As often times wrestlers do, I gauge the remainder of my season by the number of weigh-ins I have left. I have 3 weigh-ins left in my competitive wrestling career, which means we are down to regionals and nationals. It is funny how time can seem so long and so short at the same time. After our duals on Friday, I went back to Lincoln with my mom and we went to State wrestling to watch my Dad's team wrestle. Thinking back to my high school days it seems like it was ages ago that I wrestled in the State tournament, but when I think about the fact that I am a senior in college nearing the end of my wrestling career it seems just like yesterday that I was deciding what college I wanted to attend and visiting my best bud Jeff (a year older than me) at UNK. There were times during my college career that I thought it would never end, now that I am staring my last two tournaments in the face I realize how quickly it went. People always tell you to enjoy your time in college because you will be surprised at how fast it goes, well I couldn't really fully grasp that until now. I am excited for the next phase of my life wherever God takes me, and I am excited to move into perhaps more of a coaching, rather than competing, role in my life, but I know that I will miss so many things from college.

We wrestled our last home duals this last Friday; we won both against Fort Hayes State University and Augustana South Dakota. I went 1-1, it was crazy to think that this was my last time jogging out hearing our announcer yell "welcome your UNK Lopers!" for a home dual. It was not our last home competition because we host the regional tournament next weekend. Regionals and Nationals are always crazy, anything can happen at these tournaments. This is always a nerve racking time of the year and I am a little nervous going into regionals because this is the time that I want to perform my best; but I listened to a sermon this weekend that put things in very good perspective. The pastor was talking about worry and he said that there are basically two reasons why a person worries; to summarize, he basically said, either 1. You don't have a proper view of God and his power, or 2. You don't properly trust that God knows what is best for you. This helps me a lot going into regionals and nationals, all I have to do is wrestle my hardest and let God take care of the rest. Whatever happens I know that I get to enjoy the next three weeks with my teammates and glorify God with a few more wrestling matches.

It's a dangerous business, going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.

-Bilbo Baggins of the Shire-

Keenan      

                                  DCom and The Desperado

When I was a little bit younger I remember telling my little sister Bobbi that she should pretty much do what I said because she needed to "respect her elders." Well my sister would respond by letting me know that you also need to respect your youngers as well. I have come to find out over the years that she was a lot more accurate than I first thought with that statement. I have really seen that in a big way this year with some of the guys in our freshman class.

We wrestled Adams State College this past Thursday, it was a good dual because Adams is always tough and they are another RMAC school.  We ended up winning 29-17, it was a big help that three of our guys got pins. After the dual we had the weekend off, so a few of the freshman and I decided to help out a few of our teammates with their Valentines dates (of course we could have had dates but, apparently all the ladies were playing the hard to get card with us this year, the extremely hard to get card;). So we hosted dinner at our house, turning dining room into a famous Italian retaurant (modeled slightly after Rocky's restaurant "Adrians"), and we served up some pasta, homade pizza, chicken, and of course cheese cake that I didn't make right so it kinda just flopped on the plate (it tasted ok). I had a blast goofing around with those guys.

I have learned so much this year from many of the freshman on the team. I will highlight just two for lack of space and time, but there are quite a few that have impressed me this year. The Drews (Drew E and my Cousin Drew C.) have taught me so much this year. You will be hard pressed to find two guys who enjoy life more than these two. The awesome thing, that has really impressed me is that they enjoy it through Christ. Drew E aka "The Desperado" doesn't really care too much what others think about him or what he does (he sported the worst and sweetest comb-over I have ever seen on the state medal stand), yes at times this has probably gotten him into some trouble, but what he really cares about is loving God and showing that love to others. This has had a very big impact on me. He also shares my affinity for Lord of the Rings, and showed me how to make Knoephle Soup (mmmm).

Drew C. aka DCom (my cousin) is one of the hardest working guys you will ever meet. He never complains, never brags, and always gives it his all (thanks for getting my butt in gear at the beginning of practice Drew). I know that Drew's work ethic and demeanor come from his faith. I can just see it in the way he carries himself that he just wants to please God. This has had a huge impact on me. Drew also shares my love for good food and the show HEROES. I have always wanted a little brother, to be able to "show him the ropes" so to speak, and when Drew decided to come to UNK I was so excited; what I didn't realize is how much I would learn from him. The interesting thing about the two Drews is that I have known both of them most of my life, but I feel like I have been opened up to a whole new side of them now that I am living and wrestling with them. I respect my little sister a lot and she has taught me more than she knows over the years, so I hope that I never forget to respect my youngers. Once again as I write this I am amazed with the kind of people God has used in my life.

Keenan

"You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin, to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours, closer than you keep it yourself. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word."

-Meriadoc Brandybuck to Frodo Baggins-

                                                                                      "Reason # 15"

We just got back from our longest road trip of the year, the dreaded Colorado Trip, in which we tour through three different cities in Colorado over a period of four days. We wrestled Colorado School of Mines, Western State, and Mesa State. We spent approximately 24 hrs on a charter bus, and stayed in three different hotels (one of which I accidentally donated a Loper wrestling sweatshirt to). This is the kind of trip that brings tears of joy to your eyes when you see the sign that says exit 272 Kearney 1 mile ahead. It is an interesting thing because it is a rough trip, but I know that come next February it will be this valuable time with my teammates that I will miss as I reflect back on my wrestling career. My older sister really brought this to my attention when she wrote me a note right before we were about to leave for the trip. It went a little something like this "Keenski... I know you have a tough week ahead of you. I just wanted to encourage you. Even though parts of it will be miserable, there will be days in the future when you'll actually wish you could go on a 20+ hour team road trip in a broken down buggie with your teammates. Love you. I hope you have a great weekend, and God blesses the time you have to spend with your teammates!" My sister played volleyball for UNK so she knows a thing or two about road trips. This was really encouraging to me, and made me realize that I am going to miss all the great times with my teammates regardless of whether or not we were crammed inside a hot or cold (and definitely stinky) bus for hours on end. This is what inspired the "Top 29 reasons to be a college wrestler list" that my fellow senior Paul and I came up with on the trip back. Here they are in no particular order:

