BELLA VISTA WRESTLING

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Last Updated: 5/1/25: First 3 things are new!

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**Practice Schedule for May, June, and July is posted below.   I might add a few open mats or change things so please be flexible.  For now, this is a pretty solid schedule for us. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*We are still practicing/training right now! We are practicing in the small gym at BV on Mondays/Wednesdays after school until about 5-ish.  We are also practicing at Carnegie on Tuesdays/Fridays after school until about 5-ish as well.   All wrestlers should be at these practices! We have one last SAWA tournament left on Saturday, May 3rd at Casa Roble.  All our kids with a USA card should get some matches in at this tournament.  We are going to continue practices for a couple more weeks (working on an official end date for spring practices) and then we will take a little break for the last few weeks of the school year.   

 

**Ponderosa Team Camp June 17, 18, 19.  I paid for our team to go to this camp at Ponderosa High School.   All high school wrestlers (incoming freshman are invited) can attend this event.  We can take 20 kids so I will accept the first 20 kids who sign up for this.  This camp is awesome because there are a lot of really good high school teams from multiple states who attend this and we have dual meets against them.  This is one of the best ways to get some mat time in against some good wrestlers in an awesome setting.  It's a lot of fun.   I will start the list of our 20 wrestlers right now.  

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**I want to say THANK YOU to every person who helped and contributed to our tournament last weekend: It's always very hard to get help during the spring season for our other fundraiser and this year was no different.  Thank you to all the parents/guardians who volunteered your time to help us raise money for the kids.   All this money goes directly to our program.  Thank you.  HUGE thank you, once again, to Shirley Marlatt and Kathi Rutherdale for organizing and running our snack bar.  Thank you to the amazing kids who contributed.  We moved mats on Thursday, set up for the tournament on Friday, worked all day on Saturday, and then moved mats again on Saturday night.  Its a LOT of work and most kids maximized as much time as they could to help us.  Thank you very much.  I appreciate you.  

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**FYI - there is no practice during spring break.  

 

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**Thank you for an amazing Awards Banquet: I had a lot of fun and it was great having everybody together.   I appreciate all of you.  

 

**Here's some offseason wrestling updates I just posted on Google Classroom for our wrestlers:

Here's a little update about our spring offseason plan: We are going hard, which is really good.    

• We are going to be practicing 4 days a week (this is free to you.  Most clubs charge you a lot of money to do the offseason program)

• Mondays and Wednesdays will be after school at Bella Vista until about 5 pm (in the small gym)

• Tuesdays and Fridays will be after school at Carnegie (Fridays will be an open mat)

• We are going to be teaching a lot of technique and we will be working on a lot of different positions all offseason long

• Wednesday nights there's an open practice at Casa Roble with 4 schools invited.  I'd strongly recommend going to these when you can

• Saturdays there are local tournaments where you can go get some matches.  You don't have to be there early for weigh-ins; we do home weigh ins and you just show up at your time.  High School wrestlers usually start around 11 am - noon ish depending on style, so you can sleep in, go wrestle, and then go home and still have your Saturday.  I'll be at most of these tournaments (I might miss the first one at Mesa Verde on 3/15, but I'm not sure yet)

• You can wrestle folkstyle, freestyle, and/or Greco at these spring tournaments.  We will be doing some freestyle training in the spring.  

• You can get a USA Card at Themat.com.  You'll have to have a USA card to wrestle in these tournaments.    

• We will be doing this until mid May - about 7 weeks, and then take a little break until June.  

• In June, we will do a dual meet team camp (free for you) at Ponderosa where you can get a bunch of matches.  

• I highly recommend that you attend a summer wrestling camp.  Daniel Cormier has a very affordable camp at Gilroy high school with some amazing clinicians.  Stanford also has some great camps going on.   Just search those camps in Google.  We will have kids attending these camps so you can coordinate with others about rides and all that type of stuff.   

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**FYI If a wrestler finished the entire season they get to keep their sweats, sweatshirt, and shirt.  I need everything else back.  Returning wrestlers will wear the same swag next season if it still fits.   If a wrestler quit the season early, they need to return ALL of their gear, washed clean and organized.  

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**Varsity Results from the State Championships are posted under "Varsity Results"

 

**The End of the Season Banquet will be held on Friday, March 28th at the Olivera House. I ask that you bring some food to share - enough for about 8 people.  We will provide water, soda, plates, napkins, and silverware.  If you want anything else to drink, you can bring that as well. 

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**Here's offseason information that I'm passing out to all our wrestlers this week:

Important Information

• Awards banquet is Friday, 3/28/25 at the Olivera House from 6-8 pm.  Bring a chair.  Bring food to share (enough for 8 people)

• We start offseason practices on Wednesday, 3/19.  These are mandatory for people not in a spring sport. 

