Skip Toops – The Guillotine

Putting Themselves In Winning Positions – Pierz Wrestling

May 19, 2026

By Brian Jerzak

Across the nation, thousands of kids attend wrestling technique camps. While good technique is essential to success, it is not the only way to win. Under head coach Skip Toops, the Pioneers’ wrestlers focus not just on learning techniques, but on applying them effectively.

“We look more at winning positions than doing wrestling moves,” Coach Toops said. “We work on winning different positions we get into in a wrestling match, being comfortable in positions during a match, and finding a way to win that position – winning positions and understanding it is the little things that make you successful.”

For Toops, focusing on the little things started in small-town Minnesota.

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Strong support for wrestling to get green light this winter

September 29, 2020

Aesthetically, it might seem like wrestling is the one sport that has no chance of happening during the 2020-21 school year.

Pierz Pioneers head wrestling coach Skip Toops would argue his sport is the one best prepared to handle competing in the time of COVID-19.

Toops started a change.org petition titled Let Them Wrestle MN that has 8,654 signatures as of 2 p.m. Monday, Sept. 28. The #letthemwrestlemn hashtag can be found on Facebook and Twitter and Toops himself has been front and center to answer any questions or lesson concerns about wrestling during a pandemic.

“We all saw on Aug. 4 that all of a sudden the rug was pulled out from under football and volleyball,” Toops said. “Whether it caught people off guard or not they had to be reactive. Our goal is to be proactive and create that support and put pressure on the people who make those decisions to show that there is support for this and there are statistics that show that this should happen. Continue reading at brainerddispatch.com

The Al and Josh Show Podcast – Let Them Wrestle MN

September 25, 2020

Al and Josh talk with Pierz Head Wrestling Coach Skip Toops about the ‘Let Them Wrestle MN’ movement. Skip talks about why and how wrestling should and could make a return to Minnesota.

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Sticking To The Basics – Moorhead Spuds

June 24, 2020December 28, 2015

Moorhead head wrestling coach Skip Toops’ path toward helping bring the Spuds wrestling program back to the glory days of the late ’70s and early ’80s did not go in a straight line. Many times his path started to lead him in a different direction from the wrestling room. In the end, his path became clear. Since he became the head coach for the Spuds, Moorhead wrestling has had its best stretch of results in more than thirty years – in large part because the program became a reflection of its coach. It has stuck to the basics.

Toops grew up in New London and wrestled for New London-Spicer. He is from a family full of athletes and coaches, but none of them were wrestlers. Toops would be the first to pursue the sport past the early youth levels.

“My mom put me in wrestling when I was five years old because I was an overly active and aggressive kid,” Toops said. “My dad had been the head basketball coach at my school until I was born, and my brothers were basketball players, but wrestling just fit with who I was.”

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