Sammy and Charlie's--- Hot Seat

Mr. Twister(aka Andre Morgan) you are now on the Charlie and Sammy HOT SEAT

1. What are the biggest changes you have seen in kid's wrestling since you joined at the start of your children's careers?
Mr. Twister: The mandatory high school weigh ins. It eliminated the big weight cutting and put everyone on an even plane.

2. What would you consider the strengths of Illinois wrestling?
Mr. Twister: The depth of the talent level and the dedication of the coaches. When a kid like mine can place higher at the national championships than in his own state that tells it all. There are coaches that have been doing this for 20 years that have none of their own kids still involved but they come back year after year and dedicate three fourths of the year to the kids.

3.What one area in Illinois wrestling would you improve?
Mr. Twister: Participation in freestyle and the amount of quality tournaments for everyone from kids to college. Freestyle makes you more complete as a wrestler. Our state tournament is too soon and the developmental(tournaments) don't draw the best kids. Oh and I would eliminate Friday night Greco matches.

4.Who do you think has been the toughest wrestler your son has faced?
Mr. Twister: There have been several. Lance Palmer (Ohio State)4x state champ from Ohio. I can't even describe how tough this kid is on top. He turns kids like you peel potatoes. Just a plain BEAST Ohio's 4 x champ that wrestles live bears in practice. It don't get much tougher than that.
Todd Scharavin (Arizona State)of California, 3x state champ that Mario beat twice at Senior Nationals. This kid invented tough. He just kept refusing to lose. And to beat him twice. I was so proud of Mario that day. Mike Grey (Cornell) of New Jersey also was a difficult match up for Mario. This was the number one kid in the country. The cover boy for W.I.N. magazine. New Jersey's first four time champ. The total package. His grinding style made it difficult for Mario to get free and work the funky stuff
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5. What Illinois wreslter has been the toughest your son has faced?
Mr. Twister: Kyle Hutter (Providence/Old Dominion) has to be number one. The kid would just not go away and the rivalry was great for the schools, the CCL, the state and the kids themselves. Although Mario had a winning (9 & 2) record against Kyle everytime he would get to the finals of a big tournament, Kyle would be coming out from the other corner. No wrestler knows Mario better than Kyle Hutter. In fact, I am making a home video of just those eleven matches. It is going to be action packed. We have a lot of respect for Kyle, his parents, coaches and his school. Hopefully the rivalry will continue in college. Dalton Bullard(Belvedere/Illinois) has traditionally been a problem. We just did not seem to be able to match up with him except one time at Geneseo when it was just plain Mario's day. Dalton, like Mario, is a lot better than his high school state tournament record shows. And of course Jimmy Kennedy(Grant/Illinois). He took Mario's best shot's that he always scored with and turned them into his personal counter video. He never get's in bad position. Unbelievable athlete 6. Hypothetical: The Twisters are disbanded (hypothetical) if your son had to wrestle for another club in kid's wrestling who would it be?
Mr. Twister: Tough question. I guess I like the Bulldogs Coach Fesser style. I also like Coach Dennis and respect his ability to take kids to the next level. I am not a fan of the All Star teams so that would eliminate a lot of teams. Glad it is hypothetical so I don't have to make that decision
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7. (like I said hypothetical) MC drops their program...what high school would you have your son wrestle for? Montini. They were the only team to get a winning record against Mario- 1 & 2(Martin & McCaffery).
Mr. Twister: I like Coach Bu's style and Montini has a swagger that I also like. Plus they give a pretty decent education too. I think Mario would of fit in real well in their line ups the last 4 years. And finally they have the best finals singlets and I bet my kid would of got to put on that white singlet with the horseshoe on his butt quite a few times
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8. Besides Coach Q (if it is him) who do you think has been the most influential coach in your son's career?
Mr. Twister Coach Quint can get more out of Mario than I can. He is number one. He made Mario the wrestler he is today. Next would be the late Steve Williams who was in the corner for 7th and 8th grade championships and for placing 3rd at Reno Worlds. Stevie put the competitive spirit into Mario and made him believe he could beat anyone. Had he still been alive and if he had been the MC head coach I think everyone would of seen a different Mario. Next was Bill Weick. Although he only coached him one year he constantly over the last four years offered advice to Mario at many tournaments we were at. A first class man and coach. I believe Mario's college coach, Mike Denny, the NCAA Coach of the Year 2006 is coming in to the picture. Mario is always taking about him. And that is not Mario's style unless he respects him a lot. Coach Denny like Coach Q, Coach Stevie and Coach Weick cared about Mario as a person more than as a wrestler. That is the easiest way to influence a kid. Show that you care.

