Bringing The Green Mountain Back, Vermont USA Wrestling Charter Created

Jul 30, 2024
8 min read

If you were keeping track of Fargo, then you might have been pleasantly surprised to see Team Vermont finish 20th in the 16u Freestyle Division. And upon closer inspection, you’d come across two names on the team that you probably wouldn’t have recognized: Cody Savage and Hunter Gordon, two natives of Texas that wrestle at the Ranger47 wrestling club led by 2008 Olympian Andy Hrovat.

So what do two Texans have to do with wrestling in Vermont?

“It all started when some friends connected me to Joe De Sena, owner of Spartan Race and Spartan Combat; he wanted me to train his kids and help him with some business,” Andy Hrovat, an Ohio native, told The Schwartz Report. “So I moved out to the Boston area in 2020 and, two weeks later, everything shut down. Joe says, ‘Well, why don’t we just go up to Vermont?’ He’s got like a-hundred something acres up there.”

Hrovat and De Sena got to work, and that summer held three camps for friends and family. Once De Sena’s kids went back to school, Hrovat, loving the Vermont area, decided to stay for the whole year, helping the two kids whenever they came up.

“We did more camps in 2021, then [the De Senas] eventually went down to Florida [to Lake Highland Prep], and I followed them and eventually just got my own facility in Dallas, but we’ve had camps every summer in Vermont,” Hrovat said.

He describes the Vermont camps as “Fargo prep” camps, given that the entrants, which came both from New England and Hrovat’s club in Texas, were too young for Fargo competition.

Soon, the camps were becoming something more.

“Every year we’d hold a world-class camp on the farm,” Joe De Sena told The Schwartz Report. “And I’m very happy to have played a minor role in what has come of this.”

Andy Hrovat (Left), Cody Savage (Center), and Cody Savage Sr. (Right). Savage, wrestling under Vermont went 10-4 at the tournament taking 2nd in Freestyle and 6th in Greco

Hrovat ran into problems in Texas as a whistleblower and was suspended for a year on June 10th of this year when he revealed alleged coverups of inappropriate acts by a coach in the state.

“This year, I had some issues with the Texas leadership for being a whistleblower of some abusive people in the state,” Hrovat said. “So, most of my club’s families didn’t want to send their kids with Team Texas.”

Due to this Hrovat and his wrestlers were not comfortable traveling with Team Texas. However, he wasn’t going to let these kids miss Fargo. Thanks to the connections he had made with wrestling coaches and organizations within every state in the country over his illustrious career, Hrovat decided, after training within its borders for the last couple of years, that he’d like to represent the Green Mountain State.

“I reached out to one of the local coaches of Mill River High School, Zach Allen, and I asked him, ‘Who’s the leader of Vermont? Who do I have to talk to to get my kids to wrestle for Vermont?’”

Allen, had been apart of the camp on De Sena's farm for the two weeks and heard that Cody Savage and Hunter Gordon didn’t want to travel with Texas he saw this as the opportunity he needed to finally get the Vermont charter rolling.

To be fair to the Green Mountain State, Hrovat wasn’t bringing top wrestling to Vermont, It was already there and he was just rekindling the love of the sport and reminding the state of its once highly successful high school wrestling history.

Vermont was once a powerhouse on the National scene. Up until Hrovat came along, however, it was one of two states (The other? Mississippi.) states without an official USA Wrestling Charter.

“I called up USA Wrestling and I said, ‘Hey, not only are we going to take a bad situation and make it better, but I found the guy [Zach Allen] who is going to work with me and you to start the Vermont charter.”

And just like that the ball started rolling.

“Starting Vermont’s Charter with USA Wrestling is a great opportunity for our state and I’m very excited for the future,” Mill River Coach Zach Allen told The Schwartz Report. “It’s been many years since we have had one, and we are happy to have a great group of coaches to work together on building this nonprofit for our wrestlers. I am extremely grateful for all the support we have received from the many coaches in our state and around the country.”

In the ‘90s, now Castleton University head coach Scott Legacy was the head coach of the Vermont National 16u/Jr. Freestyle teams. Thirty years later, the program had fallen slightly by the wayside. But with this new charter, kids from Vermont can now represent their state again, bringing more eyes and funding to the state and the region as a whole. Hrovat and Allen are hoping that Vermont can field a team full of local kids for 2025. And they are not alone: Spartan Combat CEO Joe De Sena is in it for the long haul as well.

The trip to Fargo itself was a pleasant surprise for Hrovat and Allen. There, they found Vermont wrestlers not wrestling for Vermont.

“We get to Fargo and we find out there are three girls from Vermont wrestling with Maine and a boy wrestling with Massachusetts,” Hrovat recalled. “[I was thinking] this is perfect because there are already wrestlers that want to be here, so now Zach gets to talk to more wrestlers and coaches across the state and get everyone involved.”

