I just received word that Northwestern College (IA) is going to start up a women's wrestling program that will begin competition in the 2026-2027 school year. This fantastic news made me go back in time and reminisce about my time at Northwestern college. Overall Northwestern College was not a good fit for me. It was a rather negative experience. That's the truth of the matter, and I could get into why, but that's not the purpose of this article. The purpose is to focus on the positive and one of the positives of my experience at Northwestern College, was the wrestling team.
Now before I go any further I want to make it clear.
I was NOT a member of the Red Raider wrestling team. Nor have I ever claimed to have been. I made a decision not to wrestle in college & even though in many ways I would have loved to have competed for Head Coach Paul Bartlett & been an official teammate of some really cool guys, I think I made the right decision. I was a much different person at that time of my life. If I could put my 40 year old mind, into my 19 year old head, I would've. You can't do that though.
WHY I DID NOT? Well for a lot of reasons. I was not in a good place mentally at that time of my life. Not in a good place emotionally either. That had a lot to do with it. Secondly, I had never been a good high school wrestler. This isn't me displaying false modesty, this is just me being honest. Had I gone out for the wrestling team in college, I'm pretty sure high school credential/accomplishment wise & overall record wise, I would have been the worst on the team. 65-70 and the best I ever did was 3rd at sectionals. Breaking my back, missing nearly all of 8th grade & a good portion of 9th grade didn't help. Going on to tear my left bicep & then tear ligaments in my left ankle my junior season wasn't a great help either. I also suffered from severe suicidal depression. In wrestling, we don't make excuses, but I often wonder if it hadn't been for all of that, how my high school wrestling career would've turned out.
Secondly, I thought I did have a career in theatre. Such a foreign thing to many in the wrestling community, but theatre was my other passion during my high school years. I loved acting & I
LOVED writing. My dream since I was 7 years old was to write for television and film. The idea of being a stage or film actor was very appealing to me, but my ultimate desire was to write. I sat down and had a long talk with my high school drama teacher, Cheree Mann (Murtaugh) about it. She said that if I really wanted to do theatre, I couldn't half-ass it. It was going to take work and dedication. So it was then I thought to myself that I need to make a decision. Wrestling or theatre? I couldn't see myself going anywhere as a wrestler. The goal was to get an undergraduate degree in theatre and then go on to get a graduate degree in screenplay writing. At the time, choosing theatre seemed the right choice.
But you know me, I couldn't completely stay away.
It's like where do you start? I suppose I'll start objectively. I was at Northwestern college from the fall of 2004 through the spring of 2007. Three wrestling seasons. The Red Raiders weren't the Grand View Vikings of yesteryear, but they were respectable and had some really tough kids. My freshman year, NWC finished 22nd in the NAIA nation with 5 NAIA qualifiers. My sophomore year, NWC finished 24th in the NAIA nation, again with 5 NAIA qualifiers. My junior year, NWC finished 15th in the NAIA nation, with 6 NAIA qualifiers, two of which earned All American status.
Coach Paul Bartlett - Paul Bartlett was the head coach of the Northwestern Red Raiders my freshman and sophomore years of college. In my life, I've had a handful of individuals who made a very positive and influential impact. Paul Bartlett was one of them. He knew my story and he knew my background. As a 19 year old kid, it made absolutely no sense to me at all why this man wanted me as a member of his wrestling team. What the Hell did I offer him? He wasn't looking at a future All American or even an NAIA qualifier. He'd be lucky if I ever made the varsity. Yet he welcomed me with open arms. He even offered me a partial scholarship. I was one of the first people he sent a schedule to once he had it complete. He had me help him with recruiting and he went out of his way to somehow, in some way make me feel like I was a part of it. He knew if nothing else, Red Raider wrestling had its biggest fan on campus, and he made me feel appreciated. I've known some very good men in my life, and Paul Bartlett is among the best.
Coach John Petty - Honestly, when Coach Bartlett stepped down & John Petty took over, Coach Petty was very good to me too. Coach Petty has a lot to do with my writing (and soon to be video) coverage of collegiate wrestling. One of my biggest flaws, is that I often concentrate on my weaknesses, rather than my strengths. I was never a good wrestler, so I wasn't going to give back to this sport in that way. We're a sport that cares so much about what you did and what you accomplished, I realized early on that I was never going to be given a chance as a coach. I feel differently about that now, then what I did then. As a young man in my early 20's, all I ever heard was, "he never did nothing" and "don't listen to him, he wasn't any good."
