For more than a decade, Sturgis wrestling was arguably the top program in the state. From 1998-2011, the Scoopers were state champions six times in Class A, five of those coming over the span of six years. They also were runner-up three-times as well over this fourteen year stretch. Longtime Sturgis wrestling coach Steve Keszler and former Scooper wrestlers Seth Lange, Nate Oviatt, Josh Keszler, and Caleb Chapman all joined the program to reminisce about this historic run.
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Steve Keszler - long time Sturgis head wrestling coach
No matter the sport, it's difficult to repeat championships. You'll see the teams win, maybe, two, maybe three in a row. There are a few exceptions where a team dominates their sport for a few years. But, how about dominating a decade? Maybe, make it a little more than a decade. Today, on, In Play, we feature the Sturgis Scoopers Wrestling Program. Scoopers placed second as a team back in 1991, in '98, and '99, before winning 16 titles, three state dual titles, from 2002 through 2010.
The coach, Steve Keszler, joins us on In Play. Steve, you graduated from Sturgis? But, when did you get the love of wrestling in your blood?
Ah, it was early on. I had two older brothers. I'm the youngest of three. The middle one wrestled. So, I was around it. It was one of those deals where I was seven or eight years old, and they had a few little AAU tournaments and my dad just put me in it. So, I was probably about eight years old, I started getting in it and was in it ever since.
You didn't try any other sports before wrestling and found out that maybe you just weren't good at that and decided, hey, I'm pretty good at wrestling, I'll do that?
I don't know about that. My childhood was playing all kinds of sports. So, that's all we did as kids, so I don't care if it was from ping pong to wiffle ball, to touch football in the street or to wrestling or whatever. We just changed shoes to the next season, and that's just kind of, the way it went. But, my winter season was wrestling.
What was Sturgis wrestling like before you became the head coach?
Coach John had been here for quite a while. When I took over, I want to say Coach John was here for 21 years, and he coached my oldest brother, so I knew him as a young kid. He was hard-nosed, worked kids hard. We probably just didn't have a youth program. Things were still somewhat in their infancy of wrestling. I think back at when I was a kid, we only had two or three tournaments to go to. Then, it was off to districts, regions and states. Well, now, it starts back in December, and these kids wrestle, maybe a Friday night deal and a Saturday tournament, and a Sunday afternoon tournament. These kids could have 80, 100 matches, then, before their region starts. That just wasn't the way it was for us.
So, a lot of times that group of kids that got together where their older brothers wrestled or just somehow there was a tie in like that. There wasn't that huge youth program, when I was a kid growing through, but it developed while Coach John was there, and while I was going to college and things like that, a strong youth program then started.
Did you ever think, though, that you would be coming back to your alma mater and being the head wrestling coach at Sturgis?
Well, it's interesting, Craig, and I'm going to say that I'm one of those very few. I teach a lot of freshmen classes. I tell the story and I remember this vividly, I was a freshman in high school and our English teacher, first day, at the end of the hour, whatever, she asked us to write down what we wanted to do in life. What did we want to become? I actually wrote down that I wanted to be a head wrestling coach, and in parentheses, I put Sturgis, and I handed it in. Seriously, I was one of those few people that I knew I wanted to be a coach.
What were those previous years at bottom before Sturgis? What were those years like?
So, when I got to my graduation time at NSU at Northern, I was looking for a head wrestling positions and there was only two open at the time. The Lennox job was open, that fit my teaching. But, I really wanted to believe that maybe there was only two head positions even open, that spring that I was graduating. Lennox, I think had an opening and Bon Homme had an opening. I ended up choosing Bon Homme. Or, I guess, maybe I got the job offered to me at Bon Homme, and that's how I got started there.
Who were your mentors in coaching and what did you bring from them to your coaching philosophy?
Well, I tell you what, you can even go way back and maybe the reason that I want to become a coach is, I remember my dad telling stories, and I don't know if you know this name, but Buell Moodle, was the coach back in the 50s, when my dad went through it. Back then, if you were a head coach, you coached football, basketball and track. You were the coach. Buell had some great track records as far as winning titles. Anyway, my dad would talk very highly of him when I was just a youngster. I even got the opportunity to play golf with him when I was nine years old, 10 years old, and Buell was in his 70s.
I just remember the total respect that my dad had for him and talked so highly about him. Then, you move on. I think I got that vision of, coaches were very influential people, and people really respected them. I think I learned that at a very young age. So, it drove me towards that. Now, as far as, who are my mentors? Hey, it was many. I didn't read a lot of books as I was growing up as a kid, but I would read books on coaches that were successful. Vince Lombardi, Bobby Knight, Lou Holtz, I don't care. There was a reason they were successful. Of course, Dan Gable.
You just bits and pieces the things that you like and you ask the right questions and they tell you things, and you say, well, they're successful for a reason, I'd listen to them.
So, you get to Sturgis in about '95. You placed second in '98. And again, in '99. What was it like just coming up short of a state team title, even though Sturgis really hadn't been there a lot in its history?
Well, being the competitive nature that I am, of course, that's what's trying to do, you're trying to win titles. You're thinking you are, that's what you're trying to do. We had some really good teams. Like I said, when I got here, they had a strong youth program coming up and it was run by great people, and you surround yourself by good people. We were taking runs at it, and it was fun. It was fun to stay hungry and keep digging at it. Yeah, we come up a little bit short. But, the fire was there, to continue this, because we got a taste. We were up there banging towards the top and trying to get it done.
I think Mitchell was going through there four-peat and, we're trying to chase them down, but that's great.
Then, Watertown got in the way one year.
Yeah. Of course, those good teams, those teams that were out there. They're setting the bar and you're trying to chase it and it was fun. You look back and you had some great kids and they didn't ever experience a team title. And, you wish that for them. We had teams that were close, but I'm going to tell you that, it's not easy to win, things got to go very well for you to get it done.
Well, things started going very well for Sturgis wrestling once 2000 hit, specifically 2002, that first title. The first title for Sturgis, defeating Watertown, the team that had beaten you the year before. Did you know in 2002, that you thought, we can compete, we can win this thing this year?
Yeah, we did. So, actually, we came up with the dual title in 2001. We won the duals. That was the first year, the inaugural year of the duals was in 2001. We actually won that. So, we had a team title there in the duals, but then the next year, had a lot of kids coming back, was senior loaded, and we actually won both. We won the duals and the tournament. Yeah, that was a very special year. Had a lot of senior leadership. And, not only that, but I'm going to throw this out there too, coached for 31 years, that was the only team that I had that was also academic all state. So, I was senior loaded with a lot of very intelligent kids, studious kids. I think back at that as, boy, it was easy, I just blew the whistle and got out of the way.
The special thing about that 2002 year, I remember, that was so amazing, this was the individual, the second day, we had 19 matches in that day, and we went 17 and 2. We lost the very first match of the day, and we lost the very last match of the day, and we won 17 in a row in between that. That's just unbelievable. At the state tournament, where everybody's, pretty equal and stuff, we went 17 and 2 on day 2. That was crazy.
Sturgis did some great things in 2005, that was the beginning of the three-peat and then winning in '5 and '6 and 2007, 2009, 2010. But 2005, I think is going to go down as an unbelievable championship for you. You didn't have anybody in the finals, and you still won the team title. How did that happen?
That just goes to show you the team concept that these kids bought into. I can even take it one further. I think I'm right, is, I think we only had one kid in the semis. We only had one kid in the semi-finals that year, and everybody else was already in the backside after day one except for one athlete and he got knocked back. He loses a heartbreaker in the semis. But, I think I remember, that was in Rapid. I remember coming home, and I think we were sitting in fifth place, maybe even sixth. But, it wasn't that day one that people normally don't get too stretched out from you.
I started looking at first round matchups the next day. I was, I don't know how much we can chip away here, but I know I have a solid team and kids can win some matches. I just talked to them about bonus points and we just got to come in and fight through. It was also the time of, the Texas Hold'em era was on TV, and kids liked to play Texas Hold'em, so we used to mess around on trips, and just play. So, my motto the second day was, guys, we are short stacked and we're just going all in, that's all we can do. We're just going to push all the chips to the middle and go all in. That was our motto the second day. And, boy, did they ever.
The interesting thing about that is, we ended up winning that state tournament by 35 points, and I looked it up after we were done, we scored 40 points of nothing but bonus points in that real estate tournament. 40, and we won by 35. The kids come storming back through that backside with pins, and tech fall, and majors, and pins. It was crazy, 40 points, alone, on bonus points that year.
The following year, you didn't have any champs that year either, but you had three second place finishes. But, you didn't have any champions and you still won the title by 30 points in '06.
Yeah, in '06, at least we got in there for the nighttime, the showcase. But, we didn't get any champs and, yeah, we still got it done. But, that's just a credit again, by just the depth of the team, they'll scratch out a fifth place here and a fourth place here. That's what wins titles, is those kids that will come through the backside and keep scratching out wins. That was again another year like that. So yeah, we had two years in a row where we won it and didn't have a champion.
Then, '07 was the three-peat. You had three champions, you had. Seth Lange, Josh Keszler and Jake Michalson. Jake would have been... I think he was 275, but, you had three champions in the three-peat at that point in time. If you call it a locomotive on a train track going at full speed, was Sturgis running on full cylinders at that point in time in 2007?
Yeah. I think the bar had been set and pieces were falling into place. But, we had it going even in the early 90s leading up to that. If you look back at our duals, I think there was a stretch in there. I don't even think it's all the way up to 2007. There's a stretch in there from '99 to 2005, or something, that we only lost one dual in six years. We're dualing Stevens every year, that was near the top. We were dualing Watertown every year that's near the top. We were dualing Gillette, Wyoming, who was winning their state titles over there every year. There was a stretch there for about six years, we only lost one dual.
So, the team concept was there. We were putting good people in there. Yeah, things were rolling. The other thing that was amazing was, I look back on it, and I could have a kid that maybe was a senior on the team that didn't wrestle varsity all through his high school year until he's a senior year and then would place fifth at state or drag a medal. It's like, a one shot wonder and got it done. I look back and, those type of things you had to have. People would say, oh, Sturgis is going to graduate eight guys, they're going to take a hit. I had about six of those spots that were going to get filled that were just pretty darn good that people didn't know about.
I think, 2010, though, would have been your best team, because, let's face it, you had six champions, and a runner-up, that year. You scored 222 points a year, you beat Rapid City Stevens easily, was that your best team?
Well, point wise, yes, but don't tell that to the 2002 team because they get a little upset when that gets brought up.
Yeah, you had a lot of seniors, that's right, on that team. That's right.
Yeah. They like to think that they could match up. If you go to the 2010 team - the situation with those guys where, I had about four kids that were, WIN magazine ranked in the top 20 in the nation. I had four kids that were ranked in their class in the nation. That's probably the difference there, because not only did some of them win, but they darn near pinned their way out. I think, Josh, Seth, and Morgan Enbrecht, you can total possible score at 30 points at state meet, as an individual, if you pinned your way through, and those three all scored 29 and a half, they had three pins and a tech fall, and on their route to win. So, not only were they champions, but they were a cut above. They were ranked in the nation and they were not only winning, but they were going to pin people, too.
What were practices like? How competitive was it there in the wrestling room?
I hope you asked that to the other kids hear because I want to hear what they say. But, it was very competitive. Very competitive. We went through some stretches there where they were stingy, they didn't want to give up a point, they were mean. If you think about it, they were state-semi or state final type setups, just with their partners. So, you got kids that are stingy, don't want to give up points, athletic, competitive. They got the whole package and it was tough.
Some people always thought that there would be points flying all over the place. And actually, it was the opposite. They might wrestle for a half an hour and there wouldn't be a point scored because they just wouldn't give anything up. Still fun action to watch, but not a lot of points being scored, just because they were stingy. They competed. They competed every day. It wasn't like okay, we'll just show up. They competed in the room. Which of course, I always love that senior leadership, teach that young one how this is done in here, and we're going to work hard. That was our philosophy, we're just going to outwork everybody. I wasn't a film watcher. I never taped a match in my life. I never watched any film. I always just, if it doesn't work, do it harder. That was my mentality. So, that's what I just tried to do with the kids.
Was wrestling 24/7? Was it every month, every day, summer and everything? How much time did you devote to wrestling, even with the kids?
You're right, there was a lot put into it, and it has to be I mean. You have to. It has to be around the clock. This is probably the best way I could tell it to you, Craig, when I stepped down, we went on our first family vacation, Josh was 26 years old. That was our first family vacation we ever took, because I couldn't. My summertime was devoted to chasing kids around to tournaments, open gyms, liftings, whatever. I'm not saying I had the whole team, but I provided those opportunities to the kids that wanted that opportunity.
