New Hopkins wrestling coach has challenges
When he took over as Hopkins High’s head wrestling coach this winter, Marcus LeVesseur knew it wouldn’t be easy.
Hopkins High wrestling coach Marcus LeVesseur counsels Nathan Schmid following a match at the Don Meyers Fridley Invitational Dec. 1 at Fridley High School. (Photo by John Sherman – Sun Newspapers)
Luckily, he doesn’t mind hard work. He has been around the sport his entire life and won four state championships as a high school wrestler at Minneapolis Roosevelt and, later, Bloomington Kennedy.
LeVesseur continues to compete today as one of the up and coming challengers in mixed martial arts.
In coaching the Hopkins wrestling team this season, LeVesseur already sees improvement. He is familiar with most of the personnel since he coached for five seasons before taking the reins from former head coach Pat Marcy.
The Royals had one finalist and two third-place finishers in their opening competition, the Don Meyers Fridley Invitational Dec. 1.
Junior Noah Sattler reached the 120-pound finals where he lost to Mound-Westonka’s Sam Bennyhoff on a technical fall.
“I told Noah to go out there, have fun and wrestle your heart out,” said LeVesseur. “Noah had Bennyhoff a little bit frustrated early in the third period.”
Jesse Sattler (106 pounds), Noah’s eighth-grade brother, and ninth-grader Willie Rohweder (113) battled their way to third-place finishes.
Ninth-grader Ian Smith, senior Thomas Falk (160), junior Andre Chisley (220) and junior Matt Parker (heavyweight) were Hopkins’ fifth-place finishers.
Senior Drew Resig (138) and senior Anthony Clifton (152) earned sixth places for the Royals.
Tartan won the title at Fridley with 189.5 points and Mound-Westonka was second with 183.5. Other team scores were Champlin Park 158, Irondale 131.5, Hopkins 115, Richfield/Edina Rampage 106, Rogers 100, Zimmerman 87, North St. Paul 65, Minneapolis Patrick Henry 63, Fridley 36 and Minneapolis Washburn 4.
“A lot of our guys lost first-round matches,” said LeVesseur. “But I liked our resolve. Some of them came back with two or three wins. Overall, I was happy with our performance. We graduated 13 seniors from last year’s team, and we are very young this year.”
Next for the Royals is the Chanhassen Invitational, which begins at 9 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, at Chanhassen High School.
