EV Wrestling With Success And Predictions

When wrestler Brad Crockett finished second in state for East Valley last year, no one was as surprised as him.

“If you told me I’d be in the state finals, I wouldn’t have believed it,” he said.

Knight coaches were far more optimistic. When Crockett and seven other Knight seniors were freshmen, then-coach Mark Perry predicted that EV would win the state AA championship when those wrestlers were juniors and the state AAA title their senior season.

“We knew we’d be state champions as juniors because Perry told us so,” said Kevin Woolf.

Last year, when Crockett and fellow junior Justin Walker placed second individually and Woolf took fourth, the first half of Perry’s prophecy came true.

The more difficult half of the prediction lies ahead. EV’s seniors say they are up to the challenge.

The trio, plus 168-pound Rusty Ruchert, 158-pound Mike Manuel, 135-pound Jay Campbell, 275-pound Mike Eller and 129-pound Nate Kappen have been part of an exceptional run of Knight wrestling success.

East Valley has won seven Frontier League championships in the last eight years.

If the team beats Cheney tonight to make it eight titles in nine years, the octet will have been part of four successive league championships at EV.

Walker and Ruchert have been starters the entire time, having been joined by Woolf and Campbell in the district tournament each year.

Walker, 129 pounds, and Woolf, 122, are two-time state qualifiers.

Ruchert has been to regionals in each of his first three years and Manuel is a two-time regional participant. Last year the pair wrestled each other for the district championship at 158 pounds.

Eller is a two-time district participant as is Crockett, 141 pounds. Kappen, who wrestles in the same weight class as Walker, was a district competitor last year.

Early recognition of their talent motivated the wrestlers.

“The coaches saw freshmen who weren’t there just to be there,” said Campbell.

Peer pressure has kept this group intact, through assorted injuries, successes and failures.

“For me, it’s being part of the big group here,” said Manuel. “If we quit we’d get hell from the other guys.”

Today the athletes are facing the recognition that their final season has just three weeks remaining. They want to make the most of it.

Walker, who injured a shoulder earlier this year but is back at full strength, and Crockett are seeking titles that just eluded them last year.

“I’ve done a lot over the spring and summer,” said the Stanford-bound Walker. “I feel I’m still improving.”

Crockett admits to pressure trying to duplicate last year’s success in what was his first full varsity season.

Woolf has set his sights high.

“Actually, I was disappointed with fourth last year,” he said. “I thought I should have been in the finals.”

The others are seeking state for the first time. Ruchert, currently bothered by a rib injury, and Manuel just missed last year.

“It’s tough to see guys you beat during the season become state champions,” Ruchert said.

Campbell, sixth in regionals last year, added that it’s no fun watching state from the stands, but seeing his teammates succeed has motivated him.

It won’t be easy now that the team is part of the newly realigned 3A classification and must compete in a rugged sub-regional and expanded regional that includes schools from the Seattle area.

“I’m excited for the whole thing,” admitted Hanson. “It will be fun to be around.”

Should the Knights survive the first two tourney rounds intact, the second part of a four-year-old prediction could become reality.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo