The Wisconsin Wrestler
The Wisconsin Wrestler is a podcast dedicated to all things involving Wisconsin high school wrestling. Made by the Wisconsin wrestling fan, for the Wisconsin wrestling fan, we try to hit on all corners of the sport at the high school level, from season previews, to recaps, to interviews with guests throughout the offseason.
The Wisconsin Wrestler
Conversation with 4-Timer Hunter Marko
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Hunter Marko joins the show to talk his wrestling career, transition into coaching, and much more! You won't want to miss this one!
Welcome to the Wisconsin Wrestler Podcast with your co-hosts Teak Fenwick and Steve Lurkwin.
SPEAKER_02Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another edition of the Wisconsin Wrestler Podcast. I'm your host, Teak Fenwick, coming to you from Holman, joining me as always from Kashkinong, my co-host, Steve Lurquin. Steve, great to be here.
SPEAKER_01Team, pumped to be here. I'm excited. I mean, I always say this. I'm excited for this podcast. I'm excited for everyone, but man, just talking beforehand and how you guys did a little prep work last night. This one's gonna be a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_02Hey, always a great time when you're uh when you're hanging out with the Marco. I was listening to the Cole one today to prepare for this one, get myself in the zone. And Steve, it's crazy. I mean, we we got this one. Gonna try to get Taylor Whiting on before the summer ends, but she is a wrestling machine and traveling around the world and moving into Iowa. So if we don't make it happen now, we will definitely make that happen at some point with the first ever woman's four-timer. Steve, in the meantime, we don't want too much.
SPEAKER_01What's up? I was just gonna say, when you introduce our guest, you gotta say, you can't say, hey, uh, introducing him because this is his second appearance on the Wisconsin Wrestler Podcast.
SPEAKER_02Yes, his first appearance. I did have my debut was a cameo. It was like it was setting it up like a Marvel movie or something.
SPEAKER_01I remember we're sitting there, and uh, I mean, I'm I'm gonna kill the suspense here, but I remember we were talking to Cole and all of a sudden we we both were like, is that Hunter? That's pretty cool. Two four-timers. Yeah, just lurking in the shadows. First time we've ever had two four-timers on the same feed. So that was history in the making.
SPEAKER_02Lurking in the shadows. That's how I know you're hanging out with the St. Croix Falls guys a lot. That is a term I've heard Dusty Rager use multiple times. Uh yeah, folks, there you you know who it is by well, you saw it in the podcast title if you're listening, anyways. But it is our first ever set of four-timer siblings that we have on. I know there's only what the other option, Steve, is is it the one of keys would be the other one, but we are making history. He is a recurring guest now, so a couple of big honors for you tonight, Mr. Marco. Four-timer, recurring guest on the Wisconsin Wrestler Podcast, coming to us from God's country, Mr. Hunter Marco. Hunter, glad to have you guys.
SPEAKER_03God's Country, same perfectly. Yeah, thanks for having me on. And uh, you know, I'm just excited to talk wrestling today and share a little bit of my story and my family's story. So I appreciate the opportunity, guys.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, Hunter, 14th four-timer in WIA history. So uh over the course of 10 years, there's been 19 more four-timers. That was pretty crazy to think about when I was uh doing my uh research. But yeah, man, it's still uh like it's still rare, but still a very rare thing at the time. In fact, that there was a gap between two-year gap between you and the previous four-timer, Mr. Jens Lantz of Ellsworth. So I still remember uh watching that one in 2006. Man, looking at your old results, which we are gonna go through a lot of fun ones, but we gotta start somewhere, Hunter. And the easiest spot to start is from day one. So let's hear about your wrestling career from when it first started.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I think early on, uh my dad was a special ed teacher, he was a wrestling coach, and I was pretty much born and raised in a wrestling room. So since the time I was two years old, every day my you know, when my mom's working in the evenings, my daycare is spending time with my dad in the wrestling room. So I I got involved with the sport at a really young age and um honestly fell in love with it immediately, and just everything everything that the sport brought, right? You you get to learn uh hard work, there's a level of intensity, the adrenaline, um big moments that that you get drawn to and you're attracted to. And uh yeah, so I mean that that was you know from day one, and then obviously looking up to guys like Kevin Black. That was that was one of the guys I looked up to growing up because he lived in River Falls, it was relatively close to home, and uh going to Black Brothers wrestling camps when I was a little kid in the early 2000s. Him and Tony uh were running those camps. So the first one I could go to was like, oh, that's Kevin Black. Like, yeah, absolutely. You know, I gotta go to that guy get signed up, and uh you get your Black Brothers wrestling t-shirt, this little gray black one. And somehow, somewhere along the line, I ended up getting a hold of a VHS recording of Kevin and Tony's highlights. So I got a hold of this. I'm sure my dad asked for it or paid for it. But regardless, I'm I'm what like Saturday mornings, most kids they wake up with their parents, they're watching cartoons. I'm waking up on a Saturday morning with with my dad, and we're plugging in a VHS recording of Kevin and Tony Black's wrestling highlights. And you know, I'll never forget it, right? Because Kevin always used to do like a foot stomp, like he shake hands, he's doing a foot stomp. Trying, I don't know why he did it, but seeing that, his yellow Adidas shoes, his black ASICs headgear, and just watching him just annihilate people. And uh that was the first first time I realized, like, okay, like, you know, this this is what it looks like, this is how wrestling, you know, should be done. Um, so yeah, I think that's just the early part of my wrestling career and just my introduction to the sport.
SPEAKER_02So I've got we uh I won't go too far off here, but we we got a hold of the on YouTube the 1995 state highlight videos. Kevin Black was a mean, mean wrestler. Oh my lanta, until I talk about a relentless motor.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he he was a savage, yeah. Just absolutely phenomenal. And uh, you know, trying to pick off songs like from the VHS recording, right? So it was like it was ACDC, back in black, hellsbells, I believe. That's my recollection. Um, so you know, a couple years later, you get your iPod nano, your dad's downloading uh songs onto this iPod, and you're walking around listening to music, you know, trying to replicate, trying to imitate, you know, everything that Kevin did. But uh, but yeah, so Kev Kevin was a hero to me growing up, and uh yeah.
SPEAKER_02So Hunter, your your youth middle school career, like were you just a hammer right off the bat, or did it take a while for you to get some traction in the sport?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you definitely wasn't a hammer right away. It took took some time. I my my first wrestling tournament, I remember going to the Shell Lake Youth Wrestling Tournament, and I show up, and there's this kid from Spooner that's in my bracket, and getting ready to hit the mats for the first time in my life. He's in shorts, t-shirt, he's got light up tennis shoes on, and this dude just clean clocks me, all right? Um, so that that was that that's how my competitive career started at a young age. Um do you remember the kid's name by any time? I don't. I just remember him wiping the mat with me, and I just remember being devastated, just absolutely crushed and embarrassed as a six-year-old kid at his first wrestling tournament. But I definitely took my lumps and bumps through throughout you know elementary, even into middle school, uh, and started to gain some traction. I think uh a large part of it was you know due to me uh getting involved with Pinnacle and um just trying to find better partners, trying to f find better opportunities, and Pinnacle was able to do that for me. So that's when I started to progress a little bit.
SPEAKER_02So you when was your first U-State appearance?
SPEAKER_03Um first U-State appearance, that was first grade. Um and my my mom and dad, they weren't sure if they were gonna bring me to regionals, and I begged them and I pleaded, and I just I I I would give everything at that moment, right, just to go to regionals to get a chance to go to state because some of my friends had previously. And qualify for the state tournament first grade. I wrestled Frankie Bruno first round, and he used his br they ended up moving to Brandon, Florida at some point. But he lived over on the eastern side of Wisconsin, wrestled for ringers, I believe, and just absolutely annihilated me in just round one. So he hit the constellations. I don't even know who I wrestled after that, but uh it got demolished again. So I went O2 barbecue. I was absolutely devastated, and then that uh that spring, my dad started looking around for different opportunities just to do some additional training and came across Pinnacle. And they used to actually have an application process where it's like you had to fill out a form, questionnaire, like what your accolades were to see if like you would get in at the time. Uh thankfully, I don't know why, but Jared let me in, and uh that's that's where I started hitting the mats a little bit more, putting more time in.
SPEAKER_02I gotta say, in your defense, most people if if they see they're wrestling a Frankie Bruno, that match is over before they even stand on the mat.
SPEAKER_01You're saying you're saying just from the name.
SPEAKER_02Yes, just from the name. Yeah, well, because super good too, and you know, wrestling runs in families, so did you uh get any state titles in your youth career?
SPEAKER_03Um, I well, sixth through eighth grade I did. And it's actually kind of funny, like when you look back on some of those brackets, like whether it was mine or Cole's, and you look through and all the kids that are competing at youth state, you end up seeing them have success, you know, in high school. And uh after their high school careers are done, it's fun to look back and just see how many studs were in those brackets, right? Like, I think Cole, my brother, one year, like he had uh Braden School's Sonateg, maybe, um Metambrink, I think was in there. So like there's three kids that are just absolutely astonishing at the sport and complete savages, but yeah, so that was six through sixth through eighth grade for you state, right?
SPEAKER_01Not not just titles, but it's also fun to look back at those youth brackets and see like let's say it's 80 pounds or something like that, and see where in high school one kid ends up at you know 190, and then the other kid, you know, they're just the the growth or lack thereof, where at one point these kids were in the same bracket is is amazing as well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02So you win state titles sixth through eighth grade. Obviously, and there's gotta be some hype going into high school. Uh did you have any visions of being a four-timer before going into high school, or was there any outside noise about like, oh, this kid could have the potential to be uh join that rarefied air?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I mean, I obviously watching Kevin on the VHS recordings as a you know toddler, and then seeing Nick Hager. I I was probably about 10 years old when Nick Hager had won his fourth, and we were sitting at the call center watching it, and I remember looking around the coal center and just seeing 15,000 people rise to their feet, and I thought, wow, like that's that's really cool that people are showing that level of respect for an accomplishment in the sport. So that was the first time I had seen it occur in person. And then when I actually was like, you know, this is a dream of mine, this is a goal, was probably Jesse Thelke. Uh and Jesse is an absolute absolute freak. He was a stud. And he won. I remember looking over at my mom, and I'm like, Do you think I can do this one day? And of course, you know, as a mom, she's looking at me like, uh, you know, I don't know, like Jesse's pretty good. We've we've watched a lot of a lot of uh his matches. Sorry, I getting tongue twisted, but watch his wrestling career progress and just knowing how good he was. And she has to try and bite her tongue and be like, yeah, you know, I I think you can do this. I'm sure at the time she was like, Yeah, yeah, probably odds probably aren't in your favor, but you can't tell your kid that. Right. Um, so you see Jesse do that. I start asking questions about, you know, do you think I have the capability of doing this? And the following year, Brandon Paulson started helping out at Pinnacle. Him and Jared are co-owners of Pinnacle Wrestling. And Brandon's like first week working with us, he had all of us kids in this specific session write down our goals on just a scratch piece of paper and put it into as like a coffee container or something. But at that time, fifth grade, I wrote down like my goal is I want to be a four-time state champ. And then from that point, that's uh when you start to become a little bit more serious about the sport, which uh probably was a lot earlier than other kids, right? Because you're a 12-year-old kid, you know. Um you don't necessarily have to be super intense when you're 12 years old about a sport, right? Because you're you're playing multiple sports, you're hanging out with your friends, playing video games, uh, just being a kid, right? And that wasn't really the direction that I took. And I think honestly, it was just from that exercise that Paulson had us do as young kids.
