COLUMN: The unique beauty of postseason wrestling

Postseason wrestling is one of my favorite high school events to cover for Semoball. I usually go to more than one of these tournaments on a single day. This past Saturday, I started the Class 3 District 1 tourney in Farmington and finished at the Class 2 District 1 tourney in Ste. Genevieve.

Over the past two months of covering each of the eight area schools in tournaments and duel meets, I got to know these wrestlers and see just how far they progressed from the beginning to the end.

In every other sport, the postseason is about how far the team can go. In wrestling, the postseason is about how far the athlete can go.

When you see a coach celebrate his wrestler winning a match, the joy expressed is towards the kid finally experiencing the accomplishment of a goal that was set many months ago. The coaches are either going to embrace a wrestler in celebration or to comfort the emotional agony of defeat.

I saw Kennett assistant coach Jake Barton do both within a single minute. Both mats involved a Kennett wrestler competing in a high-stakes match where the winner qualifies for the state tournament. Junior Gavin Patterson won his match to become the school’s only state representative.

Shortly after celebrating with him, Barton is consoling a senior wrestler who is crying after a loss. For seniors, that small gym is the place where their career dies. Years of comrade and training that is far more strenuous than any other sport, ends right on that mat, seeing someone else have their arm raised in victory. The end is always emotional.

Speaking of emotional endings, Sikeston senior Samuel Tyler saw his season end in the Class 3 District Tournament. Although he was a senior, he was home-schooled for the first three years, making this his only year with the team.

Despite being born without hands or feet, Tyler was never an easy out. After his final match, his coaches came to embrace him; including head coach Blake Angle has been Tyler’s club wrestling coach since 2016. They cite Tyler as an example of never letting anything prevent you from doing what you want, an inspiration to his teammates.

Tyler's teammates support him and vice versa. I think back to the previous meets I covered involving Sikeston, a few of his fellow seniors explain to me with glee how he wrestles and avoids what looks to be a pinning situation, gets reverses, or even take-down points. One of my favorite photos this season is Tyler next to a teammate offering him support after losing a match.

It’s no secret that wrestling is a unique sport in the high school ranks. While every school in the Southeast Missouri area has a basketball team, only a handful of schools have a wrestling team, and even half have enough wrestlers for a full lineup.

A perfect example was the Class 1 District 1 Tournament in New Madrid. NMCC brought a full lineup and won the championship, while Notre Dame brought only five wrestlers to that same tournament and placed sixth while sending four combatants to the state tournament.

Before the tournament, Notre Dame senior Ethan Jackson predicted that the whole squad would qualify for state, and 4-of-5 is still impressive.