Little Guy wrestling set to take stage
Making it onto the podium at the high school state wrestling tournament didn’t start at the beginning of the season for this year’s top two state finishers from the Greenchain wrestling team, Garret Chapel and Zach Crace. Chapel won the 170-pound state title and Crace finished third at 152 pounds over the weekend of Feb. 13 and 14.
“I got started when I was four, so I’ve basically been wrestling my whole life. I loved Little Guy wrestling, it was a lot of fun,” said Zach Crace.
He and Garret Chapel both began their careers with the local Little Guy club long before their stellar high school careers.
“When I first started Little Guy Wrestling I couldn’t even buy a win; I was terrible,” said Garret Chapel, who got started with the club when he was eight. “Probably my first two years I was awful, but then it started to click.”
With the arrival of the Kootenai Klassic tournament this weekend at the Ralph Tate Gym, father and sons Vic and Zach Crace and Josh and Garret Chapel talked about their early adventures in Little Guy wrestling.
Both fathers got their sons into the sport when they were just youngsters and then went along for the ride, and provided many rides along the way.
Vic Crace said his son Zach couldn’t have weighed more than 30 pounds when he took him down for his first practice to give him something to do through the dismal Montana winter. “When you’re little like Zach was, it was just a couple of smiley little kids just pushing each other around. But Zach would shoot the legs, so he started winning right away,” Vic Crace said.
“Fourteen years later here we are, done with him and my little one is a couple years away from high school now,” he said.
“After Zach started I was hooked and was off and running. Within nine months I was president of the club. It was quite a ride,” he said.
Neither Vic Crace nor Josh Chapel, Garret’s father, had a background in wrestling. “I was just a dad sitting up against the wall watching. But I heard the coach liked it when dads were willing to help, as long as they do what he asked them to do,” said Josh Chapel. “I said, ‘Yea, I can follow orders,’ so I started helping in 2005.”
After a couple of years, Josh Chapel decided to start a Troy chapter of Little Guy wrestling, which is now in it’s sixth year. The move wasn’t immediately met with blessing from the Libby coaches. “Until I explained to them that if I get this started I’m going to be feeding kids into the high school program that may otherwise not be able to travel to Libby everyday,” said Josh Chapel.
Before Little Guy wrestling got started in Libby, the club team was part of the Amateur Athletic Union, who often held tournaments in Billings, Bozeman and Missoula. “It was pretty taxing on parents to travel that far for tournaments. When we started Little Guy wrestling tourney locations changed to places like Polson and Kalispell,” Vic Crace said.
Vic Crace and Josh Chapel recall their sons’ early Little Guy matches like they were just yesterday.
“I remember watching him in his first match, it was ten years ago but I can remember it vividly. I remember watching him win his first little guy state title and then the second one,” said Josh Chapel. “It’s been awesome. There are times when I think about what we’ve done and I just tear up as a dad.”
When Zach Crace was wrestling at the Kooteani Klassic when he was about 10, he faced an opponent from Bonners Ferry who had gotten the best of him for a couple of years. “Zach was down 4-2 with only 20 seconds to go. He got the reverse and then put him on his back and got three more. That was where I always say his wrestling career turned,” Vic Crace said, “He realized he could do this.”
Watching young wrestlers gain confidence and get some victories along the way is something both Little Guy coaches enjoy about their positions. Out on the mat it’s boy versus boy or, in some cases, boy versus girl. “You’ve got nobody else to blame or to thank but yourself when you’re the only one on the mat,” said Vic Crace.
But both men admit the support from their whole family helped the two wrestlers be successful throughout their careers.
Vic Crace plans to step down as the Little Guy president after guiding the team for fourteen years. He said he sees himself in some of the other fathers whose kids wrestle in the club, one of which, R.J. Masters, will be taking over his position next season.
The Little Guy season starts the Monday after the high school state tournament and runs for six weeks. “It’s just a taste for the kids. We try to keep the season short and fun so they want to come back the next year,” Vic Crace said. Kids from age five-years old to eighth-grade are welcome to compete in the club.
For young wrestlers in Libby and Troy, the Kootenai Klassic is the biggest tournament of the year. “It’s bigger than the state tournament because you don’t have to qualify to show up,” Josh Chapel said. About 15 teams are lined out to invade Libby for the tournament.
For the Troy team, Josh Chapel handles the thousands of questions from parents and Garret Chapel leads a team of three high school wrestlers who work up a sweat everyday taking the kids through practice. “The Klassic has always been one of those tournaments I feel like area kids are expected to do well or win because it’s our tournament,” said Garret Chapel.
In Josh Chapel’s first season coaching with the Libby squad, he was warned by Vic Crace about the craziness of the Kootenai Klassic. “I thought, ‘how big could it be?’ I had been to a couple tournaments at that time. Well I walked in and there were 650 kids; it was an eye-opener,” Josh Chapel said.
Since it’s inception, several Greenchain wrestlers have gotten their start in Little Guy wrestling and went on to place in the high school state tournament. Fans can get a look at the future muscle for the Greenchain team this Saturday at the Ralph Tate Gym. From 9 a.m. until 6 p.m., Vic Crace is expecting more than 600 kids to be scrapping it out. He invited anybody willing to volunteer their time to give him a call at 334-0991.