For most high school wrestling programs, the season runs from December to March and doesn't start again until the following winter.
Bulloch Academy isn’t most high school wrestling programs.
It should go without saying you don’t win three consecutive state titles without deviating from the status quo. But when a young man steps into the BA wrestling facility he’s signing a year-round contract to be apart of what has become a GISA dynasty.
The Gator wrestlers will get continue their summer regiment by being at the site of a wrestling camp unlike anything that’s ever been in Bulloch County before. The Takedown sponsored BORO wrestling camp is going to bring wrestlers from all over the state to learn from world class technicians over a four day period in the Bulloch Academy main gym.
Of those technicians — Nick Gwiazdowski, Dustin Kawak, Ryan Millhof and Sean Russell will be four of the camp heads who will dole out some championship caliber knowledge to the high schoolers in attendance. Now those not in the wrestling know will see the aforementioned foursome as just names, but these are not ordinary wrestling camp instructors.
“This is an awesome experience for not only our boys at BA but all the local kids in the Ogeechee area,” said BA head wrestling coach Andy Tomlin. “To bring in the guys the caliber of Gwiazdowski is something that’s never been done before.”
In particular, Gwiazdowski was one of the best college wrestlers in this decade. The New York native won two national championships as a heavyweight at NC State and nearly won three in a row in 2016 had it not been for a 7-5 overtime loss to Ohio State’s Kyle Snyder in the title match. He’d finish his collegiate career 108-3 and is now an aspiring Olympian, but in the meantime he’ll lend his talents to helping out aspiring high school wrestlers in Bulloch County.
In addition to Gwiazdowski, Kawa comes in as one of the camp’s founders and one of the greatest high school wrestlers in Georgia prep history. Kawa was a multi-time ACC Champion at NC State and has been a pivotal figure in Georgia prep wrestling since he graduated college in 2004.
“Dustin and I go back to our times wrestling in Gwinnett County,” Tomlin said. “He went to Shiloh and I went to South Gwinnett. He’s like family to me.”
Millhof and Russell are both Georgia natives in their own right and are current stars at the collegiate level. Millhof has been successful in stints at Oklahoma and Arizona State while Russell is an All-American performer at D-II Edinboro. All four will be instructors at the camp along with the BA staff.
“It’s definitely cool that Milhoff and Russell are those local Georgia-grown guys who have made it big and are able to inspire younger generations to go out and do the same,” Tomlin said.
The camp itself is set to run from Monday to Thursday from 9:00 am through noon. It’s drawn local sponsorships from companies like M&K Trucking and Pope Construction to go along with the title sponsor Takedown — a wrestling outfitter based out of Lawrenceville, Ga.
For more information on the camp, contact Tomlin at atomlin@bullochacademy.com.
World class technique and instruction coming to Statesboro