Conversation with Kent Weiler

Steve and Teague are joined by Evansville head coach Kent Weiler to talk about the team's journey to a Team State championship this season!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome to the Wisconsin Wrestler Podcast with your co-hosts Teak Fenwick and Steve Lurquick.

SPEAKER_04 0:16

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another edition of the Wisconsin Wrestler Podcast. I'm your host, Teak Fenwick, coming to you uh not live, recorded, from Holman, joining me as always from Koshkinong, my co-host with a brand new hip, Steve Lurquin. Steve, great to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Pumped to be here. Uh a little bit on some uh some pain pills, but pushing through, doing well. And uh yeah, people have called me bionic, but I don't feel bionic. Hopefully, in a couple weeks I will.

SPEAKER_04 0:55

To clarify, not the pain pills that'll make this show interesting. The show will be interesting, but not because uh Steve sees a unicorn behind the computer screen or something. That's pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

I like that.

SPEAKER_04 1:13

Well, Steve. Continuing on. I am. I'm excited for this one. I'm pumped. Continuing on in our uh Team State Champ coaches series. We have, well, uh, not just a Team State Champ coach, but a recurring guest now on the show. And uh has to be a short list. I don't know how many coaches we've had that have been on uh representing two different schools. But now he is a team state champ head coach of Evansville. I'll have a longer intro for him once I get his life story here. But we have none other than Mr. Kent Weiler joining us. Kent, pumped to have you on.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Yeah, guys, it's it's great to be here. I appreciate what you guys do and um really grateful for everything that you guys do continuously, um, except for the fact that you didn't pick us.

SPEAKER_04 2:11

Wow. Shots fired right away. Speaking of that, Kent, I know we talked at Team State, and you're not you're you're not all in on the pomp and circumstance of the Wisconsin Wrestler Podcast predictions, which you know there we're we're right 90% of the time, 60% of the time, maybe. Uh I uh did have this shirt right next to me just uh to port salt in the wound for myself. I do have a Reedsburg shirt on as a constant reminder tonight of uh the grand pick that we did not make.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Uh well you know, people I think we make those pick picks in uh October, right? That's uh with the knowledge that we have. And uh Kent, you know, I know you really well. You think you could throw me a couple bones and say, hey, listen, we got this guy coming in, we got this, so I sound better during our our prediction shows. But uh I was gonna introduce Kent as the Lou Holtz. Didn't Lou Holtz bring four different college teams to bowl games or something like that? Kent has brought three different high schools to team sectionals.

SPEAKER_04 3:25

Oh, what's the third one? Oh, is it uh Evansville, Middleton? Ooh.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

That's the trivia question. Who's the first one?

SPEAKER_04 3:35

Were you was it like an up north team or something, Kent?

SPEAKER_01 3:39

I'll give you a hand, Teague. They were at Team State this year. D1? I'm not gonna tell you which division, I mean, that's giving it away.

SPEAKER_04 3:47

Oh, I was gonna say, dare I say wanna key. But that's a lot uh that's a lot of big eight. Oh, man. I don't I don't know, Steve.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

What what is it, Kev? We celebrated we celebrated with them Friday night at Team State. Cedar Grove, Belgium? Cedar Grove, Belgium. Wow, I did not know that. Well, there you go. Unintentionally, there is my trivia question. I've I uh I'll I'll I'll bank it on that I've uh on pain pills. So that's my that's my trivia question right there.

SPEAKER_04 4:26

Well, hey, we'll we'll might talk about that stint for a little bit because uh Kent, last time we had you on, this is your third time on now, because you're on with Danny. Yeah. So we had you on with Danny, and that show was about Danny. We had you on for the preview, and we got a lot to get through with that. But now, a little more intimate setting. We got some more time to hash through it. We get to hear the life story of Mr. Kent Weiler, the wrestling life story that is. Kent, let's start from day one. If you want to get rolling, let's hear about your wrestling story.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Uh, sure. So I'll I'll give it to you from the beginning because it's this year was really, really cool. The team state part of it was. Um, I started elementary school in Auburnale. Um, so that's where both my parents are from. So I was an Auburnale kid, and then shortly after that I went to Vesper, which um was part of the Rapids, Wisconsin Rapids School District. Um, and I was there all the way up just uh prior to high school. Um so yeah, and I was in Vesper, and I I have to mention this, um, that's got some great uh wrestling history in Vesper um that all fed into Wisconsin Rapids and to much of their success over the how many years. Um but there was a guy there that used to coach, um, his name is Bill Winch. And so that's a really kind of cool part of my wrestling history. I give a lot of thanks and gratitude for that man putting me in that position, um, or just to be there. And and so that was obviously my mom or my parents. Um, so I got to I got to grow up in that atmosphere um in the Wisconsin Rapids, you know, area, well, Auburn Dale and then Wisconsin Rapids through Vesper, through Bill Wynch. Um, and then just uh a little prior to high school, um my stepdad was relocated to Green Bay, and I graduated high school from Green Bay West. Um, and there for there I had a coach of by the name of Scott Phillips, who's now still helps out in the Eshwabanan school district. So and um his son was actually a state champ for Eshwabanon. Um so that was another great part of my wrestling time. Um I was at the state tournament a couple times. I placed third as a sophomore. Um and then senior year, I had a couple um, I'd like to say probably world world team member guys that I couldn't get through to get to the um placement. It was really weird. And I my junior year in high school, um, I had what they called a cervical strain in my neck and spine. So I couldn't kind of couldn't wrestle that year. And then my senior year had a really good high school team with a lot of a lot of great um teammates and good coaching staff. Um and then yeah, I never I only placed that one time, but I was a I was a freestyle state champion probably a couple times, won Northern Plains a couple times in freestyle, so that was kind of my gig. I really loved freestyle. Um and yeah, there was a time I went to um LA in 1984. Um, I was on a schoolboy, I guess it was at the time a schoolboy world team for freestyle. So I did that, and I got to hang out in LA for the Olympics in 1984 as a junior Olympian, which was yeah, it was real fun. Hopefully, hopefully, some kids get an opportunity to replicate that this this coming uh Olympic Games coming up in LA.

SPEAKER_04 8:20

Um, Kent, real quick, sorry to interrupt here. Uh because I'm I'm not a freestyle expert, so I'm I'm curious. Uh, what do you feel was the difference between your success in freestyle and your success in folk style? Uh were were you not a big mat wrestling guy, or what do you what what attributes did you have that made you a better freestyle wrestler?

SPEAKER_00 8:44

I I guess I really don't know. I I could say that um it was just another extension of wrestling for me. Yep. Um it was more it was more relaxed, more fun. Um I could say this when I was a high school wrestler, um I internalized a lot of things in folk style and internalized a lot of wrestling. Probably got in my own mo my own head way too much. Um that hindered me from probably being I was really good in in folk style. Um but uh I think that was probably the biggest part that it was pretty relaxed. Um and it's free, right? You wrestle free when when you wrestle free, things things seem to come out, come a little bit easier for people, and that's the way I like and I like to go big. I was I never wrestled Greco um at all. I mean, I would be a training partner for Dennis Hall. I I trained with him and I I kind of did some camps with him, and we still talk about some of the fun stuff fun times we had um in Greco, but I I got kind of tired of getting thrown by him at camps. So I uh rightfully so. I just I just kind of moved on from that, and then you know, my my success in college was because I got out of my own way. Where did you uh were to wrestle at in college? So I went I went to go wrestle um at UW Whitewater. I was actually um committed to go somewhere else, and um I had a weird thing at the Wisconsin, Minnesota All-Star Classic. Um, I was in that situation. I was there and at weigh-ins, um, weirdly enough, I cut the tip of my finger off in a car door. Um and so I I I made weight, weirdly enough, and then um I kind of I did that. And it's I kind of have a scar. If people want to see it, sometimes I can tell them that story. But I tell this wrestling story. Um, so we're we went up to Blaine, Minnesota, and I had already signed my letter of intent to wrestle at the University of Nebraska with Coach Newman because he was a Peshtigo guy originally, and he had a relationship with my high school coach. So he had he had seen me wrestle freestyle, but he had never seen me wrestle folk style. And weirdly enough, that kind of changed everything, the trajectory of my college wrestling. Um they yeah, they it was kind of a struggle for college for financially with my mom. So I didn't get enough what I wanted to to go there.

