University Heights Academy is taking the steps needed to revive its wrestling program (UHA Wrestling photo from a home match in the early 2010s)
University Heights Academy hasn’t fielded a wrestling program in eight years, but that could soon be changing.
Brandon Borneman, a UHA alum and former wrestler, is seeking to revive the program that made great gains in a short amount of time before the program was disbanded in 2017.
He has also reached out to a former mentor and UHA coach Doug Willen to plot a path for that revival. Willen’s son Wade was the first UHA wrestler to reach the medal podium at the KHSAA State Wrestling Tournament in 2009. Borneman wrestled with Willen in 2010 and qualified for the state tourney in the 171-pound class.
University Heights Academy had eight trips to the state medal podium from 2009 to 2015. Chance Collins (fifth place) and Daniel Dyess (sixth place) were the last in 2015. Willen earned three straight state medals from 2010-12, with fourth place his highest finish.
As Borneman works to restart the program, he says the school still has much of the equipment needed.
“Equipment is one thing, but we had to get buy-in from the school and the kids. I started going to the school and talking to some of the kids to see if they would be interested,” he said, calling it “phenomenal.”
It also helps that Borneman has a young son and daughter in the school system, and that both have expressed an interest in wrestling.
He said they participate in MC Wrestling, a local program that was started a year ago by Michael and Chelsea McAllister.
MC Wrestling begins the kids at the pre-K level, and they wrestle into the older divisions ahead of middle school and high school.
Last year, they had about 35 kids participate.
“Some of the kids trickled through the MC Wrestling Club just because there were no other options. And so once I got some feedback from kids in middle school and elementary school, they seemed really excited.”
Borneman knows the program won’t flourish overnight and that it will take growth at the lower levels before it can be realized at the high school level.
“We’re going to focus on the elementary and middle school and grow it organically into the varsity program. We’ll also have to figure out how to start the high school program when we’re ready.”
Borneman said he has approached the UHA Board of Directors and received the green light to move forward with starting a program.
He says he had had many phone calls, texts, and Facebook messages from people expressing their excitement to see the program revived.
“UHA had a phenomenal wrestling program when it was in place. I mean, we competed on the national stage, we competed certainly on the state stage, and it was kind of an outstanding program. So for a lot of us who were a part of those years, it was a little bit of a sting to see it go away. So there’s been a lot of excitement in bringing it back.”
Borneman knows one key to the revival is to start young and let them experience some success.
“I think it’s a two-fold approach. I think we’re gonna see some immediate success, as far as we’re going to send some kids to tournaments. We’re going to have some medals around some necks. But until you get a full roster, you’re not going to see the turnaround of winning team awards,” he said. “So I would say individually, we’re going to see some success in year one. I would say probably years two and three are where we’ll start seeing the trophies come back home to UHA on the elementary to middle school level.”
Borneman said if things go as planned, University Heights Academy could have a viable high school wrestling program in five years.
