Kootenai High School: Hard lessons Ben Armas learned in school prepared him for adult life
Life lessons come when they will, and for Kootenai High School senior Ben Armas, they helped him to realize who he wants to be.
Armas comes from a big family committed to wrestling and combat sports (think MMA). As an elementary student he accompanied an interested teacher to the Kootenai School Board in an appeal to resume the dormant wrestling program at Kootenai Junior/Senior High School.
Their presentation was successful, and Armas went on to wrestle successfully for the next several years, until he hit his first major roadblock his sophomore year. During that time, several family members, friends, and even one of his MMA coaches died and, unprepared to deal with his grief, Armas’ grades suffered and he was ineligible to participate.
“At my low point, it was super hard,” he said. “I was sad and depressed, and I felt like I was alone fighting the battle, because I had pushed away the people who were willing to help me. But when I lost sports, I kind of got knocked back into shape, and decided to prove to myself and to others that I was worthy and dedicated to my school and sports. I finally began to ask for help, and started staying after school and at practices to catch up.”
Armas’ commitment paid off, and he participated in football, wrestling and track during his junior year, eventually reaching the state wrestling tournament and setting the stage for a big senior season.
The big senior season was cut short, because adversity wasn’t done with him. This time MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant staph infection not uncommon among wrestlers, wiped out his season right before the district wrestling tournament.
The challenges he had faced two years earlier, though, helped shape him for the latest round, and he handled the new setback with maturity and grace.
“I told everyone that it’s just life. Sometimes you get curveballs, but I have other things that will carry me forward. I knew that I had lost the rest of this season, but wrestling is more than a sport for me, and I have more combat sports in my future.”
His coach at Kootenai, former state champion Ty Beare, praised Armas’ attitude.
“Ben was understandably frustrated,” he said, “but he remained fully supportive of his teammates, helping to encourage them even though he wasn’t able to compete. Ben was an awesome athlete to coach. He always brought a good attitude to practice and worked extremely hard. He would have been a serious competitor for a state medal had his season not been cut short.”
One of the future opportunities for Armas is in the Army National Guard. He enlisted during the winter of his junior year and attended 10 weeks of basic training in Fort Benning, Georgia, last summer. He will return soon for Advanced Individual Training. After that, he plans to stick around Kootenai for a year to work and train, then enroll at the University of Idaho to study criminology and mechanical engineering and join the Vandals’ club wrestling team.
Whatever the future holds for him, Armas knows that he can make it through tough times, and that it’s OK to ask for help. And as he concluded, “Never settle for the minimum. Always go for the maximum.”