July
12, 2007: The Salt Lake Tribune
Wrestling Family Pins Its Future On
the Mat
by Baxter Holmes
There is more wrestling in the blood of
the Kilpack family then there is blood. It starts early,
only a few years after birth, and then the kids start
raking in awards, trophies and medals before they're even
old enough to see a PG-13 movie.
There's Garrick, 6, MacKelti, 10, William,
12, and Ella-Maereen, 14. They competed against about 700
athletes from June 14 to June 16 in the AAU Grand
Nationals wrestling tournament in Butte, Mont.
All four came away with All-America
status. It's what they - the Kilpacks - do. They wrestle.
"I think as a parent you do have a way of
trying to help your kids love and appreciate things that
were very gratifying to you," said Bill Kilpack III
coaches his kids in the Mountain Top Wrestling Club, which
practices at Jordan High School. Bill, a six-time state
champion in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, said he
started teaching William before he turned 4 years old.
William said he vaguely remembers it.
"I remember thinking that we ran too much,
but then again, I was almost 4 years old," said William,
who won his fifth national championship in Butte.
Bill's father, Bill Kilpack Jr., also was
a wrestler. He wrestled for the University of Utah and was
one of the two original coaches for the Sundance Wrestling
Team, which produced two world-champion wrestlers.
Bill III is the main coach while his dad
coaches the club along side him.
"One thing is with my dad being a coach
also is that a lot of the kids call him Grandpa Bill,"
said the younger Bill. "They don't call him coach or
anything like that."
Garrick just finished kindergarten at
Sunrise Elementary and has six All-America finishes as
well as being the top-ranked wrestler for his Flyweight
age division in Utah.
Ella-Maereen said Garrick has a bright
future in the sport.
"He's a really good wrestler," she said.
"He has been outstanding wrestler quite a few times and
he's really on top of his group. If he put his mind to it,
he'd never lose a match."
MacKelti has had success too, winning two
national titles in folkstyle wrestling in women's
divisions. Ella-Maereen has wrestled on and off for years,
but earned the All-America status in her first competitive
year. Previously, Ella-Maereen was a gymnast.
"She bends like a Gumby doll," Bill said.
"She's very graceful and floor was her best even because
of her grace."
But she joined to fit in with her
brothers, she said.
"I was tired of being my brother's dummy
so I wanted to wrestle to get back at him," Ella-Maereen
said.
Bill said he works his team hard, harder
than some high schools even, but his ultimate goal is for
each of his wrestlers to become technicians.
The family was in Green Bay, Wis., earlier
this month for the ASICS Kids Freestyle and Greco-Roman
National Championships.
"We try to make sure they have a balanced
diet," Bill III said. "A lot of times if I have fruit
leather or candy, they'll choose the fruit leather."
And the coach has even found a way to
motivate the other wrestlers in the club. When it comes to
doing pushups, he might tell the boys that they have to do
more than his daughters otherwise they'll have to go home
and tell there dads about it.
"The thing with that is because we work so
hard, you have to make sure they're having fun," he said.
All in the family
* Bill Kilpack III, head coach of Mountain Top Wrestling
Club
* Garrick, 6
* MacKelti, 10
* William, 12
* Ella-Maereen, 14
* The four family members earned All-America finishes at
the AAU Grand Nationals wrestling tournament in Butte,
Mont. |