• Offseason practices are Mondays/Wednesdays from 3:45 – 5 pm ish in the Atrium.  The spring season will end on Wednesday, May 7th.  After May 7th, we will take a little break, and then we start back up in June.

• We are hosting an offseason tournament on Saturday, 4/5/25.  We will set up immediately after school on Friday, 4/4 (this is a minimum day, so even better).  PLEASE help us set up and plan on working the tournament all day on Saturday.  This will be a lot less hectic than our January tournament.

  • We need your help setting up, working tables, and cleaning up.

  • Friday set up will be grabbing mats from Mesa Verde, setting up the tables/mats, and then going home

  • Ask your parents/guardians to sign up on the Sign Up Genius (this will be on the website in March)

• You should plan on wrestling in the SAWA tournaments. 

  • The tournament schedule is on sawawrestling.org

  • The first tournament is 3/15 at Mesa Verde and there are tournaments every Saturday until 5/10/25.

  • You are wrestling in the Bella Vista Tournament on 4/5/25.

  • I will be at almost every single SAWA tournament.

• If you have not turned your gear in, get it to me ASAP.  You keep your sweats, sweatshirt, and shirt.  Give me back the singlet, bag, backpack and/or anything else you checked out.  All washed, clean, and with your name on a paper with it.

• Stay tuned about our Cornhole Tournament Fundraiser that we host alongside Carnegie Wrestling

 

**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.  

 

**Everyone this Week: I'm working directly with Max Keough and Elias Castaneda and their families about the practice times and when we leave for the state championships this week. I don't need to post details on here.  ​​​​​

 

**Varsity Results from last weekend have been posted

 

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**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.  

 

​​​​​​​​​​**JV Boys' Season is Finished:  Please return all gear (clean) in the bag they checked out with their name on a piece of paper inside of the bag.   Our JV wrestlers should be very proud of themselves for a hard fought season.  It's a major accomplishment to finish an entire wrestling season and I predict that many of our current JV wrestlers will be in the varsity line up.  If a JV wrestler is not doing a spring sport, I would like them to come out for at least one more week of practice so that they can help our varsity wrestlers out and stay with the team for a bit.  This is not required, but more of a desire type of thing for the kids who want to put in a little extra work.  

 

**Varsity results are posted under "Varsity Results" on the tabs

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**The Practice Schedule is posted for the week

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**Varsity Girls this week: Our girls will compete in the Northern Regional Championships on Friday, 2/14/25 and Saturday, 2/15/25.    This tournament is at Foothill High School (5000 McCloud Dr, Sacramento, CA 95842).  Our girls need to be at Foothill HS by 6:30 am on Friday, 2/14, with 7 am weigh-ins.  Wrestling begins at 9 am.  The top 8 finishers from the Northern Regionals qualify for the Masters Championships next weekend.  We do not take any alternates to Masters, so if a girl does not finish in the top 8 their season is over.   

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**Varsity Boys this week:  We will be taking 12 wrestlers to the D2 Section Championships at Turlock High School this weekend.   We will have a bus take the team to our hotel on Friday night, and then to Turlock High School on Saturday morning.  The bus will drop us off at Turlock and then head home. This means that every wrestler will need their parent/guardian to take them home from Turlock High School on Saturday.   So, here are the details.  We will have a bus pick us up at Bella Vista on Friday, 2/14/25 with a leave time of 6 pm.   We will meet by 5:50 to get on the bus and go.  The bus (more of a 14 person small shuttle thing) will take us to our hotel in Turlock.  We are staying at the Best Western Orchard Inn (5025 N Golden State BLVD, Turlock, CA 95382). This is the same hotel we stayed at last year for sections if you were with us.  On Saturday morning, the bus will leave the hotel no later than 6:10 am and take us to Turlock High School (1600 E Canal Dr, Turlock, CA 95380) by 6:30 am.   Weigh-ins begin at 7 am and wrestling begins at 9 am.  There will be 16 people in each weigh class (the top 4 qualifiers from 4 different leagues) and the top 8 finishers will qualify for the Masters Championships.  There are no alternates for our division at Masters.   This is a very tough, 1 day tournament, but very exciting and a lot of fun.  Our 3 alternates will travel with practice all week, travel with the team, and weigh in as alternate at the tournament.  After weigh-ins, we will find out if they got in to the tournament.  The alternates do get in sometimes and need to be ready.  Last year, Will Hedrick got in and then qualified for Masters.  Remember, every wrestler will need a ride home from the tournament.   

