By Kelly Cannon | [email protected]
 
The far wall of the wrestling room at Corner Canyon High School is dedicated to those who achieve the coveted spot of state champion. For the past two years, only one name and photo has been on that wall: Greg Lamb from 2015. This year, Head Coach Jeff Eure can add a new name and photo.
 
Shaun Stockwell won first place in the heavyweight class at the individual state wrestling tournament that took place Feb. 8–9 at Utah Valley University. Stockwell was also an outstanding wrestler at the tournament. Brad Findlay took third place in the 160-pound weight class and Zach Heaton and Kade Carlson both took fifth place in the 182-pound weight class and 220-pound weight class, respectively.
 
Eure has been head coach ever since Corner Canyon was founded four years ago. Eure said when the wrestling program started, he was building a team from nothing.
 
“My first goal was to fill this room with kids who wanted to wrestle. We’ve been able to do that pretty quickly. Now the next goal is to teach them how to compete and get them to a point where year in and year out, we can compete for a state championship,” Eure said. “We’ve got a long ways to go to do that but these kids in this room are working really hard towards that.”
 
Over the past four years, the wrestlers at Corner Canyon have developed a reputation of being hard workers both on the mat and in the classroom.
 
“We hold our student athletes accountable to high academic standards and try to teach them to be upstanding citizens, be good people,” Eure said.
 
The team has had some ups and downs this year. Eure said the team wrestled hard at dual meets but came up a bit short at region. While that was disappointing, Eure believed it helped motivate his players to do their best at the individual state tournament.
 
Eure said the hardest part of being a coach is trying to keep the players mentally and physically ready to compete.
 
“Physically, you try and keep them healthy. This time of year can be a grind so you try to keep fresh and happy and hungry to compete,” Eure said. “I think we’re there. We’re relatively healthy and our guys are excited to go compete, which as a coach, is where you want your athletes to be.”
 
Findlay, who took third in his weight class, is a 17-year-old junior who wrestled when he was little but then began wrestling hard in sixth grade. Findlay said his personal season has been great with a 31-5 record before the state championship, something he’s been working toward all year.
 
“It’s basically been all season, working hard in the practice room, getting those matches and preparing yourself, physically and mentally,” Findlay said. “You always come across mental barriers in practice when you’re doing sprints or you’re drilling hard when you just want to stop and you don’t want to keep going. But you have to push through it mentally and just keep going. There are other mental challenges, like in matches when you’re down, you have to fight to come back up to stay in the match or even come back to win.”
 
Fifteen-year-old Kade, who took fifth place in his weight division, began wrestling in the second grade as something to do in the off season from football.
 
“I’ve liked it a lot. I’ve liked it a lot more than junior high season,” Kade said. “In high school, the team is really close and in practices, we kind of form a brotherhood.”
 
Kade’s goal is to be a state champion, a goal he’s had since he started wrestling.
 
“I’ve been pushing myself really hard every single day, thinking about it,” Kade said.