So, I might take 8 to 10 kids to the junior national tournament, which, it's the Mecca, it's the best tournament out there, in the summertime. So, it's up in Fargo and I would take kids on team trips and South Dakota team trips. I'd go as a coach. I promoted that kind of stuff. I didn't push it at them, but there it is, if you want to do it. So, yeah, my time was limited. I think back, and my wife was so understanding, my kids. Josh was the only one that wrestled, I have a daughter in between, and then I have JD. So, I have three children. I'd hardly seen my daughter play basketball, because I looked back and there was sacrifice, there was. I didn't get to see my daughter play a lot of basketball games, because I was on the road myself.
So, why in 2014 to decide to step away as the head coach?
Well, there's not just one answer, Craig. There could have been a list of 25. These might be a little bit stronger reasons, this might not be this and that. I can't answer that in one sentence, or one thing. There's not one thing.
Was it the right decision?
Yes, at that time, it was. There's a little bit of tiredness of what it takes during the summer. I wanted a little more time off. Maybe it was guilt, I don't know, we've never been on a family vacation. Not that I got it from my family. It just got to the point where I just wanted to take a breath and say, can I just ease off a little bit and not have it all on me and have to run out at it this hard. But, there's lots of factors, things have changed.
Sure. Are you are you still on the city council of Sturgis?
Yes, I am.
How much time does that take?
I didn't get on the city council till after I stepped down. I'm still assisting, I just don't have the head position, so I don't have all the summer stuff and things like that.
So, why did you decide to run for city council for Sturgis?
Well, a friend of mine that I grew up with, a wrestling buddy of mine, was on it, and came and approached me, and I just thought, hey, here's your next step. I'm born and raised here, I love Sturgis. I wanted to come back to Sturgis. I told the people in Bon Homme, I said, I'm not going anywhere unless the Sturgis job becomes open. I was truthful, I had nothing wrong with staying at Bon Homme, but I wanted to be home. Don't take this the wrong way, but I wasn't going to take any other job, I just was waiting for the Sturgis job to become open. I was going to throw my hat in the ring and hope I got it. I wanted to come back home.
Well, after those six titles, you could have run for mayor and won, I think. Don't you think, Steve?
I don't know if I want that LOL
The current coach, you assist Mike, right? You're an assistant. What's that like? What's that relationship like?
Oh, it's good. I didn't step down without feeling like I had it covered up. Mike, when he was in his early years, he would call me a lot and confide, and I ask him questions and stuff. When he first took over in Spearfish, there wasn't much there. The cupboard was pretty bare. And, he built that into where he was chasing us down. My last couple years, we're placing middle of the road, whatever, 5th, 6th, and they're right on our tail. So, he turned that around. It was just a good fit, his wife is from Sturgis. She was actually teaching in Sturgis, he was in Spearfish. It can work, you know what I mean?
It was never going to be an easy transition. You know what I'm saying? Not between me and him, we have a great relationship, but just, whatever, what the people think and whatever. But, he's done a tremendous job. He cares, he puts his time in. I even learned some technique that I never showed, and some good stuff. So, it's been good, our relationship's fine.
When I look at some of the stats, nine state championships, 14 region championships, over 30 individual champions, almost 200 individual state place winners. So, it's hard to tell me who your favorite was. Probably, you got to put Josh up there, your son. But, when you look at the Lange's and the Wilson's, and the Oviatt's-
Yeah, it's fun. Well, I tell you what the fun thing Craig is about, oh, I don't know, three or four years ago, somebody hit me up and said, "Come up with your best all-time Sturgis lineup." And, of course, I'm not going to say anything, because, come on. I love all these kids and they all worked hard. I love them all. But, I'm not going to lie, when I got home that night, I took out a pen and paper, and started trying to figure it out. Let's just say that I put a pretty stealthy lineup together.
What about coaching your son? How special was that? Three titles for Josh.
Yeah, three titles, five-time finalist. Yeah, it was special, and it's hard. I was smart enough to, as he was young and getting into it, really young, I looked around, and you see some father, son's, that were, at that time, going through and you're, wow, they have a great relationship and this and that. That's what you want. I didn't want it to be a tough situation for him, but, yeah, it was special and he was humble and just worked hard. He's talented. He had athleticism. He had some of those things you can't coach. Without the coach, he had those abilities and it was special. It was special. It was fun for him to be on teams that were so good, too.
How many broken lights were there in the wrestling house of the Keszler's with dad and Josh, working that particular moves?
Not very many, because dad is a lot smarter. Dad, in his actual career, was not very good. So, I'm really good at picking my poison. And, by the time he got to be an eighth or ninth-grader, I didn't want any part of him anymore, so I just stayed out of the way. I might show him something or two, but there was no live going on, because dad was going to be on the short end of the stick on that one.
I've been at the state wrestling tournaments every year for over 20 years and have watched the coaches along the corner of the mat and certainly have watched you a number of times, as a coach, the excitement that you brought on the mat was easy to rub off, your athletes had to see the enthusiasm that you brought to the mat. After a match, I'm assuming, you had to be dripping wet. You'd lost, probably, five pounds, just for being as active as you were on the sideline.
Yeah. It's funny you say that, because people say, how much you weigh? I'm, well, are you asking me during the winter, or in the summer? I was the opposite of a bear. I put it back on in the summer. Yeah, no, it was fun. It was all legit. It was just reaction and being excited. I think that I got most excited for having a kid believe that he got to a level of beating somebody who never thought he could beat. That was the fun of it, is getting the kids to believe. Then, that was my way of being a part of it. I was just happy to be a part of it, and it excited me. It excited me to see kids work so hard, and achieve success.
One thing I try to do and I was honest and sincere with it was, I wanted the team to understand that the Seth Lange winning a fourth title, was just as important as that kid that got scratched on the stand and got 7th. That was equal to me. I felt like, if your ceiling top was scratching on the stand as a senior and getting to 7th, that was just as good as Seth Lange winning his fourth. That's what I tried to portray is that, Seth Lange is that talented, that's his ceiling. Well, for you, your ceiling was that, you achieved it. It was special to me. I hope that they understood that, that meant just as much to me Seth winning four.
You've been a South Dakota Coach of the Year a couple of times, you've been a National Coach of the Year, you're in the South Dakota High School Coaches Hall of Fame, what are you most proud of as the coach of the Scoopers?
