Having moved to Osage my freshman year of college- my first day in town was the saturday of district wrestling. I wandered down to the school not even knowing what I would see. I enjoyed sitting in the stands and listening to people fantasize about Mark Schwab getting beat- and I did not even know who he was at the time. Obviously he didn't, but I left that day amazed at Osage wrestling and the powerhouse it was. I figured with all those people in the stands cheering agianst the Osage guys it must mean they are the big boy on the block. I will never forget the all-star meet tha year watching Joe Malacek and Randy Ewing wrestling- what a match. As a matter of fact I took theory of wrestling at UNI, which was funny as a basketball player, and my professor was Jim MIller, asst. coach at the time. He called Osage one of the best 5 wrestling jobs in the entire state. As the years passed the wrestling remainded strong and the names are well known- Schwab, Malacek, Uker, Wagner, Kisley, Gast, Johans, havig, pollard, wagner, rhoades, goodale etc., etc., etc.
And Osage has had great coaches- and by that I mean great people who also happen to know a lot about their sport.
Perhaps if they are in a "downturn" right now it is just what happens in programs. Used to be when Osage got together with Britt, Riceville, or Charles City it was big news.....how are those programs these days? I do not follow wrestling enough to have kept up with some of the powerhouses of the day. It is hard to maintain excellence. Different families, enrollment drops, etc.
I also know this- back in the 80's and into the 90's you did not want to play Osage in anything- had a great football tradition, boys and girls won basketball titles in the 90's and baseball, at least in the years I was around under Coach Mayer, was a great program.
Anyway, fun to come on here and see Osage wrestling discussed- you know how big you are when people start worrying about why you no longer dominate.