Lincoln Loggers wrestling club carries on with new head coach

Lincoln’s wrestling club, the Lincoln Loggers, had their first tournament two weekends ago in Shelby and will have one or two tournaments every weekend from now until Mar. 7.

The club, composed of two girls and nine boys, ranges in age from six to 13. Several students are new wrestlers this year, including three of the four oldest students.

It can be tough as a new wrestler in an older age bracket. “There’s a high likelihood of facing kids who have been doing it the whole time,” Coach Ezra Schwalm noted. He tells the kids that he has three rules: pay attention; don’t talk when I’m talking; and give me 100 percent.

“I can tolerate losing. What I can’t tolerate is quitting,” he said. “If you go out and do battle and give it your all and end up losing, that’s fine.”

Last year, the Loggers took 2nd place at State, and every participating wrestler placed 3rd or better. Students must participate in three tournaments to qualify to wrestle at the State Tournament at CMR High in Great Falls.

Schwalm, who assisted coaching last year, took over this year as the lead coach for the Little Guy Wrestling program. Veteran wrestling coach Bob Zadick, who established the program in 2016, opted to spend the winter in Great Falls this year for personal reasons. Shane Smith is assisting with coaching this year. Schwalm said there’s a lot of parent involvement, too, helping at tournaments.

Schwalm, who wrestled up through high school, said he’s never been a coach before, but that he’s really enjoying it. “I didn’t realize how much I’d missed wrestling. I’m trying to educate myself so that I can do a better job.”

For the first tournament, Schwalm said he was pleasantly surprised with how the kids took that message to heart. “Some did well, some didn’t. They hung in there and gave it a lot of effort and didn’t get down-trodden.”

Schwalm is already looking to next year for ways to improve the club.

“We’re trying to grow the program. Hopefully we can make it a little bigger,” he said. With wrestling season starting right as Junior High Boys’ Basketball is wrapping up, it can be difficult to get students to participate in both. Another hurdle the club faces is that, in the Little Guy program, there are considerably fewer wrestlers in the upper age divisions. Sometimes students will go to a meet and not have anyone in their age and weight division to compete against. While tournament organizers work hard to pair up students across divisions when this happens, it can still be disheartening for wrestlers. One solution Schwalm is considering is moving to the Amateur Athletic Union Wrestling program, which provides age divisions all the way up to adults and has more wrestlers.

The club is also looking toward improving their equipment, including new mats that will likely cost between $4,500-5,000. Schwalm says the club will be doing sweatshirt fundraisers and other events now and into the off-season to help with this and other costs, such as travel to and from tournaments.

The club has already seen some community support. Mountain View Co-op sponsored shirts for the club, and a private donor funded the purchase of matching singlets for the whole club, which should arrive in time for the next tournament. Individuals or businesses interested in supporting the Lincoln Loggers can contact Ezra Schwalm at 362-3223.