SPEAKER_04 11:42

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

And the coach there, because he was a Wisconsin guy, he said, you know, go wrestle with your my older brother Corey was at UW Whitewater. Uh my middle brother, the one you're just a year older than me, was at UW Whitewater. And he said, Go wrestle with your brother Corey. Um, you become an all-American, you can come, we can come back to us right away. And then so I went to UW Whitewater with the the great Hall of Fame coach Willie Myers, a great blessing to myself and a lot of other wrestlers um to be under his tutelage and um broke my ankle my freshman year, had some knee problems. Um kind of well, that was my redshirt year. I broke my ankle. Um, and I was doing really well too. Um and then the next year I had a knee problem. Next year I had a knee problem. Um, just couldn't get out of my own way. I think I would never give up points, I would fight through them. Um, and so I learned through that um situation is that sometimes people are gonna be good enough to take you down and you can let them don't break your body. Uh let that happen and learn to score points later on. Um, it became part of a good great part of my coaching philosophy is to be able to do that. Um and then my my junior year, I was uh academic all-American for Willie, and Willie um pulled me into his office and hey, hey Kent, you're you meet the criteria to be an academic all-American, and we'd like to give you this award. And I I denied it. Um I was I was a I was a stupid kid. I said, Coach, respectfully just put that in your file, in your file cabinet. I want to be a I want to be a legit all-American. And he goes, enough said. He filed it away. And uh so I declined being an academic all-American. And then my senior year, um, I was actually wrestling up a weight, and I went down to the Ohio Northern tournament, and I got beat by a kid in the quarters or semifinals. I can't remember what it was. This was at 126 pounds, and this kid beat me, and I'm like, Well, how am I gonna win a national title wrestling that kid? And I went in the locker room, and I I was never that kid to like punch locker rooms or anything because that locker never did anything to me. Um, I went in there and sat down, and Coach Myers came in and was like, Hey, what's going on? I said, I I can't beat that kid. And if I'm gonna win a national title, I gotta go through that kid or I gotta beat that kid. And he said, So what are you gonna do about it? And I just said, Well, I'm gonna cut down to 118, and we're gonna start my first 118-pound thing is I'm gonna go to the Midlands and wrestle there. So he's like, Well, I was wondering when you were gonna ask me or tell me you were going 118. Wow. Um kind of a you know, a good coaching thing, right? Leave it up to the the kid to find out. So I cut to 118, went to the Midlands. Um, and that was that was by special, like you just you just don't go to the Midlands, right? As a D3 wrestler, um, I went there. I um I I think I drew the number two seed right away. Then I won a couple on the backside, and I lost to the kid that eventually took fifth or something like that. So I went two and two, and that kind of reset my stage for my senior year. Um at the time you had to win the state conference uh to go to nationals. You um there was wild cards or whatever, but I knew that if I wanted to go to the national tournament, that I had to win the conference. Um, so I won the conference tournament. Um there was uh a kid from lacrosse that I had to beat. And um Who was that cat?

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Was that O'Guero?

SPEAKER_00 16:02

That was Jeff O'Guero. Yep. Yep. And so I go and then he gets a wild card, and he beats me in the wrestle backs um for to go to third or fifth at the national. So I beat him, I beat him twice. I beat him at the the conference duels, and then I beat him again in the conference tournament, and then um I lose to him on the backside. Um, weirdly enough, I I draw the number one seed at the national tournament, and it's a good match. I think I lost 7-3. I don't I can't remember, it was such a long time ago. And then I had to, I was that guy that loses first round at the NCAA tournament and had to wrestle all the way back. And not only did I wrestle all the way back, but it was scratch weight every day. So that that wasn't that wasn't too fun. Um, we didn't get a growth allowance. I'm glad things in wrestling have changed, or even you know, day in, next day way in allowance. So yeah, so that was so I ended up taking fifth um at the national tournament. It was in New London, Connecticut. Um then I came back, was ready to graduate um as far as everything goes, but I wasn't ready to graduate. Um, I wasn't ready to leave. So then I was a grad assistant at UW Whitewater for the next two years after that, the 94 season and then the 95 season. Um, so that's through college, and that's where I met Steve and then a lot of other great great guys um at UW Whitewater. And um yeah, exactly. And I I say that Willie Myers wasn't done with me, um, and so he wasn't ready to set me on my way. Um then the yeah, I'll I'll just you know throw it right at you. I have I was at another another part of a state team sectional team, but I was just a volunteer on their coaching staff. So, well, I may have been too, actually. That next year after I had finished um I went to Stoughton for a year.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Yeah, and didn't didn't you go to Water? Were you at Waterford too, or no?

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Yeah, then right after that, I was at Waterford, yep. And so I was I helped um a college teammate of mine, Luc Francois. So I was in that room, you know, having fun with with coaching and wrestling and and you know helping develop kids. Um and then after that, um I went to Cedar Grove, Belgium was my first head coaching um job. And then I was there through I believe 2004. Um so I took over for Jerry Peterson there, and then his son, Trevor Peterson, who just finished up uh a year ago at Cedar Grove, Belgium. I coached him his might have been his junior and senior year, or maybe just his senior year. I can't really remember. And then from there, life changes. I got a transfer in my job, and I moved I moved to the Madison area, and then I coached at Middleton for um a little over 15 years, and then we had some really great teams and some really really great wrestlers, and um it was it was awesome. And then around that weird time we had back in that pandemic, just not that long ago, um I decided that it wasn't uh the place that I wanted to be to be able to, you know, hopefully get kids where I wanted to be to for um you know to be as competitive as I think that a team should be. Um and at the time I was helping out with um RT Lead, and so helping him out, and then I met the Heiser family, and they said, Hey, why don't you uh come and coach at Evansville? And from there we end up here.

SPEAKER_04 20:40

The rest is history, the rest is history. Great podcast, everybody. We'll see you next time. That was good, Kent. Uh, I know I've asked you this before. Are you related to the current Auburnale Weilers in any way then? Or is that just a big name in Auburn Dale?

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Yeah, no, we're all related. Um we're we're all related. So um Nate Weiler, Colton Weiler, Carson Weiler, dad, and my dad were like second cousins, so you know we're all related through that. So um I get to uh meet with that family sometimes at Deer Camp if we get time to get together. Um but anytime we see each other on the mat, it's uh a little bit of a Weiler reunion.

SPEAKER_04 21:28

Who wins in uh a match at Deer Camp between you and Nate?

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Nate Weiler is the strong one of the strongest men I've ever met. I I and he he's got youth on him on his side. And a little size, too.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

A little bit.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Well, those Auburn Dale. Teague and I did a match, Auburnale Marathon, this this uh past year. And uh you're not gonna meet a nicer group of people up in Auburnale.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Good, good. Yes, definitely. Definitely salt of the earth, no doubt.

SPEAKER_04 22:03

Yeah, good way to put it. Well, Evansville for six years already. So we must have had you on uh one of our first years for the sectional previews because you were still the middleton coach, right?

SPEAKER_00 22:15

Yeah, I finished up five years. This was my fifth year here. So not six.

SPEAKER_04 22:24

Okay, fifth year here. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

Yep. Yeah, I stayed with Middleton through 2020. Yeah. So is that right? 2020 2021, maybe right in there. And then from here, uh the last five years, five seasons.

SPEAKER_04 22:39

Three, four, five, six. Okay. Yep. Makes sense. Yeah, that checks out. Well, yeah, work nice that the Heiser's called you. Get to have a good little talent in Mr. Owen Heiser when you come in. Talking to Mason and John over the years, it seems like Evansville has never, at least in like recent years, like Evansville's never been short on a poor wrestling culture. Like they've always had a really good wrestling culture. So how was it like going into that program and maybe having more of a like-minded community that wanted to see their program succeed like you did?

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Yeah, definitely. I think they had everything in place. Um, everything was laid out. They just um needed, you know, a little bit, a little bit of boost and a little bit of a push and to say, like, look, um, we're gonna train year round, try to the best we can, as many kids as we can. We're going to um we're gonna go chase losses. Um, we're gonna um flip the schedule, and we have, and we've done that every year. Um we're going to what do you mean by that flip the schedule? Yeah, so the schedule was um a lot of the schedule that was already in place was a lot of local stuff, but it was it was good competition, but it wasn't um setting the stage for the state tournament or or beyond, right? We have to go out and wrestle competition where we're okay with getting beat early in the season, so we can readjust and we can figure out things and we can find a way um to put ourselves on the pony on the podium at the end of the year. Um, then that's team-wise and individualized. So um I you know scratched some of the schedule. I went out and tried to find some of the toughest tournaments in the state, um, the toughest tournaments in our division and even outside our division, um, and try to challenge our kids and our parents and families and everybody to um understand what we're what we're what we're going for. You know, the the whole intention was a team state title, and no doubt. It was very, very calculated and very put it together. When you say, you know, Mason and John, it's you know, Mason Braunschweig and John Fry and Um other parents, and you know, John Balig, um parents of kids that they they wanted to push this thing, um, push the envelope a little bit and see where they could be.

SPEAKER_04 25:29

Good stuff. Well, that that brings us to this year, I think. We'll talk about this year's Team State Championship team. And uh, you said the goal was to be a team state champions at some juncture. When did you realize that this year's crew had the potential to be team state champions?

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Well, I'm not gonna lie and say um at the end of last year or going into last season that we didn't think we had the the capabilities to put it together. Um so it started there and then obviously it moved from our schedule. But let's not um forget um that our team state in 2023, um where that freshman group that our we're seniors now, we're all a part of that team. Um they they saw a really good team in Luxembourg Casco when we were at Team State. Um, and I said, Well, this is what we got to do. And it was like I kind of threw out the challenge block there, and I'm like, if we want to wrestle to that level and we want to compete, we have to we have to up our training.

SPEAKER_04 26:44

Yeah, basically wrestle year round.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Yeah, it's it's the unfortunate, it's the catch-22 of our sport now. Um if you want to stand high on the podium, you are putting yourself in a wrestling room on a regular basis. Um obviously you can take some structured time off, but you are putting yourself either you know in our wrestling room um or club training or something, you know, regularly just so you are ready to go. Um, if you want to make your mark in the at the WIA team state or individual state, you're putting in the time and you're doing the work.

SPEAKER_04 27:31

Well, then building off of that, and last year, the year before, and this group of seniors this year, kind of experiencing that team sectional, or no, you guys, did you guys not make team sectionals last year? Did you guys end up finishing right behind Belmont Plattville? I feel like that may have, in the long run, maybe it was a key moment for people like, oh, like we gotta be hungry this offseason.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Yeah, no, no doubt. It was it was that kind of thought process. Um, you know, what are you gonna do? Like it was um our 2025 team was was good, um, but we had some holes and we we needed to figure out ways to fill that whole them holes and get kids up to speed so they can compete. And and let's be honest, you're never, I mean, hopefully, hopefully you have you know 14 kids that are can wrestle all the time, but you're gonna it's 14 kids is a lot, and it's a lot of work to keep 14 kids. I always say 17, 17 to 20, where you can pop one in, pop one out, pull one on, you know, and then they can compete. Um, we started doing that um a year ago, and then we from the beginning of the year this year, um we had you know kids on pitch counts, if I to use a term. Um we had kids on pitch counts, and we wanted to get kids varsity matches or varsity level matches. Um so we were pulling kids out, we were wrestling other kids. Um, we you know, we wouldn't wrestle a kid here and wrestle one there. Um, you know, some tournaments that we go into, it was it was real clear in our minds that we're not coming here to win, you know, the whole tournament as a team. We're here to figure some things out. And um, like I've I said this before on in an interview, you know, I had a I have a really great group of assistants and coaching staff that and and not only that, parents and people that are real you know looking in and diving deep into the details. So I'm really grateful for everything they do that put us in a position where we knew exactly what we had. And so um team, yeah, so we can we can go back to that later. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

Yeah, I I have like several questions, but let's get on to some some tournaments. So I uh I'll come back to them if they if they don't get answered.

SPEAKER_04 30:18

Before the tournament, well, I guess this is in regards to the tournaments, but you talked about flipping your schedule. I guess we kind of talked about it, but going into the into this year specifically, what were you guys as a coaching staff looking for when building your schedule?

SPEAKER_00 30:35

Tough dual meet competition and learning to wrestle as a team and understanding that concept that it's not about any individual on our team, that it is about our team in general, and the end, the score at the end of the dual meet being what it's about, whether we can win and how we can win. And we put people in positions that it was just fun to watch, right? If you could have the whole season, the from the beginning to the end, we did it right from the get start.

SPEAKER_04 31:09

Yeah, started with the Kramer Brown duel tournament.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Yeah, yeah, we we start with that, and it's a funny story, like in we we went to the Kramer Brown in in 2025 or 2024 in the that December, and we lost a duel. And we lost a duel um because we had a a kid wrestling in the JV tournament, and then we didn't, we just it wasn't we did we thought we were gonna win every duel, um, but it was a great learning process for the coaching staff that we got a duel meet tournament here. We have to be all hands on deck. Then there's no reason why we should be losing a duel when we have the bodies to um to move around and and fix. So that was um in the 2024 and then 2025. Um we had that mission, like this is what we're gonna do. And we learned, right? Some sometimes um you got to get out of your own way a little bit and kind of just let it happen and let the kids do the work and know that we put and put them in a position to do something and where they don't need they don't need to get a major, they don't need to get a tech fall. You know, some kids, yes, you you need that pin, right? Some kids um we need to we were talking about minimizing losses and maximizing wins um every day in the practice room. Every day it was like, what are you doing for the team? What can you do? Uh what what is your role? Know your role, understand your role. Um, and that was a a projected coaching strategy that we put in. And you know, we set the kids up, and you know, some kids knew their job was just to go out there and just wrestle, doesn't matter, have fun, do what you do, but be in a position where you can just go out there and be a part of this um ride that we're on.

SPEAKER_02 33:17

That's cool.

SPEAKER_04 33:19

So can't you made the move uh for more dual wrestling this year? And uh how do you uh balance that with individual tournaments? Like, could you ever see I'm not saying you guys did this this year, but if a team did all dual tournaments in a year, could I I I don't know. I'm man, my brain is just not working. How do you balance the ego of wrestling in more dual tournaments as opposed to less individual stuff? Where it's like, hey, you have to do this for the team as opposed to like, hey, you do whatever you can to go out and win.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

Well, it's a hard concept, right, to get through to kids and and to parents, obviously, to understand that. Um we we we've talked about we talked about it as a as a group. We put um and let me go back to Willie Myers a little bit, and Steve, you might know this and might remember this. Um while I was coaching with him, he talked about peaks and valleys in schedules, right? And so if peaks and valleys be individual, peaks and valleys be in team, and your schedule is laid out that way. So, and that's what we look at peaks and valleys. We go through um a dual meet tournament, and then we flip that with a hard individual tournament, and that could be your valley, right? So, and then so we have individuals that go through a hard individual tournament, like the by state, um, and then you come back with a team thing, and so they learn through that. And yes, is it hard to get a group of kids and a group of um community members and family members to understand that we had 35 dual meet wins and one loss after this season? I mean, that's a lot of dual meets, yeah. Yeah, we were 32 and 32 and one going into um the team state quarterfinals.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

Wow. Well, it's funny you talked about that. Uh Kent going into a tough tournament, you said the by state, and then yeah, you know, with a team like Evansville, then you take you take a uh a team tournament where you can kind of go whoop up a whoop up on some teams, but right after by state, you guys went right back up to lacrosse and you wrestled in the clash. So there it's uh that wasn't the case this year.

SPEAKER_00 35:49

Yeah, the kind of the message there was we're gonna do hard things, and and if we're gonna do this, it's nobody's gonna give it to us easy, right? So we're not gonna take the easy way. And the easy way would just say, oh, after the by state, you know, we had some losses that we shouldn't have had um at the by state. We didn't, you know, we came fourth overall as a team. Um, we had a different lineup um kind of almost every week, but it was we're gonna do this hard thing. And if it's if we're gonna we're gonna win this whole thing at the end, having that team focus, we're gonna have to understand that we're gonna have to do this and figure it out. And kind of another blessing that we we had one night in in our in our home beds, I think, less than 48 hours. Yeah, it was it was the quickest turnaround. And um, Coach Stanick actually said to me at the by state, how do you guys do that? And or how are you gonna do that? And I told him, I said, I said, you know, coach, we're gonna do a hard thing and we're gonna learn from it, or we're gonna not learn from it. We're gonna learn and grow and we're gonna figure ourselves out. And it it turned out well. I mean, we we got whooped by the one team from Minnesota, but we didn't wrestle our whole lineup there. Um, but we learned to wrestle as a team, and and kids understood it, and uh parents understood it um at that time, and I I've said this before the clash uh changed the dynamics and the trajectory of this team. And after that, I mean there's even more fun.

SPEAKER_04 37:35

We'll go back to by state real quick here, and then we can dive more into the clash. Uh I get a couple different philosophies from coaches, whether it be at by state or even on a different level, the state tournament. There's some coaches that like Coach Danick, he has his kids trained. It doesn't matter where it is, the stakes, we treat every tournament the same. And then I know some coaches where they still do the same routine, but they acknowledge with their kids, like, yeah, this is a bigger tournament, but uh you if you acknowledge that like you step up and wrestle that way as well. How how do you attack preparation for for the quote unquote bigger tournaments, Kent?

SPEAKER_00 38:19

It's it's the same, and I think his philosophy is right on. I like that philosophy that it doesn't matter, we're just gonna go out there and wrestle. Um, and I've been using it for a while, and we're gonna score points and have fun. Big smile and be um show some gratitude for the sport of wrestling and appreciate the fact that we're able to go out and compete um and score points and have fun. So yeah, you know, I got a little routine before a dual meet, or even before a match. You know, we're gonna smile afterwards, hopefully, and and not always does it happen. We're gonna smile afterwards and before we go on a mat. Um a little bit of a handshake, go out and um score points and have fun, and just let it rip and see what happens. The outcome doesn't really matter. We're already in the process, right? And so we'll see what happens with that. So I think that that growth mindset for coaches is probably a really good thing to put into their kids and instill there that it's a process, and the outcome is gonna be what it is, regardless. And be a be appreciative for the opportunity and go from there.

