Daily Archive: April 26, 2010

Apr
26

State Wrestling

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Rachel Vliem, Staff Writer

Add 2010 to the Wrestling State Champions banner in the gym; they’ve done it again.

The Campbell County High School wrestling team earned their eighth consecutive title in February, which is the most the state of Wyoming has ever seen. “Eight times feels great,” said junior Kody Brown. “We really proved everyone wrong this year.” Brown wrestled on JV at 171-pounds and took fifth at state this year. “I wrestled well, but I know I could have done better.”

Senior Aaron McGee felt that the team did great. “We met the goal of state championships. We were nervous about the teams we hadn’t seen, so we really didn’t know what to expect.”

“We weren’t even supposed to compete at state a few weeks ago because of our weak performance at Ron Thon,” explained junior James Boylan. “We did really good. We came within twelve points of the record.” Boylan earned himself second place at 285-pounds.

With ten wrestlers making it to the final match, the Camels felt pretty confident. “It was incredible getting ten guys to the finals,” said junior Tyler Pownall. “The win was very exciting.” Four out of the ten won the final match, earning each of them first place and sixteen additional points for the team score. The first place finishers were freshmen Dani Fischer and Lucas Poloncic, sophomore Taylor Bear, and senior Alex Coolidge.

“We did awesome! This would have been the year to beat us,” sophomore Trevor O’Dowd added. “Next year we will be even stronger and harder to beat.” O’Dowd wrestled at 152-pounds, but was disappointed when he got fifth place.

Coolidge plans on wrestling at Cornell next year. “As soon as the season got over for us, I never stopped wrestling. I practice for about two hours every day.”

Coolidge went to the national tournament at Virginia Beach along with the other state champions. He won four and lost two, getting beat out one round before placing.

Bear was awarded an All-American title with his performance at nationals. He earned eighth place at 112-pounds, losing to a wrestler from New York.

Fischer earned himself fifth place and an All-American title at 119-pounds.

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Apr
26

Ask Sergeant Drew: Celebrations

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Staff Sergeant Drew Koch, Iraq Correspondent

Staff Sergeant Drew Koch, Iraq Correspondent

Staff Sergeant Drew Koch shares his views about current happenings in the Middle East. Everything said in this article is of his own opinion and not to be confused with the official standing of the U.S. Army. This week’s question: What kinds of things are celebrated and how do the soldiers celebrate?

I am currently sitting at a western base on my way back to the unit as I have been at home seeing my family and enjoying my mid-tour leave.  It was wonderful to be home for the 15 days!

 As for your question, what do we celebrate and how do we celebrate; it is a rather simple answer.  When you imagine my guys, picture a frat from any college movie that you might have seen.  Now add to the exploits, a more stringent right of passage, much specified training and a general attitude of invincibility.  My guys are all a fun and exciting bunch to say the least!

 We celebrate everything that you would.  Holidays, birthdays, birth of a child and promotions are the most common.  In general we celebrate them in our own special ways.              We obviously cannot make a cake to celebrate a birthday, so instead it is generally celebrated with a dog pile. The birth of a child equals a barbeque where the new father has to buy the steaks. Holidays are handled with whatever decorations we get in care packages and there is always a holiday meal in the chow hall.  

Every group is different and much of what we do is steeped in tradition.  Maybe not “Army Tradition” but tradition for our specific group.  What happens to the new guys happened to the old guys and will happen to the next set of new guys we receive.  It is done out of jest, and is a simple thing that usually builds stronger bonds amongst the men.  

I hope that this effectively answers your question.  I look forward to the next.

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