The Club members had a good weekend at Fowler High School for the Empire Games Qualifiers.  They won over 50% of the available positions for the scholastc styles and placed 11 wrestler in the open division.  Two wrestlers qualify for each weight class in each style.  The Games will be contested in Binghamton on July 23-26.  there will be several practices held prior to the Games.

Club members who Qualified:

Scholastic Freestyle :  98# Dylan Kavanaugh,  106# Mike Sardo,  115# Dan Walts, Talon Sotherdon,  123# Zeke Thompson, Wes Blanding,  143 Matt letche,  154 Todd Hagger,  165# Dustin Moss,  178# Troy Benjamin,  192# Jan Platter,  275# Elijah Graham

Scholastic Greco:  98# Dylan Kavanaugh,  106# Mike Sardo,  115# Talon Sotherdon, Anthony Finnocchairo,  132# Mike Ferguson,  143# Matt Letcher, 154# Dave Minney,  165# Dustin Moss, Dan Secor,  178#  Greg Williams, Andrew Giromini,  192# Alex Meyers, Sean Hennigan

Open Freestyle:  128# Joe Lanza, 139# Mike Smith,  152# Mick Letcher, 167# Paul LeBlanc,  187# Jose Cruz, 213# Bob Gentile,  275# Todd luther

Open Greco:  119# Anna Cummings,  152# Mick Letcher, 167# Jose Cruz, 213# Bob Northup

The Club accepted an invitation to compete at this years Canada Cup in Guelph Onatario.  The tournament which has the Canadian Junior National team participating as well as many of Canada's elite wrestlers, will be held on July 4-5.  The Club selected a team which should represent us well.  The maximum age is those born in 1990 and later.

The team will be:  50k Mike Sardo, 54k Talon Sotherdon, 58k Alex Prtroff, Zeke Thompson, 63k Pat Cost, 69k  Todd Hagger, Stefano Iodice,  76k Ryan LeBlanc, Dustin Moss, 85K Alex Meyers, Jan Platter.   The team will be coached by Duane LeBlanc.

The Group will leave on July 4 at 7:00am and return after the event on July 5.  Practices will be held on Thursday June 26, Tuesday July 1 and Thursday July 3 at Chittenango 7:00-8:30.  these practices are open to club members, especially those qualified for the Empire State Games.

The Cadet greco team won this years state tournament, with a second also in the freestyle division.  The Junior team too third in both divisions.  About 30 teams (clubs) sent groups to this years Championships,held in Binghamton on May 9-10-11.

Individual results:

Cadet Greco

98#  Dylan Kavanaugh 3

105# Mike Sardo 3

119# Dan Walts 3

125# Wes Blanding 3

135 Tai Thang 6

140# Nathan Walts 6

152# Hunter Brown 5

160# Dan Secor 1

171#  Greg Williams 1

CADET FREESTYLE

98# Dylan Kavanaugh 2

119# Dan Walts 4

125# Wes Blanding 4

152# Hunter Brown 3

1603 Dan Secor 1

189# Dalton Villnave 3

JUNIOR GRECO

112# Mike Miranda 4

145# Matt Letcher 4

152# Chris Snow 6

160# Mick Letcher 3

285# Elijah Graham 1, James Chaplin 2

JUNIOR FREESTYLE

112# Mike Miranda 5

125# Zeke Thopmpson 5

152# Todd Hagger 5

171#  Ryan LeBlanc 3, Dustin Moss 5

285# Elijah Graham 4

Several wrestlers as a result of their performance at the championships, will be on several  State teams.  Dan Secor and Greg Williams will be tavelling on The Cadet Dual meet team to the National Duals.  Ryan Leblanc and James Chaplin are part of the Junior Dual  team and will be competing in several Dual events, including the National Junior Duals.

Only 3 kids division wrestlers from the club participated in the state Championships held on May 3-4 in Amsterdam .  Those that went however had good results with Anthony Finocchairo receiving gold medals in both Freestyle and Greco.  John Regan was a siolver medalist in freestyle and a gold medalist in Greco.  Cody Carberry earned a bronze medal in Freestyle.   Both Finocchairo and Regan will go on to Indiana in June to compete as part of the New York State team at the Schoolboy Nationals.

