NR youth wrestling tournament named after Harlan Schlaak
THE CREW — Members of the Schlaak family gathered for a photo during last month’s Harlan Schlaak Wrestling Tournament in New Richland. All last names are Schlaak unless otherwise noted. Front from left: Nathan, Carol, David and Nolan. Row two: Dustin, Loren, Aiden, Paul, Jack VanHal, Owen, Dakota, Ryan, Steve, Memphis, Brandon, Tony, Kelli, Justin and Gaven. Back: Keith, Chad and Gary. Not pictured: Eugene, Neil, Colton, Anna and Kordell. (Star Eagle photo by Chris Schlaak)
By JIM LUTGENS
Publisher
If there’s one thing you can say about the New Richland area, it’s that there are a lot of Schlaaks.
The Schlaak (rhymes with lake) family has brought numerous sports accolades to NRHEG, but its biggest contribution has been in wrestling.
Now, the wrestling community has given something back, with the New Richland Area Wrestling Club naming its annual mid-winter tournament after Harlan Schlaak.
Harlan, who died last April, and his wife Carol were founders of the NRAWC in 1967. Harlan and Carol had five children — Gary, Neil, Keith, Donna and Linda, producing 15 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren, with another on the way.
As they said at the conlusion of a recent wrestling presentation in New Richland, that’s a lot of Schlaaks. The area has been referred to as the land of 10,000 Schlaaks.
Almost all of the Schlaaks wrestled, winning state championships and advancing to many state tournaments, and Harlan and Carol were there for all of it and then some. They logged countless miles taking boys to AAU tournaments. Then there was the high school season.
The name Schlaak has become synonymous with NRHEG wrestling.
Still, Carol was surprised at the renaming of the tournament.
“They really shocked me with this one,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it. I was thrilled, because I know Harlan would be in seventh heaven.”
Harlan Schlaak, who graduated in 1959, did not wrestle in high school because New Richland dropped its wrestling program for several years and did not revive it until he was a senior. But he remained a fan of the sport.
“We both were,” said Carol. “I haven’t been to much (recently) because of my heart surgery, but I still love wrestling.”
Carol was especially tickled that the wrestling club had Harlan Schlaak Memorial T-shirts for the recent tournament, given to all the wrestlers, with champions designated as such.
Wrestling isn’t the only thing to bring attention to the Schlaak family. They’ve also worn numerous crowns as homecoming queen or king. In fact, king Justin crowned his aunt Linda homecoming queen several years.
“We’ve had a lot of wrestlers and a lot of royalty in our family,” said Carol.
For the record, it’s grandchild Colton and his wife, Alyssa, who are expecting.
“We don’t know yet if it’s a boy,” said Carol. “But we don’t care. Just so it’s healthy. We have lots of boys.”