http://www.leavenworthtimes.com/sports/x...tinues-to-buildBy Sara Mettlen
Leavenworth Times
Posted Jul 26, 2011 @ 08:31 PM
Leavenworth, Kan. — The Leavenworth County Spartans wrestling team has been a well-established group in the area for six years now. The Spartans team, which welcomes kids from age five through high school seniors throughout the year, is seeing its ranks grow now with nine former athletes wrestling in the college ranks. Head coach Shawn Budke said that’s all part of the group’s goals.
“We do this for the kids,” Budke said. “Our motto is producing champions for the game of life and we just use wrestling to teach these kids life lessons. We’re very blessed to have great parental support and great support in the community and with the schools.”
“Our goal is just to be able to feed all four of the high schools,” he continued. “We see that a lot with the Imac program, we’ve been able to feed them kids and help them have enough numbers for a competitive team. We’ve been pretty blessed so far.”
The Spartans are wrapping up their summer season now, where they focus on open gyms and technique and also compete in Greco and freestyle tournaments.
“Our folkstyle season ends at the beginning of April,” Budke explained. “We had some kids wrestle in the Brute Adidas Nationals and some kids go to the folkstyle nationals. After that, we do a combination of open room where kids can come in and we work with them on different things. Due to KSHSAA rules, during the school year the coaches can’t work with their kids in the offseason with wrestling technique, so by having a club that supports all the local schools in the area, we can have all the kids who want to come in and work out. We combine doing offseason training for folkstyle and then a lot of them will also wrestle freestyle and Greco, which are the Olympic styles.”
Highlighting the Leavenworth County team’s trip to the Greco and freestyle state meet was the Butler brothers, with Nathan winning his division of both Greco and freestyle and Daniel taking first in freestyle and second in Greco. Both Nathan and Daniel Butler also competed in the Southern Plains meet, and each won Greco and freestyle titles there as well.
In addition to the Greco and freestyle tournaments, camps and open room during the summer, the Spartans also had several athletes invited to participate for Team Kansas in a national dual tournament. Nathan Butler and Darien Willis both represented the state in the juniors age group while Daniel Butler and Brock Budke were chosen for Team Kansas in the schoolboy age group.
Daniel and Brock helped the younger Team Kansas to a 10th-place national finish in Greco, but they were one match short of placing in freestyle. Nathan and Darien helped the high school team to a sixth-place national finish in Greco.
“It’s a great experience because they get 17 matches in three days,” the Spartans coach said.
Daniel and Brock agreed that being part of the state’s dual team was a highlight of their summer.
“That was really fun. I was pretty excited,” Brock said. “You get to meet a lot of kids, I’m friends with them all now on Facebook.”
“I really liked the team aspect of it,” Daniel added. “We compete against the same guys within our state and then we get to compete against guys from other states. And you get to meet the kids who matchup with you, the kids below you and the kids you want to strive to beat and you get to practice with all those guys. It’s a good experience that way too.”
Brock will be a seventh-grader at Lansing Middle School this year while Daniel is entering the seventh grade at Warren Middle School. Both said they have been wrestling for well over half their lives.
Shawn Budke explained that getting selected for Team Kansas has a lot to do with how you perform and carry yourself at tournaments throughout the year.
“There’s a variety of ways (to be selected),” Budke said. “Some of it is how you do in Greco and freestyle tournaments, some of it is your reputation in wrestling and people getting to know you. For high schoolers, a lot of it is how they do in high school and their reputation they build from that. Wrestling is a pretty close-knit community, so if you’re out there competing, the guys who put the teams together know the kids and watch them throughout the year.
“All those kids who competed on the dual teams this year have been wrestling for years and working hard and placing at big tournaments. They have good reputations established.”
As for being part of the Spartans team, both Brock and Daniel also agreed that the Leavenworth County coaching staff has given them an advantage when it comes time to get on the mat.
“My dad has taught me everything,” Brock, Shawn’s son, said. “You also get the aspects from different styles (with so many different coaches), like some guys use more legs.”
“I like taking different styles and making my own style,” Daniel said.
The two will get to wrestle as opponents this year during the middle school season, which they said should be fun.
As for the rest of the Spartans’ summer season, Budke said the most important thing is the more focused attention the coaches can give the kids.
“The best part of the summer is that we have a lot of fun, it’s a lot more relaxed and we really get to focus with the kids,” the Leavenworth County coach said. “It’s a great chance for kids who are just starting out with wrestling to catch up. We can work with them on a lot of the technique and they just get more mat time. It’s just a good time and a laid-back atmosphere to work with the kids without having to prep for tournaments consistently.”
The summer time also allows the coaches from area high schools to come help out with Leavenworth County practices.
“During the summer it’s nice because the high school coaches come in and help out. Each of the high schools does a summer camp for their kids, then they bring the technique back and show it so we can all learn it. It’s a pretty great situation that we have now, working with the four local high schools,” Budke said.
The Spartans team has had at least 100 kids each season since it started six years ago, and Budke said now the goal is to keep kids consistently coming as they grow up.
“To be honest, everyone looks for growth but what we’re looking for now is more consistency,” Budke said. “We’ll get kids coming in as kindergarten or first graders, then about fourth grade they decided to try something else like basketball — which is good for the kids — and then come seventh or eighth grade or even high school we get them back.”
Starting in September, the Leavenworth County wrestling team will begin a preseason program, with an open gym one day a week. The main folkstyle season, Budke continued, will then begin with registration in October.
“For our main thrust, we’ll do registration for three days in October, and then we’ll actually start practices right around Thanksgiving,” he said. “Then we focus on practice up through the Christmas break and start our tournaments in January.”
The team is open to kids age five up through high school and operates several practice sites at various area schools to accommodate such a large team. Budke said the main push of the team is really to use wrestling to help teach life lessons.
“Our motto is creating champions for the game of life,” Budke said, “and we like to use wrestling to teach kids values that will help them down the line.”
Evidence of that comes from Daniel, who said his favorite part of wrestling is working hard to achieve higher goals.
“I like wrestling guys who maybe you’ve lost to, and then striving to be able to beat them,” Daniel said. “Last week I beat a guy who had beaten me a year ago. That’s what I like about wrestling, it’s really rewarding.”
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