FULL CIRCLE

All good things must come to an end. For Montana State University-Northern wrestling star Ben Stroh, the end to his wrestling career is near.

At least competitively.

But no matter what happens to Stroh at this weekend’s NAIA national tournament in Topeka, Kansas, there’s no denying it’s been an incredible ride.

In fact, incredible isn’t even a word that fits Stroh’s wrestling career, one that’s been going for so long now, he really has trouble recalling when it all started.

“We were just talking about that the other day in practice,” Stroh, a four-time state champion from Chinook said. “Coach (Tyson Thivierge) said to the seniors that this was it. That, by the end of the this weekend, we weren’t going to be wrestling (competitively) ever again. I thought, ‘Wow that was weird to hear it like that.’ I hadn’t really thought too much before about it being all done.”

Stroh might not have thought about being done because he has one big goal left in his incredible wrestling career — a career in which he’s broken Montana and national high school records, won four individual state championships and wrestled at the NCAA Division I national tournament, college wrestling’s biggest stage. And that goal is simple — win a national championship.

“That’s the goal,” Stroh, who goes into this weekend’s national tournament as the No. 1 seed, and with a 42-2 record at 184 pounds, said. “I’m looking forward to it. I haven’t even looked at the brackets. I figure, you have to beat everybody to win a national championship, so it doesn’t really matter who I am wrestling. It’s about going out there and winning every period, and wrestling your best for seven minutes each match. So that’s what I’m going to try and do.”

Getting Whooped

The beginning of Stroh’s wrestling career was a far cry from being on the precipice of winning an NAIA national championship, or competing in the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia in the NCAA national tournament as a Wyoming Cowboy in front of over 20,000 fans.

Instead, as Stroh remembers it, he took some beatings in the beginning.

“My brother (Robert) got into it before I did,” Stroh recalled. “It was around the time when we bought the farm in Harlem, so Bob and my dad were down there and I was up here with my mom. But Bob was wrestling and I wanted to do it, too, and in the beginning he was whooping up on me pretty bad. And even though I was younger, I just wasn’t OK with that.”

He may not have liked getting beaten up by his older brother, who would become a star wrestler for Chinook in his own right, but it fueled Stroh’s love of wrestling. Eventually, he and his brother and other Hi-Line grapplers started making their way to more and more tournaments as youth wrestlers, and eventually the younger Stroh started winning. But it wasn’t until he passed a true family test that he said his wrestling career really started to take off.

“I was going to big tournaments in places like Denver, and I was managing to win a few here and there,” he said. “But the turning point for me was when I started to get a few licks in on my dad. I didn’t beat him, but I was holding my own and competing with him. That’s when I started thinking that I could do something with my high school career, like winning a state championship.”

Of course, Stroh wouldn’t just win a state championship in high school. He won four. Under head coach Perry Miller, Stroh had one of the most decorated high school careers in Montana history, going undefeated in his last 147 matches and compiling a high school record of 156-2. Stroh also shattered a national high school record by winning 101 straight matches by fall, among his many other incredible feats.

And as great Stroh was in high school, Miller remembers one of his greatest stars ever for the person Stroh was, and is, as much as the wrestler he has been.

“The most impressive thing about Ben Stroh is his humility and the way he does things,” Miller said. “For the six or seven minutes you have to spend on the mat with Ben Stroh, you’re probably never going to forget that if you’re actually fortunate enough to make it through the entire match. But the beauty of Ben Stroh is the human being that he is. Prior to the match and after the match he’s a very humble kid that’s appreciative of his gifts and the people around him. He’s a phenomenal young man. He gives back to the sport of wrestling every day, he gives back to the kids here in Chinook that look to him as a hero and role model. I’ve had the opportunity of coaching some great kids but the bottom line is Ben is a genuine human being and to me, you can coach Ben and you automatically become a fan, but it’s not just his ability to wrestle but the persona he has of being a good person.”

Cowboys Days

Ben Stroh likes to work on the farm, he loves the outdoors, he loves the lifestyle, so it was only fitting that, after his amazing high school career, he chose to wrestle collegiately at NCAA Division I Wyoming. After all, they are the Cowboys.

Laramie was also where his brother Robert was wrestling, so Stroh set off to become a Wyoming Cowboy himself. And while he knew it would be tough going in, things were very different at Wyoming, than the career he’d just left behind in Chinook.

“Right off the bat, as a red shirt, you don’t see the same competition that the varsity guys do,” Stroh said. “It’s kind of designed for you to win a lot. And so I did pretty well that year, but once I got up to the varsity, and put that Wyoming singlet on, I realized pretty fast that I had a long way to go. I was in the room with All-Americans, and guys that were really good, and while I competed with them, and held my own, I realized there was as an extreme difference from where I was and where they were. So it was pretty humbling.”

Still, as a red-shirt freshman, Stroh had a great season. Following a 7-0 start, Stroh won four tournaments and captured the 184 pound championship at the NCAA West Regional, qualifying for the NCAA Championships. He was named WWC freshman of the year and rookie of the year.

