Senior begins new sport while coach builds new program

The one emotion that was going through senior Jake Sutton’s head on that mat during his eighth grade year was nerves, and that did not change his senior year.

Heading in to his first high school meet, Sutton said he “was nervous but somewhat confident.” Sutton plays team sports like baseball and football, and only wrestled from pre-K to eighth grade.

He walked out of his first meet against Vandercook Lake 1-1. Sutton, who wrestles in the 152 weight class, thinks that is because his coach, Foster Bunce, gave him some good advice.

“He wants us to have confidence in ourselves, and he doesn’t want us to be pros with the moves, just know when and how to use them,” Sutton said.

Just as Sutton has never done high school wrestling, Coach Foster Bunce has never coached before.

Foster is fresh from Concordia University out of Nebraska. He has wrestled in high school for Dansville and had a 

record of 210 wins and 27 losses. He qualified for state all 4 years in high school and decided to come back.  

He chose a local team, where his cousin, sophomore Kael Bunce, wrestles. Even though Foster has relation to Kael, he guarantees that he will treat him like “another member.”

But Foster does look to Kael for influence on the team. “Kael is one of the only guys who’s wrestled before, so I look at him as a leader,” Foster said. Most of the boys on the team are brand new to the sport, having never wrestled before according to Foster.     

Kael has a positive record when it comes to pins, winning two matches as of December 6, leading the team in victories.

Their meet at Vandercook Lake ended in a loss, but Foster thinks the boys excelled. All the team members “got a chance to wrestle, and most the guys won one match.” Foster acknowledges that the program and the team is new, and that it will take time to build it up.

“We’re just having fun, trying to get the guys better.”