ROCHESTER — As Byron coach Ryan Radke watches his senior wrestler Carter Geerts have success on the mat, he can’t help but think back to the seventh-grade version of Geerts.
After plenty of wins as a fifth- and sixth-grader, Geerts soon found himself wrestling opponents who were three, four, or sometimes five years older while wrestling in the heavier weight classes as a seventh-grader for the Bears. He understandably took his fair share of lumps during those middle school years.
“Carter was not always good,” Byron coach Ryan Radke said. “He did well in fifth and sixth grade, then all of a sudden you are a seventh-grader in the heavier divisions. When you wrestle in fifth and sixth grade, you only wrestle fifth- and sixth-graders. He was really good in his age group, but then he’s wrestling juniors right out of the gate as a seventh-grader. That’s tough. We just kept telling him ‘just wait until you grow into your body.’
Geerts will be the first to say waiting wasn’t always the most fun, but he took it in stride. Continue reading at postbulletin.com →