 

29. Stadium seating your couches 3 high!

28. Pushup contests to see who washes more dishes

27. Hours upon hours of Mafia (passes bus time well)

26. Pro and Sumo wrestling matches

25. Homemade bows and arrows (for a poster picture and personal image)

24. LOST and HEROES marathons

23. Nerf gun wars

22. Living Room Wrestling (submissions and furniture rules)

21. Daylight Doughnuts at 2 in the morning

20. Calf Brandings

19. Christmas Trees that don't fit in your house

18. April Fools Jokes (toothpaste Oreos, putting a friend's furniture in his bathroom, the phantom toilet sprayer, and of course hiding inside the locker)

17. Living with an Iguana, Sugar Gliders, Degus, Fish, and a dog (mostly at different times of course)

16. Learning how to ride a Unicycle

15. Various Halloween costumes (including Batman and Robin, and The Volleyball Team at the volleyball games)

14. Barbeques and Chocolate Malts (Mostly Post-Season)

13. Sticking a 25 lb. Plate in your roommate's bed

12. All-nighters in the computer lab with twizzlers and coffee to get the old paper done

11. Seeing who can ride their bike with no hands for the longest

10. Having your sewage back up in your tub (and bailing it out with a soup bucket)

9. Hanging the first ever indoor hammock (above the triple stack)

8. Prank calling my mom with the alias Jim Shorts

7. Foosball and racquetball tournaments

6. Brunch at Jeff's wife, Hannah's house

5. Flattops, bowl-cuts, and buzz-hawks

4. Inventing new types of food (the Dion Burger and the Sutt-Muffin)

3. Working the speed bag in the the scary basement

2. Movie nights

1. Bible Study

 

I am sure that my teammates would have plenty more to add but these are just a few of

the reasons I will miss college wrestling.

 

I guess it is kind of like when Eomer says, "These are indeed strange days. Dreams and legends spring to life out of the grass."

 

Keenan

 

 

  

This is a picture of my dog Strider (named after Aragorn son of Arathorn II, heir of Isildur) and I; my sister Brett knitted the hats.

 

This weekend after our dual with Nebraska Omaha the team came to my house in Lincoln and watched UFC 94 St. Pierre vs. Penn. Which turned out to be the second biggest attraction next to the chili that my Mom cooked for us (it seems to have become the post match food of the year). The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championships) is very popular amongst wrestlers because wrestling is a huge part of it and just because we like any type of one on one competition that involves grappling. Georges St. Pierre (GSP) is one of my favorite fighters and he had probably the biggest challenge of his career in defending his title belt against B.J. Penn the champ in the weight division below him. If you haven't heard yet GSP dominated and solidified himself as one of the best pound for pound fighters ever. I like watching GSP fight because he is so entertaining, but the real reason that he is one of my favorite fighters is because of his attitude towards fighting. I was watching a pre-fight interview, and one thing that I found really interesting was St. Pierre's reason for fighting. He said that he fights for himself, because he loves the sport and he has a desire to compete. I found this really interesting because it is very different from a lot of the reasons that other fighters give i.e. for the fans, or the adrenaline rush, or the money.

 

I guess my reasons for wrestling are a little different but I respect GSP's honesty and humility. I would say that I wrestle for God's glory and for my teammates, or at least this is what I want to wrestler for. I will definitely admit that I sometimes wrestle for selfish reasons, reasons that I am not proud of, sometimes I wrestle because I want people to recognize me or think that I am somebody because of what I have accomplished on the wrestling mat. When I step back and think about what I really value in life I realize that these are not the reasons I should be wrestling. God, family, and friends are the things that are most important to me, or at least the things that I try to make most important to me, and so this is why I wrestle. I believe God has placed me where I am for a reason and blessed me with some awesome people for a reason; and this is why I wrestle, so that win or lose, God will be glorified in my effort and attitude. Now as basically everything in my life is, it is definitely a work in progress, something I know I will never have perfected but something I always need to work on.

 

This leads me to the last thing I want to write about. We dualed the number one ranked team in DII this weekend, our in-state rivals Nebraska-Omaha. We fought hard but lost the dual, and I lost by a technical fall (a margin of 15 points) to the number one ranked wrestler at my weight. I was thinking to myself after the dual how embarrassing it was to get my rump handed to me in front of a packed house and on T.V. (it was broadcast on our local T.V. station). As I watched the fights that night with my teammates and thought more about it, I realized that I had absolutely no reason to be embarrassed. I respect anyone who is willing to step out on a mat against another opponent and put it on the line. As my dad would say, this is what makes the sport of wrestling so personal; it is just you and the other guy. In my opinion it takes a ton of courage to be a wrestler, to go through grueling workouts, to make weight, to get beat up, and to test yourself against another man. To me it doesn't matter if you are undefeated or defeated on the season, I respect you for putting your body and mind to the test and stepping out where there is nowhere to hide. Well I can see that I have already rambled on long enough as usual, hopefully I haven't gotten too philosophical (thanks dad), so I will end it with a poem from Gandalf the Grey,

"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by frost."

-GTG FOTR-

 

This is a link to the video of my teammate Paul doing a backflip off our chin-up bar and then hanging from his toes (tales of which you heard of in my first blog)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shg1xoY-JE4

 

Keenan