Weekly Team Update

Last Updated: 3/13/26: The first 3 sections are new

**Our wrestling banquet will be on Thursday, 3/26/26 at the Simpson House in Fair Oaks from 6 - 8 pm. HERE IS A LINK to a form to RSVP to the banquet (an email was sent with the same link - you only need to RSVP once).

**Banquet Message:

Hi Everyone! We are excited to host the wrestling banquet at the Simpson residence this year on Thursday, March 26th at 6pm. We will mingle, get food, and then present the awards while you are eating. This is a really fun night so I hope you can attend. Please bring a dish to share based on the categories below. You don't have to bring enough for EVERYONE, but maybe enough for 8 people (or whatever you think). This is a suggestion and if you really have something different that you would like to bring that is fine.

I will provide paper plates, utensils, and napkins. Adults can bring adult drinks for themselves (and to share) as well.

Freshman Families Main dishes (pasta tray, bbq meat, sandwich trays, taco bar, pizza, sliders, etc.)

Sophomore Families:Side dishes (Green salad, pasta salad, chips and dip, fruit tray, pasta salad, mac n cheese, potato salad, etc.

Junior Families - Desserts (cookies, brownies, cupcakes, etc.)

Senior Families - Drinks (soda, lemonade, etc.)

**OFFSEASON SCHEDULE STARTING 3/16/26:

Wrestling practice Mondays/Wednesdays in the small gym 3:45 - 5:15 pm. We focus on skill development where I teach a lot of technique.
Weight Training in the upgraded weight room at BV: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 5:30 - 7 pm (might get out a little early on occasion and might cancel a night on occasion). Coach Rick and Coach Keough are running these sessions and are legit with their knowledge.
Matches - HERE IS A LINK to the SAWA schedule. Wrestlers are encouraged to attend these local tournaments to get matches in. I will be at most of these tournaments. We also host a tournament on 4/11/26, so our kids will be wrestling and working that tournament.
We will go until about Mid-May (right after the last SAWA tournament) and then take a small break for the end of the school year, unless kids want to keep training. We might continue the weight program 2x a week after that to keep kids going with weights. I'm working on getting the weigh room going at least 2x a week in the summer. I'm also working on our summer schedule so stay tuned. We are working on a team camping trip in July and other activities.

**We are hosting a spring wrestling tournament fundraiser on 4/11/26. This is our last fundraiser of the school year and will need volunteers to help work this tournament. All of our wrestlers will be needed to set up the tournament on Friday, 4/10 after school, and then work the tournament and return mats on Saturday, 4/11. This tournament is less work for us because it is a SAWA tournament and ran by the SAWA crew, but we still like to have a snack bar, gate, and host a nice tournament. Please help support us in the last fundraiser of the season. We are barely in the green right now from the entire season and this really helps get us in a great position to start the next school year. PLUS, our BV wrestlers will be wrestling in this tournament, so that is a lot of fun.

**CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR STATE MEDALISTS, ELIAS CASTANEDA!!!!!! Elias finished in 6th place in the state of California! I cannot tell you all how extremely difficult it is to medal in this state. We have the HARDEST state tournament process in the entire nation and the best teams in the nation. For example, our entire section had 12 total medalists, and Buchanan High School, the #1 ranked team in the nation, had 12 medalists on their one team (including 6 finalists). Insane. Insane, insane, insane. It is so deep and so tough. Poway also had 11 state medalists. The 3rd placed team, St. John Bosco, had 10 medalists, and the 4th/5th placed teams had 8 and 9 medalists. That basically leaves the rest of the state fighting for 3 spots on the podium. There are 1,600 schools that have a boys varsity wrestling team in California, and Elias finished in 6th place through all of that. Also, this is Bella Vista's first state medalist, for boys, in 13 years. The last time we had a state medalists for the boys was in 2013 when Shayne Tucker and Victor Trujillo placed for us. I could go on and on!

**We have some kids wrestling in the club folkstyle state championships next weekend (March 7th). Aris, Justin, David, and Matt are going down to Fresno to wrestle in the folkstyle state championships next weekend. If your wrestler is interested, please let me know and I can provide the information. This is a great opportunity to get some great matches in early in the offseason. I will be there. I thought I was done, but the sport pulled me right back in lol. Please let me know if your wrestler is interested in attending.

**Stay tuned for a banquet date. The Simpson household offered to host the banquet at their house! Thank you! I will spend early next week getting my head around all the banquet details. If you have any connections with chairs, tables, table clothes, balloons, etc., please let me know so that we can take advantage! I am very excited to celebrate all of our wrestlers and our amazing season. I'm planning on hosting the banquet in March, but I need to find out which date works best for the hosting family and for planning everything (in March).

**Congratulations to Masters Champion, Elias Castaneda!!!!! Elias is the first boys champion in 13 years for Bella Vista! What a true accomplishment. Elias won his 2nd match 11-0 over a Masters medalist, he won his quarterfinals match 16-0, he won his semifinals match over the #17 in state 14-0, and he won in the finals 9-0. A very impressive performance and we are very proud, but we are not done. Elias still has work to do at the state tournament.

