VALLEY CENTER —
The tournament had ended around five minutes earlier. Team scores were about to be announced, but Greg Buckbee and everyone else at the Kansas Coliseum knew where Emporia High had ended up. It’s the same place Buckbee’s team ended up in back-to-back years when he was a Spartan wrestler 25 years ago.
He had won a title as coach at Arkansas City in 2003, but this one, of course, was his first in five years at his alma mater. I asked him: What feels better, winning a State title as a wrestler or winning it as a coach?
Taking a couple of seconds to think about it, he finally answered, “As a coach.”
Why’s that?
“I don’t know. I guess I’ve just grown up, and I love to see these boys. Like I said, they worked so hard. And it’s just wonderful.”
But Buckbee barely got the word “wonderful” out, because he was choking up — just a little bit, before quickly collecting himself.
I didn’t expect that. It’s not that Buckbee is an emotionless drone of a coach, like, say, Bill Belichick. It’s just that, in the relatively short time I’ve known him, I’ve never likened him to Dick Vermeil, either. Moving Buckbee, an amiable, life-in-stride kind of guy, to the verge of tears is another feat the 2009 State champion Spartans can claim with pride. Maybe they should get a ring for that, too.
“I couldn’t have done it without those wrestlers,” he said, “and they make me look awful good.”
But while Buckbee was nearly shedding a few tears of joy because of the kids whom he helped mold into Class 5A’s champions, he’s also got good reason to be moved for himself. He’s needed to follow a tough act of tradition at a school where State wrestling championships — or at least, consistently competing for them — is expected. Now, in joining Pat Sands and Curtis Simons as Spartan coaches to win titles, he officially has his own place in the upper echelon of Emporia wrestling history.
Early last week, when I talked to Buckbee about the pressure he’s faced as the Spartan wrestling coach, he downplayed it. He came back to Emporia from Ark City, he noted, which is now a program with 18 State titles; Emporia was trying to add No. 10.
“You put that pressure on yourself,” he said then. “You wanna be successful, you wanna have State titles. You think every year, you can win a State title. ... We talk a lot about pressure being a privilege.”
Still, everyone who’s been in the EHS wrestling room knows what the primary decor is: ceremonious red banners, some of which have Buckbee’s name on them.
He was part of State title teams in 1983 and ’84, and won the individual title at 98 pounds in ’83. He might’ve won the 112-pound title in ’84, but when his opponent shoved him to the mat following Buckbee’s semifinal win, it separated his shoulder and robbed him of the chance to wrestle for another title.
That team championship in ’84 was the program’s third. When Buckbee returned 20 years later to take over the reins, EHS wrestling had three times that many titles. Sands had won six, Simons three. In 2004, Simons’ final year, the Spartans finished second at State. Even as a distinguished alumnus of Emporia wrestling, Buckbee still had to face the same stress anyone else would taking over something great and striving to keep it great.
The Spartans finished 11th at State in Buckbee’s first year, then ninth, then fifth, then sixth. Not exactly the most memorable four-year run in EHS history. But this year’s squad had, top to bottom, basically all the pieces a wrestling team needs to win a State title. With established studs Sal Tovar, Justin Rose, Tavo Dikin and Mark Kolmer mixed in with depth provided by other previous State qualifiers, like Zeb Peak and Logan Gaskill, and some younger, less-experienced talent, this was the team to get it done.
Emporia was ranked No. 1 in 5A from the start. It sent 13 wrestlers to State, nine earned placings, Tovar and Lorenzo Serna earned individual championships, and Buckbee now has that first EHS team title out of the way.
And some of that — what did he call pressure? — oh yes, a privilege. Some of his privileges have been revoked.
“There’s a huge weight off my shoulders right now,” he acknowledged Saturday. “Coming back to the alma mater and landing the team title is very special.”
Every coach needs talent to win a title. Buckbee had it everywhere on his roster, and he knows it. His wrestlers don’t need too much prodding to pass some credit back to him.
“He works us hard and helps us condition-wise,” Serna said. “If we didn’t do the things we do, we wouldn’t be as good as we are.”
And if you wonder how deep Buckbee’s emotions run for this group, and how mutual the feelings are, something Dikin said might be a good indicator.
“I love Coach Buckbee,” said Dikin, who left Valley Center with a second-place medal at 140 pounds. “He’s been my favorite coach of any sport since as long as I can remember.
“He’s an amazing guy, and I’m really glad we won this with him.”