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What a Difference 67 Years Makes When I came to teach at Albert Lea High School 67 years ago, I was hired to teach Physical Education and coach B squad football, wrestling, and track. I attended the wrestling match on December 16th, 2005 at Albert Lea Senior High School. It was a once in a lifetime match. Owatonna was ranked number 1 in the state and Albert Lea was ranked number 2. Albert Lea won the Jr. Varsity match by a score of 51 to 17. The varsity match was also won by Albert Lea by a score of 42 to 15. The Albert Lea Tribune estimated the crowd at 3,500. It was a packed house. The most I have ever seen at an Albert Lea High School wrestling match. As I sat in the bleachers, I decided to write an article and compare wrestling in my early days to wrestling today. High school wrestling was in it's infancy so in reality, I was a pioneer in the sport. I was the only coach and I had from 25 to 30 kids out for wrestling and they were all Albert Lea High School students. We had no uniforms so the kids wore gym shorts or swimming trunks. We had the worst practice facilities in the state. Our practice room was under the bleachers in the old high school gym. You could not stand up on one side of the room. We had no wrestling mats. We had to take 4 feet by 8 feet mats and tie them together to form a mat. We tried to use a ticket booth and an empty class room but that did not work as we had to carry the mats around. We had one water boy which they now call managers. We had 11 weight classes. A match consisted of three 3 minute rounds with a one minute rest between rounds. In 2006, 51 kids report for wrestling. They come from three different high schools, Albert Lea, Alden-Conger, and Glenville-Emmons. There are three high schools wrestling under the Albert Lea banner. This is legal and a common practice. This is allowed by the Minnesota State High School League to allow small schools to participate in the sport. The Albert Lea HIgh School team has the best equipment and facilities that money can buy. When wrestling started this year, 51 students came out for the sport and they were greeted by 7 coaches. Larry Goodnature is the head coach and Neal Skaar is the first assistant. Skaar was the assistant coach for many years and the became the head coach. He is now an assistant coach again. At one time he had the winningest record of all ALHS wrestling coaches. He has been inducted into the Minnesota Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame. Rick Loock is the Alden-Conger head coach; and there are four volunteers. The four volunteers, are all former Albert Lea wrestlers. The practice room at ALHS is one of the finest in the state. They also have an excellent weight room for conditioning. I must point out that ALHS has a great wrestling booster club. They spends thousands of dollars on equipment and supplies. The club also has a development program where they have kids as young as 4 years old competing on a local and regional level. Here are a few statistics to show what two top high school wrestling teams look like:
In my opinion, Larry Goodnature is an excellent coach. He is my kind of coach, a disciplinarian with the best interests of the kids coming first. I also think that Neal Skaar is the best assistant coach in the state. They are both products of ALHS wrestling. Now for the big question: How many high school wrestling teams in the state of Minnesota or anywhere, have over $100,000 in a scholarship fund for all students who are a part of their team? There is one now. You can still be part of this scholarship by sending your donation to:
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