We hear alot of complaints about Skutt recruiting/cheating etc...

Please explain to me how they can keep so strong. They compete against some of the best wrestling programs in state from the metro area for their wrestlers?

Are there just alot of good wrestlers from the omaha area?
Do they have the best coaches?
Do they offer tougher competition which allows a kid to excel to their best?
Are there facilities alot better than other schools in the area?
Do they serve donuts to their wrestlers everyday?

How can other programs meet and even surpass that kind of success?

Please dont bash Skutt with unfounded accusations, it is obvious they are doing something right. What is it?

I'm not from Skutt, but from the chances my kid has had to go practice or attend meets with their troops, it's apparent to me that their coaching staff has succeeded in:

a) Instilling on wrestlers that Wrestling is a YEAR-ROUND committment to be fit and improve skills, versus just a "gap-filler" season between football and baseball. Their skills development and conditioning training never go cold between seasons.

b) They have a dedicated facility for wrestling alone, and that facilitates the above.

c) From what I remember, wrestlers are encouraged to follow-on with freestyle and greco, if not doing other sports, although I didn't see much participation this year. Last year they had some open mat opportunities on select Friday nights for kids from other schools could show up and have some matches with theirs and other kids.

d) They actively seek opportunities to attend summer camp and compete over the summer in and out of state.

I think opportunities to get kids to wrestle off-season, particularly during the Summer is one thing that can be done without having to drive super-long distances, just having coaches agree and motivate wrestlers, as well as invite others to do some Friday night or any other day open mat, without regard to school-you-belong, can help keep skills more current. There's always forms and stuff that can be filled for keeping the lawyers and the school district happy if these things are done. Also, Nebraska and Omaha area in particular has plenty of opportunities over the Summer for kids to attend fairly inexpensive camps in a variety of schools where they can keep fit and wrestle a variety of other kids and be exposed to a wide variety of clinicians. Skutt actively seeks opportunities like Summer Camps, although in a great part is out of state. Here depends on how much $$$ and time you want / can dedicate.

Bottom line: Skutt succeeds not just on good coaching, but their looking at wrestling as a year round committment in skills development and conditioning.


AB

Skutt has a very dedicated coaching staff...and their past wrestlers stick around and help the program out. They also wrestle college style and have a little help from the UNO guys and past wrestlers from Skutt. Dedications to wrestle in the offseason and putting in the time. From what else I have seen...the mix of having a good coaching staff...having good wrestlers to train with...attracts kids to come to the school...from omaha and around omaha.

But a school can build their team like skutt...but in high school...it also depends on having kids that wrestled in good clubs before high school...and kids that have heart... and having the right spread of kids feeling the weights...that sharpen each other up...to make a great team....thats what a coach wants!
Marcus Hellwege

And Catholic schools can recruit...or get kids to come..becuase its a private school... but a regular high school can achieve the success...if the right things play through...but it takes coaching...dedication..doing the extra..sound fundamnetals...and learning the small things...but a good team needs to be well balanced from top to bottom...becuase wrestling is a sport where you are out there alone..but you need good teammates to help you reach your goals..train with and push each other.

Coaches dedicated to developing kids year round is the key here. All you got to do is look at some of the top programs around and see similar results. Millard South is active year round with Meneely as one of the top asst. coaches in the state. Bennington in C with Pokorny being active year round. And obviously Skutt. The difference is most of the public schools are restricted to their school district. For example there were rumors about several of the Skutt kids first choice was Bennington but could not get in because they were not in the district.

A good feeder program is also important. A good feeder program will make a coach look good and an average coach can have success. A good coach will take those kids to the next level.

It's Obvious they are the best at recruiting. They have the most funds to bring in the best recruits. They find parents jobs in the area, help pay for houses and moving expenses. Red Dawg mentioned donuts, maybe as a joke, but their training table is Amazing! With these resources they don't even need to work hard. From what I have seen they are one of the laziest teams in the State.

What a lot of people see as recruiting is just providing opportunities for kids to become better wrestlers. This not only happens with Skutt, but other area schools. Lincoln East, Millard South, etc.... For as many kids actually go to Skutt or Millard South or whoever you want to name. Twice as many train there in the off season and then go back to compete for their own schools. Plus, if a kid wants to wrestle on the next level then he has to be seen out wrestling at Fargo, summer camps, Cadet duals, etc. These few clubs that provide places to train for the kids make them better wrestlers and allow the opportunities to go compete at the off-season competition in the proper wrestling shape.

