Inaugural Wayne County Championships Builds On Girls Wrestling's Rapid Growth
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
January 16, 2025
WAYNE — Dave Kobel said he is a dreamer, but even this was something he probably couldn’t have envisioned.
Three years ago when Kobel took over as head coach of the Wayne Memorial wrestling program, Kobel said female participation was limited – to say the least.
“We had one for half the season, and then she quit,” Kobel said. “And then we had another girl join up for the second half of the season.”
Fast forward to last Saturday, and it was quite a statement of growth for girls wrestling not just for the Wayne Memorial program, but an entire county.
Kobel and Wayne Memorial hosted the first Wayne County Women’s Wrestling Championships, an event solely for girls that featured 77 participants representing 20 schools.
Even though there were some registered wrestlers who backed out and some weight classes had only four wrestlers, it still was a great seed planted for the future and an example of just how much wrestling has caught on with girls in the area.
The idea was born among Kobel and other coaches in the area last winter as a platform to give the girls a major event in preparation for league and MHSAA Tournament rounds coming up next month.
“It’s something to compete for,” Kobel said as his team was rolling up mats and closing up the gym after the event. “It feels like there are stakes when it’s the county tournament or the (state) Regional tournament. There are some other really big and high-quality wrestling tournaments, but we wanted something where Wayne County schools could fight for a title.”
So the wrestlers descended upon Wayne Memorial, where there were championships decided in all 14 weight classes, and with a majority of classes having six competitors.
“I felt glad to be here and to get the opportunity,” said Wayne Memorial junior Guadalupe Chaparro, who finished first at 190 pounds. “I feel like the atmosphere was different than a usual tournament. I felt like there was more caring and everyone was more spirited.”
Arguably the most high-profile final came at 155 pounds, where a pair of wrestlers who competed at the MHSAA Finals last year – Marissa Richmond of Plymouth and Brooklyn Sage of Southgate Anderson – battled for the title, with Richmond prevailing.
A team champion also was crowned, with Allen Park accumulating 116 points to best second-place Wayne Memorial (81) and third-place Plymouth (78).
Other individual winners were Tierra Taylor of Gibraltar Carlson at 100 pounds, Catherine Warlick of Dearborn Heights Annapolis at 105, Alyssa Campbell of Allen Park at 110, Trinity Munoz of Detroit Voyageur College Prep at 115, Melody Carr of Southgate Anderson at 120, Kerrington Fields-McCurdy of Livonia Stevenson at 125, Brynna Alwell of Allen Park at 130, Adeline Tuccini of Allen Park at 135, Nanda Kibi of Plymouth at 140, Rihanna Venegas of Riverview Gabriel Richard at 145, Blessing Bongi of Westland John Glenn at 170 and Mya Brandenburg of Allen Park at 235 pounds.
The big winner was the sport of girls wrestling and its skyrocketing popularity.
Chaparro said she didn’t start wrestling until last year as a sophomore when a friend encouraged her to try out for the team, and she loved the sport immediately.
“The hardest part to learn was the discipline that came with wrestling,” she said. “It’s made me a better wrestler and made me better at school. A lot of things.”
Each winner received a trophy, while all participants received medals.
Of course, Kobel and other coaches hope for bigger things next year and beyond when conducting the event – namely more wrestlers and brackets that can be filled a little more completely.
But you have to start somewhere, and no doubt it was a successful first event for girls wrestlers in the community and the sport as a whole.
Kobel isn’t sure if other counties will replicate it and host girls-only county wrestling championships. (Macomb County hosts one but welcomes schools from other counties to participate.). But he hopes the Wayne County event served as an example.
“I’d love to see other counties follow suit,” Kobel said.
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) A pair of wrestlers compete during Saturday’s Wayne County Women’s Wrestling Championships at Wayne Memorial. (Middle) Participants representing 20 schools stand for a photo. (Below) The Allen Park girls wrestling team poses with the championship trophy after winning the team title. (Photos by Devin Markowsky, The Picture People LLC.)
