OnFocus Season PreviewCoaching staff:Head Coach: Joe Pregler
Head Assistant : Jason Hohensee
Assistant coaches: Kyle Pegarsch, Justin Gravitter
Key returners:
We will return a number of key individuals from last years team. Highlighting the returning group is last year’s 4th place finisher at the state tournament, Olivia Hofrichter. We expect that she will be making a push to improve on her finish from last year. Another couple of returning Sectional Qualifiers are Juniors Jayson Arrowood and Nolan Kielcheski. After busy off-seasons, they have set their goals to include a birth in the state tournament at a minimum. Wyat Beaber will also be looking to improve from his conference runner-up finish last year, as well as advancing well into the state tournament series. Sophomore Levi Binversie was a talented Freshman last year and is ready to take the next step into becoming a dominant varsity wrestler. Also returning are Aidan Kielcheski and Jack Stronstad who are becoming a force to be reckoned with.
Key newcomers:
We are fortunate to have a great group of freshmen along with a couple individuals who have past varsity experience. Senior Alex Schlieve and Junior Jonathan Wissbroecker both return to the wrestling mat after taking a couple years off. Freshman who will be called on to hold down a varsity spot will be Owen and Seth Medo, Jack Sundermeyer, Jordy Pregler, and Trystin Powell. Other talented newcomers include Tanner Lee, Johanan Taylor, Nolan Lucht, and Petra Dufour.
Conference outlook:
Make no mistake, our goals are to capture Antigo’s first ever outright Conference Championship in wrestling. This squad has a ton of youth who are willing to work as hard as we can push them. Obviously, we are striving to improve on our 4th place finish from last year. We will have numerous athletes competing for all-conference nods again this year, and a few who have a good shot at conference champion.
Keys to your success this season:
First off, we need to stay healthy. We have almost double the amount of wrestlers from last year’s roster, but we still have limited depth. This team will have good leadership from the upper-classmen which should help ignite the younger athletes to become as good as they can be. Competition in the practice room also will help mold a tough, battle tested squad who will compete every match. We wrestle a very competitive schedule, which helps prepare our wrestlers for the tough grind at the end of the season. We will need to believe we can and will win the tough matches against good kids to end up with a successful season for most of our wrestlers.
Behind the scenes: Who are some of the people that help your program succeed?
This program has truly become a family over the past few years. The Youth wrestling coaches have been instrumental into developing the basic fundamentals of the sport as well as providing the kids with a passion to learn. We have consistently averaged approximately 100 wrestlers in grades K-8 over the past 4 years. Our Middle School staff has grown what was once a dwindling program into one of the top Middle School teams in the area. This year they have 30-40 individuals signed up to be on the team come January 2nd. Also, our wrestling club board of directors have been instrumental in fund raising and supporting all aspects of the program so we can give our athletes the best resources possible in order to succeed. Finally, we are welcoming any Alumni to become part of the growth of this program.
Coach’s comments: anything else you’d like to share?
I am very excited to be given the opportunity to be Head Coach of this wrestling team. We have amazing student/athletes as well as a knowledgeable and passionate coaching staff. We as a program are very driven to achieve our goals for this year and beyond. I have no doubt that we will find great levels of success for this year and many years to come!
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2023 OnFocus Central Wisconsin Football Conference Standings: Links to Area Conferences
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Author: David Keech
David Keech is a retired teacher and works as a sportswriter, sports official and as an educational consultant. He has reported on amateur sports since 2011, known as 'KeechDaVoice.' David can be reached at [email protected]
