Jack Buell was a traveling guy last summer, and he was not alone.
The Sherburne-Earlville senior (pictured with Canastota's E.J. Sampo) drove the back roads of Central New York every weekday to practice sessions in Canastota or Chittenango for the Mohawk Valley Wrestling Club, in Verona for the Proper-ly Trained Club, or in Ithaca with the Finger Lakes club. He put a lot of miles on his car for the chance to improve, as he aimed for national competition and then the 2015-16 high school season, which is now underway.
Buell placed third at 195 pounds in last year's Division II state tournament, after winning the sectional title. He thinks he could have done better at the state level.
"I feel that I could wrestle to my potential, and I didn't in the quarterfinals," he said one July evening, between workouts at Todd Cutrie's gym in Chittenango. He said summer was not so much about learning new moves as honing old ones.
Joining him at his various workouts were wrestlers from 30 to 50 miles away. Every spring and summer, high school competitors drill with clubs and in open tournaments, believing that winter's success comes from off-season work.
Mohawk Valley was the only club for many years, but now there are others from Fulton to Phoenix to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, where the Proper-ly Trained club serves as memorial to Kasey Proper, a former V-V-S wrestler who died in 2013, Clubs vary in cost, style and travel opportunities.
Watertown's Zach Hunt traveled with his father, Todd, to MVWC to practice, just as Todd himself had drilled with the club in the 1980s. Zach said he joined so he could travel overseas and gain more skill at freestyle before his senior year. Todd Hunt said the club helped him excel as a wrestler in 1989 for Watertown and go on to SUNY Morrisville.
The club sessions at V-V-S had boys as young as 5 working out next to teenagers bound for college. Trevor Allard, former Mexico state champion headed to Bloomsburg University, said he did not belong to a club the summer before his senior year, preferring to work with a tree service, but decided to try freestyle during the 2015 summer.
Allard worked out with his brother Tylor, a rising senior for Mexico.
On a nearby mat, Camden brothers Chad and Brett Finch took turns shooting on each other. Chad had just graduated and was headed for the University of Florida, his wrestling career done, but said he was there because he liked it and wanted to help Brett, a senior now, improve. The drive of 40 miles each way, they said, was worth it.
The Sherburne-Earlville senior (pictured with Canastota's E.J. Sampo) drove the back roads of Central New York every weekday to practice sessions in Canastota or Chittenango for the Mohawk Valley Wrestling Club, in Verona for the Proper-ly Trained Club, or in Ithaca with the Finger Lakes club. He put a lot of miles on his car for the chance to improve, as he aimed for national competition and then the 2015-16 high school season, which is now underway.
Buell placed third at 195 pounds in last year's Division II state tournament, after winning the sectional title. He thinks he could have done better at the state level.
"I feel that I could wrestle to my potential, and I didn't in the quarterfinals," he said one July evening, between workouts at Todd Cutrie's gym in Chittenango. He said summer was not so much about learning new moves as honing old ones.
Joining him at his various workouts were wrestlers from 30 to 50 miles away. Every spring and summer, high school competitors drill with clubs and in open tournaments, believing that winter's success comes from off-season work.
Mohawk Valley was the only club for many years, but now there are others from Fulton to Phoenix to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, where the Proper-ly Trained club serves as memorial to Kasey Proper, a former V-V-S wrestler who died in 2013, Clubs vary in cost, style and travel opportunities.
Watertown's Zach Hunt traveled with his father, Todd, to MVWC to practice, just as Todd himself had drilled with the club in the 1980s. Zach said he joined so he could travel overseas and gain more skill at freestyle before his senior year. Todd Hunt said the club helped him excel as a wrestler in 1989 for Watertown and go on to SUNY Morrisville.
The club sessions at V-V-S had boys as young as 5 working out next to teenagers bound for college. Trevor Allard, former Mexico state champion headed to Bloomsburg University, said he did not belong to a club the summer before his senior year, preferring to work with a tree service, but decided to try freestyle during the 2015 summer.
Allard worked out with his brother Tylor, a rising senior for Mexico.
On a nearby mat, Camden brothers Chad and Brett Finch took turns shooting on each other. Chad had just graduated and was headed for the University of Florida, his wrestling career done, but said he was there because he liked it and wanted to help Brett, a senior now, improve. The drive of 40 miles each way, they said, was worth it.
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