Former SWC Wrestler highlights a CBS 2 News Story

Anthony Escobar, the 2009-2010, 177lb Senior State Qualifier from the Shamrock Wrestling Club was interviewed by CBS 2 News' Dorothy Tucker about the apparent migration of potential Public Schools students to Catholic Schools like St. Patrick High School. This just solidifies the facts regarding the caliber of student/athletes associated with the SWC and St. Patrick High School. All the best to Anthony and the rest of the SWC graduates who will be attending St. Pat's next year. Here's a link to the video.

SWC 2009-2010 Awards Banquet

The date is finally set: Saturday Sunday, April 11th at 12PM at St. Pat's Gym. We'll have access to all the activities in the gym; basketball, football, etc... If you want to bring any other games, feel free (baggo, frisbee). We will have Pizza, Pop, and "other" beverages. All participating wrestlers will get an award (bag, sweatshirt, or jacket depending on number of years in the club). In addition we will present plaques to the MVW, and Most Improved in each age group. Please bring your whole family for a few hours of fun so we can honor this year's wrestlers.

Novice, 177# Shamrock Adrian Salinas finishes 5th in State

The Shamrocks had 3 wrestlers competing in this weekend's IKWF State Tournament. Senior 177# wrestler Anthony Escobar won his 1st round bout by pin, but then dropped the Quarterfinal bout to the eventual State Champ. He then came up short in the wrestlebacks, and was knocked out of the tournament with 12 wrestlers remaining. Novice 156# wrestler, Anthony Jarvis faced a similar fate, dropping his 1st round bout to the eventual state finalist, winning his 1st wrestleback, and then losing his second wrestleback - 1 match away from a medal. Novice 177# shamrock, Adrian Salinas marched right into the Semi-Final match by pinning his 1st 2 opponents in a combined time of 1:00. He ended up losing his semi-final match and subsequent wrestleback, but came back in the end to win the 5th place match and earn the Shamrock Wrestling Club's 6th State Medal in history.

Shamrocks Qualify 3 for State Tournament

The Shamrocks will have 3 wrestlers competing in this weekend's IKWF State Tournament. Novices Anthony Jarvis and Adrian Salinas both took 1st place honors at the Sectional Tournament last weekend, which will give them a 1st round bye at the State competition. Senior Anthony Escobar added another 1st place for the Shamrocks and will enjoy a 1st round bye as well. Wins in their 1st two matches at State will guarantee them a place, so we wish them luck. The State Tournament will be held in Rockford, IL at the Rockford Metro Center March 11 - 13th. Weigh-ins will take place Thursday evening, and wrestling will begin Friday morning around 9AM. If you wish to drive up and cheer on your fellow shamrocks, the Address and Directions are posted below. If you can't make it, you can always check up-to-date results on Trackwrestling.com (search for IKWF State Tournament and log in as a 'Viewer'). Congratulations to our 2009 - 2010 State Qualifiers! More details regarding the State tournament can be found on the IKWF web site (www.ikwf.org)

Rockford Metro Center
300 N. Elm St.
Rockford, IL 61101


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Sectional Brackets

If you're interested in where you fall in your sectional bracket, you can see the current version on Track Wrestling. Many changes have taken place overnight, and may also take place Saturday morning, so take it with a grain of salt. Also, if you won't be attending the sectional on Saturday, and wish to follow your teammates you can see real-time results at the same site. Here is a direct link to the tournament. If that doesn't work, go to www.trackwrestling.com and search for the North Chicago Sectional held in Bartlett, IL. Sign-in as a Viewer, go to brackets, and then choose the appropriate bracket. Here's a tip, in the Quick Search Box, Type "North Chicago Sectional" in the Event Name field and click Go. Just make sure to select this year's Sectional (03/06/2010) and not last year's.