SPEAKER_02So, Hunter, your freshman year, and I'm so glad track wrestling still has all this on track and not flow because that can be a nightmare to look through. Only uh, I think only two losses on your freshman year, and we we all know how it ends. But did you have any moments coming in? Obviously, you're a hammer on the you scene, but what was your do you have a specific match or memory uh like a welcome to high school moment where it's like, oh, like these guys are definitely the bigger and stronger, and this youth stuff might not work the same?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, probably the Minnesota Christmas tournament would be the first time that I recognize like you know, there it is a step above in competition and skill level from middle school, uh transitioning into high school. It's a it's a step up and just taking a step back. I had my eighth grade summer, I had one Fargo and Freestyle Greco, and then I won Folks on Nationals. So I triple crowned fast forward into your freshman year. My goal was to go undefeated. Like that was the goal that I had set for myself was you know, I want I want to be the next person after I think Jared Dinar was after Kevin, go undefeated, and go to the Christmas tournament, understanding that it's gonna be a really tough tournament. There's a lot of depth, a lot of good schools in the metro area that go, and a lot of them were people that I had trained with at Pinnacle, uh, and just being absolutely just livid with myself after losing in the semifinals to Gannon Bullock from Apple Valley, who was ended up becoming a future college teammate of mine, and then falling off on the backside in the third place match, losing to uh my college roommate, uh Mitchell McKee from St. Michael Albertville. And I just remember getting down with the tournament, I got fourth. You go from your goal is to go undefeated throughout your high school career to getting fourth at a tournament, and just being absolutely devastated, thinking that I was a complete embarrassment, and everyone was looking at me like I was a disappointment as a 15-year-old kid, right? Because you don't understand how the how the world worked. But um, so yeah, I think that was like the first time that I recognized there was, I guess this there's there's levels dispored at all different uh age groups.
SPEAKER_02So what's kind of crazy about those results is think about the staying power of like even the Marco name of like McKee and Volk, those are names that we are still seeing like on the national stage, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean Mitchell obviously had has had a great wrestling career and now he's fighting MMA, and then Gannon, um, his brother Jory, who's an absolute stud at 125 as well and multiple time All American. But yeah, it's kind of funny, like when you think about it, you know, you go from in wrestling where if you carry a certain level of intensity, right? Like you try to um, you know, find reasons why to not like people, like before you compete, right? Because you want to light them up, and there's gotta be some sort of motivation or reason behind doing that. And then you get done, you fast forward a couple years, and then you you become friends with these people. And it's like, oh, you know, actually, you probably weren't that bad of a guy. I just was probably had a couple of screws loose at the time. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01That was a good perspective, too. I mean, you were talking about how you're like, oh man, what is what does everybody think of me after you had two losses? Probably you can't even remember the last time you had two losses in a day. And uh, like at that age, you know, like now with with experience and wisdom, we can look back and go, man, nobody cares, right? But at that particular time, you were you were just like, Man, what's everybody think of me? And it's just funny how now we just I think I think the mind shift has has come to be where coaches are trying to get their wrestlers' losses, you know, especially you know, for a guy like you who's super good because you grow from them.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. I mean, well, at a time like in your competitive career, it's everything for you, right? And it's extremely personal and yeah, like it's heavy stuff to carry as a you know, 15 through 18-year-old kid in high school, and you don't really understand how the world works and how to manage, you know, your emotions, it can be hard. It's kind of funny though that you have you had mentioned coaches try to get kids' losses throughout the season. And my dad was actually the same way where it was you try and find a couple of tournaments throughout the year, you know, two, maybe three, depending upon how the tournament schedule works out for the calendar year. But just try and get the monkey off your back and try and find like one loss like during the regular season and have it serve as a wake-up call and try and make adjustments from that point. But you see a lot of people where you're holding on to so much nervous energy, is like you're trying to protect something coming in later in the season, postseason, if you're undefeated, right? You start to get a little bit more of a freeing feeling if you take a loss or two throughout the air.
SPEAKER_02Just thinking about like losing in the moment and how it feels. Like, brother, I coach track and field, and we have like over 60 different kids and events, and like everyone that's not a PR, there is damage control afterwards. It is like just teaching them like, hey, like we will be fine. There's 11 more meets on the year to get a PR. Uh yes, it in the moment, like it feels like the world's crashing down a little bit. Hunter, the only uh result, like if you want to talk more on any other memorable matches from your freshman year, go for it. But a win against Drew Wheeler in the regular season and you wrestle Mr. Wheeler of St. Croix Falls in the postseason, does that ever get brought up in the practice room at all as bragging rights or what?
SPEAKER_03No, not at all, right? Um, it doesn't get brought up at all, but it it's kind of funny how how the world works and comes full circle. And um but yeah, I mean I g I guess if I wanted to, you know, really put it to them, I would, you know, make make mention of it. But you know, the reality is like you're not defined by your results, right? You know, and it's like hey, like Drew's a great guy, he's a fantastic coach, and he he does so much for the kids, he's a phenomenal person.
SPEAKER_02So Oh, he he's a rock star. Well, part of a rock star as the staff in general, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um well and he like he still gets on the mat a lot. Like he's wrestling with the kids, he's Going live, sparring, helping kids get down to weight, and you know, it just gives a tremendous amount back to the sport and to the the community that I grew up grew up in, like all those guys.
SPEAKER_02So going into the postseason, Hunter, specifically state, did you feel any nerves at all? Or everyone feels some nerves. Well, what what were you feeling your first time heading to the coal center and competing at the state tournament?
SPEAKER_03Um, you know, I I think more than anything, probably excitement, right? Because you grow up going to the state tournament, watching your dad coach his athletes, you know, since the time you're two. And you start to get some sort of sense of comfortability with being in that environment and understanding um, you know, what what all of that entails and all the emotions that go alongside that. But yeah, I I think just mostly excitement and you feel like you have something to prove and you you want to put on a show and accomplish your dreams that you've had since you're a little kid starting out in the sport.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, I'll I'll tell you what, I just gotta, I mean, you're your bracket at 106. Like this is a great, we might need to like post this at some juncture, but you're in this bracket, Trenton McManus, who I forgot if he ended up getting a state title or not, in as a freshman as well. Taylor Elliott, who I believe has a state title to his name, Drews in here, Paul Bianchi, who uh people would probably maybe guess you as the one to beat Paul, but Paul actually lost to Joseph Nagayan of St. Lawrence Seminary in the quarterfinals. Did you well this is kind of the age like we have more access to the internet in 2013? Like, were you familiar with a lot of these names coming in?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I think there was um some sort of familiarity with a lot of the kids because you go to youth freestyle and Greco State, you go to Folkstyle State, like I think Paul and I we actually wrestled in the youth state finals the year before. So, and other national tournaments always had kind of um matched up in weight throughout our youth wrestling career. But I mean, like if you look at that, right? Like Trent McManus, like we ended up having a really good college career. I think he was an all-American for Minnesota State. Uh, Paul had a great college career a couple times NCAA qualifier. So it's and then with Paul, he actually was my brother's college coach. So you get to spend some time with him just you know, just talking about you know, past history and just talking about the sport and building relationships with people that you used to compete with, which is also really cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'd say Trenton McMahon. What's up?
SPEAKER_03Oh no, you're good. I didn't mean to cut you off.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, it's uh heck of a warm-up match having Trenton McManus uh as as your first go-around. Because again, stud wrestler, multi-time state place winner, just speaks to how tough this bracket was. Six to two against Trenton in the quarterfinals, nine to two against Jason Clapper from Lodi in the semis, and in your finals, you're taking on a Taylor Elliott, who he won a squeaker in the semis as well over Nagayan. You seem like a guy, I mean, talking to you last night, talking tonight. I mean, you remember like what a kid was wearing that you wrestled when you were six years old. I'm guessing you have a pretty decent recollection of this finals match with Taylor Elliott, if you want to take us through this.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, well, I step back, you know, that first round you talk about watching the state tournament as a kid, and then you go from watching it to competing, and you step out on the Cole Center floor and you start looking around, and you get the bright lights, you get all the people, and it's just like just an instant blast of like nervous energy and just anxiety, just jam-packed it into a six-minute match and freezing up in that moment. Uh, because our my dad's game plan, you know, for me wrestling was like you go in, you get two takedowns in the first period, you know, try and you know, just get yourself a little bit of a gap and all the nerves, the jitters, the anxiety, like your body just doesn't perform under that. So for kids that are going to be competing at the goal center for the first time, don't look around, don't look at all the fans sitting in the stands, just try and focus on what's standing in front of you. But with the state finals, I think there was my dad had like a tremendous amount of stress, right? Because he he had been in the state finals previously, in you know, probably 1991, I think is when he was in the state finals, and he ended up losing, right? And like just understanding like the pressure, the buildup, and all the emotions that you know go into competing in the state finals. He was a nervous wreck, like he was an absolute train wreck, pacing in the backhauls of the coal center and uh just sweating profusely, I remember. And I always knew my dad was like just a nervous Nelly, but it was getting to a certain point where I could recognize like when his nerves were so bad because before the match, he was always drinking my water, like could not stop. So it's like I'm trying to get ready to go on the mat. I need some water. There, there's no water for me to drink. I'm like, dad, like I like I'm getting ready to wrestle in the state finals. I need some water, and like you're having a nervous breakdown. I'm like, I'm the one that has to go do it, just relax a little bit. But I I remember that. Uh remember that, you know, he's like pulling on his tie, right? You know, it's super loose just from the nervous energy and yanking on it the entire night. And I guess throughout the match, I think I actually got taken down right away. And when I got taken down, it was like, oh my god, like I I can't let this happen. And you make this like instant switch of leveling up the intensity and trying to pick up the pace and um you know, just continuing to progress through positions, but it gives you a different sense of urgency when you get taken down right away in the state finals. And thankfully it ended up working out well for me. And uh, just remember just an instant uh rush of adrenaline, like couldn't even comprehend what would like the adrenaline going through my body. And getting that opportunity just just to share that moment with my dad, that was that was incredible, right? Because it was it was a long time coming for him. You know, he put a it was a long time coming for him, and yeah, it was really, really cool to share that moment with him.
SPEAKER_02You you did have a sense of urgency because you picked up a reversal 10 seconds after you gave up that takedown. And yeah, the second period picked up a reversal around the middle of the period and did it won your first state title in emphatic fashion. Uh, do you remember how you pinned Taylor Elliott?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was an arm bar half, and I I remember picking that up from one of my dad's athletes at Blake Lundren, who he had gone to a camp at Northern Illinois, and he started working on this with me when I was probably like sixth grade, you know, middle school age. And at the time, I did have a lot of leverage, probably because I was cutting a lot of weight. Uh, so I was long. I had you know an extended period of time to recover, felt extremely strong. I just remember getting his wrist on his back punching a bar. And for me, I I was going to rip his shoulder off. That's that's just what what I did in that position, right? You run the bar, they put weight down on that same bar side. Well, it opens up their other side for a half. And when you put that half in with that setup, it's cinched so tight where they can't they can't do anything. Um, so I just remember I was like, I'm going to rip your arm off, and like I'm I'm going to put you away in that moment. Hunter, you seem like such a nice project. Wow. Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. Yeah. It's kind of funny too, you know, like obviously when when you're not wrestling and you're just in day-to-day life, you know, important to be nice and kind humble. Sure. You don't think about that when people don't do it. Yeah, but my dad always referred to it as like, you have to have a prick switch. Like, you have to be able to make that switch where it's kill or be killed, right? And that was that was a conversation that we had from a really young age, which I don't necessarily know if a lot of parents are having that conversation with their kids, but that was at least my approach to to that moment, that position specifically.
SPEAKER_02So I will be using the term prick switch going forward.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I we we use a different term for it, but I won't say it on on air. But yeah, I like that. Prick switch is pretty good. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, or you know, the other thing. Oh, I think I might have froze up. Yeah, my bad. My bad. Um you know, the other thing, you got the prick switch, and then it's, you know, it's either your dreams or my dreams, and my dreams aren't gonna be shattered. So unfortunately, it has to be you, right? So those were two two of the little, I guess, mindset philosophies that my dad and I talked about a lot. Not a lot, you know, enough for it to, you know, set into a high school age kid's heads.
