Post your bio and background here...

[OVERweight135]

My name is Kyle Rasmussen. I am 17 years old and live in aurora. I first became interested in wrestling when I was in about 5th or 6th grade watching my older cousins participate(one taking 4th @ IKWF state). However, I didn't begin wrestling till i was in 7th grade at Still Middle School. You could say it didn't really start of well considering i had an accumulative middle school record of 6-9 throught 7th and 8th grade.

After that I decided to wrestle my freshmen year at Waubonsie Valley High School. I switched off time on the JV and freshmen team that year compiling a record of about 10-15(give or take). During my summer between freshmen and sophmore year i decided that i wanted to put in the time to get better so competeing was actually fun. That is when, with a little help from my coach i began attending the Overtime School of Wrestling. Sean Bormet, John Kading, and Kerry Boumans I can honestly say are very responsible for the fact that i am actually somewhat of a decent wrestler now. During that summer i went from losing to kids on my team to just completely owning them. My sophmore year i should have made varsity but there are no excuses and i just didn't. I was 30-0 on JV and won a confrence title. Between my sophmore and junior year and got about 60 offseason matches which is always good and also went back to overtime for the summer. My junior year i cracked the lineup at 130lbs. I had a decent year going 15-7, taking 2nd at in the upstate eight confrence, and unfortunatly torn some cartilage between ribs and was unable to compete in the state series. This summer i have gotten 50 offseason matches in thus far and am weighing around 160ish. I hope so wrestle somewehre between 135-145 next year and at least qualify for state.

[canttouchthis76]

My name is Artie Grubba, I'm 18 years old, and i just graduated from Romeoville High School. I started wrestling in 6th grade for A.V.Martinez Middle School in Romeoville(an IESA program) and didn't accomplish much there, but learned a lot from my coaches. I wrestled JV my freshman and Sophomore years in high school. I was undefeated my sophomore year, but that wasnt saying much, as I didnt have any good competition. I started to bloom during the offseason after my sophomore year, after my middle school coach decieved me into wrestling at the FILA cadet nationals. Prior to the car ride to weigh ins, i was not informed that it was freestyle. or a national event.
I went 1-2, but beat an all american from Iowa and won at least 1 period on the other 2, who weren't too bad either. Every year since then, I've been to Fargo to wrestle both styles, with my best success coming my junior year in greco where i was top 15 in the nation and 14th in the whole tournament(all weights) for most falls/least time. At the High School level, i was a State qualifier my senior year, and I hold the #1 spor(senior year) and am tied with Paul Collum for #3 (jr year) on my teams all-time season pin leaderboard.
Pretty much to sum everything up... I've wrestled at least 3 tournaments a month all offseason since my 8th grade year, and its how i improved. so my advice to any wrestler who wants to get better.. is to just keep wrestling.

[wrestlersdad]

Hello, my name is Jim and I'm an Illinoismatman-alcohlic....now that felt good....lol

[4boys]

My name is Brian Hollis and I don’t chat on here much and still kind of new to IL wrestling. We came from Wisconsin and realized there is a total difference between the two in the caliber of high school wrestling. I have 6 kids 2 girls and four boys, which three wrestle. Tanner at 215, Trevor 171-189 and my youngest is a a 50 pounder and I think he has more drive then his older brothers LOL…They wrestle for Hononegah. They went right into a good wrestling program with a great coach.. I am starting to get familiar with big names in the IL wrestling but mainly I only know the nic 9—now nic 10. I know you won’t like to here this but we are all big Packer fans. This is the busy time of year for all of us football now and then right into wrestling. Glad to meet you.

[wrestlersdad]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

How did that happen to a baseball guy?!

Good question....try as I might, Joey just never had the burning desire for baseball that his dad did...so wrestling it is....Hey Jag...now that you and Jonathan don't stop by the practice room anymore, I didn't get a chance to say congrats on a great Fargo this year. Jonathan just rolled through the competition...back-to-back National Runner-up...that is awesome. When does Jonathan leave for the OEC? He must be jacked up for that! Stop by the practice room if you ever get a chance...we're always there!

[restling]

Scott Hammer, 37, from Erie. It is a small town pop. 1700 near the Quad Cities (Moline, Rock Island, etc..). I am married with two kids, Nicole and Josh. My wife and I started dating when we were 15 and have been together ever since. Nicole is 12 years old and has cerebal palsy. It is basicaly like caring for a new born every day, as she has no functionability at all. She does however have a smile, and laugh that can light up a room. Josh is 6, and we have just begun his sports career. He wrestled in two tourneys last year, and was 4-1. This summer was very busy with baseball.

My wrestling career was average. Three time sectional qualifier is the best I can say. I am however listed in the ihsa web site for career points. Unfortunatly for me out of my 1100 or so points probably 300 of them were from reversals. Takedowns were not my thing.

I coached football, and wrestling in Erie for many of the years between 1992-2005. I currently officiate juinor high matches. I attended nearly every state meet from 1982-1996, and I'm starting to follow it with intensity again.

