SMWC 2000/2001 Final Club Results

Luau on August 25th went off great. The first annual "no kids" Luau at Coach G's was lots of fun. Unlike the last SMWC party, there were no kids and it made for a less pressured evening of activities. Mike Rowe won the "Memories CD" for the best tasting Hawaiian snack. MSWA Chairman Haswell Franklin and his wife finally had a chance to visit with the Southern Maryland wrestling crew. Coach G, "the HB Snake" in the surfing world, also invited some of his surfing friends to make the evening a real beach oriented event. Probably the most interesting activity was when Kevin Buff started singing and playing the guitar. We composed a song called "Who Didn't Come" for the benefit of those who said they would be there but pulled out at the last minute.

In case you didn't know, Coach G had an operation in early August to remove a tumor from his chest. Everything went well and there were no problems. The stitches are out and he is back to his surfing again.

Mike Rowe is SMWC's newest AAU Triple Crown Winner. Mike won nationals in all three wrestling styles this past year.

SMWC's Brent Jones finished 8th in Cadet Greco at Fargo and becomes a USAW All-American. Another SMWC cadet standout has been Walt Hoffman. Walt suffered a chip fracture to his elbow at the pre-tournament camp but decided to tape it and wrestle anyway. Way to go Walt and Brent.

SMWC's Michael Rowe got to meet Rulon Gardner (left) while he was in Utah. Rulon invited the team to visit his farm on their way to Jackson Hole during Mike's Ohio All-Star tour.

SMWC's Kevin Gabrielson was notified by the National Wrestling Coaches Association in July that he received their Maryland Wrestler of the Year Award for 2000/2001.

SMWC practices have ended for the season. Workouts at Hayfield will continue on Mon. ad Wed. through summer. See you all in September.

Brent Jones was 1st, Matt Jones was 2nd, and Jason Kiessling was 3rd, at the NHSCA Open National Championships in Birmingham Alabama.

Report from AAU Grand Nationals in New Mexico by Walt Hoffman: In sombo Walt and Eric got the gold and Mike Rowe got sliver. In greco Walt and Mike got gold while Ryan Buff and Eric got bronze. In freestyle Walt and Mike got gold and Eric and Ryan got sliver. The boys represented SMWC very well.

SMWC's Kevin Gabrielson received Honorable Mention on the 2001 ASICS High School All-American Team

Former World Sombo Champion Jason Gabrielson and former US National Sombo Team Coach Bruce Gabrielson gave a short Sombo Clinic at the SMWC practice on Tuesday, June 26th, Several members will compete in Sombo at the AAU Grand Nationals this next weekend.

Brent Jones, Matt Jones, and Jonathan Faringer all placed 1st at the Va. State Games that was held in Norfolk, VA June 24th.

Received word late Thursday night that SMWC All-Star Coaches Jones and Gabrielson have been awarded the Outstanding Youth Team Coaches Award for 2001 by the MSWA. The award will be given this fall at the Bull Rost.

SMWC's Jason Kiessling (left) received the OW Award for winning the MSWA HS Freestyle State Championships held at Montgomery Blair HS at practice June 21st. He heads to Bermingham next week for the National Open Wrestling Chs. Other members are off to the AAU Grand Nationals in Albuquerque or the USAW Nat Chs for Kids in Fresno, CA next weekend. Check this site for information on practices after next week.

The possibility of a mid to late summer mostly adult SMWC party was discussed during the All-Star Picnic. The Gabrielson's will be happy to host such a party in late August if there is an interest by the club. More on this will be forthcoming.

Despite a torrential pounding outside the tent, the SMWC All-Stars held their annual picnic at the William's home in Dunkirk on Saturday evening, June 16th. Most All-Stars (and even some former All-Stars) attended for swimming, good food, and plenty of conversation. Pictures will be available soon.

