I hope my email finds you doing well. I am going to jump around a bit but there are some things to pass on to the Wrestling Hokie Nation.
From a wrestling standpoint, we have some guys in town training and going to summer school and then we have a portion of our team at home until Mid-June. All of our returning guys and our 4 transfers will be meeting from June 18 30 to train and work camps. The second part of our summer training and camp schedule starts on July 5 and ends on July 22. We will have an additional 18 incoming freshmen joining us for that July time frame to get their feet wet at Virginia Tech. I am attaching a list of names, in no certain order, to give everybody a peak at this years incoming guys. To be very honest, some of these guys I know a lot about and some I don't know much about. I will do a weight class by weight class evaluation late this summer after I get to know everybody and where they might fit in next year. Very excited to get the new guys (and the old guys) back in town!
Incoming Guys. Incoming 16-17 class.docx
Because of a lot of nagging injuries that didn't allow all of our current guys to participate in a full training cycle and properly prepare, we didn't send many guys to the University Nationals this past weekend. It is my opinion that you have to be ALL IN to represent yourself well at such a tough event. The good news is that I can say that we have everyone EXCEPT DAVID MCFADDEN cleared to wrestle at this time. Of course, McFadden is coming off of an ACL surgery and wont be released to go full tilt until probably November. Our June training cycle should be a good one.
NCAA tickets and rooms are going fast! Reach out to Robin at robin.wilson1025@gmail.com for information and to reserve your rooms and tickets for St. Louis in March of 2017.
Coaching Announcements. Stay tuned for the official announcement of the hiring of MIKE ZADICK as a full time VT assistant for next season. Mike has accepted the position and the announcement will soon follow! Needless to say, Mike made quite a splash last season and I am glad we could retain him on a full time basis. Mikes hire allows me to move DEREK ST. JOHN up to our other NCAA sponsored coaching position. Derek is on board and will be with us all summer. Mike has some obligations with the Montana National Team this summer and will be with us a limited amount of time, but I am really excited to have these guys on a full time basis for the 2016-17 season.
Southeast Regional Training Center (SERTC) Update. I am happy to report that we have raised over $100k since the NCAA championships in NYC. I want to specifically thank former Hokie Wrestler, Walter Duncan of Colorado, for his recent generous donation to our club. Walter and his nephew and niece -- Frank Turner and Ruthie Turner are the first over $50k donors to the SERTC. Walter is 87 years old and comes back once a year to attend our Alumni Wrestling Weekend. He is a tremendous fan and still wears his VT gear every time he comes back to campus. Walter contributed $65k on June 1 with a pledge to contribute another $35k in July. This kind of support will allow me to bring in another RTC athlete in the next 12 months along with keeping All MY Staff in place. Devin Carter will be with us the next 3 years as he finishes his PHD. I have worked a deal to keep TY WALZ around until 2020 in our RTC. Of course, TY doesn't graduate until May 2017, but he is very excited to compete internationally and also to coach! It is our plan to hire TY immediately after graduation! With these additions, we are still looking for the NEXT guy. I want to hire somebody who will stay with us until 2020, so I am taking my time to find the right guy.
I want to finish this part by thanking ALL of you who have generously donated to our RTC this past year. Again, our fiscal year ends on August 31 so there is plenty of time to get on line (or mail) a contribution to our non-profit RTC. Check us out at www.southeastrtc.com. You can also see some GREAT pictures from our end of the year AWARDS DINNER on our site under the news and events tab. Robin has done a great job in updating the site.
Next years Schedule!! I was hoping to release next years schedule in this newsletter, but I am still waiting on one or two final pieces. It is my hope to get it out before July 1, so stay tuned!
In closing, Id like to share with you a highlight video from the National Championships that we played at our Awards Dinner. I hope you enjoy it -- you can view here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC7C15gDqpw&feature=youtu.be