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Anoka's up late to see its star wrestle

Wrestler Jake Deitchler's fans and friends wouldn't dream of missing him on the Olympic stage tonight.

By LIBBY NELSON, Star Tribune

Last update: August 11, 2008 - 11:03 PM

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OLYMPIC WRESTLING

The first matches in Jake Deitchler's weight class begin at 8:30 tonight Twin Cities time. Repechage, the next round of competition, starts at 3 a.m. Wednesday. MSNBC will air the medal matches early Wednesday, starting at 4 a.m.

To see the final draws, go to www.tinyurl.com/672zfm and click on the "competition sheet'' link for "Men's GR 66 kg" -- Deitchler's event.

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When wrestler Jake Deitchler made the Olympic team, some of his teammates from Anoka High School were watching his upset victory at a graduation party. "We found it was being broadcast live online [from Las Vegas], and there were 15 or 20 of us crowded around this little laptop," said Jake Kettler, one of Deitchler's co-captains on the Anoka wrestling team. "We all just started freaking out and screaming." Since the June victory, Deitchler, 18, has been the talk of the school, said Heidi Beckendorf, Anoka High School's head athletic trainer. "The whole school and community is just so proud," she said. "All the kids are talking about it." Since the Olympic wrestling events begin tonight in Beijing, watching Deitchler compete this time around will be more of a challenge for his friends and supporters. The medal round, the only scheduled televised portion, isn't on TV until 4 a.m. Wednesday. Still, some are planning on getting up, or staying up, to watch. "I'll do anything to see him wrestle," said Kelly Hildre, 17, a student manager for the Anoka High School wrestling team, who said she is planning to be awake to see it. As a manager, Hildre had seen Deitchler wrestling all year and watched him in the U.S. Olympic trials.

"He never went into anything saying, 'I'm going to win this,'" Hildre said. "He's the best member of a team you could imagine."

When people find out he wrestles, football player Josh Gifford said, they've had a question for him lately.

"People come up to us and say, 'Do you know some Anoka wrestler is in the Olympics?'" Gifford said.

Gifford, who competes in a higher weight class than Deitchler's 145.5-pound class, said wrestling him in practice is tough.

"You'd try to get one move on him and then brag about it," Gifford said.

Seven-time state champs

Wrestling at Anoka has a long history. In the school's basement, photos and newspaper articles hang on the wall of the wrestling room. Above the mats, a giant team photo commemorates the 1990 team state championship, the most recent of seven won since 1949.

"It's probably the one sport I would say has the biggest alumni following and support," said Beckendorf, the athletic trainer. "The stands are packed."

Many of the plaques and clippings celebrate Deitchler: his all-time record of 201 wins and the attention he got after the U.S. Olympic trials, when the three-time state champion became the youngest wrestler to make the team since 1976.

The Anoka wrestling community came through for Deitchler and his family as well.

Before Deitchler went to the Olympic trials, Anoka High wrestling coach Todd Springer sent out a letter to parents and wrestling alumni, asking them to help pay for the cost of the family's trip to Las Vegas -- and for the $8,000 trip to Beijing, just in case.

The next day, Springer said, he was receiving checks in the mail. They sold shirts with Deitchler's picture and set up a website to solicit donations.

Enough was donated to cover the cost of the airfare.

"It comes from Jake," said Springer, who with fellow coach Brandon Paulson is staying up to watch the matches. "He's really had to sacrifice a few things."

For Deitchler's Anoka teammates, watching the match will be difficult with football practice the next day. Still, Kettler is planning on it.

"You'd think he's in the Olympics and he's been super busy and pretty much famous now, but he's still the same kid," Kettler said. "He's a typical teenager, but when it comes to wrestling and stuff, he's wise beyond his years."

Libby Nelson • 612-673-4758

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