Seniors looking forward
Winning traditions don’t just happen.
In wrestling rooms, they’re forged through long hours of practice, with individual wrestlers pushing each other to get better.
Dan Michalski likes being one of the guys pushing.
The 189-pound senior likes that his teammates look to him to carry on the team’s tradition of excellence on the mat.
“There’s more responsibility on the seniors, but I don’t think I’d call it added pressure,” Michalski said. “I’ve been looking forward to this, and I like that I get to help teach our young guys the way the guys that went ahead of me taught us.
“When it comes right down to it, it’s more of a privilege than it is a pressure.”
Heavyweight Nic Weyrauch feels the same way.
“We went through leadership training in Boy Scouts,” he said. “I’m looking forward to this.”
Both seniors learned from watching the senior classes in years past.
“The standard they set can be very hard to live up to,” Michalski said. “But I know that the working hard is what our coach likes, and it’s what I want, too.”
East Valley comes into the 2006-07 wrestling season with the vast majority of its experience concentrated in the upper weight divisions.
Junior Clete Hanson, son of coach Craig Hanson, was the class 3A runner up at 171 pounds a year ago. Michalski, Jimmy Martin, who wrestles at 215 pounds and Weyrauch all are veterans of last year’s postseason tournaments.
“I’m proud of what I’ve already accomplished, of course,” Michalski said. “But every year I like to start over from scratch. Every year, you have to start over. When practice starts, we all have to work on the basics so we can bring the new guys up to speed.”
Already, the Knights’ upper-weight wrestlers have made their impact felt.
Sophomore Dakota Lawson, new to the team’s starting lineup, made an initial splash at last weekend’s Inland Empire Classic at Central Valley High School, placing third at 160. Senior Caleb Alvarado did the same at 152.
Hanson, despite wrestling on a newly healed left leg, won at 171, while Michalski and Weyrauch placed third and sixth, respectively.
The Knights finished a respectable seventh at the Inland Empire Classic and head to Coeur d’Alene this weekend for the always-powerful Tri-State Tournament at North Idaho College.
“Our big guys are going to carry us early in the season,” Craig Hanson said. “We’re still trying to sort out who’s going to wrestle where in the lower weights. We’re getting there.”
Both Michalski and Weyrauch look to a former teammate for inspiration.
“I learned a lot watching Zac Hardwick,” Michalski said. “After his junior year, no one picked Zac to be a state placer. But he came back into the weight room and dedicated himself to being the best wrestler he could be, and he went out and won (the 2004 state Class 4A) state title at 171.
“I watched him push himself every day in practice. I saw him pay the price to be a champion. I want my teammates to see that, too.”
Another former teammate sticks in Michalski’s mind.
“Brad Dowd is one of those guys who taught me a lot,” he said. “Brad was never one of the guys who had a lot of success. He wasn’t a varsity wrestler. He never really got a shot at the big state tournament.
“But the thing about Brad is that he worked his butt off every time he came out.”
Weyrauch has the added benefit of having been the everyday practice partner for an undefeated state champion a year ago.
“I worked with Tyler Jolley every day in practice,” he said. “He pushed me to get better and better every day because he needed me to push him as hard as I could every day.
“We have a great coach in Coach Hanson. He’s always talking to us about paying the price, about always pushing ourselves to get better. When you see someone do that and see it all pay off at the end, it makes it easier to go back and do it that much harder.”