SPEAKER_04 39:30

So by state, you guys do uh finish. Uh I had the tab open. We went what was it sixth as a team? Fifth. I thought it was fourth, but it could have been sixth. I don't know. And it was fifth. We were right in the middle. Yep. Right in the middle. There we go. So as an aggregate, we were right. Yeah, talk us through talk us through the bytes. It can be individual performances or just performances as a team in general, but just take us through uh we can unpack that tournament a little more.

SPEAKER_00 40:01

Yeah, well, it it in that situation we're out there, you know, taking losses and I've um and just wrestling hard. We wrestled, we wrestled a good tournament. Did we have our um our best lineup that we wanted? No, it was not. I mean, later in the season, it shows that we we we put a different lineup in there that um performed better at tournaments. Um and when you're talking over um right after Christmas and New Year's, it's it's really hard to um get all the players on board, right? We have to get them on the bus and take it to the bus. And um, but you know, the whole lacrosse thing, whether it be by state or the clash, that was definitely by design. We knew where we were going, we knew where we wanted to be. We had to get comf comfortable with the surroundings, um, the hotel stay, the the making weight twice, um, you know, all those things. And then lacrosse center in general, yeah. We spent we spent time there for a reason, for that reason. So um we we we have a lot of fun in lacrosse. We have a hotel that um I don't want to I don't want to give out any secrets, but um, it's far enough away. It's got everything we need. Does it have, is it the the old bells and whistles and chandeliers? Absolutely not. We are on a business trip. Um, but it gives our it's a good place to sleep. The people that own it are are fabulous to us, and um, it gave us an awesome routine that we understood and the kids knew what they were getting. Um, so when we went back for the clash or team state, um it was familiar surroundings for them.

SPEAKER_01 41:58

It's fun, it's funny that uh a bell just went off as you said that. I'm like, that's right. I forgot the clash was at the lacrosse center too, and then obviously team state. So that's a man, very wise, Kent Weiler. Nice job. Not many people call me that, but well, I think you're fantastic. So we I won't get into personal stories, but uh you uh you're a good dude, man.

SPEAKER_04 42:27

Hey Ken, we gotta jump back to your wrestling story real but you're when did you uh when did you make the move to also doing officiating stuff?

SPEAKER_00 42:37

Yeah, so that was um, yeah, so my officiating stuff was uh well I I I I dabbled in it a lot for a lot of years, right? Um and never kind of fully got into it since probably 18 or 19. So um I coached on the with the WWF on the on the freestyle coaching staff um while I was at Middleton. And I'm like, hey, I think I can do that. And I kind of wanted to just a little feel for it and knew, and I already knew this as a coach that um because I've talked to a lot of officials, um it it made me a better coach. Um now some officials out there, I think it's a catch-22. Um, because I work with a lot of the officials and certain things I do. And yeah, so sometimes, so sometimes, and I'll be honest, it gets me in trouble. Um, you know, but I also learned to be a better coach because of my officiating and because of the high level of technique that the the wrestlers go through. Um so I was I've been able to do like the last six, I think, uh US opens, and I'm actually missing this week kind of on. Purpose, I need to give myself a little bit of time. Um, and everything else going on that I wanted kind of step back a little bit. So I've got to do um senior levels uh at you know trials, opens, um, US open, certain trials, uh U-23s, U20 world team trials, U17, U15 world team trials. Um, so it was probably I got into it around 2018, um, kind of heavy. Um, you know, once my uh Mike children had gotten um out of high school, I dove in deep and I jumped into that world, and it really did make me make me a better coach.

SPEAKER_04 44:51

Yeah, I know that was a little bit off the beaten path, but uh, okay, Kentley, a world-class official. We gotta ask him about officiating at some point.

SPEAKER_00 45:00

Well, I don't I I can't, I can't, so there's an age cutoff, and I would tell anybody that's listening to that, you want to be your coach, whatever, do that stuff before like around 35, between ages of 35, and get your level. Because I got my level and I was too old. So United World Wrestling, they're probably gonna have a I'm gonna have to sue them because of age discrimination, because I can't get on the I can't do um you know a high level, I can only do stuff in country because of my age. So if you want to become a high-level official, freestyle Greco or even folk style, um, get into it earlier. So um freestyle and greco for sure, so you can get your your rating and get to where you need to be. Um it takes a lot, it's a lot faster in USA wrestling. Um, and that was one part of my acceleration in USA wrestling is because I was I was a team Wisconsin coach for a number of years.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

Okay. Take note, Steve. I got well, uh Kent's been on me to do uh freestyle every year, and I'm like, I find I always seem to find an excuse how to get out of it. This year I just decided to get a new hip.

SPEAKER_04 46:16

Steve, one day you'll be probably a viable excuse. Going from the Cambridge middle school jamboree to world team trial someday. There you go. Well, Ken, I'm sure you could uh empathize a little bit with the officials as uh you had two of the most exciting by-state finals matches that I got to see. I know it did not end up in Evansville's favor, but Colton and Collins matches. Oh my lord, was that some good wrestling?

SPEAKER_00 46:51

Yeah, it was, and that's why you that's why we wrestled that that level of a tournament, um, so we can figure that out. And you know, Colton was uh Colton learned something from that match, and so did so did Colin. Um and though that's why you do it, right? So it's uh it's part of why those kids are as good as they are, because they they've open their mind and they learn from their mistakes and they understand where they're at. Um Colton, especially, um he got he got the same thing done to him, I think, three times. Um so we reviewed that tape, uh probably on the bus ride home. Um reviewed that tape. And then Colin, I think there was just a brain lapse there, and he he brain lapsed the last 10 or 7 seconds of the match and got taken down right at the end of the match. It happens.

SPEAKER_04 47:50

Yeah, that was I need to go back and watch those.

SPEAKER_01 47:53

That was just they're tell you what, calling the action for those were awesome. But uh, well, my only note from uh from by state, Kent, I thought um you were gonna throw me out of the place because it seemed like I was trying to get some Evansville clips. Kategue and I were running around getting some Evansville clips, and I I came to tell two matches that were, you know, one I think you guys were a little bit favored, and one where you're probably uh heavily favored, and all of a sudden both those guys get upset. And then I was at a third match and I'm sitting next to Kent on the floor, and one of his guys are winning, and I'm filming, and also he he's winning, and something happened. He ended up your guy ended up winning. I don't all the names I don't even remember, but all of a sudden, you know, he almost got upset, and then he ended up winning. But I'm like, I'm gonna stop filming these Evansville guys. Kent's gonna kill me. So it ended being clips going the opposite way. So I I just thought uh I'm I'm not gonna sit by Kent anymore.

SPEAKER_04 48:47

Okay, you had a good couple weekends in in lacrosse. Anything else on By State or the Clash?

SPEAKER_00 48:56

No, just just Steve. Um, I don't wrestle the matches, they do. Um so like I I don't I try I've kind of lost that a while ago of getting real mad. I just understand where they're at and they're high school kids, and it can happen.

SPEAKER_04 49:12

Right. You don't want to be clipped, just get your win. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:17

Yeah.

unknown 49:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:19

No, the the the clash is was uh the competition is great. Um, you know, and I'll say this about the clash. We went in and we get a uh we got a team from Connecticut right away. And they were, I don't know what seed they were or whatever, but they were a private school from Connecticut. And literally our guys had ghost face or deer in the headlights, whatever it might be. And they were like, you know, we just were here for the by state, now we're back, and they were like literally, I could tell before the dual meet that I'm like, they're they're not ready for this, right? So we had a little powwow, I guess, uh, and and I told them, I said, listen, I I've never heard of Connecticut wrestling, right? I don't know anything good from Connecticut. It's like it's like the size of Dane County. And I said, so in Wisconsin, we got good wrestling in Wisconsin. So you guys, you know, maybe a couple uh words that probably aren't good for a podcast. Um, and I said they gotta get you guys gotta get ready to go. And they wrestled and they performed. Um so we beat a team right out of the gates that we shouldn't have probably beaten. We we won some tight matches, and that that was kind of the the trajectory of our clash tournament.

SPEAKER_01 50:52

Let's let's hope this doesn't make it to Connecticut wrestling because uh Kent Weiler's gonna become all too born material.

SPEAKER_00 51:01

Well, maybe they'll bring a better team next year.

SPEAKER_04 51:07

Love it. Was that uh was that Piers? I'm looking at the I'm looking at your it doesn't show like the schedule, but Yeah, I can't find it.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

Let's see. No, I I have it somewhere. I'm trying to think it was um a prep school in Connecticut. Um let's see. I got it written down here somewhere. I'm sorry, guys. That's okay.

SPEAKER_04 51:30

Very good. For some reason the clash just doesn't have a bracket page that I can look at the team.

SPEAKER_01 51:35

Okay, maybe I I'm glad I'm glad T because you're like you're like the USA bracketing guru. And if you can't find it.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

Well, it's not USA bracketing, that was on track. Oh, that explains that. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:49

I'll tell you what, if you you look for good duel experience, Kent, you definitely got it at the clash because there was one duel that was outside of 12 points. Otherwise, it was pretty tight knit all the way throughout.

