This past weekend at the Jesse Griese tournamnet a Prep wrestler was awarded a scholorship to attend college. What a cool thing to do, I hadnt seen anything like it in high school sports before. Do other tournaments do this? Does Huskerland or Ne wrestling offer anything like this at State?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Red Rocker,

Good question and agree it was good thing to see.

Yes, others do. Derek Vogel received one at The Clash. Also, The Jesse Griese Foundation wanted to do this for the Nebraska State Tournament and I think it was turned down.

The Western Nebraska Wrestling Officials (WNWO) have a banquet at the end of each season and select and vote on an Outstanding Wrestler each year based on sportsmanship and the past few winners have been presented with a scholarship at the banquet. They also select an Outstanding Coach, Town/Fan, and Official all based on Sportsmanship. Past wrestler winners were: Warner Phipps, Jake Smith, Holden Barry, Bryan Frederickson, Steve Dent, Zach Clark, & Brandon Teel.

NSWCA

Good for them, I hope they get some credit for it.

As far as the State tournament, why was that turned down???

Rumor has it that a coach from the Metro objected and the program had to be dropped. Unfortunate because several athletes would have benefited from these scholarships. Why they felt it wouldn't be in the best interest of the students isn't clear.

South Dakota Class B wrestling offers many memorial scholarships at their state tournament. Before we assume that a state with less the half the population of Nebraska (781,000 vs. 1.7 million for Nebraska) is doing it wrong, let's look at their track record vs. ours. Nebraska has one native Nebraska wrestler to win a Division I national title, Brad Vering (excuse me if I'm missing someone, Brad is the only one I know of). South Dakota natives to win Division I wrestling titles include:
Randy Lewis, 2, plus Olympic Gold Medalist
Lincoln Mclravy, 3, plus Olympic Bronze Medalist
Bill Scheer, 1, plus Olympic Bronze Medalist.
Jim Sheer, 1, plus 5th in Olympics.
Brock Lesnar, 1, plus a runner up finish.
Also the Koslowski brothers Olympic Greco medalists and etc.
Maybe it is time we open our minds to doing things that benefit our wrestlers and wrestling community instead of squashing an idea without giving it due consideration. Both South Dakota and Minnesota allow 7th and 8th graders to wrestle varsity. Would we ever consider such an idea, or simply bury it as obsurd, just because it is different from what we are doing?

Has anyone else heard this? Was a scholorship offered at the State tournament and a coach nixed it????
Who's the coach?

Hi All,

Just wanted to take the opportunity to clear the air on scholarship offerings. Yes, the Jesse Griese Foundation had asked the NSAA about offering scholarships each year to be given at the state tournament. When I heard about it, I thought it was a wonderful idea. I contacted the NSAA and asked them if Huskerland could also get involved and maybe even the NSWCA? It was just a query to see if we could maybe pool some $$ and give bigger scholarships. Huskerland already gives Scholarship money to UNO and to UNK, but we are always looking at the potential out there for promoting wrestling through scholarships. Likewise the NSWCA gives scholarships each year and oddly enough, sometimes there are not applicants for these scholarships. In my mind the State Tournament would be a great venue plattform to give scholarships away. At any rate, the NSAA told me that they were looking into it and that they didn't know what direction they were headed with scholarships. That is the last I heard of the whole issue til now. Hope that clears things up!

Arm drag you're absolutely right. Iowa and SD are much more progressive than NE when it comes to scholarship opportunities for our student athletes. This is evidenced by the number of hits the filming question is getting. Why aren't more parents and coaches conderned with their child/athlete getting a scholarship?

quote:

Originally posted by grapplinman:
Hi All,

Just wanted to take the opportunity to clear the air on scholarship offerings. Yes, the Jesse Griese Foundation had asked the NSAA about offering scholarships each year to be given at the state tournament. When I heard about it, I thought it was a wonderful idea. I contacted the NSAA and asked them if Huskerland could also get involved and maybe even the NSWCA? It was just a query to see if we could maybe pool some $$ and give bigger scholarships. Huskerland already gives Scholarship money to UNO and to UNK, but we are always looking at the potential out there for promoting wrestling through scholarships. Likewise the NSWCA gives scholarships each year and oddly enough, sometimes there are not applicants for these scholarships. In my mind the State Tournament would be a great venue plattform to give scholarships away. At any rate, the NSAA told me that they were looking into it and that they didn't know what direction they were headed with scholarships. That is the last I heard of the whole issue til now. Hope that clears things up!

SO, THE NSAA was asked about GIVING ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIPS DURING STATE AND THEY SAID NO????? Is this true???

One other SD native that most people forget about is Les Sigman 4x from stugis SD

Are we losing focus here? The question is why hasn't NE been as progressive as other states in accepting scholsrship opportunities for the athletes? Why would a coach deny a student the chance to receive a college scholarship with no strings attached? This topic is important. It affects the whole state.

Good point huskers152. Four time national champs like Les Sigman are a rarity and he was a wonderful and fortunate transplant for Nebraska from SD.

Since it hasn't been mentioned and the World-Herald probably won't cover it, the winner of the Jesse Greise $1000 scholarship at the Skutt tournament was John O'Bryan of Prep who met and exceeded all the criteria for the scholarship, especially in service to community and mankind.

the last two post are correct, dead one!!!!

World Hearld. what a joke! Of coarse i dont recall any pictures of the tourney nor the mention of the Prep winner. That's right they didnt even cover it, that would of been a nice interview piece. Anyway, that paper is lousy when it comes to HS sports, and why I dropped my subscription. If it's not Cr basketball or NE football, they dont care.

Of coarse, by looking at the topics on this site, why should they? Beaten mentioned people more concerned about taping competitors than scholorships and that person was right. You all want to get together before the state tournement but NO ONE seems to care that the NSAA shot down a real oppurtunity for student athletes to earn something for their furture. Grapplinman seemed to shed some light on it however it still doesnt tell us anything.

Do any one within this sport or should we say state want their kid to go to college? Or are you to worried about parking at the Quest Center?