Wanna wrassle!

The tradition continues. Two Raider wrestlers answered the question that has been hanging over the team all year: “Who’s next?” The Raider wrestling team has put on a streak of state champs for the past few years, and two grapplers answered the challenge. One returning for the second time and the other capturing his first title; but equally important, one captured the Academic State Champ, as well, in his weight class.

Tony Nichols has been raised on the mat. As long as I can remember, he has been there. Over the years he has grown stronger and stronger, and his weight class has done the same. But this year everything fell into place. Tony went undefeated this year and brought home a state title.

It was a special year for him and for his family. I saw his grandma on Sunday, and she was just as pumped about the title as probably any of them. “Did you hear?” she asked with a smile as big as a proud grandma can have. I had heard, but she told me anyway, with two little proud girls watching me and smiling too. Good job, Tony “Dream Crusher” Nichols; you did it with style. Oh, and Tony is only a junior. Big year ahead.

Kaleb “The Hitman” Horn did it with style, as well. Following in the shadow of his brother and other family members, he brought back his second title and an academic title as well. To do it once is a big thing, but to do it twice — well, that is a thing legends do. He also has a chance at a trifecta because he is only a junior, too.

Kaleb is also a kid who grew up on the mat, wrestling with his brother, his dad or a cousin most of the time — but when they weren’t there, he has been known to wrestle some other former champs. Champs like Orrin Gross, Levi Seylor, Octavio Alejandre and Jacob Smith, all of whom have left their mark here at LR. It makes him better to wrestle those who have already walked this path. Big or small, he will wrestle them all. But it is his brother, Kody, who has pushed him the most. A three-time bid starts today for Kaleb as he start preparing immediately.

Wrestling is sometimes something we think of as an individual sport, but it is not that at all. No wrestler can do much at all without someone to practice with, someone who is traveling the same grinding road as they are. Dieting together, traveling together, working out together and being disciplined together. Being a team is the key.

Steve Hood has mastered that: bringing a group of kids together, all at different talent and experience levels, and having them pull greatness out of each other. Leaders leading to mentor a championship mentality. The past champs come back, too. Partly because they miss the program, but mostly because they see the importance of not only giving a kid someone to wrestle against, but to support the team as a whole. If there is no one there to make you better, well, then you never get better. A champion’s mentality is on the mat and off, in classroom and the dining room, in school and in the community. That is what Raider Wrestling is all about, and bringing home titles is just a bonus.

Congrats to Mr. Hood, Tony Nichols and Kaleb Horn. We are all looking forward to next year already.