Coach Petty really encouraged me as a wrestling aficionado. My talents and abilities were in covering the sport. That's how I could give back to the sport. JT1Wrestle may only be a hair in the nose of places like Flo & Intermatwrestle, but I have a respectable following. If you enjoy my coverage of collegiate wrestling, Ryan Groom a former William Penn Statesmen is one of the guys to thank. The other is John Petty.
Now for the Red Raiders themselves....
Might as well get the negative out of the way.
John Suter - John Suter was a four-time High School State qualifier from South Dakota. 8th-6th-2nd-4th. He went on to be a two-time NAIA qualifier for the Red Raiders in his freshman & junior seasons. Looking back now, I can understand John's dislike of me. His main problem with me, is that in my freshman year, I only practiced with the team 3 days a week. Two of the days, I had what was called Theatre Production Ensemble (TPE). TPE was something that you had to be a part of, if you were a member of Northwestern College theatre. You had to give x amount of hours to it every semester. You could spread the hours out and come in every day. Or you could work it out to where you did all of your hours in a single day. It involved working on sets, helping with lights, helping actors rehearse lines, ect. I worked it out to where I was doing TPE on Tuesdays and Thursdays, then going to wrestling practice on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
I can understand and empathize why John had a problem with this. He was working his ass off all 5 days of the week. He (and the rest of the team) was also going to team runs and team lifts. What gave me the right to come and go as I pleased?
John, also I think, plain didn't like me as a person. I get that too. I'm not oblivious to who I am. I'm very self-aware. I have a personality that can be off-putting to some people. I talk a lot and often don't know when to shut up. Sometimes, people don't like you. It's that simple. That was the case with John Suter.
I wrestled John a lot in the practices I came into. For the most part, I got my ass handed to me. I could do ok against John on my feet. I'd take him down occasionally & even threw him in a headlock from time to time. Yet when John got on top, it was game over. He was like a leech. You just couldn't get him off of you. He had a really good suck back, and he'd tilt you till the cows came home. On bottom, to be honest, he was rather lazy. I couldn't turn him but keeping him down wasn't an issue.
I think overall though, I was more liked by others than he was though. He wasn't an easy guy to get along with, and he seemed to get angry and ticked off about a lot of things. His senior year of wrestling, he also started dating a woman he'd eventually marry. He put a lot of his time and energy into her, and many of the wrestlers felt he phoned in his final season of wrestling. At least he was there, and he did it. I didn't. I know that's what he'd say.
The last thing I'll say about John is that at breakfast, lunch and dinner, members of the wrestling team would often ask me to sit with them. John didn't like this, and he let me know he didn't like this. I wasn't a member of the team, I had no right to sit with them. Again, I do understand where he was coming from and a part of me agrees with him.
Jon Hodgkinson - Ironic enough that the two guys on the team that had a severe dislike for me were both named Jon. I wasn't around Jon as much as I was around John, and Jon wasn't as vocal about his dislike for me as was John. Yet I know Jon didn't care for me, as it was relayed to me from other members of the team. I'm sure some of Jon's problem was very similar to the problems that John had with me. He wasn't around very long though, so I don't have much more to say about him.
Scott Treft - the issue between Scott and I was more of a misunderstanding than it was anything else. At the time I was very bitter about my high school wrestling experience and at times I came off as very angry and pissed off. I wasn't always aware of just how unpleasant I could be at times. I also at times can be unaware of how my knowledge of stats can come off as "know it all." One of the wrestler's invited me to come and watch the Iowa State vs Iowa wrestling dual with the team. I started rattling off all of the accomplishments and credentials of each Hawkeye and Cyclone. Some thought it was amazing and cool how I knew such much. Others though, "will you shut up?" Scott was one of the latter.
After butting heads a few times, I came to find out that Scott and I had more in common than we initially thought. Once we sat down and talked it out, I can say that I liked Scott. He was also a member of the Red Raider soccer team. If memory serves correct, I want to say he ended up concentrating on that.
I think that's it. There may have been others who didn't care for me, but if that was the case they never let me know about it. Nor did it ever come back to me through another person. John & Jon outright didn't care for me. Scott, we were cool once we understood one another.
The rest, I have very positive memories of.
In no particular order...
