For nearly thirty years, the Luther College Wrestling Team has maintained a group called the All Wrestlers Crew. The for-hire crew first started as a way for wrestlers to earn rent and food money over the summer. It grew into an essential moving service for Decorah area residents, nursing homes, nonprofits, and businesses.
Logging more than a hundred jobs each year, Assistant Wrestling Coach Jeff O’Gara says he regularly fields calls from people who need help moving and have no one to help them. “Decorah doesn’t have a moving company,” says O’Gara, “and while we sometimes get calls for farm work and landscaping support, most of the time it’s to help people move heavy things. Some of the jobs require a lot of guys, others are done quickly with help from just a few wrestlers.”
This year at the January Luncheon, an annual college + community kickoff to the year, the 2026 Excellence in Collaboration Award was given to the Luther College Wrestling Team in recognition of the thousands of hours spent helping area residents as part of the their All Wrestlers Crew. The award, in its third year, was specifically created to celebrate collaboration between the Luther College and Decorah, Iowa. The review committee is made up of both college and town leadership.
“There were so many spaces where the sentiment was being shared of ‘how much the college matters to the health of our town and vice versa’ that we decided to hold space for exactly that at the luncheon,” says Jessica Rilling local Chamber Director and award committee member, “this year’s recipient is such a great example of what the committee is trying to lift up. These student athletes are exceptional young men both on and off the mat and none of them asked for the attention. In fact, their only marketing for the crew is word-of-mouth across town.”
What started as an odd job painting a barn three decades ago is now the town’s efficient, reliable, and good-humored moving crew – a crew that knows how to exercise their hearts as well as their bodies.
The All Wrestlers Crew was nominated for the award by the Winneshiek County Historical Society. Stacey Gossling, who filled out the nomination form, shared:
“The Winneshiek County Historical Society had the huge task of moving our archived materials from the second floor of the Old Jail to our newly-built archive building blocks away. The move would never have been possible without the wrestling team. We moved in 3 phases and had between 8 and 12 young men each time. And many of them came all 3 times to help us. They were all so polite and careful in moving the archival materials. They literally moved thousands of boxes and items. They worked very hard and literally did thousands of steps up and down. And they did it all while laughing and joking around with us. They are now part of Winneshiek County history themselves – not only ensuring the safe keeping of local records, but also in the way that all of us got to know each other. They are a great group to work with.”
Head Wrestling Coach Dave Mitchell was pleased to receive the award together with coaches and wrestlers. He shared that the The All Wrestlers Crew is a unique initiative that is tailored to benefit community and student athletes, but emphasized that it’s not the only way the team shows up. The dedication to service has a long history and has been consistently cultivated by both coaches and the student athletes themselves. The wrestlers also help on local Habitat for Humanity builds, support flood recovery, serve community meals, have an Adopt-a-Highway stretch near campus, and host a summer Train Like a Norseman Team Camp for high school and middle school students.
Mitchell thanked the committee for recognizing the work off the mat and then welcomed everyone to cheer for the wrestlers on the mat this Friday, January 30th as Luther College hosts their only home wrestling meet of the season, a dual meet against University of Dubuque in the newly-completed Gerdin Fieldhouse gym. Start time 7PM.
Photo: Luther College Head Wrestling Coach Dave Mitchell, Assistant Coach Jeff O’Gara, Volunteer Coach Dave Anderson, Junior Austin Franklin of North Liberty, Iowa; Sophomore Addan Schmidt of Spectrum, Minnesota.; Sophomore Griffin Schultz of Marion, Iowa; Junior Quentin Vilmenay of Lower Lake, California.; Senior Clayton McDonough of Nora Springs, Iowa; and Assistant Coach Billy Huebner