Longtime Coach Vlcek has Manchester On Pace to Contend in D4 Title Race
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
December 19, 2023
Steve Vlcek is 34 years into his varsity coaching career at Manchester and might have his best team yet.
The season still has a long way to go, of course, but Vlcek is confident that what is being built right now in the Flying Dutchmen wrestling room is something special.
“I always call this our preseason,” he said. “We’ll have four tournaments before the new year. That’s 26 or 27 matches per kid. That way, we can figure out where we are at, what we need to work on more. Then we can start tweaking stuff a little bit.
“It’s been a really great start. I see a lot of improvement in our team.”
Vlcek, who has won more than 700 meets in his career, and Manchester have been on the cusp before. The Flying Dutchmen have won 18 straight District championships and own a dozen Regional titles. Manchester was the Division 4 runner-up in 2008 and has reached the Semifinals multiple times.
The last two years, they’ve qualified for MHSAA Team Finals weekend but have lost the first day in Quarterfinals.
“It’s been a little frustrating, but you have to keep plugging away,” Vlcek said. “We’re trying. We have a good shot the next couple of years.”
Vlcek was a football guy at Manchester, but when the school didn’t field football in 1981, he turned to wrestling.
“We didn’t have football my freshman year, and I was driving my mom crazy,” Vlcek said. “I took up wrestling.”
During his four years with the varsity, Manchester went through three coaches. It was his final coach, Dan Jordan, who invited Vleck back a couple of years later to work with some of the wrestlers on the team.
“He called me up and asked if in my free time I would come and work with a couple kids,” Vlcek said. “Two years later, I was the junior high coach, and two years after that he resigned, recommended me for the job and I got it. He did a really good job of bringing up the program.”
Vleck never thought he would be a coach, but it became his passion.
“Once I started working with the kids, I really enjoyed it,” he said. “I wasn’t sure how much I would like it as a 19-year-old, or 20-year-old kid, but I did.”
Some of his early Manchester teams struggled with numbers. They’d often have seven or eight wrestlers win matches but lose in a dual-meet format because of the forfeits. That started to change during the mid-2000s.
“We started getting good classes together, and that made a considerable difference,” he said.
He picked things up from rival coaches, some of whom he has become friends with over the years.
“You pick up little things from each coach you coach against,” he said.
He credits a strong youth program at Manchester with developing wrestlers at a young age.
“We have a very involved youth program,” he said. “They’ve brought a good product to me. I try to stay away from it, let them develop it. We are very lucky to have it.”
He also credits a slew of assistant coaches, such as Mike Bunn.
“I can name 20 guys who have come into the room and make the program better every day,” he said. “I have my son (Brock) coaching with me now, and I really enjoy that.”
The Flying Dutchmen have 10 juniors on this year’s squad, including Sammy Stewart, who won an Individual Finals title last year at 113 pounds, and Blake Sloan, who was runner-up at 138.
Stewart missed a good part of the 2022 season while recovering from a hand injury.
“He had a really bad accident in shop class,” Vlcek said. “He almost cut his hand off. He came back in mid-January. He definitely had to overcome some obstacles. He avenged the loss he had (during the regular season) in the state finals.”
Sloan is another of the super sophomores. He’s coming off a record-setting football season in which he rushed for more than 2,100 yards.
“I can’t ask more out of those guys,” Vlcek said. “They put their time in and help their teammates out. We have seven or eight kids who have been state qualifiers. We still have some work to do, but there is improvement.”
Manchester is 10-2 in dual meets to start this season, giving Vlcek 711 career victories. The Flying Dutchmen have played a good schedule and have been ranked anywhere from No. 2 to No. 5 in early-season team rankings.
“I like to be challenged,” Vlcek said. “You don’t get better without wrestling the best.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Sammy Stewart’s hand is raised by the official in victory after the Manchester standout won his championship match at the Individual Finals in March. (Middle) Teammate Blake Sloan, right, considers his next move during his championship match last season. (Below) Coach Steve Vlcek embraces Stewart after the victory. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)