Coaching Cousins Build on Macomb Roots
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
January 18, 2018
MACOMB – Success must begin somewhere.
And for the Macomb Dakota wrestling program, its beginnings can be traced to a church in Mount Clemens nearly 25 years ago.
Ed Skowneski, a longtime educator in Macomb County who was a football star at Wayne State University during the 1970s, got with a few buddies and formed a youth wrestling program named the Bad Boys Wrestling Club.
This program would eventually produce six MHSAA champions and approximately 20 others who reached the Individual Finals. It also helped inspire two of those wrestlers to become coaches at the high school level.
Eddie Skowneski, Ed's son, leads the Macomb Dakota program ranked No. 3 in Division 1 this week by Michigan Grappler. Nephew Anthony Biondo assists top-ranked Detroit Catholic Central.
Before the Bad Boys – which would eventually evolve into Team All Sport – there were pockets in the county where the sport thrived, such as Fraser High where Al Kastl had built a strong program. But for the most part, Macomb County was a step or two behind nearby counties such as Genesee, Lapeer, Oakland and Wayne, where the sport had well-established programs like Clarkston, Davison, Detroit Catholic Central, Hazel Park, Lake Orion, Montrose, New Lothrop and others.
Skowneski teamed with people like Bob Palazzolo, Rick Julien – an assistant under Kastl at Fraser who later became Fraser’s head coach – and later, Vince Biondo, Skowneski’s roommate in college, to organize a competitive youth program.
“We had some good kids back then,” Skowneski said. “We had six state champions come out of there. We practiced twice a week at the church, but it was more like a hall or reception room. After one year we moved to Fraser, Mark Twain Elementary (School), where I was a principal. That made it easier, for travel and everything. We had our own mats in the school, and it started to grow.”
A team from Macomb County has yet to reach an MHSAA Division 1 Final, but they’re getting close. Last season Dakota reached a Division 1 Semifinal for the first time, and it was just the third time a Macomb County team had advanced that far in the top division/classification.
Two other county schools fared well last season, too, in other divisions. Warren Woods Tower lost in the Division 2 Final to Lowell, and Richmond won the Division 3 title.
Skowneski’s motivation to become a coach came from his son, Eddie, and, later, his nephew Anthony Biondo, Vince Biondo’s son. Eddie Skowneski got his start with the Bad Boys at age 9 with his cousin who is two years younger. The two became best friends and would become two of the county’s top wrestlers during the early to mid-2000s at Clinton Township Chippewa Valley.
Each would reach the Individual Finals three times. In 2003, Skowneski won the 140-pound title over fellow county wrestler Justin Petrone of Roseville, 1-0. Biondo was a three-time champion placing first at 103 in 2003, first at 112 the next season and first at 145 in 2006.
Skowneski would earn a scholarship to Michigan State University, where he was a three-year starter. Biondo went to University of Michigan and was a three-time NCAA Tournament qualifier. His best season came as a senior when he went 2-2 at the NCAAs and earned his 100th career win.
“Those Bad Boys days, those were some great times,” Anthony Biondo said. “It was a great group of kids. I just remember being in that church with Uncle Ed. I really wasn’t into wrestling when I started. I was into hockey and football. I started going there one day a week, and it just grew. My first year wrestling (at Chippewa Valley), I won the state title. It was just that one-on-one thing that I liked. My dad was a huge goal-setting type of guy, and I just kept at it.”
Their wrestling careers didn’t stop after graduation. Skowneski became an assistant coach at Fraser for one season then went to Warren DeLaSalle for two as an assistant before becoming the head coach at Dakota in 2012. Biondo is in his seventh season as an assistant coach at Detroit Catholic Central, the top-ranked team and reigning champion in Division 1.
Eddie Skowneski, 31, said he’s had a number of mentors throughout his wrestling career who have contributed to him becoming the coach he is today. His father is one, but he also said his high school coach John Jeffire at Chippewa Valley, St. Clair Shores Lakeview football coach Pat Threet and his college coaches all have had their influence.
When Ed Skowneski retired as school principal at Mark Twain in 2015, his son quickly found him a part-time job as his assistant at Dakota to keep him active.
“He’s always been a great coach,” Eddie said. “Coaching with my dad, it never really stopped. With him, it’s the little things. He always said, if you have good technique, you can beat someone who is more physical than you are. With my dad, he goes to each person and shows them the proper technique. With me, sure I want them to work and train hard. But I want my wrestlers to do it the right way.”
Ed Skowneski got out of coaching when his son went to high school. He said he had taken his son as far as he could and that it was better to have Eddie continue his progression with someone else as his coach.
Now that Ed’s back in it, coaching with his son no less, he couldn’t be happier.
“When he first got the job at Dakota, I thought of helping him but I just didn’t have the time,” Ed Skowneski said. “I’m enjoying it now. I’m not the head coach. He has the issues. I just work with the kids. It’s fantastic. It’s rewarding. We have a great group of kids and good parents.
