| Still a fan |
By: DEREK SULLIVAN
dsullivan@owatonna.com
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Posted: Friday, June 26, 2009 11:13 pm
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Former Medford wrestling coach Jim Slifka
Derek Sullivan/People's Press
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MEDFORD — For 36 years, Jim Slifka ran the Medford wrestling room.
Slifka spends his time now watching high school and college wrestling from the stands and spending time outdoors. He even works at Cabela’s. Since taking over as Medford’s head wrestling coach in 1961, Slifka has seen the sport take off.
“The sport has certainly grown,” he said. “The state field has grown to three classes, which I think is good. Some say with three classes that wrestling is watered down, but I think the level of competition is good.”
When Slifka started during the Kennedy Administration, there was only one class of wrestling, which meant the Tigers competed with Owatonna, Northfield, Faribault, Waseca and Cannon Falls, to name a few.
“It was really quite a scramble,” he said, “but the good news is that the parents were always so supportive.”
Even though getting to state was difficult for a wrestler from a small town, Medford did have its share of success. In 1984, John Mickel won a state title at 155 pounds. In 1984, there were two classes.
“The guys were always so competitive,” Slifka said. “We had some success with conference tournaments.”
When Slifka started, the Gopher Conference looked a lot different than it did today. Slifka said when he started New Richland, Ellendale, Alden, Janesville, Waterville and Morristown had their own programs. Today all six of those programs have combined with other programs. In fact, Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton and Waterville-Elysian-Morristown combined last season. During his tenure, Slifka said Medford looked at combining with some other schools, but all the attempts failed, and the Tigers were left to go it alone.
“At one point, we were the second smallest school in the Gopher, and in the late 1990s we had to play nine-man football,” he added.
Slifka compiled a 158-161-7 record while at Medford. He is second all-time in wins at the school behind current coach Dennis Whitman (168-77-4). He is also in the Bartelma Wrestling Hall of Fame. Since stepping down in 1997, Slifka has been attending most Medford home matches and the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships. He said he has helped 10 or 11 times as a table worker at the NCAA meet.
“It has given me a chance to see different parts of the country,” he said. “I have been to Auburn Hills, Mich.; Oklahoma City; and St. Louis. It’s fun to see different areas.”
While Slifka does still live in Medford and attends Tigers’ home meets, he was quick to say that he lets Whitman do all the coaching.
“I keep my hand out of the cookie jar,” he said. “I will talk to him afterwards, but my theory is don’t mess up a good thing.”
If Slifka could change anything, he would take out one ‘big’ boy and replace him with a ‘little guy.’ Slifka said Medford has always had trouble finding 215-pounders and heavyweights.
“It has very much always been a problem,” he said. “We have had some go to state, but for the last number of years we have had wrestling, we have had few heavyweights. “I think that is a problem for most small schools. I would rather see in Class A only one weight above 215, and one more lower weight. After all, colleges only have one wrestling class above 200.” |
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