The Guillotine


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Minnesota Chapter of The National Wrestling Hall of Fame to induct seven in April

September 2, 2009

The Minnesota Chapter of The National Wrestling Hall of Fame has selected the following honorees for 2010:
The Hall of Fame Banquet is set for April 17, 2010 at The Holiday Inn and Suites in Owatonna, MN.

Outstanding American:

Phillip C. Richards
Excelsior, MN

Phillip Richards was a Temple, PA University standout wrestler and captain, and student body president. He was also a PIAA PA District X1 champion and team captain at Easton High School, PA. He has had outstanding success as the CEO and Chairman of the Board of North Star Resources Group.

North Star represents a fully integrated array of financial services and products for individuals and businesses of all sizes and has 70,000 clients with offices in 11 states.

Richards is the Chairman and founder of North Star Resources Group, which, since 1969 has grown from seven employees to 325 today, and has over $40,000,000 in revenue. A featured speaker in twelve different countries, he has authored two books, and been inducted into the GAMA International Hall of Fame.

A generous person, Phil recently pledged $250,000 to The Mayo Clinic Foundation Matching Gift Endowment for Alzheimer’s Research, and a $100,000 perpetual annual scholarship at Eaton, PA High School in honor of his wrestling coach John B. Maitland. Phil is also trying resurrect Wrestling at NCAA I Temple University.

Lifetime Service Nominees:

James Beshey
St. Clair, MN

This Britt, IA native gave 38 years of his life as a high school coach, along with being the Owner/Publisher/Editor of The Guillotine, a national award-winning state wrestling publication for over twenty tears. Jim’s coaching career started at tiny Brownton, MN and he moved to Glencoe-Silver Lake, where his outstanding teams and success continued.

Jim coached a number of state entrants and individual state champions, including Nate Matousek who was a three-timer and the all-time Minnesota career wins leader in 2004.

A member of The Dave Bartelma Minnesota Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame, Jim was selected as Region Coach of the Year in 2003. His head coaching career record was 194-161-6.

The Guillotine has won the National Wrestling Media Award a number of times.

Neil Ladsten
Duluth, MN

Neil started the Collegiate Wrestling Program at the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 1969, and had a top-notch collegiate program for twenty-six years. A Vietnam veteran, of the U.S. Army Military Police Corps, his wrestlers exemplified his mental toughness.

Neil coached twenty-four All-Americans at UMD. Neil’s teams won four Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference titles, and three of his teams finished in the top ten in the Nation in The NAIA and NCAA Division II ranks. Many of his former wrestlers are still coaching today, and he is considered a molder of men.

Neil, also served as the offensive coordinator of the highly successful Bulldog Football Program, and was ahead of His time in strength training.

Former NFL Coach Tony Dungy called Neil “A great Coach, but an even better person”!

Howard Leopold
Mound, MN

Howard Leopold was one of Minnesota’s finest high school wrestlers ever. The three-time state champ in the one-class system, was selected to the 60-Year Dream Team in Minnesota. His bid for a fourth state title is of folklore. With a 12-2 lead he got caught in a fluke move with less than twenty seconds to go in the match. He went on to be an NAIA National runner-up at Concordia College of Moorhead.

A role model to his athletes for twenty-four years at Mound-Westonka High School, Howard coached his team to the 1988 MSHSL state dual meet tournament and he had fifteen state place winners. He was selected Region Coach of the Year in 1988. Howard was elected to The Minnesota Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Concordia College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998.

Andrew McCarty
Park Rapids, MN

The "Dean of Wrestling Officials" in northern Minnesota, Andy had a stellar twenty-five year officiating career from 1971-1996. Andy was the Head Official for all twenty-five Region 6, 7, and 8 Tournaments he worked. He also worked eighteen state tournaments.

Andy also was a head coach for eleven years at Parkers Prairie and Park Rapids High Schools. At Parkers Prairie, Andy coached Hall of Fame Coach Lyle Freduenberg. Fruedenberg’s Foley teams have won three state titles and he credits McCarty “as his Mentor”.

Andy, a member of the Football Coaches Hall of fame, was inducted in the Minnesota Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2008. He is a military veteran and a life-time member of the Park Rapids American Legion and VFW. Andy has also served on the Hubbard County Variance Board and Planning Commission.

Ken Schmoker
Bemidji, MN

Ken Schmoker gave twenty-three years of outstanding coaching services to his athletes and students in the sport of wrestling. A great wrestler at Northern Colorado, Ken won three Rocky Mountain Athletic titles and participated in two NCAA Division I tournaments attaining one NCAA I All-American honor.

Ken had a five-year stint at Pueblo Central HS, where his team won the 1954 Colorado High School State Championship.

Ken moved to Bemidji in 1958 and was with the Region 8 powerhouse for eighteen years. He coached 75 state entrants, three state individual champions, and thirteen other wrestlers that placed in the one-class system. His teams won ten district team titles and eight region team titles. His team placed as high as sixth in the one-class Minnesota state high school tournament.

Ken was inducted in to the Minnesota Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame in 2003. 2008 Alaska Lifetime Service NWHOF winner Tom Ritchie said this about his former coach, “he’s the only father I got left on this Earth!”

A number of Ken’s student-athletes are highly successful wrestling coaches today.

John M. Sterner
Rapid City, SD

John Sterner, the proud graduate of Boys Town, NE, and a Father Flannagan product, carved an outstanding thirty-eight year career of coaching and giving back to the sport of wrestling. Possibly the most positive person you would ever meet in your lifetime, he was a standout athlete at South Dakota State University in both football and wrestling. Sterner, was also a member of the US Army at Fort Leonard Wood, MO. Lynn Long was his Coach.

John coached at New England High School, ND, when they claimed a state title. He also coached at South Dakota Tech and School of Mines, Rapid City Central High School (where he coached Olympic Champion Randy Lewis and NFL Kicker Adam Viniteri, who was a state runner up), and at Chariton, IA.

John’s last fifteen years of coaching at Minnesota State University Moorhead was his most successful coaching stint. His teams claimed seven conference championships in nine years. John coached thirty All-Americans, including MSUM’s first national champion in twenty-nine years – Nate Hendrickson, who was the NCAA Division II OW in 1997 in their back yard at NDSU in Fargo, ND.

Yes, Wrestling is proud to claim John Sterner as one of their own.

Bio's courtesy of Spencer Yohe, Minnesota Chapter NWHOF President