Quiet Contributors

Cleaning out my garage and sifting through some bins, I came across some great articles from the River Falls Journal.  The Journal and Bob Burrows did extensive coverage on the RFHS wrestling team on March 2, 2000.  The Wildcats were making their 4th trip to the team state tournament and the support from the community was incredible.  The 2000 team was very well-balanced and next to the 1997 team, it was probably the next best team, top to bottom, that Coach David Brandvold had in his career.

Many accolades from the individuals in the late 90's and early 2000's are on display in the basement of the middle school where the wrestlers get after it in the district's only wrestling room.  The state titles and school records that were easy for Burrows to write about are still quite lively as bench marks for the next generations of Wildcats wrestlers.

Some of the words that were shared in The Journal almost 20 years ago don't have real estate on the wrestling room walls, however, they're equally as important as the medals that do.

Every successful team has unsung heroes, role players and tremendous support systems, including reliable quality practice partners.  That's why I wanted to bring to light this article that I found stashed away.

I talked to Pete Kimball's father this morning at church and showed him this picture.  He had fond memories of that team and his son's contributions.  We talked about how important high school wrestling is to so many individuals who don't receive notoriety for their efforts.  He said that wrestling had a big impact on Pete's life as much as anything else he'd done.  It taught him how to fight for things and to overcome struggles.  Wrestling is a constant struggle and he explained how Pete choosing to be a dairy farmer has presented a lot of struggles and he's been able to overcome many of them because of what he learned in wrestling.

I love the quiet contributor stories.  I think they're the real pulse of high school sports.  These type of individuals are the glue that define the culture and dynamics of each team.  It's unfortunate that these stories aren't told more often, however, we all know they'd lose some value if they were talked about in the limelight.  At their core, they're behind-the-scenes, quiet contributors and unsung heroes, but make no mistake, they ARE heroes.