're just tryingto give.
Like I said earlier, you knowit's about giving Wisconsin kids
opportunities, and it's notjust kids that are at the
private club.
Like, you don't have to be amember here to get access to
training here.
(22:55):
Yeah, this is why I have theseextra camps, right, yeah, and
and yeah, maybe maybe you get akid to come in and think, yeah,
maybe I'll join a member herewherever.
But that's not really what it'sfor is for the college kids to
get an opportunity to do somecoaching.
Yeah, and help a little bit.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Well, a lot of a lot of.
It's the guys that are fromhere, you know, grayson Clark
and the guys from Minnesota.
They are bringing stuff backand I think that's the biggest
thing that we've been doing inthe state is Is bringing all
those guys D1 guys back and youguys who wrestled at a high
level to, yeah, bring them onwhatever.
Yeah, bring them on.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Sorry, I just guys walking to wrestle some old man,
so just give him a high.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
They can yell it's up , yeah, let's shit, but what do
you?
What do you guys have planned,are you guys?
Do you guys do a team?
You guys still doing a team forthe state, like a dual team
that you guys would take aroundin the off season, is it?
Speaker 2 (23:46):
oh yeah, we chose this is funny because I just
sent out a thing today with OhioMiddle School Nationals.
We got a tryout coming up.
We're gonna do the trial onSeptember 30th, okay, and the
track Do a practice from 10 tonoon at the AT up here at the
Crest train, mm-hmm, and thenwe're gonna have a little lunch
break and then we're gonna havea 1 to 3 session and we're
working on building our team forthe Ohio Middle School National
(24:08):
Duel, which are in November.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
It's nice.
You guys are building for it.
That's good.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, we're trying to do like.
I've never been a big fan ofjust like Calling guys together
and having to meet at theairport and go to a tournament,
right?
Yeah, I like having a camp,sorry, getting to know each
other and then I can help them alittle better.
Matt side you know, what I mean.
I got a little you know theirskillset if I've got to work out
with them a few times, right,and for that one I kind of
(24:35):
partner with law Because becausehe's he's got that contract and
we're just fortunate enough tobe friends with them and they're
gonna let Our guys jump in onthat team and and what we want
to make it more competitive.
You know what I mean.
We want to make a morecompetitive team than we've had
in the past and, and we're doingthe same thing for the Virginia
Beach team, that we take outthe k-16.
We're teaming up with umAnthony Dalia down there.
(24:59):
Bird is there in memorialtraining center.
Oh yeah, yeah, the bad dude man,oh yeah, he ran in the circle
when we were kids the whole wayup um with us and and he goes
way back.
You know he's been to my farmas a little kid training for
weeks on it and he comes from atough boxing, an Italian boxing
family.
Um, they're mason trade, hisfather company, they're freaking
(25:23):
hammers and the dude's just agreat guy and he runs a.
Even he's got a little kid.
That's just a son in that agegroup and he's got a really good
age group of kids in thatdemographic.
You know that k through six,yeah, and he's been and cruisers
, little boys in that and, uh,danny, as area has got a little
boy in that.
So they're all coming back.
You know that that race team,park wrestling club team from
(25:44):
the, they're all coming back.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
His kid was on this team right here.
We won this down strike zonebecause I I couldn't find
anybody that was like a littlebit older that size and that kid
was Hammering other kids likenothing Like he's a ham.
He stood next to his trophy wasas tall as he was.
I was like you were destroyingguys.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, so you know we're and it's like.
I think, though like so, so tomclark might not agree to this,
but he might.
But so so tom's a superpassionate guy, right, he would
get, he would lose this shit andget kicked out of dual meat
tournament, right.
And so then they were like sothey're like well, we need to
(26:24):
get somebody to coach the teamthat doesn't have a kid on the
team.
So like they're not like losingthe and I don't know how I got
picked to coach that team.
But also I got picked to coachthat team and it was grace and
clark and braden, son and pegand like here above that it was
like gavin drexler and blainebrender.
So a couple of my guys werekind of on that team but it was
like predominantly an off-starteam that tom had developed them
out, the whole state, right.
(26:45):
And so I took that team a fewyears in a row to like Mcdonald
duals and baltimore.