**Varsity results are in progress

**All details about the week will be communicated to Elias and the kids helping him train for the state tournament this week

**Every wrestler on the team that did not qualify for the state tournament: Sadly, your season is now over. If you would like to stay with the varsity team and train and help out, we would love to have you - just talk to Coach Lane first. If you are doing a spring sport, that is awesome and you should go out for that sport. Regardless, I need every single wrestler's gear on Monday (bag and washed singlets) with their name on a piece of paper in the bag. If they want to keep their sweats and sweatshirt, they can make a $50 donation to the team to keep their sweatshirt and sweatpants (make checks payable to Bella Vista Boosters - wrestling, or cash). If the kids are not keeping their warm ups, they need to return it washed inside their bag. Please return this on the first day so that I don't have to hunt the kids down and try and find the gear. If any kids are going to continue wrestling through the spring and summer then they need to come talk to me, face to face, and tell me what their commitment level will be so we can make sure they have equipment.

**Wrestlers fiished with their season need to turn in their gear: See below about turning in gear - as of 2/15, I've only received gear from 3 kids.

**Offseason Stay tuned for our offseason plan. There is no secret formula to this sport; kids need to put in the work. We will be focusing on skill development, strength training, and getting matches in this offseason. Starting mid-March we will start having practices 2 days a week right after school - with a big focus on teaching/skill development (less of a grind and less focus on conditioning). We will also have the weight room 4 nights a week with coaches running a weight-training program. We will also have kids getting matches in through local tournaments on Saturdays throughout the spring. I will be at most of these tournaments. I'm also working on getting kids to some of the state tournaments in Fresno and the Reno Worlds tournament and lots more.

**End of the year banquet We usually have our banquet off campus at someone's house mid-March. Does anybody want to volunteer their backyard to host the banquet?

**Follow the Bella Vista Fan Page on Facebook: HERE IS A LINK to the fan page. Lots of good stuff on there.

**Our team is right there with the best: If you are curious, Vista Del Lago won the D3 Team Section Dual Meet Championships yesterday and Ponderosa got 2nd in D2 of the same tournament. We were right there with both teams and had a legit shot of beating Vista Del Lago. We are right there with some of the best teams and it's cool that we got to measure where we are this past weekend. Our league is very tough and only makes us better wrestlers.

**Offseason practices/tournaments, spring weight training, and weight training class next school year: We will take about 2 weeks off after the state tournament and then start doing some spring practices twice a week. Still working on the schedule. We are also working on being in the school's weight room 4 nights a week starting around that same week. We will have coaches running the workouts in the weight room. It will probably be about 5:30 - 7 or 5 pm - 6:30 based on availability. Lastly, our wrestling team is working on setting up a wrestling weight training class for our wrestling team next school year. We only need 40 kids to sign up for it and we will have our own wrestling weight training class where we will be lifting weights, training, etc. 5 days a week as a class in school. Stay tuned for more information as this is an AMAZING opportunity for our team. There are also local tournaments every Saturday during the spring where our wrestlers can go get live matches and get better. I will be at almost every SAWA tournament since I'm on the board for SAWA. We also host a SAWA tournament on April 11th, which is our last fundraiser of the year and not as challenging as hosting the Winter Classic, but still a lot of work. HERE IS A LINK to the SAWA website that has the spring schedule on it.

**Postseason information: We will have 1 wrestler per weight class, per gender. 14 boys max and 14 girls max. We have the league championships on 2/7 at Inderkum high school. Every boy and every girl must finish in the top 4 of league (plus a 5th place alternate who might get in) to qualify for the next round of the playoffs. The girls will go to the Northern Regional championships with all the girls from the northern region of our section. This is a 2 day tournament and the girls must finish in the top 8 to qualify for Masters. The top 4 boys in league go to the D2 Section Championships at Vista Del Lago HS (very nice, since the last 2 years this tournament was in Turlock). This tournament has the top 4 wrestlers from 4 different leagues. The top 8 at D2 sections qualify for the Masters championships in Stockton. Wrestling is unique where we combine all divisions into 1 division, and we do that at the Masters Championships. All of the best wrestlers from all of the divisions go into 1 tournament. The top 5 wrestlers at the Masters championships qualify for the state championships in Bakersfield. The Masters Championships has the girls and boys together in 1 big tournament, as does the State Championships. California has a true state championship in Bakersfield.

**THANK YOU!!!: Thank you to every volunteer, worker, person who donated, and more. We had a very successful weekend and we could not have done this without all of your help. Seriously, I really, really appreciate all the people who helped out this weekend. I was very impressed and proud of all of our high school wrestlers. I didn't hear anybody complain and they were working all Friday, Saturday, and Sunday setting up, cleaning, doing heavy labor, working tables, refereeing, and more. All our coaches worked their tails off all weekend and just putting on a very good event was awesome. I want to give special shout outs and say a special thank you to Shirley Marlatt and Kathi Rutherdale for running the best snack bar ever. These girls are pros and are so wonderful. My favorite tradition is the "Ramen Review" where the kids who tell the snack bar girls about their matches get free ramen (on Sunday with the youth tournament). Thank you Shirley and Kathi. They said they are retiring and they've put in a ton of years after their kids graduated. I also want to give a huge shout out to Jessica Cokinos for doing so much work behind the scenes, organizing things, having meetings, and just totally taking a ton of work off of my plate. Jessica was there early and late (so were the snack bar girls) and was always my go to person for every single thing that we needed all weekend long and for the weeks leading up to the tournament. I could go on and on and I can't tell you how grateful I am for all of you. Thank you. I think we did very well with profits and our Boosters will get everything organized with how well we did.

