Nathan Pascoe Lakeland Year: Junior Sport: Wrestling Weight: 152 Pounds

Former Lakeland wrestling coach and current vice principal Van Tuinstra has followed the careers of several state champions at the Rathdrum school the past two decades.

Tuinstra is not one for hype. If anything, he’s very conservative when he talks about talented wrestlers.

So it was noteworthy this week when he said this about Nathan Pascoe: “He’s technically as good as we’ve ever had; his arsenal is as good as we’ve had.”

Strong praise. But Pascoe is proving himself deserving of it.

Pascoe fell short of his goal last season as a sophomore, taking third at the State A-2 Tournament. He wanted gold.

He’s on a personal vision quest this winter. He’s won 26 of 27 matches, the loss coming in the first round of the Tri-State Tournament. Pascoe was pinned by a wrestler from Missoula, but bounced back to defeat the same opponent for third place.

Pascoe is the middle child of three boys, all wrestlers. His oldest brother by seven years, Jeremy, was a twotime runner-up at Lakeland and is a junior competing at South Dakota State this season. Nathan’s youngest brother, eighth-grader Travis, is another promising talent.

Asked if he was motivated to become the first state champion in his family, Pascoe was rather matter of fact: “I’ve never thought of it like that. I’m more personally motivated.”

Lakeland coach Mark Johnson wasn’t surprised by Pascoe’s response.

“There’s never been any comparison of the brothers,” Johnson said.

Johnson said Pascoe came within 5 seconds of a state title last year. Pascoe was ahead in his semifinal match when he did a move that was out of character.

That moment, sort of frozen in time, has motivated Pascoe this season. He’s scored 114 takedowns, scoring from his feet the majority of time.

Pascoe will be heavily favored to win a second straight district championship next week. And he’ll likely be seeded No. 1 going into the state tourney.

His biggest improvement from last year, Johnson has noticed, has been in his strength. At 6 feet, Pascoe is generally taller than most of his opponents.

But he wasn’t stronger than most last year.

“His strength is starting to catch up with him,” Johnson said. “That was probably the one part of his package that he was missing. This year he’s pretty much dominated everybody.”

Pascoe, who’s been wrestling since he was in kindergarten, sees the sport as a ticket to college.

“That’s one of my goals, to wrestle in college,” he said.

Pascoe and his teammates will compete in their final regular-season dual tonight when they entertain Coeur d’Alene in the annual Pine Cup.

He’s looking forward to the match, but he has his mind focused on his primary goal: To win state.

“I just have to wrestle as well as I can,” he said.

If he does, it’ll most likely have a golden ending.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo