WILBER, NE — High school athletes at Wilber-Clatonia have been hitting the mat for half a century.

The Wolverines celebrated 50 years of the wrestling program at their dual against Tri County on Saturday. Six of the most successful teams in school history were honored before the competition, including two former coaches. Current coach James Bates organized the event.

“The guys who built this program, I think they deserve to be recognized," Bates said. "Coach Beecher meant the world to me as a mentor and I know that Coach Malloy was a mentor to him. After 50 years, I think it was important to recognize those guys for their contributions.”

Jim Malloy led the program from 1977 to 1981. Then, Bruce Becher took over and coached through 1992. They say wrestling has always been a good fit for kids from the area.

“You were just trying to figure out ways to motivate them," Malloy said. "They seem to adapt to this type of sport, where it’s one-on-one and there’s a lot of personal responsibility they have to take for it.”

“Kids look up to their peers and their role models and it’s really been that way with wrestling," Becher said. "Coach Bates, with him taking over the program, it’s really blossomed.”

Don Ross, Scott Havel, Steve Barnas and Rene Solc were members of the original 1971 team and came back to celebrate 50 years. They set the tone for the program’s success with one unbeatable record set against Dorchester.

“We won all 72 points, that means we pinned all 12 individual matches," Ross said. "The only way anybody else could do it is to match us, they cannot beat us.”

This original group revealed that what is now a highly-respected program, started in the most humble of ways.

“Our first match, we actually wrestled in a football uniform because we didn’t even have a uniform," Solc said. "You gotta chuckle when you tell people… that’s the way it was. The uniforms didn’t show up so we went out and wrestled.”

On Saturday, the injury-plagued Wolverines fell to Tri County 54-22.