Wrestling Awards Banquet II

Head Coach Jim Zalesky at the podium

 The coaches were busy handing out awards as listed here:
Highest GPA - Aaron David
Team Impact - Cody Weishoff & Ty Vinson
Hardest Working - Joey Delgado
Team Leadership: Mike Mangrum & Chad Hanke
Most Improved - Cody Weishoff
Most Pins - RJ Pena & Taylor Meeks (tie of 12)
All-American - Scott Sakaguchi, RJ Pena, Taylor Meeks
Bill Brickey Most Dedicated - Drew VanAnrooy
Dale Thomas Hustle - Scott Sakaguchi
Robin Reed Outstanding Wrestler - Taylor Meeks
Congratulations to all the winners!!

Coach Zalesky congratulates senior Cody Weishoff, Most Improved wrestler

Kevin Roberts waits to present an award

Ty Vinson gives his Senior Speech

 The seniors had their time at the podium, first giving their final thoughts and thank you's, then presenting their own "gifts/awards" to their fellow teammates. Seniors were Anthony Harris, Ty Vinson, Chad Hanke, Michael Mangrum and Cody Weishoff.


 A highlight video recapping the season was followed by Coach Zalesky wrapping it all neatly up with thoughts of the season past and looking forward to next season.

For more information see  the Oregon State Website.

Go Beavs!

Seniors & Coaches, left to right: Chad Hanke, Cody Weishoff, Anthony Harris, Ty Vinson, Kevin Roberts, Jason Lara, Troy Steiner, Mitch Swee, Mike Mangrum, Travis Pascoe, Jim Zalesky, (Koida Greenhouses of Milwaukie donated the flowers, thank you!)

Thanks to Michael Denison for the use of his photographs displayed here!

Wrestling Awards Banquet I

Social hour before the Awards Banquet began

  The Beavers' official wrestling season came to its conclusion on Saturday, April 13, 2013 with the Awards Banquet, held in The Club at Reser Stadium.

Volunteers had been busy setting things up, a big thank you to Susie Morehead, Maureen McGlynn, Lauren Johnson, Scott Lewis, Jana and Ron Iwasaki and others who helped the Board!

At 5:00 the doors open and guest began to arrive. Wrestling fans are competitive, so a bidding war developed over some great silent auction items, while others vied for the winning door prize tickets.

MC Bob Allen introduces honored guests

Some guests were held up by the freestyle tournament being held at Corvallis High School, but by 6:00, things were under way. Wrestler Zach Cardwell gave the Invocation, then it was time for dinner.

While people finished their dessert, the silent auction closed, winners were announced and door prizes found homes.

Master of Ceremonies, Bob Allen, got the program rolling by introducing many of the notable people in the audience, representing years of OS wrestling. Among them were Lou Piha - class of '48, Nadine Ritchey - longtime companion of Dale Thomas, and former coach Joe Wells. Ken Noteboom was recognized for his Lifetime of Achievement. For many years Ken has worked on the Board of the Wrestling Endowment Fund, raising millions of dollars for scholarships.

Coach Zalesky with Reynold and Josh, who's got the letters?

A moment of confusion occurred when Former wrestlers Reynold Gardner and Josh Whisenhunt went up to help Coach Jim Zalesky award the Varsity O letters. Apparently that presentation will occur at a later date but didn't get removed from the program. No letters were to found. Jim ad-libbed by bringing up the wrestlers who earned their first letters so they could be recognized.

On behalf of "The FALL" President Craig Scharer and Secretary Mike Denison presented the coaching staff with gifts of a framed portrait of the team and Coaches with their 2013 Pac-12 Championship trophy.

 Then it was Head Coach Jim Zalesky's turn at the podium. He began by introducing the entire team to the audience. It's always an interesting challenge to identify the wrestlers in street clothes with no head gear!

Part of the team line-up, left to right: Ty Vinson, Drew VanAnrooy, John Tuck, Seth Thomas, Nick Schlager, Scott Sakaguchi, James Roberts

Next up was the Presentation of Awards by the Coaches. They started with two awards that go to others besides wrestlers. First was the Coaches' Appreciation Award which went to Matt Franzblau, first year Sports Information, who covered the wrestling action and became a fan along the way! Next, a very well deserved Booster of the Year Award went to FALL President Craig Scharer, who spends untold amounts of time and energy behind the scenes making the FALL Club work. Congratulations, Craig!!

