Out on the mat, getting bruised, beat up and sometimes bloodied, wrestling is a solo battle that’s impossible to go through alone.
That’s why in wrestling, the support behind the athlete is perhaps more critical than any other sport. Because who’s in your corner makes all the difference over a tournament, a season, and throughout a career.
It can be the difference between a wrestler consistently faltering and one rising to the top, as seen throughout the weekend at the CHSAA state tournament inside Ball Arena.
“In every sport, there’s that good-or-bad, win-or-lose support you need after it’s over,” CHSAA wrestling commissioner John Sullivan explained. “But in wrestling, it just seems different. The emotion and energy and grit this sport requires, it’s so real. You need those outside influences more than ever.”
All wrestlers lose, even the elite ones. And all wrestlers need someone to pick them up after those tough defeats, or keep them hungry after the big wins.
In many ways, a wrestler is nothing without the people who drive him or her out on the mat.
“If you don’t have support, it’s like you’re out there on an island,” said Castle View coach and former Olympian Ike Anderson. “The support after you’ve lost and when you go back into the stands between matches, and you have people who can tell you that you can come back, it’s big for kids. It’s what makes wrestling, wrestling.”
The coach who pushes you
Of course, the people in your corner starts with, well, the people actually in your corner: Coaches. The ones who have the final word with their wrestler before they jog into the circle; the ones who shout instructions in wrestling tongue as the periods progress.
They are often the ones who know their wrestler best, from their greatest flaws to their greatest strengths.
As the case of Wray heavyweight Tavery Chappell demonstrates, the coach is the one whose belief can propel a wrestler to a place they didn’t even know they could get to.
See, Chappell isn’t actually a heavyweight. The junior weighs 193 pounds, so he’s wrestling two classes up. No matter: He mauled his way to the state title match, going 36-7 while not losing to an in-state heavyweight all season up until the championship.
He says the success of him wrestling up against competitors 100 pounds heavier than him is rooted in Wray coach Matt Brown.
“My speed is an advantage, because they get tired against me, and I’ve found it’s easy to use their weight against them. Plus they’re not as athletic as me,” Chappell said. “Coach Brown has been big in building that confidence I can do this. I missed weight earlier in the season (at 190), and Brown moved me to heavyweight. Then he kept me there.”
Chappell said even at one of the lowest moments of his high school career, Brown provided the positive affirmation he needed.
“Last year, I was super sick, pretty down, and I couldn’t breathe. He pulled me aside and gave me a hug and said, ‘It’ll be alright,'” Chappell said. “I lost like four matches that day in Nebraska. But he picked me up.
“And this year, he’s been giving me game plans for the big guys, and teaching me stuff that wouldn’t really work at my weight but works on the heavyweights. … I don’t think a lot of other coaches would push me and trust me to wrestle (two weights up). But I’ve known Coach since seventh grade — he knows me so much more as a person than just as a wrestler.”
The sibling who steers you
Beyond a dependable coach, having a sibling with state championship experience is also a game-changer.
For Poudre junior Billy Greenwood, his brothers Jacob and Job are his two primary catalysts. Jacob was a four-time state champion for the Impalas 2015-18, while Job was a two-time finalist.
Jacob, who now lives in Wiggins and is an assistant coach there, was in Billy’s corner throughout the tournament this weekend.
“(Jacob) is a big role model for me,” Billy Greenwood said. “In my first match (on Thursday), I was struggling a little bit at first, but I looked over there and he said, ‘Keep the pressure up and you’ll break this kid.’ It was 0-0 then, but he wasn’t worried at all, so that boosted my confidence. Having him here with me, it brought back some memories of being here watching him, and it gave me a little extra juice.”
When Billy broke his jaw in the first week of practice, he was feeling down. Continued calls and texts from his brothers lifted his spirits, and motivated him to stay in shape if his jaw healed in time. It did, and Billy made a run to the Class 4A 144-pound finals on Saturday, where he beat two-time defending champion Jacob Myers of Ponderosa in overtime.
“After I lost my finals my freshman year, I was pretty down then too, but Job called me and reminded me, ‘Hey dude, I never won a state title, but I’m still alive,'” Billy said. “That lowered the pressure on me, helped me recover from that defeat and made me realize I could still do great things on the mat.”
Over in Gunnison, Royce Uhrig has also been a mentor to his sisters, who just started wrestling two years ago. Freshman Roxie Uhrig competed this weekend at 135, and sophomore Rommi Uhrig was at 145 as Royce won his third Class 3A state title on Saturday.