Ah, that's a good question. Those are great, that's fine, they've been recognized, but really, it's a product of surrounding yourself with great people that have the same vision that you have and want to work and put that much time and effort into the same vision. From all the way down, I was blessed. My youth programs were ran by ex Sturgis wrestlers, my middle school program, ex Sturgis wrestlers. My assistant, you know that I had the same assistant for all those years. Coach [inaudible 00:31:43] came, was at Sturgis two years before I got there. He is still here today and still an assistant. I had the same assistant, as a saint. All these people pushing in the same way and the support that we had, those type of things made me proud, is that the kids would work that hard for the same vision, would sacrifice so much for the same vision.
I look back at some of those, like you mentioned '98, '99, where we got second. I had a great athlete in Eric Allen, Les Sigmund, those type of guys. Eric Allen won 3 state titles. He told me when he graduated, he said, "I would have gladly have turned one of my individual tournament state titles in for a team title," that he didn't get to win. We came up short. He said, I'd trade one of these for a team title. That was what we tried to do was, build a team, that we're going to work for each other and I'm going to scratch out. If 7's is the best I can do, I'm going to go get 7's, I'm going to get it for everybody else. That was fun. That was the most gratifying.
Seth Lange - four-time state champion
When did you get the bug to get into wrestling at Sturgis?
Well, funny story, we moved over to Sturgis from Winner, South Dakota. It would have been when I was in first grade. My older brother was on the basketball team and my dad was the basketball coach, but I became best friends with Josh Keszler and Jason [Catrell 00:34:28], and Josh's dad being the head coach and my mom came home one day and goes, "Hey, Seth, do you want to try out some wrestling?" That's all [inaudible 00:34:39], you know, for sure. All my buddies were doing it and went out, absolutely loved it. I don't think my dad was real pleased at first, coming from a basketball background, but he definitely caught on after a while and ever since then, the rest is history.
Well, Coach Keszler can be kind of, intimidating, maybe, excited. What were your thoughts watching this coach, even when you were in middle school before you were even on the varsity?
The guy is great with kids. Great recruiter for their sport at a young age, being best friends with Josh, going and watching Steve and how exciting he made the atmosphere for duals, I just wanted to get in the mix right away, getting to watch. My older brother actually joined wrestling when he was an eighth-grader as well, so he went from being a basketball player his whole life to jumping into the sport of wrestling. So, getting to go watch him when I was in middle school, I was chomping at the bit ever since I went and watched the varsity dual.
You only lost three matches in your high school career. Only lost three. Four championships. How did you do that?
Oh, my gosh, where do I start? It starts with family. You can talk to a lot of kids and guys that that went through the sport, I think they're all going the same... Same thing that I said is just, without a good foundation at home, it's really hard to build something special. You know what I mean? There's just so many different aspects of the sport, whether it's cutting weight, or getting your parents to travel somewhere every weekend when you're young, to get any of the right training.
My dad, like I said, was a basketball player. And, he didn't have a ton of wrestling knowledge, but at a younger age, when I said, "Dad, you know, I want to be the best," he knew how to get me the resources that he could. He knew I had to be strong, he built a pull-up bar in our basement, and me and him did 50 pull-ups every night since I can remember. He knew that's one way he could help me out, strength-wise. Once things started building and I started getting good throughout high school, he knew that, hey, we need to start getting some summer wrestling in. And, that's when I met up with Brent Vorhees, and I think he's a big reason for me blooming in and getting more technique and just continuing to build off of what I built.
You were 35 and 1 as a freshman, 39 and 2 as a sophomore, 50 and 0 as a junior, 44 and 0 as a senior for straight championships, but you had to go up in the weight division, which is typical. You were at 103, then 119, then 125, and then 130. What was the toughest change from one weight to the next, which year was that? Each one.
I think anyone that went through it with me would definitely agree that my freshman year was pretty tough. I was a very big 103-pounder, I was cutting a lot of weight. I was reaching the 120 mark quite often throughout the week and what not. The jumps in the years to come are definitely a lot easier than that weight cut as a freshman. I'll be the first to admit, I wasn't very disciplined. It took me a while to learn, not to balance, just keep my weight down. But, weight wise, that freshman year, it was definitely pretty brutal on me.
Coach Keszler called you a sponge. He called you a sponge, because whatever he told you, you took and was able to take it and use it to the best of your ability.
I found myself, at a young age, being more, as some say, a student of the game. Wrestling was just kind of, coming out when I was younger, probably freshman year, I want to say. They were just kind of, catching traction. I just find myself in front of the computer wanting to watch matches and try to think of, hey, I could tie this into my style of wrestling and see what things would work for me. I think, a place that I got that, was watching my older brother, wrestle. So, like I said, he didn't start till he was an eighth grader. And, just watching Tyson pick things up... He had to pick things up at a very fast pace to be successful, and he did. So, I give him kudos to that. I think I got a lot of that from Tyson.
Talking about some of your teammates, beginning from your freshman year to your senior year, who were the guys that you really relied on for support in wrestling?
Oh, man. The list goes on and on, man. Like I said, I'll go back To Tyson. He really set the stage for me. A lot of times when you're having a lot of success, you can go down the wrong path in the practice room and think, I can take it easy. Watching Tyson set the tone for hard work and practice, that really got me to the next level, I think, Craig. Just seeing, hey, man, if I can work like Tyson does and make the jumps that Tyson did, with where I'm already at right now, I can get to that next level. I got to see that, I've gone into the high school practice as a 6th, 7th grader. So, I got to watch that example at a young age, and that was probably the best example I could see.
Because, I could really see what levels I could get to just by seeing what level he jumped to. He was ranked number two as a senior and probably, realistically, should have won it. I think he was the best guy at that weight, but just seeing how fast he got that good, I was, hey, I can make some big time jumps here. Then, as far as partners, obviously Josh and Jason, it was the three amigos growing up. I look at pictures when I go back home, of us, winning Rocky Mountain National titles together since we were two feet tall. Man, it was one guy was going home happy every night from practice and the other one was going home crying because the other one beat the crap out of him.
So, that started at a young age and it just started building. I don't even know the people... I'd have to name, Rex, the Copland brothers, Nate Wilson, the list goes on and on. We were pretty deep by the time our senior year rolled around.
What was going through your mind after the state championship as a senior? You went 44 and 0, your fourth straight title. When they raised your hand and wrestling for the last time for the Scoopers, what was going through your mind at the time?
Oh, man, there is a lot of mixed emotions. I think, towards the end of my senior year, Craig, I was really ready to get to that next level. I was looking on to, hey, what's college maybe hold? But also, I was trying to take it in. I don't think a lot of us on the team really knew what we had. We knew we were good, I don't think we realized how special the team was.
That was 2010 where you had six state champions that year?
