Imagine waking up at the crack of dawn every morning, attending school for over seven hours, and following it up with an exhausting two hour practice. To make matters worse, the entire day you’re only allowed to consume around twelve ounces of food, which doesn’t seem too bad considering that small slab of bread and honey you consume on weigh-in days.
For four months of the year, this is the life of a high school wrestler. Add in a rigorous, yet never-ending work and academic schedule. This is the life of Mike Steltenkamp.
Widely known throughout Seaholm for his football achievements, Steltenkamp ran for over 100 yards and scored both Seaholm touchdowns in this year’s game against cross-town rival Groves, and his victory in the mock Government Presidential Election, very few know of what Steltenkamp has accomplished on the mat.
“I’ve been here 19 years and he’s one of the best we’ve had” said head coach Mike Hess, who doubles as an A.I. teacher here at Seaholm.
Throughout his decorated career Steltenkamp has won the league championship on two occasions and also took 1st place at last years district meet.
“(Mike) is the best wrestler I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” said fellow senior wrestler Jake Hessen.
As it stands right now Mike has 112 career wins, 20 short of the school career record set by Adam Krieger who wrestled for Seaholm from 1999-2003. If he were to break this record, some consideration could be given to Steltenkamp being the greatest wrestler to ever step foot on a mat at Seaholm.
Before any discussion regarding his place in the history books though, Steltenkamp must first complete the current season and attempt to make his first ever state-finals appearance.
The Maples are currently 10-6 and are fighting to win their first team league championship since 2000.
“We wish he wasn’t a senior” says Coach Hess, “he’s moving on next year and we’re going to miss him. He’s one of the best captains we’ve ever had.”
For Steltenkamp, each afternoon begins the same. At 3pm he weighs himself to see where he stands for the upcoming meet. Steltenkamp wrestles in the 160 pound weight class and, without any type of prior weight loss, naturally weighs in at around 175 pounds.
After the weigh-in, the team runs through the hallways of Seaholm for 15-20 minutes, followed by 15-20 minutes of stretching, push-ups, and sit-ups.
Next, the team drills new moves for about an hour and afterwards puts the new moves into practice during a half hour of live wrestling.
Lastly, the team conditions for fifteen minutes and wraps up practice with another weigh-in.
To make matters worse, wrestlers often choose to practice wearing full sweat suits in order to achieve maximum weight loss.
Practice doesn’t stop there though. Steltenkamp has a third hour academic lab, and occasionally when he finds himself overweight, he will venture to the weight room (of course, only after he has finished his school work) and run on the treadmill.
“Although practices are grueling,” says Steltenkamp, “the satisfaction of knowing you’re prepared for the match gets you through it.”
Last year, as Steltenkamp’s impressive record at Seaholm continued to balloon in proportion with his grades, colleges from across the country began to take notice.
“The recruitment process for me started some time in the summer going into my senior year” says Steltenkamp. “I may not have been offered by all the small schools, but a lot of the Ivy League schools expressed interest.”
Princeton, MIT, Harvard, and Columbia were all potential suitors, but in the end Steltenkamp narrowed down the candidates and selected the University of Pennsylvania.
“Fortunately, my grades and test scores were good enough as to where I didn’t need any special rules to get in,” says Steltenkamp. “Penn had been persistent from the start. They offered me a spot on their team, and I felt it was the best choice for me moving forward.”
In the 2007-08 campaign, the Quakers posted a 13-5 record and placed 2nd in their league. This year they are ranked 22nd in the nation and are once again in contention for a league championship. As he moves nearer to the close of his days as a Maple and towards the beginning of his collegiate career, Steltenkamp hopes to add to the storied Quaker tradition in the same manner he has done here at Seaholm.
In addition to his academic and athletic schedule, Steltenkamp has been saddled with the task of funding a major chunk of his collegiate expenses. While most universities offer scholarship money for athletic performance, Ivy League schools do not, basing financial aid purely on need.
As potential expenses for Penn top out around $50,000 a year, Steltenkamp was forced to find a full-time job over this most recent summer. Unlike many students who often find jobs working sparingly in the local storefronts, Steltenkamp took a job working forty hour work weeks on a maintenance crew responsible for cleaning a majority of downtown Birmingham.
A typical summer day for Steltenkamp consisted of a 7am wake-up, followed by an 8am clock-in. From 8am to 10am the workers swept sidewalks and from 10am until noon they scrubbed and mopped the rooftops of the local buildings. After a forty-five minute lunch break, they continued with two hours of weed picking and two hours of window washing, finishing with a 4pm clock-out.
“You know, when it comes down it, the job may not have been the prettiest, but I had to think of my future, I have to put food on the table,” said Steltenkamp, “although it was tough at first, over time the job grew on me and I began to take pride in my work.”
Steltenkamp worked for a majority of last summer and plans on starting up again as soon as wrestling ends this spring.
While other, less deserving athletes soak up the spotlight, Steltenkamp remains a Seaholm icon for his hard work, determination, and desire to succeed; and recently his character appears to have begun rubbing off on the people here at Seaholm.
Seaholm calculus teacher Eric Bruns refers to him as “ruggedly handsome,” while wrestling teammate Neil Cortright was quoted saying “Mike Steltenkamp is like a father to me.”
In times where the media tends to focus on more style than substance, Steltenkamp remains the type of person that puts the student back in student-athlete.
