Jake Oster to be inducted into Elmhurst College Athletics Hall of Fame

On October 9 this year Jake Oster will be inducted into the Elmhurst College Athletics Hall of Fame. This is the first year Jake was eligible for induction. 

At Elmhurst Jake became Elmhurst's 2nd National Champion in any sport winning the 125 lb. weight class in 2009 and their first in Wrestling. Jake is also Elmhurst's only 4 time All-American placing 7th, 5th, 1st and 3rd along with 2 Academic All-American Honors. Jake's record at Elmhurst was 98-20. 

In Jake's High School career at Lockport he was 135-25, a 4-year Varsity Starter, 2 time State Qualifier and a State Champion in 2004. In the finals in 2004 Jake beat Nick Fanthorpe who lost only 1 match from 2003-2005 winning state as an undefeated Sophomore and Senior. Jake was injured at the Sectional as a Senior and did not get a chance to defend his title, which was the first for Lockport in 32 years. 

Since Graduating from Elmhurst Jake has moved into teaching and coaching. He coached one year at Lockport and will enter his 4th year at Yorkville HS this season. 

Bill Zimmer July 8, 1931-August 11, 2015

William "Bill" Zimmer Sr. passed away earlier this week and understandably has been well remembered by many around the Lockport Community. Many remember Coach Zimmer for his 34 year run as Head Football Coach at Lockport from 1960-1994 which resulted in a career record of 164-143-5 and induction into the IHSA Football Coaches Hall of Fame. Coach Zimmer also took over Lockport's new(er) wrestling program in 1960 and remained Head Coach until 1986 compiling a record of 183-214-4 winning 2 South Suburban League Championships (71,72) 4 District Titles (65,66,71,72) and 2 Sectional Titles (71,72) and was elected into the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association Hall of Fame. Under Zimmer there were 39 State Qualifiers, 13 State Placers and 2 State Champions.

I was only able to meet Coach Zimmer a few times as he had retired and moved to Florida just before I entered LTHS as a student but I was able to meet him like I said a few times and watching how people interacted with Coach Zimmer you could easily tell that he was greatly respected by all in the community and his contributions in the athletic realm were legendary. A few years ago I was able to sit down and record a conversation I had with Tom Heniff who was an assistant wrestling coach at Lockport from 1966-1972 before becoming a State Champion head coach at Richards and one of the most accomplished wrestling officials in Illinois history. Coach Heniff was hired at Lockport right out of college and remembered his time fondly. 

"Zimmer and I had a great working relationship, we just got along. I don't know if we ever had an argument. I learned a lot from him on how to deal with people."

He also shared an anecdote about Coach Zimmer who is usually thought of as hardcore disciplinarian.

"The '72 team won the conference or district, I can't remember which it was and we got back to the school they threw Zimmer into the swimming pool, because he told them if they won that's what he would allow them to do."

The Wall

A few years back I started gathering historical information on the Lockport Wrestling program from yearbooks, newspaper microfilm, stats and pictures from Coach Williams, interviews with alumni and coaches. We now have a relatively thorough history of our program the first pieces of which can be seen on this website. After a lot of discussion and ideas we decided to make what I've started referring to as "The Wall". Anyone who has been in the University of Illinois wrestling room will recognize it as an inspiration. 

Hundreds of man hours have gone into this project from several people from researching, sourcing, scanning, processing and placing photos. The Wall is huge 90.5 feet long and 50 inches tall with space to add. Every state placer, NCAA, NJCAA, USA Wrestling, FILA/UWW All-American is included with a color picture and list of accomplishments. All-State Champions, NCAA Champions and World Team Members have a larger photo. There are also photos of all 7 head coaches and every team photo from the first season in 1955-present. 

The artwork was dropped off with Bannerville USA earlier this week and installation is scheduled for August 4th. 

Thanks to all those who contributed in someway to this project especially:
Dan Winter - Scanning 60 years worth of yearbooks
Joe Williams - Huge amounts of stats, photos, etc
Kevin Sealy - Design ideas, processing photos
Laura Oster - Photoshop help...lots of photoshop help

Fargo Recap - Timmons techs his way to a title

A weeks worth of wrestling is done and Illinois has come away with another three National Titles Cadet and Junior Greco Roman and Cadet Freestyle while finishing a close third in Junior Freestyle. 

Lockport Alumni Josh, Jake and Jameson Oster all were part of the Freestyle coaching staff this year.

Lockport Wrestlers performed well highlighted by a Cadet National Championship brought home by Trevell Timmons.

Matches from Fargo are currently behind the paywall at flowrestling.org but will open to the public soon. I'll post some links then but until you can enjoy Trevell's interviews with various media figures after his finals. 

Trevell Timmons - 152 lbs

FULL Lockport Results:
Junior Greco Roman 
126 lbs - Brandon Ramos 2-2

Cadet Freestyle
126 lbs - Abdullah Assaf 5-2 lost in rd of 12
132 lbs - Baylor Fernandes 4-2 lost in rd of 16
152 lbs - Trevell Timmons 6-0 Champion

Junior Freestyle
138 lbs - Shayne Oster 5-2 lost in rd of 12

Fargo - What's the big deal?

Over the next week and a half we will be talking a lot about Fargo, so what is it and why is it important?

To put it simply Fargo is the largest wrestling tournament in the world. In Fargo, ND from Saturday July 18-Saturday July 25 there will be 6 separate individual age group National Championships will be held. Cadet and Junior Women's Freestyle, Men's Freestyle and Men's Greco Roman. Here's a hype video from FLO Wrestling:

Cadet and Junior National Championships

We've had at least one (and usually more than one) All-American coming home every year since 2007. It is not uncommon to have more than 100 wrestlers in a bracket so placing is a great accomplishment. Last year Shayne was 2nd in Cadet FS and Trevell was a match from placing. This year there are 5 Porters competing in order of the days they will compete:

Junior Greco Roman - July 20-21
126 lbs Brandon Ramos 

Cadet Freestyle - July 22-24
126 Abdullah Assaf
132 Baylor Fernandes
152 Trevell Timmons

Junior Freestyle - July 23-25
138 Shayne Oster 

Schoolboy, Cadet & Junior Duals

One of the big events on the USA Wrestling Calendar is the National Dual tournaments. USA Wrestling Age Groups are based on year of birth so Schoolboy is 2001-2002, Cadet 1999-2000 and Junior is anyone born in 1995 or later and still in HS. Below is a summary of how Lockport kids did for each respective dual team this year.

Schoolboy Greco - IL 4th
Matt Ramos 2-1
Ronald Tucker 7-0

Schoolboy Freestyle - IL 1st
Matt Ramos 3-0
Ronald Tucker 7-0

Cadet Greco - IL 1st
Trevell Timmons 3-0

Cadet Freestyle - IL 1st
Abdullah Assaf 3-1
Baylor Fernandes 5-1
Trevell Timmons 6-0

Junior Freestyle - IL 2nd
Shayne Oster 3-2