A few years ago, my home town's high school was honored ( by our local paper) as having the HS wrestling team with the most dual meet victories in the nation. This came at their 1000th dual meet win. While I would like to accept this at face value, and I know that we have more wins than any other team in Illinois, I really would like to check on the "in the nation" part. Does anyone have any knowledge of a high school wrestling team with more dual meet victories than 1000 ? If not, does anyone know about a team that is close ? ++++++++++++++++ 07-11-02, 09:48 PM coldfuse From the South Carolina Mat News, here is a list of coaches with over 500 victories as of the 1999 - 2000 season:
646 Neil Buckley (Haverford School, PA) 1947-94 644 Charles Farina (Leyden, East Leydon, Chicago Gordon Tech, IL) 1955-93 642 Bill Weick (Maquoketa, IA; Chicago Tilden, Chicago Mt. Carmel, IL) 1956-98 602 William "Red" Schmitt (Alton Western M.A, Granite City South, IL) 1946-49; 1951-85 559 Ralph Ross (Highland, NJ) 1964-96 534 Virg Vagle (Paynesville Area, MN) 1966-99 533 Russell Riegel (Hunterdon Central, NJ) 1956-91 523 Bill Sutter (Goodhue, MN) 1969-99 513 Bob Craig (Newport, Cedar Cliff, PA) 1958-98 500 William Regnier (Temperance Bedford, MI) 1966-95
The top coach for victories on this list, Neil Buckley, took 47 seasons to achieve 646 victories. Though this is only one coach's work, 1000 for a school in its history actually seems quite noteworthy!
Might William "Red" Schmitt, with 602 dual meet wins, be part of your school's history?
The search continues.... ******************** 07-12-02, 12:15 AM DorianGreyed Yes he was ! Schmitty was my coach. Note when he started; he just recently retired as Head of the Illimois H.S. Ass'n. Wrestling Rules committee. He retired from teaching civics and sponsoring National Honor Society in 1985. He was quite a figure, and he did a lot for a lot of young men. I think that there have been 2 or 3 coaches since, all adding significantly to the victory total. Granite City is a steel mill town, and has a lot of Eastern Europeans and their descendants, hence the sports are wrestling and soccer. Since Illinois started HS soccer in about 1971, GC has won about 10 state championships. ******************** 07-12-02, 01:00 AM DorianGreyed Here's Schmitty's records from the Illinois State High School web page.(And 1 of GC's.) (http://www.ihsa.org/activity/wr/records/arecs.htm#200X100) Schmitty's overall record was 602-71-5. He really was some coach.
Most Dual Meets Won, Career
672, Bill Weick, Maquoketa, IA, Chicago (Tilden), Chicago (Mt. Carmel), 1957-2002 (672-88-4) 644, Charles Farina, Franklin Park (Leyden), 1954-90 (592-85-7), Chicago (Gordon Tech) 1991-93 (52-14) 602, Bill Schmitt, Alton (Western M.A.), (21-12-0), Granite City (H.S.-South), (581-59-5), 38 years 459, Lon Gerrish, Sandwich, 1983-2002 (459-62-1)
Most Dual Meets Won, Career, Single School
592, Charles Farina, Franklin Park (Leyden), 1954-90 (592-85-7, 36 years) 581, Bill Schmitt, Granite City (H.S./ South) (581-59-5, 35 years) 459, Lon Gerrish, Sandwich, 1983-2002 (459-62-1)
Longest Rivalry 95 matches, Granite City and Belleville (West); first match on Jan. 23, 1937. Granite City 80 wins, 2 ties; Belleville (West) 15 wins following 1999-2000 season ******************** 07-12-02, 11:16 AM coldfuse Dick Glover, who coaches at my old high school, should be right at the 500 win mark by the end of next season. When I was there, he coached for a rival who always seemed to win the prep national championship. A great coach and a modest man, who cares less about wins than he does about turning lives around.
Thanks for updating my list, which was a season or two old.
Confirmation of 1000 wins by a school is still eluding me! ******************** 11-11-02, 12:25 PM DorianGreyed Maybe some of our new members can help with this. ******************** 09-15-03, 01:28 AM DorianGreyed Just wondering if any new AP people have some information on this.
10-18-03, 06:34 PM coldfuse Perhaps several other schools will have achieved this milestone by the time you get an answer Big Grin ******************** 11-12-03, 08:22 PM DorianGreyed You may be right, Fuse. ******************** 01-05-04, 09:57 PM coldfuse Here are some records to whet your appetite as we await the definitive response.
This even has such things as "Fastest Consecutive Falls by Brothers, Not Twins" but not what you're looking for. ******************** 02-22-06, 08:46 PM DorianGreyed I'm still hoping that someone new has some input. ******************** 12-31-06 06:04 PM DorianGreyed I found some recent (but not current) figures for Granite City.
Below are rankings for Most All-Time Dual Meets Won ( by Illinois schools only) following 2002-03 season
Granite City - 1,027 Wins / 153 Losses / 11 Ties
DeKalb - 733W / 108L / 7 T
Sterling - 677W / 300L / 12T
Libertyville - 600W / 275L
I know that, when the article appeared in the local paper, the team having the 2nd highest number of dual meet wins had just under 800. Since Granite has never had a losing season, or even anything close to a losing season, I don't see any school catching us in the next few decades, if ever.
It still would be nice to see some independent confirmation of this, however.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,
Posts: 17474 | Location: Lincoln Place, Granite City, IL, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