 

**FYI, we will be hosting a 1 day wrestling tournament on Saturday, April 5th.  This is through the Sacramento Area Wrestling Association (SAWA) and this tournament offers freestyle, folkstyle, and greco-roman options.  All of our wrestlers will help set up on Friday right after school and then work the tournament on Saturday.  I also have all of our wrestlers compete.  This is a well attended tournament, which makes for a great fundraiser for us.   Please put that date on your calendars.    

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**Speaking of the spring, we will take a few weeks off after the state championships and then start our 7 week spring season training cycle. I don't have official days/dates, yet, but we will most likely be practice 2 days a week (Mondays/Wednesdays) after school until about 5:30.  There are local club tournaments every weekend and I will be at all of them working as a board member for SAWA.  I'll post more information later, but kids not doing a spring sport need to participate in our offseason program.  This is where we do a lot of teaching and this how kids actually get better at wrestling and make huge gains.  Every team does off season now, so this is the bare minimum each wrestler can do to keep up with the competition (against others and with themselves).  I'll also give some suggestions for some summer camps to attend, we take our team to a dual tournament at Ponderosa in June, and we train throughout the summer.  Just be ready to train!  Offseason benefits are enormous.  

 

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**1 Week left of the regular season: Just a reminder that kids playing spring sports cannot go out for their spring sport until their wrestling season is finished.  Spring sport coaches know this and will give a fair and equal chance at try outs if they hold try outs.  They also love having wrestlers come out for their team because we are fit and have a lot of mental fortitude.   For JV wrestlers, the league championships is the last tournament of the season and their season is over at that point.  I do invite wrestlers not playing a spring sport to come to practices the next week and help the varsity boys and girls out for post season.  When the season is over, I need every kid to return all their wrestling gear to me, washed, organized, and labeled with the wrestler's name.  If they have a bag, they can return everything in their bag with their name written on tape on the outside of the bag.  ​

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**I just want to say a huge THANK YOU: This weekend was a giant success and it would not have been successful without all of the help from the entire village.  Thank you to every person who volunteered and worked a shift.  Thank you to every person who donated an item to the snack bar.  Thank you to every wrestler who helped work the tournament this weekend.  Thank you to all of the coaches for all of their hard work this weekend.   Putting on a huge tournament like this is a big sacrifice and it takes a lot of work, and it's not successful without every single person contributing all weekend long.  So, thank you.  We had 535 wrestlers on Saturday and we were done with the entire tournament by 4:30 pm.  That doesn't happen very often.  On Sunday, we had 325 wrestlers and we were done by 1 pm.  That doesn't happen, either.   I had SO many people coming up to me to tell me that our tournaments were the best tournament they've ever been to.  I had numerous people compliment me on how great all the table workers were and said that our teenagers working the table workers were the best, most responsible, and attentive table workers they've seen.  I also had numerous people tell me how we had the best staff of any tournament.  Seriously, most middle school and Sunday tournaments don't have so many adults, responsible kids, efficiency, etc.  We started exactly on time both days and got out early on both days.  We had almost no dead mats all weekend.  I just really, really appreciate all of you.  Thank you.  And don't worry, I didn't forget - I want to give a special shout out to Shirley Marlatte and Kathi Rutherdale on their own section.... 

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**Thank you Shirley Marlatte and Kathi Rutherdale!!!   These two women had BV wrestlers who graduated years ago and they are still managing everything for me.   They organize donations, get the food to BV, do the shopping, they were both at BV until almost midnight on Friday night working, they worked all day Saturday, and all day Sunday (after getting there around 6:30 am both days).  They also organized the volunteer shifts, helped take care of me and made sure I was good all weekend, and they put on an amazing snack bar (and got the food trucks there).  These girls do this for our spring tournament as well.   I'm sure I missed something they do, but just know that they do a TON behind the scenes and make my life infinitely less stressful throughout the weekend. 

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**Thank you to Dana Smith (Carnegie Coach).  Dana worked all weekend to help us put on the tournament and did so much to help me behind the scenes.  If you know Dana, you know how genuine he is and how awesome he is.  I'm very grateful for him

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**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. 

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**Everybody this week on Wednesday: We have a dual meet at Woodcreek High School on Wednesday evening.  As of now, the team is taking a bus to Woodcreek right after school (3:45 pm).  The bus will take the entire team to Woodcreek and back home after the dual.  There will be coaches on the bus on the way there and the way back.  Everyone rides the bus there and the way back unless they make special arrangements with me.  Kids can ride home with parents/guardians after the dual if they tell me to my face.  Weigh-ins are at 5 pm and wrestling begins at 6 pm.  We will do JV boys, then varsity girls, then varsity boys then head back to Bella Vista. 

