Senior leaders
Dono Totten remembers walking into the wrestling room at University High School for the first time as a member of the Titans wrestling team and feeling overwhelmed.
Nick Zumwalt remembers his first time on the varsity wrestling mat as a freshman and the words coach Don Owen had for him.
Both seniors feel their early experiences are helpful to the young wrestlers on this year’s squad – a team looking to repeat as State 4A champions.
Totten, one of the top 275-pounders in the Greater Spokane League, remembers looking at the Wall of Champions in the U-Hi wrestling room and dreaming of the day his name could be added.
“It was very intimidating when I was a freshman,” Totten said. “The room was filled with all these quality wrestlers, and the lifestyle is totally different from anything I’d experienced before. It’s not like it was back in middle school. You have to eat right every day. You have to stay focused every day and you have to work harder than you ever worked when you were in middle school. I worked out with all of these good wrestlers and got my butt kicked a lot. I was wrestling some of the best guys in the state my first two years here, but it made me a much better wrestler.”
Zumwalt had a similar experience coming in.
“I pretty much got thrown to the wolves as soon as I got here,” the four-year letter winner said. “I remember going out there onto the mat for my first varsity match and coach Owen called me over. ‘This guy was a state placer last year,’ he told me. ‘There’s no way you’re going to beat him. Just don’t get pinned.’ “
Zumwalt, who placed seventh at 171-pounds at last year’s state tournament, laughs at the memory.
“But you know what? That’s something all of our freshmen and our first-year wrestlers can relate to. Everyone, even the best wrestlers in the state, all had to start out somewhere. There are a lot of them who didn’t win their first time out. But you still work hard, you learn, you keep your focus and you get better.”
Getting better is what the wrestling season is all about.
A year ago, the Titans were a preseason pick to win the first state State 4A championship in school history that proved the odds makers correct.
This year, the preseason predictions weren’t there, but the defending champs are still aiming high.
“Coming into the season, I didn’t think we could repeat to be perfectly honest,” Zumwalt said. “We lost a lot of seniors off last year’s team. But coach Owen, right from day one, was telling us that we could win it again.
“Then we went to the Tri-State Tournament and beat Lake Stevens and beat Auburn-Riverside, two teams that are supposed to challenge for the state title. Now I think we all believe we can do it again.”
As senior leaders on this year’s squad, Totten and Zumwalt draw on their individual experiences from last year to drive them toward the Tacoma Dome, home of state wrestling tournament.
For Totten, it’s a chance to realize something that eluded him a year ago.
“Last year, going into the regional, I was ranked No. 1,” Totten said. “We were working out in the practice room, and one of my teammates rolled out of his circle and tore up my knee. I tried to keep wrestling, but I couldn’t go and didn’t make it to state. I spent all summer rehabbing my knee and lifting weights, getting ready for this year.
“You push yourself that much harder because you want to live up to last year’s team. We want another one real bad. I think this year there’s a lot more pressure. Last year we were all working hard, but I was a junior and I didn’t realize just how big a deal it really is until I actually went to state and watched the tournament. To see your friends and teammates go out and achieve a goal they’ve had every day since they were freshmen is so awesome.”
Zumwalt said the juxtaposition between personal disappointment and team euphoria was dramatic.
“I wasn’t that pleased with my own performance at state, and I was being pretty hard on myself,” he said. “I lost to the guy who placed second in the quarterfinals, and I thought I should have won that match.
“And then we get to hoist the team trophy and you just feel so good for your teammates and for what we accomplished as a team. It was very special.”
Both wrestlers credit their practice partners with helping their drive toward state.
“Every day I wrestle one of the coaches, Dave Orndorff (NCAA heavyweight runner-up at Oregon State), and he really pushes me,” Totten said. “He probably outweighs me by 100 pounds, and he doesn’t let me slow up at all. I think that really pays off. When you go as hard as you can in the room, once you get back out on the mat for a match it’s not that hard at all.
“When you push yourself and push your teammates all year, when you refuse to let anyone give up and keep working hard every day, and then come back with a state championship, it all pays off.”
“I practice with Trevor Robb every day in practice,” Zumwalt said. “He’s going to be one of the top three in his weight class this year, too.”