What some people view as recruiting, could also be called providing opportunities for wrestlers. All it takes is your coach setting up training opportunities and the wrestlers will come.

Don't be jealous of what these teams have created. Do it yourself, have open mats, get the best kids in the area to come train with yours and see what happens.

quote:

Originally posted by Mr. Freeze:
It's Obvious they are the best at recruiting. They have the most funds to bring in the best recruits. They find parents jobs in the area, help pay for houses and moving expenses. Red Dawg mentioned donuts, maybe as a joke, but their training table is Amazing! With these resources they don't even need to work hard. From what I have seen they are one of the laziest teams in the State.

?

quote:

Originally posted by Mr. Freeze:
It's Obvious they are the best at recruiting. They have the most funds to bring in the best recruits. They find parents jobs in the area, help pay for houses and moving expenses. Red Dawg mentioned donuts, maybe as a joke, but their training table is Amazing! With these resources they don't even need to work hard. From what I have seen they are one of the laziest teams in the State.

While I agree that Skutt has a tremendous advantage due to the fact they can pick and choose their students. That might be the dumbest post I have ever seen.

As a former teacher and coach there, I can wholeheartedly second that.

The post from Mr. Freeze reminds me of the movie Tommy Boy, when his buddy Richard is in the gas station asking for directions. It goes something like this:

Gas Station Employee: I'm picking up your sarcasm.

Richard Hayden: Well, I should hope so, because I'm laying it on pretty thick.

The only constant in the Skutt Wrestling program going back to the beginning of their success is Coach Hildebrandt. New facility, new assistant coaches, new wrestlers each year. Despite the changes, there is success. My guess is his coaching philosophy, motivation and lead by example way of teaching are the keys to the success of the program.

Agreed. But a key part of coaching successfuly is establishing and supporting a culture where:

a) Wrestlers understand and live a year-round committment. Here coaches and supporting parents play a role.

and

b) Coaches not only provide the motivation, but they themselves are actually motivated (and can provide/endure the sacrifices in time and treasure) to continuously seek more mat-time opportunities for their wrestlers within the team, on or off-season, or even outside their school/club(i.e. nearby school/programs ,Nebraska Extreme, Massey's Golden Eagles, freestyle-greco programs, etc.)

Coaches who promote:
Sustained conditioning, skills, and mat-time.

AB

Skutt, Millard South, ALL successful teams are doing it right. My boy has wrestled at over 20 schools in the off season and we make the trek to Omaha so that he can wrestle the MS and SKutt boys. I have to agree that these coaches do a great job with their teams, but both Brad and Doug do assist other coaches and athletes and share their knowledge and expertise with anyone that asks. I am amazed at how many people complain on this site, but are the first ones to shake these coaches hands and say congratulations at the end of the year! Tlka about your two faced hypocrites!

I say that until you can prove that any of the elite programs are cheating in any way that goes against the NSSA, then stop complaining and figure out a way to beat them.

I have nothing but respect for both programs!

It is amazing that so man;y people dont understand what makes skutt sucessful. There are catholic schools that have lower level grades. skutt does not. They do not have to take the kids from ther Jr high program and implement them into their sports programs. I dont believe that this program is doing anything illegal that being said how often do you see them bringing in a kid that isnt good at sports. Nebraska has made it legal to do what they are doing. Check out the other states and see what they make the catholic schools do. They can tell you what ever they want to but they do have an advantage. They have good coaches obviously but do you think thay go after a kid that has no skills athletically and try to turn them into super stars? Not !!! They go after kids who are already sucessful and could probably already be tops in there sport in high school then make them better. They dont take kids that have never wrestled before and make them state champions. Go back and check it out think Katusin could be a state champion at the school he should be at or do you think he is only good because he goes to school at skutt? How well did his brother do without going to school at skutt? Just one of many examples but yet again it is not illegal cuz the state has made it legal for thesse schools to steal away the best athletes not really recruit them and claim them as there own. Let the truth come out anybody that knows the truth knows that you cant sustain the kind of sucess that skutt has just by taking any ordinary athlete and turning them into a superstar. How bout we hear from a skutt coach?

Your right the Skutt coaches suck. They have never taken a freshmen whos never wrestled until high school and turned them into a state placer, qualifier. The schedule they wrestle is also really weak so they never face the national competiton that all of the other schools face. Skutt only cares about state championships not getting better or competing at the national level. They are a just bunch of lazy cheating fools.

