OLYMPIC GAMES
Our Cry Wolf Wrestling® story begins with carvings and drawings that illustrate wrestling positions, about 15,000 to 20,000 years old, in modern day France. The oldest artifacts in ancient sport are wrestlers cast on stone slabs by Sumarians about 5,000 years ago. Shuai Jiao, a martial art style of wrestling, originated in China about 4,000 years ago and the ancient Greeks developed wrestling to train soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. The Egyptian tombs around the village Beni Hasan, dating about 2,500 BC, contain hundreds of wrestling-how-to drawings. Since the first ancient Olympic Games in 708 BC and the modern Olympic Games in 1896, wrestling has been included in every Olympic Games except for 1900. Greco-Roman was reintroduced for the 1908 London Games and since the 1920 Antwerp Games, both Freestyle and Greco-Roman styles have been on every Olympic Programme. The Olympic Games are held once every four years, while the World Championships are annually.
UNITED STATES WRESTLING
The United States has developed several noteworthy Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestlers throughout history. Rulon Gardner defeated Aleksandr Karelin of Russia, a wrestler who had not lost a match in 15 years. John Smith, current Head Coach for Oklahoma State, won six consecutive world level titles. Bruce Baumgartner, the most decorated USA Wrestler in history, has earned 13 world medals. Dan Gable dominated the 1972 Olympics when he earned the Gold without a single point being scored on him. Brothers Dave and Mark Schultz, as well as Ed and Lou Banach, were two sets of brothers who all won wrestling Gold at the 1984 Olympics. Tragically, Dave Schultz was shot and killed, which is documented in the film Foxcatcher. Jordan Burroughs earned his seventh World Medal at the 2018 World Championships. Steve Fraser’s Gold medal was the first Olympic medal in Greco-Roman in USA history. Jeff Blatnick beat cancer in 1982 to earn Greco-Roman Gold in 1984. Cael Sanderson went undefeated in college and won Gold in Athens. Henry Cejudo, Coronado High School graduate, was the youngest USA Wrestling Gold medalist until Kyle Snyder won the NCAA, World and Olympic titles at the age of 20!
WOMEN’S FREESTYLE
In 1989, pioneering women challenged the status quo and competed in the first Women’s Freestyle World Championships. In 1992, Tricia Saunders became the first Women’s Freestyle World Champion for the United States. She is also the first women inducted into the National Wrestling and the United World Wrestling Halls of Fame. 108 years after Athens, Greece hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, Women’s Freestyle was added to the 2004 Olympic Programme. Athens would again be the birthplace for the fastest growing sport, high school or college, in the United States. The first Women’s Freestyle Olympic Medal for the United States was a Bronze earned by Clarissa Chun at the 2012 London Games. Helen Maroulis defeated Saori Yoshida (Japan) at the 2016 Rio Games to become the first Women’s Freestyle Olympic Champion for the United States. Yoshida had earned 13 World Championships and 3 Olympic Gold Medals prior to their 2016 match. Kaori Icho (Japan) made Olympic History at the 2016 Rio Games when she joined Americans Al Oerter (Discus) and Carl Lewis (Long Jump) as the only athletes to ever earn four Olympic Golds in a single event. Will Icho become the first Olympic Athlete in history to earn 5 Olympic Gold Medals in a single event when her home country hosts the 2020 Tokyo Games? Adeline Gray, from Colorado, recently won her fourth World Championships to tie Tricia Saunders’ almost 20 year old record.
WRESTLING: A MARTIAL ART
With the growth of mixed martial arts (MMA) and the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC), wrestling has also gained popularity. Joe Rogan describes wrestling as the greatest MMA skill, because it dictates where the fight takes place. Having been around the sport of wrestling for almost 40 years, I do not recall it being considered a “martial art” until after I graduated high school. In November 1993, UFC 1 debuted a one-on-one, no weight classes, cage fight tournament between all martial arts to determine which was supreme. Royce Gracie answered this question and significantly influenced the evolution of marital arts around the world by winning UFC 1, 2 and 5 with a Brazilian jiu-jitsu style. A major paradigm shift occurred concurrently with the acceptance of MMA as a sport and the acceptance of wrestling as a martial art. Today, wrestling is considered as possibly the single most important discipline to master before fighting in mixed martial arts.
SAVE OLYMPIC WRESTLING
On a Tuesday in Lausanne, Switzerland (February 12, 2013), the International Olympic Committee had voted by secret ballot to add “vying for inclusion in the 2020 Olympic program as an additional sport.” The 180 countries around the world with wrestling federations, including the United States, joined together to save Olympic Wrestling.
VISTA RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL | BOYS WRESTLING
Vista Ridge High School was established in 2008 and has qualified at least one wrestler for the State Wrestling Championships since 2010. Prior to the coaching staff turnover for the 2016-2017 Season, Vista Ridge had 20 State Qualifiers and 3 State Placers. Troy Bonewell accepted the Head Coach position in October 2016. Prior to Vista Ridge, he was a Colorado State Champion for Las Animas and wrestled at Adams State University. He coached at Wiley (1995-1998), Del Norte (1998-2001) and Sand Creek (2001-2014). After accepting the Vista Ridge position, he called Coach Eric Everard and said “we are coaching again” after taking an 18 month break. They had coached together for almost a decade at Sand Creek, where they qualified 23 for the State Championships with 10 State Placers (2005-2014).
