Glasgow Wrestling Camp Brews Resolve in Scottie Hearts

A half-decade has run its course since Glasgow High School last captured the Montana State Wrestling Championship, a blunt-knife truth which second year head coach Jory Casterline is eager to yank from his team's torso as preparation begins for the 2015-16 season.

In this vein, the two-day training camp held in the Recreation Center's spit-shined gymnasium could not have come sooner, nor be more apt to the coach's singular aim.

"We need to get back to the top level," says Casterline. "That's the ultimate goal. Every year we need the trophy, [and] there's no reason why we shouldn't have it."

The young men under his charge seem to be responding to his demands with reciprocal enthusiasm. Casterline estimates that among the 55-odd boys signed up, 80-90 percent of them are on the junior high team, and he confirms that all of his high schoolers will make the short trip across town to meet at the mats as well. 

"This is the best summer turnout for Glasgow wrestling," says Casterline. "Ever."

This year's iteration of the off-season workouts, thanks to Casterline's indefatigable ambition, promised something extra in the way of instruction: Casterline, via a connection he made at a camp last summer, secured the coaching services of former University of Iowa four-time All-American Derek St. John.

"We talked about bringing him up here," says Casterline, "and were able to work something out."

After a fifth-place finish at NCAAs in spring 2014, St. John, who continues to train for Olympic competition and various other domestic and international events, accepted an assistant coaching job at North Dakota State, and will relocate to Blacksburg, Va., this year to take up the same post with the Virginia Tech Hokies.

"It's something we'll continue with," says Casterline on the topic of the guest appearance. "I made a connection with these Iowa guys. Once you make a connection they enjoy coming back. We want to make a pipeline."

Casterline exudes pragmatism, yet even he cannot resist talking up what St. John's presence offers to his Scotties. "It's the equivalent of bringing in Mike Trout for a baseball camp. If one of my guys wasn't here, I'd be questioning why he's in the sport."

Day two. Lunchtime. The stench of sweat full-nelsons the nostrils as one enters the gym. A knot of boys, having finished their midday meal, engage in a wiffle ball game on the mats - he who realizes himself to be tired is he who has stopped moving. Either that, or they have not been worked hard enough. It's difficult to believe the latter to be the case.

St. John, wearing a Scotties Wrestling T-shirt, sits on the hardwood floor off to the side, his back resting against the wall of retracted bleachers, his expression placid. Then, the clock strikes 1:30. Back into first gear. 

The old hand arises and scratches his beard before calling for a huddle at what was once center court, and is now just 'the middle' amid a semi-cushioned swath of Glasgow red.

Casterline watches as St. John directs the boys, aged baby-tooth-young to high school, in laps around the mat's perimeter, calling for the occasional somersault, backsault, and cartwheel. A body-weight circuit follows; St John, in his calm-yet-dominating timbre, yells for up-downs, pushups, squat jumps, and jumping jacks from his students. 

He walks among the boys, stepping between bodies and over splayed arms, surveying the order his mere presence has created.

After working up a sweat the group gathers again, and St. John, using one of the older wrestlers as a pseudo-dummy, demonstrates proper wrestling technique while explaining the reasons behind each successive move.

"What's my number one line of defense?" he asks. Fifty-five pairs of hands shoot up to their owners' temples.

 "Your head!" resounds the reply.

The boys then pair off for live training, alternating between top and bottom starting positions. St. John and the rest of the coaches rove around providing instruction as they see fit.

Says Casterline of the event, "It's an Iowa-style camp - not easy by any means.... It teaches the kids about working hard, [that] nothing in life comes easy. There's no special potion for success -it's called hard work. That's the only way."

To return to the lofty heights contained in the program's memory bank, the attitude must be more than spoken. It must be instilled, inculcated. And as the team equips its mental and physical arsenals for the testy gales of winter, during which it will travel to tournaments and face larger, tier A and AA programs, not to mention a home clash versus A-level powerhouse Sidney three days before Christmas, nothing is more important in the name of victory than acting to develop the habit of excellence. Hence St. John's presence. Hence Casterline's tenacity.

"We'll win some," says the coach. "We'll lose some. But we're never going to back down from a competition."