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**Everybody this week on Thursday: Right after school the entire team is going to jog to Carnegie and watch their dual meet against Arden middle school.  This is a tradition we do every year.  Carnegie has bleachers for our team on the stage.  It's a ton of fun and a great way to connect the programs.  After the dual we jog back to BV (Varsity boys will leave for Gilroy right at that time and everyone else will practice).   

 

**Girls this weekend: Our JV girls are attending the Del Oro Lady Eagle invitational.  They will meet at Del Oro at 6:30 am on Saturday for 7 am weigh-ins.  Wrestling begins at 9 am.  

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**JV Boys this weekend: We are working on finding a tournament.   Something happened with the Del Oro tournament and they are beyond full and didn't have room for our team by the time we tried to enter.  I didn't find out about this until Friday right before our tournament.  I will find something for our JV boys and let you know ASAP.

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**Varsity this week:  I will be taking 8 kids to the Mid-Cals Wrestling tournament at Gilroy High School (750 W 10th st, Gilroy, CA 95020) this weekend.  We have kids who missed a tournament and need one more make up tournament.   We are leaving Thursday evening, practicing at Gilroy HS, and then heading to our hotel.  We are staying at the Hampton Inn Morgan Hill (16115 Condit Road, Morgan Hill CA 95037) Thursday night and Friday night.  On Friday morning, we will grab breakfast from the hotel (bring a container to put the food in), and head to Gilroy HS.  Weigh-ins begin at 7 and wrestling begins at 9.  We will compete all day and then head back to the hotel.  I will take the kids to a grocery store on Thursday night if they need it and Friday night as well if they need it.  We will take them to get food on Friday night as needed and Saturday night on the way home.   Saturday morning we get breakfast from the hotel and then go to Gilroy HS.  Weigh-ins are at 7 am and wrestling starts at 9 am.  We will head home Saturday after medals.  Kids need to talk to their teachers about missing school on Friday and make arrangements.   I will excuse their absences.

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**The Practice Schedule for the week has been posted.

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​​​​**Congratulations to our graduating senior wrestlers.  It's been an honor coach them and to be a part of their lives.  We wish them all the best of luck in life!  We will see everybody else on June 11th at 9 am at Carnegie middle school for our first summer practice.  

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**Summer Schedule.  We will be practicing on  Tuesdays/Thursdays from 9 am - 10:30 am at Carnegie from 6/11/24 - 7/30/24.  We also have a team camp at Ponderosa High School on June 18 - 20 (9 am - 3 pm ish). Everybody will be at the team camp at Ponderosa and it is free for our wrestlers.  There will be no practices at Carnegie that week.  

 

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**Thank you for helping at the spring tournament: We had over 700 kids compete at Bella Vista on 3/23 and the tournament went as smooth as it can possibly go.  This would not have worked so well without all of the help from our awesome wrestlers and the parents/families who helped.  Huge thank you, once again, to Kathi Rutherdale and Shirley Marlatt for organizing our snack bar and helping with a ton of other things behind the scenes.  Our fundraisers are done until next season!

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**Cornhole Tournament fundraiser was awesome and a lot of fun.  Thank you to the people who helped in any way.  Carnegie wrestling and BV wrestling each raised over $1,000 and Carnegie got a $10,000 donation from Ryan Luttrell.  Plus, we had a lot of fun and made some great connections with alumni and Fair Oaks.  Everybody who attended said they will be back next year and they want us to do this more than once a year.  Not sure about that part but this will definitely turn into an annual event for our programs.  We are planning on growing it even more next year.  

 

**Sign Up Genius to help volunteer at our offseason Tournament on March 23rd.  This tournament is less hectic than the January tournament and there are staggered start times so it should be less crowded as well. Should be.  We will have BV kids working tables, wrestling in the tournament, and helping set up/clean up.  Any shift you can help with is greatly appreciated.  It's really difficult to get help during the offseason.  Last year, we had about 12 kids and their parents do EVERYTHING for us and it was really challenging.  I know we can do better than that this year.  HERE IS A LINK to the Sign up Genius.  We will set up immediately after school on Friday, 3/22 and we will be done around 5 pm on Saturday, 3/22.  Thank you.  

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**Offseason Practices begin on Monday, March 18th from 3:45 pm - 5 pm.  These practices will be on Mondays and Wednesdays with a lot of teaching and less intensity.  I will be at almost every single SAWA (Sacramento Area Wrestling Association) tournament this spring.  I highly recommend our wrestlers attend these tournaments and get some mat time in.  HERE IS A LINK to the spring SAWA schedule.  These tournaments have home weigh-ins and high school kids usually don't start before 11 am so they can have a morning and show up later.  All those details are on the website. We are hosting a SAWA tournament on 3/23/14 and will need to get mats and set up on Friday, 3/22.  PLEASE help with this fundraiser.  Everything is free in wrestling because of our Fundraisers.