“Our whole lives, we’ve grown up watching Royce. It’s helped us learn the sport, and now he’s been (hands-on) with pushing us forward,” said Rommi Uhrig, who was practice partners with Royce during the club season. “He’ll go into the wrestling room with us, show us new moves, improve on the technique that we already know. It’s helped us a lot in our short time in the sport.
“He’s very wise in my eyes. … I want to do something like him. Looking at what he’s done sets goals that I want to achieve. I want to be passionate like him, work hard like him, so it’ll pay off for me like it has for him.”
The parents who ride with you
When it comes to providing the means to do the sport, and the year-round financial investment, time committment and emotional support that entails, the best wrestlers usually have stalwart parents in their corner.
For Chaparral junior Declan Strait, his dad, Lance, has been his north star. Lance can be easily spotted at Declan’s matches, hanging over the rail by the mat, wearing his glasses and ballcap and shouting instructions like a third coach.
“My dad keeps me up and steady through everything — through my losses, my wins, through cutting weight, through anything hard in life,” said Strait, who won a Class 5A 106-pound title as a freshman. “I can hear him yelling from the stands, whether I’m winning or losing. That always gives me an extra boost. And after my matches, he helps me through my mental battles, constantly reminding me I can do it.”
That’s also the case for Palisade sophomore Teagan Young, a Class 4A 106-pounder. His mom, Jodi, is always mat-side taking photos, while his dad, Jess, does the videography.
“Their (consistent) presence there just means the world to me,” Young said.
For Fort Lupton’s D’mitri Garza-Alarcon, who cemented his four-peat with a Class 3A 138-pound title on Saturday, his mom, Angelina, gets a bulk of the credit for his high school dominance.
Angelina quit her job when Garza-Alarcon was young so she could focus on supporting his wrestling full-time by driving him all over the state to find practice partners during the week, and then to elite tournaments on the weekend. To make ends meet, she sold plasma, organized fundraisers and auctioned quilts, all while keeping D’mitri out of the gang life that engulfed his brothers.
“I looked at her first after I won, and pointed at her,” D’mitri said. “I wouldn’t be here without her… She’s dedicated the last 18 years for me to be at this point that I’m at.”
The grandparent who’s consistent for you
That off-mat support also crosses generational lines.
For instance, Jerry Bob Buford is a quintessential wrestling grandpa. Four of his grandsons have wrestled at the state tournament, including the youngest Derreck Bufford, who wrestled in the Class 2A 106-pound title for Crowley County on Saturday.
The 70-year-old who always wears overalls and has a toothpick dangling from his mouth is “tickled” to watch his grandsons wrestle, and often stands up in the aisle and blocks the stairs at Ball Arena with his large frame during his grandsons’ matches.
For his part, Derreck explains that his grandfather’s steady presence and stature in small-town Ordway — Jerry Bob was once Ordway’s postmaster and also served on the city council, in addition to owning a garage gym that’s a favorite training spot for local athletes — impacts him on the mat.
“He’s always there for a big hug after my matches,” Derreck said. “I always hear him (bragging about me) to other people, so that’s a confidence boost. And when I’m wrestling, I can hear him. When I’m out there, I can always picture him saying (my nickname), ‘Let’s go, Red!’ And he has a work ethic and a humility and a generosity in life that I’ve always tried to model.”
The late friend who inspires you
For Brendan “Buzz” Clatterbaugh, a Meeker senior who won the Class 2A 190-pound title on Saturday, the most influential person in his corner is someone who is no longer here. But in Clatterbaugh’s case, that only amplifies the impact.
Clatterbaugh and the Meeker community were devastated when Dillon Hobbs, a Cowboys wrestler and football player, was killed in a car accident on Oct. 14. Hobbs’ memory has been an inspiration to Meeker, which claimed its first team title since 2016, ever since.
“He keeps me going when I’m feeling out of gas,” Clatterbaugh said. “Early in the year, as we were still trying to process it, and our coach (J.C. Watt) said, ‘Well, if you’re hung up on it, just go get it for him. Go be the best you can this year, and have him be your power to go and keep wrestling.’
“At regionals and here in state, I always thought of what (Hobbs) would’ve wanted me to do. He always had something funny to say, and if I lost, he’d make fun of me (in a good way). It’s one of those things where, if you’re not here to make fun of me, I’ll at least make you proud.”