Heath Beesley - Heath was an NAIA qualifier for the Red Raiders my freshman season. An energetic good guy, who also served in the U.S. Military. Heath loved having me at home dual meets & let me know how much he appreciated me being at the duals, cheering on the team. Fun guy to be around.
Matt Wenniger - Extremely tough wrestler, that probably would have been an All American had it not been for injuries. An NAIA qualifier in 2005, that later on helped coach the team. I really looked up to Matt a lot and admired his mental strength. At that time in my life, I was a mental & emotional wreck. Having a role model like Matt to look up to and emulate, was a help.
Andrew Lundgren - Andrew's father, Lyle Lundgren, was who put Northwestern College (IA) wrestling on the map. All wrestling programs have their first superstar, and that distinction for the Red Raiders belonged to the two-time All American who earned his top 8 finishes in 1980 & 1981. To be honest, I don't think Andrew and I ever said two words to each other the entire three years I was at NWC. I was aware of him, I think he was aware of me. Then again, if he were to be asked about me, and not have any clue who I was, that wouldn't surprise me either. What I know about Andrew, is that he was very well liked by both Coach Bartlett and his teammates.
Being the same age that I am, Andrew finished one match shy of NAIA All American honors in both his freshman and sophomore seasons. In 2007, as a junior, he finally won that R12 match & eventually finished 7th in the NAIA nation. When the team got back from the national tournament, they were all so happy for him. It was a rewarding experience to see how genuinely happy his teammates were for him, and how they celebrated his success. I did not attend NWC the next year, and I'm not sure how Lundgren's career finished up.
Isaac Schmidt - Isaac's older brother Aaron had been an All American for the Red Raiders a few years before I arrived on campus. I had Aaron as a professor in one of my classes, first semester freshman year. It was a class that my Dad was wanting me to take, that I was not interested in at all, at the time. I ended up withdrawing from the class shortly after. It was a coaching endorsement class, which I believed was a complete waste of my time. As said before, I had let others convince me that no one would ever want anything to do with me because of how my high school career had turned out. I was certain of that, and at the time, I could not be told otherwise. I don't know what Aaron thought of that, if he even thought anything at all.
Like Andrew Lundgren, I don't recall ever having conversations with Isaac. He was an NAIA national qualifier in 2005, my freshman year. He might have been a senior that year, I don't remember.
Tom Bartello - Tom was a two-time Iowa High School state qualifier from Newton. A super-serious, no nonsense kinda guy. He was all business. I honestly don't think I ever saw the guy smile the entire time I knew him. Very smart guy though. My college years at Northwestern were the time I looked the best. I was about 175 lbs, ripped and muscular. I of course worked very hard to achieve that physique, but I owe a lot of it to Tom. He was the one that explained to me that I was doing bit too much cardio. How running as much as I was at the time, actually depleted my strength and kept me from making gains. He also showed me in the cafeteria, the kinda diet I should be eating breakfast, lunch and dinner to achieve my goals He was an NAIA qualifier his sophomore season of 2006.
Trent Becker - Speaking of physiques. Trent Becker was body-builder built. Big thick neck, huge barrel chest & a set of arms Arnold himself would rank. I don't know his back story and only spoke with him a number of times. Very humble and kind individual. Decided collegiate wrestling was not for him. I don't know the reason why.
Chris Keating - my favorite of the Northwestern Red Raiders. A three-time state champion out of Aztec, New Mexico. Chris came to Northwestern College as a transfer from another school. I can't remember where from. Chris in many ways reminded me of myself. He had an unmatched passion for this sport. A contagious energy that you couldn't help but catch when you were around him. He was easily the hardest worker on the team. His greatest weakness was psyching himself out. He studied his opponents, and that was both an advantage and disadvantage to him. A natural leader, you found yourself looking to him for guidance. He was someone you wanted to be like. A two-time NAIA qualifier for the Red Raiders, he finished one match shy of All American status his senior season of 2006. The kid who beat him in the blood-round ended up finishing 3rd.
19 years later and that memory still eats away at me. There's so much more to a wrestler's career than that national tournament. I believe that strongly. Hell, I preach it on a regular basis. Chris Keating had a series of highlights throughout his collegiate career. On top of it, not many people can say they finished top 12. It's like you know all of that. You know it's the truth. Yet if I had the power, to where I could go back in time and have Keating end his career as an All American, I would.