9. What one event, match, season, etc. was the turning point or aided in your son's wrestling advancement?
Mr. Twister: The one match was the IWF(Illinois Wrestling Federation) sectional at St Laurence 1998 against Matt Schemeski (Oak Forest Warriors/Sandburg) back in the old days. The sectional winner advanced to state and the loser was out. Lot's of pressure and the match was packed five deep. With Coach Quint in the corner, Mario came from behind twice with two near falls to clinch his first state tournament appearance. Mario was still young with very raw technique but he showed a lot of heart in that match. He had struggled with Schemeski a lot the previous two years but that day he was ready. We still watch that match on the old VCR. I got to convert that to DVD. It was his really first big win in front of a lot of people. I don't think he ever lost to Schemeski again.

Turning season was seventh grade year - 2001, when he marched through the tournament reg., sectionals and state pinning everyone and did not give up a single offensive point for three weeks.. The wierd part was he told us was going to do it then he did. In the finals against Chris McNally of Morton, Mario had a half that slipped out and was in danger in the middle of the mat, bridging on the top of his head, scooting to the edge to get out of bounds. It took almost 30 seconds for him to get out of bounds with out being scored on. The ref (Tom Henniff) put him on top and Coach Quint told him to cut the kid and then take him down. You should of seen the dirty look he gave the coaches. McNally saw the optional start signal, got nervous and false started. Stevie Williams told Quint that Mario was trying to not give up a point so they had him optional to a cradle and Mario pinned the kid, preserved his streak and won his second title. Later that season he went to Topeka and made USA All American for the second time but this time something about him seemed different. He was real confident about his wrestling. Those were the fun days.

The one event: Coach Quint taught Mario to be a leg rider that could score while riding the summer prior to seventh grade year. It gave Mario a lot of confidence that he could control other wrestlers and still work his moves at the same time. Prior to that he had a lot of trouble with wrestlers shooting on him. Leg riding ended that, especially when he added the Granby series. I would recomend the Granby series for everyone.

10. Who has been the best high school team you have seen?
Mr. Twister: Blair Academy of New Jersey and St Edwards of Ohio. Illinois teams would get smoked by either one of these teams. Sorry but it is the truth.

11. Do you think Coach Q would answer questions from Sammy/Charlie's hotseat?
Mr. Twister: NO. He is not the Q and A type. He prefers to let his body of work speak for him. He is all about the kids getting the pub.

12. What was your most memorable moment from your son's career?
Mr. Twister: I think winning 4 CCL titles. He really wanted to do that. I was so proud of him because he wanted to win for his mother who had been in the hospital for a month and that was her first day out. If he had lost it would of ruined his senior season no matter what happened afterwards. There is something about being a CCL champ that carries a lot of pride and tradition with it. A lot of former champs (including the great T J Williams was in the stands) came and congratulated personally Mario that day. But he would probably say Senior Nationals because he wrestled the best he ever has on the national level. I don't know if people really know how hard it is to wrestle state champ after state champ for two days. There were seven top 12 All Americans in the 125 pound bracket which was considered the toughest weight in the country last year. No scrubs at this tournament. If you do real well at Senior Nationals like Fargo the college coaches are right there with the scholarships. And Mario did real well that week. Timing is the key to life
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Mr. Twister you are now off the Sammy and Charlie HOT SEAT

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1. Coach Estrada, last year was a great year for you and your boys and my hats off to your team's accomplishments. What are your team goals for 2006-2007?
Coach Estrada: One of our first goals is to build a good practice room, good partners, good attitudes, next fill the gaps in our dual team line up from last years kids that went on to high school, and also build our 10 and under program up to help keep SOT thriving.

2. How did SOT come about and how did you get involved with SOT?
Coach Estrada: Well as most people know I wrestled for Granite City in high school and then several years later wrestled for Meramac Jr. collage for 2 years, and Missouri Baptist for half a semester but had to stop to take care of my family. The summer after that Gerald Moss (Jake and Zac Gregerson's step father) Came and found me at the summer job I work at and asked me if I would be interested in coaching his boy's. At the time I really didn't know if I was cot out for coaching but after much persistence I thought I would give it a shot, so Gerald bought a mat I found a gym and we both put up the money for the charter and S.O.T. came alive!