“That year was a pretty good year,” Stroh said. “Going to nationals was a great experience. I got beat by the No. 1 guy, and I got stuck in the wrestle backs, and that hurt. But I felt like it was a really good season.”

In fact, all of Stroh’s seasons in Wyoming were good. But a twist of fate his junior year started him thinking about a different path.

“As my career at Wyoming went on, I did pretty well,” Stroh said. “I was beating a lot of the ranked guys and doing pretty well. But, my junior year I had to cut to 174 and that was tough. I had never wrestled at that weight, and while I might have been bigger and stronger than a lot of the guys I was wrestling, the speed and those types of differences was hard for me to adjust to. Ten pounds is a lot for me, and so I went back up late in the season and that bit me in the butt, too. I still beat some of the top guys, but by that point, it was too late for me to have a real chance to get back to nationals.”

While Stroh didn’t make it back to the national tournament his junior season at Wyoming, he was about to make it back somewhere else — home. He noted that, for all the years at Wyoming, he stayed in touch with Thivierge and that, if he wanted, the opportunity to become a Light would be there.

As it turns out, Stroh wanted that opportunity.

“The whole time I was at Wyoming, every tournament that Northern was at, I would just hang out with Tyson and B.S. with him the whole time. I have so much appreciation for him. He’s such a great guy, and a great coach. And I always knew I’d enjoy wrestling for him if I ever got that chance.”

Home Sweet Home

Knowing Thivierge as well as he did, Stroh made the decision to come home last spring. And not just come home, but finish his wrestling career on the same Hi-Line where it all began.

“I just wanted to come home,” he said. “Bob had left already, and I’m a homebody anyway. I have a great relationship with Tyson, and the chance to wrestle at home, in front of my family and friends — I was just really excited about that. I really enjoyed competing at Wyoming. I enjoyed my time there. But it was just time to come home.”

And since he’s been home, Stroh has given Northern and area wrestling fans glimpses of what they remembered from his days wrestling for the Sugarbeeters. He’s had a dominant NAIA season, holding the No. 1 ranking for a time, while winning more tournaments, including the prestigious Reno Tournament of Champions, a tourney he also won as a Cowboy. He won the West Region Qualifier two weeks ago and takes a 41-2 record into the national tournament.

But it’s not just the success he’s had on the mat that Stroh has enjoyed in his brief time at Northern. It’s a lot of things which have added up.

“For one, I just really respect the guys on this team,” Stroh said. “It’s been really fun being a part of this team. At Wyoming, you have everybody who is used to being the top guy, but on our team, we have so many guys who feel they have something to prove. They are all so hungry, and they work so hard. I really appreciate that. And it’s been so much fun being coached by Tyson. I just have so much respect and appreciation for what he does, and we have a great relationship. He’s taught me a lot.

“Off the mat, things have been great, too,” he said. “Obviously, getting to be around my family, spending time on the farm, taking the classes I want to take, those things have been great, and it’s made it a really fun year.”

Now though, it’s a year that’s almost over. But for Stroh, it’s not just a season that’s almost over, it’s a career he’s been working at, and spending a lifetime building that’s coming to an end.

Stroh, who says he is nearing a degree in business adminstration, and one day would like to go into real estate appraising, said he hasn’t had a chance to really think about what life will be like when wrestling is done, other than that, he thinks like most wrestlers do when their careers are almost over.

“I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand all of my accomplishments, some of them seem so unreal,” Stroh said. “When you think about it, all the training, the running, the workouts, all of that stuff, I start to think, there’s no way, at my age, I could keep going through all that. I’m older now. That’s a lot of hard work over the years. A lot of wear and tear on your body. So I don’t know that I’ll miss that stuff. Maybe I will. Maybe I’ll challenge myself and try to go through some practices and stuff down the road, but, for now, what I want to do is enjoy doing my own thing for a while. For so many years, I’ve been told where to be, where to go and what to eat. So for the immediate future, I’m just going to spend time on the farm, and kind of simplify life for a while.”

That’s in the near future. But first, Stroh has one more regimented weekend of wrestling left. It’s a weekend in which he can put a big, bright, shiny bow on a career that has already been one that’s the stuff of legends. Yes, around these parts, when wrestling comes up they’ll always talk about Ben Stroh, and his incredible greatness. But with one tournament left, he wants to make sure NAIA national champion is part of that conversation.

“I feel good. I’m ready,” he said. “I’ve gone into a lot of tournaments where I’ve been expected to win, but this one, there might be a few more nerves because it’s the last one. But I’m embracing it. I’m not worrying about what could happen, or what could go wrong. I’m just embracing the moment, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

The challenge is something Stroh has met head on, hundreds of times before. And one more time, he will meet that challenge, the challenge of getting to the top of the podium with a medal around his neck and a bracket in his hands. It’s a place we’re used to seeing Ben Stroh. It’s a place we’ve marveled at for years.

Here’s hoping we get to marvel at it one last time.