And then, yep, our virginiabeach tournament holiday duals.
So like two term here for liketwo, three years in a row.
And it was literally like thislast group of guys.
It was like wins Koy haftywould be at the tournament.
(27:08):
Not, he was the wrestler team,but he'd be on like a different
team.
Yeah like riddle head mulvaneyum.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
That's a great team.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
All you know, luke dukes was on those teams, gunner
hoffman, in in smith, was onthose teams, so it was a good
mix of our kids and a good mixof those kids.
Yeah, yeah, for sure, that'show I landed the gig.
And it was like this guy mightbe crazier than tom.
You know he's gonna get kickedout.
Yeah, out on the benchsometimes, you know, and I'm
(27:38):
getting a lot better the older Iget.
But yeah, um, it's hard man,but dude.
So it was really gonna spendtime with these guys on their
last trip.
I got to go to junior duelswith them.
I got to go to um.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
So yeah, I think I think the, the group that is,
you know, I'm graduating andmoving up there.
Still Obviously there's a fewof them that are still going to
be here next year, but Knowingthe level that they're at, and
then, like I said, with thecoaches that we have now, the
you know, like you and the askerins, and we got even even out
in law, those guys, I mean,they're great at developing kids
.
You know, and that's thebiggest thing that I hear from
(28:12):
like other states, like we wantto develop kids and, right, you
guys have picked up the pace onthat sense, because I I only
remember you were talking aboutcamps.
I only remember camps.
I don't remember clubs.
We had mat rats, that was ityou know like, but we didn't
have, we didn't have thewrestling like we do now.
So you had to find camps to do,like you said.
It's just something that I'mtrying to, you know, get a leg
up on.
(28:32):
But now we've picked it up in,like I've shown a lot of respect
towards the fact that, like Isaid, you and asker are working
together, talking together more.
All the other teams arestarting to gel in it, because
it didn't used to be that waywhen Liam first started this,
there was always just ah and noweverybody is starting to kind
of come together.
It's awesome and it's great tosee you.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
This thing is like dude.
It's like we, if we do our jobsright, like I don't need to
take kids from anybody else.
I know I'll pick a kid off theback Yep, but even if they come,
I'll steal a kid frombasketball if I need another.
There's bad kids that walk intothe gym all the time and wish
they were tougher and look intowindows.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Well, you know, liam goes and works out at Ascrin.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
What's that?
And he wouldn't have basketballkids any day.
Just wave them in.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
It's come on.
Oh, for the month, it's come on.
Yeah, liam mixes it up.
He, he runs with Robert Leeonce in a while and then he's at
Ascrin and you know things likethat.
I think it's good to have thatexposure to all the different
coaching styles.
So much praise to you guys forthat.
So, but you, are you running apractice tonight?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
No, I just have guys in that can work out.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Oh yeah, open mats.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
That's right, open mat yeah yeah, I'm in the rest,
I'm gonna be in here, you know.
Yeah, but then I you can see medoing this because I'm looking
fast the camera, because I'mlike I can see them out.
They're sitting on their assesand I'm like getting in here to
sit on your ass.
You're near to rest.
You can sit on your ass at home.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Friday night at six o'clock and these are all high
school kids and they're here towrestle, so I can't be
complaining.
Yeah, that's right, wrestlingAnother shit high school kids
are doing on Friday night.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Are you like a Schwab ?
Do you get out there andwrestle with these guys still,
oh.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yeah, nice, yeah, I love nice.
Yeah, yeah, I'm actually alittle better shape.
You know, my son's coming upand and Mm-hmm, yeah, that's the
brink is really lit a fireunder me in terms of, like, I
want to be that coach for my sonwhen he's ready for me.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
I want to be in good shape orbuild on them.
I want to be able to Smack themaround and give it to him.
(30:35):
You know, I don't want him tobe able to roll me, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
There's no man, there's no like getting it done
back there.
So, yeah, with him, with him.
How is that blend with youbeing such a club coach and
having your son coming up, doyou?
Do you coach him like just offto the side, but like when
practice is going on, you letsomeone else handle it?
Speaker 2 (30:55):
No, you know, not really.
I'm pretty hands-on with someof them.