Courtney Goodwin - tall, lanky guy. If memory serves me correct, I want to say he was either from Kansas or Nebraska. It was weird wrestling him. I did ok against him, but often found myself in very weird predicaments. You'd think you'd have him, and then by the time you realized he actually had you, it was too late. Very meticulous individual. He only spoke when he had something to say. I don't want to speak for him, but I don't think he was a big fan of John Suter's. Considering I was cool with Courtney, this may have contributed to John's dislike of me.
Enock Francois - bar none, the greatest athlete I've ever seen up close & personal. Enock was a soccer player from Florida who had been talked into going out for wrestling his junior year of high school. A year later, he finished 6th in the state. How the coaching staff in Orange City, Iowa came across him I have no idea. They saw the potential in Francois, and knew once it was unlocked, a star would be born. Enock had it all. Strength, speed, quickness, technique, cardiovascular conditioning, confidence. You name it he was 10 for 10 in every category. We're talking the total package. I thought he might end up a four-time All American.
In the practice room, I couldn't touch Enock. I think in multiple goes, I caught him off guard once, and whipped him over to his back. I might have scored on him one other time too, but that would've been it. Enock was 4th in the NAIA nation as a sophomore for the Red Raiders, and then followed John Petty out to California Baptist for his junior and senior seasons. He was 6th in the NAIA nation as a junior & 2nd as a senior. Went on to have some success at the international level, competing with and beating NCAA DI wrestlers. Coaches NCAA DI wrestling today. Run into him every once in a while, and always very happy to see him. Great guy, love watching the success he has had, and continues to have.
Dustin Farber & Mark "Pun" Perkins - I group these guys together because they were always together. They were both from Arizona and had very similar personalities. When I first met Pun, I don't think he liked me. My passion and enthusiasm for the sport can sometimes come off the wrong way to people. Pun had went a full 6 minutes with Steve Mocco, the #1 recruit in the nation. I was extremely impressed by that. Mocco had been pinning and tech'ing everyone, everywhere. To say you lasted a full 6 with Mocco, meant you were pretty frickin' tough in your own right. It must have been the way I brought it up, that irritated Pun.
"You went a full 6 minutes with Mocco?!??!"
He looked at me, came up to me and said, "Yeah....I didn't suck, all right?!?"
It didn't take long though before Pun began to understand who I was and what I was about. I own over 100 collegiate wrestling shirts & I'd wear them all the time. Some kids took a lot of offense to it. I was going to Northwestern College (and I did wear a lot of NWC apparel) and there were kids who felt it was insulting to wear Northern Iowa, Iowa, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, ect apparel. I can see their point, but I guess at the time it never crossed my mind. I didn't wear those clothes for any other reason other than I love college wrestling.
Pun and Farber came over to my dorm room once and started going through all of the t-shirts in my closet. Pun looked over at Farber and said, "I know he has to have one in here. He has every other team on the planet." Then he pulled out a red Arizona State Sun Devil wrestling t-shirt. He said I had to start wearing it more often, cause he'd never seen me wear it.
NWC was no better a match for Pun, than what it was for me. He was out of place there. He had a free-spirit, laugh and joke demeanor that did not mesh with the conformist, assimilate and eradicate environment of Northwestern College. I believe he transferred to Jamestown in North Dakota. He coaches football and wrestling today.
Farber is one of those guys that makes me wish I was who I am now, back then. I had found my place within the Northwestern College wrestling environment as this weird fanatic, that most to my surprise seemed to appreciate, some seemed to get a kick out of, and only a couple seemed annoyed by. Dustin tried to convince me that I could be an actual member of the team and that nearly everyone would welcome me. At 19, 20, 21, I wasn't in a place mentally where I could do that. He'd come by my room all the time, and say, "Come on Stonebraker, we have wrestling practice." Even though Coach Bartlett let me know I was always welcome, Dustin Farber is the reason I started going three times a week. He understood my commitment to theatre, but on the other days, he wouldn't take no for an answer.
You know it's funny, some of the worst people I will ever know in this life I met at Northwestern College. That's a fact. It's also a fact that I knew some damn good people at Northwestern College too. Some very positive people. People that I look back on now with very fond memories, in a place both environmentally and mentally, where I desperately needed them. Dustin Farber, who had a dream of being a firefighter one day, was one of those people.
