New inductees join Wrestling HOF Nov. 15

Three individuals from three separate eras of Creston wrestling and the 2008 state runner-up team with five state finalists will be honored at the 2025 Creston Wrestling Hall of Fame Banquet.

The event will be held Nov. 15 at the Eagles Club in Creston. Social hour with silent auction and raffle sales begins at 4 p.m. Creston head wrestling coach Cody Downing will speak at 5 p.m. followed by introduction of members of the honored teams of 1965, 1975, 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2015 teams.

The meal featuring steak or chicken breast will begin at 5:45 p.m. followed by Hall of Fame inductions at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 each and are available from Emmy Key (641-202-3136) at Hartsock Insurance, Chuck Hulett (641-202-2262) at Hulett and Sons Auto Salvage, Dori Schiltz (641-344-4114), John Walters (641-247-1984), Luke Baker (641-344-5601) and The Eagles Club in Creston.

The 2025 inductees are Doug Minnick, the late Gary Veitz, Daniel Scarberry and the 2008 team that scored 139 points in the traditional state tournament, still the record total for a runner-up team. (Ballard set a Class 2A record that year with 180 team points.) Creston also placed second behind Ballard in the State Dual Tournament that year.

DOUG MINNICK

A 1963 Creston graduate, Doug Minnick was a member of Creston’s first wrestling team and an outstanding four-sport athlete. He was the Pipin’ Pappas “Outstanding Wrestler Award” winner in 1963.

Minnick and Panther teammate Rich Downing, a longtime coach at Creston and father of current coach Cody Downing, were both members of the Northwest Missouri State 1966-67 Hall of Fame team. Minnick received honors in the U.S. Navy and later became a multi-sport coach for several years before retiring as a Union County employee.

Creston began its wrestling program when Minnick was a junior. His senior year as a light heavyweight (190 pounds) he was 11-1 in duals with nine pins. His only loss was against state runner-up Jon Lambi of Greenfield. He wrestled at Northwest Missouri State, including a match against Iowa State, and that 1966-67 Bearcat team was inducted into the Northwest Missouri State Hall of fame in 2004.

Minnick was an all-around athletic star at Creston. He was one of the top football linemen in the conference, and a standout thrower of the shot put, discus and football in track and field. He was one of the top hitters on the Creston baseball team as the starting first baseman.

Minnick enlisted in the U.S. Navy after earning his college degree. He was presented the “Honorman” plaque at the U.S. Naval Training Center at Great Lakes, Illinois. The “Honorman” is selected by members of the recruit’s company for graduating the with the highest academic, physical and leadership standards. He achieved second class diving school status while in the Navy.

After his military service, Minnick began a teaching and coaching career in Missouri. Martinsville, Coffey, Ridgeway, Eagleville and West Nodaway were among his stops in teaching physical education, industrial arts and driver’s education. He even coached basketball, including a girls state basketball qualifying team at Martinsville.

From 1976 to 1978 Minnick coached the Lenox Tigers wrestling team, where he was also an assistant football coach. After his teaching and coaching career, Minnick worked at Bunn-O-Matic in Creston and then 23 years for Union County, retiring in 2010.

“Doug Minnick was a standout athlete all the way around,” said John Walters of the Wrestling Hall of Fame committee. “He was a tough kid, a strong lineman in football and great in the throwing events in track and field. Baseball might have been his favorite sport and he was a really good hitter.”

Minnick also received awards as a bowler in his adult years, including being a member of a city league tournament championship team in Creston.

Minnick has a grown son, Matt, and daughter Megan (Josh) Stevens. He is also a grandfather to Matt’s son, Trevor.

GARY VEITZ

A 1975 Creston graduate, Gary Veitz was an outstanding wrestler and multi-sport star for the Panthers in the mid-1970s. He was a member of four Creston wrestling teams that placed in the top six at the state tournament (sixth, fourth, fourth and second). Two of the those teams — the 1972 and 1975 squads — are inducted in the Creston Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Most of Veitz’s professional teaching career was spent in his hometown, where he impacted hundreds of young Panthers as a middle school teacher and coach in football, wrestling, track and baseball.