There are still a number of major events remaining on the Mohawk Valley schedule.  Practice will continue untill June 5.  After a break for exams, a limited practice schedule will be in place for those continueing to train for Nationals, Empire State Games and Canada Cup.

A strong group of MVWC wrestlers traveled to Niagara Falls on March29-30 to compete in the annual tournament.  The competition was mainly between the Host team and the MVWC.  Other Clubs were competing, however none had numbers to vie for the overall score.  Results:

Schoolboy Freestyle;

84#   Cody Carvey 2,  Nick Petroff 3

91#    Kasey Proper 2

98#    Tyler Heggelke 2,  Mike Eighmey 3

105#   John Regan 1

120#   Travis Reid 4, Travis Regner 5

128#   Zach Vaerchak 1

152#   Alex Moss 1

Cadet Freestyle:

98#   Dylan Kavanaugh 1,  Ian Coolican 2

105#  Mike Sardo 1, Brandon Delmonte2

112#  Anthony Finocchairo 2,  Nick LaFlair 5,  Gunner Brooks 6

119#  Dan Walts 2,

125#  Jason Heggleke 1, Wes Blanding 2,

130#  Akira Reid 4

135#  Antonio Peck 4

140#  Nate Walts 4

145#  Adam Lockwood 3, Noah Sheperd 4

152#  Hunter Brown 1,  Jeff Evanciew 2

160#  Dan Secor 1

171#  Greg Williams 1

215#  Trevor Clement 2

Junior Freestyle:

112#  Mike miranda 1, Brandon Delmonte 3

119#  Talon Sotherdon 1

125#  Zeke Thompson 2, Isiah Wheeler 6

130#  Zach Merwin 1, Pete Cole 2

135#  Pat Cost 1, Josh Evanciew 2, Alex Petroff 3, Mike Ferguson 4

140#  Dan Smith 1, Brandon Colling 2

145#  Markeem Chaplin 5

152#  Chris Snow 2, Stefon Iodice 4, Dave Minney 5

171#  Dustin Moss 2,

189#  Jesse Marshall 1

215#  James Chaplin 1, AJ Berry 2, Clancy Kemp3

275# Elijah Graham 1

Club Secretary Bev Wormald has been receiving 2008 applications for several weeks.  The Club will kick off the new season on March 6 at Chittenango Middle School at 7:00.  Set-up will be done before practice and help is needed.  All new members are encouraged to attend this first practice session.  An introduction to Freestyle-Greco will be done along with an orientation as to how the club operates.  Practices continue every Tuesday and Thursday through June, except during school vacations.   Practices are cancelled if Chittenango cancels school or after school activities.

The following schedule is as of this date.  Changes and additions may occur.

     March14-15-16     Mohawk Valley International                    Canastota

     March29-30         Super Six Tournament                             Niagara Falls

     April 4-5-6          Northeast Regionals                                 Brockport

      April26or27        Section 3 Qualifier (tentative)                Holland Patent

     May 3-4               NYS Kids Championships (tentative)          Amsterdam 

     May 9-10-11          NYS Cadets-Juniors                               Binghamton

     May 31                  NYS Club Cup                                        Chittenango

     June 7-8               Empire Games Qualifier                           Fowler, Syracuse

     July                      Canada Cup                                              Guelph, Ontario

     July                      USA Cadet-Junior Nationals                     Fargo ND

     July 23-26            Empire State Games                                  Binghamton

     August 23-24         State Fair Challenge                                 Syracuse

     October 9-13         Copa Sparta                                            Puerto Rico

The Club will also attempt to schedule several scrimages during the season with other USA Clubs in Section 3.  Special Technique clinics with special  guest Clinicians will be scheduled on select practice nights.  We will announce these in advance, when arrangements are made.

Team Skane of Sweden sent an Email ,informing the Club that they wll not be able to make a trip to the USA in 2008.  We remain in contact and will work on 2009.  This years German trip is on schedule, the team leaves april 9 for 10 days.  Three dual meets in southern Germany are scheduled.

