Former Drury wrestler turned assistant coach Peter Kuster has a knack for helping others, whether it’s working as a radiology tech or teaching wrestling camps for the Panthers.
“I’m working with patients who need help and then young men [at Drury] who are like ‘I know, I am an adult I know how to live my life don’t talk to me’,” Kuster said. “They are not all like that, they are great guys.”
Young minds might be stubborn.
“Most of them are tough individuals and hard nosed,” Kuster said.
But they are also curious and eager.
“They always want to have fun and do better,” Kuster said. “[They say] did I do this right, [I say] yeah you did this great…and that made their day.”
If you start them young, that might be the most positive impact on their wrestling career. The former Division II All-American knows from personal experience.
“When I wrestled in grade school and middle school, that was huge,” Kuster said. “The big thing for me was an introduction to it. It allowed me to be a little more comfortable with it. I could jump straight into high school not clueless.”
Jumping into the sport is not an option at Springfield Catholic. The Fightin’ Irish gave up the program four years ago.
“We only have one winter sport: basketball,” said Springfield Catholic teacher Eric Perkins. “When I talk to kids, there’s several kids in our high school who say ‘hey I would love to wrestle if we would have had a wrestling program’. We have kind of taken that information from our kids and we thought well let’s try this with our youth and build this up.”
So Perkins turned to Kuster to help build the foundation for a revamped program. Offering a camp for kids in the Springfield Catholic school system. And Peter says teaching the kids is about more than just pins and takedowns.
“Helping them find friends and having fun, I think that’s real important,” Kuster said.
With people like Peter to give advice, the high school hopes to bring the fight back to the mat in the future.