SPEAKER_01So I did tell you you you gave me a little, Hunter, you gave me a I was doing some recon here. That's what I was looking off on, and I did find some trivia. Uh, I don't necessarily expect you to get a teague. Hunter, maybe you might know, but you're talking about your dad was in the finals. It was 1991, it was 130 pounds. Hunter, do you remember who he wrestled in that match? And then Teague, I got a question for you that you might get if I give you enough hints.
SPEAKER_03You want me to answer, or do you want Teague to guess?
SPEAKER_01No, if you if you got an answer, I've seen a few of I mean Teague's not gonna get it. This is pre-2008.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's uh it's Jamie Olson who coaches at uh Boyce Film.
SPEAKER_01Well, he's at Boyceville. He was from Cumberland, tight score three to two. But Teague, here's a question you might get. Round one. So Scott was a senior, this wrestler was a sophomore, and Scott beat him six to one, and this wrestler ended up becoming a two-time state champ, and he was a very successful coach. He brought his team to multiple state tournaments, uh, the team he coached for. He's from River Valley, right? Uh he is not, not, he's not. Yep, he would have graduated in 1993, would have graduated my year. Uh what about it? And I did, I will tell you this, Teague. In grade school, I talked about, I don't talk about this guy often. I wrestled, you know, kind of he would talk about growth. Um, I wrestled a very heavyweight class, and I wrestled this kid in middle school. Uh, I grew, he did not.
SPEAKER_02Steve, you'll be so disappointed. I can't even like think of a name. I can't even like register right now.
SPEAKER_01That's all right. Uh, Matt Vanenbush, meet Matt Vanenbush from Denmark, six to one first round, who ended up coaching at Random Lake.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. There is the connection there. Speaking of connections, that uh that Jamie Olson is that relation to Reed Olson then.
SPEAKER_03It is, yeah. And then Reed's Reed's dad actually was a ref for my state finals match, my freshman year. And then obviously Reed and Cole wrestled in the state finals, Cole's freshman year. Yeah, so like it just crazy crossover.
SPEAKER_02Small world we live in.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02So how are you feeling after that first state title, Hunter? Like, I've like the goal is four. Everyone says the first one is the the hardest one to get most of the time, and and you got that one out of the way. Like it feels like that that vision is a lot becoming a lot more of a reality. Like, where's your head at going into the off-season?
SPEAKER_03Um, you know, going into the offseason, uh, the big thing for me was always Fargo and doing well at Fargo to try and guarantee yourself some scholarship money from a Division I university. So after after winning a state title, it was it was all gas, no breaks. Uh, you know, you maybe take a week or two off. Brandon Jarrett always made us, but really, it was still scorched earth. Like you wanted you wanted to be the guy, you wanted to win every tournament that you were partaking in. And you go you go through uh the offseason, go to Fargo. I ended up winning Fargo again that year. And you roll into I I guess that would have been my offseason at the time from August until like middle of September. And I I don't necessarily know if it's maybe got a little too confident, um, but ended up you know struggling uh to get myself back up for that sophomore season just because it had been a long like two years of training, like eighth grade, ninth grade. Um and it was it was a lot, so it was it was a little bit harder to get up for my sophomore season, is how I spent that time. And that year provided a lot of challenges. A lot of it was self-induced. Uh I struggled with I struggled with my weight a little bit, and part of it was you go to Fargo and you know you weigh in at the time they did Greco first, and then you did freestyle. Now it's I think it's flipped where it's freestyle first, Greco, but regardless, um, you have to make weight once for Greco, you get like 36 hours in between the freestyle weigh in. Well, I started uh cutting and almost excessive, I guess, right? I'm cutting a lot of weight and I'm crashing my weight down, sucking down a lot of water, you know, and you're doing bathroom saunas and you're pulling a lot of weight and it can crash down. And I saw like, oh, I I cut 12 pounds in 36 hours as you know, a you know, freshman in high school. I'm like, well, I could do that again. I I could do that, you know, for just in season. Well, I didn't realize like how big of an impact that has, like, just with like the yo-yo effect of you know, you you balloon up, you make weight, you balloon up, and you start to run into some problems because you can only sustain that for so long in season. And ended up missing weight or weight a few times. And keep in mind my dad's the high school head coach, right? And his kids missing weight. So at a certain point, you know, you miss weight once, you miss weight twice. It's like, okay, all right, like what is going on, Hunter? Like, you need you need to like explain like what are you doing? Because I was always lying about my weight. It was like, hey, well, Hunter, Monday morning, how much are you over? Uh, you know, I'm like seven pounds over because I was always cool, seven to ten, like on a Monday. You might as well double that number. Like, I I was cutting it in half, I was dividing however much weight I was over by by two. So we're in season struggling with my weight, and my mom ended up, you know, coming down my room to talk to me, and I there was this smell in my room, and she's like, What you know, what is that? Had gone rifling like through my closet. And at the time, like we always had these duffel bags. It was like, you know, you pull the string, you slide down like the knob that that was the barrel bag that I was using. What I was doing was like they would be, you know, out to dinner, they'd be having dinner. I'd sneak into the kitchen, I'd like just take a couple snacks. I'd grab like a Greek yogurt, I was grabbing Pop Tarts, like all super carb, sugar heavy stuff, which is gonna retain all of your water, so you can't cut the water away. And uh she she finds this, she dumps it out, just a bag worth of uh just snacks, and that's the reason why I was missing weight. And at the time, there was a show on TLC, it was about Prater Willie, so I think it's like uh some some sort of mental issue in relationship with food. And obviously, my dad was extremely upset with me because one, I was lying to him, what uh, and then two, not making weight, which wasn't a good look at the time. But he's like, he's like, am I am I to the point where I have to put like locker combinations like on our cabinets at my own house? Like, so so you're not binge eating. Um, but yeah, that's sophomore year provided some challenges, at least uh in that regard.
SPEAKER_02Is sophomore year only the year of the the infamous tree bark incident?
SPEAKER_03Um that was that was actually my junior year. So that was that was falling year. So I I didn't learn my lesson. Well we'll we'll wait for that one then.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we we gotta get that story out.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Who was your because I it's not in uh the track season look, but it says on the state tournament program, who was your loss to your sophomore year?
SPEAKER_03So I uh I had been struggling with my weight because I wrestled 113 at the state tournament that year yet had missed weight a couple times. And my dad after Christmas, he ended up just having me wrestle 126. He's like, he's like, all right, like, you know, if you think you're actually like suited for this weight and you're big enough, all right, you're gonna wrestle 126. And we went to this term in Burnsville and Apple Valley was there. There, there's a hand, there's a couple of good metro teams, but like it wasn't a standout that I lost to. I couldn't even tell you the guy's name, but I was up two weights from the weight I was competing at the state tournament. And thank God my my dad's assistant coach, um Greg Nichols, and then Paul Enslin, like, you know, we had a couple of come to Jesus meetings where it's like, hey, dude, like you you gotta you gotta start piecing your life back together. And uh Paul, uh my biology teacher and then study all teacher, like we came up with a nutrition plan and a plan to like you know track my weight, monitor it, and uh, keep Kim and then my mom as well, because she's doing all the cooking and preparation. They uh deserve a lot of credit for getting me back on the straight and narrow for the last couple weeks of the season. But yeah, that was that was an interesting year.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you make your way back down to 120 just in time for the Interstate Classic at St. Croix Falls.
SPEAKER_03Yep, right, yep, made it back down to 20. Um, and then yeah, because like my dad's philosophy was always trying to keep kids up a weight throughout the course of the year, just so they're not so depleted by the end of the year. Like you know, you look at programs where like they're super, super talented across the board and there's a lot of depth, and you'll have kids wrestling at one weight throughout the course of the year, and you see them towards the end that it's just like you're depleted from you know, you're pulling a lot of you're pulling weights, and it's you're making weight once, twice a week, and you're not necessarily you're kind of a shell of yourself, you know, from a muscular standpoint after cutting weight all season. So, yeah, he would always have a stress-lep weight, and then for the postseason, you know, then make the drop for uh the postseason series, but but yeah.
SPEAKER_02How are you feeling about about the postseason heading into your sophomore campaign?
SPEAKER_03Oh god, that's like 12 years ago. That's a long time. I'm old.
SPEAKER_02A couple of refreshments here on names. Uh, there's a you you beat Cole Britton at Regionals from Siren. Yeah. At sectionals, you wrestled Cole Skelton, which I usually associate Skelton with Ellsworth, but he was from Baldwin Woodville, Ryan Ponick from Stanley Boyd, Owen with the Thorpe, and a Luke Schrader from Rice Lake were your sectional opponents.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah. Yeah, I just remember I remember being super happy for the sectional tournament because the day before uh school got canceled, it was like you know, temperatures were you know below freezing, or we had too much snow. I can't remember, but we got a pound, and I was like, oh my god, I'm like, I get to weigh you know 117. Like I thought it was the best thing ever having school cancellations. But that I I don't remember too much about the sectional tournament. Yeah, but you remember the pound. Yeah, I remember I remember the pound. Yeah, that was a different that was a deal breaker.
SPEAKER_02And uh some some of the uh a lot of returners from from your state bracket the year prior and this one. Uh again, Jason Clapper from Lodi back in your bracket. He was your quarterfinals opponent. You got a tech fall over, Steve. Do you want to guess who the Wrightstown wrestler that Hunter wrestled in 2014?
SPEAKER_01Well, I've seen I have the bracket up, but I do remember actually the match. It was uh Dylan Mickey.
SPEAKER_02And uh Taylor Elliott again in the finals. How'd you feel about having a rematch in the finals?
SPEAKER_03Um, so if you take a step back, when I was wrestling um the guy from Wrightstown, I remember taking him down. I ended up in a leg turk position. And obviously just elevating the leg, going crossface, racking up one set of near fall. And I let him roll back to his stomach. I had his leg hooked. I never let go of the leg turk because I saw the ref, you know, award the back points. And I'm like, did he really just do this? Like I'm I'm using the same move. So then I just used the leg turk again, just crossface. That was the only change. It wasn't a change in move, so it should only have been one set of back points. I ended up doing that, I think, four times, and that's how I tech'd him. And it never should have happened, but I the ref didn't recognize it. Maybe didn't see his leg hook, but I I wasn't gonna complain.
SPEAKER_01I'm like, you remember the opposing coach uh screaming that it was the same move? Because I can almost hear uh Matt Verbaton yelling that.
SPEAKER_03I was visualizing that I had yeah, you know, it's like you know, I I honest to God, I don't know how you missed that, but not my problem.
SPEAKER_02You you were playing within the rule set you were given. That's right. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I love that problem. You're right. It wasn't.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure the opposing coach had some choice words for the ref, but uh yeah, anyways, and then wrestling.
SPEAKER_01We'll find out because he's gonna listen to this in a couple days, and I'm sure I'm gonna get a text.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you can tell him he was right, he was absolutely right. I just can't believe he is dumb enough to award me near fall multiple times. The ref. The ref. The ref, yes, exactly. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, and then wrestling Taylor. I uh go ahead.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, no, yeah, I was just gonna ask about the thoughts on because you seem like a guy. I mean, you're you're big on studying. Like I feel like a rematch for you is almost beneficial because now you have tape on Taylor Elliott from the year prior.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, um I so I always try to like I used to lurk on people a lot. So like I always wanted to know what my competitors or kids I thought could be at my weight class, what they were doing in the offseason. And I remember like Googling, like trying to look through social media, and I had came across an article, and the article kind of I felt like there was a comment that was a dig towards me that I took personal as a 16-year-old kid. Uh so you know, when we had to wrestle again, it I I I I internalized it, tried to make it personal, and I just wanted to light them up. That's that's honestly all I wanted to do. And uh yeah, and that's that's just uh how it went.