More about the banquet in the next blog entry. Thanks to Michael Denison for the use of his photographs shown here.

Story of a New Wrestling Fan

Matt Franzblau at work at the NCAA's - photo by Mike Denison

 For those who don't know the person behind the stories about Oregon State wrestling on the Oregon State website,  Matt Franzblau was here on a 10 month assignment, totally new to wrestling. In the last few months, he has become one of us, a rabid wrestling fan! FALL Board member and wrestling announcer, Andrew Stanfield, recently asked Matt if he had become a fan yet. What follows is Matt's response. Matt will soon be heading out into the world of sports writing. Hopefully, where ever he goes he will always remain a Beaver wrestling fan!!

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To say that I entered my initial season covering Oregon State wrestling for osubeavers.com with no working knowledge of the sport would be an understatement. Going in I said that I probably knew more about archery than wrestling, but as the season approached I sat down with the sports information director from the previous year and was explained the ins and outs of the sport. In a 20 minute span I had a loose understanding of it but was still confused on a few things.

As the intrasquad came and went I saw the sport in action and still had some questions but was kind of amazed at how quick it was. Fast forward through our first home dual meet against Boise State in January and I was pretty aware of the point structure, times, periods and what constituted which type of victory, but the sheer passion for the sport that others in it had, had not yet been planted in me. That planting process required a plane trip out east to my home area of Bethlehem, Pa., where OSU would wrestle Lehigh and then Cornell the following day. After a 2-0 weekend over the sports two very historic programs and a dramatic last second victory in Ithaca, I was eagerly awaiting the final few home duals as well as National Dual Regionals, which OSU was hosting.

I am somebody who enjoys numbers, streaks and tidbits and the last few Beaver home duals provided me with such, as I tallied a 9 dual meet win streak to close out the season as well as double-digit win streaks from two wrestlers. Couple that with the largest margin of victory (50) in three years and those initially planted wrestling seeds began to bloom. The maturation process would occur in the desert, when OSU won its second straight Pac-12 Championship in Tempe, Arizona. Seeing my wrestlers who I chatted with in practice and got to know as I traveled with them on the road became quite exciting. I even found myself anticipating certain moves and point totals that individual wrestlers on the team might achieve during a given bout during the single day tournament. My excitement and enthusiasm for a sport which I had no prior knowledge took me a bit by surprise as I had really none only a few months prior.

The cherry on the proverbial cake came in a cold Des Moines, Iowa in late March as the Beavers competed at the NCAA Championships. It was the best against the best and it was time to see where we stacked up nationally. Ultimately it was an eighth place finish for OSU, its best since 1996, with three All-Americans. Each step along the way I found myself living and dying with each triumphant win and each heartbreaking loss. My excitement about the event was palpable as I tagged along with former OSU head coach Joe Wells who introduced me to all those wrestlers, coaches and referees from past and present, who each belonged to this unique fraternity of wrestling fans and participants. Sitting in my hotel room the night before the final day of competition, I couldn’t help but really get psyched for seeing greatness, Kyle Dake vs. David Taylor and Dake’s quest for a fourth consecutive national title and a fourth different weight class, simply unprecedented. Only before had I gotten this excited for Yankee games growing up or West Virginia football and Kansas basketball games during my undergraduate and graduate school days. Seeing Michael Phelps compete at the Olympic Trials in Omaha the summer before really gave me an appreciation for individual sports and this was hammered home by the night’s finals festivities, where I joyfully talked with our team’s PA announcer (Andrew Stanfield) about the majesty of the sport and unique aspect of one-on-one battle it provides. I even tried my hand at predicting the outcome and score of the Dake/Taylor match and came awfully close to nailing it, further proving to me how much I had become a fan of wrestling in such a short amount of time.

Following NCAA’s, I enjoyed the event program from cover to cover and even engaged my friend who worked the Big Ten Championships for the Big Ten Network in a discussion about the great wrestlers he had seen that day such as Ed Ruth and Jesse Delgado. He had virtually no enthusiasm for the sport and it’s athletes who competed that day, but could tell that I did, which made me realize that I had officially became a wrestling fan, thanks to this past season working as the sports information contact for head coach Jim Zalesky and his Beavers.