3. Where do you see SOT five years from now?
Coach Estrada: That’s up to the parents and the kids, as long as there are kids that want to wrestle for SOT, SOT will Exist, even if I was to pass away or move, I think SOT would still keep going, its more than me running this club, I just do my part.

4. What was the turning point for your club last year? When did you feel that you guys had a chance at winning the championship?
Coach Estrada: I’m not going to lie, when the Wilbourns, Bennett, and Venamiglia walked in the room they added to the "BANG". Gregersons, Surber, Prazma, Salas and Graville were building, and also my upper weights Gushleff, Sims and Walliser had there own war they were fighting.

5. Who are some of the wrestlers that we need to keep an eye out for this season?
Coach Estrada: Of coarse Gregerson "he's my power house", but Graville and Salas should do good and I think we'll have a few sleepers that might come out of the woodwork.

6. Who do we not know about now but we will know about very soon?
Coach Estrada: I’m not mentioning any names but a couple of my new upper weights (kids like Sims was, a Jr high wrestler willing to put in 4 days a week to catch up to the rest) and one or two of my unknown lower weights may surprise some people.

7. What is your thoughts on off-season wrestling and specialization of one sport?
Coach Estrada Here's a quote from one of my favorite coaches Izzy " The idea that there is an "off season" for those who aspire to be great at something is ridiculous, "god given talent" and "they are just natural" are excuses lazy individuals use to comfort themselves so they can sleep at night.

8. How do you communicate with the parents and what do you do to keep everyone on the same page?
Coach Estrada: the thing is I try to be completely honest about things, and not everyone is always going to be on the same page but you have to suck it up for the kids, because in the end most of the kids at SOT are there because they chose to be.

9. Do you think you have earned the respect of the Chicago land teams?
Coach Estrada: Really I don’t know.

10. Finally, what do you have to say about your critics that state, "SOT is nothing but an all-start team!”?
Coach Estrada: 6 of my 11 placer were from Granite City, not counting kids like Zac Gregerson, Sean Martin(HWT), Luke Porter(70), Zac Pearman (115), Dan Dan Hutchings(138) Ext... But in the end thanks if you think I got what it takes to manage an all-star-team I’m impressed, but don’t think for a minute im impressed with the people that think that (Its SOT that impresses me)!

Coach Estrada...you are officially off the Sammy and Charlie HOTSEAT!

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(Coach Marty Nowak- LCWC) On behalf of Charlie and I would like to offer congratulations on another fine season!

1. What are your programs goals for the 2006-2007 season?

Coach Marty Nowak: Our Goals for the season are the same every season.
1. First and foremost we want our athletes to enjoy themselves and their families to do the same as members of our program.
2. We stress that our program is about more than just wrestling; we hope to assist in developing young people and aid in that development on and off the mat. I cannot tell you how many kids from our program and say thank you for the life lessons they learn from our program.
3. We want to offer wrestling at its highest competitive levels. Doing so would do a disservice to any of the boys that register for our program… That means ELITE tournaments, wrestling the best all the time, and working hard with proper mental focus each practice…but ya gotta remember these are kids… that’s not always possible.

I don’t set goals about winning or losing. Success comes with doing the little things right. Everything correlates. On and off the mat… Personally I believe that success is defined by our daily agenda… what we do everyday to improve as people and athletes.

Obviously, we want to see improvement everyday; we reach for our max potential everyday in practice. We constantly stress Doing what’s right, paying attention to detail, and Being the best they can be.

2. Who are some of the wrestlers that we need to watch for this year?
Coach Marty Nowak: I think we have the potential to be pretty good. Obviously we are lead by our returning qualifiers and place winners; we also have a midget group that won the midget sectional as well as the Tinley Park Team Dual tournament. I think our younger kids as a group sometimes fly under the radar because we don’t get overly involved in the midget “state” open.

We are excited going into the season. I can say that expectations are high; but they are high every season. That’s not being arrogant… its an expectation of excellence we have for ourselves.

3. Who are guys that we don't know about but soon will hearing their name called?
Coach Marty Nowak: I am biased to our kids… so I will not name any names… I don’t want to put any undo pressure on them… We handle that type of stuff in our practice room. Seeing my name on the message boards and people taking shots is one thing… It’s another for people to take shots at kids… By me coming on here and saying “Eric Nowak” (named after former TP Bulldog great Eric Novak) is going to do this or that does nothing but set a kid up for potential ridicule… and we all know kids read this forum/

4. Where do you see LCWC five years from now?
Coach Marty Nowak: Honestly… Our program has grown to a size, success and organizationally to levels I never dreamed of… Five years from now I will hopefully have my three sons and a nephew in the mix of things. I hope we are still improving in all facets. I think that’s the most you can ask of yourself and your people. I will be 40 years old then and have been involved with the IKWF for almost 21 years then… Kind of an old man in terms of years involved.

