Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – Wilfred Kadohou got a late start as a wrestler.

The City High senior had never stepped foot on a wrestling mat until his sophomore season which makes his run to the 160-pound title match one of the more improbable events from this week’s state wrestling meet.

Kadohou reaching the state champions match in his second season as a varsity wrestler is an incredible story.

The real miracle is that Kadohou ended up wrestling at all.

“I had coach (Cory) Connell as my PE teacher and when I first told him I was going to go out for wrestling he said ‘no don’t come out for this sport’,” Kadohou explained. “I was a pretty bad kid back then.” 

By his own account Kadohou was in a bad spot as his sophomore year at City High began.

He was a bad student, with bad grades and a bad attitude to boot.

It was so bad for Kadohou that when he first approached City High coach Cory Connell about joining the wrestling team Connell told him he wasn’t cut out for the sport.

Kadohou showed up for wrestling practice any way.

Neither Kadohou or Connell could have predicted the impact that Kadohou would have on the mat at City High or the effect the sport would have on his life.

With a 5-3 win over Alex Ward of Dubuque Hempstead on Friday in the 160-pound semifinals Kadohou became the first City High wrestler to reach the state finals since 2015.

 “Wrestling has changed my life,” Kadohou said. “Wrestling is not just on the mat it’s a lifestyle.

You have to do things right on the mat and off the mat at school. Wrestling has changed my life from 0 to 100.”

Connell was in his fourth season of rebuilding the program at his alma mater when Kadohou walked up to him in physical education class and told him he was going to wrestle.  

The former City High state champ turned coach knew Kadohou, he knew he was physically talented but lacked some discipline.

Connell let Kadohou join the program but there would need to be changes.

“I love wrestling and I love winning but if that’s all you are in it for you aren’t in it for the right reasons,” Connell said. “We are in it to help people. We are in it to change lives. We are here to make other people’s lives better and his life is better because of City High wrestling.”

To say it took some time for Kadohou to get acclimated would be an understatement.

He had a losing record while competing in junior varsity meets as a sophomore trying to learn the sport.

“It was a bad season,” Kadohou said. “I was on JV with a losing record. I was pretty bad.”

The results weren’t there on the mat but the changes were already showing up for Kadohou off it.

His grade point average was south of 2.0 when he joined the wrestling program.

Kadohou had a GPA over 3.0 in his first trimester after joining the wrestling team and has boasted a GPA of 3.0 or better in every trimester since.

“It changed his life,” Connell said. “He has grown as a wrestler on the mat but he’s grown in the classroom, as a person everything he does in his life is now better because of City High wrestling.”

By the time his junior season started Kadohou was a different person and a different wrestler.

He cracked the varsity lineup at 152 points.

His speed and athleticism helped him make up for his lack of experience and knowledge of the sport.

By the time January rolled around Kadohou was becoming competitive in nearly every match.

“My junior year I didn’t take it serious until after the winter break, that’s when I realized wrestling was something that I needed,” Kadohou said. “It was a great sport. I loved it. Even though soccer was my first sport I fell in love with wrestling.”  

Suddenly, a year after stepping into the wrestling room for the first time Connell couldn’t kick him out of it.

“He’s one of the hardest workers in our room day in and day out,” Connell said. “That kid is a wrestling junkie. He loves coming in and just wrestling around and getting in weird positions and asking questions.”

In his first season of varsity wrestling Kadohou posted a 24-23 record and reached the state tournament.

In his state meet debut Kadohou was pinned in 49 seconds. He won a consolation match before bowing out.

That experience at state lit a spark under Kadohou.

“I knew it since last year that I could be (at this level),” Kadohou said. “I could see myself with those guys and I knew I wasn’t at that level but I just had to work on the little things. That was a big thing just working on the little things and the offseason for me was the biggest thing.”

Kadohou started training harder and trying to soak up everything he could about the sport.

He watches any wrestling video he can find online

“If you can’t him sometime during the day he’s looking at wrestling matches. He loves wrestling,” Connell said. “He loves watching wrestling on youtube he loves watching Jordan Burroughs. I bet he’s watched thousands of matches. He just loves wrestling.”

It has all come together for Kadohou this week in Des Moines.

The fourth-ranked 160-pounder in 3A, Kadohou pinned Parker Klocke of Carroll in the opening round and won a 9-3 decision over No. 6 Logan Neils of Ankeny Centennial in the quarterfinals.

Kadohou (39-7) punched his ticked to the state title match with his second victory over fifth-ranked Ward in the semifinals.

He will face two-time defending state champion and top-ranked Nelson Brands (54-1)

“It’s a great feeling,” Kadohou said. “To see myself and my name in the City High story it’s a great feeling.”