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Schumacher ready to step up for Cougars
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With 81 career wins to his credit, senior Drew Schumacher figures to be among Mankato East’s most successful wrestlers in 2007-08. Pat Christman
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Senior taking on leadership role this season; enters ’07-08 with 81 wins
MANKATO — The last few years, Mankato East wrestler Drew Schumacher has had to endure some significant weight cuts at the end of each season so he could fit in the lineup around Cody Adams and Logan Sheppard.
This year, Schumacher plans on being the guy the other wrestlers have to accommodate.
The senior 130-pounder is one of the Cougars’ top returnees for 2007-08. As a co-captain along with Don Thomas, Schumacher knows he will be counted on to be a consistent winner for East.
“I’m enjoying that leadership role,” Schumacher said. “I’m learning to be more vocal and to keep encouraging the younger guys. On the mat I just want to lead by example.”
Schumacher enters the season with 81 career wins and is looking to surpass the century mark before he graduates. He also has 51 career pins and would like to get to 70 before he’s done wrestling this season.
“I had a 30-win season as a 10th-grader so I know it can be done,” he said. “I’d like to try to make it to state. I was fifth in the section last year and sixth as a sophomore so I’ve been close in the past.”
Schumacher’s decision to become a wrestler was almost pre-ordained before he had much say in the matter. His two older brothers — John and Daniel — were both wrestlers and their father is a big fan of the sport. Fortunately for Drew, he also took the sport at the age of 5 so he fit right in with the rest of the wrestling Schumachers.
This past offseason, Drew attended camps at Mankato West and at Luther College. He wasn’t able to do any freestyle wrestling because he was busy playing baseball for East in the spring and for Eagle Lake Legion during the summer.
Still, he says he’s ready to be one of the guys the rest of the team looks to for a victory.
“We lost some very good wrestlers in Cody and Logan and Michael Davis and Mike Hughes,” he said. “They’re gone now so me and the other upperclassmen have to pick up the slack.”
East head coach Bruce Urbatch says Schumacher is up to the task.
“He’s been with the varsity program since ninth grade so he knows what we expect,” Urbatch said. “The last few years he’s had to slide around Cody and Logan to get in the lineup at the end of the season. This year the other guys will be sliding around him.”
In addition to Schumacher and Thomas (160 pounds), East’s top returnees include Dan Davis (145), Paul Kratzke (285) and Wyatt Derynck (125). Kratzke has been undefeated on the junior varsity the last two years and should slide into the spot vacated by Hughes.
“We’re going to be thin in the lower weights just like we were last year,” Urbatch said. “We really won’t know how we stack up until a couple of weeks from now and we see where everybody is at weight wise.”
Section 2AA has been reshuffled this year and will include teams such as New Ulm, Waconia, Hutchinson, Mayer Lutheran and Glencoe-Silver Lake. Le Center-Cleveland/Montgomery-Lonsdale and perennial power Scott West remain in the section as well.
The Cougars open the season at 9 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 1, at the Rochester John Marshall Invitational.
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