Current Team Information

"What's going on and what to expect"

8 - 26 - 10

(Items 1 - 5 are newer)

**Bronco Wrestling financial aid for tournaments and camps - On the "parent" section of this site, I've put up some guidelines as to how we spend our fundraised cash to help wrestlers get to camps and special tournaments. In the past we've just helped when asked and when we could. The advancement of our program, meaning number of wrestlers attending camps and number of wrestlers qualifying for national tournaments, has raised the level of money going out. I felt that we've come to the point where we need more specific rules/guidelines to be fair and equitable. Take a moment to read one time how money will be given out.

**This years wrestling schedule is now complete - click on "schedules", "match schedule" on this site to see.

**FYI - This year we are going to host the Winter Classic Middle School Tournament on Saturday, Jan. 22. In addition, we are going to host a youth tournament (grade schoolers) on Sunday, Jan. 23. The Bella Vista team and parents will be in charge of Saturday, and the Carnegie team and parents will be in charge of Sunday. All money goes to our BV wrestling boosters, so we want to have the mind set of possibly helping on Sunday if needed. Please make sure to block out that weekend on your calendar's.

Off Season Workouts are currently going on. Each Monday and Thursday in the Bella Vista wrestling room workouts are going on from 6 - 8pm. Last night there were 25+ wrestlers working out getting better. If your not playing a fall sport and not coming, your going to have a tough time cracking the varsity line-up.

**Wrestling Alumni Update: Parents and students at the high school level are famous for talking athletic scholarships. The reality is that less than 1% of all high school athletes actually play at the college level. Any school that has more than 1% has a great program, and we've got it! This fall the Bella Vista Wrestling team will have 3 alumni wrestling at a four year colleges. Sheldon Page is wrestling for Division II powerhouse University of Great Falls (Montana), Bryden Lazaro is wrestling for Menlo College (NAIA school), and Jake Briggs is wrestling for Division I rising power Boise State. Congratulations to them all. No secret how they got there, they simply worked their butts off.

**The new varsity team picture is on this site now. Go to "past greats" and check it out.

**Congratulations to Victor Trujillo - State Freestyle Wrestling Champion

**Hotel rooms for state next year. Katrina Ferland has booked some rooms for state next year. We will stay at a different hotel than in the past. This hotel is across the street from the state meet arena, and costs $109/night. Marriott Hotel. If you'd like to book a room, contact Katrina at 765-1190.

**Let's take a look at the program that your wrestlers are currently in...Two years ago Jake Briggs won the National Sophomore Championship. Last year, Bryden Lazaro placed third at the Senior National Championships - earning All American honors. Last year Jennifer Page won the Girls National Championship - another All American wrestler. This year Jake Briggs placed 8th at the Senior National Championships - earning All American honors. This year, Jennifer Page places 7th at the Women's Senior Open Nationals. The program is in place to reach any goal you want, the wrestlers just need to take advantage of it. Bella Vista Wrestling has got it going on!!!!

**Some information to pass on to your wrestlers: At the state championships this year, only 6 ranked #1 wrestlers (out of 14 weight classes) actually placed first. 18 wrestlers who were not ranked, but were considered "honorable mention", medaled this year. Six wrestlers who were not mentioned "at all" in the rankings, medaled this year. So that means that 24 kids medaled at state that weren't supposed to by rankings. This goes to show you that 1) rankings are opinions only, and 2) the mental side of wrestling is extremely important - believing in themselves.

**All Parents: Like about every other sport, wrestling does have a "club season" where we wrestle as a club rather than Bella Vista. For the most part this is called "Freestyle Wrestling". Freestyle wrestling is what you see in the Olympics, and while it's just wrestling, the rules are slightly different. There are 7 local tournaments on Saturdays in the spring starting the week after the state championships (March 5/6). There are occassional high school rules (Folkstyle) tournaments in the spring, but most of these tournaments are in the fall. So as you can see, if your wrestler loves the sport and wants to continue to improve, we do continue to practice and there are tournaments to go to. These tournaments are located under "Events" on this site.

**Another fundraising opportunity: We have a young man in our Bronco Wrestling Club who started wrestling last year. His dad after watching our practices and how things work realized that organizations like ours need fundraising to keep going, so he did something about it. Mr. Hudson started an organization called "Speed Racing Athletics". They put on fun runs (5k & 10k) as a way to raise money for organizations like ours. This is NOT a Bella Vista Wrestling fundraiser, but he has pledged money to us to help. He asks nothing in return and this organization is not a part of his job/income. The money raised is meant to give away. He said that if we can promote the fun runs, they'll make more money, and thus he can donate more to us. Their next run is on April 11, 2010 called "Run Your Tax Off", and the race will be held at Nimbus Flats. For more information on how to join or promote this run (and others), go to www.SpeedRacingAthletics.org. As I said, the more people that run the races, the more they can help us meet our financial goals. I have brochures for this next race. If you would like one for yourself or several for your place of work, let me know and I'll provide you with as many as you'd like.

If you need rooms for any tournaments that we travel to, contact Katrina Ferland (our team travel agent) immediately at 765-1190, she's holding rooms right now.

**FYI - I do post varsity team results each week on this site if you are interested. Click "Events", "Recent Bronco Team Results".

**If you've got a wrestler that would like to become a top wrestler, go to "Events" on this site under "You want to be a champion wrestler". It all starts there! Then continues on with alot of time, effort and energy towards being the best.

**Scholarship Requirements: Division I schools now have new high school core classes that must be taken to be eligible for scholarships, they are as follows: 4 yrs English, 3 yrs Math (Algebra 1 or higher), 2 yrs Natural/Physical Science (one lab), 1 yr of additional English/Math/Physical Science, 2 yrs of Social Science, 4 yrs of additional core courses (any of the above areas or foreign language, non-doctrinal religion/philosophy).

**Varsity Parents Only: If you would like a room for any tournaments this year (including the state championships), call Katrina Ferland at 765-1190 or kcftravel@yahoo.com to book your rooms. Any hotel she books you in will be the same hotel that the team stays in. Katrina is an alumni parent (2 boys), she's been booking our rooms for years - and yes she is a travel agent.

**Great place to get a physical done quickly and cheap: Dr. Ronald Sockolov will do physicals for only $20, without an appointment. Must be at his office promptly at 4:30pm Monday through Thursday with $20 (cash only). His address is 1 Scripps Dr. Suite 202, Sacramento   Ph.# 927-1114.                       

**If you have general questions, or want to let me know that your wrestler will be missing practice, email me at mlee@sanjuan.edu.

**Tax Write Off: If you have a prize to donate, or have gotten a prize from a company, I have a letter with our tax exempt ID# on it that can be used to "write off" the donation for tax purposes. Just email me that you need the letter and I'll get it to you.