Fargo Feature: Wrestling finds a way to tie Guam and Mississippi wrestlers together

FARGO, North Dakota – In 2009, the fledgling state association in Arkansas formally brought its first team to Fargo, taking a school bus 1,000 miles to compete against the nation’s best.

Arkansas’ foray into wrestling in Fargo left just one gap left in the wrestling map – Mississippi. That gap is now filled – and then some.

Despite losing his first two bouts in Junior men’s freestyle on Monday, Bear Bryant Siegal donned a singlet with the word “Mississippi” emblazoned on it, making it the first time the state has had a representative in the 53-year history of the Junior national men’s freestyle tournament. 

A few hours later, Koa DeLoach did the same thing, but representing the U.S. territory of Guam in the 16U men’s freestyle division. 

Wrestling has been sanctioned by the state high school association in Mississippi for decades, but it just didn’t really exist. It wasn’t until 2023 that we saw the formation of a state wrestling tournament at the high school level. 

“Ever since I first moved to Mississippi in 2010, I've been trying to push freestyle and Greco there,” said Andy Siegal, who was cornering his son in Fargo. “(Mississippi’s) only had officially high school wrestling for two years, so this is really the first year freestyle and Greco formed, so it's a big thing.”

Bear isn’t a Fargo rookie, though. He’d wrestled for Florida the last two years – and he will continue to wrestle high school in Florida at North Bay Haven Charter in Panama City. He got a release from the Florida association to compete for the first Team Mississippi, but following his second loss, he was more worried about improving. 

“I’m just trying to get better,” said Bear. “I’m a first-year Junior so it’s a lot harder competition out here.”

“It’s really an inspiration for the kids,” said coach Robert Hickman, who’s coaching Bear with Andy. 

Andy’s hoping this will open the door to the new wrestlers in the state to develop more wrestling skills and further grow the sport. 

“It's something for somebody that go out here sticks their feet in the cold water, give it a shot,” said Andy. “This is (Bear’s) third time for this, but hopefully this will inspire some other kids to come we had to come in. Hopefully next year, we'll have a full team to go out there really competing.”

Andy looked at neighboring Arkansas and their path a decade and a half ago and liked what he saw. 

“I think Arkansas is a heck of a blueprint with how they did it,” said Andy. “I think Mississippi is the next one that's going to explode. You know, the kids love football down there. And I think wrestling is a good kind of tag team partner with football. As long as it's sold that way  - ‘you know this is going help you in football.’

“I know Coach David Sutherland and the staff are doing a great job on that at Vancleave trying to push it throughout the state, and every day there's another high school and another high school and another high school expanding. Before it was just two high schools, the Mississippi School for the Deaf and Ocean Springs, so it's nice to see there’s been the state tournament this year and next year it’ll be bigger,” said Andy.

Bear’s appearance even drew the attention of a former Mississippi resident who’s had success in Fargo – three-time All-American Sam Herring of Pennsylvania. Herring, who lived in Olive Branch, Mississippi before moving to Pennsylvania, watched from the edge of Mat 10 during Bear’s second match.

“I feel like representation at an event like this is the first step to Mississippi really starting to get numbers,” said Herring. “There’s always a first for everything. I remember going to Kids Natioanls years ago with my brother as the only kids from both Tennessee and Mississippi.

“They gave every state a sign to walk around with during the parade, and so we both just took one for ourselves. I hope this is just the beginning for what can be a competitive state eventually,” said Herring.

Wrestling in Guam might be as sparse as it is in Mississippi. Guamanian wrestlers have been on the mats here in Fargo in the past, but they’d been a part of squads representing names like Team Okinawa or Armed Forces, led by past U.S. Greco-Roman World Team member Jake Clark. Team Okinawa and U.S. military dependents made their debut in Fargo in 2005.

DeLoach also had a short freestyle experience, dropping his first two matches. Standing in DeLoach’s corner were two familiar faces – Coaches Andy Siegal and Robert Hickman. 

Wait, what? 

DeLoach’s father serves in the U.S. military and is being transferred to Florida where Koa will wrestle next season …  at North Bay Charter in Panama City. 

Let’s spell that out again – two wrestlers who are serving as their association’s first representatives officially in Fargo from Guam and Mississippi will be high school teammates next year in Florida. 

Andy explains: “What happened is Koa is attending school where my son attends that I've worked for and a wrestling club that I've worked for. So his dad was sitting next to me. He explained to me that the coaches in Guam can't make it and asked if I was going. I said, ‘Yeah, I'm coaching Mississippi.’ He said, ‘Well, can you coach Koa?’

“I said, ‘I don't know. I don't know the rule on that. So I sent my USA card to the Guam people. They sent it to USA Wrestling and registered me,” said Andy.

He immediately reached out to Hickman to lend a hand. 

“I said ‘Hey Coach, you're going have to help me with this, because, you know, we're a tag team’. So, next thing you know, we're coaching Guam - and we got the two biggest teams here – both with one!”

DeLoach almost missed his first chance to step on the mat with a Guam singlet.

“I was held up in the airport for a little over a day because all my flights were cancelled, I had to redirect, then I had to redirect again,” explained DeLoach. 

O’Hare, Minneapolis, Dallas – in that order – to get to Fargo. All that to get here from Blacksburg where DeLoach was training with Ethan Aguigui, Virginia Tech wrestling’s Assistant Director of Creative Communications and a three-time Senior World Championship competitor for Guam.

Much like Bear, DeLoach is just trying to get better and help open more opportunities for wrestlers from the island. He felt Fargo was a perfect opportunity.

“I wanted to do it because I think it would help me reach my goals,” said DeLoach. “I really want to make it to the Olympics one day, and it's honestly like one of my biggest goals and I think this is a step there, so getting some good matches, I think really helped me out.”

Hickman also puts a bow on the opportunity as a coach, having the unique perspective to be part of a first for two organizations. 

“Fargo is always a good experience,” he said. “Anytime you come here and you get to work with kids, it's always a great experience.”

Both wrestlers are set to wrestle Greco-Roman later in the week.