The four Vermont wrestlers representing other states were: Luke Galipeau (Northfield Mt. Hermon, MA), who went 2-2 in Freestyle and 5-2 in the Greco-Roman side; Brooke Davis (St. Johnsbury Academy, VT), who went 3-2 in the Jr. Women’s division, and Jillian Glaski (Mt. Anthony, VT) and Maisa Allen (Otter Valley, VT), who both went 3-2 in the 16u Women’s division.

ree — Vermont Girls: Masia Allen (Left), Brooke Davis (Center), Jillian Glaski (Right)

Hrovat and others see this as the start of something big and is ready to contribute anyway he can.

“Any Vermont kid is invited back to our camp in Pittsfield, VT, that wants to come to Fargo,” said Hrovat. “What ended up being a bad situation in Texas ended up helping Vermont. Now the Spartan Combat [team], myself, and the people of Texas are going to help! Anything they need, we are going be there to support them.”

“All the coaches in Vermont and all the wrestlers in Vermont will hopefully now know that they have the access to Spartan, they have the access to Andy,” De Sena said. “We want to develop this program. My kids grew up in Vermont, they started wrestling in Vermont, we do have that affinity towards Vermont.”

Going forward, Hrovat expects to see this out; he’s not there for one year and leaving.

“One of the things that Zach Allen kept getting at is a lot of people were talking about a charter and wanted to get it done, but no one really knew how so they never got past that thinking-about-it stage,” Hrovat explained. “Luckily, with my connections to USA Wrestling, the board just told me to bring Zach to Fargo and they’ll give him everything—all the resources he needs.”

Allen already has his sights set on huge growth for the state.

“In my hopes, we can start running more tournaments, fundraisers, and build the knowledge of the Olympic styles in our state,” Allen enthused. “It would be great to see a Freestyle and Greco Vermont State Tournament in the future. USA Wrestling has given us some great resources to help us move forward. We can now have an official Team Vermont and have athletes representing Vermont at the national level.”

And when it comes to the Fargo “prep camp” and other ventures in Vermont, Hrovat sees it as only growing.

“For as much as I know we are going to keep holding our Fargo training camp there, I’m going to bring my kids from Texas; Joe De Sena is going to bring kids from Lake Highland Prep in Orlando [FL]. We want to work with the Vermont kids—getting the Vermont kids to come to our camp is going to be a big part of this.”

The United States is the only country that practices folkstyle wrestling. If wrestlers want to truly take their skills to the next level, then they need to experience a little of each Olympic style.

“I have always had a huge interest in the Olympic styles, as a coach and a wrestler; they hold great value in growing athletes' talents and starting new goals,” Allen stated. “Now the state can work together on building that culture for our younger wrestlers and hopefully have some fun along the way, we [want to] have more wrestlers move on to the next level in our sport.”

Vermont is the second smallest state in the country in population size, but it doesn’t lack in excited wrestling coaches.

“ Establishing our own USAW-Vermont delegation is a source of pride,” DJ Rosseau, head coach of St. Johnsbury Academy, told The Schwartz Report. “Our wrestlers can represent our state and their schools instead of wrestling under another state's delegation.

“My hope is that creating our own USAW-Vermont delegation will promote USAW in Vermont and encourage more wrestlers to compete on a larger scale.”

Rosseau sees the growing opportunities as one of the biggest pluses for the region.

“More specifically, since Freestyle wrestling is currently the only option for women to wrestle beyond high school, I hope promoting USAW-Vermont will grow women's wrestling and increase their opportunities for wrestling into college and beyond. Maybe someday there will be a Vermonter on the US Women's Olympic Team.”

Head coach at Fair Haven Union High School, Matt Tuscano is more than willing to give anything he can to grow the state’s new program.

“I’m excited for wrestling to grow not only in numbers but in strength,” Tuscano said. “This opens so many more doors for kids to learn and grow in the sport we love! I’m just super grateful that this is happening, and will do anything I can to help!

“We need more opportunities like this for kids in Vermont. It will open doors for practicing with other great wrestlers from around Vermont, working with other coaches, and participating in events wrestling kids from all over the country! All of which leads to a brighter future for Vermont wrestling!”

“Quality wrestling in Vermont does exist,” added Case Moulton, head coach at Harwood High School. “With this chapter, Vermont will have representation on the national and international levels as Vermont, that we have not had before. We have had great wrestlers hail from Vermont, both female and male who have achieved accolades at the state, New England, National, and World level.”

According to Moulton, one of the biggest ways that this charter is bound to help is in the recognition and the eyes it will bring to the state.

“Up until this point those wrestlers haven’t always had the recognition or honor to compete for the state that they have grown up in. We want to make sure our Vermont Wrestlers are represented and recognized for their achievements,” Moulton said.

“By having a Vermont team, we hope to provide more opportunities for our wrestlers and grow the sport in number and ability within this small state—for past, present, and future wrestlers to be recognized and proud to be Vermont Wrestling USA.”

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