“It was wild. And it was a lot closer than I would have liked it to be.”
That’s just one of the comments the latest West Liberty High School Comet state wrestling champion Kobe Simon had to make last week in an exclusive interview following his 220-pound class historic night victory on Saturday Feb. 20 in Des Moines.
Simon said he knew he had to simply “wrestle my match” in order to beat Central Lyon-George Little Rock senior Dylan Winkel, who was unbeaten at 29-0. “I was going to take it one period at a time,” he said.
That he did, jumping out to an early lead before Winkel came back to tie the score at 1:39 remaining in the final third period, Simon pulling the win out with a two-point takedown with just 19 seconds remaining,
Simon said it may have been a gamble to let Winkel tie the score at four when he let him up after a scramble, but said he likes “to be on my feet” and made his move in the final half-minute to secure the victory.
Like Simon, Winkel had finished second in the state a year ago in a lower weight class, and Simon said the two may have been thinking the same thing before they stepped on the mats in the championship bout – “I’m not going to finish second again.” Both are similar in stature and talent and Simon knew he would have a tough match ahead.
He said he didn’t know how to react after the match had ended, raising his arms and doing what he called his signature muscle man move in raising his arms to his head. “Whenever I’m pumped up, I tend to flex (my muscles). That’s just what came to mind,” he said moments before a delighted head coach Ian Alke, who jumped into his arms, greeted him. “I surely wasn’t going to jump into his arms,” laughed Simon, noting the coach isn’t a big guy. “The emotions were crazy.”
He said he really hasn’t done much to celebrate since, but says his mom, Bobby Joe Gates, can’t stop watching a video of the match, obviously pretty proud of her son’s accomplishment.
With the win, Simon became only the eighth Comet in history to win a state title. He says being in that class “feels pretty good.”
“It’s crazy that only eight people have done it,” he said, pointing out the long-time success of the program. “I’m just very grateful to be one of them.”
He said one of those champions, Bryce Esmoil, was an inspiration toward his wrestling success. “When he was a senior, I was a freshman. I always looked up to him,” he said, noting the two still wrestle from time to time.
Simon said when he was a youngster he didn’t take wrestling very seriously but had some success at the junior high school level and “realized I could compete with the best.”
He said as he grew toward his senior year and to 6-4, 240-plus pounds, he knew it was his time to shine “and I was going to work my butt off to get there.” That’s right, Simon was over 240 pounds when he played football for the Comets in the fall, but said he did some serious weight loss workouts to get to the 220 weight, where he wrestled most of the year unless the team wanted him to move up to heavyweight to get points in a match, noting the team has another 220 wrestler, freshman Clinton Rochau.
Simon says he hopes he’s an inspiration for younger wrestlers and especially his two younger step-brothers, Cooper and Keaton Gates, who wrestled in AAU state competition last weekend.
He advised younger wrestlers and athletes not to take things so seriously in junior high school, noting nobody would remember how you did at that level. He encouraged kids to work toward competing in the high school programs and setting goals to win.
Simon says although he won’t join any spring sports to end his prep career, he does plan to continue to wrestle and work out – including participating this weekend in a first time “Tournament of Champions” event in Sioux City, where he expects to wrestle the 3A state champion from Bettendorf.
Next year, he’ll be wrestling either heavyweight or at 195 for Grandview College in Des Moines. He said he chose the school because of it’s smaller enrollment size, giving him an opportunity to stay closer to home and study Kinesiology, hoping to become a physical therapist, athletic trainer or even a chiropractor down the road.
“I wanted to try to stay in athletics,” he said.
He said coaching wrestling may someday be on his plate as well but said he’d simply love to come back and help some of the bigger Comets on the mats like so many other alumni have done for the program.
He said there were a lot of people he couldn’t help but thank for his success – in particular his step-dad, Pat Gates, a former wrestler who pushed Simon toward the program. He said Jesse Drahos, who he started to wrestle as a sophomore, was also a major key along with Dan Gaffey, an assistant coach that he wrestled all year in practices. “I couldn’t be more thankful for that,” Simon said.
The senior said practices weren’t any tougher than normal this year, although he did put in extra time like running a mile during lunch hour, lifting weights whenever possible and working on strategies and situations on the competitive mats.
He said coach Alke pointed out at the beginning of the season that each wrestler should be grateful for every match they complete through the year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, noting they were fortunate to get to wrestle this year. “There may not be a tomorrow,” Simon said, noting that was enough to motivate him to work as hard as he could every day, knowing the season could come to an abrupt ending at any time.
Looking back, Simon described the whole experience as “awesome, fun.”