I mean I push them pretty hard.
Okay, well, you know, likejunior high season he's got
other coaches.
You know I would like it's kindof nice.
You know we do like six gradesincluded in junior high around
here.
So like even last year was likeI coached my practice but I
don't really coach my matchesoften.
Okay, you know what I mean.
Like his coach and I was juniorhigh coach in.
(31:15):
I'm fortunate that his juniorhigh coach is a friend of mine.
Let me trust in my twin brotherson the is coaching on the high
school staff that he'll go to.
So you know, I trust where he'sgoing.
I trust the guys that he's with.
You know and I Don't know.
You know, To me it's like youlearn.
You learn what you need to learnfrom wrestling in between the
four Pratt walls in practiceroom.
(31:36):
That's how you make the man youwanted out of wrestling like
the big man.
This is the wins and the medalsand stuff and that's all cool,
but like it happens inside thesefour walls right here, you know
what I mean.
Yep, so you know.
I just I just put a lot ofpressure on because you know
there could be pressure on thekid if his dad was was fairly
good at some point, you know,and there might be a little
pressure on it, but it's like Ijust want him to enjoy it.
(31:58):
You know, I want to be able tocall him when he's 25 and be
like hey, I bought us alltickets to go to the NCAA and
hopefully he's not like stillwrestling in college at 25, I
don't know, Overdue, right.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah right.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Shit, guys are 25 years old.
You know, been in college forseven years.
There's also wrestling 26, 27,you know like what he's an adult
, you know, I'd like to be ableto call him.
And yeah, there's kids, I knowthat have such a toxic
relationship with wrestlingbecause of what their dads did
to them, you know you know, Ijust don't want that, you know
(32:34):
it's a bit of, I mean it's, it'shuge, it's one of those things.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
And I didn't have parents that were high like they
didn't play sports.
I mean, if they did, theyplayed through like middle
school or grade school, and Iwas it.
But knowing that my brother wasthat one that was up there,
that was, I had an older Well, Istill have an older brother,
but I was trying to come up tohim.
Well, and then as I got to highschool you know it's good
having him around as a partnerto either practice with
sometimes Sometimes you didn'twant to see my face, which it
(32:57):
can't argue with him, but it wasI became better, you know.
Then he was because of theopportunities that he gave me as
far as being a partner, and mydad would push us to a certain
extent of Just, you got to go topractice, you got to go to
practice, but my brother was theone that was like no dude, you
suck, you need to get better.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Okay, I had the luxury I had twin brother right
and then I had an older brotheron both of us right, yeah, and
like you know, I'm really closewith the mirror solos in part of
it is kind of the twin thing,like I get the twin thing right
and it's like you know I'm like,well, yeah, jesus Cole, you're
only good cuz the Connor likeshut up.
You know, it's like I justtease them like that.
(33:35):
You know, like when one ofthem's having a hard day, I
always tell them like yeah, well, your brother's, you know, and
it's always, I understand,demographic of like, hey, man,
like I remember going totournaments and get my ass
kicked and then having mybrother win and my parents
looking at me like oh, yeah.
I don't know, I can't like besorrowful for you because I want
(33:56):
him to be.
You know it's like a tough spotfor a parent.
You know big time.
Great job handling thatdemographic, obviously.
But and those boys areoriginally but like man's Ivory
thing is like just like builtfor wrestling.
You know what I mean.
It's just built for wrestling,so that's really.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Just a little bit.
I want to because I made a post, okay, and I posted about
because it wasn't anything I saw, far goes.
I've been watching a lot ofwrestling lately.
A lot I watched.
I watched Utah middle schoolconference Championships, dude,
okay.
So I've been watching somewrestling.
I Watched.
There was a match I saw wherethey you could tell their
friends because when they shookhands, when they got in the mat,
(34:38):
they shook hands like hey,buddy, you know like let's do
this, and they do the fall down,shit, right, yeah, and let the
other one pin them.
I know your friends are friends, I get it All right, but we're
also in a sport where it's like,just wrestle, just right, put
it out there on the line, youknow like an example the frickin
, jacob Herman, declan Cook,dude the wrestling.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
It's decided for a third and fourth and who's gonna
go from fifth and sixth andtheir best friends and training
partners.
