Luke Spruill Memorial Dual Meet October 10th

The first meet of the season is the Luke Spruill Memorial Dual at Kenai HS. The bus leaves promptly at 6:59 am. Weigh-ins are at 8 am sharp.

Some of you might wonder who was Luke Spruill.

From the Clarion, October 2008:

"It honors Luke Spruill, a two-time state champion who graduated from Kenai Central in 1995 before returning to share the coaching duties during the 2003-04 season. After surviving a car accident in 1996 and breaking his back, Spruill went on to attend junior college before wrestling and graduating at the University of Iowa, one of the top wrestling programs in the country.

In June of 2004, Spruill died in a fishing accident in Bristol Bay at the age of 27."

From Clarion, November 2, 2003

"At Iowa, practice was so bad, competition was actually a break. There was one time (in practice) I was so tired I had to crawl back to the bench, but I couldn't crawl up on the bench. I just laid there," Spruill said.

Just getting to Iowa was a challenge for Spruill. After breaking his back, numerous scholarship offers from Division I wrestling programs disappeared, turning him from a promising prospect to a virtual has-been overnight.

"My philosophy was win and only win in high school because I had never faced adversity," he said.

Once his wrestling prospects were damaged, Spruill said he suddenly found himself on the outside looking in when it came to college.

"My grades weren't very good," he admitted.

He enrolled at a junior college, where he worked to get his grades up to acceptable levels. After two years of rehabilitation and study, Spruill was finally ready to get on the mat at Iowa. But the Hawkeyes had no scholarships for him, so he had to wrestle as a walk-on, forced to prove himself each day by outworking everyone in the room.

"Dan Gable said I was one of the hardest workers he had ever seen," Spruill said.

That hard work could only get him so far. A series of injuries -- including a second broken back and the degeneration of both his hips -- meant he would never see much time on the mat. In his four years at Iowa, Spruill wrestled only five matches, winning just once.

It was a far cry from the success he'd seen in high school, when he was one of the most dominant wrestlers in the state. But for Spruill, just getting to be part of a program like Iowa's was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

"It still hurts that I didn't accomplish all my goals," he said. "But if I hadn't tried, the regret would have been the worst thing I ever felt."

Now that his wrestling career is over, Spruill said he wants to help inspire a new generation of Kenai grapplers. He's getting used to the idea of coaching, although figuring out just how hard to push the young, mostly inexperienced Kenai team has been a challenge at times.

"Sometimes I want to kick 'em in the butt, but sometimes it takes a pat," he said.

His focus now is on helping Prior rebuild the program into something resembling its former self. To do that, Kenai's coaches will have to work with what they've got -- a small, dedicated group of wrestlers hoping to gain some experience and a little confidence this season.

It won't be easy, but for someone who's faced the kind of adversity Luke Spruill has, it's just one more challenge to look forward to.

"I think this is a great atmosphere to build something," he said. "If you lose, you just try to be more determined, to work harder. That's how we're going to build a team."

As for making a career out of coaching, Spruill said wrestling is in his blood, and he's likely to continue in the sport he loves. He's got high hopes for Kenai, and he's not shy about stating his ultimate goal for the program.

"I'd like to be here to see Kenai win a state championship."