Your future, our focus
The last time he was on the Northwest College campus, Spokane, Wash., native Anthony Varnell earned a pair of All- American titles for head coach Jim Zeigler’s Trapper team. He was also named the 2009 Apodaca Award winner.
After leaving Powell, Varnell went on to win a pair of NAIA national titles at the University of Great Falls. Last week, he returned to campus to assist with NWC’s annual summer wrestling camp as a clinician.
“This is what I love doing,” said Varnell, who works and lives now in Great Falls, Mont. “I love traveling around and helping kids at camps.”
For Varnell, it’s part of the giving-back process to a sport and activity that defined his youth. To be able to pair that desire with an opportunity to return to his former college and also give back to the program that started his college career was just added incentive to make time.
“I’m so glad to have this opportunity and come back and help at my old college,” said Varnell during a break in the action inside Cabre Gymnasium. “I love to give back to a sport that gave so much to me. I’m so happy to be able to be on the mat and to teach kids.”
The camp process is important in Varnell’s eyes. He credits them with laying the foundation for his collegiate success.
“It’s a huge part of the sport,” said Varnell. “As a kid, I went to as many camps as I could. Almost all of the technique I learned when I was younger, I learned at camps.”
Camps are also a good way to meet and get to know other wrestlers and coaches, Varnell notes.
“It’s such a lifestyle sport,” he said. “To be in a gym with dozens of other people who love the sport. To be able to pick up techniques and watch how other people are doing things. That’s a great environment to be in.”
As the sport of wrestling continues to grow and evolve, Varnell notes the camp process is only getting more important.
“There’s so many things today that weren’t around even when I was a kid,” Varnell said. “There’s more guys going through college who, like me, are coming back to teach at camps or to coach. You can go online now and watch videos to learn techniques that you might not have previously seen. The sport is just growing in so many ways. It’s changed so much for these kids compared to when I was younger.”
Approximately 65 participants attended this year’s Great American Wrestling Camp on the campus of Northwest College.