David Boger
PennsylvaniaDave started his career in wrestling as an elementary student in 1970. He is still involved in wrestling, now as an official and a member of the AAU National Wrestling Committee Executive Board.
As an adult, Dave began coaching and officiating. He coached at Annville Elementary from 1985 until 1990, at Lancaster Catholic High School from 1993 to1994, at Annville High School from 1995 to 2001, and at Middletown High School from 2005 to 2009. During this time he also started and coached the Lebanon Valley Wrestling Club, which had Freestyle, Greco-Roman, and Sombo styles of wrestling. He began officiating Freestyle, Greco and Sombo in 1988. Many tournaments later, Dave received national recognition when the AAU National Wrestling Committee named him International Style Official of the Year in 1995 and 1998. In 2000 he became the International Style Officials Chairman for the AAU National Wrestling Committee. He still serves in that position today.
As a member of the Middle Atlantic Wrestling Association from 1986 to the present time, Dave served as Freestyle Chair from 2001 to 2006. He also served as their treasurer from 2002-2006.
Some of Dave’s responsibilities as an official included:
Dave feels that he has learned that wrestling is an individual sport, which takes a group effort. For that reason he would like to recognize Kurt Hernisen, his junior high coach and a high school official, Gary Reesor for showing him the technical side of teaching, training and coaching and for getting him started in officiating, Mort Gellar for being his mentor and forcing him to be a better official, and Jerry Petrofes and Wade Schalles for teaching him early in his coaching career the formula for success. He would also like to say a special thank you to his wife, Juanita, and his family for all their support and encouragement.
Jean Olson
MontanaJean began her involvement with AAU Wrestling when she signed up her oldest son with the Colstrip Montana AAU Wrestling Club. She believed in sports for the betterment of youth and learned that wrestling was one of the best sports to have her children involved in. As a volunteer mom she was soon very involved in the club, working wherever she was needed, whether it was organizing tournaments, helping coaches at practice, pairing or scoring and timing. She was elected to the local board serving as trustee for two years, treasurer for four years and president for four years. At the state level Jean was treasurer of the Montana Amateur Wrestling Association from 1994 to 2000. She has served as a Montana delegate to the AAU National Convention, attending the National Wrestling Committee meetings for the past 15 years. She was the Montana AAU Association’s second vice president for 2 years, vice president for 2 years, and is currently in her 8th year as president, now called governor, of the Montana District. In 2002 Jean was elected secretary of the AAU National Wrestling Committee and currently serves in that position. From 2003 until the present she has also been a co-chairman of the National Wrestling Committee’s Hall of Fame Committee. She has worked at the head table at the Scholastic (Disney) Duals for seven years and worked at Grand National Wrestling Tournaments for two years scoring and timing and for two years pairing. She is a life member of both the national AAU and the Montana AAU.
Jean’s awards from her years of volunteering for AAU include: Outstanding Service Recognition from the Colstrip Wrestling Club in 2001, Montana AAU Association Outstanding Volunteer in 2000, Montana AAU Outstanding Contributor Award in 2002, AAU National Wrestling Committee’s Sustained Superior Performance Award in 2003 and the AAU Presidential Leadership Award in 2004.
Living in smaller towns, with a commitment to being involved in her children’s activities, led to volunteering and eventual leadership in many organizations. These ranged from president of the local booster club to chairman of the board of the Schoolhouse History and Art Center in Colstrip with many other volunteer positions in between. However, the AAU, especially wrestling, has kept her the busiest for the longest period of time. Jean feels that the people she has met and the friendships she has made, not only in Montana but also all over the country, have made these years especially rewarding.
Jean currently lives in Laurel, Montana with her husband Tom. They have three grown children, Jenny, Eric and Bryan. They currently also have four grandchildren, one girl and three boys. Perhaps some of them will be future wrestlers.
Newt Copple*
NebraskaNewt was a four-year letter winner at the University of Nebraska. He was the first AllAmerican in wrestling for the University of Nebraska in 1942, when he placed 4th at 145 lbs. at the NCAA tournament. In 1983 he was also enshrined in the Nebraska Scholastic Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame as a Contributor.
Newt’s competition years included some interesting history, including the NCAA tournament in 1948. With the Olympic Games in the near future, and because there had not been NCAA competition during the war years, the NCAA decided to run that year’s wrestling tournament under Olympic Rules. Newt reached the round robin in that tournament and ended up placing third, earning All-American status for the second time.
Newt wrested in and won so many National YMCA and AAU championships that at one time he held more national titles than anyone in American wrestling history. He said he was most proud of the National AAU Freestyle Title that he won at age 39. In 1951 he was a gold medalist at the Pan-American Championships and in 1954 he placed 5th in the FILA World Championships. In 1957 he was a member of the first freestyle wrestling team from America to ever compete internationally in a dual meet with Turkey.
Newt eventually became the first full-time AAU Wrestling Chairman, a position he held for five plus terms (1972- 1979). As chairman Newt began many programs which he hoped would move the United States to the forefront of international wrestling, especially beating the Soviets. At one point wrestling had won more Olympic and World Championships medals that all other Olympic sports except for track & field and swimming. Some of his programs were to originate the AAU Officials’ Committee, which became the largest officials group in the world, begin committees for AAU Coaches and Sports Medicine, start cultural exchanges in wrestling where more exchanges took place every year than in all other Olympic sports combined and begin ninety day AAU wrestling camps for all ages.
Some of the awards Newt received during his career include: AAU Wrestling Committee “Person of the Year” in 1973, 1974, and 1975; Wrestling USA Magazine’s Hall of Fame in 1976; and being named as one of the “Top 50 Contributors of All-Time” to amateur wrestling.
Newt died on March 13, 1991 at 62 years of age. One of his biggest goals, to beat the Soviet Wrestling World Championship Teams, was realized not once, but many times before he died.
Susan Dennis
OhioIn 1978 Sue was instrumental in beginning the Kids Club Wrestling program in the Cincinnati area. In 1979 she began working local club tournaments. In 1981 she began working tournaments throughout Ohio and National AAU tournaments in 1982. In 1992 she was elected the AAU National Pairing Master until 2003. She worked the Big Tens in Columbus, Ohio in 1993.
She retired from teaching in 2001 after 32 years to spend time with her family but still volunteers in the school library and classroom. She was honored at the Ohio State tournament in 1991.
In 1995 she received the AAU Presidents National Leadership Award. In 2002 she was voted the AAU Outstanding Pairing Master and in 2004, the AAU Sustained Superior Performance Award. In 2004 she received the Southwester Ohio Wrestling Coaches Association Friends of Wrestling award. She has been the Ohio Pairing Master for USA since 2004. She began working the AAU Tournament of Champions in 1981 and continues to do so today.
