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Delta • Thirty-two state wrestling banners line the ceiling at the Delta Palladium, the 4,000-seat gym adjacent to the town's sparkling new high school.
One trophy case in the lobby is so filled with championship trophies that there may not be room for a 33rd this season if the Rabbits win their seventh straight 2A state title this week as expected at Utah Valley University.
The small school miles off the interstate in western Utah began collecting wrestling titles in 1955 and has never really stopped.
According to coach Jason Thomas, Delta has won more state wrestling titles than all but one high school in the United States, and its wrestlers hold the national record for the most individual titles.
"It all stems back to tradition," said Thomas. "The kids start at a young age. They wrestle little league and in junior high. By the time they come to me, they are pretty well-trained. And, if you wrestle for Delta, you are expected to take state."
Ron Petersen and Ladd Holman each coached the Rabbits to eight titles, Jim Porter got the ball rolling with five state crowns, Josh Wright added four and Thomas, whose dad wrestled for the Rabbits, has captured three since taking over three years ago.
The remote school could only book two home meets this season, but both nearly filled the Palladium. Delta's wrestlers competed in most of the major meets against bigger school powers such as Pleasant Grove, Maple Mountain and Wasatch.
"It's hard to get home dual meets when you don't have a region schedule," said Thomas, who teaches German and English at the 399-student high school. "We have 2A duals tournaments that take care of all the seeding for the divisional and state tournaments. That's a catch-22 that's good and bad. In our region, it means we don't have to travel to Kanab and Enterprise for region duals, but it hurts to get teams to come here to duals that our fans can see."
Wrestling remains popular in Utah despite the fact that only Utah Valley University offers it as a scholarship sport. Thomas said the state meet usually fills the UVU arena.
Thomas said there are several reasons why Delta has been so successful, including having a little league program, the great tradition and offseason wrestling programs.
"The most important thing right now is just hard work and the dedication to being good," he said. "The kids work extremely hard. They are good boys who understand what it takes."
There is also the desire to not be on the team that sees the string of state titles end.
"There is a lot of pressure just to have won state for six years in a row," said Victor Almanza, a 160-pound competitor who is also a two-time all-state football player. "We don't want to be the team that doesn't take state."
Bracken Lovell and Almanza both return to defend their state titles. Senior Trace Willoughby finished second last year at 145 pounds. Lovell is the school's student body president, while Willoughby serves as vice president.
"We get a lot of support from the community," Lovell said. "We have kind of a dynasty. I was 4 or 5 when I started wrestling. We start pretty young. In Delta, we wrestle each other in bantam tournaments."
Willoughby also started wrestling at 4, and said many of his best friends started with him.
"The coaches are a huge part of our success," he said. "They are passionate about us. They focus on making us better wrestlers and better young men in all aspects of life. It really helps us."
What is surprising is that while Delta has been competitive in sports such as football and basketball, wrestling has remained the big winner at the school.
"There is a different mentality," said Lovell. "We expect to be the best in wrestling. We've been the best. We want to dominate from 1A to 5A. We want to win in football, too, but there's just a different mentality."
Lovell said that although the implementation of Title IX caused many universities to drop wrestling, he hopes to continue to wrestle in college.
For now, the Delta wrestlers hope to add another gold trophy to the jam-packed case and perhaps add their name to the large Palladium board of former state champions and college all-Americans the school has produced.
Twitter: @tribtomwharton —
Delta wrestling tradition
• Rabbits' 32 team state titles are second most of any high school program in the nation.
• Delta has won more individual titles than any other program in the nation.
• The team won the past six Class 2A titles, and it is a strong favorite to win a seventh straight this year.
• It claimed its first state title in 1955. —
State wrestling meets
P Feb. 11-14, at Utah Valley University
Class 5A, 4A • Feb. 11: 12:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.; Feb. 12: noon-8 p.m.
Class 3A, 2A • Feb. 13: 1 p.m.-9 p.m.; Feb. 14: 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m.
Class 1A • Feb. 13: 3:30 p.m.-9 p.m.; Feb. 14: 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m.