Chris Ernster - Northwestern College Red Raider wrestling won the sportsmanship award of the NAIA one of the seasons I was there. This is no surprise to me at all. Coach Bartlett recruited a group of guys that never were my teammates, but a group of guys that I would be very proud to call my teammates. When I think of class, humility and sportsmanship, a guy like Chris Ernster is one of the first that pops into my head. A quite and humble guy, we never said much to one another. Win or lose on the mat, Ernster was a class act. I admired that from afar.
David Bray - Yes, THAT David Bray. JT1Wrestle and Flo's David Bray both went to the same small private college in Northwest Iowa. The chances of two prolific (I'm well aware I'm probably giving myself way too much credit here) wrestling media personalities going to the same college is like 1 in a 1,000,000. Yet, it happened. I can only imagine what has been said about me behind closed doors.
I've always liked David. David was the one that invited me over to watch the Iowa Vs Iowa State dual that night when Scott Treft and I got into it. He's always been cool with me as far as I know. I'd wrestle him in practice quite a bit. He was better than me, but not a lot better than me. I'd say 65/35, maybe even 60/40. Every 10 takedowns, he'd get 6 or 7, and I'd get 3 or 4.
I think David is doing a great job at Flo and any time anyone ever tries to stir up something between JT1Wrestle and Flo, I usually shoot it down in a hurry. It's not secret to anyone that I think more of a deuce a cow took in a field than I ever will of Willie Saylor, but Saylor isn't Flo, nor was he ever Flo. He was one man. When people try and diss Flo around me or say that Flo is made up of a bunch of asshats, I always stick up for Flo. I have a lot of respect for David and what he does. I also know firsthand that he's a class act, and I'll always defend him.
Matt Gibson - I'd like to have Matt Gibson as a guest on JT1Wrestle some day. I think he'd make a great interview. Honestly, I'd love to have all of these guys on eventually, but in particularly Gibson because he has such a neat story. Matt was never anything special in high school. Like me, figured he wasn't good enough to wrestle in college. He originally went to Iowa State & studied there for two seasons. Then he got an itch to get back on the mat. He transferred to Northwestern College, and as a junior, two years removed from the sport, stepped back onto the mat again.
His first year of wrestling he didn't win a match, but his second year of wrestling he did. I was there to witness it, and again, what a rewarding moment that was. It was at the Red Raider open. I was watching from the stands, Coach Bartlett was coaching another wrestler on another mat. I think Matt Wenniger was in Gibson's corner. Gibson won the match 4-2, and other members of the team were gathered around the mat going nuts! They were more excited than he was. They were jumping up and down. One of the wrestlers I'll talk about here in a minute, came over grabbed me and started shaking me. It was one of the coolest things I've ever witnessed in my life.
They ran over to Coach Bartlett. "Gibson won a match, Coach! Gibson won!"
That type of family atmosphere was what I was hoping I would have found in Northwestern College theatre. It wasn't. Instead, I observed it on the wrestling team, while often questioning if I made the right decision.
The Halford Brothers - Adam and Seth Halford. I loved these guys. Two completely different people. You wouldn't know they were brothers unless they told you. Both, outstanding human beings.
Seth was a fun, goofy guy who never failed to make you laugh. He was always doing something outlandish and crazy. He once captured a squirrel and dyed it pink (with safe dyes that would not hurt the squirrel). He was also ungodly strong. All these years later I can bench press 405 lbs & military press 275 lbs. It makes me want to get into a time machine, go back and see how my strength would match up with Seth's. At the time, it was like a Dad wrestling with his toddler. Seth was that much stronger than I was. He was an undersized heavyweight that was too big to cut down to 197. He would have benefited from a 220 lbs weight class, or something similar. The handful of times when I did wrestle him in practice, he'd usually put me into a move and then just hold me there. He'd also talk to me while putting me in the hold.
Here, I'd be in a cradle or this weird move that I think he invented himself, and he'd be talking to me.
"How are classes going for you Stephen?"
"Good"
"Did you get a part in the play you auditioned for?"
"No"
Then the whistle would blow and he'd release me.
Adam. I look back at Adam and again wish that I could go back in time and put my 40 year old mind, into my 19 year old body. Adam was a very wise individual. He recognized my passion and my energy, and he tried so hard to channel both into something positive. Learning how to deal with my sister's death, my depression, & my coming up short of my goals in high school wrestling was a painfully slow and grueling process. I guess I have to accept that it took time. Adam knew that there was a best side to Stephen Stonebraker, and he at times got that side of me to come out. I wish I would have been in a place mentally at that time, to where he would have came out more often.
