Destination: State

BY JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- New Ulm High School wrestling coach Dar Arndt minces few words when he talks about eighth-grader Adam Hoffmann and his skills as a wrestler for the Eagles.

"He is well on his way to becoming one of New Ulm's all-time great wrestlers," Arndt said.

How good?

"He could very well be the best ever to wrestle here at New Ulm High School," Arndt said.

And if you look at what Hoffmann has done in his two years of varsity wrestling -- Hoffmann wrestled varsity last year as a 7th grader -- you see why.

Last year he posted a 21-16 record, and so far this year he is 28-4. In two years, Hoffmann has a record of 49 wins and only 20 losses.

The school record for career wins is 136. Hoffmann, with four years left, is more than a third of the way to that mark already.

"Most of the record-setters never really got started until they were in the ninth or 10th grade," Arndt said.

And in Arndt's 18 years as head wrestling coach for the Eagles, he said that he has not had many seventh graders or eighth graders wrestle on varsity. The last one that Arndt can remember is Eric MIller.

Even as a seventh-grader, Hoffmann had success with 21 wins while also finishing second in the South Central Conference meet last year and third at sections at 103 pounds. This year, he won the SCC title at 103 pounds.

"He also won the Most Offensive Wrestler of the Year Award in the conference," Arndt said. "That is based on a point system that you gain points by how you beat your opponent. He is competing against the best from powers like St. James and Blue Earth. He out-distanced his closest competitor, Shane Johnson from St. James by two points."

In fact, Hoffmann had a perfect score of 50 out of 50.

Arndt said that Hoffmanm's success at a young age is due to many things. The first is that he comes from a good blood line for wrestlers.

"Almost every turn that he has taken he has come in contact with family members who were good wrestlers," Arndt said. "His dad Jeff was a good wrestler for us and his uncle, Rich, a New Ulm Police Officer, was a state wrestling champion."

Rich Hoffmann won his championship in 1979 at 155 pounds.

"Wrestling has a tendency to do that once it gets going in a family," Arndt said. "You go to any local towns and there will be a whole line of the same name showing up for many years as wrestlers."

"My dad is the one who got me involved in wrestling," Adam Hoffmann said. "I started wrestling when I was five years old, and I love the sport."

Hoffmann, who is soft-spoken, said that his success on the mat is due to hard work, dedication and his technique.

"I work hard in practice and as I progress, instinct takes over as far as what to do in a certain situation," he said.

And part of that technique involves what coach Arndt labeled the "Hoffmann Hammerlock."

"It is usually just a hammerlock," Adam said. "But since my uncles and my dad used it, they called it the Hoffmann Hammerlock -- it is just a pin hold. My dad taught me that."

Arndt said that Hoffmann has many strengths.

"He is great on his feet, taking people down, and he uses that Hoffmann Hammerlock," he said. "He can apply that pin hold to just about anyone he wants to."

Arndt saw even as a fourth grader in free-style wresting that Adam was going to be something special on the wrestling mat.

"He was doing well then already and doing well at the state level in free-style wrestling," Arndt said. "He was awful tough in his age group and won several titles."

Arndt feels that Hoffmann's future will probably be at the 145-152 class, which is where his dad and uncles wrestled at.

"I think that he will hit a real growth spurt this summer and I think that we will be lucky if we ever see him wrestle 119 or even 125 next year. He is really tall," he said.

And what about Hoffmann's future beyond high school wrestling?

"He is potentially a D-I wrestler," Arndt said. "He is on the same track, or even past, where Pete Zangl was for us at this stage."

Zangl went on to wrestle at Purdue University.

"Where [Hoffmann] is at now with his takedowns and pins and wins, he is going to shatter the wrestling records that we have if he stays healthy and stays wiih it," Arndt said. "The only people that he has lost to have been state-ranked wrestlers."

Hoffmann was at one time ranked sixth in the state at 103 pounds, but has dropped to 10th.

"The reason that he did that was because some of the real strong 112 pounders from powers like Apple Valley, Owatonna have dropped down and shook up the rankings," Arndt said. "But I would not take a whole lot of stock in that because (Saturday) he beat a wrestler from Mankato West who had a reccord of 26-7. This guy was beating most of the Big Nine competition. Adam handled him easily with a 9-1 win."

Hoffmann says one of his biggest matches this year was against Madelia-Truman's Andy Forstner.

"At the start of this season, I wrestled Andy Forstner from Madelia-Truman. Last year, he was my first match that I ever had in varsity wrestling and he pinned me in 30 seconds," he said This year, he was rated fifth in the state and I went out and we were tied before me beat me by one point in a close match. I knew that I got better from last year."

And Hoffmann's skills have not gone unnoticed by opposing wrestling coaches.

"They all say that he is a great kid -- they love his personality and demeanor on the mat," Arndt said. "He has handled the success that he has had -- he does not get cocky. He is not like that at all."

Hoffmann, and the rest of the Eagles will compete in the Section 2AAA individual wrestling tournament in Chaska Friday and Saturday. Competition Friday begins at ??? and continues Saturday at 10 a.m.