All in the Family: Lights wrestling camp is special

Without a good coach, a wrestling program, or even an individual wrestler, can only go so far. Knowing this, the Montana State University-Northern Lights wrestling program has used this idea to put on a very unique summer wrestling camp.

The camp was held in the MSU-N wrestling room on the Northern campus in Havre, and ran Sunday through Thursday morning. The camp brought in 30 young grapplers, but also brought in six very successful coaches, as well as another ten or more current MSU-N wrestlers, at one time. Current Northern head coach Tyson Thivierge — four time NAIA All-American and National Champion — was one of those said coaches, as was Dustyn Azure, two time All-American, Austin Ouellette, NAIA All-American, Anthony Weerheim, NAIA and NJCAA All-American, Evan Hinebauch, 2011 NAIA National Champion and four time All-American, and Scott Filius, four time All-American, National Champion, current Havre High head coach, and seven-time Class A state title winner.

With all of that wrestling and coaching success running the camp, the 30 campers were bound to learn something, and that is exactly what coach Thivierge was hoping for.

“Look at all of the success these coaches have had,” Thivierge said. “Look at the success that a coach like Scott (Filius) has had. We want to keep it in the family, and we want the kids to see the success we can have, and the success we have had coming from this program. That is important to us.

“We show a lot of technique,” Thivierge added. “And we show so much; I don’t know if these kids will grasp it all in four days. But if they pick up one thing, the camp is successful. But we also have our guys show technique, not just myself or other coaches, because we want to sell what we are doing. Every kid has been shown a stance, but I may explain it one way, and another coach may show it another way. But as long as a kid gets better by understanding one of the coaches, then great.”

And technique and situational wrestling was the main focus of the camp.

The main objective was to take technique, conditioning, and psychological aspects of wrestling, and to put all in situations wrestlers may face throughout their careers. The ideas is to show the young wrestlers that there is always a way out, or always a way to score points during a match, and more than anything, maximize what each wrestler can do on the mat.

Different sessions helped achieve this goal. The morning session combined technique and conditioning, while the afternoon sessions combined technique and live/situational wrestling. And the evening sessions were saved for round-robin tournaments, giving the campers the opportunity to apply all that they have learned from the prior sessions.

“In our program, we drill situational stuff,” Thivierge said. “And we put these kids in those situations, so that they know how to react when they get there. Some of these younger kids are so loose, and trying to hurry things all the time, so we give them these situations so they see it, and someday the light will go on and they will know exactly what to do. It has been helpful for them I hope.”

The variety of coaches and current MSU-N wrestlers were a real treat for the young wrestlers in attendance. The coach to camper ratio let a lot of campers get one-on-one time when they needed it, as well as gave campers different perspectives to learn from. But even the coaching staff was surprised, when college wrestling legend and former Northern wrestling coach and MSU-N Hall of Famer David Ray made a surprise visit to run Wednesday’s morning session.

Ray was the MSU-N head coach for 12 years, running the Lights from 1993-2005. In that time, coach Ray led the Lights to four NAIA national team titles, and was named NAIA National Coach of the Year four times. In 10 of his 12 years, he was also named Northern Region Coach of the year, while also producing 85 All-Americans and 21 national champions. Ray also coached the likes of Thivierge, Kyle Fisher, Turk Lords, and Emmett Wilson, extremely successful NAIA wrestlers. Under Ray, Wilson also won the Dan Hodge trophy in 2004. Commonly thought of as the “Heisman” of college wrestling, Wilson was the first and only winner of the prestigious award outside of a NCAA Division I wrestling program.

Ray recently retired from coaching at NCAA Division I Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, but still knows what it takes to build a successful wrestler and program.

“The kids were looking at him, like, who is this guy,” Thievierge said. “But he hasn’t been out of wrestling that long, and the kids knew the technique he was teaching was very tough. But I told them it was world-class technique from a very successful coach, and that was a treat for the wrestlers as well as me. David Ray stepped right in and helped us out, and that was great of him.”

It is safe to say that the campers of the MSU-N wrestling camp were exposed to a lot of technique. But they were also exposed to a lot successful coaches and former wrestlers that have come from Havre, or the MSU-N program. Success breeds success is always a common saying in the sports world, and that is exactly what the Lights are hoping to achieve from their camp.