**Varsity results are posted

**Thank you to Ryan Luttrell and Avanti Builders for the new wrestling mat!! They bought us a brand new wrestling mat in the fall of this year and they picked it up and delivered it to our small gym on Saturday night. We are sharing this mat with Carnegie, but this is going to be stored at Bella Vista and we will use it as a practice mat for the rest of the season. This new mat was very badly needed and cost over $15,000. Thank you! HERE IS A LINK to Avanti's website if you want to check them out.

**Commitment to this team: One of our program’s core values is commitment, and I want to sincerely thank the families and wrestlers who have fully committed to this team. We appreciate and love your support and dedication.

Having said that, we have had an increasing number of wrestlers missing practices and competitions due to avoidable commitments (family errands, last minute trips, non-emergency obligations, etc.). These types of absences do not reflect the level of commitment required to succeed in wrestling, nor do they reflect the type of commitment that I expect from every member of this team. Wrestling is an extremely demanding sport. Every practice matters. Every tournament matters. When a wrestler accepts a varsity position or a spot in a JV tournament and then does not attend, it negatively affects the entire team and takes an opportunity away from another athlete who was ready and willing to compete. Wrestlers need to be at the tournaments all day with their teammates, getting matches, watching wrestling, competing, and more.

Trust me, I know that unforeseen circumstances happen, and emergencies happy. I'm not talking about those types of things; Im talking about intentional and preventable absences.

This is a reminder that I need you to prioritize practice and competitions. I always tell the wrestlers that they need to be all in or all out - there's no in between. It's unsafe to be a part timer in this sport, and only takes away from other kids (coaches invest in your child all week then your wrestler doesn't show up, they take the spot, etc. ). If a wrestler has an injury they are still on the team and they still need to be at practice. I keep kids who are injured involved, and I still care about them the same that I care about every other wrestler.

**Reminder about helping coach at the Jr. Broncos practices: All BV wrestlers are required to coach at 3 or more Jr. Broncos Wrestling Club practices. I have been attending almost all of these practices and have only seen a few BV wrestlers there. Practices are Monday - Thursday night at Carnegie Middle School. Tue/Th practices are 5:30 - 6:45 and and Monday/Wednesday practices are 5:30 - 7 pm.

**Bringing backups to tournaments Usually, we are only allowed to bring 1 wrestler per weight to varsity wrestling tournaments. These first 2 tournaments for us are dual tournaments and the hosting school told us that we can bring a back up if we would like. Because I wanted every person to get at least 1 varsity match last weekend, I brought a ton of back ups. Every kid got at least one varsity match. We are doing this again for Vacaville Duals. We are doing wrestle-offs today (Wednesday) for the starting position at Vacaville Duals. I will do extra wrestle offs on Monday of next week for the Inderkum League dual as needed. If a back up still wants to attend the Vacaville Duals they are more than welcome to attend, but I can't promise them more than 1 match. If there are forfeits at that weight class it makes it even more challenging to get them a match. I told all of the kids this information but they might not communicate it to you. The Team Rules under the parent section also explain that the coaches reserve the right to set the line ups for every dual meet because we are strategizing match ups, styles, and way more. Some of the other benefits of bringing multiple kids per weight to the Vacaville Duals is the team bonding, there is a lot of very high level wrestling that they can watch, sometimes a starter gets banged up and decides it's best to take the day off, which enables our backup to slide right into that spot, and way more. This is a very good problem to have, and iron sharpens iron. Every kid makes every other kid better, and vise versa. The kids are embracing this and they will accept their role, no matter what happens. I also schedule 2 different varsity tournaments over 3 different weeks this year because of our depth. On the weekend of December 20th, we will send a handful of kids to Buchanan HS, and the rest to Casa Roble. At the end of December we send a full team to Reno for a huge tournament, and then 2 days later we sent the rest of the varsity kids to an overnight tournament at Escalon HS. The weekend after that we will have kids at Tim Brown in Sacramento and 1 kid or 2 at Clovis HS.

**Our team is deep We have multiple kids who are varsity caliber wrestlers at most of the weight classes and we have a lot of spots that have 3-4 potential varsity starters at one weight. Because of this, it will be a fluid situation that is always changing. The end of the season will work itself out when we get there. In the meantime, I want evveryong

**Thank you for attending the parent meeting I had a lot of fun on Friday night and I'm glad you got a glimpse of the team and how hard the kids are working.

**12 Varsity kids going to Oakdale on Friday, 11/21. We can only take 12 varsity wrestlers to this scrimmage and I will confirm with each wrestler that is going on Monday at practice. The kids will go to to school and they will have an early dismissal for them at 10 am. We will meet out front and drive straight to Oakdale high school. We will get to Oakdale by noon, warm up at 12:30, and then wrestling begins at 2 pm sharp and ends at 6:30 pm sharp. Every wrestler should get 2-3 matches. This is a scrimmage, but the referees are training so they are treating the scrimmage as real matches with singlets and all of that. We will weigh in at Bella Vista on Wednesday before practice and then I submit each wrestler's exact weight. I assume the Oakdale coach will have all pools/matchups organized and ready to go by Friday. I will get the 12 kids their singlets/warm ups on Thursday after practice and I will make sure everyone has rides for Friday at that time.

