Bigfork wrestling: Working to provide opportunities

PART ONE: This is the second of two articles focused on wrestling in Bigfork.Bigfork hasn't had a high school wrestling program for eight years now, but that hasn't kept it from being a topic of concern for coaches and parents in the area.

Four years ago Mark Tudahl reestablished the town's Little Guy Wrestling program, which had dispersed following the departure of the high school program.

It was Tudahl's hope that by revamping interest in the sport among the younger kids that wrestling at the high school level would follow.

"Since the kids didn't have any experience, we started with the younger kids so we could build the program from the bottom up," said Kelly Rieke, Bigfork Little Guy Wrestling team manager. "It's gone really well. We've had a lot of kids continue on in the program for three and four years. The parents are very supportive of it and seem to enjoy having their kids be a part of wrestling."

Bigfork's Little Guy program has grown every year. This season 48 kids took part in Bigfork's program.

"I think that we've shown that there is a part of the community that does support wrestling and would like to have it brought back to the school," Rieke said.

While bringing wrestling back to Bigfork High School would on its own be beneficial to those interested in the sport, many believe it would help the boy athletes in another sport — football.

"From the football point of view, wrestling is a compliment to football," said Todd Emslie Bigfork High School head football coach. "It's a physical sport. It's demanding and you have to learn balance and center of gravity. Those are all things you have to learn for football."

Emslie served as offensive coordinator for the Vikings football team during the mid-1990s when the school had a successful wrestling program, as well as a consistently solid football team. Emslie said that the wrestling paid off for many of the football players.

"I think, generally speaking, wrestlers are tougher kids," he said. "They lock up and throw each other around. It's tough and it's violent. It's also very technical. You have to know how to move yourself and your opponent around the mat, which is similar to what you need to do in football."

FIGHTING FOR NUMBERS

Although Bigfork seems to have an abundance of young wrestlers, those numbers taper off with the increase of age.

Some of the decrease in interest at the older ages is likely due to there being no high school program, but there is also a time conflict at the high school level which isn't present at the elementary and middle school.

Currently, Little Guy wrestling, which is open to kids age 5 to 14, is the only sport open to young boys in Bigfork during the winter. The boys basketball season for fifth through eighth grade is in late fall and the girls play in the winter. However, in high school basketball season and wrestling season overlap as winter sports.

Rieke said that in the older age groups they are already losing kids to basketball who play on traveling teams in Kalispell in the winter.

Whether that is due to kids wanting to play basketball more than wrestle is hard to say, she said, because as of now they are switching because they can't wrestle in high school so they want to get in as much basketball experience as possible.

"It would be easier for us to keep our kids in our program if we had a high school wrestling team because it would give them a goal," Rieke said.

Although it wouldn't be an overnight success, Rieke said that she thinks the interest is there for the school to fill a high school program in the years to come.

"I think it is feasible," Rieke said. "I think it is something that would start out small. I think over time it would establish itself as a successful program. From what we're seeing at the Little Guy level, in the next five to eight years we have enough kids that it would really take off."

IN THE MEANTIME

While a high school program at Bigfork isn't likely in the near future, there are still wrestling opportunities in the area. The Little Guy program isn't going anywhere and the coaches still see it as a valuable program with or without a BHS program to feed into.

"I'm just going to keep coaching and keep promoting Little Guy wrestling and hopefully there will be a break and the budget will change," said Marc Nadeau, Bigfork Little Guy Wrestling's current head coach. "I just love the sport of wrestling and I want to continue to help it grow as much as I can."

Nadeau agrees with Emslie that wrestling is more than just good for wrestlers.

"There's so much athleticism in wrestling," Nadeau said. "Wrestling transfers to other sports so well. It is especially useful for football. Wrestlers already know how to tackle. It's great for other sports too, like soccer and cross country. There's success story after success story to verify that."

Also hoping to build enthusiasm about wrestling in Bigfork is a new program in town, Elite Wrestling.

Elite Wrestling was created by David Laird and Don Mischke to provide year-round wrestling opportunities for Bigfork kids.

"There's not a lot of wrestling in Bigfork and the kids have to go to Kalispell if they want more and I don't think that's very fair to them," Laird said. "I think there needs to be more opportunities for kids in Bigfork to be active."

In addition to the collegiate-style taught in Little Guy wrestling, Elite will also train participants in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling.

"Teaching them the different types of wrestling broadens their horizons and exposes them to new things," Mischke said.

The program is open to anyone age 6 to 30, which the coaches said will help the parents grasp a better understanding of the sport.

"It gives parents a chance to learn what their kid is learning," Mischke said. "So they're not at home saying this is what you need to be doing and not necessarily knowing what is right and what is wrong. This will help them be on the same page."

Elite had its first day of practice last week and had six participants sign-up. Mischke said he expects that number to grow as other scheduling conflicts change.

Both Laird and Mischke said that they would like to see the interest in wrestling transfer into a return of the high school program.

"It would be great to see the high school program come back," Mischke said. "More kids would get to wrestle and the school would lose less kids who were transferring to other schools to wrestle. It would be good for everyone. Wrestling is a scholarship sport just like football and basketball, so it would be huge to get it back in the high school."

Practices for Elite Wrestling are held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at the Arc at Bethany Lutheran Church. For more information on Elite, contact Laird at 707-888-8182 or Mischke at 250-9094.