G-R enters wrestling sharing agreement with D-NH

Dike-New Hartford and Gladbrook-Reinbeck have entered into a sharing agreement for the Wolverines' wrestling program, beginning with the 2018-19 season later this winter.

Dike-New Hartford Activities Director Cody Eichmeier said he was approached by G-R's AD, John Olson, in the spring as Olson was exploring options after the end of G-R's previous sharing agreement with North Tama, which expired at the end of the last school year. The new agreement will be evaluated by both schools on a year-to-year basis, with currently only three wrestlers expected to join the Dike-New Hartford program.

"The first year will be the biggest as far as the logistics of kids from G-R coming to D-NH," Eichmeier said. "We'll see how it goes, see if it truly is a good fit for G-R."

Olson noted that North Tama's participation levels in wrestling have been consistent in recent years as G-R's numbers dipped in part due to more boys opting to head into the basketball program, which has enjoyed recent success at the high school state level.

"We have people with our youth wrestling program that've done a great job, but you get to junior high and see the success in basketball and if you're a kid you're gonna go out with whatever your friends are going into," Olson said. "That's great for our basketball program, but not everybody's going to be a basketball player, not everybody's going to be a wrestler, so we want to have those options available.

"Now [the young wrestlers] will be looking up to a high school program that says, 'What will you guys be doing on Thursday?' 'Oh, we're going to wrestle in Waukee, and we have a big tournament in Waverly on Saturday. And we'll be going to the state tournament because our team is at the state tournament.' … It gives those kids the opportunity to do more."

For the time being, D-NH will not change its nickname or make any alterations to the standard D-NH uniforms as the sharing agreement is in its infancy. However, G-R will still host its annual wrestling tournament in Reinbeck under the D-NH banner and Eichmeier said a junior high event will be added to the schedule in Reinbeck as well.

"We envision it lasting quite some time if it does work," Eichmeier said. "It's just hopefully trying to get over that one-year hump to figure out some of those question marks about whether it will work."