While taking a walk in Lapwai, it’s hard to go through any neighborhood without seeing a basketball hoop in someone’s driveway.
For anyone familiar with Lapwai High School’s success in that sport, it should come as no surprise. The winter months typically has meant just one thing for the town with a population of a little more than 1,100.
However, second-year math teacher and first-year wrestling coach Chris Katus is trying to carve out a niche among those who want an alternative.
Three decades ago, Lapwai had a wrestling program, but it was disbanded. Now, Katus is trying to revive enthuasism around the sport.
Katus has been around the sport his entire life, wrestling from the time he was 5 years old and through his time at Lakeland High School in Rathdrum, Idaho.
He attended the University of Idaho, getting his degree in education. While there, Katus spent one year as an assistant at Potlatch High School while helping with Lewiston’s youth program.
After graduating, Lapwai offered Katus his first teaching opportunity in the 2021-22 school year. Getting his feet wet teaching, he also set the wheels in motion to get the wrestling program up and running. It was approved in the spring.
“I started going around and talking to the kids about wrestling at the beginning of the year,” Katus said. “I think the biggest part of (recruiting) was hosting an open gym in the cafeteria. They’d see us wrestling, and that drew in a lot of kids.”
One obstacle Katus hadn’t calculated was how popular basketball was in Lapwai. In fact, one of his students this past school year asked him if he’d let him cut his hair if the Wildcats won the state tournament. Not realizing Lapwai basketball probably is the biggest dynasty in the state of Idaho, Katus obliged.
“A couple of days later, I had another kid come up to me and say that was stupid,” he said. “That’s when I realized, ‘Oh, I have to pull kids from a sport to do another sport that they’ve never heard of.’ That’s been the biggest problem so far.”
On the flip side, Katus was able to convince some football players that wrestling would be beneficial to their craft.
“The coordination and footwork in wrestling really translate onto the football field,” Katus said. “That’s been one of the biggest draws to get other athletes.”
Being able to get a program off the ground includes a lot of grunt work, and Katus and his family put in a lot of that work to get the program started.
Katus’ father owns a logging truck company, which donated $4,000 to provide singlets. As for mats, Katus used his connection at Lewiston to get a set of hand-me-downs to get started.
After some time of open gyms and recruiting, the program went into the winter with three athletes on the roster.
But as the season has progressed, more athletes have turned out. As of this week, the Wildcats have seven wrestlers on their roster.
“It’s been really cool watching the team grow,” Katus said. “We only have one kid that’s wrestled before, so it’s been an uphill battle getting the basics of wrestling down, but it’s been really cool watching them grow.”
While the Wildcats haven’t got their hands raised a lot this season, wins aren’t the goal right now: growth is. To demonstrate that, Katus and assistant Matt Lattuda have been recording every practice to put together a compilation video to show each wrestler’s progression.
“They might not see or feel that they’ve been improving, but we have video evidence,” Katus said. “We’ve also been keeping track of their physical development. They’re building muscles and lifting more weight. We’re trying to show them that they’re improving even if they feel like they’re not.”
After seeing the effort of Katus and the wrestlers on the mat, the Nez Perce Tribe, along with the Lapwai faithful, have taken notice.
The program has been approved for a $10,000 grant from the tribe to get its own set of mats to practice on.
Lapwai doesn’t have any home meets this year, but the community is looking forward to next year to see their Wildcats in person.
At the Maniac Wrestling Tournament on Saturday in Orofino, Katus noticed a man he’s never seen before in a Lapwai wrestling T-shirt. He went to introduce himself, and the man turned out to just be a Lapwai native who enjoys wrestling and supporting the Wildcats.
“They’re begging for home meets,” Katus said. “The support from the community has been great. They’ve been coming out to support us, and the support from the tribe has been great as well.”
Pixley may be contacted at (208) 848-2290, tpixley@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @TreebTalks.