Sectional Information

Weigh-ins for the Sectional Tournament will be held Friday, 03/05/10 at Bartlett High School (map and directions below) from 7PM to 9PM. You MUST make scratch weight wearing your competition singlet at the same weight class you wrestled in Regionals. There will be a check scale outside of the weigh-in area. Make sure to check your weight 1st before entering the weigh-in room. Once you enter the weigh-in room, you must weigh-in and you must make weight or else you will forfeit your matches. Also you will need to pass a skin check, finger nail check, and hair check. Make sure you trim your finger nails and cut your hair to an appropriate length. Wrestling will start at 9AM on Saturday, 03/06/10 at Bartlett High School. Team stretching and warm-ups will begin at 8:15AM. There is no fee for the wrestlers. Regular admission fees apply to parents and spectators. Novice and Senior wrestlers who finish 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in their respective weight-classes will qualify for the State Tournament in Rockford, IL the following week. Good Luck to all!

Bartlett High School
701 Schick Rd
Bartlett, IL 60103


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What a showing!

The Shamrocks hosted the North Chicago Regional on Saturday, February 27. 333 total wrestler participated in the regional from 15 Teams. The Shamrocks had 39 participants broken up as follows; 15 bantams, 9 intermediates, 8 novice and 7 senior. The Bantams place 2nd overall as a team with 139 total points. They fell just 3.5 point short of the 1st place team, St. Tarcissus (142.5 points). The bantams wrestled their best tournament of the year. What a great way to finish the season. Dominic Covington took 1st place honors at the Regional.
As you're probably aware, for the rest of the divisions, this was a qualifying tournament for the Sectional to be held next weekend. Of the 24 wrestlers eligible to make it to Sectionals, the Shamrocks advanced 21. The Intermediates will have 7 wrestlers advancing to the Sectionals led by Regional Champs, Jake Stiles and Frankie Trevino. Others qualifying include: Connor McDermott, Noah Colello, Sam Correa, Quinn Riley, and Charles Jurca. The Intermediates finished the tournament in 6th place overall. The Shamrocks also qualified all 8 novice wrestlers led by Regional Champs, Anthony Jarvis and Adrian Salinas. Other Novice Qualifiers include: Luke King, Jerry Reyes, Cole Riley, Michael Moncada, Dan Allegretti, and Ricky Crawford. The Intermediate group placed 4th overall. Lastly the Senior group had 6 qualifiers including Regional Champs Mike Kozyra and Anthony Escobar. Others qualifying included Ryan McDermott, Ruben Bahena, Brian Sama and Wayne Sobotka. The Seniors just missed a team award by placing 3rd overall. The Novice and Seniors will attempt to qualify for the Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation (IKWF) State Tournament this Saturday by placing 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in the Sectional Tournament. Good Luck!

Picture Orders

Picture orders are due this Thursday, 2/25 at practice. If you did not take home an order form on Tuesday, please bring money (Check or cash) with you to practice so you can fill out a form and make your payment at that time. The order forms have multiple packages available for both individual and team photos.

Correction: Picture Day Tuesday, 2/23/10

Sorry folks, but picture day is actually next week Tuesday, 2/23/10 at normal practice time. This Thursday we will have regular practice, 6PM-8PM. As a reminder, please make sure you bring your singlet, team t-shirt and shorts next week Tuesday for pictures.

Barrington Bronco Tourney Saturday Weigh-in Info

Again, Saturday weigh-in is at Barrington High School from 3PM to 5PM. You will need to present a weigh-in card to weigh-in on saturday. Since none of the coaches will be there, you can fashion yourself a card using an index card or the like. The information to include on that card is; Wrestler's Name, Wrestler's Age, Wrestler's Club, and the Wrestler's USA Card #. The USA card number can be found here. Simply scroll down to the Shamrock Wrestling Club's Official roster, find your name, and jot down your Card #. If however, you'd prefer to just wait until Sunday morning to weigh-in, see Coach Frank/Moore for your card Sunday morning during the 6:30AM to 7:30AM weigh-in at Barrington High School.

