My name is Mike Gorton, I wrestled for Waterford and graduated in 2005. Currently, I am running the UConn Club wrestling with Pat Neilan, who also wrestled for Waterford. Shout out to all my Waterford and Windham boys...
This message is to all seniors who are looking to keep competing next year at a less intense level than D1 or even D3... After this year\'s successful season, UConn Club Wrestling is officially established and will be fully recognized and funded by UConn Club Sports in the 2009-2010 school year. This was the first year we\'ve actually competed, and we\'ve wrestled in tournaments in New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia. We cracked the top 25 for nationally ranked club teams, but fell out after some injuries left us with some holes in the line up.
Basically heres how it goes: We practice 3 times a week, and wrestle on either Saturday\'s or Sundays. We can wrestle every weekend at tournaments and duals if we want, but sometimes they\'ll be good parties going on, or we\'ll be overloaded with school work as a team, so we take the weekend off. It\'s college, and you gotta prioritize. School, wrestle, socialize.
We have a great crew of guys. We practice hard but we have a real good time. That\'s what it\'s all about for us, enjoying the sport while we improve. Check out the promotional video we made, it\'s shot like an 80\'s Rocky Montage. Pretty funny stuff...
As far as tournaments and competition go, we wrestle some tough kids from other club teams, Junior College teams like STCC, and D3 schools like WNEC. Of course, you\'ll run into the occasional fish. Our head coaches are both experienced college wrestlers, one (Rick Bartel) who\'s in his 50\'s who wrestled at RIC, and the other (Justin Dwork) who\'s 22 and wrestled for 4 years at Ithaca.
If you\'re planning on UConn next year (whether it be Storrs or any other campus), and want to keep wrestling, contact me at Michael.gorton@uconn.edu
Earn your mustaches,
UConn Club Wrestling
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Basically everyone on the team, with a couple exceptions, made it to opens. But, keep in mind, a few kids graduated 3 years ago- and you'll be surprised at the jumps you make in the years after college. It's when man strength starts to develop.
I've been out of the high school loop for a bit, but a couple names you might recognize are Luke Walsh, Mike Battinelli, Ben Brody, Micah Flashman, Ralph Reillo, Evan Nahins... Those are some of our younger wrestlers..
couple of those kids went to New Englands. most could be wrestling D3, but just don't want that level of committment...
My messages haven't been going to the right discussion for some reason. This message is intended for UConn Wrestling.
Mike Gorton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYY8VcJ-1yo
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Anyone who wants to come down and roll is always welcome, there are no try outs and it doesn't matter how you did in High School. To compete you'll have to pay dues ($50 a semester)- due money goes to funding trips, buying equipment, and doing things together as a club...
Like any other team, the best wrestlers will wrestle varsity in tournaments and duals. But even with that said, everyone who pays dues gets to wrestle with us every weekend. Most tournaments allow teams to enter multiple people (U New Hampshire has like 6 184 pounders... that we destroy)and we also set up exhibitions.
Unfortunately, no we cannot help out with tuition, only D1 sports can do that.
We have nationals next week in Hampton, VA. Pat Neilan, Mike Battinelli, Luke Walsh and I all qualified. It's going to be a great week, UConn Club sports is paying for plane tickets and hotels. All stuff we'll be doing next year.
Thanks for the questions,
UConn Wrestling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYY8VcJ-1yo
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