John Licata, GWWBN President has announced that Wade Schalles has agreed to MC the event hosted at American University’s Katzen Arts Center. Licata stated, Wade adds so much to the event. A wrestling legend himself who lives in Maryland has been very involved in the formation of our group and serves as a Founding Board Member. Schalles stated, “I am very excited to be part of this event and group of professionals. The Katzen Arts Center is an ideal site to promote our mission and help support the school’s wrestling program. I can’t think of a better place for the areas business community to come together for an evening of building relationships. Then for our membership to be able to meet, hear and have their pictures taken with Speaker Hastert and Coach Gable…..well its just going to be a great event.”

Wade Schalles, a 2 X NCAA Champion who holds multiple records in the sport including the Guinness World Records for most amateur wins and pins and the creator of some of the most notorious moves-including the Spladle and Cement Mixer.

Dennis Hastert was the 59th Speaker of the House and the longest- serving Republican Speaker in history. Also, a former collegiate wrestler, high school government teacher and Illinois State Championship wrestling coach.

Dan Gable is famous for having lost one match his entire high school and college career- his last, and winning the 1972 Olympic Gold Medal in Munich while not giving up a single point. As head coach at the University of Iowa he won fifteen NCAA team championships.

GWWBN is a not for profit group that has been formed by its founding board to mobilize the business wrestling community for personal, social and business purposes in a proactive fashion to support and prosper. Founders Board Members consist of;

John Licata, JK Moving Services; Keith Burgess, The Meltzer Group; Darran Anthony, First Home Mortgage; Eric Brugel, Grey Owl Capital Management; Kevin Colabucci, Mercedes-Benz of Silver Spring; Derek Donahue, Business Solutions HZI, Inc; Michael Lerner, Meridan Homes; Alan Meltzer, The Meltzer Group; Wade Schalles, Eagle Hawk Academy; and Dan Wotring, Integrated Logistics/ Platinum Circle Technologies.

Meltzer Benefit Group is the primary event sponsor along with Mercedes-Benz of Silver Spring, The National Wrestling Coaches Association and JK Movers.

For more information and to pre-register go to www.gwwbn.org

*Only coaches with a USA card will be able to access the floor. USA coaching cards require a background check that can take upwards of several weeks. If you don’t have your USA coaching card, start the process now to insure you get them in time for the tournament.*
Click here to buy your USA Coaching Card.

The statistical software solution will provide unprecedented results and statistical features for the fans in attendance and at home. The NCAA Championships will be managed using the Trackwrestling paperless tournament system.

This year, wrestling fans and coaches at the NCAA Wrestling Championships can also expect to see the coupling of the “mat side” score clock with the online scoring system, which will now function as one unit. All scoring will be done via computers located mat side, eliminating the need for traditional paper score sheets, and bout runners.

The NWCA and Trackwrestling partnered last summer to provide an innovative live scoring and statistical tracking system to the scholastic and college wrestling community. The NWCA Live Scoring System powered by Trackwrestling provides “real time” and “archived” results and stats to wrestling fan, media, coaches, and wrestlers over the internet.

For the Division I Championships, the NWCA and Trackwrestling have come together with Wrestling Video Solutions for a cutting edge video solution. Wrestling Video Solutions, which was developed by Adam Fenn, brings together the live scoring data, and mat side clock with the video stream.

This video technology will be used for instant replay on match protests. Coaches will be able to access the “video streamed” match either in a password protected online repository or on a flash drive.

Wrestling fans and media who are not able to attend any of the NCAA Championships will be able to access interactive brackets over the internet from their home or work computers. In addition to following the advancement of wrestlers at each weight class via the online interactive brackets, all individual match and team scoring will also be available real time or through the archives.