Yup. Six state champions and we broke the team record of state tournament. So, there was a lot of mixed emotions. It was sad it was over, but, also, very excited to get to the next level.
What about the next level in college?
Next level in college, I guess I'll be brutally honest, I think everybody would probably agree, a bit of a letdown as far as a career goes. I didn't All-American. I didn't reach some of the goals I wanted to. But, I can look back and I'm very happy with how things went. I tried as hard as I could. I went into practice with the same mindset I had throughout high school, and things just didn't work out. But, I met my wife up here at the U, got a very good job, I have all my friends from college. So, on the mat, I don't think I reached my goals. Some call it a letdown, but I'm definitely happy with where I'm at.
What was the best advice that Coach Keszler gave you during your varsity years?
Oh, man, I don't even know where I would start that, Craig, it's just the lessons his taught me, there are just so many of them. I think the biggest thing that Steve did, was preach, team. It was never about the big stud individual. I think that's why Steve was able to build so many great teams. Everyone looks at our team and looks at Josh Keszler or Seth Lange, it was never about me and Josh in that room, he treated me and Josh just like he treated the JV kid. If we messed up, trust me, we heard about it.
I think that's how it should be. Every piece of the puzzle is very important, and when you have teams that know that, you have everyone buy in and everyone gets much closer, you start cheering about your team mates a lot more. That's how you really build special teams.
Where are your medals? Still have them?
Seth Lange:
Where? We'd have to talk to Mary-Ann Lange about that one. She has all that stuff, I don't know, maybe in a box somewhere.
A couple more for you Seth. All right, you're married, don't have any kids yet, but if that young boy that you have someday decides to play basketball, what would that mean to you?
What would that mean to me? Craig, to be honest, me and my wife... she was a gymnast up here at the U, and we've had this talk. I want to have a relationship like me and my dad had. He was my coach when I needed him to be my coach, but he was also my dad when I needed him to be my dad. And, sometimes you don't see that. And, that's when, you see too much of psycho coach, and not so much dad. I get a little scared, I'm not going to lie to you, that Seth could be that psycho coach. But, I do have enough buddies up here that have wrestling programs, as far as they have their own separate training facility. So, I have plenty of avenues that I could push him towards wrestling. If he does want to go into another sport, honestly, that would probably be a relief on me, to be honest.
What has wrestling done for you now, that you're out of college, you want to be a commodity trader? What is wrestling done to you to prepare you for your next adventure?
It's done a ton. It's built that work ethic that I think makes a lot of wrestlers have a step up on everyone else when it comes to finding that career. Jay Robb said it best, there's different definitions of hard work. Everyone has their own definition of hard work and it seems like the wrestlers hold themselves to a higher standard. Right now, I'm going through a program where it's me and six other guys and transportation, and we're battling, it's like, who can make the most calls? Who can stay later? Well, I'm very used to being the first one there and the last one out, and that carries into the business side of things very well.
Nate Oviatt - Former State Champion Wrestler for Sturgis
Nate, when you think about those the wrestling days, you're just about be getting done on the practice right now, what comes to your mind right away when you start thinking back at those wrestling days?
Well, I think a lot about the communities. I say communities because there was a lot of communities involved. I, myself, was from Whitewood, and the Sturgis program was made up of, by and large, for little kids programs, and they were the Whitewood program, the Sturgis program, the Union Center program and then the Piedmont program, [inaudible 00:48:14]. We grew up wrestling in little kid tournaments, of course, and then we all came together in middle school and teamed up like the Avengers. We had all these guys from these smaller little kids programs that were excelling and then they came into the middle school program and became very formidable. We just had tough guys, top to bottom.
What was that first practice like as a varsity wrestler with coach Steve Keszler?
So, the first practice I went through was an eighth grader and we got bused to those practices, if you wanted to go. It was back in the old high school wrestling room, that 30 by 30, and, as an overweight eighth-grader going up against one of the best teams, it was very intimidating. I remember getting real nervous, from the bus ride out to the high school, and, leaving just exhausted. I remember my folks would say stuff like, hey, you'd get home from those practices, and you were just a zombie basically. That was pretty much how it was for a while. By the time I became a varsity wrestler, I was used it, it really wasn't as scary or intimidating, but you still get those butterflies in your stomach, knowing the amount of work you had to do going into that room.
How much work did you have to put in during the summer?
Obviously, we would do a lot of weight training and things like that and train. Mostly, at the time, it was for football, but going into my junior year, I started going to a lot more clinics and tournaments in the summer I never really did much Freestyle and Greco. But, we did a lot of clinics, so we ended up doing a lot of work. I would say, the lion's share of the work took place in the early part of the school year in the fall, when we grabbed Justin Schlecht and Sean Carroll and we'd go run stairs on our own so that when we had to start doing it, [crosstalk 00:50:33], it really wasn't as much of a drag as it could have been.
Did you play football at all, Nate?
So yeah, I played football. I was varsity up through my junior year. And then, my senior year, I decided not to go out for football, played soccer that year. And, I hadn't played soccer since I was 10 years old. But, I was starting to feel like I had a pretty decent shot at wrestling in college, and so I didn't really want to get hurt going into my senior year. So, I played soccer and I really enjoyed that.
You're on the state dual championships, your junior and senior year. It was the first time that the state had done this. What was that experience like for you?
I think the duals are the best showcase that wrestling has to offer. It's the closest thing we have to an exhibition of the team aspect of the sport, which I think is the most interesting for fans and the most exciting for fans. Going into that first year, we knew we had a really strong dual team. We didn't necessarily have the team points to dominate in a tournament setting, but in a dual setting, we were strong, top to bottom. So, we knew we had a really good shot going into that 2001 season of getting our first state championship in the dual tournament.
You have three sisters. You didn't have any brothers to go at it in the basement of your house. What was it like, maybe, in the off-season or maybe before you became varsity? How did you get keep wrestling going and get your action in?
Well, so I grew up in Whitewood, like I said. Justin Schlecht was a neighbor of mine. Sean Carroll was a neighbor of mine. Justin Schlecht was a three-time national champion for Dickinson State. Very talented wrestler. Sean Carroll was another collegiate wrestler for Dickinson State. And, we all grew up in the same three block radius. So, although I didn't have brothers, per se, those guys were like my brothers. We spent all of our time together, a lot of time wrestling. Then, we had another friend, Tyler [Capers 00:52:59], who didn't end up doing any high school wrestling, but was another one that was a big wrestling fan. We just spent a lot of our time wrestling. Justin Schlecht had a room built in his barn, I guess, where we would go up there and practice and wrestle. We spent a lot of time doing that.