And they did, you know, it justgot a little heavy, could make
weight again, so we bumped upand to wrestle the hermitator.
You know quite a battle.
I love those guys.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Yeah, I know.
So I haven't been able to watchthe match, but I had someone
tell me that was kind of on thatlevel, like it wasn't wrestled
very hard.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
It was almost like the really they.
It was like it was even, andthen they fought hard for like
the last minute.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
You know, yeah, that's what they said.
It was like circling just hand,you know, hand, fighting,
fighting or whatever.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
But they didn't give up If they had a plan or
anything.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
But it seemed like there was definitely like you
know, what I mean, like I Idon't know, it's just kind of a
bomber.
But at the same time, though,too, I mean just the level of
wrestling that was out there wascrazy.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
It kind of had all their guys move away from each
other last year, right, so thatthey could try to you know old a
title, right, and you know, andit's in the same vein of like
being friends, right.
So I mean, if what they didlike that was silly, then what
those guys did was silly, right,cause it's in that same vein,
You're right.
So to me, at some point yourcollege coach is going to make
you guys wrestle each other,right, like they're handing out
(36:13):
tickets right now and it's goingto be Sinclair versus Mirasola.
That's what Flo wants to see,right?
I mean, they don't want to seeanything but that, right, yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
You don't want to see , probably right?
You know what I mean.
Yeah, Kyle's not going to careif, uh, if, if Mirasola's
buddies with Sinclair whenSinclair's wrestling from
Cornell and they're going to goto hell.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, it's going to happen, man.
So I mean but but I get it, youknow they're, they're friends
and and um, if they'recomfortable with it, that's fine
(36:47):
.
You know, I had a twin brotherso I had to pull that a couple
of times.
There were a couple of times aweek full.
That was where my mom they werelike you guys aren't, aren't
wrestling each other, because wewrestled one time in
kindergarten and he beat me andI cried and we were like kind of
not friends for a little whilebecause of that, I think, you
know, and my parents were likewe're not going to put them in
that situation again.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
So there's a situation where somebody moved
forward in the bracket.
Both those medals were cominghome anyway to the same house in
the same training room, so itwas a matter of you're both
going to get thrown in thefucking closet with the rest of
the shit and we're going topractice tomorrow.
Right, we're really going toget into the fight tomorrow, not
the fight you had yesterday.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
So there's all kinds of ways to look at it, you know,
and everybody's entitled totheir own opinion.
And I think again you revertback to what's going to make the
athlete more comfortable, wherethe athlete can produce at the
next, you know, next best thing,what's next right?
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Yeah, agreed, totally .
Well, man, you got.
You got 37 minutes under yourbelt.
If there's some stuff you wantto touch on, I know you got
those camps coming up and thenyou got the.
You're doing some, doing sometryouts for what's the team name
for that travel team thatyou're doing?
Speaker 2 (37:53):
The one we're going to take to, we take it, we call
it.
The one that we take toVirginia Beach is just a crash
train team, but I'm probablygoing to rebrand it something to
include BAM's you know teamname in there.
Yeah, like a crash or something.
And then uh, uh, luck, luck.
Grass area wrestling thelacrasse nice.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Yes, love it, yeah, love it.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
That's awesome we're all in the same area and but
dude those guys, watch for thoseguys, because they got some
hammers coming up too Always,and our days of dominating Fargo
are just getting started.
I think these boys have done areally good job of of paving the
road and setting the bar high.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
And I think we're going to keep doing what we're
doing.
I think we're going to.
We're going to see more, moreyears like this.
You know, um, and I think youknow guys like Liam it's like
remind him, man like yo, thetwins didn't, didn't place their
freshman here, but they also100, right, right, they were at
like like I mean, it's a littledifferent up there.
You wrestle with the big boys.
You know a lot of the guys arethey're 160 pound.
(38:52):
You know cadets.
So a lot of them guys are fullythrough puberty already.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
And you're kind of not.
You know that Minnesota kid.
He probably used to wrestle inhigh school matches since
seventh grade and Liam wasgassed.
We talk about it all the time.
