Remember The Wrestler: Justin Decker; West Central (Maynard) HS ‘95/Wahawk WC/Iowa Hawkeyes/Upper Iowa | THE PIN DOCTORS
Justin Decker was a 1995 graduate from Maynard, West Central who later went on to wrestle for the Iowa Hawkeyes from 1995-1998, took 12 years off and spent several years as a Head and Assistant Coach…
thepindoctors.com
This one may be the most interesting Remember The Wrestler article I’ve published yet. Justin won two state titles in HS, wrestled for The Hawkeyes for a few years, quit wrestling, got hired shortly after as the Head Wrestling Coach at West Central HC for a couple years, then as an Assistant at North Fayette for a few more years and then coached as an Assistant at Upper Iowa University before deciding to compete one final year for Upper Iowa, 12 years after the last time he competed at Iowa. That’s incredible.
Some very interesting stories about his time competing for The Hawkeyes! My fave is this story about Gable:
JUSTIN DECKER: People sometimes ask me what one of the craziest stories Dan Gable made the team do when he coached. One story sticks out. I can’t remember exactly what sparked it but I believe some guys were struggling mentally with managing their weight. At the end of practice Gable stuck the entire team and all his assistant coaches in the sauna and said we were all to stay in there for one hour. We were packed in there like sardines and it was the hottest sauna I have ever been in in my life. We stayed in there a really long time. He shut the lights off after about 15 minutes and I remember guys whimpering and breaking mentally. He didn’t keep us in there a full hour but it was close to 50 minutes and it was probably one of the hardest things I ever had to do.
And there’s much more in the story! Check it out!
