With the changing of the seasons and the snowfall beginning, so too comes wrestling to the forefront of the Ellsworth community. The Panthers are scheduled to host the 58th Annual Ellsworth Wrestling Invitational on Saturday, Dec. 3, at Ellsworth High School.

With the 2022-23 season being the 58th iteration of the annual invitational, it makes Ellsworth the home of one of the longest-running tournaments in Wisconsin. Teams from all over the state and even throughout Minnesota head to Ellsworth one weekend a year to test their skills against other top teams in the Midwest. Ellsworth head coach Mark Matzek spoke about the tournament.

“I’ve been told that it’s one of the longest, if not the longest running wrestling invitationals in the state,” Matzek said. “We have teams coming from central Wisconsin like Cadott, teams from southern Minnesota like Dover-Eyota, and some from northern Minnesota like Mora. They’re coming from hours away.”

Although Ellsworth certainly has a nice high school, it’s not the reason that teams are coming from four hours away to compete in the wrestling tournament. Instead, it’s the way that Matzek and the illustrious Ellsworth wrestling program have run the tournament for decades. It’s about the professionalism and the talent that is there year after year.

Part of the attraction has been unique matchups between wrestling programs that would otherwise never compete against one another. For larger schools coming from Minnesota, it gives programs like Prior Lake a chance to compete against schools like Mora and Dover-Eyota.

For Wisconsin schools, Spring Valley and Ellsworth get a chance to compete against programs like Cadott and even some of those Minnesota programs. Coach Matzek spoke about the appeal of the 58th Annual Ellsworth Wrestling Invitational, especially considering the strength of the programs.

“One of the things I like about this invitational is that we have well-coached teams here, so there’s going to be good wrestling,” Matzek said. “When teams come to this invitational they know it’s going to be officiated well and it’s going to be run well.”

While Matzek and the program help with the invitational, it’s been Scott and Bill Hamilton who have been behind the scenes doing the heavy lifting to make sure that the invitational runs smoothly every year.

The Hamilton family has been taking care of dozens of teams that come to the invitational every year for many years. They also make sure to have the proper staff and excellent officiating in place to ensure the invitational is up to the highest standards.

“Scott and Bill Hamilton have been running it for years and it runs like clockwork,” Matzek said. “The teams coming know that there are quality teams here. You’re going to have the top two or three kids at each weight class, but those three, four and five seeds are going to get good competition and so are those six, seven and eight seeds. It’s good competition for the first tournament of the year.”

Matzek and the program are certainly anticipating the big tournament on Saturday afternoon, but the Panthers are also preparing to see their first live competition of the year on Thursday, Dec. 1, when they compete in a three-team match against Amery and Somerset.

The Middle Border Conference remains one of the toughest wrestling leagues in Wisconsin. The Amery Warriors won the Division 2 State Championship as a team last year, defeating Luxemburg-Casco 36-30 in the state title series. For Matzek, the meet on Thursday evening is a chance to test his squad against quite literally a state championship-caliber squad. “On Thursday night, depending on who Amery brings to the tri in Somerset, the goal is to push them to the limit and maybe have an upset here or there,” Matzek said. “We want to give ourselves an opportunity to maybe steal a dual.”

While defeating Amery would be a huge feather in Ellsworth’s cap to start the season, Matzek and the coaching staff aren’t solely focused on the overall outcome. Instead, the staff wants to see the student-athletes doing the little things correctly and wrestling in Ellsworth’s signature style – fast and aggressive.

“It’s not so much the outcome, it’s the performance goals,” Matzek said. “We want to score the last points in each period, we want to push the pace in each match and work on what we’ve been doing in practice. If we do what we need to do, I feel like the outcome will take care of itself. Maybe that’s beating Amery or coming close.”

Ellsworth will get to face off against the Warriors and Spartans in Somerset on Thursday, Dec. 1. Weigh-ins are scheduled for 5 p.m. with wrestling beginning at 6 p.m.

The 58th Annual Ellsworth Wrestling Invitational is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 3, at Ellsworth High School. Wrestling is slated to begin at 7 a.m. and championship rounds are expected to be completed in the late afternoon, around approximately 5 p.m.