One More Year

 

Following a series of back surgeries, Tomes returned to his native Wisconsin to recover and rebuild.  Resolved with the departure from high school coaching, sights turned to his alma mater. 

 

For 12 years, alumni tried unsuccessfully to get CU to reinstate their wrestling program.  They steadfastly refused.  Despite having been one of the school's first sports, and for having a team for 49 seasons, the answer was always no, if an answer was given at all.  In 2010, CU and the alumni managed to reach a compromise;  the team could return if it existed as a club.  

 

That meant no funding and no coach's pay. Tomes wrote a proposal to the Student Activity Council, and was awarded $26,000 to build the team with.  Despite not being paid a penny, Tomes accepted the challenge and began to put together something people could remember. The team Carroll would field was unlike anything the school had ever seen.

 

Tomes built the team into a competitive group quickly. Wrestlers from all three of his prior coaching stops joined the team, including Ode Osbourne, who instantly elevated the status of the program, having placed three times in the top six at the Florida State Tournament, and a D1 caliber recruit. To top it off, the wrestling team reflected the coach's urban roots.  Carroll's wrestling team would become the most diverse activity ever offered at Carroll. The team also added a women's side, becoming the first formal college offering for women in Wisconsin. 

 

Before the first dual, Carroll would field a full lineup and competed on a full varsity schedule, despite their club status.  

 

The team would go 4-4 against sanctioned NAIA, NJCAA and NCAA teams.  2 wrestlers won over thirty matches and three more won 20.  5 wrestlers qualified for the NCWA National Tournament.  While there, freshman Ode Osbourne (141) upset the #1 seed in the third and final overtime, downing Luke Bilyeu and advancing to the quarter-finals. Osbourne hd beaten the #2 and #3 finishers in the Nation just two weeks earlier, demonstrating just how close he was to a spot in the finals.  

 

He was joined by 2 teammates in the blood-round of tournament placing.  The team came a hair away from having three All-Americans.  Nick Grady (220) Andrew Stolldorf (285) both finished a match away, while Josh Nelson (157) and Dom Karolczak (182) were competitive but did not win a match.  Liza McDermit qualified for the National Tournament, and came home as an Academic All-American.  

 

The team achieved a great deal that season, but Carroll's sudden influx of diversity did not sit well with school officials, and played a role in the elimination of the program. The team poked holes in the perceptions that minority students had no interest in attending Carroll.  Of the 16 men and women that took part, 8 were ethnic minorities; a stark contrast from the sub-1 % reflected in the student body. 

 

Unfortunately, the program was dropped again following the 2011-12 season; a sad reflection on the state of Wisconsin's oldest college. The legacy of Carroll's team is found in several of the area wrestling programs, where many former Pioneers are coaching, and in 2019, the team made some history. 

 

Ode Osbourne, the team's best wrestler that lone season, became the first former Carroll athlete to be signed by the big leagues.  Dave Weber never played a down for the Seahawks, but Osbourne was given an audition on Dana White's Contenders Series on ESPN in July of 2019, and won in spectacular fashion.  He was signed immediately to the UFC, and made his debut in nearly unprecedented fashion; on the main card of UFC 246: McGregor vs Cerrone, on January 18th, 2020, at the sold out T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.  50 million people watched worldwide, with Coach Tomes in the same corner he was as his high school and college coach. Tomes has said publicly that he intends to release all his communication throughout the loss of the program in a free ebook to be called School Colors, due out in 2021.