Former coach honors fallen soldier
BISMARCK, N.D. – A former Watford City coach and his wife are urging others at the state wrestling tournament to remember a former high school and college star who lost his life in Iraq.
Frank and Sally Fish are handing out ribbons they created in honor of Lance Koenig, who was killed last year while serving in Iraq with the North Dakota Army National Guard.
Koenig was a standout wrestler at North Dakota State University, finishing second in the NCAA Division II national wrestling tournament as a sophomore and sixth as a junior.
Frank Fish got to know Koenig during his high school career, when Koenig’s Carrington teams established a wrestling rivalry with Fish’s Watford City squads.
The Fishes said they were in Europe when they heard news of Koenig’s death last September. They brought about 500 ribbons memorializing Koenig to the state tournament in Bismarck this week, and planned to give them all away.
“Wrestling people have a great esprit de corps, “Frank Fish said. “They have a bond.”
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