Somewhere out there, someone is even tougher

There is a truism about wrestling that came up often while interviewing members of the 2008 Flathead Brave Brawlers, and Suny Cheff put it as well as anyone.

“You might be really good. but just wait,” Cheff, an assistant on that first great run of Flathead teams, said. “You’re going to run into somebody who’s going to stick you.”

The key then is to get enough of those somebodies that you come out ahead in the end. That’s what Flathead’s wrestling teams did in 2004, 2006-10 and 2017-18.

The 2008 team stands out not just for its talent, depth and record-setting point totals, but miles spent on the road. And not just that season: In 2006 they traveled to “The Clash,” the national invitational duals tournament held in Apple Valley, Minn.

Flathead finished eighth, but got an education.

“Brian Ham wrestled a seventh-grader,” remembered Tyson Decker, who went by TC in his Flathead days. “He looked like he was 10 years old.”

His name was Destin McCauley, and he went on to win a Division II national title for Nebraska-Kearney. I looked him up and even in college, that guy had a baby face.

It didn’t matter. On his way to five state titles (he wrestled for a sixth in Minnesota, where junior high athletes can compete at the high school level) McCauley handled Ham, a sophomore destined to win two titles in Montana.

“We were dumbfounded,” Decker said. “There’s always someone.”

Among the seniors on that 2008 team Decker had the distinction of getting his state title out of the way early – he won at 105 pounds as a freshman, and Thompson believes it’s the first such title in Flathead’s history.

From there Decker had a tougher road, including that infamous trip to Gillette. He was leading a stout Camels’ wrestler named Tyler Juby when things got dark.

“He kept trying to throw me and ended up on his back, twice,” Decker said. The match was getting lopsided when, apparently, a throw worked: Decker got knocked cold and came out of the match with a clavicle injury.

“That kid was tough,” Flathead coach Jeff Thompson said of Zuby, and then remembered how the hometown crowd reacted. “We almost had to do double take. It was packed. People were almost right on the mat. And they were drinking beer.”

Decker recovered and ended up third at 135 pounds at the 2008 State AA tournament not quite two months later. Thompson counts Decker among his “Fab Five,” along with Ham, Tyler Wells, David Lau and Luke Fischer.

“Five outstanding wrestlers all the way through the ranks,” Thompson said. “They lived and breathed it and were just extremely tight-knit.”

Without them who knows how things might have gone – three titles in four years turned into five out of six.

To get a different viewpoint I called up a relative of mine, Donnie Widdicombe, who lost to Lau in the 160 finals that season.

“I think what made them great was they were a tight-knit group that had a really good coach,” Widdicombe said. “It was kind of an intimidating force. Whether it was David or the JV kid, it was going to be a tough match.

“For a lot of us that were outside looking in, there was envy. At the same time I didn’t know if I wanted to be in that room because they worked harder than anybody – besides maybe (State A power) Sidney.”

Thompson is a master motivator and recruiter. He had a list of 47 wrestlers for the 2008 article that ran this past Sunday. In 2004, before Flathead won a landmark title, he brought in Dan Paschke to address the team. Paschke coached Flathead’s only previous state championship team, in 1973. And so the run began.

Clearly Thompson would like to see another run to match the 2004-10 Brawlers, who had the hunger to not just put in the work, but the miles.

Because somewhere out there, there’s always someone.

Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 406-546-1122. His email is fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com