MISSOULA — It's a Monday afternoon in February, and Jade Rauser is in the place he's most comfortable.
He's on the wrestling mat — now as the head boys coach at Missoula Big Sky providing hands-on instruction to his Eagles, who had just won the Garden City Duals for the first time since 2020. Big Sky actually has three trophies in its possession at the moment, as the boys and girls combined to sweep this year's duals with crosstown rivals Sentinel and Hellgate.
Rauser shows a young wrestler how to use his leverage to manipulate an opponent. Now in his 30s, the four-time Montana high school state champion wouldn't know any other way to teach his kids.
"I wrestle with the kids every single day," he said. "We have a whole staff of ex-college wrestlers that are on our staff that we all wrestle with the kids. And I think that's a huge benefit for us, is these kids get to kind of wrestle with us and feel what it's like to wrestle college guys, bigger guys, guys that have gone through the process.
"And the kids definitely want to beat the coaches more than they want to beat anybody else, so it makes them work a lot harder, as well.”
HEAR FROM THE FOUR-TIME CHAMPIONS TURNED COACHES:
As a wrestling state, Montana annually produces NCAA Division I-caliber talent. Rauser was one of them. After completing a perfect 175-0 high school record at Townsend in 2011, Rauser went on to have an All-America career at Utah Valley University.
Once his competitive days were behind him, Rauser immediately got into coaching.
"Coaching is a lot more fun," he said. "It's a lot more stressful, but it's a lot more fun. Seeing kids achieve their goals and work toward those goals, it definitely makes you feel good as a coach to see that. We're a family and it's a lot of fun.”
Rauser is now in his second year at Big Sky and is one of six current head wrestling coaches in Montana who won four individual high school championships when they were on the mats — Conrad's Luke Schlosser, Chinook's Benjamin Stroh, Lockwood's Beau Malia, Hardin's Chris Nedens and Billings Senior's Charlie Klepps are the others.
At least 13 other head coaches won at least two individual titles as wrestlers. Belgrade's Bryce Weatherston, Billings West's Jeremy Hernandez, Bozeman's Tyrel Todd, Kalispell Flathead's Jeff Thompson, Miles City's Mitch Etchemendy, St. Ignatius' Jace Petersen and Wolf Point's Maestro Martinez each won three championships.
Butte's Cory Johnston, Lewistown's Brendan DeCock, Baker's Derek Gorder, Forsyth's Camron Reilly, Glasgow's Brenner Flaten and Ronan's Cameron Neiss were each two-time champions.
"One-hundred percent coaching is way more stressful (than wrestling)," Schlosser said. "I don't think the kids know it, but we feel everything they do. I mean, every win we're there, every loss. ... When you're actually wrestling, I never got nervous or anything like that. In the moment you just get out there and do what you do. But coaching, you go through the highs and the lows, you feel for them. It's extremely difficult.”
While Schlosser was winning his four individual championships at the lighter weights in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, Stroh was simultaneously winning his at the upper weights — his titles coming at 160, 171, 189 and 189 pounds. He's the only four-timer who won his first title at 160 pounds or higher and famously won 101 consecutive matches by pinfall.
"I explain it to the kids as, it's like driving on icy roads. I'm a guy that likes to be behind the wheel. I don't want to be sitting in the back seat controlled by somebody else, but that's essentially what we are as coaches," Stroh said. "We can tell you how to drive. We can tell you how to wrestle, but there's nothing we can do. We can't control the stress for you going out on the mat."
Added Rauser: "You're not out there on the mat doing it for them. You have to trust that they can do it. There's a lot of sadness and grief that come with coaching, but there's a lot of happiness that comes with coaching."
The head coaches are happiest when they can see tangible growth from their wrestlers. That progress covers a broad spectrum — from simply avoiding getting pinned to mastering a new move to eventually winning a state championship.
The four-timers know the technique, dedication and work required to win titles, and they can utilize that experience to help prepare their wrestlers.
"You want to meet them where they're at but then use your experiences, use your stories when it applies to the right situation," Klepps said.
Or not ...
"They're good on the internet. They'll find bad matches I had in college or bad matches I had in high school, and they'll be like, 'You really lost that one?'" Klepps added. "They definitely keep me humble, that's for sure."
Klepps, who won his fourth high school championship in 2018 and then wrestled at Iowa State, leads the girls program at Senior. The Broncs have won the past three Class AA team titles and are the top-ranked squad again this season.
Five Senior girls — Wai Fandrich (105 pounds), Piper Gershmel (115), Meadow Mahlmeister (140), Tita Fandrich (145) and Kelby Brewer (235) — are ranked first in their respective weight classes.
"I'm super impressed with their response to losing or to trying something completely brand new," Klepps said. "I mean, I feel like, especially as a high school girl, you're going out there and you're beating somebody up or you're getting beat up, and I just think that openness to wrestling, that being OK with failure, that sort of stuff, I sometimes struggled with that as a kid. And so I think that's what the girls have taught me the most."
Though he's been Senior's head coach since 2022, Klepps is still in his coaching infancy. He admitted the administrative side of being a coach is the most difficult aspect of the job. It's not just teaching technique on the mat, it's ensuring each kid has a hotel room and gets checked in when traveling for meets.
Time management is another big piece, as the coaches also have to juggle their day jobs. Klepps is reporter for MTN's KTVQ station in Billings, Schlosser works in construction, Rauser is a benefits consultant and Nedens and Stroh are farmers and ranchers.
The time off work and managing team travel is a constant throughout the season, and it ramped up in February with divisional meets and, now, the state tournaments this week in Billings.
But it's the best time of year on the wrestling calendar.
"Postseason for me was a lot of fun just because I had a lot of success," Rauser said. "But with these guys I try to just get them to understand that it's just another wrestling match. It's another tournament.”
Rauser, Schlosser, Klepps, Nedens and Stroh all have kids who will be in contention for individual championships or podium finishes.
Klepps and the Senior girls are chasing their fourth straight team title.
And Nedens’ Hardin squad figures to fight for a spot on the podium in the Class A team race. Jesse Grossman (118 pounds), Chris Grossman (132), Bruno Pallone (215) and Cody Kills On Top (285) are top-ranked Bulldogs and returning state champions. Cale Nedens, who is ranked second at 150 pounds, also won a title last year.
"Winning a team trophy or team state championship would be fun and awesome, but honestly, I don't get wrapped up in that," said Chris Nedens, who is Hardin's only four-time champion (1998-2001) and now coaches his sons Cale and Brody. The Bulldogs have never won a team championship.
"It's about the kids. We want to make kids better. I want the kids to reach our goals," coach Nedens continued. "I don't necessarily need on my resume as a high school state coach, state champion coach — that's not really super important to me. I just want to try to be the best role-model influence I can on those kids."
Even with the championships under their belts and the lessons learned in the wrestling room, these guys didn't leave it all on the mats. They had to give back to the sport that's given them so much.
"It's just one of those sports where you can't really get away from (it). You're constantly thinking about it. You're constantly thinking of new ways to improve," Rauser said. "But, it's also a family."
And nothing is more comfortable than that.
