Inductees laud wrestling tradition

Creston wrestling’s past and present came together Saturday as longtime coach Darrell Frain was inducted into the Creston Wrestling Hall of Fame, and his successor Cody Downing gave a recap of a successful 2022-23 season along with a glimpse at what’s ahead this winter.

Frain was among the new inductees in the Hall of Fame, joined by Kim Kirkman, the Willets brothers (Larry, Rod, Jerry and Ted) and longtime Creston News Advertiser sportswriter Larry Peterson.

Frain shared a story on how the concept of creating the Hall of Fame came about nearly a decade ago. A similar Hall of Fame had been created at his hometown school where he now coaches and is athletic director, Riverside of Oakland. He worked with local wrestling figures such as Dennis Leith, Chuck Hulett, John Shiltz, John Walters and Dannie Stephens to create the first class of inductees seven years ago, usually on the brink of a new season in late fall.

“We wanted Creston wrestling to come together and celebrate, and we’re doing a good job of that,” Frain told the gathering at Creston Eagles Club. “I developed so many friendships in the Creston wrestling community. I want to thank you for inducting me. I wanted to make sure Creston wrestling became a team sport, trying to get to state duals every year. Creston has always had stud wrestlers do great things as individuals, but it became a community atmosphere. I have been watching from afar since I left and coach (Cody) Downing has done a great job.”

While there were many highlights including wrestlers with multiple state titles during his time — Andrew Hayes (two), Chase Shiltz (three), Andrew Long (three), Kalab Evans (two) and Jake Marlin (four) — and state team titles in 2007 and 2016, Frain said other things impacted his perspective as a coach.

He said the death of wrestler Dalton Hribal in an auto accident and the near-death of wrestler Tayler Pettit at the 2015 state dual tournament from a heart condition, had huge impacts on his outlook as a teacher and coach.

“Suddenly I realized wrestling wasn’t the most important thing in life,” Frain said.

He also thanked former student and current Creston assistant coach Tanner Webb for introducing him Saturday, because Tanner had a big impact on his state of mind toward education when he joined his classroom as a freshman.

“Coach Frain impacted my life in a lot of ways,” Webb said. “His teams had 320 victories and 70 losses. He showed that if you can get a group of people to buy into a common goal, great things can happen. One thing I always admired about his team, it didn’t always matter where we were at the beginning of the year but you knew by the end of the year we were going to be in the right spot.”

Frain noted a lot of big Creston wins in regular season tournaments or the state tournament came in big third-period performances. He said the 2016 championship team had a number of upset wins secured in the final seconds, and that 2004 state champ Daniel Scarberry rallied from behind in every one of his state meet matches.

“We sold the kids on the idea that when you have that C on your chest, different things happen,” Frain said.

Frain’s mindset was in transition during his first year away from Creston, he noted, in relating a story about a Riverside football game that season.

“The other team fumbled, the ref is pointing and I’m jumping up and down yelling, ‘CRESTON’S BALL! CRESTON’S BALL!’ I was the coach at Riverside,” he said, smiling.

Willets brothers

John Walters, a wrestler for Creston in the late 1970s including a state runner-up finisher, introduced the Willets brothers for their induction. He said all four were involved in the early years of the sport here, with at least one brother on every team of the 1960s after the program began in 1961. Rod stayed involved in the sport as a coach as well as a football coach at Bedford for many years.

“I want to thank everyone. This is a real honor,” Rod said after the presentation.

Kim Kirkman

Walters and Danny Hayes, both just a little younger than 1972 graduate Kim Kirkman, both spoke of Kirkman’s technical knowledge of the sport gained from attending many camps and wrestling under legendary Panther coach Jerome Hruska of Cresco.

Hayes shared the story of joining Kirkman at the Great Lakes Camp at Okoboji.

“In the summer of 1971 he talked me into going to a camp with him,” Hayes said. “On the second day one of the counselors had to leave for a family emergency. All the counselors got together and had a meeting and they decided to pick out a student athlete there to be a counselor. They picked Kim Kirkman. He was going into his senior year. The director of that camp was Dan Gable.”

Kirkman, now residing in Overland Park, Kansas, said he has been thrilled to see the growth of wrestling in Creston since his high school years.

“It’s great that Creston has become such a wrestling town,” Kirkman said. “It wasn’t like that when I was in school. I was doing all I could to help ring up the young guys and get the sport going. It’s been great to see it taken to such a high level. You should be very proud.”

Larry Peterson

Walters, the Panther head coach when Larry Peterson began working at the News Advertiser, introduced the sportswriter who retired in 2020. He continues to write part-time for the paper on freelance assignments.

“We got kind of spoiled in Creston because Larry always had all the bouts in the papers, with the scores of the matches and the times of the pins,” Walters said. “Everybody knew what happened, even if they couldn’t go to the meet. As someone who likes to keep track of history, that was important.”

Peterson shared stories of his times covering great accomplishments of Creston wrestling and the help provided during those times from head coaches Rich Downing, Frain and Walters.

Current team

Downing recapped a stellar season that included a fourth straight Hawkeye Ten Conference dual title, the third Hawkeye Ten Tournament championship in four years, third straight title at the John J Harris Invitational in Corning, district championship and the 15th state dual tournament appearance (fifth place) with a 22-2 record.

The team had eight state qualifiers including Austin Evans, seventh at 138 pounds, and Christian Ahrens, eighth at 120 pounds. Those two return this season along with three other state qualifiers.

The senior class included Owen and Carter Henderson, Trey Chesnut, Kaden Street, Chris Aragon and manager Jenna Busch. Those six, along with former manager Kate Foglesong, were recipients of scholarships awarded by the committee to those seeking postgraduate education or training after four years involvement in the wrestling program.

Downing noted that Maggie Arnold takes over as head coach of the girls wrestling program that has a turnout of 20 high school wrestlers and 20 in middle school. He said there were 85 kids in the Express youth club last year.

Downing said 35 wrestlers have indicated interest in being on the boys varsity team this year. He said multi-sport athletes have been big contributors to the program and the sports work with each other.

“Expectations for our wrestling team are high and they should be,” Downing said. “We know there’s a target on our back. But right now, let’s win a damn state football title! We’ll worry about wrestling later.”