**Gear distribution I will get everyone on the team their singlet, shirt, and warm ups on Tuesday, 11/25 at practice. T

**BV Online Store is now live: HERE IS A LINK to our online store if you would like to purchase anything (scroll down to the bottom). Unlike previous online stores, this one is open year round for us. This is through a local business in Orangevale. I will be adding sweatpants to the store as well.

**Practice schedules through Thanksgiving Break have been posted

**Attendance at practice is mandatory This team works way too hard for wrestlers to be partially in. One of our core values is Commitment. We have a group of kids who have been fully committed to this team and I appreciate them very much. On Friday of week one we had a ton of wrestlers miss practice without communicating to me first. That is not ok. Wrestlers need to be all in or all out; there's nothing else. If a wrestler is going to miss practice they need to communicate to me prior to practice about why they are going to miss practice. The team rules about missing practice are on the parent section of the website.

**Hygiene is very important. This is the top recommended soap for wrestlers to use after wrestling practice. They lather up and keep the soap on them for 30 seconds before they rinse it off. HERE IS THE LINK.

**Weight Management Test #2 is on 11/17/25 at BV. If a wrestler missed the first test we have our next one on Monday, 11/17 after school. As soon as the kids are done they will head to practice until 5:45. Test is $10 cash and is mandatory for every kid in the country to do before they are allowed to compete. An official from the section will take each kid's height, age, body weight, body fat %, and put it into an algorythm that tells them how much weight they are allowed to lose, safely, throughout the season. FYI, I will never make the kids cut weight at BV and I don't believe that it is advantageous or beneficial for our wrestlers to do, but this test is another safe guard against weight cutting.

**Here is the information that I posted on the wrestlers' Google Classroom page just so you can hold your wrestler accountable for all of these things:

A couple of things for you to take care of this weekend:
1. Clean your room
2. Make sure all of your laundry is cleaned, folded/on a hanger, and stored properly
3. Write in your schedule for the week - give yourself time slots of when you will wake up, school, practice times, HW time, relaxation time, etc.
4. On Sunday night, get your wrestling bag ready to go for practice. Put everything in it so you can just grab it in the morning. You should do this the night before every single practice this season. You should also get your clothes for the following day ready as well.
5. Remember that discipline beats motivation so make sure you are being disciplined with everything in your life.
6. Make your bed every day. Starting your day off with an accomplishment is contagious with your mindset for the rest of the day. Do it every single day.
7. Look forward to wrestling! It's hard fun. The season will go by really fast so just enjoy it and do your best and buy in to the everything we are doing. I'm excited to get going!
8. We had a very strong offseason and we are ready for a positive and fun year!

**Parent Meeting on Friday, 11/14/25: I know it's a Friday night, but I do my best to make it worth your time. The parent meeting will be from 6 - 8 pm. Hear me out. I will start speaking to you at 6 pm in the Atrium and I will speak for 30-45 minutes (no more than 45 minutes). I'll talk about practices, schedules, our 2 big fundraisers where I ask for you to volunteer, swag, hygiene, you'll meet some other parents/coaches, I'll talk about team/school rules and I'll talk to you about our team values. As soon as I am done talking to you, we will all walk to the small gym, together, and watch a 45-60 minute wrestling practice. The kids will start setting up practice at 6 pm and go through warm ups while I'm talking to you in the Atrium. By the time we all get to the small gym they will just be starting some drills/technique and we will finish with some live wrestling. I don't allow parents in the practice room so this is a great chance for you to watch your wrestler at practice and to get a glimpse at some of the work that we are doing. The energy is a lot of fun and if you can make it, your wrestler will love to see you in attendance. You will also get to see our facilities and how we have to roll up the mats each day and store them in the gym. It's a fun night. I will stay and answer any questions I missed after practice.

**I was reminded of one thing about practice tonight from Coach Keough: Coach Keough is going to run a mandatory girls wrestling practice on Thursday nights in the little room (Large gym annex). This is mandatory for the girls' team and is a girls only practice. If a girl wants to practice with the boys after school, they can do both practices, but the practice after school is optional for them and the evening practice is mandatory. This practice will be from 6 pm - 7:45 pm. This will help a ton with working on logistics, bonding, teaching moves/strategies/positions that the girls need to work on, and more.

**Practice Schedule for the next 3 weeks is posted. We will be practicing in the small gym this season - 5 days a week. The Atrium is not a safe location for us to practice in so the Athletic Director worked really hard on the schedules to get us in the small gym after school. We will start setting up halfway through 6th period so the mats are ready immediately after school (unless it's raining, which would put PE classes in the small gym during 6th period). It's very important that every wrestler gets to the small gym right after school is out so we can start practice at 3:45 (Thursdays we will start at 2:20). We have a 2 hour practice window and we will always start rolling up the mats before 5:45 (4:15 on Thursdays) because the basketball teams will be coming in at that time. We have to be 100% out of the gym by the time basketball practice begins (6 pm on every day except Thursday and 4:30 pm on Thursdays). If we run out of time and I need to talk to the team about logistics or anything else we can't stay in the small gym and hang out - I will bring them to my classroom if I have to. That will be extremely rare, but it might happen on certain times/days. The kids can change in the small gym or use the bathrooms in there as well.

