Nathan Downs Becomes The First Nationally Ranked Trojan Wrestler in School History

HLG’s Nathan Downs (Freshman from Hawk Point, MO) became the first Trojan wrestler to be given a national ranking for the 174 lb weight class. Downs has been wrestling tough and opened the season with a 6th place finish at the season tournament opener at the Lindenwood University Open. Anyone who observes practice will find Downs and his practice partner, Jobi Hambrick, working hard to get better every day. Their hard work has paid off. Trojan wrestling also received an honorable mention vote for national ranking as well. This is also a first for our young program. I don’t think it will be long before we see Downs joined by other Trojan wrestlers in the national ranking poll. Congratulations Nathan!
Click here to see the NAIA press release.

Cates Joins Smith, Hambrick, and Downs As The Fourth Trojan National Tournament Qualifier

Kasey Cates and Jobi Hambrick advanced to the championship semi- finals at the Concordia University Open before losing their first matches of the tournament. Cates’s loss came to Austin Bautista (UW-Whitewater). Bautista was the number one seed in the tournament and is also currently ranked 2nd in the NCAA D-3. Cates finished 4-3 on the day and in sixth place becoming HLG’s fourth NAIA National Tournament Qualifier of the season. Hambrick lost his semi-final match 8-7 to the number 2 seed Chris Karl (UW-Stevens Point) who also went on to win the tournament. Karl is also ranked by D3 wrestling in the top 20 NCAA D-3 wrestlers. Our other wrestlers did not finish as well as Cates and Hambrick, but as a team we were able to garner 13 wins on the day! Seth Revelle, Josh Smith, Kyle Blankenship, and Nathan Downs all made contributions to the win column.
Once again I had many compliments shared from other college coaches on the marked improvement of this year’s team over last season. Here is one such comment sent to me by e-mail just even today, “I wanted to tell you on Saturday how good your team looked. You have done a great job with that program. It is hard to believe that your program is only in the second year. You will have to share your success secrets with me. ;-)” The keys to our success this season have simply been having better team cohesion and the wrestler’s hard work. Our wrestlers have bought into our philosophy and it is paying off on the mat and others are noticing. The types of statements above from other coaches, officials, and fans are very encouraging to us as coaches and next season we hope to build on top of the success our wrestlers are experience this season.
The next major challenge our wrestlers will face over this Thanksgiving Break is keeping their weight down. To all you Moms, Dads, Grandpas, Grandmas and Uncles and Aunts -one piece of pie is enough!;-) Don’t make them eat a whole pie!;-) The wrestlers have to make weight two days in a row the week they return back to campus!

Trojan Wrestlers Travel to the Frozen Land of Brats and Cheese This Weekend!

Tomorrow we will be departing for the frozen tundra of Mequon, WI for the Concordia University Open. Concordia University is located north of Milwaukee, WI and will host some of the best Wisconsin and Illinois D-2 and D-3 schools. We will return back to the Show-me state in the early hours of Sunday morning. I will not be able to post a tournament summary until Monday. Follow the link above for instant results Saturday evening.
-Coach Hawes

HLG vs. #13 Missouri Baptist Results

Last night a victory over #13 Missouri Baptist University was within our reach. If two of our freshmen who didn’t make weight last Saturday a the Knox Invitational would have been able to wrestle last night and one more match would have been won we could have beaten Missouri Baptist. Instead we lost the dual 13-34. Kasey Cates, Jobi Hambrick, and Nathan Downs all had impressive wins on the evening. Alos last night was the first time HLG Wrestling was seen live on the web. If you enjoyed the broadcast send me some feedback and any suggestions so we can make the view experience even better. Thanks to Ben Yarnell and the Hannibal Courier Post we had some nice coverage of our first home dual. Click here to read Ben’s article!

-Coach Hawes

Hambrick Places Fifth at Knox Invite

Jobi Hambrick led the way for the Trojans in a what was like a “wrestling marathon” finishing the day in 5^th place at the Knox College Invitational tournament. Jobi wrestled an HLG record of 8 matches in one day with one match going into overtime. Jobi’s record on the day was 6 wins and 2 losses which also is the best single day win record for a Trojan wrestler. Kasey Cates, Josh Smith, and Kyle Blankenship were all 2-2 on the day. We had three wrestlers make the freshmen mistake of not making weight last Saturday which cost them dearly. They all ended up wrestling up a weight class and did not wrestle as competitively at the heavier weight class as compared to their normal weight class. Hopefully these wrestlers will learn from this experience and will not miss weight again in the future.

