By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Sometimes a coach can let his record do the talking. Pending approval from the USD 428 Board of Education, Lars Lueders has been named the new wrestling coach at Great Bend High School. In his 14 years as head coach, Lueders has a 123-33 dual record, and his teams have produced 73 state medalists, 14 state champions, and five high school All-Americans. He got his start in Dodge City and is ready to move back into the Western Athletic Conference.
"Really, when I went out there for the first time and got to know the administration, you can tell they're good," Lueders said while appearing as a guest on Sports Day on 1590 KVGB and 95.5 FM. "They want to be very successful. You can tell they're very driven and organized. When I went to that facility, it drops your jaw a little bit. It's huge. It's better than a lot of college facilities."
Lueders wrestled for three years and was a state qualifier at Clinton High School in Iowa under Hall of Fame Coach Dan Knight. Lueders' grandfather, Bob Lueders, is another hall of famer from Clinton. As a senior, Lars moved to Eagle Valley High School in Colorado where he was a state medalist.
Lueders remained in the state to play football and wrestle at the University of Northern Colorado. With that school turning Div. I, wrestlers would not be able to compete at the national tournament for four years, per NCAA rule. Many grapplers, including Lueders, transferred. He went on to wrestle at Western State College in Gunnison, now Western Colorado University, where he was a two-time national qualifier. He peaked at No. 3 in the national NCAA Div. II rankings - all while wrestling at nearly 8,000 feet.
"It's very unique," he said. "Our coaches really did a good job with the mental part. Any time we were conditioning or working hard, they'd always yell the elevation, '8,000 feet, men!' That just meant nobody else was training at that elevation. We were doing things a lot of people couldn't do. When they came to wrestle us, they weren't used to it and it definitely showed in the third period. We had a lot of first-ranked nationally teams that came in and we kind of thumped them because they couldn't breathe in the third period."
While still in his senior season at Colorado, he accepted his first head coaching job at Dodge City High School where he spent 11 years. He coached a year at Bishop Carroll in Wichita, then coached the last two seasons at Salina Central. He was named Class 5A Coach of the Year following the 2023-24 season and leaves the Mustangs as a potential Class 5A powerhouse next season. Lueders is also a two-time Class 6A Coach of the Year, and he's won the honor as league coach of the year five times.
Lueders' time at Bishop Carroll was short, but he believes subsequent life experiences have only made him a better coach.
"That's when the pandemic hit and there was a lot going on," he said. "I'd just had a son at that time. I actually took a couple years off and went to Kansas City and ran private lessons. I took a step back. I think it was really good for my coaching. I got to coach at a different level, more individualized, and see a different part of the state. Then I wanted to get back at it. I thought Salina Central could be a good fit. I was there for two years and kind of revived the program."
Great Bend finished fourth place in Class 5A in 2023 under current Barton Coach Nathan Broeckelman, a friend of Lueders'. The Panthers placed sixth at state last year under Gannon Reichert. Several top performers from last year's team will be back next winter.
"This is by far the best situation I've walked into," Lueders said. "They can compete for a team trophy or even a state championship if they put it together. I've never had that. I have had to start off slow and try to maybe squeak into the top 10 the first year and go from there. This is definitely a unique situation and the setup is perfect to create a powerhouse. You have the Kids Club aligned with the high school, already. I've been talking with them. Even Nathan is at the college. It's almost like you can have not just a K-12 program but a K-Juco program if you do it right."
Lueders has already worked with the Great Bend Wrestling Club at The Lair, and he's ready to see what the varsity teams can do next winter.
"You can tell there's a lot of passion in the city to be successful," he said. "That's really what gets me going, especially coming from a wrestling family and a grandpa that was a hall of fame coach, that's what I strive for - a wrestling community that wants to be successful."