Many MVWC wrestlers are continueing their High School season at the Section3 finals, to be held at Cicero on February 22-23.  Quite a number will go on to Rochester for the state championships on March 8-9.   Good luck to all our wrestlers, the entire Club will be cheering for you.

The Club will add a new coach to its' already steller staff, with Fomer MVWC wrestler Paul LeBlanc.  Paul is currently wrestling at SUNY Cortland, as a junior he is also a 2006 All American.  Last summer Paul was a coach with Minnesota's Jay Robinson, working at his many camps throughout the US.  Paul will bring that experiance and technique as well as his own outstanding abilities to this years members.

Paul joins a coaching group directed by Olympian Gene Mills.  Gene has been with the MVWC since its begining, 26 years ago.  His world renowned technique, coaching ability, and outstanding inspiration  and motivation, has been responcible for the Clubs continued success.  Gene should be coaching at the Club once a week in 2008, which is the same as 2007.   However, Gene's schedule may be curtailed, with his commitment to the developement of the new wrestling style of "Grappling".  Gene is actively involved at the National level, which should help insure its success. 

The Freestyle staff will be solid for 2008, with Derek Bigford, Ben New and Paul LeBlanc.  Derek's tenure with the Club is second only to Gene.  He brings a wealth of experiance to the organization, having coched high school athletes, primarily at CNS for over 20 years.  He was a former All American at SUNY Brockport, as an active wrestler.  Ben was an MVWC member, as a high school wrestler, where he was also a NYS champion.  Ben went on to become an outstanding wrestler a Div.1 powerhouse Cornell University.  He currently coaches at Chittenango.

Greco-Roman wrestling had a resurgance of success in 2007, under coaches Eric Rose and Trevor LeBlanc.  The success should continue as both return for 2008.  Eric, who began as an MVWC  wrestler at 9 years old, went on to become a Junior Greco All American.  He continued wrestling at SUNY Albany, training under Greco National coach, Joe DeMeo.  Trevor, also a former MVWC wrestler, currently is a senior at SUNY Cortland, where he is a defending 2007 Div 3 All-American.  He will bring the most current technique, in Greco to the clubs members.

Currently the Club is also working up a schedule to bring in Special Guest Coaches, for conducting special clinics.  Already, former Princeton wrestling coach Mike New has agreed to conduct several clinics at MVWC practices.  Mike, a former club member from it early days, went on to be an outstanding wrestler at Cornell, where he also spent time as an assistant coach. 

The Club is also blessed with an outstanding group of "volunteer coaches", many who are former MVWC wrestlers, giving back to the sport.  A large number of High School coaches also attend MVWC practices, helping and advising the Club, as we all strive to continue the success of all Section 3 wrestlers. 

There will be be quite a lot of activity as the Club prepares for its' 26th season.  The annual meeting held on October 18 has set the agenda.  An exciting season is planned with many activities that have been done in the past as well as some new ones.  The officers and board will remain the same which should insure the smooth operation of the Club.   Mike costello reported a strong financial position, therefore membership fees will remain the same.  Mohawk Valley Wrestling Club remains as the best value of any wrestling club in New York State.

1      The Club's practices will be  Tuesdays and Thursdays in Chittenango.  The first practice will be March 6,2008, and held at the Middle School, which is north of the Village, off the Lakeport Road.  Practices in March will be at the Middle School and then move to  the High School, for April May, and June.

2     The Mohawk Valley International Festival will be March 15-16 at Canastota High School.   Arrangements are being worked out to allow 8 mats to be put down for this always successfull event. The membership voted to raise the fees for this event to $15.00, which is still well below the price of most tournaments. 

 3     Super six has proposed March 29-30 for their tournament.  The club will again participate with an overnite stay.  Participation at the Brockport Northeasterns on April 4-6 will be encouraged for any wrestlers finishing in the top 3 positions at MVWC or Super Six.  Hotels for those wrestlers will be arranged.  The NYS tournaments will be  combined to include Kids, Cadets, and Juniors in May.   The Club  Cup will resume this year on May 31.