SPEAKER_02That's that's that's what you did. It was uh it was four to two when you got the pin the year prior, ten to three win over Elliott, yeah, including two takedowns in the first period. So I'd say you internalize that pretty well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, well, and like obviously perspectives everything, and with maturity, like you learn a lot about life, and it's like sometimes I'll you know think back and I'm like, God, like it obviously recognizing I'm I was super intense as a kid, and it's like yeah, you know, you don't necessarily have to carry every kid doesn't have to carry that level of intensity, right? Uh it's hard to sustain that um that motive for extended periods of time. So sometimes I'm just like you need to relax a little bit and uh you know try and explain that to my brothers, where it's like you gotta find like um like that happy medium of you know carrying a certain level of intensity, but also you know being lighthearted and you know being able to joke around, be loose.
SPEAKER_02So how'd you feel after the second one? Feeling doesn't really get old, does it?
SPEAKER_03Uh no, I think you know, this the second year, and obviously everyone would have a different answer for it for it, but I kind of expected it, you know, like you've done it once, it feels good, but then it doesn't give you the same level of satisfaction as it did when you do it for the first time. And that was at least my outlook on on how it felt at the time. And like I said, everyone's gonna have a different experience or memory of how they felt.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Hey, love it, love the honesty, man. I we'll go uh anything from your offseason from sophomore into junior year.
SPEAKER_03Um, I remember going to Fargo. Yeah, this I yeah, going to Fargo um in the semi-finals and getting rolled up in the semifinals. And you know, I did the semi semi-slide off off the backside and ended up getting six. And I just remember being just absolutely livid after getting six that junior freestyle. I thought it was horrible. I I thought I was I thought that was the end of my wrestling career, and I was hitting the decline because I had won it the past two years. Now, looking back at junior freestyle in Fargo as a coach and having brothers at wrestle, like there's there's a lot of good kids. Like, you gotta be a stud to be able to place place at Fargo in junior freestyle. But that that was the one memory I had, you know, that stands out to me from that time. Yeah, getting blast doubled cotton lace on the elevated stage, and I just was absolutely embarrassed, just livid.
SPEAKER_02One thing I have gathered from this show after 50 minutes, Hunter Marco does not like losing. Right.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not it's not a good feeling.
SPEAKER_02So your junior year, uh we we kind of hinted at it. You you figured things out with your weight at the end of your sophomore year, but did things start uh were they sliding a little bit again at the start of your junior season?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you know, they they did start to slide a little bit. Um we were at we were at Thanksgiving, and my dad's obviously having a memory from the year prior, you know, trying to micromanage what I'm eating during family Thanksgiving. I had gotten done with Thanksgiving, checked my weight, you know, I was like within you know six pounds, and my dad's like, oh, you did great, you did awesome, like you know, super proud of you for um, you know, having having the self-control, right? And I got home, they went Black Friday shopping, and my mom, she had like white fudge that was in the um chest freezer downstairs. It was supposed to be for Christmas. And I I went out, cut a piece of it, and I was like, well, you know, that's that that was pretty good. Like that tasted good. And then I found a cherry seven up sitting in the fridge because I had a bunch of younger siblings that love cherry seven up. That was um that was their big thing. Well, you start mixing and matching the two, and before you know it, I have a whole tray and pan of white fudge down and a two-liter of cherry seven up. Oh so you go from being six pounds over to now you're looking at like upwards of you know 15 15 pounds over. Wow, and you go in, you do your weight checks on Monday, and then like my dad's like, What like what'd you do? Like, how how is this possible? But that you know, you have a hard conversation with your dad sets you straight after that moment, and you get back on the straight and narrow, and that's when I got back in well, not got back into, but I started journaling and just tracking everything that I ate, you know, just throughout the course of course of the week and just understanding like what made me feel good, what what didn't make me feel good, how I competed, how I felt training. Uh so I I matured a lot, you know, between 16 and 17 years old, as you know, everyone does, right? You lose that immaturity a little bit. But yeah, that was that early in the season my junior year.
SPEAKER_02And I actually uh there is not a track profile for your junior year, so I have nothing pre-state for you. So any uh wrestling uh match memories before state, you you just have at it right now.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I um junior year. Well, and actually, I think at that time I had I think I was already committed to go wrestle for Wisconsin at the time. I had committed in between my sophomore and my junior year, and you know, going to the Minnesota Christmas tournament, Kakana was going and I was wrestling 32 and uh made the finals wrestling Trey Leon, and he actually he lit me up pretty good, and I think he beat me uh you know 8-1. And that was a really big wake-up moment for me where it's like, hey, like you just lost to someone in state, like you lost to someone in state, and Trey's super good wrestler, super talented, and uh, you know, he's built like a brick shithouse, like dude's absolutely cut, and uh, you know, he lit me up, and that was a really a big wake-up call for me.
SPEAKER_02And you know, you make adjustments after that, and uh at least prepared me for what was to come later on at the end of the year, so oh yeah, because yet again, I'm gonna sound like a broken record. You're your state bracket, not an easy get to go and and win a state title.
unknownYes.
SPEAKER_02Well, John Roddick, very familiar. I mean, I wrestle, I didn't wrestle against John Roddick. We were like 50 pounds apart, but you tech him in the MIs from Sparta. And on the opposite side, uh, looking for his second state title is Mr. Tepra Wright. Now, I didn't get a chance to look up the distance. I'm still gonna do that, but Amory and Wisconsin Lutheran are pretty far apart geographically. So how did your uh stalking go on this one?
SPEAKER_03I like it. Well, uh, was it Badger State Wrestling? That that was the thing at the time, right? Because John Sparks would do that in Badger State Wrestling. So I remember watching him, and you know, you you see just how put together he is. He's in great shape, he's very physical, and you you start getting flashbacks of um, you know, just previous matches wrestling someone who was a lot stronger than me, and a little bit of doubt creeps in, right? And he was super explosive, he was dangerous, and you know, just understanding that you know this is uh yeah, you're gonna be in for a war is essentially you know what I was expecting going into it because I wasn't the strongest. I wasn't uh I I wasn't super strong as a you know person, like you know, strengthwise, but I tried to make up for it with you know conditioning, and that's when my dad introduced me to air dying workouts and um which helped with my cardio uh in that match, and I was able to sustain a pace for an extended period of time and just find small moments in the match where he had relaxed and try and take opportunity of it. But yeah, super super good wrestler, very, very talented.
SPEAKER_02Well, and for for someone explosive like Tepra, uh it was a great match for you in that you took him down uh 30 seconds left in the first period, but it was all Matt Wrestling in the second and third period. 2-0 going into the second. Tepra gets a reversal with 15 seconds to go to tie things up, and going into the third, you get a reversal of 15 seconds into the period, and you win on a ride out, which is a pretty momentous way to get a victory, especially in the state finals.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I remember doing weigh-ins, and I think this was it was before they have kids weighing in singlets now. And like I remember like seeing them in the weigh-in line and like looking over and just absolutely just stacked. And I was like, I'm this long, gingly, awkward, you know, junior in high school, and I see this guy, and I'm like, oh my god, like I've I don't know what he feels like. I had no friends that had wrestled him previously, so there's no hey, like you know, how do you feel when you're wrestling him? Like, what what positions did he put you in where you felt strong? It was like you're going in with zero expectations, and you shake his hand for the first time. It's like, oh my god, yeah, like this guy is is really strong, really powerful. But uh, yeah, the at least the air dying workouts that I had done in the lead up for that uh postseason series my dad had created. It was really the only reason why I was able to ride him out, and just because I had trained my forearms and just my lung capacity at the time.
SPEAKER_02So, in that context, getting a win against a dude that maybe there was a little doubt against going into a little tougher match than the previous year. Did that win feel a little better afterwards than your sophomore year?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think that one is a was a little bit of like relief because you know, and Kevin can correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like he had always said your junior year is the hardest, like your junior year is the hardest year to win. And I always had a certain level of you know, nerves, stress, anxiety just about winning in my junior year after hearing that. Um, but yeah, I was probably more so relief than anything. Um, but I didn't understand uh you know what that senior year would end up entailing.
SPEAKER_02I'll tell you what, your senior year, uh a lot of matches that did not make it the full six minutes because it you uh I don't know what corner you were always a good wrestler, but a lot of pins, a lot of tech falls your senior year. Like it seemed like you just really started pouring on the offense. Your closest match outside of uh like outside of the postseason, 11-6 against Jaden Winchell, which I if you have tape of that match, I'd love to see it because Jaden Winchell also a hammer. So I bet that match was not devoid of increasing. What was the score? 11 to 6.
SPEAKER_0311 to 6. I think he took me down. Yeah, I was really upset about that. I was really mad because my goal was I uh at the beginning of the year, and I wanted to be a part of the Dapper Dan because growing up as a kid, I had watched uh Jordan uh wrestling the Dapper Dan. He was from Medford, which was the same sectional that my dad coached in, Jordan Crass. And I was like, all right, like if I'm actually going to have a chance or you know, give myself an opportunity to wrestle in that event, I have to, you know, light everyone up. And my goal was to try and bonus points everyone that senior year. So when Jaden had caught a few points, you know, took me, I took me down, got a couple points. I was I was absolutely living.
SPEAKER_02I love your competitive spirit.
SPEAKER_01I do too. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Oh wow, 10 to 3 win over Jacob Anderson of Hudson. That's a pretty big, I know not a bonus point win like you wanted, but Jake Anderson, very solid wrestler. You gotta take me through uh Brady Simonson of Bloomer Colfax, because you you kind of put it on him at state. You won nine to one, five to three in the sectional finals. How do you keep that one close?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, um he, you know, I he made me wrestle, he made it really difficult for me. Like he wrestled through positions, and um I got in, I remember getting in on a lot of leg attacks and not being able to finish and just causing some sort of like doubt where I didn't feel like I could continue to pull the trigger and started to uh wrestle a little bit more tight rather than wrestling to score points. And when you're wrestling tight at any level, it's it's hard, right? It's hard to win if you're gonna wrestle tight. But uh yeah, you kept it close, wrestled through positions, and really strong, long, long for the weight, and yeah, tough competitor, and great, great family too. His dad's a phenomenal person, and you know, uh obviously my heart goes out to those guys as well.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, that's I didn't even think yeah, that was only like a year or two ago. Man, rest his soul. Well, in the finals, you feel like wrestling him the week before was uh beneficial to you? Like, did you just have a different game going in?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you know, I I got to my knee pull a lot, and I remember I couldn't finish in a submarine. He was you know making it really difficult, and he was doing some things in there that I didn't understand. And you know, you get done with the tournament on Saturday, you watch film, you send it to Brandon Jarrett, he asks questions during practice at Pinnacle on Sunday. You spend some time just going through some of those positions and different ways to finish. If you know option A doesn't work of just putting your seatbelt on, and that you know made a difference and allowed the match to go a little bit more smoothly, but uh ran into some challenges at the state tournament in the lead up prior to that match.
SPEAKER_02So oh, that's it, yeah. Seven to one against uh man, you and these Wisconsin Lutheran guys, only at state can you cross paths with them, and and you manage to do that.
