Open Practices - This Saturday and Next Saturday!

Wrestling Practice - Dale Thomas Wrestling Room

 Just a quick update to let you know there will be another Open Practice this coming Saturday, Oct 8, in the Dale Thomas Wrestling Room on the Oregon State campus. Start time will be 3:00. Practice lasts about an hour and a half. Kick-off for the football game is 6:00.

Wrestling Season does not start until Oct 10 by NCAA regulations. This practice again will be just for the wrestlers to tune themselves up. The coaches will step in to run things on Monday, October 10. It is still a good opportunity to check out the new faces on the team, watch some scrambles and visit with other fans and the coaching staff.

So far the team roster on-line as not been updated, so we'll hope the guys write their names on the back of their shirts so we can tell who they are!

Saturday, October 15 will be the last Open Practice before the Intrasquad. Oct 15 will also be the date of the Wrestling Parent/Fan Tailgater. The tailgate party takes place after the end of practice. The set-up is outside the Wrestling entrance to the Practice Facility. Time is TBA, since it depends on the start time of the football game. More information on how to participate will be out later.

Oct 29 will be Homecoming for Oregon State. The Wrestling Team will be honored for their 2016 Pac-12 title (their fifth in a row!!) at half-time of the football game.

Next up for Wrestling will be the Intrasquad, Thursday Nov 3 at 7 pm in Gill Coliseum. Be there to see who will man the first string this year.

Opening home action will be Nov 20, Sunday when OSU hosts the second Annual Joe Wells Classic with Michigan at 12 noon. Anyone looking forward to a rematch between heavyweights Amar Dhesi and Adam Coon will have to wait until next year. Mr Coon is taking a redshirt season after a pre-season injury, at least that's what I heard through the grapevine.

Go Beavs!

Schedule Update, Travel Notes For Cliff Keen and More!

Practice Room - by Doug Parazoo

My last email mentioned the possible date of the Wrestling Parent/Fan Tailgater. The correct date for the Tailgate Party is October 15, the same date as the Utah Football game.

Here is the upcoming schedule:
Oct 8 - Open Practice for wrestling  - Football vs Cal
Oct 15 - Open Practice for wrestling, followed by Parent Fan Tailgate Party - Football vs Utah
Oct 29 - Wrestlers honored for 2016 Pac-12 Championship at halftime during Football game vs WSU; probably will not be an Open Practice, if so, it will be announced
Nov 3 - 7 pm -  the Intrasquad will be held in Gill Coliseum

Wrestling practice usually starts about 3 -3.5 hours before football kick-off, so until that is set, we don't know the start time for Practice. Will keep you posted.

If you haven't read the latest articles by Oregon State, the Beavers are ranked 20th in one pre-season poll. The most recent article announces the 2016-17 schedule, so you'll want to be sure to read that story at osubeavers.com You can also go straight to the schedule.

One of the biggest and best tournaments, the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas is coming up in December. It is not too soon to begin making your travel plans to attend. This year the tournament location has been moved back to the Las Vegas Convention Center. For more tips, two of your FALL Board members, Michael Denison and Craig Scharer, have put together some thoughts on travel for the Cliff Keen: Cliff Keen Las Vegas Tournament
http://cklvwrestle.com/

December 2-3 at the LV convention Center
35 teams in attendance, view teams at http://cklvwrestle.com/participating-teams/
Half the top 20 participating, including all of the PAC-10.  If you can’t make it to nationals this is the one to go to.

Airfare around $250 round trip to PDX.  Cheaper if you shop around.

Rooms are $85 a night at the WestGate.
Use CODE SGCW6R to get a room at Westgate.
It is connected to the LV convention center, so easy access
You can do cheaper of course if you are willing to walk or drive.

A lot of OSU fans will be there and we will try to get together to share the fun!

“I remember Clayton Jack slamming Capone of Ohio St to his back with just 1 second left in the Match (6:59) to take the championship that year at HWT”, said Michael Denison.  “It was a magic moment In recent OSU Lore”.
"The same year Clayton won, current Operations Director Michael Mangrum knocked off 2 highly rated All-Americans (Boris Novachkov-Cal Poly & Hunter Stieber-Ohio State) to take the title @ 141." - Craig
The Cliff Keen is a lot of fun to attend, get your plans made now, cheer on your Beavers in Las Vegas!

