By Kristine Kern
Review Staff Writer
50 years, 357 wrestlers, 12 state qualifying teams, 158 individual state qualifiers (some multiple times), 59 state individual medal winners and 13 individual state champions. That is what the Adrian wrestling program will be celebrating July 21st.
The Adrian wrestling story began when Adrian teacher Jerry Loomis pulled together 8 boys in 1966-67 to form the first wrestling team. These kids only wrestled exhibition matches and no stats were kept for the year. Although this team of Ed Balster, Myron Kasch, Barry Brunk, Danny Palaschak, Jack LaCore, Dale Peterburs, Keith Gonnerman and Jim Knips were an exhibition team they will be recognized at the anniversary celebration. It was the following season of 1967-68 that wrestling was officially added to the sports activities in Adrian. Jerry Loomis handed off his coaching whistle to Jim Carr and Henry Petersen for the 1968-69 season. Jerry had a record of 1-13 with his first team.
Having little experience or knowledge about wrestling Jim and Henry hit the books and attended clinics to learn how to teach their athletes wrestling. The learning curve was great. Much of those first few years were trial and error for both the coaches and wrestlers, but along with determination and hard work, came rewards. In 1968 Dan Palaschak and Jim Knips were the first Dragon wrestlers to place in Districts with their 4th place finishes. In 1970 Bob Gilb was the first wrestler to move on to Regions. In 1971 the Dragons were the Conference Champs and in 1972 Daryl Wolf brought home the first District Championship. In 1973 Herman Dunn was the first state qualifier for the Dragons and in 1975 he was the first Regional Champion for the Dragons. The 1980-81 team was the first of 12 Adrian teams to qualify for the state tournament and earned third place. Eugene Wolf was the first Dragon State Champion that same year. Jim and Karen Carr, Henry Petersen and Kay (Loosbrock) Wolf put together a book of records and clippings of the wrestling program history that year. This book was a great help in putting together the information for the upcoming anniversary celebration.
The Dragon wrestling program continued to improve and grow through the 80’s under the coaching of Jim Carr and Henry Petersen. The Dragon uniform became a familiar site on the podium at Regionals and at the State Tournament. Some local names like Bullerman, Dorn, Loosbrock and Wolf became well known throughout the wrestling community in the 80’s. In 1999 Jim Car retired from coaching after 33 years with a record of 133-124-5. When asked what he enjoyed most about coaching, Coach Petersen said, “We became one big family. The parents were so supportive. We had open practices and many parents came to watch. We enjoyed the camaraderie of the parents. There were times we would go to someone’s house after a match and eat and talk about the match.”
Gregg Nelson took over as Head Coach with Adrian alum Pat Dorn taking on Assistant Coach. Henry Petersen stayed on as an Assistant Coach for three more years, retiring after the 2003 season with 36 years of coaching under his belt. Coach Gregg Nelson came to
the program with a strong wrestling history after wrestling for Owatanna High School and for Mankato State University. Randy Schettler would come in and fill Henry’s Assistant Coach position. The Dragons record under Gregg Nelson stands at 462-145-1. Speaking about his time in Adrian, Coach Nelson also comments on the closeness of the wrestling community saying, “As a parent I am proud to have my boys come through the program, but as a coach they are all our boys. I am proud to have been a part of Adrian wrestling for the past 24 years. For 50 years we have had a successful program and a lot of that is because of a stable coaching staff which is a vital ingredient to a successful program.” The Head Coaches have been fortunate to have strong support from some talented and dedicated Assistant Coaches and volunteers over the years, helping in the wrestling room at practice and mat-side during matches.
Although this anniversary is about the High School teams and their history, all involved agree the strong youth program under the coaching of Doug Bullerman for over 40 years is an important part of their success. Henry Petersen pointed out that when the youth program began, the High School program benefited from that early coaching and experience. The Adrian program history would look very different without the youth program giving these wrestlers an early start and love for the sport.
As this anniversary approached Bruce Loosbrock initiated the 50 year celebration and began working on gathering information a few years ago. Bruce has put together the wrestling “Honor Roll” with photos of past District Champions then later First and Second place winners at Sections. State Championship photos are housed in the wrestling room at the High School where young wrestlers can see them during practice and find inspiration in the successes of the program. Bruce gives credit to the Head and Assistant Coaches for making books for the wrestlers and parents each year with clipping and records-making his job of gathering the information for the celebration much easier. As the date of the celebration draws near Bruce’s office has become an informal museum of Dragon wrestling memories.
On July 21st, Adrian wrestling alumni and the public are invited to the High school to go through the wrestling room which will be full of memorabilia and will have the “Honor Roll” displayed. The wrestling room will be open from 11:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. At 1:00 p.m. there will be a social hour in the tent behind Adrian City Hall. This is a time to catch up with past coaches, wrestlers, teammates and other alumni. At 2:00 p.m. there will be a roast pork meal followed by a program at 3:00 p.m. Speakers include Jim Knips, Daryl Wolf, Herman Duin, Kay (Loosbrock) Wolf, Doug Bullerman, Eugene Wolf, Pat Dorn, Henry Petersen, Stephen Loosbrock, Gregg Nelson and Jim Carr. These coaches and alumni will share some of their experiences and history with the program. Alumni will receive some memorabilia courtesy of the wrestling club, and memorabilia and copies of photos will be available for order. Again, all events are open to the public so come out and celebrate this piece of Adrian history.