5. What do you think of kids specializing in one sport and the role of off-season wrestling?
Coach Marty Nowak: I am not a big fan of specialization. It robs kids of being involved and being exposed to other experiences as well as other good coaches. My 5 year old son plays soccer, T-ball, and will give wrestling a try this year… But I won’t push it though… If wrestling is something my kids enjoy fantastic… If they don’t… Well, I guess it’s my thing then; not theirs. I don’t believe in the burn out syndrome either. How often do you see kids Burn out of Play Station or riding their bikes? They simply move on to things that are more complex and challenging.

6. You guys are an establishment program and have been around now for what 15/16 years what are the strengths of a program like LCWC and what are areas that you think you guys need to improve in?
Coach Marty Nowak: I think the biggest strength our program has is the support and strength within our parent’s commitment to the program. With out that nothing is possible. Another driving strength of our program has to be our coaching staff… We have been fortunate to have a number of people that coach that know more than just wrestling moves… Many of our coaches who run our practices have been certified teachers/coaches. These people are trained (using a variety of methods) to present, practice, evaluate, and recognize needed remediation of skills for our athletes. Case in point- a teacher is trained and within their careers to work with young people and get them to progress from point A to point B… Without question- a definite strength… A strength comparatively to someone who does for example heating and air conditioning, sales, or secretarial work for a living?? Does that make sense? Don’t misunderstand my point though… That’s not to say that someone who isn’t a teacher COULDN’T be a fantastic coach and relate and teach extremely well… For example- Joe Fessler, Quint Harrell, Jim Considine, Hector Gomez and Jose Martinez… I don’t think any of those guys are teacher in an academic setting but they do a fantastic job in their practice rooms.

Improvement? I think we have made HUGE strides fundamentally in the past 10 years compared to our first 5-6 years… Our kids early in our program were SO HUNGRY for success… Our kids in our program now have upped the level of technique; I would love to see that combined with the hunger of our earlier teams. I truly enjoy watching our kids make those strides from Point A to Point B that I mentioned earlier… Its much more rewarding than anything else.

7. There are all types of programs starting up out there. For the young coaches starting programs out there what advice would you give them?
Coach Marty Nowak:

1. Keep the kids first- Animals run the ZOO! Parents do what kids want… Always keep the kids best interest at heart.
2. Remember everything correlates on and off the mat… stress doing the right things in all settings… Probably the toughest thing to do.
3. Focus on improvement daily.
4. Lead with the heart before the hand-
5. Don’t b afraid to push your athletes… As the coach- you are the supposed expert and parents have put you in charge of their athlete’s development.


8. What tournament, situation, defining moment had you feeling that hey we have a chance to move into the elite? What was that moment that you felt you guys turned the corner?
Coach Marty Nowak:

There are a number…
1. The junior sectionals 1992 I believe- we had like 3-4 sectional champs plus 3 or 4 seconds. I thought we definitely had the makings of a strong group
2. 1993- Our 3rd year as a club we placed 2nd in the novice division…
3. 1995- Our first state duals title; we had a 5 year plan and in our 5th year we accomplished our goals.

Heck I remember in 1992 being in 27 place at the Midwest classic; the next year we were in 4th… A huge improvement

9. What can we expect from the LCWC Elite tournament this year?
Coach Marty Nowak: Hopefully more of the same as last year; Great wrestling with top wrestlers competing. We look at the LCWC elite as one of the big three….LCWC ELITE in the beginning of the year; Midwest in the middle; and the Tholl at the end.

10. Any surprises this season out of LCWC?
Coach Marty Nowak: I am not sure. We are going to be happy to show up and do the best we can with the boys we have. Not much of a surprise there. I am excited about the coaching staff we have assembled, the strength of our organizational structure that has withstood a number of interesting improvements, as well as a group of athletes that are focused and love coming to practice everyday. Honestly- I love practice; tournaments can be tough and people tend to lose their focus of why they are involved in youth sports. Practice on the other hand is where we can make our biggest impact on kids.

Best of luck to everyone and i hope its a safe and enjoyable season for everyone!