Nicolet’s Keckeisen grapples with success
He’s defending D1 champ at 170 pounds
GLENDALE – If you didn’t think being a big-time wrestler would carry a lot of weight with bunch of middle schoolers, think again.
The kids love Parker Keckeisen. This year as the Nicolet senior has been preparing to defend his 170pound Division 1 state title, he has also spent part of each school day interning as an assistant gym teacher at Glen Hills Middle School. Every now and then the teacher, who happens to be Nicolet wrestling coach Gus Kaufmann, will ask Keckeisen to explain to the eighth-graders what it takes to become a state champion and he’ll break down all the work that goes into the task.
Not too long ago, Keckeisen was one of those eighth graders, unsure of
whether or not he wanted to put in that kind of work.
“I remember Parker in eighth grade up in the wrestling room before Kid’s Club and I showed him the state board and asked ‘Are you going to be up there one day?,' " Kaufmann said. “Yeah,” Keckeisen said. “First-place?,” Kaufmann asked. “That’s a lot of work,” Keckeisen said. “I don’t know.”
Four years later, look at him. Not only is he a two-time state finalist and the school’s first state wrestling champion since 1962, he is also Division I recruit (Northern Iowa) and one nation’s best in his weight class. Trackwrestling.com ranked him fourth in the nation at 170 pounds.
Credit his rise to what happens when hard work meets a distaste for losing.
“He took some early-season losses as a freshman that just lit a fire under him and he was not OK with it,” Kaufmann said. “He was never the kid who was like ‘Yeah, he just beat me.’ He walked off the mat like ‘That’s not happening again.’ ”
That mentality has led to tangible results. After a fifth-place finish at 160pounds as a freshman, Keckeisen reached the final at 170 as a sophomore before dropping a 4-2 decision to Manitowoc’s Jose Acosta. With the sting of that loss still lingering last season – a picture of Acosta beating him was background picture on his phone – Keckeisen was unbeatable, despite enduring in-season surgeries to repair torn meniscus in both knees.
The final chapter to his prep career began Saturday by winning the 182pound weight class of the Nicolet Knight Scramble.
“I’m prepared for it,” he said of the season. “I wrestled all off-season. I wrestled during football season. I’ve improved in all positions. I’m excited.”
At this time a year ago, Keckeisen was recovering from his first surgery, a supposed six-to-eight week setback that only cost him about a month away from competition. Late in the regular season when he tore the meniscus in his other knee, he made it back in about two weeks, just in time for the regionals.
He wasn’t the same right off the bat, though. Right after the surgery, he wrestled defensively before slowly regaining momentum and re-opening his arsenal. By the time he reached the state tournament, he was on the attack again, though it wasn’t until the state final that he really cut loose.
His 23-8 technical fall victory over Holmen junior Kalyn Jahn in the final was classic Keckeisen.
“He definitely had pain through that entire process, but never to the point where it was going hamper him or hold him back,” Kaufmann said. “He just kept on going. It was mind over matter.
“He called UNI and talked to Coach (Doug) Schwab, the head coach there, and that coach said I’ve seen guys overcome a lot more than this for something they really want.”
Classic Parker means shooting the leg and scoring takedowns. Where he has worked to improve is keeping guys on the mat once he gets them there.
“Last year I think I gave up a 131 escapes … I just really want to improve on top,” he said.
One of his possible majors in college is education, hence the internship that counts as one of his classes. He spends one period each day at the middle school getting a taste of what teaching is like.
He wouldn’t mind teaching physical education or health one day.
“I want to be active and I feel like that is a good way to teach kids how to love being physical, how to love living an active life," he said. "I want to pass that on.”