PROGRESS: A history of winning

The past two seasons have yielded three individual golds at state wrestling for Nodaway Valley. These represent the most recent three state golds in the sport in a long string of success that a Greenfield-based team has produced.

While dominance shown by wrestlers from here hasn’t changed much over the years, the sport has changed a lot since Jim Peacock won the school’s first-ever state title as a Greenfield Tiger in 1970. Ashton Honnold won back-to-back state titles in 2024 and 2025 and Trent Warner captured his first state championship in 2025.

While Honnold and Warner are each on the upper end of the weight classes, Peacock’s state championship came in the 98-pound class.

“The prevailing community feeling seemed to be that no one from Greenfield could win a state championship. I didn’t accept that — I saw it as inevitable, just a hurdle to overcome — and saw myself as nothing more than a link between one of the many small wrestlers before and after me,” Peacock said. “In addition to having access to fantastic coaching and a competitive practice room, I was in the same weight class for four straight years.”

In his prep career, Peacock lost approximately 10 matches to state medalists, including to Joe Corso, a 1976 freestyle Olympic qualifier. His greatest foe in the practice room was Lynn Chestnut, who Peacock describes as a “takedown monster.”

“From seventh to 10th grade he took me down every time — probably 1,000 times in a row. Lynn was a 95-pound state qualifier in ’68. During the last king of the mat takedown drill before the last practice of the season ended, with Lynn tired and sucking weight, I finally took him down,” Peacock said. “At that moment I knew I might have a future in wrestling.”

Following college, Peacock had a couple of stints coaching in Iowa because if you wanted to teach, you about had to coach. Among these stops was one at Alden where he was able to help rebuild that program.

Peacock moved to Hawaii in 1983, teaching and coaching at Punahou Academy until 1990. He then went back to college, got his counseling degree and switched schools. He stayed at Kahuku High of Ohau’s North Shore — the school for “surfers, saints and tough guys” — for 28 years.

“For 28 years, I would drive by sugarcane and pineapple fields, Waimea Bay, Sunset Beach and the Banzai Pipeline,” Peacock said. “Approximately 70% of the students and 55% of the faculty were Mormon. Students came from across Polynesia and the Pacific. Kids were huge, the football teams were often state champions and over 200 of those guys have earned a paycheck from the NFL.”

Peacock decided against coaching there, focusing on counseling and his family instead, but he did coach again when his son was in high school.

Peacock taught, counseled or coached future professional singers, dancers, athletes, CEOs, enlisted military officers, federal politicians and six Division I scholarship wrestlers. The list goes on and on.

“The smartest wrestler I coached became an international lawyer and became a member of the international freestyle wrestling rules committee,” Peacock said.

Peacock said that since he wrestled, the sport has moved much more toward freestyle, carrying with it a greater emphasis of takedowns. Riding out an opponent was king when he wrestled, but not anymore.

In the comparatively shorter time Honnold has wrestled, he’s also observed the emphasis on scoring points progressing.

“The scrambling and moving ability of wrestling has changed. It used to be that if you got in on a shot or one of your better moves it was almost guaranteed a takedown,” Honnold said. “Now, with the scrambling ability of some of these guys, they can defend pretty well. The scrambling ability, everybody has it now.”

Honnold first loved wrestling from his father, Brad, and grandfather, Paul. Brad was a state runner-up in high school at Clarinda.

Ashton credits the many people who have coached him, as well as former Clarinda great Crew Howard — who is now at the University of Nebraska-Kearney — and former Iowa State University wrestler Kyven Gadson as great ones that he looks up to.

After he won his first state title, Ashton never really looked at his situation as pressure in wanting to come back and win another. He said that he really faced more opposition on the mat during his sophomore season. This spring, during his junior season of track, he verbally committed to wrestle at the University of Northern Iowa.

Warner, who finished on top, capping his senior wrestling season on top of the podium, said that was a satisfying feeling. He was third as a junior. The feeling his senior season was also bittersweet because he knew his wrestling career had ended.

“I got bigger and stronger mentally is the main thing, from my freshman to sophomore years,” Warner said. “My junior year I didn’t think I was the guy who was supposed to be there but my senior year I think I really did.”

While Ashton looks to his senior season and the opportunity in front of him to possibly become the program’s first three-time state champion, Warner said he hopes that some day, in whatever sport it is, he’s able to give back to his hometown. His latest accomplishment is that he graduated, and he qualified for the state track meet in discus and shot put.

“I hope that after college I can come back and help kids develop,” Warner said. “I want to come back and try to help the Nodaway Valley programs continue to get better.”

Peacock said that in his mind, being successful in wrestling today means you train year round. Wrestlers in Hawaii often cross train with Judo, and it’s harder for them to get to tournaments in the mainland.

“In the 1960s and 70s, Midwest wrestlers dominated. Now great high school coaches exist in all 50 states and national-caliber wrestlers come from everywhere,” Peacock said. “Today, it’s truly a much more national sport, growing at all levels, especially during the spring and summer months.”

Hawaii has had girls wrestling for more than 20 years. The University of Iowa’s head coach, Clarissa Chun, was the state’s first girl high school state champion.

Peacock said that when you look at how fast girls wrestling has blossomed, he believes there’s a bright future for American wrestling. That said, he worries about the future of small school wrestling in Iowa amid declining enrollment.

“It’s not a healthy look with too few participants, causing too many forfeits; no one improves,” Peacock said. “What steps can be taken to overcome Don Bosco’s recruitment advantage? Create a small, private but elite girls and boys wrestling school near Des Moines. Hire top coaches whom are also qualitiy teachers. It truly can be done.”

Peacock, 73, is widowed, retired and lives in the foothills that overlook Pearl Harbor. His daughter lives in Phoenix and his son lives in Japan. None of his grandsons wrestle, but both grandsons in Japan have earned their black belt in karate, while the grandson in Phoenix does well in jiu jitsu.

“Wrestling was always important in my life. It provided career opportunities and physically took me places that as a kid, I never imagined were possible,” Peacock said. “Wrestling never defined me but always guided me, helping me select the best options in life, which were never the easy options.”