Cottonwood Falls — Brendan Harshman has made his wrestling career off second chances.
And when the Chase County senior steps onto the mats at the Class 3-2-1A State tournament in Hays on Friday, he knows it will be his last chance to do something no Bulldogs wrestler has done in 28 years.
“I’ll never have the opportunity again to wrestle for a State title,” Harshman said. “This is something I’ve wanted since I was a little kid.”
Two years ago, talk of a State championship went from a likelihood to an impossibility in a matter of seconds. A year later, with a State title in reach, Harshman came up just short.
This year, his last year, he’ll go for the title yet again, with the knowledge that this is it — there will be no other chances.
“This is a big deal for me,” Harshman said. “Knowing it’s my last time, I think it’s going to push me a lot more. I’ve got a lot of obstacles to get past, but that just means I’ll have plenty of chances to prove myself.”
Lucky for Harshman, he’s gotten pretty good at clearing those obstacles.
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As a sophomore two seasons ago, Harshman entered the State tournament brimming with confidence, and rightfully so.
After finishing fifth at State in the 103-pound weight class as a freshman, he entered the 2006 State meet ranked No. 2 in Class 3-2-1A at 112 pounds, and clearly was one of the favorites to make the finals for a chance at the State championship.
“Really, when he came into high school, he planned on being a four-time State placer,” Chase County wrestling coach Derick Budke said. “He was off to a pretty good start.”
It took one match to derail Harshman’s hopes.
In his opening match of the tournament, he got out to a 9-2 lead over his opponent and appeared well on his way to easily advancing.
However, late in the match, he got turned in an awkward position, and what happened next continues to affect him still today.
His opponent’s hold caused cartilage in Harshman’s chest to tear away from his sternum, sending Harshman into an agonizing pain.
“It was horrible,” he said. “It was hard to breathe. I was in so much pain.”
Watching off to the side, Budke knew Harshman was in bad shape.
“You could tell as soon as it happened, he was just looking for a place to survive out there on the mat,” Budke said. “We knew he was in trouble; we knew he was injured. He’s not a guy that lays down. He’s a pretty tough kid.
“When that happened, we knew right away that it was pretty serious.”
The nightmare continued when Harshman — barely able to move — was pinned. He ended up defaulting from the rest of the tournament.
“That pretty much ruined that whole year for me,” Harshman said. “You wrestle your whole year for State, and it all ends that quick.”
Even worse for Harshman, the injury kept him away from physical activity during the offseason. That meant the summer wrestling clubs he had been a part of since he was 5 years old were out of the question. Strength and conditioning training to get ready for the next season had to be put off until the early fall, just over two months before the start of his junior season.
The only way his injury could heal was through extended rest.
For Harshman, it was a low point in his career, but he kept going.
“If I were to have quit,” he said, “everything I trained for would have been done and pointless.”
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Harshman barely remembers wrestling for the State title last year. It was all just a blur, a moment in time that went by “extremely fast,” he said.
But he does remember the result, and he doesn’t like it.
“It almost seemed as if I didn’t wrestle,” Harshman said. “It seemed like I was stuck on the mat and couldn’t move.”
One year after he suffered a gruesome chest injury in the first-round of the State tournament, Harshman, a junior, remarkably made it all the way to the championship bout of the 119-pound weight class, but lost to Aaron Patton of Wellsville, 4-1.
That he was even at the State tournament, let alone competing for the championship, was a second chance that Harshman was grateful for. Though his chest still bothered him — he has to rub Icy Hot on his chest before matches to allow the loose cartilage to shift pain-free when he wrestles — he was able to work through the pain to produce one of the best seasons in school history.
Still, he wanted more.
“It was wonderful to make it to the State finals,” Harshman said. “Losing it was sad, but making it there was great, especially after being hurt the year before and getting nothing out of it.”
Harshman finished his State runner-up season with a 33-3 record, and he did it, Budke said, despite not being at full strength. Instead, it was mental power more than physical prowess that pushed Harshman into the state’s elite class of wrestlers.
“He was pretty hungry his junior year after the way his sophomore year ended,” Budke said. “The thing about his junior year was that he didn’t get to work out all summer. He couldn’t take part in the strength and conditioning program. He wasn’t completely healthy. He didn’t have a whole lot of the physical training time that he’s had this year.”
Now, with another year to get stronger, Harshman believes he is ready for his final shot.
“I feel like I’m the best I could be right now,” he said.
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Harshman heads into this year’s State tournament ranked as the No. 3 wrestler at 125 pounds, his record a sparkling 31-3 this season.
He has recorded an eye-popping 17 technical falls this season, and 34 for his career, both totals that sit in the top five on the all-time single-season and career lists for the state of Kansas.
“If you can tech fall 17 kids in a season, that’s pretty dominant,” Budke said.
Harshman is just days away from ending his high school wrestling career, a career that, when all is said and done, will be the standard for the Chase County wrestling program, Budke said. Harshman is 123-18 in his four years at Chase County, scoring an staggering 787.5 points during that time.
“We’ve had kids that have placed in State, and I’ve coached a lot of them,” Budke said, “but he’s put together the best body of work of any wrestler that we’ve had. Something like that doesn’t come without a great deal of dedication and a great deal of preparation.
“He’s going to have the best body of work of any wrestler that’s come through this high school, and that should be his legacy.”
But that body of work isn’t finished yet, at least, not in Harshman’s mind.
“I was worried after last year after my finals match. I thought, ‘I might never have another chance at the finals.’ I want to have that chance again. I want to beat the kid that beat me. I want to be back in the finals,’” Harshman said. “I want be able to say I gave my all and that I came and did what I wanted to do, and that’s win a State title.”
If things go according to plan, a rematch with Patton — last year’s finals foe — could come in the semifinals late in the day on Friday. Should he make it past that, a championship matchup on Saturday with Smith Center’s Colt Rogers seems likely, as Rogers is ranked No. 1 in the state with a 29-0 record entering the tournament.
That Harshman has a second chance at being the first State wrestling champion at Chase County since John Miller won the school’s only title in 1980 — something that eluded Harshman a year ago — has his coach excited about what could be in store this weekend.
“Being a finalist last year gives him a lot of confidence, but more than anything, being second is still one step from where he wants to be,” Budke said. “I expect him to have a great State tournament.”
It’s now or never for Harshman, but he doesn’t need to be reminded.
“I know,” he said, “I’m not going to have any second chances.”