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**Corn Hole Wrestling Fundraiser for Bella Vista and Carnegie on 3/16 at 2 pm at Del's Pizza in Fair Oaks.  I posted a picture of the flyer below.  Hurry and sign up and have a great team.  If you would like to sponsor a board or donate that would be even better.  Carnegie already received a massive donation of $10,000 from Avanti Builders so they can buy a new mat this offseason.  Pretty incredible.    

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**Congratulations to Gianna DiBenedetto for finishing in 3rd place at the CIF State Championships!  Gianna finishes her BV career as a 3x state medalist (her freshman season was canceled due to Covid).  Gianna had a tough loss in the semifinals to a girl who is ranked #7 in the nation (Gianna is #15) and then Gianna had to wrestle in the consolation semifinals 30 minutes later.  Most wrestlers crumble in that situation but Gianna showed her true heart and character and won that match to get into the 3rd place medal match.  The 3rd place match finished regulation tied at 1-1 and ended up going into double overtime where Gianna won.  It's nearly impossible to put into words to explain how challenging this would be for a wrestler in this situation.  Once again, Gianna found a way to end and capped an amazing high school career for Bella Vista Wrestling.  Gianna is planning on wrestling in college and she is getting recruited by numerous colleges.  

 

**Stay tuned for a banquet date: I'm looking mid-week in March and I need to hear from the award company to make sure everything can be delivered on time.  I'll post on here within the next couple of days and post on the wrestlers' Google Classroom page. 

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**Offseason Practices begin on Monday, March 18th. We will take the next 3 weeks and then start practicing 2x a week after school.  There's no secret formula in wrestling.  The people who are winning matches at Masters and State are the ones who are training hard during the offseason. We have to put in the work in order to reach our goals, and we will put in the work.   Practices will be on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:45 - 5 pm.  We will also send as many wrestlers as possible to the Sacramento Area Wrestling Association (SAWA) tournaments during our spring season.  There are 8 spring tournaments this year and Bella Vista is actually hosting one of them on March 23rd.  Our high school kids will work tables and wrestle in the tournament on March 23rd at Bella Vista.  SAWA tournaments have home weigh-ins at practice and staggered start times for high school kids.  Usually, the high school kids won't start before 11 am (or noon) so they can sleep in and they don't have to show up for weigh-ins at the SAWA tournaments.  I'm a board member of SAWA and I will be at most tournaments this year.  These tournaments are fun and laid back and our kids just focus on practicing their new moves/skills and get mat time, which is invaluable.  Practices in the spring are very mellow compared to in-season practices and I spend a lot of time teaching new moves, strategies, etc. The spring session will run for about 8 weeks and will probably end on May 22nd (we don't practice during spring break).  After our spring season ends, we take about another month off and train in the mornings throughout the summer.  Summer wrestling will start mid-June and will be 2 days a week in the morning at Carnegie.  We usually practice from 9 am - 10:30 am ish in the summer but I will ask the kids what times they want to practice.  I'm also working on securing the weight room for the kids who want to lift at BV in the summer.  More details about that will follow.  In addition to summer practices, which are very mellow with lots of teaching, I take the team to the Ponderosa team camp in June where we get a little technique and a LOT of matches.  These matches give our kids a tremendous amount of mat time that is crucial to develop during the offseason.  I think all of our Masters qualifiers this year were at Ponderosa and most of them got between 16-20 matches.  Trust me, the only way to get better at wrestling is to wrestle (practice and compete, then practice more and then compete again in order to measure improvement).   If you look at every single wrestler in the history of Bella Vista who has either qualified for state or medaled in the state tournament, they committed to our offseason program, which had a direct correlation to their postseason success.  Regardless of what level your wrestler was at this past season, they will see tremendous growth in their wrestling if they commit to our offseason program.  We don't have much time to slow down and teach skills during our high school season, but we take care of all of that in the offseason. Having said all that, I want to make it clear that I encourage every wrestler to participate in multiple sports at BV. If they are on another team and there are official practices for that team, they need to fully commit to that team and the coach's requirements. 

 

**We are hosting a spring Tournament on Saturday, March 23rd This is our last fundraiser of the year and it is really challenging to get wrestlers to help work.  We will need every available BV wrestler and parent to help work this tournament.  I will speak about this at the wrestling banquet. 

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**The Season is over:  The team's season is over and they can now go out for a spring sport.  They need to turn in their washed singlets, backpack/bag, and anything else they checked out from me.  They can bring it to me in my classroom.  Please get this taken care of ASAP; it sucks having to hunt people down.  If they want to keep wrestling, they are invited to the practices this week so they can kind of get the feel of the varsity postseason. I'm also taking $100 donations for the hoody, shirt, and sweatpants if the kids want to keep them.  If there is a financial burden I will have the wrestler help work off the costs by helping me clean mats, set up for the tournament on March 23rd, working that tournament, and helping clean up. 