**Important information before the first day of practice on 11/3/25:

The first day of practice is on 11/3/25. Please get your wrestler cleared on Sportsnet BEFORE the first day of practice. HERE IS A LINK to the Bella Vista Athletics page where you can do this.
We have a weight management test starting at 3:30 pm on Wednesday, 10/22/25. Every wrestler in the country needs to take this test in order to wrestle at the high school level. This test is done to prevent extreme weight cutting. This test is $10 cash per wrestler on Monday and will be done in the Large Gym Annex (tiny wrestling room) by an official from the section. I'll be there as well. We will do this and then I'll have the wrestlers do a light run afterwards. We will have a make up date sometime in November, but it's best to get this taken care of now. The official takes the height, weight, age, and body fat percentage of each wrestler and then enters it into an algorithm that tells them how much weight they are allowed to lose, safely, each week. Wrestlers are not allowed to compete below their safely allocated weight class. I have to print out a form for every competition and submit it with the official's approval at every competition.
We are taking the week of 10/27 - 10/31 off from all practices/training. The wrestlers need a little mental break before the first day of the season. I'm sure that a couple of kids will not want a break so there might be a couple of optional open rooms
The schedule is finalized except adding a few girls tournaments. I have all hotel information on there as well. We have a very tough schedule this year with a lot of varsity caliber wrestlers. I will be bringing a certain varsity group of kids to more elite tournaments and other varsity kids to the other tough wrestling tournaments. This will be flowing throughout the season. I should be able to bring some extra varsity kids to other tournaments as well.
I added in a home dual meet against Casa Roble on Monday, 11/24/25. This is on the Monday of Thanksgiving Break and will only have varsity boys and varsity girls competing. However, all wrestlers are required to be in attendance. We will start setting up at 3:30 pm, weigh-ins at 4:30 pm, and wrestling will begin at 5:30 pm.
As of now, our tournament entry fees for the season are almost $7,000 to compete. That's not including hotels. For the JV tournaments, that includes 20 kids per the tournament. If needed, we will have to pay $400 for another 20 kids to go to the same JV tournament, so please be flexible with the logistics of this throughout the season. I won't know about numbers until the season begins and I will adjust from there. Wrestling is free for our wrestlers because of the fundraisers we do.
Practice schedule - I update the practice schedule for the week every Sunday night.
I update the website and parent section/weekly team update every Sunday night during the season. Please make it a habit to check this section on Monday morning or late Sunday night to get the week's information. I cover everything so that you don't have to get the information from your wrestler and so that you don't have to text, email, or call me. If i do a good job, I don't hear from anybody. However, if you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to text, call, or email me - after reading the website.
The wrestling season is a lot of fun, but it's also a grind. PLEASE plan on following our team's values and fully commit to everything. No practices missed, no tournaments missed, etc. Plan on your wrestler being fully committed, 100%, to everything in our program. If there's an athlete that can't follow our team values, then they can't be a part of our program - regardless of their skill level or success. I have a section dedicated to our team's values and I won't compromise those values. You and your wrestler signed off on the Bella Vista Athletic Handbook so make sure you read through that in regards to vaping/tobacco use, drugs, alcohol, etc. Integrity is a very important part of our wrestling team
Our wrestlers must stay disciplined with their life, school work, studying, etc. There is no excuse to not do well in school or to skip an assignment. Also, it is not ok for wrestlers to miss practice because they have homework. Practice is only until 5:45 pm and they will have the rest of the evening to do homework. I know that kids are not doing homework from 3:30 - bedtime nonstop and that they do have time to attend practice. I expect each kid to have at least a 3.0 Grade Point Average.
Plan on attending the parent meeting and then watching a short little practice afterward so that you can see where we practice and what it looks like. The parent meeting is on 11/14/25
Our kids club wrestling practices begin on Wednesday, 11/12/24 and they are held at Carnegie Middle school. I set up a mandatory community service for our wrestlers to attend at least 3 of these practices. More details later but practices are at Carnegie Middle School Monday - Thursday nights until about 7 pm.
Our girls wrestling team will have their own league championship season with a chance to get a banner this season! This means our girls will have dual meets (same night as everyone else), and their own league tournament where they must finish in the top 4 at league in order to qualify for the Regional Championships the following weekend. The girls' league tournament will be on the same day and at the same as the boys tournament at a location TBD.
If you ever have any issues, questions, concerns, etc., please do not hesitate to contact me.
Check out our coaching staff information in the tabs
Wrestling is free for our athletes. Instead of charging athletes to be on the team, they are required to work our fundraisers to raise money for the team. l only ask for a donation for the wrestlers who want to keep their warm ups (sweats, shirt, and sweatshirt). Details of that will come out later. I will address this at the parent meeting as well. We also provide the singlet to the wrestlers.
Wrestlers need to wear sweatpants and a workout shirt at every single practice. They also need wrestling shoes for practice and mandatory for competitions. You can try online at Rudis, Asics, or Nike websites or you can go in person to Big 5 or Dicks Sporting Goods for wrestling shoes.
Good hygiene is extremely important to a successful season. Every wrestler needs to shower as soon as possible after practice. They also need to wash their practice clothes and not wear them again until they are clean. The team sanitizes the mats before practice every single day and we provide wrestling approved wipes for athletes to wipe down after every match. If your athlete notices any sort of skin infection at all they need to notify the coaching staff immediately. I also have way more information about this on the "first year in our program" section of the parent section. I also provide sanitary wipes that are specific for wrestling for our athletes to use after matches in tournaments and at times after practice.
This is going to be a fun season and I'm excited. The schedule is a lot tougher for the varsity boys because that's where the team is at overall and we need the challenge. We will be spending a lot of time together so please feel free to say hi and chat with the coaches/athletes/parents/guardians, etc. It makes it a lot more enjoyable when we know each other and support each other. Wrestling is FUN! It can be terrible, but I strive to be a positive role model and teach life lessons through the amazing sport of wrestling. And I want the kids to have fun. I'll see you all soon and I'm sure I forgot a bunch of stuff that I'll post on here shortly.