Right off the top of my head:

Ryan Salisbury, state medalist
Mike Stephenson, state medalist
Marcus Odorisio, state qualifier
Sean Quinlan, state qualifier
Alex Mohanna, state medalist
Seth Kolar, state medalist
Charles Olson, state qualifier

None of these guys had an extensive wrestling background.

Ouch!

I was afraid the Skutt haters would jump in on this, I was hoping to encourage other teams to adopt some of the things Skutt is doing and not hate on them.

1st of all, I have met the Skutt coaches, believe it or not, they are great guys.

2) If you dont like Skutt, I ask you why? I dont think bashing them is the way to go, I think you should ask why kids choose to go there over there local school. If you want to bash someone, maybe bash their local school for letting them get away. I personally dont think you should bash anyone.

3) The reason a kid is good in wrestling is because their parents brought them into it at an early age. Some are just talented like Yasim Bribieseca from Boystown who only started in the 9th grade and turned into a multi-state champ. But that is the exception more than the rule.
Wrestling is not like football or basketball where talent is 75% of the game. What I mean by that is, can a 5' 10" Bball player compete against a 6' 6" kid who has a 36" vertical, or that same 5' 10" guy compete against a 6' guy who can run a 4.3sec 40 in football?

Wrestling has so much technique that an average athlete can be a great wrestler.
Because wrestling is a secondary sport and alot of kids dont get into it until jr. high or even sr. high, you have a huge difference in skill.

A smart wrestling coach once told me that a kid wont know where he stands as a wrestler until he has had 100 matches under his belt. If you have a kid coming into high school with that kind of experience, he will be heads and tails above his competition. If that is the kind of kids Skutt is getting, then that will add alot to their success.

Sorry to rant, but I think the question should be asked, Why is a kid like that choosing Skutt over another School? Someone mentioned the Katusin boys, What ever the parents decided with each of them should be left to the parents and their kids, I am fine with them making their own decisions. Shouldn't the parents have that right?

Here's my take on Skutt, for what it's worth...

First off, there is SOME truth to the accusation that Skutt recruits. ALL parochial and private schools recruit students, but not exclusively for athletics. These schools have to recruit in order to bring in the tuition money required to keep the doors open and staff employed.

I remember talking to Jay Meneely once about the recruiting issue and whether certain wrestlers were given "scholarships" to come to Skutt, and his response was that he'd like to know where those scholarships were at, because he had the cancelled checks that he wrote to pay for Todd's tuition to go to school there.

Now my response to the accusation that wrestlers were given free rides to come to Skutt has always been that whoever makes the accusation needs to have proof and they should take that to the NSAA, because the NSAA has rules regarding the recruitment of students as athletes. Obviously, nobody has ever been able, or willing, to bring that evidence to the table.

It should also be noted here that, thanks to the Nebraska Legislature's decision in the early 90's to embrace the concept of open enrollment, it is now possible for EVERY school in the state to engage in some kind of recruiting. It's a well-known fact that Omaha Public Schools is full of situations where athletes are recruited to other schools, and that has spilled over into the subdivision communities like Millard. I'd be willing to bet the same thing takes place in Lincoln and wouldn't be surprised to hear of it going on in some of the smaller cities with multiple schools like Grand Island, Hastings or Columbus.

Second, I've seen Brad Hildebrandt work with these kids over the years and have even had the chance to sit in on a couple of practices. Both he and the late R.J. Nebe built this program on a very solid foundation of skill development and hard work.

You can have all the talent in the world and still not win state championships if the kids don't put in the work and develop the discipline it takes to compete at that high a level. Granted, a number of extremely talented kids have walked through their doors over the last 10+ years, but they still have to bust their butts to get to, and maintain, that high level we have become accustomed to seeing.

And he gets them to that level by not only working hard in the practice room, but having them compete in some of the toughest tournaments in the Midwest. They are always at the Ekfelt and Boys Town tournaments in December, which are arguably the two toughest pre-holiday tournaments in the state. They have competed in the big national dual tournament in Minnesota, duel Lewis Central and are more than battle-tested by the time districts and state roll around.

The way I see it, every coach in the state could do a lot for themselves as coaches AND improve the programs they coach by taking a page or two out of Hildebrandt's book on how to create a championship-caliber program. I know there are a number of coaches out there who encourage their kids to work out with the Skutt kids and coaches in the offseason, and I'd be willing to bet every one of those kids has come away from that experience a much better wrestler than they were before they walked in.

Obviously, not every program can do everything they are able to do, whether it's due to economics, geography or not having enough bodies in the room. But rather than thumbing your nose at them, you ought to see what makes that program tick and try to emulate what they've got going on.