This week's Tournament, Barrington Broncos

This week's tournament will be held at Barrington High School on Sunday February 14th. There will be two opportunities to weigh-in. There will be a weigh-in on Saturday, February 13th from 3:00PM to 5:00PM at Barrington High School. A second weigh-in will be available on Sunday, February 14th from 6:30AM to 7:30AM. This means, that if you weigh-in on Saturday, you will not need to show up on Sunday until 8AM. Team stretching and warm-up will begin at 8:15AM. Also, if you plan to weigh-in on Saturday, you will need your weigh-in card ahead of time. You can get your weigh-in card at practice on Thursday. If you are weighing in on Sunday, you can get your weigh-in card at Barrington High School from Coach Frank or Moore. Directions and Map below.

Barrington High School
616 W. Main Street
Barrington, IL 60010


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Parent Meeting Tonight

Reminder, we will have a brief parent meeting tonight, so please stick around for that. We will be discussing duties for our upcoming Regional tournament.

Tournament Results: Tomcat Invitational

Another strong showing by the Shamrocks last weekend at Aurora East High School for the Tomcat Invitational. 19 wrestlers participated and 4 walked away with 1st place trophies. Among them included 11 year olds, Jerry Reyes and Dan Allegretti, as well as 13 year old Mike Kozyra and 14 year old Paul Samatas. Great job to all who participated.

Today's Practice Canceled Due to Weather

It's looking pretty bad out there, so we'll forgo practice tonight. We will have regular Wednesday practice for the Advanced guys, and then Practice on Thursday for everyone again. IMPORTANT: We will have a parent meeting on Thursday at 6PM to discuss needs for our upcoming Regional Tournament. Regionals is once again hosted at St. Patrick High School and, like our tournament in January, we will need parents to work throughout the day.

Practice Sunday, 9AM SPHS

In lieu of a tournament this weekend, we will be having an intensive practice on Sunday. All are welcome. We will wrestle for about 1 hour, then do some conditioning for the 2nd hour. In addition to your regular wrestling gear (shoes, t-shirt, shorts, headgear) please bring gym shoes to run in and possibly a sweatshirt. We will try to run upstairs in the gym, and it may be slightly cooler up there.

OPRF Tourney Recap

28 Shamrocks competed at the OPRF tournament last Sunday, probably the most yet! It's good to see some new wrestlers competing in tournaments. As we always say, mat time directly translates to improved wrestling. Congratulations goes out to our champs, 6 year old Dominic Covington, 12 year old Ricky Crawford, 12 year old Adrian Salinas, and 13 year old Mike Kozyra. Great job to all.

Oak Park Tournament, Sunday 1/24

This week's tournament will be held at Oak Park and River Forest High School. It is a close venue for everyone, so we are expecting a good turnout. Remember, just a few short weeks left until regionals, so it behooves you to get as much mat time as possible. Other than that, same drill as always. 6:30AM weigh-ins, $15 to Coach Frank/Moore, Team stretching and drilling at 8:15AM, wrestling starts at 9AM. Map and Directions below.

Oak Park and River Forest High School
523 Lake Street, Oak Park, IL 60302


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Jake Stiles Finishes 5th at IKWF Kids Open

We send our congratulations out to Jake Stiles on his 5th place finish at the Kid's Open last Sunday in Peoria IL. After dropping his 1st bout, Jake came back to win 2 in a row to secure a medal (one by pin and one by technical fall). Great Job Jake!

Wheaton North Tournament Wrap-up

We had a really nice showing at last week's tournament. Many of the wrestlers are showing vast improvements. The hard work in wrestling room is starting to pay off. 1st place finishers included 6 year old Payton Dalessandro, 9 year old Sam Correa, 12 year old Adrian Salinas, and 13 year old Mike Kozyra. Great job to all who participated. For all but one of our wrestlers, this weekend is a weekend off. Enjoy parents!! This weekend is the famed IKWF Kid's Open in Peoria. We typically only invite our top wrestlers since one of the stipulations is that there is to be no coaching allowed, so the wrestlers are completely on their own on the mat. We'll send our good wishes and luck with 9 year old Jake Stiles as he competes in the Open.

Foiled Again by Mother Nature

The maps aren't looking good, and I'm probably facing another 2 hour commute home today, so with that, Today's Practice will be canceled! Once again, our Tournament Sunday will be at Wheaton North High School. Details can be found here. See you there.