Speaking of travel, Craig & Michael have also been busy with end of season travel planning. Blocks of rooms have been set aside for the NCAA's in St Louis. Work is being done on saving rooms for the Pac-12's at Stanford. Be thinking about whether or not you would be interested in a fan bus to Stanford. The flier for hotels will be available at Socials.

The FALL Board as also been busy getting ready for our upcoming membership drive for this season. If you don't like paper forms, checks and postage stamps, you'll like the new on-line payment system! It is almost ready for use, just a few more tweaks. For those who still like the old form, that will be out soon as well. Keep an eye on your email box!

 

That's Cody Weishoff - top position

Before we forget, the first Open Practice was held last Saturday. It was unofficial, but it was great to see everyone again, especially some faces from the past, like Jason Lara and Cody Weishoff who both took to the mat with the younger guys!  A few tidbits gleaned from the event:
Lots of new faces on the mat
Guys who have left - Tyler Chay, Iho Odighizuwa
Some of the guys were doing some freestyle wrestling in Canada recently, both Amar Dhesi and Joey Palmer knocked off recent NCAA finalists!

End of Practice

One other look back - thanks to Ron Iwasaki for sending this link to a story in the Portland Tribune about Greg Strobel and Mike Haas's induction to the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.

Where are they now?

Cody Weishoff and his wife are living in Bandon, OR. Cody is a residential contractor and his wife is the dentist in town. They are the proud parents of a baby boy. Cody can still hang in there for a full practice!

Go Beavs!

Open Practice this Saturday & Other Notes

Don't forget, your first chance to glimpse the 2016-17 Oregon State  Wrestling team occurs this Saturday morning, 9:30, in the Wrestling Room in the Sports Performance Center on campus. Practice usually lasts about and hour and a half, so you'll have plenty of time to tailgate and make it to the football game later.

There will be new freshman faces on the mat, but there will also be a couple of transfers, who are already listed on the roster - Ihoghama Odighizuwa and Amari Sengsavanh.

For those who like to plan ahead, mark Saturday October 29 on your calendar. Your 2016 Pac-12 Champion Wrestling team will be introduced at halftime at the Beaver football game vs WSU that day. It is also Homecoming weekend.

 

Last year's Tailgater

Recent tradition would also make October 29 the Wrestling Parent/Fan Tailgate Party. The Tailgate party generally occurs after an Open Practice and before the football game. The Tailgater has not been confirmed yet for this year, so it is subject to change.

Fellow FALL Board member Craig Scharer recently pointed out that Oregon State used to be in the top ten for attendance at wrestling meets nationally. Unfortunately, we have slipped. We need to get more people in the stands and get our numbers back up!! For more information on national attendance, see this article at The Open Mat sent to me by Craig.

If you have not yet read the news coming out today from the Coaching Corner, it follows below. It has more information on this Saturday's Practice, the schedule, Greg Strobel's HOF Induction, the Making A Difference Tournament in Truax, NCAA tickets and more!

Go Beavs!

Wrestling fans, alumni and supporters-
 
The 2016-2017 season is right around the corner! The school year officially started yesterday and that means we are busy in pre-season training.  In less than two months time, Oregon State will embark on a new season full of new challenges. We have some new faces in terms of a new crop of freshman, and have added two new members to the coaching staff as well.
 
Last night, OSU great and 2x NCAA Champion Greg Strobel was inducted in the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame. It was great to be there and OSU was well represented with many of Greg’s teammates on hand in support.
 
We are excited to have former Beav All American Taylor Meeks join our staff, and also welcome Kent State all American Ian Miller to Corvallis! They are a great addition to our team and are going to help us reach a higher level here at OSU.
 
We also have a new crop of freshman here that we are happy to have in the program. Please watch for our schedule to be released any time at www.osubeavers.com.  Our home opener will be on November 20^th vs. Michigan.
 
Our tournament schedule includes The Las Vegas Invitational, The Reno Tournament of Champions, and The Midlands. We have a good competitive schedule set up and are excited about the upcoming challenges. 
 