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**Congratulations to our Masters champion and medalists! Gianna DiBenedetto became a 2x Masters Champion over the weekend.  Maria Alves finished as an 8th place medalists and Elias Castaneda finished as a 7th place medalist!  I'll post tournament summaries tomorrow.  

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**CONGRATULATIONS TO YOUR 2024 CVC LEAGUE CHAMPIONS! I'll update the website tomorrow, but we are officially the 2024 CVC League Champions.  We went 6-0 in league dual meets and then we took first place in the league tournament today.  We also qualified 12 wrestlers to the section championships (with 1 alternate).  We train year round and put in a TON of work and all of that work is showing.  Every person in our program played a roll in this championship; every kid and every parent/guardian. Thank you.  Also, if you see my wife or kids please thank them for supporting the BV wrestlers and program.  There's a lot going on behind the scenes and I couldn't do this without my family's support.  We aren't done.  Sections are next Saturday, then Masters, then State.  The coaches are working on an offseason 2.0 this year and I will post that information around the banquet time.  

 

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**Community Service Requirement Just a reminder that every BV wrestler is required to volunteer 2 nights at the Kids Club Practices.  The younger kids love it and it's very helpful for our high school kids to go and help out/teach the younger kids.  These practices are at Carnegie HS.  1st - 3rd grade practices on Monday/Wednesday nights from 5:30 - 6:45 pm.  4th - 6th grade practices on Tuesday/Thursday nights from 5:30 - 7 pm.  I will give community service hours for this. This is also great for college applications. 

 

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**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.  

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** Grades: School is more important than sports, which is why "student" comes before "athlete."  I'm a teacher on campus and there is no excuse for any of our wrestlers to not be academically eligible.  It takes a lot of discipline to establish positive habits in regards to finding a way to optimally thrive in school while simultaneously thriving in sport.  This is one of the life skills that I'm trying to develop as a coach.  Grade checks to start the season came out about a month ago and there will be updated grade checks (progress reports) in a week or so.  By the way, I do NOT excuse an athlete from practice because they have homework.  Practice ends no later than 5:45 every night and nobody is doing homework, nonstop, from 3:30 - bedtime.  No culmination of teachers assigns that much homework.  If they do, then please tell me and I will work with those teachers.  

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**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.  

 

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**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.  

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**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.  

 

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**THANK YOU FOR HELPING US RUN A SUCCESSFUL OFFSEASON TOURNAMENT TODAY! Bella Vista hosted its first Sacramento Area Wrestling Association (SAWA) spring tournament today after many years off.  I didn't realize how difficult it would be to get help during the offseason but a lot of people stepped up big time and we could not have done it without them.  Thank you to Shirley Marlatt and Kathi Rutherdale for taking charge and running the snack bar for us today.  Shirley also put together the sign up genius and both girls helped with a lot of other tasks behind the scenes.  It's very nice to not have to worry about the snack bar at all.  Thank you to Vic Jesus and Ken Olivera for running the gate ALL DAY LONG.  These were the only 2 that signed up to work and they put in more time than I asked from them.  Also, I have some amazing humans that I get to have as assistant coaches.  Aaron Keough and took time off work on Friday to help us move mats from Carnegie and all 3 of his sons worked extremely hard all weekend to help us out.  Chuck and Beau are in our kids club but they are basically already part of the high school team.  Hayden Hovis tackles every single task that I ask of him without hesitation and he was helping everywhere this weekend.  We had a lot of kids help on Friday and Saturday and I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but Vince Nguyen, Justin Nguyen, David Nguyen, Katelynne Hall, Javier Farfan, Jaharie Osborne, Aiden Jaeger, Jorden Watson, Jared Watson, Myles Casillas, Robby Jansen, Emma Ford, Greenlea Record, Max Keough, Ben Jesus, and Frank Olivera.  Most of them wrestled matches as well!  We will now take spring break off and then resume our spring practices on Mondays/Wednesdays after school when we return to school.  

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I also want to thank my wife and daughters for helping today.  They knew we were short staffed and showed up to help in the snack bar and everywhere else that was needed.  Going straight into the offseason after a loooooong high school season is tough and I could not do this without the support of my wife, Shelby.  She knows this is all for the kids and she still supports me after all of the time that I put in.  

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**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... 

