Wrestling camp at the USOEC

Wrestlers from Colorado and Minnesota are training at the United States Olympic Education Center in Marquette for ten days to prepare for two upcoming international competitions.

The USA Wrestling national team holds a camp every January. Instead of having the camp in Colorado Springs, Colo., USA Wrestling decided to hold the camp in Marquette.

“I have 38 guys on the USOEC team,” said Greco Roman Wrestling head coach Rob Hermann. “For them to wrestle the national team members and be part of this camp probably a dream for them. If we didn’t have the camp here, half of those kids would have been left here.”

“When I found out that the January camp was in Marquette instead of Colorado Springs, I got real excited about it,” said former USOEC wrestler Max Nowry. “This is my favorite place to train. It was my home for five years.”

“This is where it started. This is what made me who I am,” said Nate Engel, another former USOEC wrestler. Engel attended NMU from 2007-10. “I think that if the younger kids aren’t pushing us, then we’re not getting any better. They’re the future of Greco-Roman in the United States.”

The team camp runs through Wednesday. Many of the wrestlers will head to Colorado Springs next week to compete in both the Jack Pinto Cup and the Dave Schultz Memorial International tournaments.