Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association

The Junior Blues of Washburn Rural High School won the inaugural Girls State Championship last February. In today's program we catch up with Head Coach Damon Parker, who was named 2020 KWCA Girls Coach of the Year.

After a successful career on the mat as a wrestler and coach, Mitch Beims became an administrator and is now in the private sector. He, however, continues to make great contributions to the Kansas Wrestling community through his website, kansashswrestling.com. The site houses high school state placings for individual, teams, and coaches dating back to 1930. Also included are All-American finishes at the collegiate level. The site is well-organized and easy to navigate. The site is a ‘must-bookmark’ for any Kansas Wrestling enthusiast and a model for other states to adapt.

A little bit of everything in this one! Coach Johnson of Norton Community High School is one of the most accomplished active coaches at the high school level in any sport in the state of Kansas. Interesting backstory and incredible recap of the 2019-20 season. Have a listen!

In this special edition, we catch up with National Champions Michael Spangler and Jake Beeson and their coach, Ken Kepley. The Pratt Community College duo will be attempting to defend their National Titles in 2021.

Elisa Robinson has been selected as the prestigious Tricia Saunders High School Excellence Award winner for Kansas. Coach Tyler Gonzales comes on to tell us a little about the Junction City State Champion.

After twenty season building a power program, Coach Keal and the Mill Valley Jags broke through with the first State Wrestling Championship in school history.

Nikki Moore has been a mainstay on the Team Kansas roster for the past several years. Her senior season was a dream come true when KSHSAA sanctioned girls wrestling. The Nickerson High School grad currently holds the all time wins record at her school and will forever be its first girl's wrestling State Champion!

Erik Wince brings his vast competition and coaching experience to Ft. Hays State University, where he will take over as the fourteenth Head Coach in the sixty-five-year history of the program.

Meet Cade Lautt, 2020 KWCA 5A Senior Wrestler of the Year and the Dave Schultz Award Winner for Kansas. The nationally-ranked strongman is headed to the University of North Carolina to compete for the Heels.

The Hoisington High 4X State Champion and 3X D2 AA at Ft. Hays is heading to Maize High School where he will teach Industrial Tech and coach. Hear from Brandon as well as his high school coach, Dan Schmidt and his college coach, Chas Thompson.

The Holton native put together a career at Baker University that is one for the history books. Hear from Lucas as well as his high school coach, Cully Jackson and his college coach, Cody Garcia.

Burlington Head Coach and KWCA President comes on to discuss organization happenings and to announce who will be headlining the 2020 KWCA Fritz Knorr Fall Clinic

The 2019 Fritz Knorr Fall clinic concluded Saturday in Salina with the annual banquet to honor yearly award recipients and HOF inductees. Hear who won the yearly awards and hear the HOF inductee speeches. Jeff Giles (starts at the 6:45 mark), Jerry Fraser (starts at the 8:40 mark), Jon Lippelman (starts at the 15:20 mark)

Thirty-nine seasons in all, Thirty-three as head coach, 25 top 10 State finishes, eight State trophies, five State titles. All at Scott City High School. Meet KWCA Hall of Fame inductee, Jon Lippelman. This one is as entertaining as it is educational. I couldn’t make the following quotes up if I tried… “They’d bet their apple pies and their pork loin sandwiches to see who had the toughest kid at that weight… and that’s what made dual wrestling back in the old days.”“Back in those days, it was mop em up and throw em out there and just keep going to see if you could pin em or win by the final bell.”“It’s alright to mess up, but that doesn’t mean anybody forgave you for it.”“You would run into athletes that would make us poor little fat farm boys sit there with our mouth hang open just to watch em streak down the field and the fastest thing we had would only look like a puppy dog in the dirt chasing behind.”“We’d open this book and we’d go to where Joe Seay was telling us how to get ahold of a single leg and put

Dina Giles joins the program. Her husband, Jeff, will be posthumously inducted into the KWCA Hall of Fame on Saturday when the 2019 KWCA Fritz Knorr Fall Clinic concludes with its annual awards banquet.

Meet 321A Coach of the Year, Mike Porsch of Hoxie.

Meet 2019 KWCA 4A Senior Wrestler of the Year, Korbin Riedel. The Tonganoxie High grad is now enrolled at the University of Arkansas Little Rock.

With the 2019 KWCA Fritz Knorr Fall Clinic only days away, President Nate Naasz fills us in on what attendees can expect from this year's annual event.

A big thank-you to KSHSAA Assistant Executive Director Mark Lentz for coming on to address questions regarding girls wrestling and the new weigh-in change for the upcoming season.

You would be hard pressed to find a program in Kansas with a deeper history than Derby High School. The Panthers are led by 2019 6A Coach of the Year, Bill Ross. Ross broke through with a State Title last winter after a thirty-three year championship drought for the program. Coach Ross has historic numbers at the helm, having won NINE State trophies in his eighteen years as head coach. Only ONE Bill Ross team has finished outside of the top-ten at State.