Week at wrestling camp is intense

Anyone traveling down Sunnyside Drive on Kalispell's west side around noon on Thursday would have encountered a few hundred boys jogging down the street.

A more unusual sight was yet to come.

After the boys reached the intersection of Sunnyside and Denver Avenue, half of them picked up another piggyback style, and then took off running back to Flathead High School.

Some fell into a staggering walk almost immediately. At the end of one group, a couple of boys lost their balance and collapsed onto a lawn at the side of the road. But many never broke stride, keeping up their pace, bearing the burden of another's body weight under the glaring sun.

The two-mile "buddy" run, during which the boys (and one girl) took turns doing the carrying duties, was part of a long list of physically exhausting activities awaiting wrestlers at last week's Flathead Valley Wrestling Camp.

Five years ago, Flathead High School head coach Jeff Thompson opened the inaugural camp with 63 wrestlers.

This year there were more than 200 participants in first through 12th grades, with a number of those coming from surrounding states such as Washington and Idaho. Wrestlers also came from as far away as Minnesota, Illinois and Saskatchewan.

They came so far partly to receive advice and instruction from an impressive slate of coaches. Former Olympians and past state and national champion high school and college wrestlers, from both the United States

and Canada, were on hand to share their expertise on the mat.

A few coaches also shared their stories during motivational talks at the end of each day, reminding a gym full of thoroughly exhausted boys why they were putting their bodies through such a punishing regimen.

While the wrestlers attend for the coaching, Thompson also believes the camp has been successful because of its rigorous schedule.

"One thing we stress on our brochure is, you better show up in shape," Thompson said. "We're going to work your tail off."

For two hours each morning, the wrestlers hit the mats with technique practice and live wrestling. Before lunch, it was a good hour of running and plyometrics. In the afternoon there was another long session of drills and hard wrestling.

Thompson said he always receives phone calls from a few parents on the morning of the second day, asking how they can convince their sons to stay at camp. Their attempts haven't always worked, but this year, Thompson said, no one has backed out of the commitment.

"A lot of successful wrestlers may not be gifted athletes, but they have a work ethic," Thompson said. "They like to work hard and sweat. They enjoy pushing their bodies through pain."

Scott Hartman, who coaches in the Frenchtown Little Guy program, was working his second year as full-time camp trainer. He was consistently busy taking care of a parade of wrestlers suffering bruises, scrapes, bloody noses and minor muscle pulls.

He was impressed with the pain threshold displayed by the 2005 crop of wrestlers.

"Last year we had a bunch of whiners," he said. "This year they're a lot tougher. They can hold their own.

"If they get banged up, in a half hour or 45 minutes, they're out there wrestling again."

Though the conditioning from one summer week doesn't last until the fall and winter wrestling seasons begin, Thompson said the intense schedule gives the wrestlers a grasp of what it takes to be a champion.

It also teaches them training techniques they can use the rest of their careers, and "takes them out of their comfort zone," Thompson said. "It makes them think, 'This is how hard I can work.'"

For the wrestlers who didn't get enough during the regular schedule, there were a few extras to test the body further. On Tuesday, the wrestlers did the buddy run, sprint style. Wednesday's team duals - held late in the day, after the seven-hour regular session - gave the wrestlers a chance to show off in competition what they had learned in drills.

Friday was the big event - the annual timed run from the valley floor to the top of Lone Pine State Park. A few wrestlers last week were wearing the shirts they earned in past years for conquering the hill - "I dominated Lone Pine."

A few other slogans on the campers' T-shirts were indicative of their mind-set:

"Pain is certain: Misery is optional"

"Eat, sleep, wrestle … Any questions?"

And … "The best thing about a basketball floor are wrestling mats from door to door."

The mats were certainly lining the floor at last week's camp. Thompson said mats from about every wrestllng program in the Flathead Valley, as well as a few from the Kalispell police department, were on loan to the camp.

Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Evergreen wrestling clubs were well represented by wrestlers, along with coaches from those programs.

The wrestlers who traveled a bit farther found the camp was worth the commute.

Anthony Voelker of Spokane said there are no equivalent camps in his area. His high school coach "highly recommended" that Voelker, a senior, attend the camp along with a crew of 10 other Spokane-area wrestlers.

Voelker said it was one of the hardest weeks he's ever spent wrestling, but "I'm not dying," he said.

A.J. Semen, a three-time provincial champion from Weyburn, Saskatchewan, said the camp schedule was a surprise.

"I thought we'd have to be here at six every morning," he said, happy that things didn't get rolling until 9 a.m. "But the running is more than I thought it would be."

Semen's post-camp plans are exactly what Thompson intends for the campers.

"I'll teach what I've learned to my coach, and he can teach it to the rest of the club," Semen said.

Kalispell Little Guy head coach Suny Cheff emphasized that the camp was about more than conditioning and a mastery of technique.

Wrestling teaches invaluable lessons about life, he said.

"On the mat, you're by yourself. You have to learn to lose, accept it, move on and better yourself. When things aren't going as you planned, you have no one else to blame.

"In wrestling you have to earn every bit."

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4431 or by e-mail at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.