For anyone going to be around Corvallis this Saturday, we will have an open workout for the fans at 9:30 AM in the Dale Thomas Wrestling Room. Here is your first chance to see the team this fall. 
 
We are hosting our Intra-squad meet on November 3^rd at 7 pm in Gill Coliseum. We anticipate some good battles and competition to make the team. We will then open the regular season the following weekend in Boone, NC when we take on Appalachian State and Duke.
 
A heads up for those looking ahead at attending the NCAA Championships: we will once again have tickets available through our ticket office in the coming months. If you are interested in sitting in OSU section, give me a heads up. We are unsure at this time how many we will get in our allocation but want to have as many of you as we can in our section.
 
Coaches and Parents- The Annual Making a Difference Tournament will be November 13^th in The Truax Center at Oregon State University. This is always a great day of wrestling with wrestlers of all ages. Please plan to attend!
 
Thanks for all the support.

Open Practice Coming Up!

Autumn begins just a few days from now, so you know that wrestling season is not far away. Your first opportunity to check out the 2016-17 Beaver wrestling team is coming up next week.

Saturday, September 24 at 9:30 am the team will have an unofficial Open Practice in the Dale Thomas Wrestling Room. The  wrestling room is located on the second floor of the middle section of the Sports Practice Facility just west of Gill Coliseum. Kick-off for the football game starts a few hours later in Reser Stadium across the street.

Practice will be led by the team, as official practices do not start until later in October. The coaches will be present so you will be able to say hello. Don't forget - Taylor Meeks will be back, this time as a staff member!

Looking back to the Summer Olympics, it is always fun to learn of connections to those on the team. Besides the connection to Terry Steiner, former OSU coach, now the Women's Team Head Coach, the Beavers have another connection to the ladies in the Olympics, Mike R. Jones. Mike is now with Simon Fraser, up in BC, Canada.

Those of you who remember Mike R. Jones from his days of wrestling for the Beavers will enjoy this email exchange he had with Len Kauffman:

Did have my third alum get Olympic gold, proof I do not do lasting harm! Helen Maroulis became USA’s first women’s Olympic Champion.

Thought I might get two as Danielle Lappage had beaten everyone other than Japan and USA. She actually won by tech fall over the bronze medal winner. Five minutes before her opening match she did one last duck under in warm up to a complete hamstring tear.
Helen wrestled for me for four years. She took a sabbatical in her second year to go to center to make 2012 Olympic team (against my advice). Lost to a very average girl and at 20 was ready to quit sport! Came back, made world team that fall, ended up second losing to Japan in final at 55kg. Won four straight University nationals without losing a match, and is on a 80 90 match win streak since winning worlds at 55 last year in Vegas. Did not make any of these athletes from scratch. Although I do claim that once in a while> Nice to see that we have a system that can get them from A to Z if they are willing to work hard, lucky enough to avoid or manage injury > Even Igali coming out of Nigeria was very well coached in v basics by Bulgarian coaches growing up. as did her Team mate Vicky Anthony. Helen majored in communications while here. 3.7 GPA, Originally from Maryland. Really trying to phase out here before they phase me out !! Hope to go part time assistant soon.
Mike

One last piece of wrestling news, which happened a while back - Minnesota's longtime coach J Robinson has been fired. Brandon Eggum will serve as the Interim Head Coach. To read more details, see these two stories:
Article at OpenMat
Second Article at OpenMat
Thank you to Craig Scharer for sending me those links!

Don't forget, first unofficial Open Practice - next Saturday!

Go Beavs!

End of August Wrestling News and Coaches Update

As the days roll closer to the start of school and a new wrestling season, it's time for a bit of news here at the end of August.

First of all, since my last email we had one more golden Olympic moment for Team USA in freestyle wrestling. Kyle Snyder won gold at 97 kg., defeating his opponent from Azerbaijan 3-1. If you would like to see the other scores from the Olympics and other tournaments, you can find them at this link to results for Olympics and other events.

Those of you who remember Greg Strobel, one of Oregon State's great wrestlers, will want to mark Sept. 21  on your calendar. Both Greg and Mike Hass, of OSU football, will be inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame for the State of Oregon. For more details, you can read the article at OSU about Strobel and Hass's induction into the HOF. Congratulations to Greg and Mike!!