**Thank you very much for a successfull fundraiser dinner! I had a ton of fun and I'm very grateful for all of the help with donations, cooking, sponsorship, balloons, attending, and more. A huge thank you to Avanti Builders for sponsoring the event, donating the 49ers and Kings tickets, donating the ice chests, wine, tv, and a few other items. Thank you, Avanti and Ryan Luttrell! We appreciate the support.

**The season is approaching - QUICKLY: Make sure your wrestler is cleared on Sportsnet so they can practice. One of our core values is committment, so I need a full buy-in from every wrestler and their family/support system this season. I will do a preseason expectation write up on here soon, but just plan on being in attendance to every practice, dual meet, tournament, and fundraiser unless there is something beyond your control.

**The Practice Schedule has been posted for the week

**The River Clean Up was a huge success!! Thank you to everyone who showed up to help out. We had over 50 people from the Bella Vista wrestling program show up and clean up the Sailor Bar area. It was seriously a lot of fun to do a service project with the wrestling team. We will definitely be back and take part in the Great American River Clean Up Project next year.

**Let's help Coach Hovis out! We all love Coach Hovis and you all know how much he pours his heart out to help every single kid on our team out. Well, Coach Hovis is looking for a job that can help him out, financially, better than being an instructional assistant at BV. He is willing to do anything and he is an extremely hard worker. Coach Hovis has maintained his current position for years because of how rewarding it is to help the kids out, but he just can't continue the current situation. So, if you know ANYBODY who can help him out and find him a job that can work with the wrestling schedule, we would all greatly appreciate it (I know he would as well). We don't want to lose Hovis and there are so many of you out there that can help. Thank you! You can contact me directly if you don't have his contact information and I'll connect you guys. Let's go BV families! Let's give back to Coach Hovis and help him out. Thank you!

**Great American River Clean Up Service Project: I have information on this below, but you need to sign a waiver with a LINK HERE before you show up. Thank you! If that link does not work, simply email me and tell me if you are attending and I will take care of it. They will have waivers at the event as well. If your wrestler is not attending the Oakdale tournament that day, they need to be at the event. This is a really fun morning and gives us the opportunity to give back to our community. Plus, the kids can get community service hours for this. All parents/Guardians are invited to attend as well.

**All hotels have been booked for the season I want to thank Katrina Ferland who is a travel agent that volunteers her time, for free, to take care of all of our travel needs. Katrina saves me hours of work and saves the team lots of money on hotels. I will post every single hotel we are staying at under the tournament on the schedule section of the website later this week. Please contact Katrina if you would like a room at the same hotels as the team and she can take care of you. If you ever want to use a travel agent, she's the person you should spend money on because she's been helping us for YEARS for FREE so I'd love to give her some business back. She literally does it out of the kindness of her heart because she had a kid who wrestled for BV a while back. KCFtravel@gmail.com is her email.

**All wrestlers must be cleared on Sportsnet. This should have been done already, so please get on this as soon as possible. All athletes have to get cleared on Sportsnet before they can practice. HERE IS A DIRECT LINK to the BV Athletics Page where you can fill out the Sportsnet information.

**I want to welcome our new Head Girls Wrestling Coach: Coach Nishimura informed me yesterday that he had to step away from coaching this year. Coach Nishimura put in a ton of years at Bella Vista and is the coach who started girls wrestling at Bella Vista almost 20 years ago! A true pioneer who was way ahead of his time. So, after an exhausting and thorough search, I want to welcome Aaron Keough as our new girls wrestling coach! Coach Keough has been on staff for the past 4 years as a varsity boys coach, and agreed to a 1 year stint as head coach! Thank you for stepping up, Coach Keough! I know the girls are in amazing hands and that you are going to be an amazing role model for our girls this season. If you don't know, Coach Keough was a high school state medalist in Ohio and then wrestling in the Big Ten for Purdue University. Stud.

**Fall Practices will begin on Monday, August 25th. Practices will be on Mondays/Wednesdays after school until about 5:15 (give time to clean up after practice) and will be in the back side of the Atrium. We are working on getting pads on the beams in the Atrium right now. These are mandatory for kids who are not playing a fall sport. We will slowly start adding in Tuesday/Thursday workouts on the track, on the field, etc.

**Fall Tournament Schedule and Regular Tournament Schedule is posted. Go to schedules and check it out. We will have a coach at every one of these fall tournaments and the SAWA Fall tournament is going to be released this weekend so I will add those tournaments as soon as the information becomes available.

