Waukee Youth Wrestling Sees Improvement and Success in 2011-12 Season

Submitted by Chad Vollmecke, Waukee Wrestling

This year's state series was a great showing for Waukee Youth Wrestling.  We had a larger number of kids competing at the state and district levels, and our finishes were an improvement over years past as well.  Cade De Vos and Kyle Biscoglia are defending state champions who repeated, so that, too, is very exciting.

Beyond the AAU series, many of our more experienced kids competed all over the state and country.  For example, Jakob Allison placed 2nd out in Las Vegas at the NUWAY Southwest Kick-off Classic, 2nd at Winter Nationals, 2nd at USA State, and was Champion at Corn Cob Nationals. Jakob's workout partner, Zach Barnes, has a very good pedigree of performance this year as well. He placed 5th at the Tulsa Kick Off, 3rd at Winter Nationals, and 2nd at Grade School State.  He and Jakob have proven to be great workout partners for one another.

Another duo that has had a great year of improvement is the Vento combination!  Twin brothers Nick and Nate work together non-stop to continually improve.  Although Nick was the only State Qualifier, he and Nate are very much in this together.  Both have shown great progress, with Nick 3rd at Winter Nationals and having a very good state tournament.  

Our 5th and 6th graders are some of the most accomplished kids currently in our program.  As I mentioned earlier, two of them are returning state champions.  Cade De Vos, who repeated as AAU State Champion this season, has had a ton of success this year.  His accomplishments include USAW State champion, Tulsa Nationals champion, 2nd place at the Mid-American World Classic, 3rd at USA Asics Nationals, and 3rd at the Cliff Keen Tulsa Kick-off.

Cade had company at many of these tournaments in his workout partner, Kyle Biscoglia.  After winning the USAW Pre-season Nationals, Kyle has won his third AAU Kids State Championship, repeated as a Tulsa nationals All-American, and appeared as finalist in the Tulsa kickoff.  

Another young man with a resume a mile long is Joel Shapiro.  Joel has won AAU Winter nationals, Corn Cob nationals, USAW state, placed 4th at the Midwest Showdown, and been a finalist in several other tournaments, like Grade School State, and most notably, USA Folkstyle Nationals.  Joel travels all over to get the best coaching and workouts available, and it has paid off. Team mate Anthony Zach also won the AAU Winter Nationals and was a finalist at Grade School State in addition to his 5th place AAU performance.

 These older kids are great leaders, and it is evident because our kids get tougher as they get younger!   4th grader Cody Anderson placed 2nd at the pre-season Nationals, 1st at Park Hill in Kansas City, 5th at the Gopher State Nationals in MN, and 3rd at Corn Cob Nationals as well as winning his first AAU State title.  The next wave of our up-and-comers is led by 1st grader Dominic Rubino and kindergartner Koufax Christensen. Dominic has placed 5th at the Gopher State Nationals and 8th at Super Pee Wee state, while Koufax was Champion at Grade School State, placed 3rd at Gopher, and placed 5th at Super Pee Wee State.  Along with Koufax's older brother Thurman, these three little dudes are leading up a great "next wave" of grapplers for our program.  These young men bound together to place 2nd at the Iowa State Youth Dual Team Championships, many of them going undefeated.  We lost a close one to Dowling but defeated Southeast Polk to get second place.  As is obvious, there is a lot of excitement around the Waukee wrestling program thanks to these young men and others who have dedicated their time to learning the great sport of wrestling.  

The coaches who lead these youngsters deserve accolades as well. Tim Smith, Brett Christensen, and Jeff Rubino bear the brunt of the weight in the Beginner level club along with the help of many other fathers who lend a hand.  Ben Schulte and Dave Miller carry the weight of the Intermediate club, while Smith and Christensen help out here occasionally.  The Advanced club is coached by head wrestling coach Chad Vollmecke and assistants Chas Funaro and Al Garrison.  Working in our club, however, isn't enough.  

Many of these kids are involved with Steve Knight and Excel Wrestling, Pablo Ubasa and Ubasa Trained, Tony Purler and the Purler Wrestling Academy, or Chad Tunink and High Altitude Wrestling Club.  Some even do a combination of the aforementioned.  We firmly believe that the more opportunities we can provide, the better our kids will be.  This is proving to be true!  Keep your eyes on the Waukee Wrestling community.  The future is bright!