From Glencoe farm to wrestling record book
John Millea, Star Tribune
Nate Matousek is a dairy farmer with a tattoo. That fact alone puts the Glencoe-Silver Lake senior in rare company. But somewhere out there, maybe in a feedlot near you, the odds are good that a few other farm boys are wearing ink.
What truly sets Matousek apart — and will soon have him standing alone in the annals of Minnesota sports history — is his ability to tattoo the competition. Barring catastrophe — a stampede comes to mind — Matousek soon will become the winningest wrestler in state history.
On a wind-chilling, week-in-the-life-ending Saturday at the Glencoe-Silver Lake gym, the black-haired human brick house moved three steps closer to the record. Competing for all of 4 minutes, 42 seconds in a quadrangular meet that lasted five hours, he put forth an effort any bowler would love: pin, pin, pin.
In his final match — a 54-second, welcome-to-the-real-world flattening of a poor 160-pound ninth-grader from (identity withheld to protect the innocent) — Matousek caused gasps with his combination of quickness and power.
“Did you see that? “a wide-eyed teenage observer asked a buddy after Matousek whirled around his victim, lassoed several limbs and slammed the package to the mat.
“No. I didn’t see it, “was the reply, followed by this single-syllable testimonial: “Geez.”
Geez, indeed. The day’s efforts left the two-time state champion with a 103-match winning streak and a career mark of 227-13. The record of 233 was set by 2003 Medford grad Mitch Kuhlman, who had 11 losses.
Glencoe-Silver Lake will end the regular season with dual meets Feb. 1 against LeSueur-Henderson and Feb. 3 against Delano, and those are the expected target dates for the record to fall.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit, “Matousek said, relaxing in the sunny cafeteria between matches. “After winning [state] last year, I knew the record would be within reach, barring injury.”
Matousek used to play football, too, but gave up that sport last fall because of injury concerns. As a junior running back, he went down because of a blown ankle in the Panthers’ 21-0 Class 3A Prep Bowl victory over Delano, and he didn’t want to further jeopardize his wrestling career.
He has stayed healthy and has signed with the Gophers, which makes his family very happy. He also visited Penn State, Nebraska and Northern Illinois.
“I think Nathan knows that we’d like him close to home, “said his mother, Linda. “But it was totally up to him. One thing that’s nice is we can go watch him wrestle, and not just us but other family members. Having dairy cows, it makes it hard to be gone from home for very long.”
Yes, the cows. Nate is the oldest child and only son among Mike and Linda Matousek’s four kids — mom and dad graduated from high school in Glencoe in 1979 — and his chores include tending to the 50 head.
“I feed the cows, I bed them with straw, I clean calf pens, I do tractor work, “he said. “To be honest, I don’t really enjoy shoveling crap. But I do enjoy field work.”
His tattoo has nothing to do with livestock but everything to do with family and pride. His right thigh carries the word “Matousek, “which serves as a target for any opponent unwise enough to lunge at it. Matousek has been taken down only twice in two years and has schooled everyone else who has attempted to do so.
He started wrestling as a second-grader and loved it right away.
“I was pretty strong as a little kid, growing up on a farm and everything, “he said. “I liked it. It was an aggressive sport, it was demanding and it was physical.”
Panthers coach Kelly Lipinski said, “He’s got God-given talent, but he’s also done an amazing amount of work to get to where he is today.”
At the end of the day, a winter sun began to dive into the Minnesota horizon and the state’s best wrestler/farmer headed for home. He did his chores, took a nap, then spent the evening hours with seven friends in a warm, roomy ice-fishing shack on Swan Lake.
He pulled into the farm around midnight, chatted with his dad, worked on his Playstation skills and watched the movie “Joe Dirt “as he drifted off to sleep.
It was 1:15 a.m., and another week in the life was over.
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