You know it's just it'sadvantages to be into having
certain circumstances towherever you are and whatever
you have.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
You know so, not you know the way, like the biggest
thing about Fargo is the weightcutting too.
I mean, you know they made itsuch a difficult year this year.
The way they did it was usuallyyou weigh in the day before,
then they wrestle, then youwould, they make weight the next
day, then if they win and theymake it to the end at the weigh
in metal day.
So instead it was like theydidn't know if they made a metal
(39:32):
till the third day, cause theblood run was that morning.
Then everybody in the bloodshad to make weight.
I was an.
I would like somebody to goback through and look at how I
do to miss weight.
That bet a lot of dudes missweight in the blood.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Good point, good point.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Like three days removed from that first weigh in
.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Right, and it's like if you could just hand those
first two weigh ins back to back.
That's the way I'd like it as awrestler.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Yeah, well, you keep the level.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
And then you have kids.
You know you have kids that arelike hey.
So I was like 0.8 over and nowI'm like a pound.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Point six I didn't eat anything.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
I didn't have anything.
And you're like, bro, I've donethis before.
I'm like I'm straight, likethree pounds of water in the
middle of the night at Fargo oneyear, as a cadet woke up in the
morning, four pounds over, likeI didn't do anything, like you
know what I mean.
Like I've been there, like themanagement thing, and just like,
hey, bro, like when you startthe fire, I'm the guy going to
(40:24):
come dig you out of the fire.
So don't lie to me, like youdon't know me.
Like I take the guys that arelike need the extra help, right,
I take them to work, take themto the gym late.
I already know me.
That's kind of like my thing islike getting the guys to be,
and so you know that's.
I could just spend a littlemore time with some of those
(40:45):
like like Declan's usuallycutting a little weight and uh,
and Jake is using, and so then Igot to hang with those guys a
little extra than some otherguys, you know.
So I get to know that betterthan the other.
And it's just like you said.
You know, not that I I likethem any better than the other
kids around, but that just bysense of the environment I've
spent a little more time withthem, you know, so you get to
(41:07):
know them a little better.
But those kids are both savages.
They're going to be tough.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Yeah, oh yeah, for sure For sure the next be good.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Yep.
So like there's, there's never.
I can't say that there's ever akid, especially now at this
level, that I've ever doubtedany of their abilities.
I mean, they, these kids, havebeen through the, a lot of them
have been through the ringer.
You know and you know right, soit's definitely it was nice
being able to see that's kind ofit's got wondering about the
mix of like coaching.
It was nice to be able to seesome of you guys with kids that
you normally aren't around.
You know, like Liam.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
That's my favorite part.
I know all my guys.
I like new kids.
I like to talk to Liam, I liketo hang with the twins.
I like visiting with, likeCharlie Malar's a neat kid, you
know.
The man is a kid that I'vealways enjoyed up here as a
little guy.
Yeah, you know, really enjoyedJoel and his wife and the whole
(41:58):
family is always around andwilling to.
Hey, we're going to grab somelunch.
Do you want us to get yousomething like just like you
know they're back type of people.
You know all them.
Yeah, just like.
Yeah.
So, like you know, we got tokeep recruiting those people's
kids into wrestling and peoplelike that.
You know you are who you'resurrounding, right.
(42:19):
So it's like let's get morepeople like that involved in
wrestling.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
Couldn't agree more, man Couldn't agree more.
Well, I am going to let you go,dude.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Argo.
We'll be back next year readyto rock.
Yes Again.
Hey, come hit up the grasstrain for some camps the first
three weeks in August.
Members but non-members this isfor you.
This is for you that don't havea year long membership
somewhere and you need to hit atamp up before you get headed
back to school.
We got your end of the summeroptions covered here.
August 5th, august 12th, august17th Come hit us up.
(42:50):
Crash trainclub.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
If you, if you can't find it, go on social media.
You'll find them on Instagram.
I think he's on Facebook.
I mean, they got everything outthere, so scroll through and
find crass and getting figuredout.
So much appreciated.
Dude, I'm going to talk, I wantto talk to you for just a
second once we're done here, butI'm going to roll some sweet
music, because that's what I do,and then we're going to tell
(43:14):
people adios, so see you later.
Peace.
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