Panthers know a fifth straight title will have to be earned

It’s the elephant in the room. Or, more accurately, it’s four elephants, hopefully with room for one more.

Nate Urbach knows it’s out there, that a fifth straight Class 3A wrestling title is there for the taking, but the Powell High School head coach isn’t preaching five-peat to his team just yet.

“I try not to talk about winning hardly at all,” Urbach said. “I stay away from that as much as possible, because I think that puts undue pressure on kids.”

Right now the Panthers are focused on the season’s beginning, and trust that if the right work is done now, it will pay off five-fold come the end of February. The Panthers host the season-opening two-day Powell Invite beginning at noon on Friday.

“I’m looking at just working hard on improving and showing effort and tenacity and toughness and all those things that you need to be a champ,” Urbach said. “When I talk about getting five in a row — because you can’t just ignore it, it’s out there — I look at it from the persepctive of trying to earn another one, not repeat.

“The reason we won four in a row is because our idea was to outwork everybody, and I don’t change that.”

The Panthers can’t roll out the same squad that’s won them each title since 2012, and will have to work to again cultivate young talent to fill the gaps left by departing stalwarts.

“We lost some good seniors last year,” Urbach said. “The big thing is we lost a small guy and a big guy, and that’s hard to fill. That’s really where our big fill is.”

Riley Stringer finished his career with a heavyweight title last season, a year after winning the title at 220 pounds. Noah Wozney graduated as the state runner-up at 113 pounds.

“We’ve got young kids or inexperienced kids in those places, so that’s definitely where we want to step up,” Urbach said. “Those are the ones I’m most worried about, the bookends.”

The Panthers will also weather the losses of Jacob Davis and Colton Parham.

Davis was the state champ in the 170-pound division last season and took second in both 160 pounds in 2014 and 145 pounds as a sophomore in 2013.

Parham, now a redshirt freshman at Northwest College, was the state runner-up at 132 pounds in 2015, and took third at 132 pounds in 2014.

With some of the lineup still in flux, Urbach and his staff will try to develop Powell’s younger talent as efficiently as possible. Urbach said the first part of the season is used to identify who can handle the work required to be a high-level wrestler.

“They need to go out and compete, work hard, show us that time will be well spent with them,” Urbach said. “We need to try to get them as far as we can in a short period, but I try not to rush that stuff. I try to be bring them along slow. If I throw a million things at them it will do more harm than good. I try to just stay real basic.”

The idea is they don’t need to be champions on opening weekend, but in the final weeks of the season.

“You’ve got to take a long view any time you coach. You’re looking at the end game, four months from now, not two weeks from now,” Urbach said.

Powell’s cupboard is hardly bare, however. The Panthers return two title winners, a runner-up and a third-place finisher from the 2015 State Championships.

Senior Chance Karst, who signed a letter of intent last month to wrestle for Chadron State, won the title at 132 pounds. Senior Kye Catlin has won a title in each of his three seasons. He was the champion at 145 pounds in 2014 and 2015, and topped the 138-pound class as a freshman in 2013. Senior Nic Urbach lost a 6-4 decision in the 138-pound title bout to take second, and junior Zach Easum returns after taking third at 220 pounds.

“I’ve got a good mix of new kids and experienced kids. These guys have had some success and they understand where it came from,” Urbach said. “I think I have really good seniors so I’m excited about those guys, and that makes a huge difference. I’ve got good, talented seniors, and that’s hard to get.”

Urbach said his senior class possesses a rare combination of talent and leadership, and that will go a long way in bringing the younger wrestlers up to speed.

“Having good leaders just takes so much off of a coach’s plate, it’s unbelievable,” Urbach said. “You can just focus on things to move forward, and not put fires out daily.”

Powell will host 19 teams from Wyoming and Montana in the Panther Gym this weekend.

Wyoming teams include Buffalo, Campbell County, Cody, Dubois, Greybull/Riverside, Lander, Lovell, Natrona County, Rawlins, Rocky Mountain, Saratoga, Sheridan, Shoshoni, Thermopolis, Wind River, Worland and Wyoming Indian. Livingston and Valier are the only two Montana teams scheduled to compete.

Absent from the invite will be Star Valley, which Urbach projected to be one of the toughest teams in Class 3A this season.

“Star Valley will be loaded this year — I see them as the team to beat in 3A,” Urbach said. “Douglas is always tough and Worland, Torrington, Lander and Cody will also be in the hunt.”

Saturday’s competition will start at 9 a.m., beginning with any additional pool wrestling, followed by the quarterfinals, semis and title bouts of each weight class.