Gunnison, led by Uhrig, is back to being force at Class 3A level
Seven years ago, Gunnison wrestling was on a ventilator.
The Cowboys had less than 10 kids in the program and consistently had to forfeit weights at dual meets. State qualifiers were a pipe dream.
But that’s all changed as Gunnison is relevant on the mat again. The Cowboys were Class 3A runner- up last year and placed in the top 10 this year, with both performances highlighted by state titles by Royce Uhrig.
“Seven years ago, we’d go to tournaments, basically roll on our back and get pinned,” Gunnison assistant coach Mike Dawson recalled. “And we didn’t qualify anybody ( for state) the first two years I coached ( in 2017 and ’ 18)…. We had to rebuild it from the base up.
“We weren’t going to find talent — we had to grow it.”
That’s exactly what the Cowboys did. Gunnison re- invigorated the team’s youth program, known as the Dusters. A renewed focus on that program, in conjunction with renowned head coach Dave Uhrig taking over in 2019, injected life into the Cowboys at all levels.
“About 10 years ago, the youth program was marginal at best,” explained assistant coach Ronnie Benson, who oversees the Dusters. “It was almost like daycare, and there wasn’t a lot of structure. But we knew it had to change, and we had a lot of parents who wanted the same thing.”
With community buyin, the Dusters’ program ( which starts as young as four years old and runs through eighth grade) grew from about 10 kids a decade ago to an enrollment figure in the 40s this season. And that participation influx is starting to show up on the varsity roster, even though Gunnison still had some trouble filling out the upper weights this season.
Royce Uhrig, who won the Class 3A 126- pound crown last year and followed that up with a title at 132 this year, came through the Dusters program and symbolizes the uptick in talent.
He, along with fellow junior Miles Harris ( third place at 138) and sophomore Brock Fry ( sixth place at 126) have collectively “set the bar” on the heels of Gunnison having its first college wrestling recruit in over a decade last year ( Devin Gomez, now at Western Colorado University).
“They’re going to national events like Fargo, like Virginia Beach,” Dawson said. “So we’re pushing those kids to the next level, and the kids below them and in the Dusters program are taking notice.”
The program’s partnership with Western Colorado has also accelerated its comeback. While the Dusters are cultivating youth wrestlers in Gunnison, the university is also playing its part by backing the Western Colorado Wrestling Club. The WCWC’S mission is “to unite and develop wrestlers and coaches in Western Colorado.”
In that vein, Dave Uhrig also knows how to build programs. Uhrig, who coached at Brush from 1996- 2011 and led the Beatdiggers to a 2007 Class 3A title, periodically meets with Benson and Taylor Summers, who runs the WCWC, to make sure Gunnison wrestlers are being coached the same way from pee wee all the way through high school.
“It’s all one program, with the little kids practicing at night in the high school room after the high school team,” said Shana Benson, the president of the Dusters.
“We intermix the same verbiage, expectations and everything, so that the kids are stair- stepped into the high school program. To have elementary, middle school, high school and college all as one program is incredible for us.”
And the best news for the Cowboys is that the performances at the state tournament may be a prelude of what’s to come next season when Gunnison returns all eight boys qualifiers and all seven of their girls’ wrestlers, all of whom were freshmen this year.
Gunnison’s won one wrestling crown, in Class 2A in 1964, but Royce Uhrig believes next year could be the time to break the nearly six- decade state title drought.
“Next year, I really want to win it as a team,” Uhrig said. “All the younger guys will keep this going. We should be top three every year for a long time. I think we’re going to ride a wave for a while because all these younger guys, the Dusters, you can see it when they’re here watching. They all have big eyes, and they can’t wait.”