SPEAKER_03Well, and like they like they would threaten, like they would threaten their opponents, right? And they'd put them in dangerous positions. And I always remember I was petrified at getting lat dropped, like being the guy that's like winning a close match and gets lat dropped because it happened to me in fifth grade when I was wrestling uh Keaton Shore from Cass and Manorville. So like Corbin's used to throw a nasty lat drop, and then Tempra did too. And in that match, it was like first period. I took him down, you know, relatively early in the first. And we got into this position where I posted on my right foot and I just felt it go pop. So like my my right ankle, something popped in my ankle, and just instantly like felt pain. I looked at my dad and I was like, Hey, I think I just broke my ankle. And my assistant coach, Greg Nichols, was looking at me and he's like, He's like, Oh, you just gotta keep going, you're fine, just keep going, keep going, you know, because if you stop, you you know, the pain starts to set in a little bit more, and if you wrestle that match, you get done, and you're like gimping or hobbling, you know, just trying to get to the back hallway. My dad's freaking out at this point, trying to make sure no one sees that you know I had hurt my ankle and uh go back to the hotel, it's instantly ballooned, it's swollen, and the bump on the side of like your your ankle, like there was so much swelling that like you couldn't even see like the bump like on the outside bone of my ankle. And we had uh reached out to one of the doctors that was a family friend, and he had you know sent it sent in some medications. So you're going to CBS at you know 10 o'clock at night in Madison to try and reduce the swelling, reduce the pain a little bit, and wake up, can't really put any weight on it Saturday morning, and you have to you know find a way at that point. Um, you know, you're using patches, taking some medications to try and help. And then uh it during the warmups, I was just trying to get my just trying to get the pain to go away. So I'm like, you know, just trying to stop my foot in the mat, kicking the wall, like in the back hallway, just trying to numb it up, and thankfully probably with some adrenaline, and it ended up going away, and I didn't feel any pain when I was competing at least. Felt good until you know Sunday morning. Then it was sitting on crutches for a little bit with a high ankle sprain that I confused with the broken broken ankle. But they hurt, man. They don't feel good.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's good it wasn't broke, yeah. I was I was wondering I didn't really. I was into that. Oh yeah, like yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01You had me. I was like, gosh, did you compete? But then I look over at the bracket and I see you did.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, well, Steve, spoiler I did.
SPEAKER_01You did such a great job telling that story. I didn't know how it ended until I looked over at the bracket.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Until you realized we were doing a four-timer podcast. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But you know, that was an incredible moment. Um, you know, just a culmination of years of hard work and just, you know, it's not just you that accomplishes that, right? There's so many people that are a part of that journey, and you know, your family's the big one, right? You're spending hours driving the pinnacle multiple days a week. You're in the car, you know, one hour each way, doing the food preparation, you know, financially, you know, making this all happen with doing a club, going to offseason tournaments. So uh yeah, it was and then the cherry on top of it was you know being able to share that moment with my dad because that was one of my last ones, right? Last moments I got to share with him, and just you know, just how emotional that that embrace was when I got to give him a hug and share that moment with him, and yeah, for forever grateful for for that moment and get to carry that with me for the rest of my life. So it's awesome.
SPEAKER_02Well, I know it's 10 years past, Hunter, but but congratulations uh on joining the club, man. It's fun. Yeah. Uh yeah. And we can also say, Steve, on the Hunter Marco Teague Fenwick Venn diagram, we have both injured our right foot. The only difference being is Hunter did it in the state semifinals, and I did it walking your dog after a night of refreshments. So yeah, I mean, you know. Both are explainable. I still need to maybe get a boot, but so fellas, we are at a point in the show here where you're gonna be talking about your college and coaching career hunter, where you can kind of let that fly, take it however you want, and of course, we'll have questions along the way. But we do have trivia as well. Do we want to do all our trivia now as a little palate cleanser between high school and adult life, or do we want to do it at the end? Thoughts.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, let's do it.
SPEAKER_02All right, we're gonna ask you first, Steve.
SPEAKER_01Oh, trip. Well, this is this is speed round, speed round questions. That's what you're asking, right? Speed, speed, speed trivia for Hunter Marco. Speed round. All right, here we go. Hunter, I know you're well versed in it, so I'll just go ahead and go away, go with it right away here. Um, we'll start out good. Wrestling, wrestler, past or present. Who's the one who's someone you looked up to the most?
SPEAKER_03Uh, probably Brent Medcal. I used to love watching him just with the level of intensity that he carried. Yeah, he was awesome.
SPEAKER_01He he was he was intense. He was. Uh, the left, you're the lefty high garage. I I was gonna I thought you were gonna pull out a Lincoln Macro Ravy for Tete Fenwick there, but uh never mind. Uh that's a that's a long backstory. That's a deep cut. That's a deep cut. Hunter. Have you ever heard of Lincoln Macroavy? By the way, that's not part of the speedrun questions.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think he while he wrestled for the University of Iowa, like big on ducks, right? Like used to be a duck hunter guy, maybe. Oh, he was just yeah, he was just all over the place, but yeah, yeah. Yeah, just a wild man. He was. Uh I actually had a yeah, here's a I guess you might want to think about this one, but what's your most memorable state tournament matches like in the years you guys have been watching it, broadcasting it?
SPEAKER_01I well, I mean, for me, there's the ones he coached, right? But I mean, uh, I gotta say the semifinals, and I don't know, and Tigue, I've as most memorable, of course. I can't remember their uh their names, but um Bayfield, uh um uh Engl uh Angland and Kilty. Yeah, Englin and Kilty was probably one of the most memorable of I I mean I've ever had, right? I mean, that's um you know, I've had a little bit longer longer experience with that. I can think of you know all kinds of moments in the 90s that were crazy as well. But yeah, I'd say those were a couple right there for me.
SPEAKER_02And uh yeah, thinking of the Anglin Kilty. That that was a big one. I think for me of my sophomore year, watching my teammate Colin Delotta win a state title. That was that was pretty epic. And uh this one always sticks out to me because it was the first year that I did commentary for the state finals, but Caden Reetz was wrestling freshman Noah Malvaney. And uh Noah had just beaten Luke Meckler, who uh that is Luke is one of the best guys to not win a state title in Wisconsin wrestling history.
SPEAKER_01Agreed.
SPEAKER_02And Noah did his funky arrowhead wrestling, he beat Luke, and uh just this Arrowhead versus Madison Memorial match, and third period, Caden was losing, and he was always known as like a Greco like upper body dude, like to let it fly. He uh he threw Mulvaney, I forgot if it was a lap drop or what it was, but I just remember like what exact I don't remember exactly what I said, but I remember the call that I made, and like it just all perfectly came together, and it was like the first good call that I made in the state finals where it just was like, oh my lord, like oh, I'm getting like got the hair stand up on my arms just thinking about it. And uh Caden did end up winning the state title. He was the first Madison City kid to win a title in like over 30 years, I think. So that's true. There's so many. I mean, we could take like 30 minutes and like think about it, but like that pops off the top of my head.
SPEAKER_01Most uh most recently, the veto match, right? I mean, the host stadium chanting veto has got to be pretty cool from River Falls, but also um, yeah, so memorable. I I I apologize, Marco. I don't have T's memory for names, but do you remember eight years ago-ish? Uh I think it was Perry from Merrill, and he was wrestling the kid from Mosquego, and uh the Mosquito kid was going for his third. Gosh, do you I wish I could remember the kid's name?
SPEAKER_02Um Perry from Merrill?
SPEAKER_01Well, it wasn't it might not have been, it was a Merrill kid.
SPEAKER_02Oh, right, it was Reinhardt and uh Bo Bresky of Hartford. Bo Bresky.
SPEAKER_01Yes. And that was like, I think Bresky was going for his third, if I remember right. And he was a big recruit. And the I just I remember that match so well because the tactical strategy that was put put in place by uh Merrill and their squad, I was just like, this was amazing. People around me were just freaking out how great that match was.
SPEAKER_03Do you guys remember uh Davion Willis versus Devin Peterson? Oh yeah. That that that was the one that always stood out to me as like a kid, and uh because at the time that's when Rapids was at its peak, and you know, everyone was pulling for the underdog with Willis and just watching the crowd just app well throughout the match, you know, it's like starting to get a little close, and the crowd's starting to pick up on it, and they're starting to chant Willis' name, and then it gets a takedown overtime, and that just an absolutely just incredible match. But yeah, uh the other here's another one for you guys.
SPEAKER_02Can I do a couple more quick hitters off that now? You got my brain going. Um Brett Knig and uh was it Brody Hart of Winnicani for Rhett to win his fourth, where Rhett let Brody up and then he got the takedown, and I was like filling in on commentary because Joe Miller went down to coach, but Shane Sparks was the one commentating with me, so I let Shane take the floor on that one. And I just remember Rhett got the takedown with less than 10 seconds left, and I just remember Shane Sparks 80 gallons of high octane jet fuel. And uh, and then this one's kind of a hidden gem because it was the COVID year. It was in Kakona High School, and Jager Ice beat Nicolar Rivera, and that was for being in a high school gym, that had the closest thing to like the state tournament deal you could have. But all right, Hunter. Yeah, what what do we got next here? Who's got the next question?
SPEAKER_01Do you do you want me to, hey, should I just finish my um I'll go through all my they'll they'll be real fast. We'll just go with them and then I'll finish my part and then you can start nailing us. But uh, your best takedown, Hunter? Or favorite takedown? Neeple. Neeple, best pinhole armbar half.
SPEAKER_03Although I don't think it is the best one. I think cradles are the way to go now.
SPEAKER_01Cradles are, but when you can we can rip a guy's shoulder off, as you explained before. So um now you can't say what'd you say, angel food cake in the freezer. You can't say this one, but your favorite food, post-weigh-in food, uh after making weight. I was just kidding with the oh, it was a always a six-inch turkey sub. There you go. All right, biggest rival individual in high school.
SPEAKER_03Biggest rival? Well, you know, you gotta go back and forth for it to be a rivalry. I don't know. I I don't know. I can't can't think of anything off the top of my head.
SPEAKER_01That's more of a common answer than uh when we get these sport timers on that are just dominant. But how about the team-wise? Who's the biggest rival team-wise?
SPEAKER_03Um ohlsworth. Yeah, Ellsworth was was our biggest rival growing up, and that's when I was in high school, they were also at their peak. And yeah.
SPEAKER_01Not staying your old there, Hunter, but young'ins like this era of music right now, which I'm you know, they say songs. I'm like, I've never heard of that. Let's go back to some ACD scenes. Thunderstruck, right? But um, take back, right? It's uh they you're you're you're still competing. College, high school doesn't matter. Your coach comes up to you and says, Hey, tomorrow, biggest match of your life. You get your own walkout song, and you choose what, Hunter.
SPEAKER_03Um, intense-wise, probably Run This Town by Rihanna and Kanye. That was always my go-to. Yeah, now if I was cutting weight and I was struggling in the moment, like it was like party in the USA is what Paulson would always play. Yeah, keep the vibes up.
SPEAKER_01Nice, nice. All right, okay, that's all I got. So you guys are uh I I like the questions back at us. That's good. All right, Hunter, what do you got for us?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so obviously, you know, wrestling fans always complain about the seeding at the state tournament. So why do we need an algorithm to do seeds instead of you know actually having a committee or a wrestling media page like such as you guys or WI Wrestle or Willie Taylor? What's what's stopping that from occurring? And would you guys be interested in doing it if it was an option?
SPEAKER_02Uh if no one knew how we did it, yeah. Um maybe.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, good point. Uh would I be interested in doing it? No way. Uh just because I don't know. I I'm too emotional. There's no way I'd want to do it. I'm too emotional with it. I'm too much of a homer. I get to like people and all that kind of stuff. So there's no way I can be on that. But um why is there? I don't know. I I see go ahead. I I I I think that for as as many flaws that there are with the the that type of seating pro the um computer seating process, I think the pros far away. If there are any, you know, the cons of it. And I think they'll continue to be worded worked out. So that's just my general answer with it. I mean, but but with that being said, is can you have a system where once it's all set in place, you can logically take a look at it and go, yeah, these two nationally ranked guys shouldn't meet in the in the semifinals. Yeah, I I think that uh that could could and should happen.
