MY COACHING EXPERIENCE OVER THE LAST 10 YEARS

I started helping in 1995 with my uncle Scott Erney running the inter./exh. group.  The following year Erney stepped into the head coaching position. Then a year later when he moved into coaching ice hockey I was asked to be the head coach for the 97-98 season. At that time I was 20 years old with no kids in the program. I was very lucky to have such great assistant coaches like Ed Keichel and Dave Yenolevich who still help with the program today. We had quite a challenge ahead of us. The program was building but still struggled finishing the 96-97 year 14th out of 16 teams in the league. After reformatting our program and adjusting our coaching techniques, over the next several years Northwestern would build its program to be one of the best.

In 97-98 & 98 -99 we finished 6-2 and 4th out of 16 teams in the league. The next year, 99-00 we finished 7-1 with a 2nd place finish in the league and a division championship. Things were starting to really fall into place. The coaches and parents knew that the following season we would be unstoppable and we were. We captured the league championship and the Division title. An undefeated season 10-0. As the league grew to 19 teams, the Northwestern wrestlers were on a mission to have another undefeated season. The 01-02 year was just that, a 10-0 season. In the league tournament we fell short of the title by 8 points for a respectable 2nd place finish. I can remember how great it felt to take a team from a 2-6 record to back to back undefeated seasons.

The boys who rostered theses teams at the youth level, I now get to watch wrestle for the high school. This team, still a brotherhood at the high school level continues to develop and grow. Thanks to the high school coaches Bryan Klass, Brad Klechner, Dave Yenolevich and all the other coaches and helpers. This team has a list of accomplishments from the state level to a national level. Some of the school records are a League title, District title, Regional title and at TEAM STATES finishing an impressive 2nd. I can still remember sitting these boys in the corner at the end of practice and telling them that there hard work will pay off, that they will make history one day. I am so proud to have coached these boys and watch them develop into young men. All the hard work from all the coaches and parents paid off big. Now when 6 days a week 9 months out of the year gets overwhelming, I take a minute to think of how helping the kids we work with now, will payoff in the future. Who knows maybe a State title one day. 

Over the next several years our program continued to be on top, finishing 5th,5th,3rd,4th and last season finishing 3rd with a division title. This years goal is to finish 1st in the league and capture another division championship. Its not always easy being a AA school that wrestles many AAA and some 4A schools in our league. But with hard work and dedication I see great things for this team both this year and in the years to come. We have a very strong group of young wrestlers that I feel could break all the records as they move through the jr high and high school program. This team has state champions written all over it.  At least that’s my hopes and my goals as a coach. To develop young wrestlers that will make history one day. 

OVERALL COACHING CAREER RECORD FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS 76-18
By: Coach Josh Rex