The FALL Board has started working on plans for activities for the upcoming wrestling season. If anyone has any input, please share it with me or any other Board member. One thing the Board would like FALL members to consider: The Pac-12's will be held at Stanford at the end of the season. How much interest would there be in chartering a bus like we did the last time the Pac's were at Stanford? It is about a 10 hour ride from Corvallis. Please be thinking about it as we will need to ask who is interested early on to decide if we want to do it.
Finally, an update came out from the Coaches Corner yesterday. It includes  the names of our newcomers, so if you haven't seen the update yet, you will find it below.

Go Beavs!
Here's the word from the coaches: We hope everyone had a great summer.  We had a productive summer and are getting ready to roll into another pre-season. We have had some change, have some new faces in the program and the 2016-2017 season is quickly approaching. Coach Troy Steiner was named the Head Wrestling Coach for the re-instated Fresno State program. We appreciate everything Troy has done for OSU and wish him the best!

Golf Outing
We want to thank everyone that played in and/or  sponsored a hole or a team for the Dale Thomas Golf Outing. It was beautiful day at Corvallis Country Club and we had a great time. The support from everyone is always appreciated ! It allows us to do things that otherwise would not be possible.

New Faces
We are excited to welcome former Beav All American Taylor Meeks back to Corvallis as an Assistant Coach. Taylor returns to The Beavs after a coaching stint at Boise State University. He will be outstanding to have back in the program and brings a lot of energy and passion for Oregon State University and the wrestling program. Also joining the program as an assistant coach is Ian Miller of Kent State University. Ian was a great wrestler for KSU, a 3x All American and University Freestyle National Champ and we are excited to have him here working with our guys.

Joining the program this fall as freshman are some hard working and talented youngsters: Connor Noonan of Klamath Falls, Riley Jaramillo from Eugene, Bob Coleman, and Devan Turner of Dixon, California.

Schedule
We are still waiting on the Pac 12 Conference for the final go ahead to release our Official Schedule. What I can tell you is that we have trips planned to Las Vegas for the Cliff Keen Invitational, Reno for The Reno TOC, and Chicago for The Midlands, as well as some exciting duals. As soon as it’s official and I am able to release it, I will pass along.

NCAA Tickets
We will again be putting in for NCAA Tickets in St. Louis and would like to give everyone a heads up. Please let me know if you are interested in getting tickets through OSU for our section. The tickets will be available though our ticket office after we are notified and receive our ticket allotment from the NCAA.

Oregon Hall Of Fame
Oregon State legend Greg Strobel will be going into The Oregon Hall of Fame on September 21^st.  It is a long overdue achievement for Greg and we look forward to seeing him inducted.

Remembering
It was a tough spring and summer for the Beaver Wrestling Family. We lost some special people and want to remember Roger Weigel, Ron Finley, Tim Patrick and Spike Jones. All these guys were special people to the Oregon State Wrestling Family and will always be remembered.

Until next time,

Wrestling News - August 2016

Even during the dog days of summer wrestling makes its way into the news, one way or the other. Here are a few tidbits:

Jerry Winterbotham

 First, some sad news - the loss of another great Beaver Wrestling fan, Jerry Winterbotham. Although Jerry and his wife Alma were long-time Beaver fans, health concerns had kept them from attending meets for the last several years. Jerry always wanted to stay up to speed with what the Beavers were doing out on the mat. He made sure he was still receiving the wrestling updates via email after he and Alma moved. If the emails were not coming through, Jerry would let me know!

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jerry's family. May he rest in Peace. Thanks to Jerry & Alma's daughter, Lori Pedersen, for sending a photo of Jerry and his obituary. His memorial service will be Sept 18, at Elkton High School. The obituary is printed at the end of this post for your convenience.

Another item in the news pertains to Gill Coliseum, home of Beaver Wrestling. The interior of Gill is slated for some improvements that should be finished in time for the upcoming wrestling season! To read more about it, check the article at the OSU Beavers site.