Let's talk about your senior year 2002, you went undefeated. The title, your only state title individually. Going into that year, was there pressure on you to win the title? What was it like going into that senior year?
No, I wouldn't say there was. I wrestled in college later on for Nebraska Omaha, and I had a couple of years that were kind of, similar, but going into that senior year, I really just felt very confident and comfortable with where I was at technically. I'd went down to some camps in Nebraska and Iowa, performed really well against guys that were highly ranked in the nation. And, I just felt comfortable. The undefeated aspect never really came into my mind until maybe the very end of the year, when that became something that... It was still in the back of my head, but it wasn't anything that I ever really focused on.
Big question that gets handled by a lot of folks in Sturgis, who would have won, the 2002 team or the 2010 team if they had gone into a dual? They were both loaded, weren't they?
They were. Into a dual, it would have been very close. Into a tournament setting, you can't tell anybody this, of course, it's going on radio and everyone's going to know, but the 2010 team is probably better. That 2010 team was really stacked. That team, I think, was ranked close to the top 10 nationally. And, I think that was a fair assessment of where that team was at. I think the highest that 2002 team got nationally was, maybe the 20s or 30s, which, I think, was a fair assessment. That 2010 team was special. The 2002 team was too, but that 2010 team had, at least, two college wrestlers on it, one D1, then another couple of guys that I felt like certainly could have been if they wanted to go that route.
Well, you're a lawyer now in Rapid City, Nate, when did the the dream of being a lawyer, when did that first come about?
So, my uncle, Thad Oviatt, was a heavyweight champion from Huron. He was always a hero of mine, along with my father, growing up, and he was a lawyer in Colorado. I don't know how old I was, but, early on, I realized, I wanted to be a lot like my uncle, Thad. So, I was always moving in the direction of law. I don't think I really took the practical steps of becoming a lawyer until, well, probably undergrad. But yeah, it was always something that was a goal of mine since I was young, early, seven, eight years old, something like that.
What do you miss about wrestling today?
Well, actually, I'm coaching. I'm coaching in Rapid. My son wrestlers for the Westside team in Rapid. So, I'm still fairly simple. It does seem to be one of the things that you really can't get away from, even though I've got a lot of friends in Sturgis that give me a hard time about doing work right now for the Stevens program.
So, are you like Coach Keszler on the sideline, when your son is on the mat?
I try to emulate Keszler in as many ways as I can think of. His approach to how he trained and coached Josh, is incredibly admirable. It's really difficult to take a hands-off approach when they're so young. I think it's the right approach. But, beyond coaching, just, in general, in life, he's got a foresight in cutting through the nonsense and getting to the heart of matters that I've always tried to emulate. And, when it comes to coaching my son, I tried to do it Keszler did, but it's really hard to watch him struggle. I know it was hard on Kesz watching Josh struggle when he was really young, frankly, because Kesz refused to show him very much, because he just didn't think it was necessary.
The more I've been involved in the sport, call it collegiately and internationally, you learn that knowing wrestling, when you're five, six years old, is not as important as learning the basics of being able to handle the stress of being in a match and that struggle.
What did wrestling do to prepare you in adulthood? Being a lawyer, what that sport does?
What the sport does, it's largely dependent on the influences you have. I had some great influences. Keszler, and then I had Coach Denny in Nebraska Omaha. But, what it does is, it teaches you to be self-reliant, to understand that there's no challenge that you can't handle on your own, even if you really don't know what you're doing or feel like you're overmatched, it can be done. The other thing it teaches you is that, even if your teammates or your coaches or your family or your friends are not on the mat with you, physically, they're with you, and they'll be with you the moment you step off, no matter what the result is. That's true, whether you step into the courtroom and have a bad day or a good day, it's your friends and your family and your mentors that are there to pick you up or to congratulate you and be your cheerleaders. It just gives you strength. It gives you an inner strength that I don't think a lot of other sports offer.
Josh Keszler - Steve Keszler's son and a three-time state champion
Rehashing that dominance that the Sturgis Scoopers had. But, you always get this question, what was it like with your dad as the coach? How far back did you go back to when you two first started? Maybe started working on wrestling moves and then eventually got into wrestling.
It all kind of started out just being a little kid just being on that side corner with him, coaching. I was four years old. Ever since, I remember learning something or trying to figure something out, yes, being a kid, we weren't much and nothing, but you're seeing it, and I've always known that I'm more of a hands-on guy. And yeah, it just all started out when I was about four years old. Having my dad as coach, some might think it's rough, but me and him were, we were [inaudible 01:01:02] between us two.
I did ask him how many lamps or tables you broke in the basement of the house while you guys were maybe working on the move.
Now, I don't know what he said, but after my eighth grade year, he, pretty much, never wrestled me again.
That's what he said. He was being smart, because he knew he probably would have been back in no time at all. You're an eighth grader in 2006 and you made it to the championship as an eighth grader at 10, what were your feelings going in to that championship as an eighth grader?
It was pretty incredible. Just knowing that I had Aaron [Pickerel 01:01:52] on my side from Watertown. He was ranked number one at the time. That was the only one that I was really putting the main goal. Nothing against Jeremiah Peterson because he ended up winning it that year. But, I had just one goal, really, and that was to stick to him. And, it's just one of those things where you set a goal for one thing and then forgot about, to take one match at a time.
Was there a deer in the headlights look at all, being at the center mat as an eighth grader?
It wasn't. I've just been around it enough and done enough summer things. I didn't fear. I thought I was ready to go to high school.
Well, there's nothing wrong with losing to Jeremiah Peterson of Canton. He was pretty good, wasn't he?
Yes, he was. Yup.
Yeah. Well, you won it all in 2007 as a ninth grader, you went 38 and 3. You had to move up a weight class to 112. But then, as a sophomore in 2008, you only had one loss, but again, that was at the state championship at 125.
Yes, it was, and it was to Jeremiah again. We wrestled, actually, three times in a row in the state finals.
Moving from 112 to 125, how big of a challenge was that for you at that time?
I was fighting a weight at 112, I was probably weight about 130, 132. I was just going into my mature body, going into sophomore year. So, it wasn't a big thing. I weighed probably about 140. It wasn't like it was any big bump. Maybe, because it was just my size by then.
Yeah, but you went down a weight the following year as a junior. You went down to 118.
Oh, you're talking about the junior.
Yeah. Well, no, you were a 125 as a sophomore, right?