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Historically, our program has only done 1 fundraiser a year, which is 1 weekend in January.  We usually profit enough from our annual fundraiser to pay for our entire season and have some extra money for our emergency fund.  Just to be transparent, it costs around $15,000 dollars to run our season - every year.  We are almost 100% dependent on our own fundraising revenue in order to pay for our season.  The school only pays for the refs at our home dual meets and the district pays for 2 coaching stipends.  We are 100% on our own after that.  Having said that, our district has still refused to pay a stipend for a girls' wrestling coach, even though girls wrestling has been sanctioned by the CIF since 2011, they have their own tournaments, playoffs, and state championships.  We have 2 girls coaches and pay each of them a full stipend each year from our own fundraising profits (thousands of dollars).  Coach Nishimura deferred his stipend last year to save the team money and Coach Hedrick took half a stipend to save the team money as well (he only needed gas money reimbursement because he lives in Pollock Pines).  In addition to girls coaching stipends, we also pay for a 3rd coaching stipend for the varsity assistant coach (in addition to our JV coach).  Hotels are one of our biggest expenditures, and having a successful girls team along with a successful boys team adds on to that.  Here's an example - last season we had 11 boys and 5 girls qualify for Masters.  We had to get hotel rooms for all 16 of those wrestlers and separate the girls and boys, along with the coaches, for 2 nights.  That adds up (6-7 rooms around $150 per night at minimum, before taxes, for 2 nights).  Then we went to the State Championships in Bakersfield the following weekend and had 1 boy and 3 girls qualify.  We had to get separate rooms for boys and girls, and get rooms for the coaches.  The state championships are 3 days, so we had to pay for 3 nights for each group- all from our own fundraising.  This is all with no financial help from the school or district.  In addition to all of that, it's usually a $300 - $450 entrance fee to pay for each team to compete in a tournament.  We have a JV team, a varsity boys team, and a varsity girls team - all 3 are usually competing on a typical weekend and that adds up.  I also provide singlets, warm ups, new shirts, etc., for our wrestlers (more money).  Our 2 varsity teams also travel a lot during the regular season and need hotels.  Sorry for the long explanation but there's a lot that goes into a season.  

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** FYI, I am officially the CVC League Commissioner for wrestling: Mike Lee, the former head wrestling coach at BV for 25 years, held this position for a very long time.  As soon as Mike retired from coaching, the Roseville coach took the position (Doug Ash was the head wrestling coach at Roseville for over 20 years).  Doug was great but he officially stepped away from wrestling at the conclusion of the 2022 regular season.  The Central Valley Conference needed a new person to represent our league for wrestling at the section level, in addition to, organizing/handling league business, enforcing by-laws, and way, way more.  To be honest, I reluctantly volunteered myself for this position after I interpreted what it would be like to have the other coaches in our league fill that position (wink).  My first role as league commissioner started with the CVC  league tournament, but I finally received an email from our section office tonight that officially confirmed me as our league commissioner/representative.  This has very little to do with you, but I figured you would like to know.  

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**Congratulations to our 2 STATE MEDALISTS - Amaya Yoshizumi placed 6th in the state championships and Gianna DiBenedetto placed 7th!  Amazing!

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**CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR GIRLS TEAM FOR FINISHING IN 2ND PLACE AT THE SJS MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS! A true accomplishment. This is the best finish in our girls' team history!

 

** Congrats to the 4 BV wrestlers who qualified for the state championships: Senior Elijah Shaw got 4th place, Freshman Emma Ford got 3rd place, Senior Amaya Yoshizumi got 2nd place, and Sophomore Gianna DiBenedetto got 1st place.  

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**Spring Sports I know that spring sports are beginning their preseason practices right now and I want you all to know that our wrestlers are cleared with the coaches who coach spring sports to miss the preseason practices.  Our wrestlers will have zero negative actions against them for being on the wrestling team and finishing their season.  In fact, if a wrestler quit the season at this point of time they would not even be allowed to go out for a spring sport until the wrestling season was concluded.  All the spring sport coaches make adjustments for this and they favor wrestlers.  Who wouldn't want a wrestler to come out for their team after a grueling wrestling season?  

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**SO MUCH recent success for our BV wrestling alumni and current girls:  Within the past few weeks Jennifer Page won the Pan Am Championships in Guatemala and then wrestled in a tournament in Poland less than 2 weeks later and lost a close match in the bronze medal match.  Yelena Makoyed wrestled in the Junior (20u) Pan Am Championships outside of Mexico City a week ago and took first place.  Amaya Yoshizumi wrestled in the Folkstyle State Championships on the Saturday in between Finals and took 1st place!  I know I'm forgetting some stuff and I'll update as soon as I fact check.  I'll also be updating our Hall of Fame page for our alumni and all of their accomplishments.  If you have not checked out the Hall of Fame section, please do.  We have a long, rich history with our wrestling program.  

