Tanner and Jaret Probasco

Brothers Jaret and Tanner Probasco started wrestling almost as soon as they could walk. It was a family tradition after all. Their Dad Matt was a wrestler as well as uncles “Twisty” Larry Welch and Craig Probasco.

Jaret is a senior at South Tama County. He has qualified for Districts for the past three years. Last Saturday in his final year of high school he finally crossed that threshold after pinning Osage’s Derek Fox in a sudden death wrestle-back match to advance to the State Tournament. Tanner is a sophomore at South Tama. He too qualified for districts last year but came just short of a trip to The Well. This year the story was different as he defeated fifth ranked Nathan Lasher by decision in the district championship match to punch his ticket to Des Moines. The two will each get their first taste of the State Tournament on Thursday, February 18.

The brothers began wrestling at 3-4 years old prior to the formation of the Trojan Warrior Elite Youth Club and have been wrestling ever since. What really made the brothers so fond of the sport is the community that comes along with wrestling. There is a lot of time spent with teammates/friends during practices and Saturday tournaments.

“I never really liked the practices but I liked running around and being with friends at the tournaments,” said Jaret.

According to Jaret, when they were younger the practices were hard. But now looking back they weren’t as hard as they seemed. The hardest part of the sport now is the length of the season. “You still have to have what it takes to push through,” said Jaret.

The two brothers never wrestled each other much while they were growing up. Jaret has always held around 20 pounds on his younger brother. Now that they are in high school they have wrestled each other some. The elder Probasco, Jaret, doesn’t want to be taken down by his younger brother but Tanner has proven a formidable opponent and so there is a healthy level of competition between the two.

Jaret has had to overcome some major obstacles in his wrestling career. After all it has taken him three years to reach that state qualifier milestone. Earlier this season the possibility of a state berth was jeopardized by an injury that could have taken him out for the season. Doctors told him it would be 5 weeks before he could return. But Jaret wouldn’t settle for that. “I knew I was going to come back,” he said.

He did just that. Upon his return at the East Marshall tournament on January 23 he earned his 100th career win, a high accomplishment in the world of high school wrestling.

Jaret and Tanner’s brotherhood reaches beyond their bloodlines and extends out to include their teammates. When Tanner was in third grade he was wrestling fellow sophomore and teammate Colton Vest. Both kids had a strong will to win so it was no surprise when the match got a bit intense. Tanner and Colton turned the average wrestling match into more of a MMA style fight and both wound up with bloody noses. The coaches stopped them, told them they were done with practice and to go get cleaned up. The hostility didn’t last long though. Tanner went to his Dad that same day and asked if Colton could come over and spend the night. The two have been friends ever since.

This group is an extremely close group of young men. Four of the six state qualifiers are all in the same class including Tanner, Brady Fritz, Colton Vest, and Isaac Judge. While Fritz is a new addition to South Tama’s roster after transferring in from East Marshall, Tanner and Brady have known each other their whole lives. STC’s other two qualifiers are seniors Jaret and Bailey Chyma who have wrestled and played sports together for many years as well.

If you attend a Saturday tournament you will find the group of grapplers bunched together in a heap of sweatpants, headphones, and wrestling gear. You can visibly see their connection as they hang out, laugh with each other, cheer each other on and of course wrestling each other during breaks. “When you are training with someone for four months you develop a bond,” said Jaret, “I think we are one of the weirdest teams out there.”

They have developed a sort of mantra in the last few weeks of the season. While they are not quite sure how it started the attribute their new “hang loose” mentality to teammate Isaac Judge.

“Isaac just asked us at sectionals if we wanted to hang loose,” said Tanner. They adopted the hang loose hand gesture for team photos and they also tell each other to “hang loose”.

With Jaret being a senior he has plans to hang up his singlet after the season is over. He intends to follow in his Dad’s footsteps by attending MCC to pursue a career at Swift.

But before he says goodbye to the sport he and his five teammates will take a trip to the granddaddy of them all, The Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament. It is quite a turnaround for the Trojas after they walked away from last years district tournament empty handed. “This year we practiced technique a lot during the summer,” said Tanner. That practice has seemed to pay off.

“It feels good to make it (to State),” said Jaret, “but it won’t feel good to not place at all.”

As for Tanner he has set his goals for a top six finish. This week they are keeping things low key at practice. They aren’t pushing too hard but are working to keep conditioning where it needs to be. Tanner is working on taking shots towards the feet as well as working on being able to get out of the bottom position while Jaret is focusing on points.

But most importantly they will keep positive thoughts. “I tell myself that I’ve got to get this win,” said Tanner when talking about how he gets pumped up for a match. He will surely be telling himself that come Thursday.