The 2001 East Coast Club Championships was held Saturday, June 16, at Riverhill HS in Columbia. Only 16 SMWC members showed for the tournament, and competition among the 8 teams was both fierce and extremely close. SMWC pulled out a close 88-87 decision over runner-up Harford, with the New Jersey Lightning finishing in the third spot at 83 points. We captured 6 first place and 5 second place finishes. SMWC winners included, Erik and Walt Hoffman (right), Hamed Heidar, Mike Rowe, Ryan Herwig, and Kevin Gabrielson. Mike and Walt also received OW awards.

SMWC's Kevin Gabrielson (left) received the Maryland AAU Outstanding Wrestler Award for 2000 on June 16th during the River Hill tournament. The award, given to a Maryland wrestler who has an exceptional year both in the regular season and in AAU competitions, was presented by MSWA State Chairman Haswell Franklin. Kevin was a member of our National AAU Club Championship Team last summer as well as winning the AAU Grand National Championships.

Anyone notice that 100% of SMWC's active seniors (13 of 13) will attend college next season with 12 of 13 recruited and signed to compete on a team. That's a serious percentage. Who says our members can't make it in college? Juniors, now is the time to get your profiles updated. College coaches have been reading our pages and are ready to start contacting you beginning July 7th.

The 2001 Potomac Valley Challenge Cup was held June 10th at Robinson HS in Virginia. Reminiscent of the early "Cups", Maryland and Northern Virginia squared off with their best freestylers from kids through HS with plenty of great matches. Led by Kids OW Mike Rowe, Maryland defeated a strong Virginia kids team 22-18. In the High School weight classes, Maryland OWs Ryan Davis and Kevin Gabrielson pushed a tough Virginia team all day to walk away with a close 21-19 team win. Maryland Coaches Steve Jacovsky, Jason Gabrielson, Brandon Hardnett, and Ivan Hardnett did an excellent job developing a strong team. Maryland's Kevin Gabrielson received a special participation award for competing on 11 Challenge Cup Teams with 8 titles under his belt.

Debbie Boettcher reports that Tom hyper-extended his elbow at the Ironman in Tulsa two weeks ago. It's getting better but he is still out for awhile longer.

The membership of SMWC expresses it's condolances to member Joe Henshaw and family on their recent loss.

SMWC's annual Picnic was held June 2nd at the Gabrielson's home. As usual, Coach G provided a good size Rockfish for the occasion (shown at right with Bruce's Son-in-Law Jeremy and grandson Mason. Coach G didn't catch it himself this time around but it tasted great just the same. The party was a typical SMWC blast. Lots of wrestlers and their families, coaches, plenty of great food, music, conversation, etc. The Gabrielson's have a new patio bar on their deck that provided a home for Rudy and the Margarita blender. There were a couple of events taking place during the picnic. SMWC Hall-ofFame members present gave out the 2001 Hall of Fame Awards to Brent Jones, Luke Palumbo and Scott McAdoo. Scott had another event and had to show up at the picnic late. Notice we don't have a group picture for Scott's award (right). Fortunately, the awards for Luke and Brent were given out earlier before Ryan Herwig got carried away with a pie in Coach G's face just after the picture. All in good fun though. Additionally, this year we combined the club picnic with a graduation party for Kevin Gabrielson. The party lasted until the wee hours with several stay overs. Actually, several members left early so they could wrestle in a tournament Sunday morning. For a full write-up on the picnic, see the link above.

The Washington Post's All-Met Awards Banquet was held Friday, June 1st, at the Rennasuance Hotel in downtown DC. SMWC was well represented in the Wrestling catagory. Shown left to right are SMWC Member All-Mets Floyd Wright, Rudy Reuda, Matt Evelith, Kevin Gabrielson, and Jon Peters. Highlight speaker was the original football coach from the Hayfield football team in the Remember the Titans" movie. Floyd attends Hayfield HS. As usual, Rudy showed up late but still made it in time to walk up to the stage.

Although we are in open practices with no official spokesperson and coaches at this time, we had a big turnout for practice May 29th, 40 on the mat. Asst. Coaches Jason, Bernard, Brandon and Ivan ran everyone through the wringer plus practiced numerous moves. Ron and Scott McAdoo attended. Ron looked well despite his recent hospitalization.

