Little Guy program revives wrestling in Bigfork

By FAITH MOLDAN

Bigfork Eagle

The Swan River School gym was full of life Monday night, with wrestlers, coaches and parents trying to resuscitate the Bigfork Little Guy Wrestling program.

Bigfork lost its high school wrestling program about six years ago due to dwindling numbers and lack of interest. The Little Guy program fell to the wayside around the same time, but has come back full force in recent weeks. Bigfork and Swan River schools sent home interest fliers with students in kindergarten through eighth grade and received an overwhelming response.

“I thought we’d maybe have 20 kids,” coach Mark Tudahl said. Sixty-four forms were returned and 58 wrestlers took part in the program’s first meet in Whitefish Feb. 17.

The wrestlers range from 45 lbs. to 166 lbs., and are divided into four groups — beginners, novice, middle and junior. Bigfork’s program consists mainly of beginners.

“I like the game of wrestling,” 6-year-old Jake Smith said. A first-time wrestler, Smith said he did not have a favorite move yet but that he won a match at the Whitefish tournament.

Some of the older wrestlers have prior experience wrestling and with the Little Guy program.

“I’ve been wrestling for four years off and on,” 13-year-old Jacob Tudahl said. He said he started wrestling because his dad and brothers wrestled. “It’s a fun sport,” he said. He added that although he enjoys wrestling, he plans on playing basketball in high school. Tudahl won one of his three matches at the Whitefish tournament.

“Many of the kids only had three practices before competing and no other experience,” Mark Tudahl said. “We won close to half our matches. They had a lot of heart and were trying really hard.”

Other teams competing at the Whitefish tournament included Whitefish, Columbia Falls, Kalispell, Evergreen, Ronan and Arlee.

Tudahl is one of 10 coaches for Bigfork’s Little Guy program. He and the others — Mark Nadeau, Andy Britt, Jared Johnson, Tim McAnally, Trevor Bolivar, Steve Gordon, Clayton Woll, Craig Schmit and Rhett Rieke — volunteer their time and run practices with the kids three nights a week.

“We’ve had lots of parental help,” Tudahl, who wrestled for 16 years in Corvallis, said. “It’s been great using Swan River’s facilities. Pete’s (Loyda) really helped us.”

Swan River School Principal Peter Loyda said he’s excited to have the Little Guy program at Swan River School.

“They’re having a lot of fun with it,” he said. “It’s teaching them fundamental skills at a young level and getting interest in wrestling up again.”

Tudahl said he hopes the Little Guy program will build a base for Bigfork wrestling, which will enable the high school program to restart in three years. A goal shared by Bigfork High School Activities Director Shannon Smith.

“We want to bring wrestling back to Bigfork High School,” Smith said. He and Tudahl said there are currently 18 BHS students interested in wrestling. Smith and BHS also donated the use of the school’s old wrestling mat. Bigfork Middle School Principal Wayne Loeffler helped locate the old wrestling equipment, got the scale certified and helped pass out fliers as well.

Bigfork Little Guy Wrestling secretary Billie Little helped start the program up again, as well. She said many of the wrestlers have used wrestling shoes, but all of the wrestlers have new singlets for competition thanks in part to Dewey at Universal Athletics in Kalispell. Blizzards shutdown wrestling supply warehouses on the east coast a couple weeks ago, which meant Bigfork Little Guy Wrestling would not receive their new singlets in time for the Travis Wartnow/Jeff Gould Whitefish “Icebreaker” Takedown Tournament.

“He helped us above and beyond the call of duty,” Tudahl said. Little added that they placed the order one day and received the singlets the next day.

The program has also been helped by a large number of sponsors, and more are still coming in. Tudahl said he hopes sponsorship fees will allow for the purchase of a new wrestling mat.

“The one wrestling mat we have is not large enough for all the kids to practice on. There were originally two mats in the area that we could have used, but one was old and had already been reconditioned once. It had been used for other sports and had outlived its usefulness,” he said. “It was no longer considered safe to be used as a wrestling mat. We want the kids to have fun and we most certainly want them to be safe.”

Children ages 6-15 that want to join the Bigfork Little Guy Wrestling program can sign up before the March 10 tournament in Eureka. The Eureka Tournament is the first qualifying tournament for Bigfork. The team’s second qualifying tournament is the following weekend in Columbia Falls. Qualifiers for the state tournament will compete March 24 in Ronan. State for the beginners is March 23. Bigfork Little Guy Wrestling has a meet Feb. 24 in Columbia Falls and will host its own Little Viking Tournament March 3 at Swan River School.

“This has turned out 10 times better than I thought it would,” Tudahl said.