**Community Service Project on 9/20/25 Please block off the morning of Saturday, 9/20/25 on your calendars to help with our community service project. We are working with the American River Parkway Foundation to help clean up Sailor Bar again this year. We did this last year and it was a lot of fun, we helped clean up our local river area, the kids gained fulfillment in giving back to the community, they got community service hours, and way, way more. Please let me know if you can help. Last year we had kids from Carnegie, BV, and parents helping out. I would like to continue this service project for a long time and grow it even more. So, if you can help volunteer, bring your wrestler, and bring some family/friends it would be greatly appreciated. I might even have a free shirt for you if you show up. This is usually only a couple of hours that turn into great value. I'll get the exact times posted once the event gets closer, but I think last year we picked up trash from 9 am - 11 am or something like that.

**School is starting soon I will mention this to all our athletes, but they need to make sure they are ready to start fresh with a new semester. I always tell the kids to make sure their rooms are clean to start the school year, they are organized, have all the materials they need, etc. Every wrestler should work hard enough to have at minimum a 3.0 GPA. School comes first and there's no excuse to miss an assignment, to disrupt class, etc. My room is always open at lunch so if they need a place to hang out they are more than welcome to sit in my classroom and listen to the music I have playing. There are no cell phones allowed to be used on campus this year, so make sure they are ready for those rules (you can read those rules from the Bella Vista Admin communication to you). The big elephant in the room is avoiding vaping. That has been a big issue at BV and this should never, ever be an option for our wrestlers to partake in. We want to fuel our bodies in a healthy way that gives us the best chance at an optimal performance in school, athletics, and in life. Vaping will ruin all of that hard work. You know it's very bad, and I tell the kids the exact same thing. Plus, if a kid gets caught vaping on campus, they will most likely be out of sports. Even if they are standing with kids in the bathroom who are vaping, they risk the consequence of having the same punishment as all of those kids. They need to avoid that stuff and those kids like it's the plague. We do have a bathroom open in the Main Office for kids to use and avoid the crowds if there's ever an issue. And my door is always open and I can help clear bathrooms anonymously. Anyway, I'm excited to get the year started. We take a few weeks off to let the kids enjoy the end of summer and get back to the school mode then we get back to training again.

**Construction on Campus - FYI, we have a bunch of construction happening on the BV campus right now. They are installing new fences, resurfacing the gym floors, and more. Please be mindful of this when entering campus and tell your wrestlers to not walk through the construction zones.

**Fall sports and playing multiple sports - I encourage our wrestlers to play multiple sports, and I also encourage them to find a balance between those sports. Also, if someone is specializing in 1 sport, then they should be 100% all in on that sport. Every sport on campus is in an offseason right now, and we have multiple sports holding practices on the same days at the same time. Please have your athletes find balance in this. They should not be doing 1 sport 5 days a week and zero of the other sport. We have a lot of kids thinking they have to be 100% all in with their fall sports because that's next, but that's not the case. No team is in season right now so there is no season. Please try and get your athlete to wrestling practice 1-2x a week and then they can do their fall sport 3x a week. That's balance. If they are not showing up to offseason wrestling then they are falling behind. There's no secret formula to improvement and success in our great sport; we simply have to put in the time and the work, especially in the offseason. Trust me, it will show when wrestling season arrives. Other coaches will support this and there are no starting positions on the line for playing multiple sports. Once the fall season begins, nobody doing a fall sport for BV is allowed to play other sports, and I would not even allow that. Same with winter, etc. So, please get your wrestler to the summer practices and balance the sports - unless they are only doing 1 sport next year.

**Thank You, Class of 2025! I've loved this group of seniors and they are my first group of wrestlers I've had for 4 years straight (Thanks, Covid) as head coach. I'm very proud of these humans, their integrity, work ethic, commitment, grit, resilience, and gratitude. I know for a fact that they are going to make a positive impact on our world. I will miss everyone and I hope they all stay involved with our program (including the families)!

**I've only received a handful of gear from our wrestlers who've finished their seasons. Please get the bags, singlets, and anything they checked out back to the team as soon as possible. I hate trying to track the kids down.

**Some Postseason advice for parents/guardians: Emotions can get charged during the postseason and it's more important than ever to trust in the process and in the coaches. I am listing some advice on what you can do from your angle to support your wrestler. 1 - Be a parent/guardian and show unconditional love. Be their wheels and take them to every practice and event. 2 - Praise their effort, not on wins or losses. Resilience, grit, etc. 3 - Talk to them about stuff outside of wrestling. Don't only focus on wrestling. Make sure that on the car ride home you aren't technical or talking about their matches unless your wrestler wants to talk about them and asks you about them. Let the coaches do the technique stuff. Praise their effort and commitment. Here are some things not to do - don't make excuses, don't give technique or technical advice, don't worry about rankings or talk about them, don't elevate the postseason and make it more than it needs to be, and never draw comparisons. Remember to love your athlete and praise their effort and let the coaches do the hard stuff. If there's something bothering you about a kid's technique, email me and I'll address it.

**Congratulations to Max Keough for becoming a 4x CVC League Champion! This is truly an amazing accomplishment and should be celebrated. Max has put in a TON of work over the years and he's working harder than ever right now. Very proud of who he is what he represents.