The other thing I'll say about Adam is that he was very supportive of my theatre goals. One of only a handful of times I was cast in a play, he and some of the other wrestlers came to support me. I cannot imagine for a second anyone in the theatre ever coming to watch a match had I wrestled in College. Most of the theatre kids hated athletics and hated athletes.
Derek Kosters and Bill Frederick - Inadvertently, Derek taught me a lesson that I needed to learn. In high school, Derek was the kind of guy I would have been easily intimidated by. He was ripped and chiseled. Big veiny biceps and a big thick, solid back. If I had saw a guy like him during my high school years, I would have been terrified. Yet by the time he arrived on campus, I had been lifting weights really hard for two years. I wasn't anywhere near as muscular as he was, but I wasn't the same pathetic 145 lbs little pipsqueak that I had been two years prior. I wasn't using the 35 lbs for dumbbell bench press anymore, I was using the 75s (I now use the 110's & 120s). I held my own against Derek in the practice room. We weren't 50/50, he was better than I was, but I'd get him from time to time. It was a turning point in my life, I suppose similar to the moment when "Moonlight" Doc Graham comes to his realization in
Field of Dreams of what could have been. I locked up a side cradle one day on Derek and took him straight to his back. He was a two-time state qualifier. Had it not been for all of my injuries, that kept me off the mat, and out of the weight room for such a long time, I would have been good too.
On a personal level, Derek seemed to always be hanging out with Bill. I'd run into the two of them every now and again, and we'd make small talk. They had both been recruited by Paul Bartlett and they both liked the way Bartlett ran the team. When Bartlett stepped down and Petty took over, they didn't like the changes. I understand how difficult that can be on a wrestler, especially at the collegiate level. You come into a system, with a clear idea of what is expected out of you and what you can expect out of it. When that completely changes in a dramatic fashion, that can be very difficult to deal with. I get that totally. Both Bill and Derek decided not to continue their wrestling careers. Bill later became a champion pool player. I ran into him last year at an Iowa State wrestling dual. He's a tad hairier than what he was, but otherwise he hasn't changed a bit in nearly 20 years.
Jordan Keckler - I don't think Jordan and I ever spoke a word to each other. In fact, I'd bet that if you were to meet him and ask him his feelings on Stephen Stonebraker, he'd reply, "who?" Jordan I think was either a freshman or a transfer from another school my junior (and final) season at NWC. A very fun wrestler to watch. I remember going to the first home dual of the season that year and some of the other wrestlers on the team telling me how much fun I was going to have watching Keckler wrestle. They were right, he had an exciting style. Wasn't afraid to go after it. Stuck a kid from I believe Dakota Wesleyan that first dual with a cement mixer.
Levi Price - Levi came to Northwestern College from one of the UW schools. I can't remember if it was La Crosse or Eau Claire or where exactly. Very quite kid, never said much. He wrestled for the Red Raiders for three seasons going R12-8th-8th at the NAIA national tournament. Don't get me wrong, that's an outstanding career, but I always thought he was much better than that. At the NWC open, I watched him give eventual NCAA Division III champion Quincy Osbourne a really good match. Levi was really good at upper-body wrestling. I never confirmed this, but you could tell he had a Greco-Roman background by watching him.
LaMar Reed - Before I talk about LaMar, I have to explain something about my junior season. The summer before my junior year started, I was seeing a psychiatrist. He had came to the conclusion that the only way I was going to move on from my failures in high school wrestling, were if I were to completely step away from wrestling for a while. He did not want me attending practices that year, so I didn't. I also don't know how Coach Petty would have reacted had I have. Coach Bartlett understood my situation and he worked with it. I can't say one way or the other how Petty would have taken it.
As a result, I didn't get to know a lot of the new guys all that well. I had met LaMar a handful of times that year, but nothing more than the casual hello. At the Red Raider Open, I think Lamar thought I was messing with him when I wasn't.
