Tiger grapplers have promising season ahead

Nevada High School head wrestling coach Kevin Huck demonstrates how to execute a fireman's carry on Mason Heard. Huck told his wrestlers that this is his favorite technique. [Click to enlarge]

Nevada Herald

Watching Nevada High School wrestling coach Kevin Huck during practice, it's almost easy to lose him among the Tiger grapplers as they drill and work on moves. Still showing some of the physique that made him a lightweight wrestler in high school and college, it might be hard to tell who the coach is and who the athletes are. If not for a full beard, you might never be able to pick him out of the group he's leading.

For an observer, any confusion would only last moments. As Huck moves from one portion of practice to the next, his presence is commanding. When he calls the wrestlers to attention, pulling them into a circle to demonstrate the next move, all of the grapplers come to. Roughly 30 of them, the crowd of mostly underclassmen sit in silence as Huck demonstrates proper technique.

The teaching session usually lasts a couple of minutes, then the wrestlers each team up with someone of similar size and they each practice the move repeatedly, taking turns until Huck moves on to the next portion of practice.

"It's a real organized practice," Nevada's lone senior wrestler, Keith Overton, said. "We start at the same time every day. We get out about the same time every day. You know what to expect." "I try to structure the practice so that they don't sit around," Huck said. "Drilling is the most important part of wrestling." The Tigers do plenty of drilling. Practicing techniques on another wrestler, practicing techniques on their own. The athletes spend most of their practice time going from one drill to another.

"You want them to be able to feel it naturally when they're in live matches," Huck explains. The coach knows the importance of making moves so familiar to each wrestler that they come second nature. The two seconds it takes to decide what to do, as opposed to just reacting, often means the difference in a win and a loss when two wrestlers of similar talent and strength get together.

Huck knows the difference as well as anyone. He placed third in the state as a senior at East High School in Des Moines, Iowa. That finish was enough to land him in on the Central Iowa wrestling squad before he concluded his career at Wisconsin-La Crosse his final year in college.

After that it was into the coaching ranks. Huck worked as an assistant at Nevada for two years before taking over as the head coach in 2000. Huck led the Tigers for only a year before moving to Kansas where he coached for three more seasons. Last year Huck taught at Rich Hill, not involved on the mat. When the Nevada wrestling job came open last spring it was Huck immediately clamoring for another shot to lead the Tigers. He took over in the spring, leading Nevada's core group of wrestlers through the summer as they participated in camps and tried to stay in condition.

The move back to Nevada was an easy one for the coach.

"We're all happy to be back," Huck said. When he says "we're all," he's referring to his family. His wife currently works as a nurse at Christian Health Care Center. His one son and three daughters are currently attending local schools with the youngest in pre-school and the oldest a sixth-grader at Nevada Middle School.

Teaching third grade at Truman Elementary, Huck acknowledges the differences in working with younger kids in a light environment, then going on after school to work with the older kids in a habitat bred for aggression.

"It's a little bit of an adjustment," Huck admits. "I think one thing that really helps me out is some of the high schoolers I remember from the youth club (five years ago)." Huck had praise for the youth he works with in practice.

"What I like about this group of kids is they're the most coachable kids I've come across," he said. "You have a lot to work with then." Huck has a lot to work with, with three wrestlers returning that carry state tournament experience. He also has a group of sophomores that come into 2005-'06 with varsity matches under their belt.

Huck says the upcoming season could be a good one.

"I think I know where we stand right now," he said. "I think we'll surprise some people."

The Tigers begin the season Monday when they host Butler. That's when the surprises can begin.