Winter - Wrestling

Ridgeline Wrestling

Practice starts Monday, Nov 14th

Daily wrestling practice will take place daily @ Ridgeline HS from 2:45-4:30pm

*Must register and have physical turned in to practice on Monday

**Gym shorts/sweats, t shirt for practice, bring wrestling shoes if you have them

Want information?

• Coach: Brice Gretch → email: [email protected]
• Wrestling Google Classroom: jri2hka
• Remind Code: @ridgehswr

-Required Equipment/Clothing

School Provided:  

• Singlet
• Sweatshirt
• Warmups
• Locker/Lock 

Athlete Provided: 

• Wrestling Shoes
• Wrestling Head Gear (can be borrowed from the school if needed when they are delivered)
• CLEAN Workout Clothing Every Day (shorts or sweats and t-shirt)
• Mouthguard (ONLY REQUIRED FOR BRACES, FULL TOP/BOTTOM IF YOU HAVE TOP/BOTTOM BRACES)
• **Contact Coach Brice Gretch or AD Grady Emmerson if there are any items you are unable to get.  Ridgeline Wrestling is willing to help out families who need it. We will not let lack of equipment be a barrier preventing participation.

→ Why go out for wrestling?  

Wrestling is a physically and mentally demanding sport.  Most people naturally avoid facing challenges alone, but people who participate in wrestling voluntarily test themselves on a daily basis.  

• Develop  Physically- Overall athleticism, strength, agility, flexibility, balance, proprioception
• Develop Mentally- Confidence, toughness, grit, independence, self-efficacy, self-control
• Develop Skills- Self defense, leadership, awareness, emotional control, goal setting, coachability and employability
• Accomplishments/Opportunities- Compete at state and national level, build relationships and connections that may open up future opportunities
• Belong- Be part of a team, grow together, support one another, make-spend time with friends, tribe/brotherhood
• No Cut Sport- Anyone can wrestle, learn to use your unique strengths and overcome individual weaknesses

→ What is high school wrestling?

• Wrestling is known as the “oldest sport”, with competition taking place, alongside running, in the original Olympic Games.  
• Wrestling is a no-cut sport with the possibility of individual success for anyone willing to come out, work hard, and find purpose in the mentally and physically challenging aspects of daily training.  
• Wrestling is a time-tested, base skill set to help lay a foundation for other areas of athleticism including: self-defense, mixed martial arts, football, lacrosse, rock climbing and various other sports.

• Wrestling combines Strength, Agility, Flexibility, Body Awareness and Technique in a one on one battle for positional advantage.  
• Individual sports help athletes demonstrate and improve their own work-ethic, personal pride, accountability and self-efficacy.  
• Wrestling team aspect builds comradery through the shared experience of growth.  As individuals work hard and improve, so does the rest of our team. Student-athletes on the wrestling team are expected to encourages each other during competition, provide support to one another during physically and mentally demanding activities, improve their verbal and non-verbal leadership skills, and build a sense of community and belonging at Ridgeline High School.

→ Safety 

As a physical combat sport, wrestling is inherently dangerous.  Athletes will be trained with strict adherence to technique and safety standards to minimize these rare, accidental occurrences.  Proper warm ups, cool downs and adequate strength/flexibility training will be a daily part of the injury prevention process.  Athletes will also be actively discouraged from “cutting weight” or participating in other unhealthy activities that have been a black eye on the sport for so long.  Maintaining and improving overall physical and mental health is priority number one.

Head Coach-Brice Gretch Email: [email protected]

Phone:  (509) 558-3827 (school) (406) 698-9408 (cell-text)

Background: 

• Grew up in Billings, MT 
• 4-time HS state finalist and 2-time state champion.  
• Attended Wartburg College in Waverly, IA.  While at Wartburg, Brice was on 3 NCAA D3 national championship teams, and earned Academic All-American Honors.  
• Coached for 2 years each at a couple of rural Southern Iowa High Schools.  At Lone Tree HS, Coach Gretch helped an individual athlete become the 2nd state place winner in school history.  While coaching at English Valleys HS, he coached the school’s 1st state champion in over 30 years.  
• Assistant coach at Central Valley High School for four years before accepting the opportunity to be the first head coach of the Ridgeline Falcons.

→ coaching style

• My philosophy as a coach definitely starts with leading by example.  
• I try to be the hardest working person in the wrestling room
• Make sure my actions match or exceed the expectations of the team (on time, clear communication, getting better each day, etc).  
• Kids rise to the level of their expectations, so I think having high expectations from the coaches around accountability is important from the start.  

It is extremely important to make sure and establish a relationship with each wrestler right away.  My goal is to find out a GOAL or a “WHY” from each wrestler.  We have to know why they are in wrestling and what they want out of it before we can help them work towards their goals.  Not every wrestler wants to go to state or wrestle in college, but every wrestler can become better every day.  

Lead by example and coach athletes based on their “why”.  These are the two most important factors I use to get guys willing to follow me into battle.

→ wrestling style 

My wrestling style is very individualized.  I am focused on constant movement and positioning. I like to emphasize these skills and then help wrestlers adapt these skills to their own particular style.  

Things we can control (every day, every drill, every situation)

-Position, Pressure, and Motion→ These will be emphasized from all 3 positions

-Every wrestler gets better by improving their Position.

-Every wrestler grows as they start going towards Pressure and not shying away from Pressure.

-Every wrestler benefits from increasing their Motion.

I am also interested in establishing ourselves as hammers from the top position.  It is important to be skilled from neutral, but getting turns and pins is a key to folkstyle wrestling success that gets overlooked in many high school programs.  Top wrestling is beneficial to Individual Success (Anyone can be pinned, even if they are winning by 14 points. This is our key to upsets over more experienced wrestlers.) AND Team Success (Dual scoring incentivizes top wrestling; one pin is worth the same amount of team points as two regular wins.)