Rolling Thunder developing wrestling talent of tomorrow

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Vogel Arena is usually filled with the sounds of body checks into the boards and pucks from slap shots bouncing off the glass from hockey games.

But Friday night and Saturday, the ice was replaced by mats and the sound of pucks flying was replaced by sounds of "Keep your head up" and "Shoot for his legs" as the New Ulm Rolling Thunder wrestling club hosted its Greco-Roman and Freestyle Wrestling Tournament.

"We have 199 kids wrestling today (Saturday) in the freestyle," said Rae Runck of the Rolling Thunder. "(Friday night) In Greco-Roman, we had 58 wrestlers. And they came from all over."

For the novice wrestling fan, the difference between Greco-Roman and freestyle is that "Greco-Roman is all upper body -- you can't go for the legs," explained Runck. "While freestyle is basically using both the upper body and the legs. You get penalized (in Greco-Roman) if you go for the legs. Freestyle, you can use anything you want. High school wrestling is called 'folkstyle,' but there is a lot of freestyle mixed in with it. Freestyle is a little faster and there is no riding position."

Wrestlers from New Ulm, Prior Lake, Mankato, Redwood Falls, Marshall, Worthington, Windom, Jackson and several different clubs from the Twin Cities kept eight mats constantly going Saturday.

"On Friday night, we had some Greco-Roman wrestlers drive three and a half hours to New Ulm from southern Wisconsin for matches," Runck said.

"We are a pretty-well-run tournament. People know that when they come here it is a first-class tournament."

Runck said the Rolling Thunder "should do well. We have between 55 and 60 wrestlers participating. It is an individual event -- not a team event."

Next week, Rolling Thunder will travel to southern Minnesota's wrestling hotbed -- St. James -- for the Region Two tournament. "The winners there will qualify for state tournament on May 18," said Runck.

Two Thunder wrestlers who have done consistently well are Adam Hoffmann and Coleman Cihak.

On Saturday, Hoffmann won first place in the Schoolboy class.

"I come from a wrestling family," Hoffmann said. "My dad, Jeff, was a wrestler. And I like the sport a lot. It is challenging -- you can go to state (individually) other than as a team. That is what I like about wrestling."

And Hoffmann knows about success. "He is 12 years old and is the defending state champion," said Kevin Orr of the Rolling Thunder.

Cihak also comes from a wrestling family. His father, Ken, was a high school wrestling coach in Huron, S.D., before coming to New Ulm. Coleman has also been consistently finishing at the top.

Orr, who has been involved in the Rolling Thunder since its genesis 15 years ago, said the main purpose is to instruct the wrestlers in the fundamentals of wrestling.

"We don't keep track of individual records at this age level," he said. "The main objective is to introduce them to the sport of wrestling -- make if fun for them and work on technique so they become better wrestlers, and we can feed the high school program.

"A good youth program is the key. We are trying to build a tradition here with the Rolling Thunder. When we initially started the program 15 years ago, we had nine kids out. Now, we average between 105 to 110 kids out per year."

While Orr has been involved since the Thunder's birth, there are constantly new people getting involved. One of them is Al Schmit. His son, Luke, is in his third year of wrestling.

"This program is great because of the people involved," Schmit said. "The coaches work well with the kids. They don't favor anybody -- everybody gets the same treatment. This is my first child in the program and he really loves it. I was never an athlete -- we worked on a farm and could not go out for sports."

But that has not stopped Schmit from doing his best for Luke. "Whenever he is wrestling, I make sure that he gets to the practices, to the meets. We meet so many nice parents and fans at these tournaments. I have met kids once or twice that Luke has wrestled against. I meet them much later and they come up to you and talk to you like you are their dad. This is just a great program for all of the kids."

For tournament results, see Tuesday's edition of The Journal.