4     The new style wrestling, GRAPPLING, has been put under the control of USA Wrestling and FILA.   Discusions were held to determine if the Club should be involved.  Although, this is still new, the majority of the people at the meeting felt that any Club involvement at this time, should not be considered. 

5   Fund raisers will remain as part of a members committment  to the Club.  A new supply of jackets will be ordered.

6     The European International trip is to Holzgerlingen Germany.  This renews an over 20 year relationship with our "Brother Club".   The club will be selecting 16 wrestlers to go on this trip, by November.  They along with the adult staff and other adults will all pay $1000.00 for the 10 day trip.   They will leave on April 9, with a return on April 20.  At least 3 competitions have been set up along with several practice sessions.  A return to Purto Rico was also approved for the Fall.  Interaction with Canada will also be part of the schedule.

6      Team Skane of Sweden will visit here in May, June or July.  A number of Host families from the club will be needed. The team will be a Greco Roman group.  They have also given MVWC an invitation to travel to Sweden . 

On October 5-6, 17 members of the Club competed in the Puerto Rican tournament, held at The Olympic training center. On Friday in the School boy division the younger wrestlers earned a second place finish in the Schoolboy division.  Saturday the major competition was held , with MVWC winning the largest FILA Cadet division, with Canada second and Club Sparta of Puerto Rico third.  There were several other USA teams in this division as well as numerous Puerto Rican teams.  The FILA Cadet division includes all wrestlers who compete at High School ages.

In the Schoolboy division Greg Williams won a Gold Medal.  Winning Silver medals were Anthony Finnochairo and Jeff Evanciew.

Todd Hagger led the Cadet division wrestlers with a Gold medal in the largest weight class in the tournament.  Taking Silver medals were  Anthony Finnochairo, Zeke Thompson, and Greg Williams.  Bronze medals were won by Mike Miranda, Pat Cost, Dave Minney,Kevin Ritch, amdSean Hennigan.  Most of the other Cadet wrestlers had wins which contributed to the team score.  They included: Talon Sotherdon,Alex Petroff, Stefano Iodice, Carlos Santiago, Aaron Wilkinson, and Matt Pellenz.   Chris Snow took Bronze in the Junior(18-20) division for College aged wrestlers.   Danny Minton contributed greatly to the teams efforts as an athlete-coach.

The team also had the opportunity to enjoy some beaches and see some great sites on the Island during their brief stay.

Now preparation begins for the next International trip to Germany in April 2008.

On October 4-8 the MVWC will again travel to Puerto Rico for the annual Copa Spata Tournament. In the past years the Club has done well, generally winning the FILA Cadet division(high School). This years tournament will be held at the Olympic training center, in Salinas. This is the National Facility for training all the Puerto Rican Olympic teams. The team will stay at the Olympic training center in Salinas, before concluding the trip in San Juan. The 18 wrestlers will experiance some great wrestling as well as spending some quality time on several beaches. They will also tour Old San Juan and may visit the El Yunque rain forest.
The team: Anthony Finachairo, Zeke Thompson, Talon Southerdon, Alex Petroff, Stefano Iodice, Todd Hagger, Dave Minney, Carlos Santiago, Matt Pellenz, Aaron Wilkinson, Kevin Ritch, Chris Snow, Mike Miranda, Greg Williams, Jeff Evanciew, Sean Hennigan, Pat Cost and Dan Minton

On Friday October 5, the Schoolboy(FILA) dicvision will compete.  The FILA Cadet division and FILA Junior division will compete on Saturday.  In the all of the past tournaments, the MVWC has placed in the Cadet(high school) division, having won it several times.

The tournament organizers claim to have commitments form several USA teams including : T-N-T Wrestling Club, Team New Jersey, Team New England, a small group from Virginia, a possble groupfrom Florida and at least one Canadian Team.  The tournament will also feature all of Puerto Rico's Clubs in competition.  A team from Venezuela was also invited.
The team is made up of both Internationally experianced wrestlers as well as many who will be making their first Inmternational trip. Of the 18 wrestlers, there are 11 differant communities(schools) represented.