May 24th practiced was bumped by a dance recital at GP. We got there only to discover about 200 girls in the wrestling room. Seems they reserved the small gym then assumed they could also use the wrestling room as a staging area. SMWC practices will move to Riverdale Baptist in the fall. Hopefully we won't have problems like this again.

Late news is that SMWC member Ron McAdoo is back home. He had exploratory surgery but thankfully nothing was discovered.

Big practice May 22nd. Starting to get the college crew again. Nick Alley beat up on Rudy for awhile.

SMWC Hall-of-Fame member Chris Rodrigues (left) qualified to represent the US at the Fila Junior World Championships in August. He defeated Cam Jones in the Greco finals 9-6 and was also named MOW for Greco. Then he almost pulled off the double title but lost in the finals of freestyle 5-4. Way to go Chris.

SMWC's Nicole Woody placed first at NE Regionals May 19th. SMWC's Ryan Buff also won this weekend.

Not everyone spends their time on the mat. SMWC Hall-of-Fame member Jim Howard (right) is recovering from his operation and seems to be doing well on the fishing scene of late. He says he has recovered enough to start attending practice on Thursday nights, not to wrestle but to work technique, especially Greco technique, for those who need it.

Many of our college wrestlers are starting to show up for practice now. The Hardnett's are back plus some new wrestlers are there. We had over 30 at practice on May 15th.

Olympic Champion Ali Reza Dabir of Iran (left in front running with attendees) put on a very nice clinic at Curley HS on May 8th after the World Cup. Several SMWC members attended including SMWC Coaches Hill, Nimmons and Coach G. Ali had two main points we need to reinforce here, technique is foremost and listen to your coaches.

SMWC's Jonas Bray will attend the US Airforce Academy this fall. With Jonas' signing, our club wrestlers are almost fully placed to compete for various schools this fall.

According to reliable sources, SMWC's Luke Palumbo (right) has signed to wrestle at Gettysburg next fall.

The World Cup Wrestling Championships at the Baltimore Arena May 5-6 were tremendous. Most of the Worlds best international wrestlers competed in some outstanding matches. SMWC Patron Kendall Cross came by for pictures as did our ex-World Cup competitors and SMWC Hall-of-Fame members Buddy Lee and Jim Howard. SMWC's Kim Gabrielson was right on the mat edge shooting all the action as the "Official Photographer" for the Cup. SMWC and Gunston should be congratulated for having probably the largest club contingency that attended. Not counting Curley members, we had 16 full session passes plus several single session members attend. If you didn't go you missed a real serious wrestling event.

Anyone take a look at our seniors who have signed lately. Three more signed this past week. SMWC's Reed Carpenter and Tomas Ovalle will attend Virginia Tech while Floyd Wright (right) will attend Clarion. Most have signed with top schools at this time.

Big weekend for wrestling. On Sat, April 28th at Hayfield, SMWC winners included Matt Jones, Mike Rowe, Ryan Buff, Brent Lowe, Stephen Woody, Ronnie Ours, and Jake Smith. On Sunday at McDonnough (MSWA Kids and Cadets St Chs) winners included Eric Hoffman, Matt Jones, Julain Lane (left), Rudy Rueda, Walt Hoffman, Brent Jones, Matt Eveleth, Jason Gabrielson, and Jacob Scott. Most Falls awards went to: Cadets - Rudy Rueda 5 pins, Open Jason Gabrielson 2 pins.

Our new bylaws ammendment was adopted by the club April 26th. The club also voted to invite SMWC's two former World Cup team members, Buddy Lee and Jim Howard to the World Cup finals at our expense.

Several SMWC members won at Severna Park this past weekend. Don't have all the names but winners on Sunday included Rudy Rueda (who wrestled around 8-9 back to back matches), Ryan Herwig, Matt Evelith, Jason Kiessling, Dave Pike, and Coach Jason.

According to credible sources, SMWC's Adrain Belcarris (right) has decided to attend University of WV next fall.

SMWC Hall-of-Fame member Buddy Lee has an article in the April 23, 2001 issue of BusinessWeek.

