Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion High School Redmen coach continues to push his squad

Courtesy of the Hays Daily News
Redmen coach continues to push his squad

By CONOR NICHOLL
cnicholl@dailynews.net

From the start of the season, Smith Center head wrestling coach Brock Hutchinson pushed his Redmen, winners of back-to-back Class 3-2-1A championships. The Redmen entered a tournament at Abilene that included Blue Springs, a Missouri powerhouse, Class 4A Abilene and Goodard, the No. 1 team in Class 6A.

Smith Center, only a few days removed from its fifth straight Class 2-1A state football championship, beat just Abilene. Junior Colt Rogers, undefeated in his high school career, suffered the first defeat in three years.

"This is the first time we did it this year and I just felt like coming into the season, we probably could have been a better dual team than what we normally had been in the past," Hutchinson, the nine-year Redmen head coach, said Wednesday night. "It was somewhat trying to push the kids early."

Then, Smith Center finished fourth in the Flatwater Fracas in Grand Island, Neb. -- a tournament that featured schools from Kansas, Nebraska and Montana. The tough schedule didn't produce a guady win-loss record for the Redmen, but it's made Smith Center a stronger team.

"We suffered some losses early I think and with those losses came more dedication and more determination from our guys and I think we just continued to get better and better here," he said.

Hutchinson was uncertain whether the tougher schedule was going to work. Then, at the Beloit tournament on Jan. 23 to 24, Smith Center had four champions, Rogers, senior 145-pounder Trevor Rempe, senior 160-pounder Travis Rempe and senior 152-pounder Marshall McCall. Smith Center has never enjoyed that many championships before.

Ten of 13 Redmen placed at Beloit.

"I don't know if it was the right move or the wrong move, but as well as our guys wrestled at Beloit, I am willing to say that's in the right move," Hutchinson said of the schedule.

Smith Center, ranked No. 1 in Class 3-2-1A, will compete in the MCL championships Saturday at Osborne. Action starts at 10 a.m. The Redmen, helped by the early schedule, have five ranked wrestlers in the Kansas wrestling coaches' poll, four at the No. 1 spot. No other 3-2-1A team has more than one No. 1 ranked wrestler.

"This guys, these seniors, never cease to amaze me, they just set the bar higher and higher and higher," Hutchinson said.

Rogers, who has lost three times, all close defeats and all to out of state wrestlers, is No. 1 at 130 pounds.

"There are some kids that Colt has wrestled over the years that seem to be in the same weight group over the years," Hutchinson said. "After seven years, they can figure you out. We have been working on Colt a little bit, try to get him to develop some other techniques."

Trevor Rempe is No. 1 at 145, while McCall ranks in the top spot at 152 and Travis Rempe stands first at 160. All four finished in the top four at state last season. Kale Newell also ranks third at 135 pounds.

"Our shape has gotten nothing but better and better," Hutchinson said.

Smith Center's strong team also beat Norton, then ranked first in the state, in a dual, the first time in Hutchinson's coaching career that Smith Center defeated Norton.

"We got on fire," Hutchinson said.

Smith Center, which had to replace two state medalists at 189 and 215 pounds, has had several new wrestlers step in. Senior Kris Lehmann, who wrestled just seven varsity matches a season ago, struggled at Oberlin (1-2 record) and also wrestled sick at another tournament. Lehmann, though, has improved throughout the season at 189.

Hutchinson compares Lehmann, an HDN Super 11 football selection and an all-state pick at linebacker, to Grady Godsey, last season's 189-pounder for Smith Center who finished third at state.

"Real comparable," Hutchinson said. "Kris has maybe a little bit more leverage, Grady might have been a little bit stronger. Kris has made a huge turnaround. We kind of worried about him early in his career. Wrestling as as sophomore, he was kind of making some bad decisions. As a junior and as a senior, he has really stepped up and become a huge leader on the football field and off the football field, on the wrestling mat, off the wrestling mat."