His first collegiate match of his career, and he draws Marcus LeVesseur, an undefeated three-time NCAA DIII champion, who would go on to win title #4, having never suffered a loss. LaMar wrestled him pretty tough. I think LeVesseur only won 8-1 or 9-2. I know that LaMar kept from getting majored. After the match I told LeMar that I was impressed with how well he wrestled. I took for granted that he was aware of who he had faced out there on the mat. He looked at me funny. I think he thought I was being a smartass because he had lost the match. Then I told him I was being serious and the guy he wrestled was a three-time DIII champ. Now he really thought I was messing with him. A while later he comes up to me and says, "Man, you were serious! He really is a three-time D3 champ!' It was quite comical.
LaMar followed Petty and Enock out to California Baptist, and ended up having a great career for the Lancers. Earned back to back NAIA All American honors in 2009 & 2010.
Adam Mohr - I never knew much what to make of Adam Mohr. You have guys in life like John Suter, who you know good and well, don't like you. You have other guys in life, like Adam Halford you get along with really well. Then you have guys like Adam Mohr, who one second makes you feel like he can't stand you and then the other makes you think that he respects and admires you. Adam was a complicated guy.
Like me, Adam wasn't happy about the way his high school career had turned out. He told me that he had finished 3rd at districts three years in a row competing for Lewis Central Abraham Lincoln. Three years in a row, one match from state. He also, like me, found the Calvinistic Hell, Fire and Brimstone demeanor of many on campus to be off-putting. I discovered later in life after much self-searching and self-discovery that I was an agnostic. I think he came to a similar conclusion about himself. I always enjoyed my conversations with Adam. He was a deep, philosophical thinker. Years ago I went to go ask him a question on Facebook and he was no longer there. I can only imagine that he either completely got rid of his social media or for one reason or another he grew sick of me. Either way, best to him.
Cole Spree - Yep, the 2025 NJCAA Coach of the year, who coached the Indian Hills Warriors to an NJCAA title last season went to the same college as me. Had a sorta similar experience with Spree than I had with Kosters. In high school our 160 lbs'er (I was 145) Dan Hammes kicked the ever loving shit out of me. Just tossed me around like a red-headed stepchild. I occasionally, and I do mean occasionally could score a point on Dan, but it was rare. On a scale of 100, I want to say when Dan Hammes wrestled Stephen Stonebraker, it was 95/5 Dan, and I might not be giving him enough credit.
Dan's junior season, he qualified for state and had to wrestle Spree in the consolation semi-finals. Spree whaled on him, tilting him left and right to a 13-3 major decision. He had his way with Dan. So, when I wrestled Spree in practice, I accepted my fate. I figured I'd be Hiroshima and he'd be the bomb. Now Spree did beat me, but it wasn't quite the getting murderized experienced that I thought it would be. Again, I had built up my body. I now had a chest, I had a back, I had a pair of arms on me. In my mind before we started wrestling, I figured he'd be taking me down at ease and turning me with ease. Yet he had to work for his takedown, and he was having trouble turning me. It again was a bittersweet feeling. It made me realize that I didn't "just suck" like many, including myself had tried to convince me of. Had I have had the upper body strength than I now possessed, my high school career may have very well turned out the way I had dreamed that it would have.
Cole's entire time of coaching at the collegiate level, he's been supportive of my writing. Years ago, when I finally stopped being one of these snubs that only covered DI, I started covering DII, DIII, and NAIA. Cole got on me about not covering NJCAA. I promised him that the next season I would start doing NJCAA, and I have been ever since. Cole's a great guy, a great Coach and proof that good things do happen to good people. It's fun watching good guys succeed.
D.J. Jackson - Never knew D.J. real well. He was a hard worker. I really admired his ability to stay focused and trust in his plan. Sometimes when things aren't going someone's way, they have a tendency to doubt themselves of even give up. Not DJ. He had a fixated vision. D.J. earned NAIA All American honors of 8th place in his sophomore season. I really think with as much as he improved from him freshman to his sophomore season that the sky was the limit for him as a junior and senior. I would have loved to have seen what he could have done in his final two seasons. Instead D.J. decided to turn his focus to other forms of martial arts. He's had success in those fields.
Rich Meekhof - Rich was a transfer from a school that did not have an official sanctioned wrestling program, but had an NCWA team. I was curious about the NCWA at the time and he provided me with quite a bit of information about it. We also had a Spanish class together and I once laughed at what I thought was a joke being told by the Spanish teacher. He was saying, "Mi Suegra es muy, muy mala." In American culture, sons-in-law make jokes about their mothers-in-law all the time. I thought that was what he was doing. I remember Rich looked at me like I had done something extremely evil and said, "She's dying dude." I realized what the professor was actually saying and I felt an abundance of embarrassment and shame. That was fun going into the professor's office later on that day and explaining the situation to him. When I made the discovery that I was an agnostic, Rich and I had a few conversations about it. You'd think I would, but I don't remember much about his wrestling career.