That's sophomore, yeah. Then, junior year, what that whole set up was is, we had one guy that was always in the shadow and his name was Jason Catrall. I knew if he's on the team, too, you could easily get top three. I talked to Seth, my buddy, Seth Lange, and we both weighed right about the same, we were still deciding to go 125 and 130. We just didn't know who was going where. I was, well, what about trying to get Jason in? Do you think one of us can cut down to 19? He says, "I don't think I could probably cut it." So, I decided to be the man, I guess.
What did your dad and coach think of that?
He shook his head, "Well, it's up to. I'm not involved with this at all." I said, "I know you're not."
Well, you went 39 and 1 and won the title. You got your second championship, and then, as a senior, you bumped up back to 125, you went undefeated at 47 and 0. Was the struggle still there with weight training, all those years in wrestling? Because, you said, earlier, 125 that was kind of, hard, too.
Yup. All the years, decided and plotted my strategy, had to cut maybe about seven pounds, but all the other years were pretty good fighting weight, at all time.
I talked to Randy Lewis recently... Of course, state champion, a collegiate champion, Olympic champion. He told me that his competence level was so high, because he knew he was going to go out and pin somebody. How about for you? What was your confidence level, maybe beginning as your sophomore year, your confidence going on the mat, knowing that you were probably going to win?
You just got to try it the same. Yes, I lost two matches and that's when I really learned, you're now going to look past one person that you might think they're a lot better than, but you just take it one match at a time. Yeah, I understand I probably have a lot more experience-wise [inaudible 01:06:02], because I did a lot of summer things. I went open gym, all summer long. You just take it one step at a time. It wasn't like there was much pressure, it's just another match. Step on the mat and do your thing.
Josh, was there any time at all in your varsity time on the mat that, you know what, I'm tired, I don't know if I want to do this? Was there any time where you just got tired of the sport?
I never really did until college. College, it really hit me. I don't know if it's just the fact of whatever, you want to just move on and do something else, or maybe beat from cutting so much weight and working out every day, weighing on your body. But no, in high school, I always felt like I wanted to be on the wrestling mat.
What was the overall college experience for you?
It was just more fun. Yes, I was on a great B2 team. We ended up winning that year. It was just a great experience. It just wasn't quite what I was expecting.
Sure. Well, your workout partner was Seth Lange. Of course, Seth was a four-time champ, you were a three-time champ, what were some of those practices like between you two?
People might say it's exciting, but me and him were actually boring to watch. We knew each other's moves too much. If we had to wrestle a whole match every day, in that wrestle room, I bet it would be 3 to 2, 0 to 2. It would always be a one point match. It was pretty boring.
Your senior year, you're 47 and 0, you win the championship, it's your third, the feelings that you had on the mat on your final varsity match, with your dad on the sideline.
Yep, it was a great moment just knowing it was going to be my last for high school and then, especially, having exposed my dad as a coach, it was pretty emotional. But, yeah, at the same time, it was pretty fun, just knowing that we were on an incredible team. That was the biggest thing, it was, just, the incredible we had.
You were one of six champions on that 2010 team. You're an electrician now. Was there any thought of being a coach like your dad in the wrestling sport?
He actually needed some help afterwards, so I came back. He was short on some assistance, so I kind of, helped out. It's just hard being an electrician and getting off at a decent time to just go to practice and everything and started wearing on my boss. So, I just had to pick one or the other or get a new job. I decided I'm going to stick with being electrician. And, anytime that anybody needs one on one stuff and whatnot, I'll be certainly glad to help on weekends or after work time.
What are you most proud of in those years at Sturgis in the wrestling program?
It was just incredible. And, yes, being on a state record team like that, was just amazing. But, I think the most I got out of it, is how incredibly confident that we always felt, competitive. It was just a great group of kids enjoying what we were doing.
Caleb Chapman - Former Sturgis Wrestler
By the way, Caleb happens to be the cousin of Nate Oviatt's wife. We talked to Nate earlier. I didn't know that. It's a small world there, Caleb.
Yeah, it definitely is. So yeah, me and Nate get along really well. So yeah, it was fun to see that he was going to do an interview with you, too.
When did the wrestling bug get to you?
So, I started wrestling when I was six years old, just like a lot of us did. My dad, he wrestled for Sturgis back in the day, too. So, he just got me into the sport. I started with the AAU club. So, I wrestled from six years old, all the way up to my senior year. So, a good portion of my life, obviously, through childhood, was dedicated to wrestling. So, it definitely a big part of my life and still is in a lot of ways.
You're wrestling at 112 as a freshman, what kind of success did you have as a freshman?
Freshman year was really interesting. So, a fellow teammate and a good buddy of mine today, Tyson Lange, we always joke about this, but we were both 112 pounders that year. Mike Walker, who ended up being a state champion, he was a senior that year. But yeah, Tyson Lange and I, reason why I bring him up is because we always went back and forth that year. He was probably my toughest competition that year on JV and vice versa. So, it's funny because we joke about it. I pinned him at rest a lot, he pins me at sundance. I pinned him at wall and he pinned me at custer. So, we just have this back and forth all year long, and it's just something that we joke about now.
Freshman year was a good experience, getting into high school, wrestling and whatnot, but, yeah, freshman year stands out. Our toughest competition was usually Sturgis guys, just because we were so deep and so young. So, there's a lot of Sturgis Jvers that year who are first and second at these tournaments. But, we always joke about it with Tyson Lange because whoever won was the person who wasn't the point getter. We always had it backwards.
You didn't make the state, though, that year, did you?
No, because I was only... Yip, in '03, I was just a freshman that year, and, yeah, Tyson Lange was a sophomore. So, yeah, I was just on JV that year. Just one of those things where you had to wait your turn. I guess, Mike Walker, like I said, ended up being state champion that year. I think, as a team, we placed third that year. I remember Kesz saying, beginning of the year, I think, they had us ranked at 13th or 14th, or something like that, and we ended up being 3rd. So, freshman year, just a really good experience, got into, obviously, the high school wrestling room, learned a lot. So, it was a good way to start my high school career, I guess.
The following year in '04, things are looking up, you go to state, and you're a place winner that year.
So, sophomore year, I was 112, ended up getting 7th in state that year. So, it was definitely a challenging year. That was the first year I really had to cut weight. I was always smart about my weight, so there was that challenge. Then, just the whole stress of finally being on varsity, we just had a lot of pressure on us. I put a lot of pressure on myself, on just to perform well and whatnot. But, sophomore year, we ended up winning the duals that year. So, that was definitely the highlight of the year, I think. I think that was the last year they did the duals back then. I know they brought it back now.