SPEAKER_00 52:05

Yeah, we we definitely got what we needed out of the clash. Um, team-wise, us as coaches, we saw some things that we we knew we um you know we're gonna we were gonna have to go back to it sometime and figure out how kids um what how they were gonna respond, what they were gonna do. And then we got some young guys, some great experience uh wrestling in a pretty uh nasty environment.

SPEAKER_01 52:40

Well, jumping ahead a little bit, Kent, you talked about uh some tournaments because I saw this and you know throughout the year, Teague and I follow and watch tournaments, and we looked at the Freedom Irish invitational and saw that you guys didn't win. Is that one of the and I'm not trying to downplay you know, obviously the team that won it there, but is that one of those tournaments by design that you're talking about where hey, we're not necessarily we're if we win it, great, but we're not necessarily coming to this tournament to win it.

SPEAKER_00 53:06

Correct. Yeah, we we didn't wrestle. Um we didn't we didn't wrestle, I know we didn't wrestle our heavyweight, we didn't wrestle Tanner at that. That was by design. Um so they were you know injury-wise. Um and you know, some of the best things that can happen to you in tournament wise is that you don't know the score at all. You don't know, and then and then you come out and you're like, oh, that happened, right? Whether win, lose, or draw. You can't change that. Like if you go and tell your athletes this, you know, hey, we need a major on this one, or you you can't get pinned, or blah, blah, blah, because you wrestling this school, all that does is change the match for them. Um, so it's say as little as possible, I think, and put kids in a position where they can go out there and just have fun and wrestle. And the outcome is the outcome, right? We can't change that. So, all about the process.

SPEAKER_01 54:06

But you look at the Freedom Irish invite, too. It's like you look at it, and there's uh Evansville, Auburnale, Shackton, Denmark. That's four four team state qualifying teams there. And obviously, Hortonville, you know, you put them in a different section, and maybe they're there as well. That's a heck of a tournament.

SPEAKER_00 54:21

Yep. Yeah, it's it's been a really good tournament for us.

SPEAKER_04 54:26

Yeah, you guys are kind of becoming staples up there in freedom. I don't know if they're gonna let the streaming guys leave, even if you guys end up not going there at this juncture.

SPEAKER_00 54:37

Yeah, it's hard to say. Our our guys will our YouTube guys will go anywhere. Well traveled. Yes, no doubt. Okay, I'm gonna get that uh I'm gonna get that Connecticut team just because I think they deserve a little respect here. Like if I can find them, it's weird that I can't.

SPEAKER_04 55:00

I'll see if I can come across them too. Uh yeah, anything else on the regular season, Ken.

SPEAKER_01 55:08

Oh, I know you want to talk a little bit about the uh Whitnow duels.

SPEAKER_00 55:18

Yeah, the the Whitnow duels, you know, we went there for just another duel situation, and um because of weather or whatever, a a team dropped out, and I'm trying to think of who it was. Um somebody we wanted to wrestle to try to um better our stuff for the postseason, they dropped out, and then Nina jumps in. And at the time, they were the fourth-ranked team in um Division I and we're like, how great is this? And that was another one that we had our we had our full team um there, um, and we we wrestled well through the Whitnow duels, and they gave us really great competition. Um and we beat them, and then uh their coach was like, I can't believe, I think at the time we might have been, we might have been ranked um like seventh. I can't remember what it was, and or third or whatever, and he got he's like, he's like, you guys are definitely not what you're ranked.

SPEAKER_01 56:34

Take notes, Zach. No. Take notes. Was that Kyle that said that to you? Yep. Yeah, yeah, Kyle. Kyle's a good dude. He'll he'll call it like it is.

SPEAKER_00 56:47

Yeah, it was pretty straight. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:53

So yeah, that's yeah, that that's about it on the on the um and as they uh as we transition to the postseason, obviously, you know, Rock Valley uh conference tournament. You guys um you you did what you had to do there. And and and and people have I mean, you guys had what, 11 and 12 in the finals? And the Rock Valley has some really good wrestling. Um, my that was my first time going to the Rock Valley Conference tournament. That's where I got to be on the Evansville YouTube page. First time for me. Take it off the bucket list, but um, you can talk about the Rock Valley, but also talk about your crew with the Evansville YouTube page. And obviously, um the question I get asked a lot, or sometimes people necessarily don't want us to come because they don't want you know stuff out there for people to be able to scout that. How's how is your uh I obviously the Evansville guys, right? The best it and I've said this numerous times, and Teague and I do production, right? Best production, not just in the state, man, they should put do some kind of competition because those guys are obviously led by John Fry, but those guys are knowledgeable um in their in their commentary. John Fry is one of the best production guys there are, but is that something that you ever talk about? Are there like, do you talk to the guys about hey, maybe not go to this tournament and and that, or do you just let it fly and put it out there because obviously people are gonna scout it?

SPEAKER_00 58:18

Yeah, scouting to me, it doesn't matter, right, in that regard. And it kind of taught, I've talked to them about that. Um, we're gonna do what we do, and we're gonna do it hopefully well enough that you can scout what we do, but um you're not going to, you know, here or there. It might be a little bit of a gamble, but I'm okay with that because what our YouTube guys do for the sport of wrestling and Evansville wrestling is you know, bar none. They are a great group of dads, start with that, um, that love wrestling and they want to support us and they want to support wrestling. Um, they just don't um if you get an opportunity to sit and watch any of their YouTube stuff, they're there all day, like 13, 14 hours a day. Right. And they're talking about every kid that's there and every team. Um they're they're Evansville fans, and there there is times, so um team sectionals. I told them no. You know, I don't want, I need you guys in the crowd. Like I need you guys. You guys are it. So team sectionals, um I wanted them to be, I wanted them to be dads and watch their kids, support their kids, and then you know, we had a great group of commentators that that filled in for them at the same time.

SPEAKER_04 59:56

Well, next thing you know, John Fry is putting on a blue wig and getting the crowd rolling.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:04

He seemed to have a lot of fun doing that.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:06

So, Kent, new postseason this year in that 16 team sectional, top two make it, little new look for Division II. And it's uh inter kind of like a full circle thing because we we all know uh about the the emotional roller coaster that individual sectionals is. And you still get five state qualifiers through. I still when I think of it, I know you guys probably had one of the more bittersweet days with uh was it four or five third place finishers. Take us through the the roller coaster that is individual sectionals day, and especially with this new sectional format.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:56

Yeah, so the I really like it as a coach for a long time. I've um I've been supportive of this and trying to um figure out a way that we could we could do what's best for wrestling and and and kids in wrestling and families in wrestling. So um I I went through the the team sectionals the same way as I went through the by state or freedom. And that was we're gonna go out and compete, we're gonna have fun, we're gonna put ourselves in the position where we need to be. Um we're we were always thinking um seed, seed, seed, seed for the next thing, right? We're always looking forward, not looking back at where we've been. Um what what could we do to put our best lineup out there? Um, make sure we had the kids ready to go. And it it was a fun day. Here's one thing that I didn't understand. Um we win the tournament, um I guess by 30 points on that day, as and and we got nothing. No trophy, no nothing. I was like, dang. All right, I didn't I didn't vote for that. So yeah. Um, I was like, so I'm like they announced that we had won, right? And I walked to the head table, like you send my guys to the head table, like you don't we don't get a trophy. So whatever they did with that regional trophy, you know, what they cut, they probably should invest that into a team trophy at the individual sectionals, but uh that's just one man's opinion.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:44

I I like it. I can get on board with that. Talk about awkward though, Kev's. I can kind of see you bebopping up there. Hey, oh yeah, you get nothing. Oh, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:59

Pretty much, yeah. It was it's kind of deflating in a way. I was like, well, I didn't I didn't see that coming. Somebody should have warned me about that.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:12

Love it. Anything else on individual sectionals or the day, Kent?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:17

No, our kids, our kids wrestled their butts off and really had, you know, like like they they learned those that are coming back or learned a lot um and kind of kind of realized what they needed to do individually to hopefully put themselves in a better position next season.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:34

And in and what if you look at it is a very tough individual, you know. You look at it and think, Evansville, man, you know, if you would have been in a different sectional, all that kind of stuff, and how many guys would have got through these teams? I'm just pegging through these teams. It's like, wow, that was a meat grinder of a sectional, individual sectional.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:54

Yeah, think about all the individuals in there. You just look at the the individual names. There was 40 some ranked kits, 14 way classes. Um, that's it was it was it was incredible. It was a great, I mean, great competition if you happen to be uh a great fan of wrestling, like I happen to be all the time. I sit and watch, but I could, you know, I sat and watched my guys, right? And I I don't get to watch everything. Um, but man, what a great, great bunch of kids.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:26

Um as I'm as I'm perusing through this, I'm gonna have to go through the finals, but it'd be nice. The T you'll have to do a percentage of how many guys out of this section. Oh, the top, so what is that, 20 28 guys? How many of those 28 placed at the state tournament? The percentage has got to be high.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:42

