TORRINGTON – On Monday, February 10, the Torrington Rotary Club met for their noon gathering at the Cottonwood Country Club in Torrington to conduct normal Rotarian business. The meeting was called to order by Todd Peterson a shortly after the 12 p.m. hour.

“As we gather today, let’s remember the power of service and connection. This Valentine’s Day, we’re reminded that love isn’t just about hearts and flowers. It’s about making a difference in the lives of others. As the great Maya Angelou once said, ‘Try to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud,’” Peterson said. “Let’s be that rainbow, lighting up the world through our actions, big and small. Together, we can bring warmth and compassion and hope to those who need it most.”

Peterson then led the members in the Pledge of Allegiance followed by the Rotarian Four-Way test and other club formalities before introducing Dan Carter, Rotarian Assistant District Governor. 

“Todd and I go way back. I’ve known Todd since 1985 and I can tell you some stories. One thing I can tell you is, as tall as he is, he has a hollow leg,” Carter joked. 

Carter explained, the club would be having president-elect training on March 21 and 23. 

“Secondly, June 12 to the 14 is the district conference in Lublin, Colorado. So, it’s close for us to go there and I would encourage you all to go. It’s such a great time,” Carter said. “And then, the international conference is encountered, and that’s June 21 to the 25, if anybody’s interested. That’s probably as close as I’m going to get on an international basis versus being right here in the United States. Lastly, the incoming district governor, Karen Morgan, is looking for someone that would be interested in being an area governor. My term ends in June and we would like to have somebody from the Torrington club or the Morrill club or the Scottsbluff/Gering club be interested in doing that.”

Christine Braddy spoke to the club with a short announcement. 

“We’ve had JD Williams at the library on Saturday morning and have had some really great conversations about what our community needs. I would encourage you this Saturday morning, if you’re available, he’s at the library from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. He’s a great listener ear and he’s very willing to take things back to Cheyenne,” Braddy explained. 

Main Street Market also announced they would be unable to cater the March Rotary fundraiser and it was noted the club needed to search for another cater for the wine tasting event. 

Petterson then turned the floor over to Dr. Lance Lucas to introduce the afternoon speakers. Lucas introduced Cody Grant, the Torrington High School wrestling coach where Grant provided a season update for the club. 

“Like Dr. Lucas said, I’m Cody Grant. When I got the invite to come speak here, I was like, well, I’m super passionate about wrestling, but I do not know [if] public speaking is one of my strong points,” Grant began. “I got my little cheat sheet. I’m just going to talk a little bit about the wrestling program, the history of it since I’ve been there, and what we’ve done this year, been pretty successful, and what we have left.”

Grant provided a short background for the club members. 

“I grew up in Torrington. I grew up with the youth wrestling program, the USA program here in town. And it’s still going strong, but I had a lot of great mentors for that. That’s what really got me into wrestling. Then once I got into high school, I wrestled under Jason Nickal. A lot of you are probably familiar with the Nickals and some of you have probably seen, Bo Nickal, his son. He was a four-time national finalist and a three-time champion at Penn State, now he fights in the UFC,” Grant explained. 

“I was a four-time state champion for Torrington and I went and wrestled for the University of Wyoming for five years. My last year was under the current coach, Mark Branch. Now I’ve got to come back to my old stomping grounds and head coach,” Grant said. “This is my fifth year.”

Grant also explained he has been working as an assistant coach for the middle school wrestling team and the middle school coach has also filled in as Grant’s assistant with the high school team. According to Grant, having access to potential wrestlers throughout their career has been helpful to grow the participation numbers. 

“That consistency has really kind of helped, I think, bringing our wrestlers up and hopefully getting those numbers up, which is really one thing I’ve really tried to focus on,” Grant explained. “Since I’ve taken over, when I took over, there were 12 wrestlers, I believe, on the team. Now we’ve got 25 boy wrestlers and six girl wrestlers.”

Grant also provided the club with some background information on girls wrestling. 

“This is the third year,” Grant said. “It’s actually been sanctioned in the state of Wyoming as a sport for girls. It’s grown at a crazy pace all across the nation. I think at the Ron Con, which is one of the biggest tournaments in the state, there was almost 400 girls that competed at that tournament. It’s the fastest growing sport in high school. That might be a little misleading though because obviously it’s just been sanctioned in a lot of states. But it has really taken off.”

Grant also announced Doyle Meyer joined the coaching staff. Grant noted Meyer also had one of the longest tenures coaching. 

“Now, a little bit about what we’ve been doing this year. Really, like I said, kind of building off of last year. Last year, we had pretty good success. We got second at regionals. We came up short to Rawlins and we edged out Douglas,” Grant explained. “This year, we kind of built off of that momentum. So, this year, start out, we went to the Cheyenne duals and we went 5-0 winning our pool.”

Grant further explained, the team had done well with dual matches. 

“This year in duels, which are individual – I don’t know how many of you are familiar with wrestling – but dual matches are just individual matchups against the other teams,” Grant explained. “This year, we were 13-3. Unfortunately, our last three losses came this last week. We’ve been battling a little bit of sickness, which is all right because this is the end of the season.”

Grant noted with two weeks until regionals, the team will be taking time to get healthy again and then he introduced two seniors from the wrestling team, Barrett Eichenberger and Kaden Romig. Grant further explained Eichenberger and Romig were freshmen during his second year of coaching. 

“They know the ups and downs, the experiences we’ve had as a team, the low numbers and to have like 25 wrestlers in there now has been a drastic change since when they started. I mean, having 12 guys in a wrestling room now, having almost 30 with our boys and girls combined has been great to see it grow,” Grant said. “Just some highlights from our season outside of our dual record, we also, for the first time in this year, went to Thornton, Colorado. We had three champions and we had six guys in the finalists. Two of the champions are sitting up here with me today, Barrett Eichenberger and Kaden. Then we also, one of the biggest tournaments we had two weeks ago with the Ron Thon. That’s an all-class tournament, so it’s super tough. We got all schools in 2A, 3A, and 4A competing.”

Grant continued before turning the microphone over to both Eichenberger and Romig who both said a few short words about their season and the meeting concluded with a brief question and answer portion. The meeting was then adjourned.