What program has made the biggest stride in last 5-10 years?

[Matrat140]

What programs have made the biggest strides in the last 5-10 years?

Are these programs success related more so to new feeder programs in the area or new coaches?

[acwrstle391]

Deerfield has made incredible improvements over the last 10 years. The feeder programs have come together and grown to be solid middle school programs every year. Marc Pechter has put together a great staff and has a great relationship with the middle school coaches. I think that communication has been a big part of it

[PapaBearSLIM]

Oprf .......

[Matrat140]

Haha not exactly the direction I was going for but yes, that would be the hands down answer. I should have asked what are the teams you are seeing these days competing for weekly tournament championships that surprise you to see at the top?

Wrestling in 90's I would have never expected to see the Deerfields, Stevensons, Jacobs or Huntleys representing the the top programs in the state. I was also curious what drove these programs to success.

[petersenkid2]

No Mercy

Haha not exactly the direction I was going for but yes, that would be the hands down answer. I should have asked what are the teams you are seeing these days competing for weekly tournament championships that surprise you to see at the top?

Wrestling in 90's I would have never expected to see the Deerfields, Stevensons, Jacobs or Huntleys representing the the top programs in the state. I was also curious what drove these programs to success.

Not to take anything away from the respective high school coaching staffs which deserve plenty of credit, No Mercy Wrestling Academy has made a measurable impact on many of the wrestlers at both the Jacobs and Huntley programs - especially at the weights 152 and below.

A quick glance at last year's FVC tournament results showed that about 10 of the 16 finalists including 5 of the 8 champions in the weight classes 152 and below were currently training there or had trained there in the past.

In two weight classes, 5 of the 6 medal winners had No Mercy on their resume and in another the top 3 were NMWA kids.

Very few of the top wrestlers train at the same club or academy for their entire career, and no one coach should claim that he was the only reason for the success of a particular wrestler, but there has been a pretty special group of kids at that place for the past few years.

[Clarion167]

Second Question

What programs have made the biggest strides in the last 5-10 years?

Are these programs success related more so to new feeder programs in the area or new coaches?

The second question- What programs have fallen off over the past 5, 10, 15 years and why? This might help to answer your question, too. It might be different for public and private schools... the rationale for increased success.

[Matrat140]

Great question. Libertyville has always been a perennial program that has never really had to rebuild but always reloaded until now. Waukegan always had a great program until recently. Maine West had a really strong program. Have coaches left or has competition caught up with the help of new feeder programs/clubs?

[Gladguy]

What programs have made the biggest strides in the last 5-10 years?

Are these programs success related more so to new feeder programs in the area or new coaches?

If you go back a little over 10 years (2004-2005 season), it is undoubtedly Sandburg.

5 state championships, two second place finishes and a 3rd place.
Since 2008, Oak Park has 3 championships and a 2nd place finish (Sandburg won it).

[Artheritis]

They're 2A, but from 1978 to 2000 CLC had a total of 2 years where they ended up over .500 (10-7 one year, and 12-11 the other). Slight change since then.

[mckbln]

The second question- What programs have fallen off over the past 5, 10, 15 years and why? This might help to answer your question, too. It might be different for public and private schools... the rationale for increased success.

Look at St Rita, Mt Carmel, and Providence. Mt Carmel is back but when you look at where all 3 of those teams were going back to 2001...wow.

[mckbln]

If you go back a little over 10 years (2004-2005 season), it is undoubtedly Sandburg.

5 state championships, two second place finishes and a 3rd place.
Since 2008, Oak Park has 3 championships and a 2nd place finish (Sandburg won it).

You would have to include GBN in that group too. OPRF got screwed two years with bad draws at Dual Team State or they probably finish 2nd in 2010 and 2013. If you want to look at it from a national perspective, the 2005-06 Carl Sandburg team finished ranked #3 in the country.
The 2014 OPRF team set a Class 3A record at the Individual State Tournament that smashed the 2010 OPRF teams record and finished #2 in the national rankings behind Blair Academy and the 2015 team finished #1 in the country and didn't have a dual meet that was even close that season. The loss to Buchanan (CA) at Clash XIV that came down to the last match snapped a 56 dual meet winning streak for OPRF that began after the loss to Apple Valley (MN) in the finals of Clash XII that ALSO came down to the last match.

So I say it's OPRF...

[Blonjuan44]

Lockport, pretty tough as of late...seemly partly from one of the only schools that teaches a headlock toss as a viable move - at least for freshman...yes, they move on to better things - but you sometimes still see it pop up with top guys in big matches - particularly the big guys...

ok - not that, lots of ex-wrestler parents in that area, large school, young energetic coaches - Oster following Joe Williams is cred. (that won on smart as much as physical talent)...-- makes sense...and hopefully they got rid off the rock hard ancient mats they used to have in that wrestling room...

[Illiana]

Osters

Lockport, pretty tough as of late...seemly partly from one of the only schools that teaches a headlock toss as a viable move - at least for freshman...yes, they move on to better things - but you sometimes still see it pop up with top guys in big matches - particularly the big guys...

ok - not that, lots of ex-wrestler parents in that area, large school, young energetic coaches - Oster following Joe Williams is cred. (that won on smart as much as physical talent)...-- makes sense...and hopefully they got rid off the rock hard ancient mats they used to have in that wrestling room...

Josh is a very good coach, the entire Oster family are class act people, one of the great things about our sport is the wonderful families you get to meet and the Osters are one of them. Lockport is in great hands.

[Nelson*0.5]

Lockport, pretty tough as of late...seemly partly from one of the only schools that teaches a headlock toss as a viable move - at least for freshman...yes, they move on to better things - but you sometimes still see it pop up with top guys in big matches - particularly the big guys...

So, let me get this straight......Lockport's success is attributable in part due to the fact that they teach headlocks to freshman as a viable move? BRILLIANT! I wonder if that will become a trend across the state. And then those big guys.....I do see those Lockport upperweights hitting those sneaky headlocks to pull out those big matches quite frequently. LOL.
Blonjuan likes his ganja

[Red Turban]

I'm pretty sure he was joking about the headlock deal