At 15 years old, Bruce Bartels knew what he wasn’t – a basketball player. He was a great admirer of the sport. Watching his older cousins on the court, witnessing the glory and excitement of the State tournament. But he didn’t have the height, the speed or the ability. “I knew I wasn’t going to move from the end of the bench,” he said. That’s why he said yes when a neighbor boy asked him to join the Brownton Bears wrestling team. Today Bartels is 57 years old and on the brink of retiring from coaching a sport he says defined his life – wrestling. He’s leaving after 25 seasons with Annandale when it was just Annandale, and eight more after it had become Annandale-Maple Lake. Bartels is also leaving the classroom after 33 years. He has coached the sons of former wrestlers, seen old high school teammates face each other at the college level. He’s had a father ask him to pick six of his son’s teammates as casket bearers for the son’s funeral, and has had to break the news to a wrestler at a tournament that his grandfather, one of the team’s staunchest fans, had passed away earlier that day. In 1997 he celebrated with his son after he won the State championship. And he has held sobbing seniors who, after dozens of wins, realize with the last loss of their senior year that their high school career is over. “Gee, I guess wrestling has become a big part of my life,” he said. Bartels grew up on a farm in south central Minnesota with two brothers and parents who always seemed to find the time to watch him wrestle. After graduation he attended Willmar State Junior College, then Mankato State University where he received a bachelor of science degree in education. At Willmar he met coach Jerry Slattery, who taught him technique and mental toughness. “I remember sitting with teammates in the locker room after practice figuring life as a POW in Southeast Asia would be easier,” he said. He started teaching seventh-grade social sciences in Annandale in 1969, but his career was interrupted by the Vietnam War. “I already had received my draft notice so I knew I wouldn’t be there long,” he said. He wasn’t. In 1970 he was drafted into the infantry, where he had the pleasure of leaping from a Huey helicopter to find his platoon in the middle of the jungle, the 27th battalion/Wolfhounds of the 25th Army Infantry Division. Three months later they stood down and he was sent north to the 101st Airborne Division where he passed a typing test for a clerk job in headquarters company. “I know I had never typed near that fast in my life,” he said. He came back to Annandale in 1972, and has been there ever since. Back then teaching was a popular profession for rural Minnesotans with college degrees. “Maybe it was because there just weren’t too many college grads in many small towns,” he said. “Teachers were the role models we saw who had college degrees.” Of course it didn’t hurt that Bartels loved being with kids. It didn’t take long for him to incorporate wrestling into his new career. His first trip to the State meet was in 1975 with an athlete named Jim Repke. Four years later he would coach his first wrestler, John Barrett, through a State championship. “They were all great thrills,” he said. “Every trip to State with every qualifier and every place winner right up to six times on the top of the heap.” The pinnacle came in 1997 when his son, Jason, won his own State title. Jason now coaches at his father’s side. “My kids didn’t get to grow up on a farm working with their folks, but they got to ride to work with their dad everyday, sit through one year in his classroom and start riding the team bus long before they were in school,” Bartels said. And, occasionally, they had the opportunity to share a unique experience. Bartels has two children, a son and a daughter. Though his daughter, Sara, couldn’t wrestle, she participated by cheering for the team and recording statistics. Wrestling was very much a Bartels family sport. And taking into account the devotion of both present and former athletes, it’s clear family goes beyond blood. “He is definitely going to be missed,” said Shennon Hempel, a former Cardinal wrestler. His words speak for the ever-increasing number of alumni that gather in the gym for home meets. Hempel, a 1978 AHS graduate, now has a son wrestling for Bartels. “We used to swap stories when Aaron first started,” he said. That’s how Hempel found out that not much has changed since his day. “Bruce still works them hard in practice, but it’s balanced with a lot of fun,” he said. The quality he admires most about Bartels is his humility and the commitment he has inspired in his athletes. “A simple but memorable thing that I recall well about Bruce is that he is not afraid to apologize to his team if he has made a mistake,” Hempel said. He recalled an instance earlier in the season when Bartels became upset with a call, reacted, and the referee deducted a team point. Later on the bus he heard Bartels apologize to the entire team and coaching staff and promise that it would never happen again. Another quality Hempel appreciates about Bartels is the way he encourages all of his “boys” whether they are State caliber or an average wrestler. Like his athletes, Bartels has suffered his own defeats. “My biggest disappointment was getting seeded No. 1 in old District 12 and going 0-1 and out,” he said. “But if that wouldn’t have happened I probably wouldn’t have enrolled at Willmar, made the wrestling team, wrestled for Jerry Slattery, been captain my sophomore year or become a wrestling coach. So if I’ve made a positive difference in one kid’s life as a wrestling coach, some good can come from losing.” But for Bartels, wrestling has always been more than a sport. Over the years it has given him the courage to face some serious health problems including Crohn’s Disease. The incurable intestinal disease, which is known for causing severe abdominal pain, has afflicted Bartels for the last 30 years. But the illness hasn’t stopped him from participating in every practice session. “Back in my time he used to wrestle with us,” said Hempel. “I don’t know if he still does that.” Whether Bartels wrestles or not, he can still match his athletes stride for stride in a running workout, and he does pushups with one ankle crossed over the other. But if there is anything he would like his athletes to remember about him, it’s his love and dedication to the sport. “I hope I’m remembered for caring,” he said. “For being proud of even the smallest success, and having enough empathy to hurt inside while demanding more.”