I I would bet it's in the the 80s or 90s. No exaggeration. We'll get the Encyclopedia John Fry on that one. Yeah, I thought I think he I think I got sent the stats to me on that, actually. You did. Okay. I won't do it then. I'll wait. So Kent, you guys win individual sectionals as a team. You get five through, and team sectionals rolls around. How are you feeling going into team sectionals?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:16

Uh, we're feeling, I mean, obviously, we were feeling pretty good, right? We wrestled well in a very, very, very tough sectional. Um, we wrestled really well. Um, we were like, man, and I I I was pretty devastated on with some of my seniors that didn't make it through, or some of those kids. Um, it's it was heartbreaking um for those situations. But when you think of kids like Ray's Hollett and Lincoln Keller, their team leaders, um, those those two kids responded and rebounded really well for the team and put themselves, you know, to lead that way. So it's nice to see when you have when you have kids step up, even though that their personal. Goals have um fallen on the wayside.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:04

I think it kind of speaks to the culture that you've built too.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:09

It it is a culture of good kids, and it was also the focus, right? So it wasn't one of those things where you know they had individual goals, and the individual goals were were not happening, and they were they're not able to accomplish that. And so their ability to rebound, they're young, right? They're 17, 18-year-old kids or 16, whatever their ability to say, look, I'm gonna reset, and we're gonna go and get ready for the next week so we can we can get our team in in place.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:42

I'm looking at your dual results from uh team sectionals. Did Tanner's Astapil uh did he really not wrestle a duel from Team Sectionals on? Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:56

I don't think uh Tanner's Astapil did. I don't think Caden Butts did. Um, I don't think well Hunter World wrestled at uh Team State. So it those upper weights, um, I don't think we had to worry about it.

unknown 1:07:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:12

Did I just hear a rooster? Uh that'd be uh that'd be our chickens, yes, T. Lurquin House. Okay. I'm in I'm in the I'm in the bedroom and the windows are open, so no going downstairs for me. No stairs for me until next week.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:27

I just had to make sure I wasn't on pain pill. Well, Ken, for team sectionals, you guys take care of business against Lodi, 52 to 20, and uh finals against Mount Horror Barnabelle. I wow, and it could be starting weight. What the starting weight was great, but in terms of how your kids wrestled, the chips could not have fallen any better for how that duel played out for you guys. Take us through that Mount Horror Barnabelle duel.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:02

So like I'm not looking at it on paper, right? I I'm that guy that moves right on to the next one. Um they did. They wrestled, they wrestled fabulous. Um I think we do we start out with um Colin Fry at 113. Is that right? Or Colin was at 120.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:26

So at 130, do we start out? We start out at 120 right away.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:31

Started at 120, and you move the hammers up.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:33

Yep. Yeah, we move the hammers up, and then um, you know, I'm trying to think of how yeah, well, there was a lot of pretty cool matches in there um that we were able to score bonus points. Um, I think the Benny Braunschweig match is the one that sticks out. Um, and then um you guys please can you tell me so I I'm not looking at it. Um, like I said, I move on to the next one faster than anybody else. And I didn't even look at my um stat sheets from um team sectional. Can you can you give me a reminder and then I can I can fill in the blanks?

SPEAKER_04 1:09:12

So to give you a little a little play-by-play, a little box score, duel started at 120. You guys won the first six matches, five of which were by pin. The other one was a tech fall from Colin. And Mount Horub got a pin. You guys pick up ten more after that, uh forfeited out to Mount Horub the last five matches. And like you said, I'd probably be on the same page. I think a crucial result in that was Benny Braunschwig being down four to one to Mac Stevens.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:44

And then he came there was a reversal in there, and then um was the one after that. Um, so that was at 132. The one after that was at 38, Brandon Staver. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:55

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:56

And what happened there? I think there was another really staver got a pin.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:01

He yeah, he was up 7-0, got a takedown in the pin.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:06

Yeah, and know this. He he's our 132 pounder, right? But I think we weighed him in over 132 so we could wrestle him at 138 or possibly 144 if we needed to. So there was a lot of strategic uh stuff going on in the backside with uh my assistants and a group of people that really did a fabulous job of laying that one out. Um, so it was it's just you know, that's the way you do it, and uh yeah. I mean, I think people were looking forward to the rest of the duel, but we had no reason to wrestle the rest of the guys. There's no reason at all. Um we had this, you know, the scoreboard is what it was, and let's take it. And they gave us a trophy.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:56

Yeah. Hot dang! That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:04

Yeah, and our fan base just like blew it out of the blew it out of the water that day. Um the expectation was to come and to come loud and proud, and they did, and they they traveled well up to Mount Horeb. It was a great, great environment. Um and our guys were dialed right in and um we took care of business.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:31

Take care of business, you very much did.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:35

Kent's so dialed in. He's all about the wrestling and not paying attention to all the details. He didn't even go to Mount Horeb that day. He wrestled in Lodi.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:46

Yeah. Yeah, at Lodi, sorry.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:50

Oh my gosh. Come on, Steve. Kent and I go way back. I was gonna say you can't pull too many fast ones on Kent, so you gotta take advantage of it when you can. So Kent, we'll talk individual state quick before uh team state. Again, kind of uh comes with the territory of individual state, but was uh was a roller coaster of a weekend, I will say big props, five qualifiers, five place winners. Uh take us through uh individual state.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:24

Yeah, so the uh you know I'll start you know 113. Obviously, Colin Fry gets with a kid that we know is going to be trouble. Um when we had you know gets in the quarterfinals, he's the number one seed. Um didn't wrestle, didn't wrestle very well, um, gets beat, but comes back to place fifth, which is pretty awesome. Um then Colt Bale, you know, wrestles the way he does and did what he did, he did, and gets into the finals again against Rashon, and um, you know, kind of separated the gap a little bit more between him and uh Rashawn. Um 138. It's we have problems with everybody does, and it's not just us with wrestling somebody the third time. Um so and that was Liam Crandall in the quarters, yep. And then he wrestles the um East Troy kid, and then um he beat him twice before in the in the season, and he beat him at uh um, I'm sorry, the the Beaver Dam invite, beat him in the finals there, and then he beat him in the conference finals, um, and then loses it to him at the state tournament. Kind of heartbreaking, but he comes back and wrestles really well and takes fifth place. Um and then, you know, Tom Heiser goes into yeah, just uh he just continued to get better.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:56

The ascension of Heiser, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:59

Yeah, so he he got better from you know by state clash, like, and then he started to really roll around individual sectionals, and then he he just he jumped a level in his wrestling from there until the uh individual state and just like kind of rolls through the state tournament, kind of gets to his as a sophomore 175 in a great spot. Um does really that well there. Um did I miss somebody in there? Nope. And then this is the last one, Tanner's Assapil. Yep. Yep, is that five? Hopefully, I talked about everyone. So Tanner, um, Tanner's a good story, right? Um came out, came out as a um a freshman, and then we had a conversation his sophomore year about him coming out. He wanted to get big for football. And I said, that's great. You go get you get big for football. So he stayed out of wrestling, then he came back last year um and wrestled really well for us, um, gets in the state tournament and gets the placement match, and this is, you know, people saw it, but I don't know if they knew it or not. Um, but he dislocates his elbow in the fifth and sixth place match at the individual state tournament. So it was kind of a little crushing, a little defeating for us. We we didn't know if we were gonna be able to use him. Um, but he, you know, he's there, he's like, I'm weighing in. I don't care when we got to team state. I'm saying after that, individual state. So um could he have gone on the mat? Probably not. Um, we we didn't need him, so everything fell way the way it was. I mean, we we had a plan. We definitely had a plan, and I think we could have done the same thing with our plan. I don't know. It would have been a little bit harder if we had to go and wrestle heavyweight. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:02

And I'll say, Ken, I adding to our multitude of foot and mouth moments with Evansville over the course of the years, that Steve and I were on the same page that Tanner's availability could have been an X factor at Team State, and then he did not even need to wrestle.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:19

Wasn't even needed. Well, hey, go back to uh the the blood run match at at State with Tanner and Bobby Edwards from Pewaukee. Yeah, we've Teague and I have really become big fans of Bobby Edwards. He's uh he's probably one of the nicest dudes in all of wrestling. It's funny, we were watching him after uh Tanner's match, and he loses five to four in a tight one. And I and I said in the commentary, I'm like, Teague, it looks like it looks like Bobby's consoling his coaches after that loss. Bobby's Bobby's got his arm around his coaches, and he's like kind of like almost pumping on, like, hey, I'm just a junior, I'll be back again. Don't worry about it. It's just oh man, that's uh that's that was that was fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:03