Mike Moyer, Executive Director of the NWCA.
“On behalf of the NWCA Board of directors and our President, Brian Smith, we are extremely excited to play an important role in positioning our sport to be much more media and fan friendly. Mainstream spectator sports such as football, basketball, and baseball have been providing fans and media with instant access to results and stats for years and finally, intercollegiate wrestling has caught up. We are fortunate to be partnered with the industry leader in live scoring and tournament administration, Trackwrestling, and our innovative video streaming partner, Wrestling Video Solutions, to provide an unprecedented spectator, media, coach, and wrestler experience for the NCAA D-I Championships,”

Adam Fenn, Owner, Wrestling Video Solutions
“Working with Pat Tocci and Mike Moyer of the NWCA has been an absolute pleasure. It’s clear we share the same passion for the development of our sport. Wrestling Video Solutions is extremely excited about this opportunity to work with the NWCA and the NCAA to improve the experience of student athlete’s, coaches and fans, at the country’s premier collegiate events”

Justin Tritz, Owner, Track Wrestling
“This is a major milestone for Trackwrestling and we are honored to have the opportunity to provide live results for the 2012 NCAA wrestling championships this year. We think fans will be very excited about the various ways they will be able to follow the event including the live tournament dashboard, brackets, mobile apps, and more,”

To learn more about the NWCA Live Scoring system powered by Trackwrestling, please visit the NWCA website at www.nwcaonline.com.
About the NWCA
The National Wrestling Coaches Association, established in 1928, is a non-profit organization for the advancement of all levels of the sport of wrestling with primary emphasis on developing coaches who work in academic environments. The membership embraces all people interested in amateur wrestling.

The three core competencies of the NWCA are: Coaching Development, student-athlete welfare, and promotion of wrestling.

About Trackwrestling
Trackwrestling.com, LLC provides an innovative, web-based solution that has revolutionized the management of wresting events and delivers real-time event results to the wrestling community. We are proud to offer software and other tools that continually evolve with the changing needs and valued feedback of our users, paired with a support staff that delivers superior customer service available to our users throughout their event management experience.

About Wrestling Video Solutions
Wrestling Video Solutions, Incorporated offers an ever-expanding suite of video capabilities that streamline event operations and promotions. With a turnkey delivery model, Wrestling Video Solutions provides fully integrated video recording, review, streaming, and distribution. Wrestling Video Solutions strives to engage in these and other activities that support promotion of the sport of wrestling at all levels.

A primary reason that the The Greater Washington Wrestling Business Network was formed was to bring together professionals with a common interest for the purpose to create an environment to do business with each other. People do business with people they know they can trust.

Thursday evening, January 26, 2012 on the campus of American University at the Kazen Arts Center we have created the perfect environment. Hundreds of professionals gathering together to socialize, network, build relationships and listen to Dennis Hastert and Dan Gable. Both speakers will tell how participation in wrestling has provided them the skills and experiences to succeed in life and business.

Please go to our web site at www.gwwbn.org and pre register. Doing so guarantees a seat and also helps our volunteer group manage the effort.

Sponsors who have made this event possible are:

MELTZER BENEFIT GROUP

American University’s Kogod School of Business

Kazen Arts Center and American University Athletics

Mercedes Benz of Silver Spring

JK Moving Services

National Wrestling Coaches Association

Please spread the good word about our event and group!!

The 2012 NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals Presented by Hibiclens and The Marines has announced the brackets for the event taking place on January 7-8 at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield, Illinois.

This five division tournament will take place over a two-day period and is double elimination. Division II, Division III and NAIA will all compete in sixteen team double-elimination brackets. The NJCAA and Women’s Divisions are placed into eight team brackets, all divisions are guaranteed three matches.

In Division II Newberry takes the number one seed to start the tournament, with Upper Iowa drawing in as the number two seed. Newberry is no stranger to this tournament, they have made the finals two of the last three years. In last year’s final Nebraska-Omaha came away with a closely fought out win over Augustana 17-15. Augustana enters this year’s event seeded fifth.

Returning Champion, Wartburg College, comes in as the top seed in the Division III bracket with Augsburg College as the number two seed. , Warburg claimed their fifth team title last year with a 16-15 win over University of Wisconsin. UW La Crosse enters the tournament at No. 4.

In the ten year history of the event, Wartburg College has been in the finals all ten years while Augsburg has been in the finals eight out of the ten years. Each school has won five titles.