Free Streaming Video Coverage of Home Duals

Get your Live Sports Video login and password set up right away! This year we are providing free streaming video for all home wrestling dual meets. Simply click on the logo HLG Go Live logo above and it will direct you to the registration/login page. To register is free and to watch is free. Next Tuesday will be our first home dual of the season against Missouri Baptist University. Missouri Baptist starts the season off with a solid preseason ranking of #13 in the nation. If you can’t attend our home dual, watch us on line at Live Sports Video.
-Coach Hawes

Hambrick and Smith will join Downs for the 2010 NAIA Championships

I’m pleased to announce that Jobi Hambrick and Josh Smith have joined Nathan Downs in his achievement of being a 2010 NAIA National Wrestling Tournament Qualifier. Hambrick’s 1st place and Smith’s 3rd place finish at the Loras Open was high enough for National Tournament qualification. Now that these wrestlers have qualified for the NAIA Championships, their focus will be on getting better every time they compete in preparation for individual goals that they have set for the Championships this year. I’m confident that this trio is only the first three qualifiers we have this year. I anticipate several other wrestlers joining these three in Oklahoma City to compete in the NAIA national tournament.
- Coach Hawes

Support HLG Wrestling

In August of 2009 I was one of 30 college wrestling coaches selected to participate in the National Wrestling Coaches Association’s Coaches Leadership Academy. One of the key areas we were challenged with in developing our programs was in the area of fundraising. Because of the size of our institution we do not have the luxury of having individuals dedicated to raising funds for our program so the responsibility falls on the coach’s shoulders. There are two key areas of need financially that we have in our program. One is with equipment and the other is underwriting a portion of our summer wrestling camp expenses.

Here is a list of equipment that we would like to raise funds for this year
· 2 Schwinn Airdyne Bikes
· 2,000 lbs of Olympic -Style weights , trees, and lifting bars
· Universal Racks
· Weight lifting floor mats
· Pull-Up Bars
· 1,500 lbs of Kettle Bells and Racks
· Wrestling Technique Video Library
· Laptop with Fire wire connection
· Video Camera with FireWire connection for Live Sports Video

Summer Camp Needs
Because this is the first year we will be running a summer camp we do not know how many will attend in this first year. My goal is to raise money in order to make sure we run a quality camp and keep the camp affordable for families. The more campers we have the more likely we are to be able to cover all the expenses. However, we don’t know what the final number of campers will be. So I want to have a contingency fund set up in order to cover any areas we may fall short in. Unlike many other sports camps none of the HLG coaching staff will be taking any payment from running this camp. The purpose of this camp is not to supplement the coaching staff’s income, but instead is intended to raise awareness of our HLG wrestling program and also benefit the camper who one day could be an HLG Trojan wrestler. This camp is an investment in our programs future. Therefore all funds raised will go directly to the HLG wrestling program and will cover the expenses of the clinicians and college wrestlers. If there is a short fall in revenue from the camp your gift would go towards offsetting the expense of camp. Any profit from the camp will go back into the wrestling program.

Small financial gifts are as important as the large ones. If you are not able to give a large gift consider a smaller monthly gift and over the course of a year the small gifts adds up. If you would be willing to make a Tax Deductable donation, follow the link below and please designate in the comment portion on your donation page which category (Equipment or Summer Camp) you would like your donation applied towards!

Thank you for considering how you might give towards the future of HLG Wrestling!

Scott Hawes
Head Wrestling Coach
Hannibal-LaGrange College

Click here to make your tax deductable donation!

Loras University Open Report

Trojan wrestlers showed up in force to wrestle at the Loras University Open Saturday. Five wrestlers placed in the Silver Division of the tournament with Jobi Hambrick and Nathan Downs facing off in the finals for bragging rights at 174 lbs. Altogether HLG wrestlers collected 15 wins on the day which is a new tournament collective win record for the young program. Zach Fish placed 6th at 133 lbs. Josh Smith finished in 3rd place at 149 lbs. Jobi Hambrick had a victory over Nathan Downs in the finals of 174 lbs. and Shane Brandl finished 5th at 184 lbs. Seth Revelle and Kasey Cates picked up their first wins of the season as well. The success that HLG saw on the mat at the LU Open was a result of working hard in the wrestling room. There is a lot of work to be done this week in preparation for our next competition which is the Knox Invitational Tournament in Galesburg, IL.
Written by Coach Hawes

Heading to Dubuque for the Loras Open

This Friday evening after a light practice the Trojan grapplers will be traveling to Dubuque, Iowa for the Loras Open. The Loras Open has a freshmen division so many of our freshmen will have an opportunity to wrestle against other college freshmen however; this doesn’t mean they will have an easy tournament. It is likely HLG will once again run into Big Ten and possibly some Big Twelve freshmen wrestlers. Hopefully this weekend we will see more wrestlers join Nathan Downs as a 2010 National Qualifier. It would be great to have to take a bus to Oklahoma City this year because we have so many national qualifiers!

-Coach Hawes

Trojan Wrestler Selected for 2009 Homecoming Court

Trojan Wrestler Ryan Stark (Quincy, IL) was selected to be part of the 2009 Hannibal-LaGrange College Homecoming Court. Stark is the only wrestler who was part of the new wrestling program in the fall of 2007-08 who also wrestled in the first season of competition in 2008-09. Stark is finishing his college wrestling career this season and will be the first senior to graduate from Trojan wrestling. Congratulations Ryan!