Yeah, I didn't get to see any of that stuff, obviously. We were kind of enjoying the process with with Tanner and being able to um place at the state tournament. Um, there it was a while back in the season, it was just a funny conversation. I went to him and and I we had always talked about him, you know, being close or right there or qualify or whatever. And I went up to him, I said, uh, I'm never calling you a qualifier again. This is about a month before the state tournament. I said, now you're a podium guy. Let's go. So um it was it was fun. I never I was like that it changed with me. I knew he could be there, and then he just brought a little bit of a different attitude. Um, and that match, that 5-4 match, I mean, it was one that he just dug out, right? Um, you figure it out and you you make it happen. So he wanted it really, really bad, and I'm glad he got to be there.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:58

Well, and when he got hurt with uh uh Isaacson, um Tegan and I didn't say anything about it on air, but we both looked at each other like, uh oh. And uh, but like you said, you know, you guys wrestled so good, and obviously we'll transition to that right now. You guys wrestled so good you didn't need them. No doubt.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:19

Yeah, team state, Kent. Never mind. I'm not gonna say, I'm not gonna jinx anything for Mr. Bollig here, but Kent, you have coached one four time state champion already. And and uh I don't know if a coach has done it with two. I need to look look back, but that's all I'll say on that, and I'll knock on wood too, just for extra respect as well. Team State. How cool is it that there was two teams from the Rock Valley Conference at Team State?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:53

It shows what Steve said earlier um that the wrestling in the Rock Valley is pretty tough. Um, you know, we've had our moments, and I think we can have more, and I think this this shows that we can, you know, as as groups in the in the everybody can raise their level a little bit. Um and you know, it's it's hard, it's competitive, right? Um, you know, it's so it was pretty cool to see East Troy um there, and we're like, well, obviously our conference is pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:31

That it was, yeah. Well, you guys got off to a hot start, 56-19 against East Troy, and against St. Croix Falls dual started at 106 pounds. It's the classic, classic starting weight class here, and uh seems to be the story of your entire dual postseason. You guys got off on a heater, and uh I know there were still, you know, points wise, it was still a duel with uh four weight classes left, but yeah, I don't know, Ken. I don't know, I don't know how much hyperbole I can put into it. You guys just wrestled so well at Team State, and it really showed it with St. Croix Falls.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:18

Yeah, and they're the you know, they're they're a really great coach team, their coaching staff is awesome. Um it was, you know, they've they've been there uh more than us, and that you know, they obviously understood the fact um that Coach Rhaegar says you're forfeiting out, and I said, Yeah, and he was like, I get it, you know, and then they were on our bandwagon, which was really, really cool. And and he said, if you guys beat us, you better win the whole thing. So um, how cool for for for us and them. Um but yeah, our kids wrestled extremely well, and um, I want to put like there's some some highlights in there somewhere that they gotta finally get to. I know I had East Troy, but um let's see. I guess we don't need to go through the the whole dual meet. I think the Coleman one is a little bit um little bit more special, obviously, because it's the championship one.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:27

Um but yeah, we had um well Benny and Brandon got big wins for you again.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:35

Right. Um yeah, and so yeah, Benny got a major decision, right? Yep, um and so and then and then Brandon. I don't know if it was back and forth. I can't really, but I I think it was. I think there was um we got cradled, um and then we got on top, we cradled, and then I think we cradled again, and that's what put us in the wind column there. Sorry, my losing some power here. Hold on.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:14

Okay, I got it. Oh, go ahead. Oh, sorry, Steve, you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:18

I was gonna say a little bit scary because Kelly got a uh cradle late as well. Oh, he turned a turn late as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:23

So exactly. And I'll say this about Brandon Staber. You got a kid that's gonna fight for every point. That's the kid, and he's gonna work as really, really hard to put himself in a position. So um it was fun to fun to watch him, but and that's a kid that's a junior, right? He's got a couple brothers that wrestle, um, that wrestled for Evansville. And it was just, you know, team wrestling at its finest, right there, no doubt.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:58

And uh for team coaching, Kent, I gotta say, uh very savvy move of you. Um I know the results show that Tommy can't beat Drake Peterson, but I respect you bumping Tommy away just for a more for sure win, and maybe respecting the Peterson cradle a little bit. But when you bump Tommy to 190 and uh seal the duel at that point, was that was that part of your logic moving him to 190 was like, all right, we Tommy can beat Drake, but Drake maybe also has the potential to beat Tommy. Is that was that kind of going through your thought process at all?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:42

Or yes, uh absolutely, right? Um, you know, but the way Tom was wrestling, we knew that if we we could be in a position to do it differently, we were going to um move away from Drake, and then we could we could get Tom to score more points at 190. Um so and that's not that's not me again. That's my that's my coaching staff, right? They were the guys, they send them to me, and I send them out, right? And I trust the fact that what they're doing. Um, you know, Jared Meyer and Michael Belmontes, those guys put that stuff together, like and they sent them right over. Um, and I'm like, what do we got to do here? And that's usually after they started. Um I trust the fact that they can do that.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:35

Love it. Yeah, that was one I saw that movement. I'm like, okay, yeah, that that makes sense there.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:42

That makes sense, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:43

Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:45

All right. Well, you guys get the win of 38-32 over at St. Croix Falls. And uh final duel of the year for you guys. Again Coleman, 39-29. I know you got the highlights for that, Kent, so take us on the journey of that finals match.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:06

Well, again, the draw, the draw for us on that day couldn't have been it, it just worked out. The kind of the stars aligned and everything. Um, so it we had to go almost straight up. We had Colin Fry going against Nowak, who's like he's a little tough kid. And I think if we we were fifth at the state tournament, but we didn't we wrestle him? I'm trying to think. I don't think we did. Oh, did you?

SPEAKER_04 1:25:35

I can pop back and find it. Uh Bentley placed third. So you guys no, you guys did wrestle, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:43

Right. Yeah, and so and Colin did what Colin does, right? He wrestled really good. And I think he he was still a little ticked off from the individual state tournament and how he wrestled in the quarterfinals. Um and so he he did exactly what he needed to do. And then Baleg next, he comes up with a pin, like he he takes care, like he takes care of business there. Um, Benny Braunschweig, and there's one when you talk about a kid that should have been at the state tournament. Benny Braunschweig just couldn't make it out of our sectional. Um and he does exactly what he needs to do, right? Um just just a decision. And then Brandon Staver at 132. So um the Coleman kid, really tough. He minimized the loss, he got tech falled. Um I mean, if he could have got did any better, obviously he would have got majored instead of tech, right? Um, so he saved us a team point there. Liam Crandall does what he does and just took his time doing it. Like it was it was gonna happen. He was just you could tell how frustrated he was. Um, I gotta say this, guys. I think Liam Crandall had like 47 pins this year. Wow. Wow. Yeah. It's pretty ridiculous, right? A freshman at 138. And so you kind of we kind of know what he's gonna do. Um Race Hollett, a senior, another kid that we probably should have had that at the state tournament, that just couldn't get through. Does his job in the decision, wrestles really, really well. Um Lincoln Keller, the only thing better he could have done in that particular moment is get a is get a pin. He tech falls, and he's a pinner too. Lincoln's a pinner, but um, we gained a couple points there from a decision. Then the next one, Adrian Wessels. Oh, another one you you you could say he's at twenty twenty five and sixteen, right? Against uh 36 and 12. And we didn't we didn't have him winning. He wins one to nothing. And I don't know if the kid is a grouber. If he was um yeah, I don't know if he was injured. Um, he didn't go down, right? So um Adrian Wessels controls the center. Um, I don't know if he got called for stalling, but with that officiating crew, I'm sure he got called once. No, he didn't. Um, he did not. Yeah, we held the center and and really worked the out-of-bounds line perfectly. Um, shot him out, wasn't trying to, you know, do more, anything more. Um, so he wins that one. And then we have young Johnny McCarthy. Um, we put him out there just for that reason. So you you know, in the in the process of coaching, that if you forfeit, right, if it comes to a tie, it's part of the criteria. So we're like, nope, Johnny, Johnny, you're going out there, kid. So he went out, he went out there, did his part, right? Yep. Um, and then at 175, uh, they put a kid out there, and I think they they just thought, well, who's this kid that came out there? And this is a great story for us. And I I don't know, uh I'll say it publicly because I think it's really neat. Um, we have a kid, Corbin Hoffman, who's a junior, started wrestling as um maybe as a sophomore. I can't, he might have wrestled as a freshman, but not a whole lot. But sophomore a year, he comes out, decides not to stick it out. And I say this to my coaching staff how we treat kids when they don't come back to us or when they quit means so much. And we treated him really well in the fall. And I saw him a couple times in a gym class, and I'm like, hey kid, hey Corbyn. And he was doing like one of these dances where he gets down on and on one foot and they kick your feet up. I don't, it's like a Russian dance, you know, and he's doing this dance, and I'm like, hey Corbin, how about you do that after a match you win at state tournament? Nice, and he's like, and he goes, he just looks at me. I said, Yes, I want you to wrestle this year. Nice. So he comes back out for the team. He didn't wrestle as a sophomore, and this is one of those kids we did a lot of pitch count with. We put him in, put him out. Obviously, we got to back up um Tom Heiser at 175. And we we almost had him skinfolded for 165, and that probably would have helped us out a lot, but we were just a little bit too heavy. Yeah. Um, and so he comes out and does does a job in the state team state finals, right? And not only did he win, he gets a major decision. I didn't even think to remind him to do that little dance on the side of the bench. It was it's pretty cool. But again, that goes back to the beginning of the story. How you treat kids when they quit. Everybody's got something going on. Yep, sure. You gotta take care of them. And he decided to come back out this year, and oh, God bless him for that.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:46

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:48

That's the one thing I take from that, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:52

Well, one of the maybe the biggest thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:55

Um yeah, and then Tom Heiser um does what he does, right? Took his time doing it. Um, not really took his time, a minute, a minute and something, but I think he turned them a couple times and turns them right to the edge. So um, and that that sealed it for us. Yep. And I I I get the fan portion of it that you want to see kids wrestle. Um, we didn't need to put whoever out there at 215. Um, our bench knew what we had. We knew we had the score. And we spent a lot of time in lacrosse. So we were definitely wanting to celebrate our win and or and and get back home. Um and and you know, go get some culvers. That's right. Ice cream, baby. Yeah, and uh bring that trophy back home to Evansville.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:52

How'd you feel, Kent, once uh once the duel got sealed?