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**More wrestling accolades for Bella Vista wrestling alumni! The section directly below this describes the success of Jennifer Page, Alex Hedrick, and Yelena Makoyed at the Olympic Trials that happened less than a month ago.  Since then, these girls have been busy and successful!  Alex Hedrick and Jennifer Page won the U.S. Open (national championships at the highest level) on April 30th.  This was Jenn's 4th U.S. Open title and Alex's 2nd U.S. Open title.  Absolutely amazing!  A week later, in a different state, Alex, Yelena, and Emily Alderman competed in some World Team Trials for their age divisions.  In the Junior Division (20 and under) Emily went 3-2 and Yelena made the finals and lost to a rising star who was a runner up at the Olympic Trials.  The following day was the U23 world team trials and Yelena made the finals again, against the same girl.  The finals matches at Trials tournaments are always best of 3 and in the previous day Yelena lost by technical fall both times.  A day later, Yelena won the first match and then lost the next 2 matches by a small margin (major improvements).  Meanwhile, Alex Hedrick won the U23 World Team Trials and will represent the United States at the U23 World Championships in Serbia this summer (Yelena is an alternate at 2 different age divisions).  We are proud of all of these women and they continue to impress us with their grit, resilience, commitment, integrity, and gratitude throughout all of this. 

 

**Before all of the high school wrestling news, I want to congratulate our 3 Bella Vista Wrestling alumni for their success at the Olympic Trials last week: Jennifer Page, Yelena Makoyed, and Alex Hedrick. I don't think there's another high school in the country that produced 3 medalists at the Olympic Trials.  This tournament is by far the toughest in the country.  The level of wrestling is way higher than the NCAA Championships and it's tougher than all other national championships.  In addition to that, there are only 6 weight classes instead of 10, so all of the best wrestlers filter together, which makes competition tougher than ever.  Alex Hedrick and Yelena Makoyed both finished in 4th place, which is absolutely amazing and something to celebrate.  Jennifer Page finished in 3rd place and made the National Team again.  Top four in the nation at the highest level of wrestling is OUTSTANDING and it's tough to describe how much of an accomplishment that is.  If you've been around any of these 3 women then you know how hard they work, how nice they are, how much integrity they have, and how much grit, resilience, and commitment they possess.  Jennifer trains with Cael Sanderson at the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club (Penn State), Yelena trains at North Central Illinois, and Alex trains at every possible spot she can find (MMA gyms, Simon Fraser University, the grass, etc.). I am very proud of each one of them and I'm lucky to have coached all three of them (as an assistant coach) when they were at BV (Jennifer was a junior when I did my first stint at BV as an assistant coach about 12 years ago).  To be honest, Mike Lee deserves the most recognition for the development and early success of these women.  Mike built an amazing program with positive coaches at all levels within the BV program.  I know for a fact that all three of these women had positive experiences during their time at BV and that there were many coaches who played an important role in their development.  Without the program that Mike built and the coaches that he hired, the recent success of these 3 probably would not have happened.  I'm so proud of what Jennifer, Yelena, and Alex accomplished and I know there's more to come.  Go Broncos! 

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**Mental Health and Benefits of participating this summer:  I truly believe that being a part of the wrestling team, attending practices, and engaging with other wrestlers and coaches in a structured format will have a positive impact on the mental health of each wrestler.  I love every single wrestler on this team and I've been away from them from so long that I haven't been able to fully play my role as a positive role model in their life.  This is a great opportunity to exercise, have fun, spend time with friends, and have a coach help them with all things in life.  Going back to school has been great for most kids/teachers, so I only predict that wrestling will be great as well.   

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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.  

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FYI - Bella Vista Wrestling has a very rich history and tradition; a lot of state and national level champions have come out of our program.  These people still very much pay attention to how our program is doing, so much so that there is a fan page on Facebook.  If interested in following this, just look for "Bella Vista Wrestling Fan Club".

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Team Doctor (Dr. Randy Martin) phone number if needed; please be aware of the time of day and seriousness of the call when trying to reach him.  He is kind enough to help our team, we don't want to be a stressor to his offer.  (916) 834-8820

 

• If you are a varsity parent, the team will be staying at hotels booked by our travel agent Katrina Ferland. You will want to call her and book your own room at the same hotel for trips that you will be attending. Katrina's number is 765-1190 or email katrinaferland@gmail.com

• If you've got a wrestler that would like to become a top wrestler, go to "Wrestlers" on this site under "You want to be a champion wrestler". It all starts there! Then continues on with a lot 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).

• If you have general questions, or want to let me know that your wrestler will be missing practice, email me at Garrett.Lane@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.