Closing ceremonies for the 2016 Olympic Games take place Sunday evening, August 21. Wrestling was placed near the end of the schedule, so some of the wrestling is still to come as I write. For all the results from the Olympics check here. Use the tabs and drop down menus at the top to find results for the different divisions: Women, Greco-Roman and Freestyle. So far Team USA has at least one gold medal, I believe. Congratulations to Helen Maroulis for bringing home the first Gold Medal for the USA Women's team! Head Coach of the Women's team is Terry Steiner, who was an Assistant coach at OSU under Joe Wells. J'den Cox won Bronze for freestyle. Congratulations, J'den!

Go Beavs! Go USA!
 ******************************************

George E. “Jerry” Winterbotham

January 7, 1927 – August 1, 2016

Jerry Winterbotham passed away at the age of 89 in Keizer, Oregon. On January 7, 1927 Jerry was born in Portland, OR to George Errol and Caryl (McFeeters) Winterbotham. He had one sister, Donna Lee Johnson who preceded him in death in 2007. After the passing of his father in 1936, his mother Caryl married Jack Gorman and the family moved to Elkton where his new father had a ranch along the Umpqua River. It was there that he developed his love of sports, Oregon history and fishing.

After serving in the army at the end of WWII, Jerry attended Oregon State University and upon graduation in 1950 moved back to Elkton where he purchased a small ranch near his parents. He married Alma Dunlap and had three daughters. He spent 27 years teaching and coaching in the Elkton School District. After retiring from teaching in 1979, Jerry and Alma sold their ranch and moved to Roseburg where Jerry became very active in the Umpqua Fishermen’s Association and the Salmon Trout Enhancement Program (STEP). It was there that he began researching and writing about the area in which he grew up. He authored several books, one of which was Umpqua: The Lost County of Oregon in which he recounted the history of the only Oregon county not in existence today. In 1994, they moved to Brownsville where they could be closer to their beloved OSU Beavers and attend many of the college games. In 2000 Jerry wrote and published Footsteps on the Umpqua, an early history of the Umpqua River basin. Jerry and Alma moved to Keizer to be closer to family in 2010.

Jerry is survived by his wife of 62 years, Alma; daughters Lori (Greg) Pedersen of Keizer, Sally (Spike) Bruggeman of Umpqua, OR and Cathy (Joe) Piccolella of Converse, TX; granddaughter Kate Pedersen and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins. A private family interment was held at Willamette National Cemetery on August 10^th. There will be a Memorial Service on September 18^th at 2:00 pm at Elkton High School. Contributions may be made in memory of Jerry to the Elkton Charter School Auxiliary Building Fund, PO Box 390, Elkton, OR 97436.

Summer Wrestling News

A few items in the news this summer to share with everyone in the Beaver wrestling community.

First of all, this is a bit late, but congratulations to Jana Iwasaki and Brett Waner, who were married earlier this summer! Jana is a past President of "The FALL", and her father is former Beaver wrestler, Ron Iwasaki. The happy couple lives in Chicago, but we hope to talk them into returning to the PNW someday to get them back in the stands for Beaver wrestling!

As you know, the Summer Olympic games in Rio are about to start. USA Wrestling has 3 different teams - Freestyle, Greco-Roman and Women teams. For all the news about wrestling at the Games, check the USA Wrestling site, or the Olympic Games site.

Next, the NCAA is considering some changes to wrestling, including making the season later to avoid having the Finals compete with the NCAA's basketball March Madness. An NCAA task force has been working on that question and others. You can read all about it here. Thanks to FALL Board member Craig Scharer for sharing the link to this story with me.

Greg Strobel, one of OSU's National Champ wrestlers, will be inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame. Thanks to Len Kauffman for sharing this message with us:

****

Great news...Greg Strobel will be inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame September 21.  He'll join wrestling greats Robin Reed, Chet Newton, Jess Lewis, Ron Finley and Les Gutches in the HoF.  I'll send details on time and place later.  For now, mark WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 on your calendar.

CONTRATULATIONS Greg. 

******

One final bit of news, former Oregon State wrestler Anthony Harris is the recipient of a postgraduate scholarship announced recently. For the full story, check out the article at the Oregon State site. Congratulations, Anthony and best of luck with your studies!

Go Team USA! Go Beavs!