Submitted photo: Canby head coach Gary Stoks (front row, left of trophy) poses for a photo with the Canby wrestling team after the Lancers earned the fifth-place trophy at the Class A team state wrestling tournament. Canby earned its first appearance in the team state tournament since its 2008 runner-up finish this year, taking home a fifth-place trophy in Stoks’ final season as head coach after eight years in his current position and another 27 with the team. Stoks is the Independent’s 2024-25 Wrestling Coach of the Year.

CANBY — Gary Stoks has been a member of the Canby wrestling team’s coaching staff for 34 years. As an assistant coach, he oversaw the team making 12 state tournament appearances with Class A titles in 1994, 1995 and 2006. He’s also served as head coach for the last eight seasons, helping the Lancers to their first state appearance since 2008 this year and claiming a fifth-place finish at the team tournament to earn the Independent’s selection as Wrestling Coach of the Year for the 2024-25 season.

“[Making the state tournament] was our goal because we kind of fell short the year before,” Stoks said, referencing the Lancers falling to No. 2 Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, 39-21, as the top seed in the 2024 Section 5A tournament. He cited factors out of Canby’s control, such as illness, contributing to the loss, but expected big things this year. “We knew we had the team… so our goal was pretty heavy on this year to get there from the start, and they started out that way and continued the whole year.”

In addition to having added experience from its older returners, Stocks attributed the team’s growth this year to its leadership from upperclassmen. 

The Lancers had a strong group of seniors with Blake Giese, Sam Drietz, Issac Guzman and Eli Greenman each earning individual state tournament medals, as well as additional senior leadership from Sawyer Verhelst, Bryant Hansen and Alan Malanado.

Beyond the seniors’ ability to lead by example, Stocks also said that their ability to bond the group was a key factor in the team’s consistency.

“Our group of captains put everything together in place where they got everybody to buy into it,” Stoks said. “Us coaches do the same thing, but you have to have the kids that all of a sudden really think they can do it, and that was a group that decided they were going.”

Part of that self-belief came from the fact that all of the athletes knew that they were important to the team’s success and all of the coaches were willing to play their part and find their role to set the wrestlers up for success on the mat, according to Stoks. 

Canby approached its practices and matches as if any day could be their day, and as time progressed, they began to believe that they had a chance to beat anybody, Stoks said. He added that Section 5A has felt like a region in which any of the top four seeds in the tournament have the opportunity to take home the title any given year, so being the No. 3 seed this year as opposed to the No. 1 seed like last year was undaunting.

The Lancers were the high seed in their opening-round matchup, beating No. 6 Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 40-24, but from there they were the low seed that consistently rose to the occasion. The Lancers ran away with a 43-17 win over No. 2 Paynesville Area in the section semifinals and upset top-seeded Minneota 33-24 to return to the state tournament for the first time in 17 years.

“Winning the region [was one of the highlights of the season in my mind]. We always talk about it and then when we get there, it’s one step at a time,” Stoks said. “You kind of see it, but all these teams are so good in the region that anybody could win it. It doesn’t matter what the score is until you’re done wrestling. It seems like it comes down to the end, and that was probably the biggest moment is realizing that we finally made it.”

Beyond just the team qualifying as a whole, the Lancers once again sent plenty of individuals to the state meet as well. Guzman, Greenman, Drietz and Tallen Merrit each won their weight class in the individual section tournament while Giese and Ty Rangaard each qualified for state as section runners-up, giving Canby a total of six Lancers in the individual tournament.

Entering the state tournament, Canby earned the No. 5 seed. They weren’t able to edge out No. 4 Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial Area in the quarterfinals, falling 33-27. The dual came down to the final match, but LCWM came away with a pin to break the tie in the heavyweight category. 

Still, Canby remained undiscouraged by the loss. The Lancers heated up from there with a 52-15 win over West Central Area/Ashby/Brandon-Evansville in the consolation bracket and edged past United North Central 34-28 in the fifth-place dual to go home with hardware.

As soon as Canby earned the trophy, Greenman and Guzman brought it over to Stoks rather than just celebrating with it themselves. Greenman, who is Stoks’ nephew, said after the event that Stoks has worked with him on wrestling since he was a little kid, and that nobody deserves to hold the trophy more than Stoks.

“These kids, they want to do it for us as coaches and I knew they’ve been saying the same thing about trying to get me back here,” Stoks said after the tournament. “I love this group. They’re something else. They just bond together so nice, and that’s what it takes to be a champion. We didn’t quite get there all the way, but we’re coming.”

Greenman also earned All-Tournament honors for his role in the team’s success, but that was far from the last hardware the Lancers brought home on the season. Drietz finished as a state runner-up in 152, Guzman placed third in 114, Greenman placed fourth in 121 and Giese placed sixth in 160 to give the Lancers four individual state medalists.

Stoks is stepping down as head coach after the season, with Logan Oellien returning to his alma mater after turning Holdingford into one of the top wrestling programs in Class A over the past 11 seasons. Still, Stoks will remain with the team as an assistant coach for a year after Oellien said he wanted Stoks to help get him acquainted with the program. From there, Stoks says he’ll consider the possibility of retirement to spend more time with his grandkids, and that he trusts the group of coaches to continue this program’s success.

“That’s what it takes. It doesn’t just take one [good coach], it takes all of them to believe in it,” Stoks said. “The more people that believe in it, the kids start to see and realize it.”