Mark Bradley - Mark was my roommate my freshman year. A three-time state qualifier out of the state of Michigan. We got along pretty well, although I think Mark found me a bit too boring. I'm a juxtaposition in many ways. I'm friendly and talkative when I am out and about, but I'm also very keep to myself and like to be alone. I enjoy listening to music, reading, and (if it ain't obvious) writing. I think he was hoping more for a roommate that liked to play video games, watch TV, have other people over and go out.
At the time, along with hitting the gym on a regular basis, I was also doing 300 pushups a week. I'd do them Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Mark would count them, and if I didn't go all the way up and all the way down, they didn't count.
We'd play pranks on one another from time to time. The best one he ever played on me was freezing all of my underwear. Nothing like going to Wal-Mart and having to buy new packages of underwear. The bright side was I tried a new kind, that I liked much better and I've been wearing them ever since. The best prank I pulled on him was taking a black permanent marker and drawing a curly wax mustache on his face. I watched him wake up and go out and about. He was going on like normal, talking to other people, walking down the sidewalk, heading to lunch. He kept on noticing people looking at him funny and laughing. He looked at me and said, "Do I have something in my teeth or something? Is my hair messed up?" Of course I played dumb. 'I had no idea.' When he went into the bathroom and saw himself in the mirror, he came out letting me know that he would get even. He did.
I can be a rather oblivious person. I think this is something that can get on people's nerves about my personality. I am often in my own world, minding my own business. Things can happen around me and I don't notice. Gossip, what's going on around town, I'm the last one to know. This became an issue.
At the beginning of the school year, I met Mark's girlfriend. At the end of the school year, Mark was dating a different girl and I wasn't aware of it. I hadn't seen his girlfriend since the end of August or beginning of September. Now it was like May. So I called the new girlfriend by the old girlfriend's name. This wasn't intentional, this was me being unobservant. Mark wasn't too happy with me about this, but I'm pretty sure he's since forgiven me.
Then there was also the time when Mark found out that I had never seen the LORD OF THE RINGS films. He insisted that they were a must watch and that they had to be watched back to back. I made it through the first one. Halfway through part two, I fell asleep. Mark didn't notice I was asleep until I started snoring. He woke me up in a frantic, wanting to know exactly where at in the film I fell asleep so he could go back to that scene. I told him I was too tired to finish them right now, but I promised someday I would. 20 years later, I still haven't seen all of part 2 and I haven't seen any of part 3.
Mark was a good roommate. Like me he thought very highly of Coach Bartlett. I want to say that he didn't wrestle after either his sophomore season or his junior season, but I don't know for sure. I drop him a line every few years or so. I think he's doing well.
There was also
Aaron Wheeler &
Brian Heiberger who were on the team during the years I was at Northwestern College. I hate saying this as I hate to forget anyone, but I don't remember anything about these guys. I wish I did, but I don't. It's also not lost on me that there are some that probably have no memory of me either. In fact, I'd bet on it.
And that's it.
I was never officially a member of the Northwestern College Wrestling team. I look back all these years later and often have to remind myself that my circumstances, and my philosophies back then were a lot different. For who I was at the time, and the direction I thought my life was going to go, not wrestling in college was the right decision. Had I have known how things were going to turn out, it's funny to think of how I would have done things differently.
I regret taking it all so seriously. Throughout college I maintained between a 3.2 & 3.5 GPA the entire time. Would my life really be any different if that had been a 2.5? I was never going to be a slack off kid. I was always going to attend class, and study. Yet if I had a C+ on a test, instead of an A-, would I be any worse off today, than what I am?
At that time of my life wrestling was all about being good, winning matches, being a national qualifier, ECT. I only saw myself for what I wasn't. Adam Halford saw this guy with this unmatchable passion for the sport. A guy who wasn't even on the team, but was out running sprints on the football field, running 2 miles every other day on the nearby trail & pumping iron four days a week. He saw that guy, and I wish I would've seen him too.
These guys weren't my teammates, and I wasn't there's. That's reality. Perhaps in another life, in a parallel universe, maybe they were.
