A Bit of Matcat History
by Bob Feurer
Thirty years and about a month ago I was alerted to the fact that I was going to have "wrestling camp" for a few elementary boys. I had just come off my first season as head coach at NBC and had some young men who had done pretty well for themselves. Dean Bloom had finished 3rd at 119 in the 1980 state tournament, Mark Emanuel was the silver medalist at 145 and Ken Beranek was also the silver medalist at 185. Darby Vosler had added a few points with a win or two but spent most the latter part of the tournament hiding from me as he had failed to make weight the second day of the tournament and would have finished no lower than 3rd or 4th which would have pushed us higher than the 4th place finish we ended in--I was exhausted. Julie was about eight months pregnant with Erin and doing a two week camp wasn't what I had in mind. But, I did it anyhow.
Moms or Dads would drive up the front door of the high school and drop off a kid or two, maybe three, so excited they sprinted to the cafeteria, the wrestling room back then, to get ready for the day's practice. I don't remember much except that flat out enthusiasm of youth. "Coach", "Coach", "Coach". I wasn't the least bit ready but made the best of it.
Rick Watson approached me about doing a kid's tournament for a fund raiser. Sounded ok, we'd done our own team tournament night and had printed out some "awards" on the new computers we were starting to work with. (I found several in the trash that same night. I guess they weren't that great but I didn't have a budget for buying anything and sure didn't have any extra money myself.) Mr. Watson said he'd order some ribbons and we'd send out a few flyers.
The first "tournament" only had 85 kids enter. I vividly remember some Dad being upset, actually irate, because his son had been beat by a kid five pounds heavier. I recollect giving him a first place ribbon as a "cookie" and he was satisfied. Shows what the real issue was!
Feeling pretty confident at pulling off this first tournament we decided to go "big time" next year and offer medals, sent out a few more flyers. Wrestlers would officiate the matches, wrestling cheerleaders and managers would run clocks, keep score, and the like. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes which Coach Watson sponsored would run the concessions stand. Yep, Mr. Watson, myself and about 40 kids ran the tournament.
Well, our first "big time" tournament taught us a thing or six about hosting a tournament. First thing, DO NOT ALLOW WALK IN ENTRIES! We had about 400 kids entered on Friday night which we thought we could handle--that was only 500% bigger than the year before. Come Saturday morning another 250 "walk ins" show up. The size of the tournament was over 700% bigger. We survived but barely. Saying we were unprepared was an understatement; not enough food, not enough medals, and way too many kids. Now remember, this is Rick Watson and me, and about 40 high school kids--we were way outnumbered!
We survived, but barely. We were handed nasty notes, messed up brackets, got our ears scorched on many an occasion and ran North Bend out of both hot dogs and hot dog buns and who knows what else making runs trying to feed the crowd. "Want to do this again next year?" Well, the "Matcats Tournament" was this past weekend so the answer would be obvious.
The "Matcats" got their name the next year. A college wrestler from Chadron, Doug Jones, was coaching at Beaver Crossing and named his kids club the "Mat Rats", not something I liked but being Tigers the "mat cats" sounded okay. Doug had worn his t-shirt one day at the state wrestling tournament so I borrowed his idea. We developed team t-shirts, I enlisted some of the wrestlers who weren't out for track as assistant coaches and we went for it all again. We passed out entry forms for other tournaments to the kids who wanted to go but didn't go with them back in those days counting on Mom and Dad.
Seven years and two kids into this process I'd had all I could take. Erin was not yet six, Cade was two and I'd had it. I just said "no". I couldn't do it any more. The torch was picked up by former wrestler Tom Cerny who kept the "Matcats" alive until he moved to Arizona. Gene Kavan, having a couple of sons involved from the beginning took the reins. Actually, I belive it was Gene's boys who "stretched" the grade level from 5th and 6th graders down to pre-school as I think Dale(sorry Dale) came to his first "Matcat" practice in diapers.
In 1981 we were one of the few programs with a tournament for elementary wrestlers. Now, pretty much any community still fielding a h.s. team has a kids program and probably hosts a tournament of their own. The proceeds of the first tournaments got split 50/50 between the h.s. wrestling team and the FCA. We used our share of the profit for traveling bags, traveling coats and over night stays when we used to wrestle in the two day Clarks Tournament. We'd get rooms for the wrestlers, the managers and the cheerleaders in Columbus and then depart a 6:00 a.m the next morning for 7:00 weigh ins.
Some of these events seem like they were only yesterday but they were, not quite, 30 years ago. Lots of state medalists wore those "Matcat" t-shirts and singlets through those years. Many a Mom and Dad spent their Saturdays in a "tornado of humanity" called a kid's wrestling tournament. Matcat practice is now more than just the h.s. coach and a couple of wrestlers holding on. The program has grown and continues to feed a competitive h.s. program. I can't relate much of the last 20 years of history but ain't it great to be a Matcat?