SPEAKER_02The the the dangerous thing that that we're thinking here, because Steve brought up a big word, emotions. And uh, you're you're having one or two or five people go through 54 different brackets to to determine something. And I think about it this way, like ultimately uh that there's there's five to ten brackets, it seems like, that people like really dislike, or five to ten matchups that happen a little earlier than people would anticipate. And that is a lot better than what the old Matrix used to be, right? Where now it's just completely random. Yeah. Now, going with what Steve said too, do you want to split up uh Hunter Stevens and Max Gonzalez? Yeah, and you gotta have the criteria for it. And then if you start going through, and like there's also like Kellen Woolburn and Ben Bass, like there's the obvious ones that you change, but then when you open that floodgate, there'll be other people that are like, Well, you changed it for this, so why couldn't you change this for this and this for this? And then guess what you start doing as the bracket maker? You set your own algorithm with strict rules so that you can tell people, like, hey, this was cut and dry, this is why we did this, and they're like, Well, why didn't you make these obvious changes? Like, because if we make these changes, then it opens up this Pandora's box for all these changes. So, yeah, it sucks. But then also, like, Hunter Stevens had a that semifinal match ended up being closer than the quarterfinals match between Stevens and Gonzalez. Like, right. Was it Stowell that wrestled Stevens? Or uh no, Ingham that wrestled, yeah. Like, so it's one of those things where yeah, there's definitely spots where you can improve the brackets or try to switch the matchups, but I think there would be too much human emotion involved when you're doing 54 brackets to where you basically just go to an algorithm, anyways. So why not just let the computer do its thing and be like if if there's like two or three really good matches on Thursday night, great. Like that's that's fun for people. I think uh and also too, they they wrestle the matches for a reason. You could have what you think is the marquee match on Thursday or Friday, and then some kid swoops in from the other side and wins the bracket, that so I would like since it's I wouldn't consider it a perfect system, if we could one day get to uh where you can make it to the semis, lose, and wrestle all the way back to third. I I know a lot of people are on board with that.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, yeah, and the only the only other thing I don't like, and maybe other people don't, but you know, I just I just saw I noticed this because I just did a shout-out for him T, but uh um Maximo pronounced Zolo from Bellington. Is that how you say his last name?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So like he wrestled uh Logan Hendricks from Clinton first round. Well, they that was the championship of the sectionals, right? So they just wrestled at sectionals. I wish somehow it could be that aspect wouldn't happen, but you know, when you see them, that's that's the way it is.
SPEAKER_02At least there's double elimination now for that. The old when they had seeding and single elimination, that was killer.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, agreed. Yeah, I also don't like the one-minute periods on the backside, too. Like at least give the kids a chance to have like a two-minute first period, but wrestle them out. Here's here's another one for you. So, like with competitive balance, do you think that there will ever be like a reduction in the amount of divisions? Like, do you think it could go from you know three divisions down to two? Probably not gonna be one, right? But like, could they could they narrow it down to two divisions, D one, D2? Think they ever do it?
SPEAKER_02I think competitive balance or not, which like I'm not a fan of competitive balance. I think I speak for Steve when he says he isn't a fan of competitive balance. But uh I I'm honestly of the of the thought, Hunter, I would not be upset if wrestling went to two divisions.
SPEAKER_03Competitive balance or not. Yeah, I mean, because you look at Pennsylvania and they have two divisions, I believe, right? They have two. There are a lot more schools.
SPEAKER_01And yeah. What's your thoughts though, Steve? I I don't think we ever will. Do I think uh is there a need to? Yeah, I mean it's I I I I think um it just don't it doesn't seem like the numbers right now show that we need to, you know, when I look at some of those, well, I should say previous years when we had regionals, when you look at some of those regional brackets and how many kids are actually in, you know, like how many kids are actually in 106 pounds? You know, I know there's 113 schools, but how many 106 pounders are there? You know?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, not a lot. Yeah, I think it could be interesting, though. I mean Wisconsin wrestling is on a trajectory that it hasn't been in the past, right? There's a lot of momentum, there's so many good kids, and you know, if you narrow down to two divisions, like it's it's gonna produce a better quality product, right? And it's just gonna continue to uh help the sport evolve in the level of competition, which I've I've been really in the world, that would be pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01I've always been a D3 guy, right? So I'm like, um, you know, I grew up D3, coached D3, love D3, right? I love the every aspect of it, small town America. But I was never when everybody brought it up, I'm like, no, never, never. You know what really um made me start thinking, eh, maybe lesser divisions, it's covering girls wrestling over the past couple years. It is a lot of fun. It is very competitive, that you know, and it's it's a lot of fun to take a look at that state bracket when there's only one division.
SPEAKER_03Well, and my god, when was it one division?
SPEAKER_01Was that like uh last year was 1979, and then they went to 1980, they had one year where it was like uh they split to A, B, and C. And then uh so you if you would have won uh uh C, you were still a state champ, but then they had C and B wrestle off to wrestle off uh the division one or or class A. They only did that one year, and then they split the division to three divisions.
SPEAKER_03Interesting. Yeah, because like I my dad, he had a he had a relative, and I think he got second in when it was like one division, but like if you were to put narrow it down into you know one division like today, like god, that would be a bloodbath. There would be so many good matches. It'd it would be uh be fun as a wrestling fan to watch that.
SPEAKER_02And you could still keep the attendant. I wouldn't want it to be where there's just one mat for the state finals. Like if it's one division, you could do a first, third, and fifth place match during the finals. Like I don't see why not. But that'd be like it's essentially what would be like state finals-esque matches on all three mats.
SPEAKER_01So well, or if if if girls and guys still wrestled together, you would. You'd have a girl state championship and a guy state championship.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but we're never going to one. Two would be a far stretch. I I don't know if we're ever going back on the number of qualifiers or divisions because that would take away opportunities from kids to go to state, and uh, whether you think it's a watered-down field or not, uh coaches or ADs are not gonna vote into that. That's just the that's the reality of the situation. Yeah, reality we live in. Yeah. I I really hope, like, I know I've had the ideal postseason plan where quote unquote ideal where it's like, okay, we have these seven divisions now, love the wild card team. That's great. Um, never change the geot the geographical assignments. Like, I think people who want to gerrymander like the assignments so that they can have balance at state, like whatever. Like it's that that is what it is. Uh where was I going with that? Like, I was thinking maybe we have the 14 qualifiers from each division, but then you have two wild cards where if a kid really like was in a tough bracket and they didn't make it, like, then those kids get into state, but like 48 kids at the state tournament, like I already think we're on the brink of having too many state qualifiers.
SPEAKER_01And yes, 16 in a round is prettier, but on a on a positive note to kind of move on to the next topic or where we're going is let's do this. Let's just roll the numbers in the state of Wisconsin so freaking big so that division three divisions are justified and everybody's like, yep, this is good.
SPEAKER_02So let's go the numbers, wrestle the dang matches. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, otherwise, uh I don't got anything else as far as trivia though. There you go. What's your favorite movie? I always love asking people that though. What's your favorite movie?
SPEAKER_01Oh uh well, I'm a big I'm a big gladiator guy. Um I I was a big brave like Braveheart to me. Was the top movie for a long time until Gladiator came along. Yeah, Maximus Aurelius. It's hard to say. Are you not entertained? One of the best lines ever.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I always was, you know, hopefully you can have kids in the future, but I always wanted after watching that movie and thought the name was badass, Maximus. Yeah. Well wanted names. Here's a name for you to consider. The reality is though, they're just gonna call him Max, and I'm like, yeah, you know, I mean, you know what, Teague?
SPEAKER_01I just did the shout-out for uh you put this name in your uh names bucket, Maximo. Maximo Zolo from Darlington, man. He tell you what, I I was after I did that shout-out, Teague, all day long, I kept going, Maximo Zolo, Maximo, I was just chanted. Like that might be the coolest name ever, right there.
SPEAKER_02I gotta go big fish.
SPEAKER_01Teague, what about you?
SPEAKER_03What's your favorite movie?
SPEAKER_02I don't know if I've seen that. It's uh it has Ewan McGregor in it. It's uh Okay, it's it's like uh it's not like a blockbuster movie by any means, but uh the the premise of it is like this guy has this strange relationship with his dad, who was like a traveling salesman, but his dad's like a big storyteller, and uh basically like it's uh it's one of those like time jump movies where like he goes and he sees his dad, who is uh who his health is failing, and his dad is like telling all these old stories, and they're all like Paul Bunny and esque and exaggerated and whatnot. And Evan McGregor like plays the younger version of the dad. But uh I don't want to spoil it if you guys are gonna watch the end, because the ending makes me cry every single time, and like there's a handful of movies that'll get me weepy, but there's something about that one, and like the impact that this dude had on so many people throughout his life, where I'm like, man, like I get a big fish ending someday. Like, that's that's that's it, right there.
SPEAKER_01So uh yeah, and this is a transition answer, but I will say this best sports movie that very few people have heard of. I think it's amazing. Warrior. Have you guys ever seen Warrior? It's a it's a uh oh, it is great. I'm like, I asked T, like you've never heard of it. Like, what the heck? It is so freaking good, and nobody's heard about it. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_02I now that's football season. I gotta watch Remember the Titans again.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, Warrior is actually a super good movie. Like, my dad loved that. He actually I think one of the slogans like in in the movie is simply believe, right? Like, that's one of the phrases that they use is just simply believe. And he actually, you know, had put it on just Aimory apparel and I think put it up at some point in the wrestling room. I can't remember, but yeah, it's a great movie. Otherwise, I'm trying to think sports movies. Remember the type, baby.
SPEAKER_02It's that time of year. We are the Titans. I like that.
SPEAKER_01That was a that was a good palette play. Excellent in every sense of the word. We we have not had it reversed on us, so that was really good. So let's get back to the man of the hour. Yeah, yeah. Nice job switching the dust, though. That was really good, Hunter.
SPEAKER_03No, it's it's interesting to learn learn about people and BS a little bit. So, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02So Hunter. The planned questions for now, we will I'll have a couple at the very end. But the planned questions for now are gonna be done. We are at right now the end of your high school career. I don't know if you flipped your commitment to Minnesota yet or not at this juncture. But I think for you to tell your story, you you take the wheel for college career, coaching, family, these last 10 years, take us through the ride, and we will have questions along the way. How does that sound?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it sounds good. Um, yeah, so I ended up decommitting and then committing to Minnesota going into I think going into my senior year. And for me, going to DUM, it was the it was the closest university, you know, to where I lived, and family was extremely important to me. So that was you know a part of it. But ultimately the big driver was I grew up watching the University of Minnesota. It's the closest uh college program to our home. We're able to get to duels pretty frequently. I went to Pinnacle and Brandon and Jared both wrestled at the U of M. And you know, going and watching and just embracing and taking in that environment from probably uh you know six years old watching a duel against Nebraska with my dad, and he had taken me as a little kid, and he just recognized how cool and you know the tradition that the program had has. And um, you know, it's it's something that you wanted to be a part of. And for me, it was a shared dream with you know my dad, my mom, and uh that's that's what I grew up wanting to do. So I wrestled at the U. I was there for three and a half years and ended up uh, you know, over the course of those three and a half years, ran into just some trials and tribulations. And, you know, I think the one that probably, you know, that obviously shaped me the most was losing my dad unexpectedly. Uh, it would have been my freshman year of college, uh, unfortunately, you know, got back from the state tournament Monday morning, getting ready for school, and he had a massive heart attack and unfortunately didn't make it. And that moment was really define like it changed the course of my life, changed the course of my family's life, you know, forever, right? And in that, in that moment after you know, losing someone that close to you that has been a role model and your hero in every sense of the word, um, you know, you start to recognize that life is a lot bigger than wrestling. And you start to um, you know, trying to reassess like your values and like your your beliefs about the world, and you you start you go on going back to your family, right? Your family becomes everything after a moment like that. And uh you know, you become a tight-in group and you make sure that you take care of one another and help help them in the future bring them along, help them find success in in any way that you can. Uh, so that was when I was at the U. Obviously didn't have the college career that I wanted. Um, you know, just being direct about that. It was a disappointment and presented a lot of challenges just in my own personal life. But you go through three and a half years at the U, make a decision that you know, I I needed to transfer. And that was what I thought was in the best interest of myself and my wrestling career, and just from a life standpoint, and went to South Dakota State for two years, and that was that was such a it was a great environment for me personally as a person um outside of wrestling, right? Gave me an opportunity to uh grow, gave me space to heal, and also when I was at you know, South Dakota State and getting to know Damien and Damien Hahn and had some similar experiences just with losing their dad at a young age, and he left a huge impact on me as a as a person, um, and also helped, you know, grow my knowledge base for wrestling. Um and those lessons that I learned were able to help me get back to my siblings and uh yeah, give back to my siblings and huge help out future future athletes of mine, and I'll be forever grateful uh for those opportunities that I was given. So but yeah, that's my college that was my college career.
