A northeast Nebraska high school wrestling program has been putting in the work for their girls and boys teams in preparation for the upcoming season.
Winside wrestling will have eight on the boys side and three for the girls.
Jesse Thies will be starting his 18th year coaching wrestling entering year number nine as the head coach.
Coach Thies said the boys have been attacking this year with more intensity.
“Everybody is putting in a lot more extra effort which I’m really happy to see,” said Thies. “Our emphasis this year is to not to stop and finish matches. The way to do that is just to get in the practice room and work your butt off.”
Coach Thies will be joined by Tom Schwedhelm and Mike Naeve on the boys side while girls assistants are Aric and Natalie Kruger (graduate wrestler from last year).
Seniors will be Korbin Carlson (150/157) for the boys and Lily Umbarger (140) for the girls.
Also, on the boys side with returning experience will be junior Landon Carlson (132) along with sophomore Stratton Sellin (138/144).
For the Winside girls, sophomore Raylyn Behmer (125) has been around the sport of wrestling following her brother Cooper Behmer who graduated last year while freshman Maci Schmidt (130) competed at Norfolk Junior High last year.
“The girls are in the same boat as the boys,” Thies added. “They’ve been working their butts off. Nobody complains, nobody is giving me any flack back. They just come right in, they start working and they get their job done and that’s what I want.”
The Winside boys wrestling team will open on Thursday, Dec. 5 during a quadrangular hosted by Shelby/Rising City along with Clarkson-Leigh and High Plains while also competing on Saturday, Dec. 7 during the Plainview Duals.
“Right now, we’re working on a lot of defense on our feet and a lot of bottom moves, a lot of bottom work,” Thies mentioned. “We’re hard at it, we’re getting back to work and we’re going to work our butts off and do some good things this year.”
Girls wrestling competition for Winside will look to start on Saturday, Dec. 14 during the North Bend Invite along with boys competing.
