John Millea: As challenges go, wrestling is a walk

ROCHESTER - I went to The Clash on Friday planning to accept the inevitable and write, sadly, about herpes. The Clash, after all, is the 32-team national wrestling tournament that everyone pointed to last year as the launch pad for a herpes epidemic that caused the sport to be shut down statewide for eight days and brought negative national attention to Minnesota high school wrestling and blah blah blah.

Then I talked to Ryan Kocer.

So today our topic is not herpes but heroes.

Kocer, a senior from Wagner, S.D., is one of the most decorated wrestlers at The Clash, which concludes its two-day run today at the Regional Sports Center. Kocer is a three-time South Dakota state champion. His goal this season is to win a fourth title.

If he gets there, he will do it on one leg.

The Kocers are farmers, raising corn, soybeans and cattle on 1,000 acres in southeastern South Dakota. While doing chores on a late-August evening, Ryan was pinned between a truck and a grain bin. Both legs were crushed. His left leg was amputated above the knee.

"It's probably a miracle that he's even alive," Wagner coach Ernie Valentine said.

Kocer resumed wrestling workouts just a week ago, and The Clash was his first competition. He won a state title last year at 171 pounds; he weighed in at 152 Friday.

A couple of hours before Kocer faced Albert Lea sophomore Mitch Webb on Friday, I asked him if he felt any fear.

"I don't know," he said quietly. "I just don't want to get reinjured."

He wore a prosthetic leg as he slowly climbed a few rows into the bleachers to chat with me. That was my mistake, asking a kid with one leg to maneuver like that. But Kocer, like every successful wrestler, doesn't mind a challenge.

"I don't think Ryan does anything without expecting to win," Valentine said. "I expect him to wrestle and give his best effort. And being the kind of kid he is, he will."

And win he did. At 10 minutes after 4 p.m. he removed his prosthetic leg and went to the center of one of the eight mats. His strategy, he had told me earlier, is to get opponents down as quickly as possible, where his strength can help negate his lost limb.

He got an early takedown and proved his grit with a 6-2 victory. As his teammates and Wagner Red Raiders fans cheered, his mother stood off by herself and patted her chest, wearing a look of pure relief.

"I'm speechless right now," Jody Kocer said. "I was just worried about him getting hurt. He's been through so much."

Wagner lost to Albert Lea 35-31. Ryan didn't wrestle when Wagner beat Goodhue 45-27 in the second round; Kocer won a 7-0 decision over Ryan McManus of Plainfield Central, Ill., in the day's final match. Wagner will wrestle three more matches today.

Kocer is proof that anybody can do anything. He brings to mind two memorable Minnesota high school athletes:

• Justin Turek, born with a left arm that ends just below the elbow, was a Class 2A state wrestling champion at 140 pounds in 2005. He now wrestles at Minnesota State Mankato.

• Kolby Gruhot, who lost his left leg below the knee in a farm accident when he was 3, completed his high school football career last season as a three-year, two-way starting lineman at Stephen-Argyle.

Ryan Kocer plans to attend South Dakota State. He also plans to wrestle in college.

Don't count him out.

John Millea • jmillea@startribune.com