'Anaconda's Past' to focus on the Smelter City's wrestling history
A 2012-2013 Anaconda High School yearbook page shows coaches, managers and a few of the Copperhead wrestlers that year who wrestled under head coach Jerry Arneson (top left). Arneson will speak on the history of the Copperhead wrestling program at the next installment of the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Historic Resources Board's "Anaconda's Past" historic speaker series, which is set for Thursday, March 12 at noon at The Forge. Photo courtesy of Jerry Arneson.
Audience members at the Thursday, March 12 installment of “Anaconda’s Past,” a historic speaker series, organized each month by the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Historic Resources Board, will take a nearly 66-year-long trip through time, from the inception of wrestling in Anaconda to present day.
Jerry Arneson, who was born the same year as his presentation’s starting point, and who has been involved with wrestling in Anaconda since 1973, said he combed through dozens of high school yearbooks to collect a picture of every team from 1960 to present.
“I’ll have about 110 pictures there laid out so people can look at them,” Arneson said.
Arneson said he will speak on all nine head coaches of Anaconda wrestling from 1960 to present, as well as all 10 state champion wrestlers – one who was a repeat (Rob Hill) and one who was a three-peat (Scott Hatcher).
Of those 10, Arneson said he’s either wrestled with or coached six: Hill, Hatcher, Marcus Lussy, Bryan Armstrong, Colin Rogers, and Nathan Blodnick.
“There’s not too many kids in town I haven’t coached in wrestling,” Arneson said, explaining that he sometimes had the opportunity to coach or wrestle students who would go on to be fathers, and then coach their sons.
Arneson said he became an assistant coach of Anaconda wrestling in 1983, and then became a head coach in 1989. He retired in 2014, but still goes to the state meet every year, and tries to go to the national meet every two years.
“I still chase them around,” he said.
Arneson said he’ll also talk some about the freestyle club, which focused on freestyle wrestling, which is Olympic-style wrestling, whereas high school-style wrestling is folkstyle wrestling.
“When the club was formed we were mainly doing freestyle wrestling,” Arneson explained.
He said that in the club wrestling, members can also compete in Greco-Roman wrestling.
Arneson said that although he was surprised when he was first approached, he feels privileged to be chosen as the speaker.
“I feel honored to be able to be the one to talk about thew history of it,” Arneson said.
Arneson’s presentation, “The History of Anaconda High School Wrestling,” will be on Thursday, March 12 at noon at The Forge Hotel.
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