SPEAKER_02That's wrapping up uh when did you like when did it hit you that you wanted to get back and uh and uh like or stay in the sport and keep coaching?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, um, so I I was in college during COVID and they had given us uh extra year of eligibility. I think how they handled that was absolutely awful. I don't think they handled that well, but I had gotten my degree done in 2021, came back for that sixth year, start the season off, you know, you're trying to navigate and find you know your best path to get into the starting lineup. And for some for some reason, I made up my mind that 133 was the weight that I needed to be. I wasn't a 133 pounder and uh went through the fall training, uh, went to a tournament at NDSU, and I just remember like looking around, I'm 24 years old at this time, right? So I'm like old. Most people have been you know working for two years at this point, and just being in that environment, and there was no it was a very like numb experience, right? Like it was numb. There wasn't any adrenaline, there wasn't any um excitement to compete, and there wasn't like a there wasn't a prick switch or like you know a kill switch to go out and perform to the best of your ability and light someone up. And you know, I before I'm competing at this tournament, you know, I recognize that feeling and I don't really understand like what's going on, right? Because most times you're excited to compete, you're looking for the opportunity, and you start to recognize like, okay, like that's that's not normal. That's that's not a good sign if you know competing is becoming a numb experience for you. Get done with the tournament, and uh, you know, you you sit down and you start to think about what was down the road, and I'll try and tie this all together, but um, you know, just made the decision that if I wasn't going to be all in on my wrestling career in college, it would be a disservice to my family to stay there, and it'd be a disservice, you know, to myself as well, because your heart's not in it at that point. I knew like in that moment my competitive career was done and talked to Coach Han, which was a difficult conversation, like leaving mid-season and and making a choice to end my college career. And if now I'll try and tie it together while I'm at South Dakota State. We had uh we had a guy commit from St. Pear's Graham, uh Alec Martin, and he had come come in during the summer, he did some training sessions, and I got to wrestle with him because we're similar sizes, and just in wrestling with him, competing with him in the room, he presented a lot of unique positions and he wrestled at a pace. That was pretty impressive for a high school kid. He was well-versed, top-bottom. And I was always trying to coach my brothers from a distance. Like, even though I was five hours away, I was always like watching film and you know trying to help guide them and lead them. And I saw this result that he had wrestled um Cash Stewart at USA Folks out Nationals at the UNIDOM. And you know, you start looking into you know Cash Stewart and start to see that they're my brother and him are probably going to be on a collision course a couple of months down uh down the road. And you know, so you're keeping all of this in mind when I'm making this decision to, you know, and choose to end my college career. Um that was my primary focus of um not giving 100% of myself to the sport as an athlete. And I'm going to take every lesson that I learned as my time as a you know competitor in college at D UM in um South Dakota State, and I'm gonna move back home and try and help out my brothers to the best of their ability. Um so yeah, it just ends up coming together full circle because Cole, Cash, they end up lining up the same weight class, and they end up wrestling in the state finals. And there was a point in the match where it was like third period, there's probably about 50-something seconds left. And a technique that I had learned at South Dakota State from Brady Berge, um, who was the assistant coach as his first year there, he had gone over some leg defense, leg riding defense that I wasn't super familiar with. I understood the pinnacle system of what to do in uh, you know, shallow leg ride, crossbody, etc. But Brady's technique that he had shown was was foreign to me. And bringing that back, showing that to Cole because there was certain positions that you know I had seen Cash do that on film, you know, some you know, a decent amount. And then he's able to utilize one of my experiences from college, you know, to help him accomplish a goal. But it was yeah, it was just a crazy journey with a lot of a lot of emotions, you know, throughout those first five years, you know, post my dad's death. And yeah, it's it it was it was brutal, but I'm thankful for the lessons that I was able to learn through the sport, and I'm thankful for you know the technique and for just the wisdom from the coaches that I had during those years because it's allowed me to help people and it's allowed me to help my family, and it's so it did come together full circle. It wasn't the result I wanted, right? It wasn't you know the career I wanted, but I was able to at least you know take some net positives out of it to help people, so and I know that was all over the place.
SPEAKER_02No, no, it was no, it was perfect. I'm like trying to find the words right now.
SPEAKER_01You you the the the I'm sitting there and I'm going, I still didn't listen to you, and I'm going, I there's there's you know, they always say, hey, don't talk after certain people because then you know, no matter what comes out of your mouth, it's not gonna be good. After what you just said, it's like, man, what do you that was that was good. I mean, it's very well said, very, very heartfelt spoken, and you're right, you're right. Sometimes you don't realize um not anywhere near yours, but similar. My college career, and it was to me D3, so nothing like what you went through. But yeah, I as you were talking, like I I had those same emotions. I read through the fifth year, and it was kind of like I got to that point, I'm going, yeah, you know what? The fire is just not there anymore. And I had to make a decision of, you know, hey, it's time to take the next step in my life. And and yours, yours, yeah. It was you were you tugged at a lot of emotion there as I was listening to you. And so you gotta make tough decisions sometimes.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you know, and everyone gets to that point in their career, right? You know, and uh yeah, everyone's competitive career comes to an end at some point or another, and different times for different people.
SPEAKER_02And yeah, and my thoughts on it, like it's impossible to like put myself in your shoes, especially like 19-year-old you shoe, like whatever age it is, like it's never easy to lose your parent. I would say uh before your 20s, like definitely it not easy and unique for you, hunters, that you had so many younger siblings that were also in their formative years when this happened, so I I could see how like you still you still love the sport of wrestling, but I think you also in the back like you still have family on your mind, like this whole time, and yeah, yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_03You know, and I think like with it too, because my dad was super passionate about sport, like love the sport, and you know, although like you know, my feelings about competing had changed, my like love for the sport and being a student of the sport, that never changed, like competitive feelings changed, but I still loved it, like I loved every aspect of it, and it felt like you know it's an obligation, you know, to help my siblings. Like my dad loved this sport, he was passionate about it, and you know, trying to carry on his legacy and trying to honor him, you know, through helping my siblings, right? Yeah, and uh, but yeah, it's just crazy.
SPEAKER_02And uh, and that's kind of how I mean at that point, well, or in 2021, it's like you end up at like you're helping people out at this juncture.
SPEAKER_03Well, Cole Griffin, you know, and it's just like just thinking about that time period where it's my mom was 41 when my dad died, so like she was young, and you got five kids. Like, yeah, I'm 19, I'm the oldest. My youngest brother's five, you know, like you gotta be a really, really tough person to be able to, you know, survive being a widow. Like, there's a lot that a lot that goes into it, and she still absolutely gave us, you know, everything. And she was able to uh make sure everyone is was able to train, had opportunities to compete. And my sister, she essentially became like a second mom. She was 16 years old driving Cole, driving Griffin to Pinnacle, making sure they were getting to their practices, and it was all hands on deck. And you do the best you can.
SPEAKER_02I know uh I know the results speak for themselves, and especially uh the program that he built, and your words like well, we've talked about them tonight. You know, we've gotten a good glimpse, but that's a a big question for you, Hunter. You can answer this as much in length as you want, but do you do you care to share your dad's legacy for you and your family and the wrestling communities that he touched?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I you know, comparing it to when you're talking about that movie and just talking about the impact that you can have through coaching and through teaching. You know, I think one of the things that stood out to me after he had passed away, I remember just the sheer amount of people that had, you know, come to the wake just to you know pay their respects. And after a certain point, they actually stopped, you know, counting how many people had you know come come through the high school gymnasium. You know, and I think just his legacy, you know, he was a really kind person, he was he was loving, hardworking, he was humble, but also extremely intense about the things that he loved. And you know, not being his family, hunting, wrestling, that those were his priorities in life, and I'm extremely grateful, you know, just have a a great father figure who set set this stage in 19 years for me to be able to try and help, you know, guide and lead, you know, my siblings in wrestling. Um, because I can never replace the father figure role, but you know, at least gave me the tools to help lead my siblings through the sport. Um but yeah, I mean, just uh incredible person, and I I wish everyone could meet them, right? You know, I think everyone's feels similarly about about their dads. You know, they're they're the man, right? They're they're the best, and you know, super, super thankful for him and just the opportunities that he gave me. And yeah, incredible person.
SPEAKER_02Beautiful. I yeah, man, I can't follow I I I thank you for doing that. I know that wasn't an easy ask, but like I uh I like I remember being on the forum when like I saw the news that it happened, and I just knew like, well, I knew about you, like Amory had very much been put on the map at that point because of your dad. And uh I I just know like I saw all the comments playing like okay, like this guy, obviously a good coach, had to be a good dude, and getting to know, like having Cole on the show and getting to follow Griff's career and interactions with you, and especially tonight, like yeah, man, meeting meeting your dad, that'd be uh, you know, someday it'll happen, you know. I'll be uh hopefully we're in the same spot. But yes, I I very much love and spend a lot of chat with Mr. Scott Marco.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely, you know, and it just uh yeah, like obviously he had, you know, built his our family, like built our life like in a Right, you know, that was where they had spent so much time giving back so much to that to that program. And um, you know, and then just hearing about uh you know, just the conversations that like my dad and Dan Clark had, who was his best friend. And for some reason, they actually had this conversation not too long, like before he like passed away, but it was like, you know, if something ever happened to me, like the only place I'd want my kids to wrestle would, you know, would be under you at Sankaray Falls. And you you find out about this, you know, after you know he passes away, and it's like, yeah, it's a no-brainer. Like you're you gotta make the switch. And uh, you know, Dan's been so good to my my family and my brothers, and you know, he's he's played a huge role um in our lives. And it all worked out, and I'm thankful though. Just thankful.
SPEAKER_02Was was Dan the what was the connection with St. Croix Falls? So your dad and Dan were best friends. What was uh your dad's connection with St. Croix Falls before coaching with Amory?
SPEAKER_03He grew up here, yeah. That's right. He was oh, okay. Well, I probably should have and then yeah, so he grew up here. Um you know, wrestled wrestled at St. Croix best friends with Dan, and Dan's actually my godfather as well. So it was you hear about you hear about that conversation, and you know, you talk to some important people in your life, and it's like it's a no-brainer, like this this is what fuzzy would want, this is where you go, and uh, you know, you you you trust in that and they're you you trust it, you trust, trust it.
SPEAKER_02Do you feel like you get a lot of your coaching philosophies from him then? I mean the coaching life, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you know, I think just how I how I approach wrestling, like a lot of it is you know, it's based upon you know the fundamentals and just the philosophy and the overall like intensity. Um yeah, that's that's from my dad. And then, you know, from a technical standpoint, it's like you know, Brandon and Jarrett are some of the best clinicians in the world. And uh luckily I get the opportunity to like coach at Pinnacle part-time, so you just try to absorb as much information as you can. And you look at um like Damian Hahn, Cam Simas, Chris Stardines, uh, Cody Coldwell. Like you, I was able to be around some of the best wrestling minds and learn from some of the best athletes, you know, the sport has had. And you take, you know, my dad's philosophy, which you know has changed over time, it's changed just with maturity and just overall approach to life and understanding that life is bigger than wrestling. So you try to tone it down, right? But it's like the perfect combination to you know, try and help kids to the best of your ability. And yeah, it's coaching's awesome. It's it's a super rewarding and fulfilling thing to do. And you know, honestly, like I'd recommend it and encourage other people to do it, like even just on a part-time basis, like just go go help some kids, spend some time with them, and give back to a sport that you know it it gives each one of us, you know, far more than what we deserve, right? And it's lessons and opportunities that sh shape you and your your future.
