Michigan Prep Notes: Surging Cotton Big Ten Bound After Strong Summer – FloWrestling

Remy Cotton, #76 on the Class of 2023 Massive Board, introduced his remaining three colleges by way of Twitter on Aug. 15.

Like present Davison teammates Josh Barr (Penn State) and Caden Horwath (Michigan), Cotton is headed to the Massive Ten. The one query is whether or not his remaining vacation spot will likely be Purdue, Indiana or Michigan State. 

Cotton, ranked #7 within the nation at 195 kilos, noticed his inventory rise not too long ago with a freestyle All-American end in Fargo. Cotton was eighth after going simply 1-2 a 12 months in the past. 

He posted a 5-3 file, together with a 6-2 win over two-time Oklahoma state champion and Oklahoma State recruit Jersey Robb, who’s ranked #13 at 195. Robb went 30-0 throughout his final highschool season.

Cotton additionally knocked off two-time Wisconsin state runner-up Ian Smith, 10-0. 

Whereas Barr received a second straight championship and Horwath took second, Davison coach Zac Corridor known as Cotton’s podium end his high Fargo spotlight.

“Seeing Remy make All-American honors was my favourite second of Fargo (sorry, Josh),” he stated. “If you happen to solely knew how far he has come previously few years. He has a drive and fervour for this sport that’s evident watching him within the apply room. If you persistently do all the appropriate issues and work laborious, sooner or later you get rewarded. I imagine that is just the start for Remy.”

Barr was simply as ecstatic about Cotton’s exhibiting.

“How about Remy Cotton?,” he posted on Twitter. “2021 Fargo he went 1-2. To 2022 Fargo eighth place and takes out guys ranked, and giving the most effective guys all they need. And he’s simply getting began, mark my phrases.”

Cotton was seventh within the state as a freshman and second as a sophomore whereas wrestling for Traverse Metropolis Central.

His household moved to Davison in time for Cotton to exchange state medalist Landon Kish at 189 kilos within the Cardinals lineup final season. He started the Division 1 state championship twin towards Detroit Catholic Central with a significant determination win, serving to the Cardinals defend their title. 

Cotton completed 27-3 (17 bonus-point wins) his first 12 months with Davison, avenging a loss to Midland Dow’s Aidan Wardell for the Division 1, 189-pound state championship.

His solely different losses have been to two-time state champion Manny Rojas (Detroit Catholic Central), an Iowa State recruit who was #17 within the remaining 2021-22 pound-for-pound rankings, and Ohio state champion and Ohio State signee Luke Geog.

Cotton boasts a 97-14 highschool file, together with 55-4 the previous two seasons. 

“I’m anticipating Remy to take that bounce to the following degree subsequent season,” Corridor says. “We noticed glimpses of it on the finish of the highschool season, and that was exemplified at Fargo. He needs to be dominant.”

ALL-TIME GREAT COACH RETIRES

In the summertime of 1970, Bruce Bittenbender was a hungry, passionate and keen younger wrestling coach recent off serving as an assistant on South Haven’s 1970 Class B state championship group.

Then a 23-year-old, he started on the lookout for a chance to run his personal program and realized that dream when close by Stevensville Lakeshore named Bittenbender head wrestling coach and supplied him a educating place.

He spent the following 52 years constructing a exceptional legacy on his method to turning into Michigan’s all-time winningest coach.  

In late March, the 75-year-old retired with a 981-270-2 file, 141 extra victories than another coach in state historical past. Bittenbender is second on the all-time nationwide wins record behind Rex Peckinpaugh, who racked up a 1,001-300-3 mark at New Citadel (Indiana) Excessive Faculty from 1982-2019. 

Bittenbender’s squads received 33 convention titles, 28 district championships, 13 regional crowns and completed because the state runner-up in 1986 and 1994, the 12 months the Lancers got here closest to successful a group state championship. They led Fowlerville, 25-22, heading into the ultimate weight class of the Class B title match earlier than dropping a 28-25 determination. 

Stevensville went unbeaten in twin meets in 1976, 1978, 1984 and 1986 earlier than Michigan adopted a dual-meet format to find out group state champions in 1988. The Lancers additionally captured 109 invitational titles.

Individually, Bittenbender’s wrestlers reached the state-meet podium with top-eight finishes 116 occasions, together with 26 state championships. He went out with a bang as Aaron Luccio, Zam Thompson and Micah Hanau all received particular person state titles this season.  

Bittenbender formally introduced his retirement April 1 throughout a live-streamed press convention on the faculty attended by a lot of his former wrestlers and different supporters.

As he addressed the gang, Bittenbender emphasised how a lot he’ll miss working with wrestlers of all potential ranges and serving to them enhance. 

“There have been plenty of youngsters that weren’t state champions right here; there have been plenty of youngsters that weren’t district champions or regional champions and even convention champions,” Bittenbender stated. “However they have been right here each day, they have been working each day, they have been a part of this program and also you’ve acquired to provide these youngsters credit score.”