The son of Al and Barb Veitz followed in the footsteps of his older brother, Mike, as an all-around athlete in Creston.

Gary played football and baseball in addition to wrestling on some strong Panther teams under head coach Jerome Hruska. Veitz was a pitcher on baseball teams coached by Ron “Fox” Clinton and Ron Levine that went 29-9 and 11-3 in the conference during his junior year in 1974, and conference champs while going 24-15 overall his senior year in 1975.

As a wrestler, Veitz didn’t crack the varsity lineup early in his high school career because of the elite talent at his weight class in those years.

“Gary was behind four-time state placewinner Jeff Abel at his weight class, with two-time state champion Dennis Smith right below Abel, and state champion Mike Howard above Abel until Gary’s senior year,” said John Walters, a former teammate. “Then Gary wrestled at 126 pounds and he and Terry Latham were our conference champions in 1975. At districts he lost to an Atlantic kid he had beaten twice, but Gary hurt his back after sectionals in practice.”

After getting his teaching degree at Northwest Missouri State, Veitz taught math and was head wrestling coach at Collins-Maxwell for two years. He then moved back to Creston and taught for another 34 years.

For a brief time, Veitz assisted the late Dannie Stephens in the high school wrestling program, before rounding out his career as a junior high coach in three sports.

“A lot of schools aren’t able to have a quality wrestling coach like Gary Veitz at the junior high level,” Walters said. “This was before the Express club and all of that. It was Gary who got hundreds of Creston kids ready for high school wrestling on the junior high team.”

Throughout his career, Veitz was a dedicated family man, which makes his post-retirement period so tragic. Just a few months after he retired from Creston schools, Veitz died on Sept. 1, 2016, from cancer at the age of 59.

Gary was survived by wife Deb, daughter Lindsey, son Jeff and granddaughters Payton and Riley.

“Gary will always be remembered for his dedication to his family, our sport, our school and our community,” Walters said.

DANIEL SCARBERRY

Daniel Scarberry wrestled at East Union as a freshman before transferring to Creston for his final three years of high school. It didn’t take long for the 2004 graduate to make an impact on the Panther wrestling team coached by Darrell Frain.

Scarberry was a two-time state placewinner (fifth at 135 pounds in 2003, state champion at 140 in 2004). He received the Mike Abel Outstanding Wrestler Award in 2004 before wrestling one year at Morningside and two years at Ellsworth Community College.

Creston participated in the State Dual Tournament all three years that Scarberry was in the lineup. The Panthers also brought home the first traditional state tournament trophy since 1975, when the team placed second. Creston placed third in both 2003 and 2004.

Scarberry was also in the lineup for Creston’s first win over Winterset since 1979, and the Panthers won the John Harris Invitational title in Corning in 2004 for the first time since the teams of 1972, 1973 and 1974.

Scarberry featured quickness in changing levels as a wrestler, and a relentless motor that drove him to several third-period wins in big moments. He was 4-0 in overtime matches his final two seasons.

Two of those were against Lewis Central’s Mike Stamp and two against Josh Abel of Winterset, a former Creston teammate. Scarberry downed Abel 9-7 in overtime to become sectional champion. He got a takedown with 20 seconds left to beat Stamp for his second conference championship in 2004.

At state in 2004, Scarberry breezed to a first-round victory, and then had a tough road on the way to the 140-pound title. He trailed in three straight matches, including a 6-2 deficit in the quarterfinals. A late takedown and back points carried the Panther senior to a 14-8 victory over Humboldt’s Mike Zinner.

In the finals, Scarberry escaped Emmetsburg/Armstrong-Ringsted’s Aaron Janssen in the third period and shot in for a takedown with five seconds remaining to win, 8-7, and become Creston’s 12th state champion.

“The will, the determination, he’s just the prize package,” Panther assistant coach Nick Hemann said in the Creston News Advertiser.

Janssen would later earn a starting spot in the University of Iowa lineup.

“Daniel was a very competitive kid and always in really good shape,” Walters said. “The guys he wrestled at state in his last three matches his senior year were all really good.”

Scarberry had a 49-7 record as a junior and 45-2 as a senior, both losses coming to Abel his senior year. They split four bouts that season.

