Coach Troy's High School Update: Weeks 1 & 2
Maple Grove Wrestlers, managers, and families,
Welcome to the 2025 – 2026 Crimson wrestling season! The beginning of a new wrestling season is one of the most exciting times of the season – everyone starts fresh with new opportunities. For our returning wrestlers it’s an opportunity to see how they’ve developed naturally as well as on the mat and in the weight room during the offseason. For our newest athletes, it’s an opportunity to get to know a new group of athletes. For all team members it’s an opportunity to build and create the newest version of the Maple Grove Wrestling family.
Every season there are Crimson wrestlers who seem to come out of nowhere to establish themselves as excellent wrestlers. It’s always fun to see our athletes at all levels develop and that’s what I’m most looking forward to these next few months. Regardless of wins and losses, every Crimson wrestler who completes this season will see significant growth (in wrestling and in life). Can’t wait to get it rolling this week!
There are some new additions to the coaching staff that I’m excited to expose our wrestlers to. We return twelve of our thirteen coaches from last season (Ron Seubert, Brad Holzerland, Carl Leuer, Dylan Schultz, Daniel Polanco, Eddie Kilgard, Josh Barzowski, Jake Olmstead, Donnie Leuer, William Gamble, Mason Carter, and myself) and have also added four others that will benefit the program greatly. Alumni Rufus Bartee and Ireland Meade join the staff this season as well as Eau Claire Blugolds wrestling Alumni Carter Focht and South St. Paul Alumni Michael Mason. All of these coaches have varying levels of availability so I suspect we will rarely see an army of 16 coaches all in one place but we will have a strong team of coaches and mentors – and we’ll need each them (plus potentially others on some weekends).
On the Mat our numbers are likely to exceeded our previous all-time high for our program. We currently have 67 registered wrestlers and I believe last year we had 75 register which is the previous high to start a season. With a number of athletes still working on physicals and finalizing their registrations, I expect we’ll clear 75 wrestlers on the roster – perhaps fairly comfortably. The roster is currently split between returners (36 wrestlers) and wrestlers who are new to the team this season (29 wrestlers). The Freshman class leads the way with an amazing 19 wrestlers currently registered. They are joined in the double digits by the Junior class that has an awesome 15 wrestlers, as well as the ten rostered 8th graders. We have at least 7 wrestlers registered from every grade
We continue to be a young team – with over half our team (36/67 wrestlers) being eligible for 9th grade competitions once again (7th, 8th, and 9th graders). We do have several returning wrestlers with considerable Varsity experience and success including two prior state place winners (Senior Connor Peterson and Sophomore Carole Stevenson) as well as returning state entrant (Ethan Hong).
There is also continued excitement surrounding the girls’ wrestlers this season. We currently have thirteen girls registered which is already a program high and I expect that number to get to 15+ this week. In our three seasons of having a girls wrestling program we’ve seen the program grow from 5 wrestlers, to double digits last season, to a projected 15+ this season. We continue to add additional girls only events to the Crimson schedule and the state has doubled the number of girls who qualify for state this season. It’s going to be a lot of fun to see our girls compete and have additional success this season!
There are talented athletes and skilled wrestlers throughout the roster as well as a number of strong leaders that will positively impact the team on and off the mat. This is an exciting and deep roster that should have plenty of opportunities to compete for some impressive individual and team accomplishments at all stages of the season. Looking forward to what should be a fun season of Maple Grove Wrestling!!
Below is the Maple Grove Wrestling Schedule for a busy week 1 and 2:
Practices:
Monday, Nov. 17th - Practice beginning in the wrestling room at 3:10p. Practices will typically go until around 5p.m. – although some days will be a little later and others will be a little earlier depending on what is needed that day. At this practice we will also start the weight certification process with our team trainer. All wrestlers need to be certified by the trainer, have their certification sheets signed by the team doctor, have a parent/guardian sign the sheet and turn it back into the coaching staff so it can be inputted into the computer, prior to being allowed to participate in competition (MSHSL rule).
Tuesday, Nov. 18th – Weight training workout at 2:10p for the high school students with practice beginning in the wrestling room at 3:10p. High-school wrestlers should plan on lifting right after school from 2:10p to 3:05p at least 2-3 times per week if they don’t need to spend the time with a teacher or devote that time to schoolwork. We will also continue doing our weight certifications with the team trainer on this day as well.
Wednesday, Nov. 19th – Weight training workout at 2:10p for the high school students with practice beginning in the wrestling room at 3:10p. Third day of weight certifications with the team trainer.
Thursday, Nov. 20th - Practice beginning in the wrestling room at 3:10p. Hoping to wrap up weight certifications with the team trainer so that the trainer can get the forms to the doctor to be signed. Once they are signed each wrestler will need to take their forms home to be signed by their parents and returned to Coach Troy.