“I look forward to the tournaments, which sometimes keeps me up at night. It’s nice that my son and I can do this together.”
Tom Markowski is a columnist and directs website coverage for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: Longtime coach Ed Skowneski stands with son Eddie (left) and nephew Anthony Biondo after a youth event when they were children. (Middle) Father and son hold up Eddie’s bracket sheet after he won the Division 1 championship at 145 pounds in 2006; to the right, they pose together during Biondo’s wedding. (Below) Ed Skowneski and Biondo, also before the latter’s wedding. (Photos provided by the Skowneski family.)
LakeVille's Hammond Not Seeking Spotlight, but Thriving Amid Pressure as Reigning Champ
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
February 4, 2026
Fred Hammond remembers what a thrill it was to have Otisville-LakeVille Memorial varsity wrestlers at his club practices when he was younger.
So now that Hammond – the reigning Division 4 Individual Finals champion at 165 pounds and school record holder for wins – is doing the same, there’s no doubt the current LakeVille youth team is experiencing that same thrill.
At the same time, Hammond is finding it just as exciting to be on the other side.
“One of my coaches is our club coach and talks about how his son, when he goes home, he’ll talk about me being there,” Hammond said. “But I just like seeing their smiles. I like being in the room, playing dodgeball with them and teaching them moves. That was a real cool experience for me (as a kid), and I imagine that’s how those guys look at me now.”
Hammond is giving back to the program that has given him so much, all while still helping to elevate the Falcons to new heights.
This past weekend, he picked up his 200th career victory, which tied LakeVille great Stan Marshall for most in school history. Hammond then surpassed that mark to take the record for himself.
He’s now 41-0 on the season with 23 wins by pin fall and seven by technical fall. In his LakeVille career, Hammond is 202-10 and has placed three times at the Individual Finals, taking sixth at 150 pounds as a freshman and third at 165 as a sophomore, both in Division 3. As a junior, he became LakeVille’s first champ since 1999 when he pinned his first three opponents and won by tech in the championship match to claim the 165-pound crown in Division 4.
“Stan Marshall was a three-time state champ, four-time placer, and Stan held every record we had,” LakeVille coach Dan Huggler said. “Ever since Freddy was a middle schooler, he wanted to break all those records. He’s trained hard, and he’s pretty much broke them all. He has the career takedown, pins and wins records. He’s only allowed five takedowns in the past three seasons. He wrestles a lot of tough matches – we’ll wrestle Dundee, (Detroit Catholic Central), as much as we can. His sophomore year, he gave up three takedowns. Last year, he gave up two. This year, he hasn’t given up any. It’s pretty amazing.”
While Huggler had plenty to say about his star wrestler’s exploits on the mat, his voice raised in excitement when talking about the type of person that sits on top of his program’s record books.
“He’s a National Honor Society student, student council member, has over a 3.8 GPA,” Huggler said. “He’s the kindest kid you could imagine – just friendly, smiles at everyone, part of everybody’s group and gets along with everybody. He relates to the people in the Chess Club. He can relate with everyone. He never makes it about himself.”
To that point, Hammond’s milestone victory was achieved while his team won the Tamonta Hill Team Tournament and helped Huggler reach a milestone of his own: his 300th career dual coaching victory.
“I’ve been through LakeVille’s program for a long time, and having these guys coaching me and around all the way through my career, it’s been great,” Hammond said. “It’s pretty cool that on the same day I hit 200, he hit 300. It was cool to do that in front of our home crowd.”
LakeVille is back in Division 3 this season and No. 8 in Michigan Grappler’s latest team rankings. The Falcons won the Mid-Michigan Activities Conference for the third straight season, and three other wrestlers – Adam Hoch, Jake Hascall and George Gavan – have collected career victory No. 100 this season.
As Hammond has been looking at new goals following his individual title a year ago, all of that team success has him thinking big.
“Honestly, I’ve been thinking about college a lot and what I could do there, and obviously helping my teammates,” he said. “Now I’m thinking about team state titles and all of that. That would be real cool to win a team state championship.”
He’s also chasing another individual title, and along the way has accomplished quite a bit outside of the career milestone, having won the Detroit Catholic Central Invitational and Genesee County titles.
As a returning Finals champion, Hammond is well aware that he’ll have a target on his back, but he’s not only prepared for that – he welcomes it.
“I feel like even over the summer, I kind of took a little break just to relax and I hadn’t taken a break from wrestling in a while. But every day since I got back, I always try to get a little better, and I feel like I’m wrestling well going into the postseason,” Hammond said. “I like that feeling of being tracked down. I like being the guy to beat.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Otisville-LakeVille Memorial’s Fred Hammond (in yellow) works toward a win during last season’s MHSAA Individual Finals. (Middle) Hammond celebrates his championship at Ford Field. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)