Great Falls (MT) earned the top seed in the NAIA division. This is the first time in school history that the program has earned this distinction. Grandview (IA) was awarded the second seed and looks to improve on last year’s seventh place finish.
Last year’s finalist in the NAIA, Notre Dame College and Lindenwood University , will not be competing this year due to the fact they are re-classifying to Division II.

Four-time NJCAA Dual Champion, Iowa Central will look for their fifth title as they enter the event as the number one seed. Returning NJCAA Champion Clackamus Community College is currently seeded second with Labette College as the third seed.
Taking the No. 1 seed for the women are returning five time champions of the National Duals, Oklahoma City University. Competing in the tournament for the first year is King College as they capture the No. 2 seed, while returning runner-up Simon Fraser takes the third spot. The women are the only division in this competition that wrestle under freestyle rules.

Competition will get underway on Saturday, January 7th at 9 a.m. Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the door, for more information visit our website at http://www.nwcaonline.com/NWCAWebSite/Events/nwcanationalduals/national-duals-info .
The 2012 NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals are being hosted by the National Wrestling Advancement Association (NWAA).

Click here to see the full brackets

Time: Thursday, January 26, 2012 7-9 PM; registration begins at 6:30
Location: Katzen Fine Arts Center on the campus of American University

4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016

Speaker: Past Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert a former collegiate wrestler, high school teacher and championship wrestling coach.

December 8, 2011 Press Release:

American University’s Katzen Arts Center to Host the Greater Washington Wrestling Business Network January 26th Event
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Wrestling Legend Dan Gable will be Headliners

DECEMBER 8, 2011

John Licata, GWWBN President has announced that American University’s Katzen Arts Center will host our Speaker Series and Network Event. Licata stated, “The Katzen Fine Arts Center is an ideal site to promote our mission and bring together our business leaders and professionals. Holding our event on the campus demonstrates the business community’s support of amateur wrestling. You can’t find a better place to build relationships and grow your business.”

Dennis Hastert was the 59th Speaker of the House and the longest- serving Republican Speaker in history. Also, a former collegiate wrestler, high school government teacher and Illinois State Championship wrestling coach.

Dan Gable is famous for having lost one match his entire high school and college career- his last, and winning the 1972 Olympic Gold Medal in Munich while not giving up a single point. As head coach at the University of Iowa he won fifteen NCAA team championships.

GWWBN is a not for profit group that has been formed by its founding board to mobilize the business wrestling community for personal, social and business purposes in a proactive fashion to support and prosper. Founders Board Members consist of;

John Licata, JK Moving Services; Keith Burgess, The Meltzer Group; Darran Anthony, First Home Mortgage; Eric Brugel, Grey Owl Capital Management; Kevin Colabucci, Mercedes-Benz of Silver Spring; Derek Donahue, Business Solutions HZI, Inc; Michael Lerner, Meridan Homes; Alan Meltzer, The Meltzer Group; Wade Schalles, Eagle Hawk Academy; and Dan Wotring, Integrated Logistics/ Platinum Circle Technologies.

The event objective is to engage the business community with ties to wrestling to support wrestling while showing its economic impact. The goal is to mobilize the group to support each others business with the clear understanding that we individually will give back to the sport of wrestling.

Alan Meltzer, a Founding Member and event sponsor said, “Having Dennis Hastert and Dan Gable on campus as our guest speakers is a huge testament to the commitment of the wrestling business community and I am so pleased to play a part in making it happen.”

No. 2 Oklahoma State proved their team’s strength over the weekend with a 24-13 win over No. 3 Minnesota.

Edinboro moves to No. 25 this week after receiving votes in the past weeks.

The NWCA/USA Today Division I Team Coaches Poll Committee is made up of one coach from each conference.  A number one ranking is worth 25 points and a number 25 ranking is worth one point.

This poll is based on a dual meet ranking.

A new poll will be released every Tuesday from now until the week of the NCAA Division I Wrestling Tournament and can be found at www.nwcaonline.com.

NWCA/USA Today Division I Team Coaches Poll

Others Receiving Votes: American, Arizona State, Boston, Cal Poly, Hofstra, Iowa State, Purdue, and Stanford.

