Skip Toops

Strong support for wrestling to get green light this winter

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

Sticking To The Basics – Moorhead Spuds

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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