Published: Jan. 24, 2014
West’s Rettler ignites team, crowd
Spartans freshman a popular teammate
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News Sports Editor
West Bend West’s Max Rettler was starting to miss wrestling,
but only a little bit. It still wasn’t enough to go out for the Spartans’
wrestling team when the season started.
That changed two weeks into this season. On Thursday night,
Rettler and the Spartans reaped the benefit.
Rettler, a freshman 113-pound wrestler for West, defeated
Slinger’s Erik Uhmhoefer, 10-5, in what was a dominating performance by West.
The Spartans were the victors in 12 of the 14 bouts, including five pins and
two forfeits.
But the excitement for West surrounded Rettler’s triumph at
113. It was Rettler’s first varsity victory. His only other victory was a
forfeit, which he said doesn’t count in his mind.
“It was pretty exciting,” Rettler said. “Just being out
there and winning for the first time in front of the big crowd.”
Rettler, whose brother Drew is also on the team, wrestled
from when he was 4 until he was in fifth grade. It was at that point Max
Rettler had enough of wrestling.
As the start of the wrestling season approached, Rettler had
his focus on the track and field season this spring. However, there was just a
little itch that he might be interested in rejoining wrestling.
The situation had to be right for him, however.
Rettler looked at his brother and told him that if the
Spartans ever needed a 113-pound wrestler, let him know and he’ll do it.
Well, the day after he said that, West’s 113-pound wrestler
left the team, leaving a vacancy in the team’s lineup.
And guess who filled it, staying true to his word?
“I thought it’d be later in the season,” Rettler said with a
smile.
“But I figured why not give it another try?”
Because it had been so long, Rettler was rusty with his
technique. All season, Rettler has been trying to get back up to speed and has
often paid the price for it on the mat, losing most of his matches by pin.
He works hard, though, and that’s why his teammates, his
coaches and the fans were hooting and hollering for Rettler.
He’s been a saving grace for the Spartans.
“We needed somebody there,” West captain Justin Wagner said.
“He works hard in practice and it was good to see him get a
win,” Wagner added. “He’s a great guy; fun character.”
After his arm was raised by the official declaring him the
winner, Rettler’s teammates were waiting with open arms to greet the victor.
“That was fun,” he said with a smile.
“This is a huge boost for him,” West coach Mike Bauer said.
“It was a huge, huge win,” he added. “It feels good as a
coach to see things like that work out.”
The dual started at 160 and Wagner got it going for West
with a pin in 1:30.
Slinger’s John Beine defeated Dante Gonzalez, 6-2, to make
the score 6-3 in favor of West. From there, the Spartans won 11 straight bouts,
including Rettler’s at 113.
Also picking up pins for the Spartans was Jake Fischer
(182), Isaiah Muckerheide (126), CJ Werner (132) and Daemon Randall (145).
Fischer was also recognized at the dual for recently winning
his 100th high school varsity match.
“They did a real nice job,” Bauer said of his team’s
performance.
Slinger’s other victory, which was the final bout of the
dual, was by Adam Beine, a 2-1 decision at 152.
“I thought West Bend West wrestled well and I thought we
wrestled poorly,” Slinger coach Chris Graziano said. “I knew we were underdogs;
I knew that coming in.
“You want the kids to give their best effort and I don’t
think we gave our best effort.”
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