The National Wrestling Coaches Association, established in 1928, is a non-profit organization for the advancement of all levels of the sport of wrestling with primary emphasis on developing coaches who work in academic environments.   The membership embraces all people interested in amateur wrestling. 

The three core competencies of the NWCA are: Coaching Development, student-athlete welfare, and promotion of wrestling.

This weekend was good for Mason Wrestling. Friday we traveled to Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania for the Bloomsburg duals. We took 19 wrestlers. It was good to be together as a team. On Saturday we were able to win 2 of 3 duals. Our first dual was against East Stroudsburg. Each team won 5 matches. We won thanks to bonus points. Isenhour and Barnette won by major decisions. McLaughlin and Hembury won by pins. We lost our dual against Bloomsburg. We certainly had opportunities to win the dual, but we did not capitalize. Our last dual of the day was against Sacred Heart University. They wrestled us hard, but had to forfeit some weight classes, which put us in the position of being almost assured of victory before the dual even started.

As a long time wrestling fan, it has been fun going to schools I have not been to before and spending time with wrestling people I have not met or seen too often. I have really enjoyed speaking to other coaches and learning from them. This weekend I was able to learn from the Bloomsburg coaches about running a similarly funded program. I was able to speak with the Sacred Heart coach who is trying to run a program while also being a full-time professor. He coaches because he wants the wrestlers to have an opportunity to compete at a division 1 school. I was impressed by his selflessness.

Sunday we competed at the Penn State Open. I believe this was the toughest tournament we have been to this season. It was an eye-opener for the team. We did not fair too well on the mat. We need to learn and believe we belong amongst the elite in wrestling. We can compete with them down the road. There is no reason to take a back seat and if we do the work day in and day out, we can close the gap.

Over the years, I have had some fun days and not so fun days in State College. I have coached in some exciting matches. Being part of the 2001 National Dual meet championship team that won in State College and coaching Tim Hartung as he won the 1999 NCAA title at 197 pounds are some of my fondest memories. On the flip side, one of my toughest days as a coach, was also in 1999 at Penn State when Minnesota finished 2 points behind Iowa at the NCAA Championships. Sunday was also a tough day. My head assistant coach sent me a text while seated in front of me on the bus that read, “First time in my life I’ve been on a bus leaving before the tournament was over.” I guess that summed up the day pretty well.

This week we are excited to host our first competition. Saturday night at 7:30pm we will wrestle the 7th ranked team in the country, American University. We are trying to make it a big event. The Patriot Club will be hosting a pre-match social for alumni. We are trying to start a wrestling booster club. We are selling season tickets. We will have a half-time. There will be entertainment. There will be incentives for students to attend the dual. It will be a tall order for our team on the mat, but if the wrestlers give us their best effort and have a great attitude, we will definitely provide the fans with a reason to cheer.

From a marketing stand point, I am happy to report (as of last week) we have sold 59 season tickets. While it is certainly still below our goal, we are working hard to get people to attend. The cost for a season ticket is only $15. We have seven home dates and will wrestle 12 different teams. Season Ticket holders will be able to watch all seven CAA teams compete at the CAA duals. Season ticket holders will get preferred seating. As one alumni told me, the season tickets are a great stocking stuffer idea. If you are so inclined, I encourage you to become a season ticket holder.

Joe Baranik, founder of the Award Winning Pennsylvania Wrestling Newsmagazine (PWN) in conjunction with the following nine wrestling organizations and media across America have declared December 5, 2011 the first annual National Wrestling Day. PWN, Beat The Streets, Riot Sports Marketing, National Wrestling Coaches Association, Takedown Wrestling Radio & TV, USA Wrestling, National Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum, World Wrestling Resource, and the National Collegiate Wrestling Association are all thrilled to get the “Wrestling Season” started from elementary leagues, middle school and high school grapplers, collegiate wrestling, women’s wrestling and our Olympic level Team USA.

It is time to roll out the mats and “Rumble and Tumble” from Maine to Florida and New York to California. We want to let the public know ‘Wrestling Season Has Arrived’ and will continue until the state and national tournaments in March 2012.