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River Falls Wrestling Boosters, Inc.

Fostering, promoting and encouraging the sport of wrestling.

Parents, alumni and a few people who never could quit this sport. We pay for what the district doesn't, from the 4K room to varsity, and we have since 1994. Nobody here gets paid. Everybody here shows up.

Volunteer-run

The board.

Program staff and advisors

Sit in on board meetings for information and continuity. Not directors, and they do not vote on club business. Cam is the high school's coach, hired by the school district. Thane and Jens run the club's programs.

Incorporated January 31, 1994

Where the club came from.

The wrestling program at River Falls High School had already been running for thirty-one years when a group of parents, coaches and former Wildcats put it on paper. The Articles of Incorporation were filed with the Wisconsin Secretary of State on January 31, 1994, and the IRS later back-dated the club's 501(c)(3) exemption to the same day. The legal name is River Falls Wrestling Boosters, Inc. ... Wisconsin non-stock corporation ID R029574, Federal EIN 20-1236555.

Nine directors signed. Among them was Pauly Cudd, who in 1971 won one of the program's first two state titles, at 185 pounds. DeWayne Benedict, the first Wildcat ever to reach the state tournament, in 1964, and the head coach here in the late 1980s. And David Brandvold, who was the sitting head coach the winter the papers were signed, and stayed in the job through 2008.

So the club was started by the program's first state qualifier, one of its first two state champions, and the coach then running the room. Cudd, Black and Cernohous are still names in the record book thirty years on.

“develop champions both on and off the mat.”
Club bylaws

The founding board

  1. Pauly Cudd State champion, 1971 ... 185 lbs
  2. David Black
  3. Jack Cudd
  4. Dan Meier
  5. Pam Cernohous
  6. David Brandvold Head coach, 1990-2008
  7. DeWayne Benedict First state qualifier, 1964 ... later head coach
  8. Randy Barr
  9. Lanny Saumer

Named in Article 9 of the Articles of Incorporation. Russell E. Berg signed as incorporator and registered agent.

“Said corporation is organized exclusively for the purpose of promoting and fostering youth amateur folkstyle wrestling athletic competition.” Articles of Incorporation, Article 3

Six years of asking

Getting the team a room.

For years the high school team did not practice at the high school. It practiced at Meyer Middle School ... which is, as it happens, where the whole thing started. The building at 230 North Ninth Street was the high school when Bill Wright put the first Wildcat team on the mat in 1962. The high school moved out to Cemetery Road in 2001. The wrestling room stayed behind.

So one room carried the program for more than sixty years, and for the last twenty-four of those the high school team was practicing in a building that was no longer the high school. And every summer, when the district closed its buildings for referendum work, it did not really practice anywhere. The board minutes from 2019 record mats in a barn, then five hundred dollars a month for space at St. B's, then a two-thousand-a-month quote on an empty commercial building the club came close to renting outright.

In March 2019 the board put it plainly: the high school team needs to be at the high school. Kevin Black pointed out that everyone else in the Big Rivers Conference already had a room of their own. A month later a group of board members walked both buildings with district administrators and concluded there was nowhere in the high school that would work.

The room was finally built in 2025. The following winter the board budgeted for the graphics on the walls.

Nobody put that on a trophy. That's the job.

Quoted from the club’s own board minutes, March 2019 to March 2026. Building dates from the City of River Falls Historical and Architectural Resources Survey, 2014–15.

From the boosters

Wait, which team is this?

The club and the team

River Falls has two wrestling organizations. The high school team is the district's and the WIAA's. Everything else, from 4K to the open mats to the golf outing, is the club. Same room, same kids, two outfits, and why the club used to be called Toss and Turn.

Read it

Engage, participate, make a difference

Board meetings.

River Falls Wrestling Boosters, Inc. invites active members in good standing to attend our board meetings, held through the wrestling season. This is your opportunity to contribute, learn, and engage with the ongoing activities and future initiatives of our club.

When
First Monday of the month during the season, 6:00–7:30pm
Where
RFHS Library
Before you come
The time and the room both change from time to time. Email boosters@rfwrestling.org ahead of the date to confirm, and to let us know you are coming.
View meeting minutes (opens in a new tab)

Membership

Join the club.

Here's the deal. Nobody gets paid. The parents in the stands are the ones who bought the mats, drove the vans, ran the clocks and stocked the stand. That's the booster club. If your kid wrestles here, you're already in the family. Membership just makes it official: your wrestler's program fee is waived for the season, and you get a vote on where the money goes.

Email us your name and your wrestler's grade. We send back the dues and a waiver code. That's it. No committee, no handshake, no secret knock.

Our sponsors

Backed by local business.

Shop with them when you can.

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