Some of the best STA Wrestlers were developed in the East Kansas Wrestling Club. For years the East Kansas Wrestling Club was a magnet for elite level competitors. Coach Klemm and his staff (Tom Budd and others) continually developed kids into top notch competitors. Coach John Akin started this club and the tradition continued until it was interrupted by Coach Klemm's departure for Stanford University. Eric Akin and Travis Phippen have resurrected the East Kansas Club as the last few carry overs are about to graduate (Parker Madl, Zach Tanenbaum, Ryne Cokeley, and few others). Since Kevin Klemm's departure there has been a void. The single site grind room for those who are hard core and want to sharpen steel with steel. Eric & Travis hope to recreate this environment with a year round training regime at one of the BEST wreslting facilities in the state. They now offer the full gamet of training opportunities (novice, intermediate, elite, freestyle, and Greco). Come to St. James Academy nearly any night of the week where you will find former Division 1 wrestlers molding our youths into Kansas' future champions.
Will, I agree with you that the East Kansas Wrestling Club led by Kevin Klemm was an incredible club that developed some of our area's top wrestling talent many who went on to distinguish themselves with stellar NCAA Division I careers. I also agree with you that a new opportunity for that type of development is becoming available with the resurrected club led by Eric and Travis at St. James Academy. So I definitely agree with the majority of what you posted above.
However, what I am going to take some exception to is your opening sentence that I believe can leave an incorrect impression.
Some of the best STA Wrestlers were developed in the East Kansas Wrestling Club. ...
I only know of two Aquinas wrestlers who did a significant amount of their non high school wrestling with the old East Kansas Club. The only two who I think did wrestle primarily with East Kansas were Gabe Conaghan and RJ Nill.
The only reason I am bringing this up is that Joe Cisper, Sean McCarthy, Sharon Henes and several other of the the dedicated STA coaches worked very hard since the STA club was established years ago and they definitely deserve the bulk of the recognition for the contribution that kids club wrestling has made to the success of the Aquinas high school program. Of course Head High School Coach Lorne Parks and his staff also deserve a lion's share of the credit for the success of the St. Thomas High School Wrestling program over the last ten years or so. Coach Parks runs a very successful program that gets these high school wrestlers in shape to battle.
Getting back to the STA Kids club contribution to the high school team's success your comment made me look at the historic records on the Aquinas website. There are lists of accomplishments like 100 career wins, 40 Wins in a Season Club, 30 Wins in a Season Club, Individual State Champions and Runners Up. When you look at any of these categories a very large majority of the wrestlers wrestled the majority of their kids club wrestling with the STA Wrestling Club. There is one senior on the team Jake Walker who after this year will enter the 100 career win club list and should rank near the top of it. Jake Walker was an STA Kids club wrestler. The hard work of Joe Cisper, Sean McCarthy, Sharon Henes, and the other dedicated STA volunteer coaches over the years has prepared some of these standout Aquinas High School wrestlers very well over the years.
Sean McCarthy, Sharon Henes and the current other STA coaches continue to work hard to develop another generation of future standout high school wrestlers some who will eventually wrestle at Aquinas and many will wrestle at other schools in the area. The STA club with Sean McCarthy and Clint Slyter leading the way has recently added spring and summer freestyle/greco wrestling. Several of the STA freestyle/greco wrestlers did very well last summer. The STA club now offers another good option for off season wrestling that many of the Johnson County wrestlers took advantage of last year.