Scarberry said one special wrestling memory was attending the 28-day J Robinson Intensive Wrestling Camp with teammates Chris Downing and Willie Harris.

Scarberry worked for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad for 13 years as a conductor and engineer. For the past four years he has worked as a dispatcher at CIPCO and is co-owner of DM Roofing and Siding with Matt McNichols and Payton Pryor.

Daniel is the son of Carol Scarberry and Brad Scarberry. His wife, Kiki, is a local realtor and a member of Creston City Council. They have two daughters, Mila Kuhns and Chloe Scarberry. He also has four brothers, Chad, Rusty, Clayton and Cason.

2008 CRESTON TEAM

There were a lot of special moments during Darrell Frain’s run as Panther head coach from 1999 through 2018, but the Creston/O-M teams of 2007 and 2008 were especially loaded with individual state contenders that translated to team success.

The Panthers won the traditional state tournament and state dual tournament in 2007, scoring 112 points. Everyone from that 2007 lineup (inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2021) returned in 2008 except seniors Tyler Linderman (state qualifier 2007 and state champion in 2006), Caleb Brus (fifth at 152), heavyweight Roger Powell and Zach Feldhacker.

The Panthers were even more high-scoring at state in 2008, and would have won two consecutive state titles in both tournaments if not for the fact that Ballard of Huxley had the best Class 2A season in state history that same year.

The Panthers sent seven wrestlers to state in 2008 and brought home six medals. Incredibly, five Creston wrestlers reached the finals, with four winning titles. Creston scored 139 points in the traditional tournament, which still stands as the highest total in state history by a runner-up team. Ballard set the 2A record of 180 points that year, surpassing the previous record of 154 by Emmetsburg/Armstrong-Ringsted in 2001.

Ballard sent six wrestlers to the finals that year, and won three titles. All three of their losses in title matches came against Creston wrestlers — Andrew Long beat Tanner Weatherman at 125, Quin Leith beat Tanner Hiatt at 130 and Kalab Evans topped Jared Ramsey at 160. The Bombers had 10 placewinners that year.

Trent Tucker also won a title that year at 140 pounds. Bret Kautz earned his second runner-up finish, despite suffering a broken leg in the 2007 state baseball tournament at Principal Park.

Also from that team, Jesse Harris placed fourth at 171 pounds.

To summarize the dominance of Ballard and Creston at the 2008 Class 2A tournament, the two teams took 17 qualifiers to state, had 16 placewinners, 11 finalists and seven champions.

After Creston/O-M won the 2007 dual title over Clear Lake, 45-19, Ballard’s lineup was too strong in 2008 for a repeat championship. The Bombers topped Creston 55-8 after Creston had defeated Dallas Center-Grimes 45-30 and Davenport Assumption 37-33 in the first two rounds.

In the championship dual, Creston’s wins were by Andrew Long at 125 and by Kalab Evans, who moved up a weight class and decisioned 171-pound state champ Brock Weatherman, 5-3.

“No second place team has ever come close to what we did in 2008,” Walters said. “In my lifetime, this is one of the best teams ever. Unfortunately, two of the very best teams ever were competing in the same year. We also set the record for points scored at the Corning tournament that year. We were 19-3 in duals, losing the first match of the year to a really good I-35 team, and a loss to Cedar Rapids Prairie in a dual tournament before the third loss came to Ballard in the state finals. To have six guys in the state semifinals is pretty special.”

Team members were seniors Kalab Evans (first), Jesse Harris (fourth), Bret Kautz (second), Quin Leith (first), Kaleb Livingston, Andrew Long (first), Casey Tanner, Trent Tucker (first) and Summer Sistad; juniors Clay Daggett, Zac Leith, Jeremy Hayes, Zac Huddleson, Todd Ramaeker and Tanner Royster; sophomores Jared Bevins (state qualifier), Colton Dunphy, Brody Jay, Ryan Maitlen and Cort Sandeman; and freshmen Jordan Hayes and John Young.

Team managers were Kristina Adamson, Hillary Loudon, Kayla McIntosh and Sarah Studer. The coaching staff included head coach Darrell Frain and assistants Drew Duff, Nick Hemann and Matt Long.