Centralia's Kyzer Bailey is currently ranked No. 2 in the State 2A ranks for the 220-pound wrestling weight class. The senior has placed three times at the state tournament but is looking for the ultimate prize of a wrestling championship this year.
Centralia's Kyzer Bailey is currently ranked No. 2 in the State 2A ranks for the 220-pound wrestling weight class. The senior has placed three times at the state tournament but is looking for the ultimate prize of a wrestling championship this year.
Centralia's Kyzer Bailey is currently ranked No. 2 in the State 2A ranks for the 220-pound wrestling weight class. The senior has placed three times at the state tournament but is looking for the ultimate prize of a wrestling championship this year.
While wrestling season climaxes at the Tacoma Dome every year, it doesn’t show the whole story of the individual parts of the sport. It doesn’t show the hard work that a wrestler puts in day in and day out, and the only way an outsider can really follow who’s who is the state rankings.
You could call it the BCS of the sport. The state wrestling rankings can serve as a target for someone to reach and also put a target on someone’s back. Ask senior Centralia wrestler Kyzer Bailey — who has placed at the State 2A tournament the past three years — and he’ll tell you he’s not taking aim anymore.
“During my sophomore year, I put a lot of my attention on those rankings,” he said. “I kept checking to see if ‘oh am I No. 1?’ and that set me up for failure. So I really don’t pay much attention to them anymore.”
Bailey’s standard for failure is probably a lot different from the rest of ours. As a freshman he placed second at state, then took seventh his sophomore year before placing second, again, at the Tacoma Dome last year. But he’s not satisfied with just a packed trophy case and a spot on the podium. He wants to own it.
“For me, this is my senior year and my time to come forward and make my dreams come true,” Bailey said. “I want that state title.”
He’s already made plenty of steps towards that title this year. While Bailey doesn’t pay attention to the rankings anymore, it doesn’t stop the rest of the state from taking interest. He entered the season ranked No. 1 in the 182-pound weight class in the 2As. Since then, he’s wrestled up a few weight classes — not an easy thing to do — and has garnered the No. 2 ranking in the 220 class.
But, again, those are rankings, and that’s one thing Centralia coach Scott Phillips doesn’t want to dwell on for too long.
“It puts a lot of unwanted pressure on the kids,” Phillips said. “It might come from family members and friends. It can get in their heads and wrestlers put a lot of that on their shoulders. We need to be working on preparation and not worrying. Do the preparation and let the winning take care of itself.”
It’s that preparation that makes a champion. Not wasting reps during valuable mat time and taking practices as a serious opportunity to improve is something Phillips and the Tiger staff hang their hats on.
“We just want to see our kids succeed and we do everything we can do to see them do that,” he said.
Bailey and his coach both expects him to be down to 195 pounds in time for the postseason, which both feel will be the best weight class for the senior. Bailey already has a win over the current top-ranked wrestler at 195 — Ellensburg’s Kerrigan Simpson — during last year’s state tournament, in the 182-pound bracket.
Having already placed three times, it’s easy to see that Bailey is a special wrestler. The Centralia grappler — whose father, Duane Bailey, is an assistant coach — has been on the mat since he was four years old, and it’s simply been tough to find a way to beat Kyzer.
“For me it’s just the attitude to never give up,” Bailey said. “My freshman year I’d be down by a lot of points and never stop fighting and after being down by 14 points I was down by 2 points. That would frustrate the heck out of some guys.”
How frustrated?
“I’ve had wrestlers get so angry, it feels like they’re about to throw punches,” he said.
Despite wrestling in the higher weight classes, Bailey manages to be nearly as fast as he is strong. Throw in his mental toughness and the burly senior presents a wrestling cocktail that’s hard to swallow.
“If you put together all the time I put in the past four years wrestling, it would just be called four years of wrestling,” Bailey said. “With club and high school wrestling there really isn’t an offseason and that’s something I love.”
Last year at the state tournament, Bailey pinned Cedarcrest’s Elliot Dick in the first period, defeated Ellensburg’s Simpson 7-6, and beat Sedro-Woolley’s Quentin Roppel 7-6 before facing Trevor Eicher of Deer Park in the championship match.
Eicher, who has won several national wrestling tournaments and a title at the Reno Worlds back in April, defeated Bailey 16-0. That hasn’t soured the Centralia’s wrestler attitude towards the tournament or towards his ultimate goal.
“Nothing beats that first day of wrestling in the state tournament,” Bailey said. “You can just smell the success and drive in the building. The music is playing, everyone is out on those mats and it’s one of the greatest feelings ever.”
While Phillips tries to instill that the state tournament is just the same as any other tournament — as sometimes that ever-present pressure can get to kids — he knows the kids want to create memories.
“I was just telling the girls’ team that we need to focus in the next several months because you just don’t have much time,” Phillips said. “You have those months and that’s the rest of your wrestling career. How do you want to remember it?”
Anyone can guess how Bailey wants to remember it. And it has nothing to do with rankings.