**Thank you to my wife and kids! I couldn't do this without all the support from my wife. Thank you, Shelby. Freaking stud. My daughters helped work the tournament all weekend and said it was a ton of fun.

**Driver Chaperone Information: There are 3 parts to this.

1. You fill out a"Volunteer Personal Automobile Use Form" (I will have physical copies of this form at the parent meeting. If you miss the meeting I can email you a copy of the form). You will turn this form in to the Principal's secretary, Darcie Mahlke. You can have your kid give it to me and I will give it to her.

2/3. We will also need a drivers lic. and a copy of their insurance declaration page. In addition, they need to fill out the district’s volunteer google form - https://forms.sanjuan.edu/232954528238969

Not too bad.

**Traveling for this year: We have an amazing travel agent who offers who just booked all of the hotel rooms for our entire season, for free. Katrina Ferland had a son wrestle for us years ago and still helps us out every single season. She's amazing to work with and all she asks for me to do is to put down her website. She will also speak at the parent meeting about booking hotels for the team. HERE IS A LINK to her travel website. If you want to book a room in any hotel that the team is staying in this year just contact her and she will provide you with the best rates. You should use her to help you with future travels as well.

**Just in case you missed this, I prioritize my communication to the wrestlers via Google Classroom now (in addition to in person communication): I've been communicating with the wrestlers via Google Classroom for the past couple of years. This is a lot better because the wrestlers will get notifications on their phone (instead of checking a website) every time I make an announcement. For the new wrestlers, here is the code to join "jbh3ezj" The BV wrestlers all know they are required to be on the page. Recently, I had one of our supporters email me and ask why I hadn't updated the "wrestlers" portion of the website in a while and I told him about Google Classroom. Please help me with this and make sure that your wrestler is part of the Google Classroom wrestling page and that they have their notifications turned on for the page.

**Congratulations Class of 2023! I love this group of humans! They went through quite a bit in their past four years and finished stronger than ever. To start, they had Covid hit when they were freshman. As sophomores, their wrestling season was canceled due to Covid. Despite all the adversity, they responded amazingly well. This group represents the very best in human beings and I know that each person will make a positive impact on our world. Every single BV wrestling alumni will always have an open invitation to come back to our room, duals, etc. As long as I'm around, anyway! On that note, I am working on some projects this summer with the goal of getting our wrestling alumni more involved with the program, recognized, etc. Stay tuned because I might ask for some help.

**Summer wrestling starts June 13th. We will be practicing at Carnegie from 9am - 10:30 am every Tuesday/Thursday of the summer except for week 2. On June 20th, 21st, and 22nd, our team will be at Ponderosa for a team camp. This is free for our wrestlers. There will be technique sessions in the morning and then dual meets in the afternoon. Our kids will get a lot of matches against a big variety of kids ranging from beginner to advanced. This mat time is invaluable. I seriously can't explain how beneficial these matches are for each wrestler. Please plan on attending this camp. We get there at 9 am, have lunch after technique, and then wrestle until about 3 pm ish. After the camp, we return to Carnegie for the rest of the summer. Every Tuesday/Thursday morning. Please plan on attending these sessions.

**Awesome BV Wrestling Alumni News: 2019 BV grade, Yelena Makoyed, was just named the NCAA Women's College Wrestler of the Year! Absolutely amazing! Congratulations to Yelena. In case you don't know, Yelena first starting wrestling as a freshman at Bella Vista. Yelena fully committed to the sport and finished her high school career as a 3x state medalist and California state champion (3rd, 2nd, 1st). 1 year later, Yelena finished in 2nd place as a true freshman in the NCAA Championships. Yelena went on to win the next the NCAA championships to finish as a 3x champion and 4x finalist (2, 1, 1, 1). This year, Yelena absolutely dominated the the competition and won the equivelant of the Heisman Trophy for women's wrestling. HERE IS A LINK to an article about Yelena's award.

**Financial Costs of Running a Typical Wrestling Season: Before you read through any of this, I want you to know that wrestling at Bella Vista is free for each wrestler. We only ask that each wrestler, along with their parent(s), guardian(s) and/or family, helps with our fundraiser(s) to offset any sort of financial requirement...

Control What We Can Control It is crucial that we control the things that we can control in order for each person to have optimal performance. One of these things is hygiene. Please have your wrestler establish the habit of showering as soon as they get home. We take a lot of preventative measures to ensure that our wrestlers don't develop any skin infection, including putting on some wrestling specific foam before each practice and mopping the mats before each practice. Typically, we don't see any skin issues until we have our first competition (because other schools are not as aggressive as we are with hygiene), but we need to be on top of that. The other thing is to get our wrestlers to get 9 hours of sleep each night, get their homework done each night, and to develop a healthy diet. There is a great nutritional guide on our website for each wrestler, but in general, I would recommend vegetables, fruits, to drink lots of water so they are hydrated for practice, to scale back on sugar and soda, and to scale back on fast food. Eating right will give them better energy for school and for wrestling. This might be obvious to all of us but our wrestlers are students first, which means they must make the effort to stay on top of their grades. Without a 2.0 they can't wrestle. It takes a lot of discipline to be successful in school, in wrestling, and with their physical health all at the same time, and if they can do that, then they are developing a really positive skill that will last them for the rest of their life.

Weekly Team Update

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