If any members are interested in applying for the MSWA wrestling camp scholarships, contact Coach G immediately. He will prepare the paperwork and justification as to why you should receive the camp scholarship. Only members who have been in regular attendance will be submitted by our club.

Small but interesting practice April 19th. About 1/3rd of the time was devoted to GR techniques. New moves included both the FS and GR versions of tilts, lifts to tilts, and the set-up to make five point throws. Also some upper body takedowns including the Japanese wizzard. Wrestlers are reminded that the MSWA scholarships for FS and GR will be given out in each weight class based on performance at the tournament weekend after next. If you've only been practicing folkstyle so far it may already be too lated to take advantage of this big $$ giveout.

Our club has received a plea from Auckland New Zealand on behalh of the Counties Hunua Olympic Wrestling Club for our old wrestling shoes. It seems that wrestlers in that part of the world must pay high costs to have shoes shipped there. Any members who would like to donate a pair of their old shoes to the club should bring them to practice. We will ship whatever we have down there in two weeks.

Good practice Tues, April 17. Coach Jason showed his tight ankle lace crank and his hip roll. Members should note that we've now shown most of the freestle moves and several Greco-Roman moves. We don't have many more to show so practices will be mostly wrestling in the future. If you missied then you've missed.

Congratulations to all the SMWC wrestlers who went to AAU folkstyle nationals at the Silerdome in Pontiac Michigan. Placing first and winning his first AAU folkstyle national title was Mike Rowe (schoolboy 100). Other wrestlers that did outstanding are Kyle Mason (Midget 55) placed 2nd. Jamie Clark (Midget 55) placed 3rd. Walt Hoffman (Cadet 160) placed 3rd. Jonathan Faringer (Schoolboy 65) placed 4th. Jeff Williams (Midget 65) placed 7/8th. Matt Jones placed 5th. Brent Jones got injured in his quarterfinal match and will be out of action for awhile. All eight of our wrestlers who went everyone except for Brent placed.

Note from Joe Main, father of SMWC member Benji Main. Benji is an All-American who attends Lindenwood University in Missouri.
"I haven't had time to keep up with wrestling. Benji is doing great. Will graduate May 19, 2001. He made the deans list last semester. 6 -A's & 1-B. He will complete 46 credits this year (with j- term). With that load Benji still wrestled this year but was off the mats a lot of the season due to two seperate injuries. He was not in top shape for the nationals."

SMWC's Steve Sargent (right), Tyler Bowers, Mike Rowe, Ross Dreheim, Lucas Runion and John Erikson (former member) all won at the MAWA regional in Salisbury. Tyler defeated SMWC's Lucas Blake in the finals. SMWC's Ryan Buff placed 3rd.

We were sorry to hear the announcement last week about Coppin State dropping their wrestling program. SMWC has had several successful members over the years compete for Coppin including EJ Sauls and Sidney Billups. Since there remain only a few programs in the state, with Coppin gone, local opportunity at the college level for wrestling becomes very limited.

SMWC senior Kevin Gabrielson signed a national letter of intent April 11th for North Carolina State University. Kevin received a full ride wrestling scholarship and will attend NC State next fall. SMWC's Ryan McCallum currently competes for the Wolfpack and so did SMWC Hall-of-Fame Member Mark Mangrum in the early 90s. Next year SMWC's Chris Rodrigues and Evan Sola will also be in North Carolina competing for UNC. SMWC member Mike Waite's father also moved near the two campuses recently. Seems we have a migration in that direction.

MatTalk had a great comment about the negative effects of web bashing April 10th. Forums aren't the best place to spend your time. Take a look.

Attention club seniors - The late signing period for high school seniors begins on April 11th. While at HS Nationals, Coach G met with several college coaches who have potential scholarships available. These are programs where SMWC members have competed in the past. Please contact coach if you are still looking for a place to compete next fall. Also, start following our Senior Profile List for college signings and HS juniors who submit profiles for listing. College coaches are looking at our listings NOW.