So, we ended up winning the dual state title against Yankton that year. So yeah, sophomore year was a great year. As a team, we fell a little short in the individual state championship, but, sophomore year, lots of stress, but definitely learned a lot. And yeah, it was a good building block for the following year.
Well, Caleb, if you're looking at a stepladder, you are definitely moving your way up. And then, as a junior, you didn't make the team. What happened that year?
Yeah. That's the thing about Sturgis wrestling, we were so deep. Our JV would win some of the local varsity tournaments. And, it was in a situation where I started the year on varsity, everything was fine. I ended up getting 5th at... No, I got 4th, and, Cody Wilson, a fellow teammate, he was in my weight class, too, and ended up... Yep, he ended up getting 5th. We both beat the same people, so it just made sense, all right, we're going to have a wrestle off. Cody and I were pretty evenly matched, but he got the better hand on me. His style, when we matched up, it was a little better than mine. So, they were close matches. But yeah, he beat me in wrestle off, and there was no animosity between us. We were teammates, good friends, but it's just one of those situations where we were just super deep. And yeah, I wrestled a good portion of that year on JV, and that was definitely a really hard pill to swallow.
You could easily have walked away from the sport after that.
Yeah. It never honestly crossed my mind, wrestling is something that I've done my whole life. I knew that if I was to walk away, it'd be one of those things that I would regret it for the rest of my life. So, there is just no way I know, I couldn't quit. But, it was definitely challenging, but, in hindsight, it ended up being a blessing in disguise. Just to give you a clue, though, like, how it was. What was hard is, I knew that year, I was more than likely a top five wrestler that year. Cody ended up getting hurt at the end of the year, something with his finger, I believe, so I had to wrestle in the GDC conference which is the dual against all the Sioux Falls schools. And, I ended up beating Shane Thomas that year, who ended up being the state runner-up that year.
So, I don't say that to sound boastful or anything, but gives you an idea of what the situation was like. We were just a deep team, and I know that's really rare, to have such a deep team where the guy who's on JV or whatnot, is a strong wrestler, too. But, like I said, hats off to Cody he was a better wrestler than me that year, but it definitely lit a fire under me, because I had a lot to prove to myself, I had a lot of to prove to the Sturgis wrestling community. So, that year, I think, when we won the state title that year, that was the year that we didn't have any champions or no one even in the finals. So, that was kind of a rare thing, but I just remember, the second that state tournament was done on Monday, I was in the weight room.
I was already just motivated for the next season. I was going to be a senior. And, like I said, I just had a lot to prove to myself and I was just really motivated, come senior time, because like I said, I had a lot to prove, and I knew I belonged on that podium that year, but it was just one of those weird situations where it didn't really work out for me. But, I was super proud of my teammates, and everything, but I was definitely looking forward to the following year.
Well, in 2006, as a senior, you decided to go at 130. And, unfortunately, also wrestling 130 is four-time champion, Dusty Walraven of Huron. And like, Engelhard of Watertown, who only lost once that year, was 130 your spot? Was that ready for you?
Yeah, I think so. 125 was pretty stacked too. We had Scott Johnson there. Honestly, I wasn't really worried about who the other wrestlers were going to be in my bracket. That year, my senior year, we were just so deep as a team. It was more so just kind of figuring out okay, where can we all balance out as a team and fill a spot on the team? I remember, it was the first dual against Belle Fourche my senior year, and we're warming up in the wrestling room and we're just jogging around getting warmed up, and I'm just looking over and I see Josh Keszler, I see Tyson Donovan, [inaudible 01:20:22], Scott Johnson, Sean Larson, Ryan Murphy, [inaudible 01:20:26], and I just thought to myself, holy crap, we our staff right now.
We wouldn't let it get to our head, but it just made us think, wow, we have a team that is super special and pretty rare. We didn't really have that guy on the team, where you looked at him and you thought, okay, he's going to be a state champion, for sure. But, we probably had like, 11 out of the 14 guys that year, you probably figured that they'd be in the top five, at least. So, that was more so, going into the year, I wasn't worried about the Watertown, Huron or anything like that, it was just making sure that we all balanced out and we were able to feel a weight together. But, it ended up working out and there was a lot of good memories from that senior just because, like I said, we were just so deep as a team. And, it was something that I think is pretty rare to have, that many guys being so solid on that team.
Well, you finished fifth that year. So, here's a wrestler as a freshman, didn't get to state, you were a place winner the next year, you didn't make the team as a junior, but you came back and you placed in state as a senior. That's a great story, Caleb, of how easy someone could have just said, you know what, I may be not into it.
Yeah, definitely. When you get those setbacks, I think that's when it truly defines your character. You can easily give up and feel sorry for yourself, or you can use it as a motivator. That's what I tried to do. I just use it as motivation and fuel and I was super determined, my senior year, to just perform for my team. Yeah, I got fifth. To this day, I'm still a little bitter about that, because my goal was top three. Never satisfied in Sturgis wrestling. You always think back and wish you could have won a few more matches.
But yeah, it was good. But, like I said, honestly, what was so fun about my senior year, it was always about the team. We knew we had something special that year. The fact that we on it pretty convincingly at the state tournament, honestly, that was the main goal for all of us. It's something that we didn't really talk about a whole lot, because we just knew that, that was the long-term goal, but we were really good about taking things just one week at a time. Coach Kesz, he always stressed that, not to look too far ahead. But, that senior year, man, just the team camaraderie that we had, and how we... again, not to sound boastful, but we just dominated everything that year. It was definitely a fun senior campaign as a team just to win so many duals and tournaments that year and finish out on top as a team. I think that's obviously when I think back to wrestling, that's what I think of most, it's just that senior year and the dominance that we had over everyone.
Caleb, you're now a teacher in Rapid City and you're still active in wrestling, right? Are you helping out with the middle schools in Rapid City?
Yeah, so I'm actually a school counselor here in Rapid City and I do coach wrestling for Southwest Middle School. So, I'm part of the Stevens Raider wrestling program, which I know, right, this is my eighth year, the first year or two, that was definitely a little weird. Stevens, they were our main rivals in high school and whatnot. So, that was a little adjustment for me, but I had the privilege of coaching with Travis King for a couple years at Southwest Middle School and he's awesome. Great guy. So, obviously, I'm part of the Stevens Raider program, a lot of those guys were investors that I coached in middle school so I obviously route for the Raiders. But, when you're a Scooper, you're always going to have that Scooper pride in you. So obviously, I always want them to do well, too.