At Vista Ridge, Jason Lloyd joined the coaching staff that first season. Coach Lloyd wrestled for York College and brought a heavy weight perspective to the program. Together, they coached 3 Regional Placers and 2 State Qualifiers for Vista Ridge High School during their inaugural season. The following season would end with 6 Regional Placers and both State Qualifiers placing (Jeff Flippen 5th and Ronnie Salazar 6th). The 2018-2019 season included 4 Regional placers and 3 State Qualifiers (Hayden Fuller, Tyler Bemrose, and Ben Therien). Additionally, two wrestlers placed at the JV State Championships (Jaime Snyder 4th and Max Coddington 7th). It is important to highlight that the JV State Championships have up to 54 wrestlers in them. It is such a significant accomplishment to place at JV State that we award Varsity Letters for the accomplishment. Ben, Jaime and Max each return for the 2019-2020 Season and have their sights set on the CHSAA State Wrestling Championships medal stand.
The following season we had seven girls come out for the team, which we embraced. However, we knew our periodization plan and schedule required a complete overhaul to not only accommodate girls wrestling, but promote girls wrestling to grow the sport. The evolution of girls wrestling provided another example to support an “auribus teneo lupum” team motto. Not only did our opponents need to consider our boys team, they also have to contend with our girls team and be careful not to take any Vista Ridge or Cry Wolf Wrestler for granted. Our opponent’s may not know us, but they will remember us.
VISTA RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL | GIRLS WRESTLING
Our “Cry Wolf Wrestling®” idea was further encouraged when Bella Mitchell placed 2nd at the 2018 Colorado Girls State Wrestling Invitational. Bella was also one of 10 girls invited to compete on the Pepsi Center floor in Denver, prior to the Colorado State Championships Semifinals, to highlight girls wrestling for all spectators. Previously, we experienced only one or two girls on our team each season and one of those girls was our first to compete in Women’s Wrestling at the college level.
Bella Mitchell and Gaby Norman, current Vista Ridge High School Wrestlers, represented Team Colorado at the March 2018 USMC Girls Folkstyle Nationals in Oklahoma City. Ashley Keenan, the first girl we coached to wrestle all four years of high school, wrestled for Regina University in Canada until they cancelled all wrestling programs. When she sent a text to Coach Eric asking for options, he happened to be reading the announcement about Colorado Mesa University, DII, starting a women’s wrestling program. She transferred to Colorado Mesa University and completed her college wrestling career as a member of their inaugural DII Women’s Wrestling Program for the 2018-19 Season.
In March 2018, the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) approved a path for Girls Wrestling to become sanctioned sport and have a CHSAA Girls State Wrestling Championships Tournament during the 2020-21 Season. With support from the Vista Ridge High School Athletics Director, Mr. Sam Baldwin, a Girls Wrestling Head Coach stipend was approved and Coach Eric Everard was named the Associate Head Coach for Vista Ridge Coed Wrestling. Mr. Baldwin also funded a girls wrestling uniform, consisting of compression shirts and shorts, and supported our ability to offer a full girls tournament schedule with a CHSAA sponsored Girls Wrestling Regionals and State Tournament for the 2018-19 Season.
We ended the 2018-2019 Season with 7 girls competing at Colorado’s first girls Regional Tournament. Angel Norman placed 6th, Gaby Norman placed 5th, Kai Morrison placed 4th to quality for the State Championships, and Bella Mitchell placed 1st. Maya Bautista and Grace Lee would also contribute Vista Ridge Girls Wrestling leading the Region Tournament in match points scored (168), wins by fall (12) and placing 4th as a team with 57 teams points; only 1.5 points away from 3rd place. Bella would go on to become the first CHSAA sponsored Colorado Girls Wrestling Champion for the Pikes Peak Region.
AURIBUS TENEO LUPUM
Our modern day Cry Wolf Wrestling® motto, auribus teneo lupum, is an ancient Latin phrase that literally means, “I grasp a wolf by the ears.” Similar to “grab a tiger by the tail,” it is used to describe a situation where doing nothing and doing something is equally risky. I had a similar thought on February 11, 2017, while sitting mat side and waiting for our heavyweight, Jeff Flippen, to be announced for his Region Championship match. Jeff had lost 55 pounds to wrestle heavyweight, which resulted in a non-threatening 5-4 season record. Aesop’s Fable, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, came to mind and I thought, “what if you are the wolf,” because our Vista Ridge High School mascot is the Wolf. This fable teaches us to not give false alarms. However, when a Wolf is at the edge of the forest, as Jeff represented by standing at the edge of the wrestling mat, it would not have been a false alarm for his opponents to Cry Wolf! He pinned everyone he wrestled at Regionals that season and placed 5th at State the following year to end his wrestling career on a win.
CRY WOLF WRESTLING®
The Cry Wolf Wrestling® Club became a USA Wrestling Chartered Club (1800182602) in 2018. Our goal is to continue a FREE wrestling club for all Vista Ridge Wrestlers that focuses on Freestyle and Greco-Roman outside the CHSAA winter sport and Folkstyle Season. We aspire to provide a FREE opportunity for youth to benefit from the life lessons learned through the sport of wrestling, girls and boys, within the Colorado Springs area.
PACK LEADER COUNSEL
In 2019, we established the Pack Leader Development Course (PLDC) with the intent to mentor our student-athletes and provide them with a leadership toolset that inspires a culture where our Cry Wolf Fable thrives. The Pack Leader Counsel will consist of student- athletes, who complete all nine sessions of PLDC, and the coaching staff. The Pack Leader Counsel is accountable for facilitating our Coaching Philosophy, Code of Conduct, and Team Standards along with the Head Coaches, boys and girls, who are ultimately responsible for the Vista Ridge and Cry Wolf Wrestling® Programs.