Since a new coach hasn't come forward, Coach G and Coach Jason have started working two of our current Asst. Coaches into the practice lineup. Members should expect to see more of Coach Buff and Coach Wright at practice over the next few months. Both are experienced folkstyle coaches and have been getting more used to freestyle as time goes on. We haven't given up on locating a new head coach, just ensuring that we can still excell with what we have.

Kevin Gabrielson - SMWC's HS All-American

Rough year for us at HS Senior Nationals. Despite going in with a slew of club members, SMWC's Kevin Gabrielson was the only current SMWC and Maryland wrestler to gain HS All-American honors at the NHSCA Senior HS Nationals April 6-8 in Delaware. This event is considered the nations toughest folkstyle event since only state champions and high placewinners are able to enter. Several members including Adrian Belcarris, Tomas Ovalle and Chris Moore were able to win matches. Members Reed Carpenter and Ryan Herwig did very well loosing the last round before placing. Kevin did great his first match before re-injuring his knee in his 8-6 win against defending 160 lb California State Champ Sean Sheets his second match. It was downhill from there. Kevin still managed a 6th place finish. Shown at left is Kevin on the awards stand while the picture at right shows Coach G with Cal-State Bakersfield Asst. Coach Steve Neal. Older wrestlers who attended AAU Grand Nationals in Bakersfield a few years back may remember Steve visiting with us during the tournament. Also in the picture is DeMatha Coach Dick Messier and SMWC Hall-of-Fame Member and DeMatha Asst. Coach John Allman (striped shirt).

SMWC member Brandon York (left), the current 3x ACC Champion from University of Maryland, presented a well attended clinic (50+) at practice April 5th. Brandon showed some takedowns, escapes, and his favorite crab ride. Following the clinic, Brandon was presented a club shirt. He agreed to attend more often this spring and summer.

The Washington Post All-Met Selections are out. SMWC's Rudy Rueda, Matt Eveleth, Reed Carpenter, Chuck Yetter, Jon Peters, Luke Palumbo, Akil Patterson, Floyd Wright, and Kevin Gabrielson are in the group pictured. Kevin was also selected All-Met OW. This is the 5th time a SMWC member has won the All-Met OW award.

Pictures are in for the CAWL and MD/VA State events. Sorry they didn't come out better. If you have a good replacement, let the coaches know and they will update the article. Also, if anyone else wants to add anything, let coaches know.

SMWC's Jamie Clark (left with a pin in the finals) won USA Kids Folkstyle Nationals. SMWC's Mike Rowe (right with Jamie) was 2nd in the event.

SMWC's C-Rod (Chris Rodrigues) has officially signed with UNC for next season. Chris attended Michigan State last season as a Redshirt but decided he would get more mat time if he moved to UNC. With Chris on the team this year will be SMWC Hall-of-Fame member Evan Sola. Expect a big turnout locally when UNC wrestles in this area next fall.

SMWC's Ron McAdoo is out of the hospital and looks well (he did loose a little weight). He will be recovering at home for a couple of months.

Winners at Age-Wt States included Rudy Rueda (left), Jeffery Williams, Ryan Buff, Luke Black, Mike Rowe , Ross Draheim, Walt Hoffman, Eric Hoffman (right), Marty Margolis, and Ryan Herwig. There may be others but we don't have full results. We also had 8 seconds.

30 day notice: The following admendment the the SMWC Constitution and Bylaws is formally proposed to control non-supportive coaches such as those at Calvert HS and Grace Bretheran. It will be voted on at the April 26 practice.
BE IT RESOLVED:
Wrestlers who compete at high schools for coaches found guilty of bashing SMWC or it's coaching staff will not be allowed full membership or allowed to compete with teams in the SMWC program for a minimum of one year. The exception will be that wrestlers who are dues paying members of SMWC prior to their high school years (or are current members) will not be denied membership regardless of what their coach says or does. Formal charges against such coach will be filed and procedures followed the same as those currently in place for "Persona non Grata" status. Reinstatement: Should a coach be found guilty of club bashing, reinstatement will not be automatic. Following the one year suspension, a trial period of one year will be required before new members from the delinquent school will be allowed full membership.