SPEAKER_02I I take you as a big process guy, Hunter. Like I'm guessing you're now more about the process than the end result.
SPEAKER_03Like yeah, well, and like when you're comp like when you're competing, right? Like everything's about wins and losses. Like it's like my self-worth is in the wins and losses, right? And then you get and it's hard, right? Because it's like like college, right? You're going through a challenging time, you're wrestling good guys, you're getting beat, and it's like it's easy to get down on yourself, but then you start to mature a little bit, and you understand, like, hey, like, yeah, everyone, everyone's gonna take a loss here and there, you know, it's it's gonna happen, but trying to keep like your emotions in check, you figure that out once you start maturing. And it's like, God, I wish you know younger athletes would understand that. Like, just because you lost, like, you can bounce back, you can recover. It's not it's not the end of the end of the world. Um, and like as far as like process, though, like with my dad, everything was a system, everything was systematic, the way we drilled, and you start you start basic and you just continue to build over time, over time, over time. And you you develop an inventory of technique that you know becomes muscle memory just after so much repetition. But yeah, systems are everything.
SPEAKER_02So so that being said, you you you being the few fierce competitor you were, like absolutely hated losing, and then going through uh the experience you did and maturing and what which props to you because there's some people that uh sometimes they they don't totally close the yearbook or they go into coaching and they don't grow up and it's uh it can create a vicious cycle. But for you, Dr. Marco, having gone through the experience and learning, uh oh, it's it it is more about the process and wins and losses and everything. Uh how has that helped you with your coaching with kids? Like, are you able to tell kids like, hey, I really hated losing, but like this is the reality of it? Or how do you go about it?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you know, I think um just trying to help kids remain even keel, right? Not letting the highs be too high and the lows be too low, and trying to help them navigate through that, you know, in any way that any way that you can. Um, and really I think it just having a calm demeanor, like being a coach, like not getting too riled up if calls don't go your way, just staying even keel and mellow throughout all of it. Like you sure you can have like a internal like intensity, but it's important to have some level of mellowness when you're trying to help these kids. Because they they also look to you as well to see what your emotions are doing, you know, in the lead up to match and what your what your facial um emotions are during a match. They they feel that and you know it can either positively or negatively affect them. And you know, like touching on like you know, coaches where they might still be trapped in the competition mindset where you know it's about me. When you make that shift in coaching, it's it's all about the kids, it everything's about the kids, and the kids deserve all the credit, and you want to help them accomplish their goals and at least try and help them develop a love for the sport because when you're done, you understand how much it gives you. It gives you so much, and trying to produce a love for the sport to other kids that you coach, they're gonna get a lot of rewards from it outside of the accolades. They're far more lasting than dust collectors. Good point. I like that. Dust collectors, yeah. I mean, like they're just sitting in a sitting in a storage bin or they're collecting dust in a you know closet in your house or the garage.
SPEAKER_02Oh Hunter, you're you're part-time at Pinnacle. You're uh you're helping out the Rager system at SCF. What's uh what's your vision for the future in the wrestling world?
SPEAKER_03Um, you know, as far as in the wrestling world, um, you know, I'll help out Joe, Dustin, Katie in any capacity that they want me to. Um happy to continue to help. Xander's gonna be a freshman, so he will be locked in for another four years, which means I'm locked in for another four years. So I'm committed to helping the program out and Xander in any way, shape, or form that I can. I think long term, though, at a certain point, I'll probably take a step back from coaching just because of you know my career and uh future future goals of mine, at least professionally. So that's the plan for right now. And like in my capacity coaching right now, typically, you know, you help out in the fall and within the parameters that are allowed, help out in the spring, do some freestyle training within the parameters that are allowed with the rule set you're given. And in the summer, I typically try to take some time off because it's so much time like with my siblings, where it's good for them to have outside people coaching and helping them. So it's it's it's a nice, it's a nice little balance.
SPEAKER_02Oh my life.
SPEAKER_03Well, let me tell you though, sitting sitting in your brother's corner, I I understand like I I understand why dads get so like emotionally invested, like that they feel they're trying to wrestle the match with them, the heart rate's pumping, you're sweating, you feel the stress, it's you have so much love for them, and you you want to see them succeed so bad that it that it hurts. But it was a super interesting uh experience coaching Griffin, uh his senior year. Um it was super fun, it was definitely challenging at times, but just being able to spend more time with him and bonding with him through the sport, that's what it's all about. And those are the memories you carry with you.
SPEAKER_02I was I was really happy for Griff, and like again, like he's gonna turn out to be a great kid no matter what his accolades were. But like you guys getting your four state titles and for Griff to go out with the team title, like there was something very gratifying about that.
SPEAKER_03Oh, 100%, you know, and like he's he's a phenomenal person. He's he's he's great and absolutely love him to death. One of the big things my parents talked about were each kid's different, every kid's different, but the most important thing is like whatever you're doing, you try to be the best at it. You find your lane and you try to exhaust all the God-given abilities you've been given, you know, to the fullest extent. Could be you're a good carpenter, it could be you're you're great at being an outdoors, outdoorsman or athlete, but you find your lane and you try to maximize the talents that you've been given. So just one of the thoughts I had about Griff when sometimes comparisons can be made, you know. And there's a lot of pressure that comes with it. There's a lot of there's a lot of uh expectations, and that's that's hard for high school kids to navigate through them. So you try to keep it grounded and just talk about you know just be great, be great, have fun, love the fight, score points, and see how far it takes. Say that again.
SPEAKER_02And and we and we can all we all live in comfort knowing that no one holds a candle to them in the family to uh the gridiron talent.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say he was pretty uh pretty tough on the football field.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, he was a savage. But what I said was so Brandon Pulse and his big thing is love the fight. So there was always three words that he would recommend or you know, encourage kids to try and tell themselves before they'd wrestle to kind of ground them from the nerves that they were feeling. And for me, it was have fun, love the fight, score points. And it brings you, it sets you back to reality in a place where you don't have distractions and you're able to think clearly.
SPEAKER_02And my last question for you, Hunter, and I feel like this was definitely answered at some juncture during the show, but succinctly, if you could go back, well, there's two ways to look at this question. If you could give advice to younger wrestlers, what would it be? Or if you could go back to a younger hunter Marco in the wrestling world, what advice would you give them?
SPEAKER_01I and and to be honest, and I I can't wait to hear your answer, but I think you've answered it numerous times throughout the show and just telling your story. So, but uh, I'm excited to hear this.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think you just advise to to younger kids. I I think be great, that would be the one thing. Be great in what you're doing. If that's wrestling, fantastic. If it's you know playing football, but be be great in it and pursue it relentlessly because at the end of the day, when your career is done athletically, you can at least take peace, regardless of how it ends, with the effort that you've put in, knowing that you've used and exhausted all the abilities you've been given. Um, you'll never have a regret. You'll be able to take peace in that, and there won't be any would have, should've, could've's or regrets. So be great. Uh that would be one of them. Probably focus more so on development as a as a wrestler, focus more so on development rather than rather than cutting weight. It over the course of time, uh you're gonna hold up a little bit better, uh, at least in my opinion, and just from seeing examples and just other athletes. Uh last thing, probably don't start competing super early. I uh everyone's gonna have a different opinion on it. But for me, I feel like if you look at some of the best people in the sport, they're at extremely high level for like 10 years. Like they can compete at an extremely high level for 10 years, and then after 10 years, you know, there's a decline, a little bit of a decline, right? And of course, you're going to have the outliers that have won everything and competed everywhere since a young age. But I think that would be one of my pieces of advice is postpone, postpone competing and you know, just focus on training and development, you know, in the practice room and try and reduce the the load management. So those are those are my three things. I like it.
SPEAKER_02And I'm sure the advice to your younger self would be hey, in a few years you're gonna be at a family Thanksgiving, and there's gonna be 10 pounds of Christmas tree bark in a freezer downstairs. Do not eat the tree.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it'll be it'll be interesting. Like, obviously, we want to have kids one day, and you know, having having a son trying to guide them through the sport where it's like you kind of have to I I can only imagine, but it trial and error, right? They gotta learn by consequences sometimes. But you could listen to some wiser, more mature people and not be a stubborn 16, 17-year-old kid.
SPEAKER_02So uh Hunter, I I honestly don't have a lot of words right now because like I feel like I need after this is done, I need to unpack and then on my drive to Eau Claire tomorrow, probably listen to this again because you have hit me with a lot of uh life knowledge and stories tonight, and it was uh it's been a ride, man. I just want to thank you for like sharing everything you did, and uh yeah, it's been it's an honor having you on the show for one, but yeah, for you to share and like it's I I hope a lot of people listen to this because I think everyone that does is gonna benefit from it in some way, shape, or form and be better for it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely. Well, I appreciate you guys giving me the opportunity, and it was fun to reflect and also you know, share share my dad's story and our family's story. And I thank you guys again. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02And it's always fun to talk old old battle stories on the bed.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, you know, it's got yeah, because you run into those guys where you you can't move on after a certain point, like you're still suck, stuck in that time period of your life, and I every chapter of your life is gonna have different different meanings and there's gonna be different highlights, but you always just hope that the next chapter is the best one, right? That's that's the next chapter is the best one, and you know, just continue to pursue greatness and joy and love.
SPEAKER_02Steve, oh, you got anything before we ran? We'll talk more after the show for a second, Hunter. But yeah, yeah, we'll jump on.
SPEAKER_01I I just I found I found myself sitting and listening, and it's just uh you've I I think I think you were um I don't want to say forced to mature because uh but you were you were put in position where you had you were you were forced to take on things that most men of your age aren't, and you can definitely tell that is uh um I'm I'm listening to your wisdom at uh 30 early 30s, and it's it's uh the level of that that some men never get, right? But I mean I think with with with experiences and time comes a lot of wisdom that I hope people listen to, and you have it. Um you've had a lot compacted in your early your early life, and I think you you you have a lot to provide. Young people and and people, older people, right? I mean it's uh it's just a joy to listen to you, but yeah. Well, I I appreciate it. And God, do I look like I'm 30? I'm only 28, Steve. Oh, well, I said early 30s. I apologize. I didn't mean that by any means. I was uh I did the math once. Oh, are you early 30s or no?
SPEAKER_02No, because he's I'm I'm 31 and he's three years younger mess with you.
SPEAKER_01No, you want to know what I did then, you know. I here's Hunter, I didn't mean you look at it all. Uh I did math in my head before, and I went, oh gosh, is that right? Is he is he 31? And that just means I can't do math. But I will tell you this I teach special ed math, so that's uh I I don't have to get the answers right all the time.
unknownOh my god.
SPEAKER_01That's so terrible, but it really is fellas. My students understand me.
SPEAKER_02I love it. See you can tell you that I can't make the joke. You can make the joke.
SPEAKER_01Hey, listen, I just make it relevant.
SPEAKER_02That's all. Uh all right. Hey, two hours you you have joined Joe Ragger in the two-hour plus club. So Cole ran at 52. Got a little long-winded for anyone wondering.
SPEAKER_03Cole Cole was 52.
SPEAKER_02Quick hitter on that one. Yep.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, in and out, all business.
SPEAKER_02Well, ladies and gentlemen, I know uh Taylor Whiting is out of Dodge right now. So I know for sure our next episode next week, we are doing the sectional preview random drama because we are three weeks out from sectional preview season, and it is rip roaring fun for the next seven months after that. So stay tuned in, see where your sectionals is at. And uh, I know you enjoyed the show. Hopefully, enjoy the next one as well. Until next time, we'll catch you on the flip two.