Professionaly I own a roofing business, and that gives me freedom of a flexible schedule. So if not working I'm either golfing, doing some sport with Josh, or spending time with the family.

[Mr. White]

My name is Tim. I'm 25 (for another week anyway). I am a high school teacher and assistant wrestling coach in the south. I have been involved in wrestling since I was in 4th grade. My older brother wrestled his freshman and sophomore year and I really wanted to get into it. Everyone in my entire family is now a wrestling addict. My old high school hosted a regional this year and I had my sister and mom at one scoring table, with my dad at another scoring table, while I was coaching. It's hard not to fall in love with this sport.

[mckbln]

Emerson Bolen, nickname "Mack" whch I was given while I was in the military (based on "The Executioner" dime-novel series), currently survived a half-century. Got into wrestling late, as a junior 98lber at OPRF. I think I won a total of 6 matches that year. Senior year still at 98lbs was OPRF's first Rockford West tournament champ (the tourney that became the Dvorak). A bad case of mono killed the rest of my season. I wrestled for Tim Dodge at NCAA Div III Augustana for a brief period, then joined the US Army. Started with the 82nd Abn Div at Ft Bragg, and being a single soldier with a lot of free time, I coached wrestling as an unpaid volunteer at Westover HS, in Fayetteville, NC. I helped bring a nothing team with a head coach that was a football coach to a 2nd place state finish and produced a two-time state champ (105 & 112lbs) Antonio Calloway. I wrestled a lot of freestyle tournaments back then, winning many of them. Then I got into Special Ops. Goodbye spare time. I managed to enter the post wrestling tournament and place 2nd, wrestling a weight up. I also qualified for the nationals in judo. I had invites to the All-Army trials in both sports, but in the Spec Ops community, the duty comes first. I could have left my career field but it was a sacrifice I was not willing to make for a sport. I ended up spending 22 years in the Army, was in Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Beirut, Africa, all over Europe and the former USSR, Jordan, Israel, Haiti (worst place on earth), Somalia, etc... I got into triathlons, and did pretty well in that sport as an age-group amatuer, even qualifeid for the old Bud Light USTS national championsips. Arthritis eventually killed my military career, and I had a total hip-replacement. Alas, my "six-pack" is now a keg. Retired and came back to the Chicago area. Married with 3 kids, middle son was a two-time SQ for OPRF and was headed for a great Sr season until he injured his lower back, had school and personal problems and quit (sigh). On the plus side he was also a 6xJr National champ in judo (thank you Steve, Irwin, Aaron, and RJ Cohen) and will be heading to one of the Judo National Training centers, in Albany, NY. I will continue to be a HUGE wrestling and judo fan, probably go to Vegas for the trials next year. GO HUSKIES!!!

[MTC140]

Well...

My name's Taylor Wolfe - I wrestle for Mt.Carmel (the single a school) down south. I come from a football town, so wrestle doesn't really get any recognition around here. I started wrestling my freshmen year at 135 pounds. I worked my way onto the varsity lineup and went 12-20...lol. But with great coaching and hard work in the summer I turned it into a 26-10 sophomore season, and then I got hurt and didn't compete in the state series. This year I wrestled at 160 pounds and qualified for state...It was definitely the biggest thrill of my life.

I pinned my first kid in 56 seconds on a throw (I LOVE TO THROW!), then I had to wrestle Caleb Kraft and that didn't turn out well, and then lost by 3 to Tom Fritz...

I played baseball and football my whole life going into high school, and I really never liked football...I was always really good at baseball, and I played freshmen year and did good, but then soph and junior years I was injured and didn't play.

Coach Cheesman was the one who really got me into wrestling...I don't know many guys like him...He's one of the craziest guys I've ever met! He's got some sort of mental edge that most people don't have, and he's one of the nicest people ever. Him, his sons Andrew and Mikey and Eddie Garrett are the people I owe everything to for what I've achieved in the little time I've been wrestling...They're all great!

My parents - Troy And Sherri...well, let's just say my mom's one of the sweetest people in the world, and my dad's a ball of fire lol. He's an intense guy and they both support what I do 100% and I love them for that.

That's pretty much it.

[rastler]

Im Bradley Wilson, 17, Prairie Central Highschool

I started wrestling in either 5 or 6th grade i wasnt very good and just attended our schools club program. i didnt even wrestle a "real" match untill i was in 7th grade were i went 6-8. in 8th grade i qualified for IESA state at 185lbs . i was 26-12 and went 1-1 at state. my freshman year we had a prety good line up with our 189 and 215 winning regionals. our team went to dual team sectionals were we lost to st. joe. my sophmore year i was varsity were i got a LOT of experience on the mat i ended my season 8-14 varsity 9-2 jv. and this year my jr. year i wrestled both 215 and 285 weighing into sectionals at 200 and wrestling 285. i ended out this year 11-8 215 and 11-9 285. ive wrestled a handful of offseason matches this year(not as many as planned) but hopefully enough to better myself and get to state.