SPEAKER_00 1:32:58

Yeah, I was um yeah, a little bit emotional, right? Um, so then we had to wait. We had to wait quite a long time. So so I try I drink a lot of water when I'm sitting there because I yell a lot and get a little excited, so I'm drinking water. So I had to go to the bathroom so bad. So I go to run across to go to the bathroom, and I'm trying to be alone, and I get like like I'm tearing up a little bit because I thought it was how cool was that. And uh here comes two of my knuckleheads running into the bathroom, why? And I'm like, oh, you guys caught me. I'm I'm out of here. But it was yeah, so I yeah, I was trying to we had to wait a long time, but no, it was definitely so cool, so cool for this community, so cool for these kids that'll have lasting memories of doing something um that the first time in school history for any sport. Um, yeah, it's uh I think I think we've opened the floodgates, though, I think, which is good. And for you know, Evansville for doesn't matter what sport that they can they can do there. We've kind of set the stage for them. We kind of put it all out there for people.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:20

Is that Evansville across the board? That's Evansville's first state championship? Any any sport? Wow. I uh as good as Evansville's been in all different sports, that that's amazing to me.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:36

Yeah, it was it's it's pretty neat.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:41

Well, Ken, just uh to tie the bow on uh the the team this year, first of all, congratulations again on the team state title. Uh describe us, I'm sure you might have already brought this up at the banquet, but just give us uh give us a little synopsis, uh talk about this year's group and specifically uh this year's seniors.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:05

Yeah, there's not you know, there's not much like there's I mean I could talk all night about them, right? They're these are the kids that put in the time. Um they they picked up the extra training. 90% of my kids go to RT lead, so with Ryan Taylor. Um, and I gotta give him some big props too because we we work well, we work very well together um as far as you know his technique and training and stuff like that, but also um knowing what what the kids are going through on a regular basis, not only myself and my practices, but also what they got going on there. Um, so this group of seniors, just gonna be, you know, I think we can I think we can replicate, but they've put in a lot of time and a lot of hard work. Um we had seven seniors this year. Um in 2023, it's a lot different. I had 11 seniors uh on that team. Um, or or was that the year before? I think it was the year before, 2022. Um, but yeah, the Evansville has had a really good group of people that have um worked to put kids here and they've been really working hard. And I'm just glad and pretty humbled to be a part of it and being able to be um a guy that can help support their vision and what they're doing. And you know, I I love wrestling and I love to compete and I love to win, um, and that's all part of it. Um, but yeah, the this group of kids and this group of uh parents and everything have put their kids in the right spot. They've they do the right things. Um they you know they're they're good kids. They have we have you know great group of kids that um academically you know moving themselves to the next level, uh possibly wrestling in the next level. Um it's just fun and I'm really humbled to be a part of it.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:10

Good stuff. Kent, last question for you, from me anyway. I don't know if Steve has anything. If you had to go back to uh Kent Weiler as a as a day one coach, what advice would you give yourself?

SPEAKER_00 1:37:30

Yeah, that's funny you say that. Um I think sometimes um I I know this for a fact. I I just I just need to get out of my own way a little bit. Um and and I'm I'm a pretty intense dude, and I kind of say what's on my mind. And um I've learned and I've grown through the through the coaching process. Um, and in the beginning, I guess I would I'm gonna say this. Um I would learn to have more fun with it. And um and kind of yeah, I I like this this part of me right now that's in the position where I'm at, that I'm continually able to be able to have fun with wrestling. And and not only that, coach to a level where I can put kids at a better space in life after they're done, right? Um, and do they learn all that from me? Absolutely not. I I've hired and I've had a great group of support staff and people around me to put people in a good spot. And I know that it's not me, and I take the ego out of it and my personal ego out of it out of it, and to be able to say, um, I'm not the person that can help guide that kid truly. But I have a coach in my coaching staff that can. Um all kind of fun stuff, but just you know, in general, you want to be able to put kids in a better space when they're all done with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:07

That's awesome. And you've done that too, right? I mean, you the you the I think um you know T kind of talked about it, but if coaches have a takeaway, it's how you treat kids, right? You had a kid who quit. And I think um, and I think most coaches kind of take that personally. And uh, like you said, you don't know what's what's going on through a kid's life. And because you treated him right and you uh you understood his decision, a kid came back for me uh for you and and won a match for you at Team State. I think that's uh says a lot about who you are.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:40

Yeah, it's all it's all about how I've learned and grown myself through the process. Um, and that's it's pretty huge, right? When I can see that and look back, I don't have any regrets um throughout my coaching years and time or anything like that. Um every time that every year that I've coached, everything that I've done, it's always about, you know, I've learned and grew through that process. And and that's one thing that I truly try to emphasize with my teams. Let's learn and grow together. We we we just like a lot of teams, we've had a lot of um, we had a lot of things go bad throughout the year. Just little tiny things. And I can't even uh I remember talking to actually Mason Bronsweig um throughout the season one time, and I just told him, I said, man, somebody's gotta be writing all these things down, all these little things that we're gonna be just fine. And it seemed like the end of the world at the time, maybe everybody else around me, and we all just kept a pretty positive, pretty focus-driven, process-driven um thought process, I guess. And and we kind of stayed positive through every little tiny thing that happened, and we're like, that just another part of the process. Pretty cool memories.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:10

It's what it's about right there. And I mean that's it. Being a part of a team state runner-up squad. I think more about the guys and the memories through the four years than I do the events of the wrestling by the end of the day. Uh that's what I got for you, Kent.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:31

Hour 41. Pretty solid. Well, T, I I just gotta get this in real quick. I uh, you know, I was gonna kind of butt in when Kent was talking about a story, and I and I actually kind of I told a partial version of the story when I was on the YouTube uh page with the guys. They were asking, they brought up that uh I have a little bit of a history with Kent. And I won't go through too much when you and I when you and I worked the Gramby camp and all that kind of stuff, but I do know this. Um Kent was a student coach when I was at Whitewater, and two of the toughest points of my life were times where I just thought, you know, this is it, this is over, and all that kind of stuff. And uh the first guy that was there for me both those times, it was Kent Wiler. So I I appreciate you, bud, and I appreciate what you've done for me in my life.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:19

Thanks, Steve. I appreciate you, buddy.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:25

I I can't follow that up, Steve. That was that was golden. Oh, great podcast, though, Ken. Congratulations. That's yeah, Ken, thank you. Uh thank you for taking the time to come on. Thank you for everything you do for the sport. Who knows? Maybe uh knock on wood, maybe we'll have you on again the same time next year. But we'll we'll see. A lot of wrestling to be had between now and then.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:46

Well, either way, Teeg, no matter how good they are coming in, you and I both won't pick them, so we'll just go from there.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:52

I think, yeah, for good juju, we'll pick against Evansville again.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:00

I'm okay with that.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:01

I'm okay with that. It's it's been uh it's been a fun time. Glad I got to hear about your wrestling story and uh just to get more of the inside look at at a state championship program and uh one of the people behind it, one of the main people behind it, I'd say. Uh it's fun. So thank you for taking the time to come on.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:23

You know, I appreciate you guys, like I said in the beginning, what you guys do for the sport and for Wisconsin wrestling. It's been it's been a it's been really fun to watch your guys' process and your guys' growth as you go through it. So I'm glad I get to be a part of this as many times as I can.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:40

I appreciate it. Folks, that's Mr. Kent Weiler, and uh what that means. Two coaches down, one to go. If all scheduling works out, our next guest will be uh Mr. Jeff Mochik for the sixth time in a row, but it's a fun time every time we get him on. So uh tune in for that one. Thanks for catching this one, and until next time, we will catch you on the flip floor.