Bittenbender, who retired as a Stevensville trainer in 2010, earned numerous accolades throughout his profession, together with being named Nationwide Coach of the 12 months by the Nationwide Federation of State Excessive Faculty Associations in 2002 and the Nationwide Excessive Faculty Athletic Coaches Affiliation in 2010.

The Bethlehem, Pennsylvania native was additionally Michigan Coach of the 12 months in 2002 and was named Regional Coach of the 12 months 11 occasions. 

Bittenbender is a member of the Michigan Wrestling Coaches Affiliation Corridor of Fame, the Nationwide Coaches Affiliation Corridor of Fame, the Pennsylvania Wrestling Corridor of Fame, and Milligan (Tenn.) College Athletics Corridor of Fame. 

Bittenbender was recognized for a no-nonsense, blue collar, but supportive, teaching philosophy which he attributed to the affect of his father. Truman Bittenbender was a World Battle II veteran, who labored in metal mills for greater than 40 years.  

Whilst he surpassed his seventieth birthday, Bruce Bittenbender continued main by instance, collaborating in conditioning together with his wrestlers and at occasions perfecting strikes with them on the mat. Each season, he was decided to area a lineup of wrestlers who weren’t going to tire within the remaining interval of matches.

Bittenbender wrestled for Liberty Excessive Faculty in Bethlehem adopted by 4 years at Milligan the place he was a convention runner-up. A educating emptiness at South Haven drew him to Michigan. 

Amongst different issues, Bittenbender has spent his retirement up to now fishing on Lake Michigan and spending extra time with Susan, his spouse for 53 years. 

He stays in contact with a lot of his former wrestlers and not too long ago reunited with a number of from his first group at Stevensville Lakeshore’s Covid-delayed Class of 1971 reunion.

Bittenbender’s successor is Ryan Quinn, who spent final season as his assistant.

The 30-year-old boasts an intensive teaching resume regardless of his age, together with head teaching stints at Ancilla School, a two-year establishment in Plymouth, Indiana, Niles (Michigan) Excessive Faculty and Oak Hills Excessive Faculty in Cincinnati, his alma mater. Quinn guided Niles to the 2017 state semifinals. 

He was a two-time state qualifier at Oak Hills earlier than spending 4 seasons wrestling for Central Michigan.

Teaching in his Quinn’s blood. His father, Jeff, held numerous school soccer teaching positions from 1983-2021, together with a five-season stint as College of Buffalo head coach. He was a Notre Dame assistant from 2015-21. 

DOUBLE ALL-AMERICAN

Delton Kellogg’s Caden Ferris, who capped his highschool profession with a second Division 4 state championship in March, loved fairly a summer season whereas making ready for his first season at Central Michigan.

In June, he went 7-1 at Junior Nationwide Freestyle Duals, together with a win over Utah state champion Damon Armenta. 

That proved only a warmup, nevertheless, for Fargo the following month.

After posting a mixed 5-5 file in Greco-Roman and freestyle a 12 months in the past, Ferris was Michigan’s solely All-American in each kinds. 

In Greco, he breezed to a 10-1 determination over two-time New York state champion Sam Sorenson within the third-place match at 220 kilos. Ferris additionally knocked off Iowa state champion Jared Thiry and misplaced simply 2-1 to two-time Florida state champion Sawyer Bartelt, who received 16U titles in each kinds at Fargo final 12 months and is ranked #5 within the nation at 220.

Ferris was 8-1 in Greco general, together with three pins and 4 technical falls. 

He went 8-2 in freestyle on the best way to ending seventh.

Amongst these Ferris beat have been two-time South Dakota state champion and South Dakota State recruit Luke Ramussen and Georgia state champion Gavin Proffitt, who completed 41-1 final season. He additionally decisioned Minnesota All-Stater and Wisconsin commit Gannon Rosenfeld. 

Ferris was past dominant throughout his remaining highschool season, ending 49-0, together with 35 pins and 13 forfeit wins. Solely his state championship match, a significant determination, went the space. Rollie Ferris, his father, is Delton Kellogg’s solely different two-time state champion.

Ferris, additionally eighth within the state as a freshman, completed with a 156-24 prep file, together with 120-5 the previous three seasons.

Final fall, Ferris was second within the Grappler Fall Traditional and eighth at Tremendous 32. No different Michigan wrestler positioned within the high eight in each occasions final 12 months.

At Tremendous 32, Ferris pulled off an enormous win over California’s Nicholas Sahakian, now ranked #13 within the nation at 220. He additionally bested two-time Oregon state champion Riley Godek and Nevada state champion Nathan Glass.

GFC RETURNS TO MICHIGAN

After two seasons in Myrtle Seaside, South Carolina, the Grappler Fall Traditional returns to Michigan Oct. 1-2 at Wings Occasion Heart in Kalamazoo.

Final 12 months’s occasion drew 417 highschool wrestlers alone, together with 252 state medalists and 94 state champions. 

Registration is now open. Try grapplerfallclassic.com for particulars.