There has been a lot of negative and misguided information posted against SMWC on wrestling forums of late. Let's set the record straight.
1. There have only ever been three wrestlers from Calvert County who went to DeMatha: Jason and Kevin Gabrielson and Joey Sargent. Kevin attended DeMatha 3 years and Jason 1 year. Joey Sargent was talked into attending DeMatha by Mike Sweeney for Baseball, and left for Mt St Joe when Sweeney transferred. To imply that SMWC had something to do with Joey's DeMatha decision is simply not true. Both Jason and Kevin attended Northern. The coaches at Calvert officially complained to the CC Schoolboard that Kevin lived in their school district and this was investigated. You might note that Kevin stayed at Northern after the investigation. There have been so many Calvert HS wrestlers that wrestled for SMWC during the past 17 years that it's hard to count.
2. DeMatha currently has two SMWC youth league wrestlers. Calvert HS currently has 2, Northern has 4 (Forman, Hoffman, Neucci, and Shelton).
3. From last years SMWC All-Stars, the top four went to Northern, Calvert, Bishop Oconnell, and Chopticon. Bishop O'Connell and Northern have the most SMWC All-Star wrestlers of any schools with four. Calvert County has thus benefited more than any other area from SMWC youth wrestlers. A statement that DeMatha is preached at SMWC has no basis in fact and is simply another instance of false bashing.
4. Coach Kestler has been negative on SMWC for the past 15 years. Until the last year or so he told his kids NOT to attend SMWC practices and not compete off-season. Negative comments between SMWC and Calvert are, and have always been more from the Calvert side then from the SMWC side regardless of what Don Buff says.
5. SMWC has never trashed Calvert HS's program other then pointing out #4 above. SMWC started at Calvert HS and has always drawn many kids from Calvert County in it's program.
6. Coach G told Don Buff to his face at the Northern Tournament that Max doesn't look as sharp as he used to. No behind the back rumblings as has been stated. Max's hart is in baseball so why is this a surprise.
7. Regardless of the FACT that Calvert County youth wrestlers are encouraged to stay in their junior league programs by local county coaches, many practice throughout the year with SMWC while continuing to compete in their SMJWL programs.
6. Mike Rowe was likely talked into attending DeMatha by John Allman, asst. wrestling coach at DeMatha. John is a former SMWC youth league wrestler and attends SMWC All-Star practices and SMWC practices (as do other private school coaches) on a regular basis. SMWC has always encouraged local HS coaches to attend practices and help with kids. Many have from all over but only Coach Pavia has ever showed from Calvert County.
7. Scott McAdoo is a great wrestler who owes his success to many other folks then just his high school coach. The primary people who made Scott the success he is are his SMWC practice partners Benji Main, Chip Allen, Kevin Gabrielson, and Tomas Ovalle, and Dave Boger at Lebanon Valley HS in PA.
8. Regarding Coach Kistler's constant complaints, he has never attended a SMWC practice, let alone attended an off season wrestling event (other then at CCHS) since he lived in Calvert County. Other HS coaches show up all the time at local tournaments. Don't knock what you have no clue about.

SMWC's Mike Rowe (left at the MD/VA State Chs) has decided to attend DeMatha HS next year. Mike will join SMWC's Rudy Rueda at DeMatha.

REMINDER - We realize that a large number of SMJWL kids practice with SMWC throughout the season. However, now that Age-Wt States are here, you are reminded that members can not compete against SMWC at events where SMWC is in competition for a team award. If you plan to compete for some other team at River Hill, please hold off joining SMWC until after this tournament or you may loose your membership status. You also have the option of attending the qualifier in Virginia, or wrestling unattached.

We broke 50 members at practice again on Tuesday night. Members are reminded that when more then 80 members show, practice is automatically closed off.

Nicole Woody finished with 3-seconds (FS/GR/FO) this past weekend at the AAU LaFeme Nationals in Tennissee. Way to go Nicloe.

To 2000 Fall/Winter News