Friday, Nov. 21st - Weight training at 2:10p for the high school students with practice beginning in the wrestling room at 3:10p.
Saturday, Nov. 22nd – Practice beginning in the wrestling room at 9a. Wrestlers should arrive by 8:45a in order to have shoes on and ready to go by 9a. This will be an open practice where Friends and family members are invited and encouraged to attend and check out a practice. Parents and/or family members are typically asked to refrain from being in the practice room during practices other than 1 or 2 open practices per season so if you can make it this is a good opportunity to see what your wrestler is typically doing at practice every day. Following practice, we will have a Team Pot Luck in the school cafeteria with parents/guardians and family invited to attend (and bring something to share) in the school cafeteria at 12p. More information to come.
Monday, Nov. 24th – We will do our team pictures this day starting at 2:15p for the senior high athletes. We will do a team picture when the middle school athletes arrive and then start the regular practice. I would assume pictures will go until about 3:30p and practice may go until 5:20p or so this day.
Tuesday, Nov. 25th - Weight training at 2:10p for the high school students with practice beginning in the wrestling room at 3:10p.
Wednesday, Nov. 26th – No school – Practice at 3p for everyone.
Thursday, Nov. 27th – Happy Thanksgiving. No Practice. We have traditionally played a Thanksgiving Day fun game of touch football with the wrestling Alumni. The Alumni will be there once again. The game will be on the Fernbrook Turf fields at 9am for anyone who wants to play. The game typically lasts 75-90 minutes. All wrestlers (and especially those competing on Saturday), should plan to get some form of exercise in this day.
Friday, Nov. 28th – No School - Practice at 2p for everyone. NOTE: If we are able to set-up for the Sunday youth tournament in one or both gyms, we’ll do so after practice this day.
Saturday, Nov. 29th – Two things going on this day:
Varsity Boys and the Girls will compete at Minnetonka High School. The bus is scheduled to leave MGSH around 7:15a (arrive at MGSH at 7a). Wrestling will likely begin around 9:30a. Following the tournament all wrestlers are asked to take the bus back to the high school so we can finalize the set-up for the youth tournament for Sunday’s tournament.
For the JV/9th grade wrestlers the Saturday practice time is still pending (still waiting to confirm main gym availability). Coach Polanco will be running this practice. Following practice, we may need to set up mats on Saturday for the Maple Grove Youth Tournament that is on Sunday, Nov. 30th. Mat set-up should take 45 minutes to an hour or less – depending on how much help we have and how busy everybody remains throughout the process. Parent help is welcome if parents are free. Many hands make light work.
The youth tournament is a great opportunity for our newest wrestlers to get an idea of what a wrestling match looks like. It’s also one of our biggest fundraisers of the season and helps us to be able minimize costs to parents while also allowing us to afford items such as team apparel, out of town trips, and additional coaches on staff.
Youth Tournament Details:
Sunday, Nov. 30th – Wrestling begins at 9a. Wrestlers should be there by 8:15a. Experienced wrestlers will be used to Ref while newer wrestlers will be used at scoring tables. All will be trained in on their duties prior to the tournament beginning. All wrestlers/managers will have a job to do as this tournament is the primary way, we ask the wrestlers to contribute in an effort that will directly benefit their experience this season.
If parents are available to help with this process, we’ll take their help as well. This could also be great practice for the help that we are going to need from the parents while our wrestlers compete at our home tournaments on Friday, Dec. 12th and Saturday, Dec. 13th. Parent volunteer needs can be found here:
Sunday, November 30:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094FABAC29AAFFC16-60102439-mgyouth#/
Friday, December 12:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094FABAC29AAFFC16-60231873-mgsenior#/
Saturday, December 13:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094FABAC29AAFFC16-60164981-mgsenior#/
Awesome Maple Grove Wrestling Fan Gear
If you missed the first round of orders, don’t panic! Order your gear now to receive it by Christmas. The link to order will be communicated once the sort is open this week.
If you have ordered during the first window, items should be received by the end of the month. Thanks!
Crossbar and Future Communication
Lastly please go to www.crimson-wrestling.com and register for the season. This will ensure you receive all the latest communication and schedule updates. I would also suggest adding the Crossbar App on your phone for easy access to scheduling and the team chat. Please let me know if you have any questions as we will use this app for communications throughout the season.
We like to get the busiest weeks of the season out of the way right out of the gate. It’s definitely a little crazy – especially for those that are new to the team - but it will also be great opportunity to learn the sport and then we settle in from there. Looking forward to getting the season started and seeing this group of athletes on the mat! Please let me know if you have questions.
Hope the first two weeks go well for all, and everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. Looking forward to getting to know our newest wrestlers and meeting some of our newest parents. See you all soon!
Coach Troy
Mgwrestling99@gmail.com
763-913-0601