Sparta's Monroe nearing college decision

Posted March 13, 2016 11:00 pm

By Pete Spitler Staff Writer

After a third-place finish at state and tying the state record with five pins at the state tournament, what's next for Sparta senior wrestler Will Monroe?

Deciding on a college.

"There's a couple colleges that I don't know if they want to go full-time or whatever and actually benefit me the way I'm looking for," Monroe said. "I have to look more into that with those colleges and there's other colleges that I'm going off of coaching-wise type stuff."

Sparta High School held an assembly last Friday to recognize Monroe's accomplishments, which included wrestling in the 285 pound class at state despite weighing in at 216.

He was also honored for breaking Danny Beard's school shot put record with a distance of 50 feet, 10 inches. Beard threw 50 feet, 9 inches in 1970.

"The last two years, he's learned a lot," said Sparta wrestling coach Rob Kirk. "In his sophomore year, he also qualified for state.

"Everybody down south, he could beat pretty easily, but when we saw some of the competition up north - especially at state - there was just some technique issues that he had to work on."

Kirk added that Monroe is strong enough to throw a lot of his competitors, but coming into his senior season, he would have to work on his takedown techniques.

"And that took him through the postseason pretty fairly," Kirk said. "Getting on guys' legs and taking them down there and working his way to pins."

Kirk said one college very high on Monroe is Iowa Lakes Community College in Estherville, Iowa. Monroe told the Herald Tribune that he would like to study to become an electrician.

"They are a good program when it comes to William as a student," Kirk said of Iowa Lakes. "No matter where he'll go and who he'll wrestle for, he'll be a good wrestler - it won't take a great coach to win with a guy like William - but making sure there's a coaching staff that's going to take care of him and his grades and making sure he's keeping on top of all that."

Kirk also shared a memory from the sectional tournament.

"Everybody had been wrestling and I was asking his teammates 'Where's William? He's got to warm up' and we were trying to find out where he was at," Kirk said. "We found him in the concession stands, not eating the food, but he was helping the ladies sell the food.

"Everybody else is warming up, jumping around and there's William helping people out."

At state, Monroe defeated Knoxville's Ricky Cantu in 42 seconds to take third place after falling to Herscher's Grant Miller, 3-1, in the quarterfinals.

"I had a fun time up there, but I thought I could have done a little bit better," Monroe said. "I messed up with one little tiny thing, so I really fought my way back to get third place and did my best then."

And Monroe did just that, pinning his away to the medal.

"It means a lot to me because doing the stuff that I did opened a lot of doors for a lot of people," Monroe said of his success. "So, I think it shows people if they work hard enough, they can get what they want."

Kirk also spoke on the effect of Monroe's accomplishments on the rest of the wrestling program.

"We have a lot of young guys coming in," Kirk said. "We had five new wrestlers last year and five new wrestlers this year. So you've got 10 guys coming in because they know there's been some success."

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