Sights set on team state championship

By Reagan Hoverman

After the River Falls High School wrestling team’s 46-23 victory in the final dual match of the season against Menomonie on Friday, Jan. 28, the Wildcats secured the 2021-22 Big Rivers Conference championship.

The aforementioned dual meet on the road against Menomonie not only secured the conference title for the Wildcats but also secured an undefeated 7-0 record in Big Rivers Conference duals for the 2021-22 season. River Falls edged out conference rival Hudson for the title, a team that finished the conference schedule with a 6-1 record in duals, losing only to River Falls.

For River Falls head wrestling coach Kevin Black, it was a step in the right direction and one of many boxes that the Wildcats hope to check this season as they head into the wrestling playoffs in the coming weeks.

“It was a really important goal for us as a team,” Black said of the conference title. “This group of seniors that we have came in and were on a team that won the Big Rivers Conference when they were freshmen and now, they will graduate with two (conference titles).”

While all teams and groups of kids are important to Black, this group is perhaps the most special that he’s had in his nine years as the head wrestling coach at River Falls. When Black started coaching, he began at the youth level in River Falls one year before he became the varsity coach. His first group of kids back then are the same kids that helped hoist the conference title this season.

One decade ago, Black began making his impact on the River Falls wrestling program and now, he is seeing his first true class of kids having a serious impact on winning at the highest level. The first goal for this season was to win a conference title and now, Black and his roster have done exactly that.

“It was a big step for our program to continuously establish ourselves as one of the top programs in the Big Rivers,” Black said. “We want to win at the highest level. We want to win at the state level, the national level and the world level, but we have to first check this box.”

According to Black, River Falls is trying to take everything one day at a time. Of course, the Wildcats have their eyes on winning a state title as a team, but many variables go into getting to that point. One of the most important is solidifying the lineup before the postseason begins.

“We’re making sure we can get our best lineup on the mat,” Black said. “There have been a lot of things that have gone into that this year. We’ve lost a couple of kids to injury; we’ve got a couple of kids at the same weight classes and we have to shuffle things around. We for sure have 14 kids that believe and want to be team state champions.”

No wrestling season goes to completion without injuries, illness and other aspects of life that complicate having a full healthy roster heading into regionals. As Black stated, 14 kids are the goal for the postseason push. Right now, the roster is sitting around 11 or 12 healthy wrestlers.

“With the group that we have, if we have 11 or 12, I think we have a good shot to win our regional,” Black said. “It’s going to be tough to get out of our sectional if we don’t have all-hands-on-deck. Marshfield and Wausau West are going to be really good.”

The road to winning a Big Rivers Conference title and having hopes for a team wrestling state championship has not been a short one for Black and the River Falls School District. It’s taken nearly a decade to get the program established as a perennial contender.

When Black first got the head coaching job at River Falls, he, like almost any other coach at any level, wanted to win right away. According to Black, he had a lot of coaches come to him and tell him that it’s not an overnight process and that it was going to take time to build a program that could send a team to state regularly. Now, Black has built that winning culture and conference titles are an expectation moving forward.

“(Winning a conference title) for sure should be an expectation,” Black said. “I’m not going to sell any other program short, but it needs to be an expectation. We need to be producing at that minimum level that it’s a realistic goal every year. They should arrive on day one with that goal and it should be realistic.”

While winning the Big Rivers Conference title is now an expectation for the Wildcats moving forward, they will have to compete against tough competition in the Big Rivers, which includes well-established programs like Hudson and young up-and-coming programs such as New Richmond.

“Hudson has been good for a long time,” Black said. “Hudson has a system in place, based on their middle school and youth numbers, they will be competitive in the Big Rivers Conference for at least ten years and probably longer. New Richmond is also doing a really good job of grassroots. They’ve got really good youth and middle school numbers. New Richmond is going to be competitive.”

The Big Rivers will have competitive wrestling for years to come, and for Black, he hopes that River Falls is at the forefront of excellence in the conference. As for this season, River Falls will compete in regionals on Saturday, Feb. 12, at the New Richmond High School.

Reagan Hoverman

River Falls High School senior wrestler Vito Massa has his arm raised in victory after winning a match at the Northern Badger wrestling tournament. Massa will be critical to any postseason push that River Falls makes this season. Photo by