BY RICH PALZEWIC
CORRESPONDENT
Jack Ehrfurth is a senior at Bay Port who just recently finished his high school wrestling career. A three-year varsity wrestler, Ehrfurth also plays rugby for the Green Bay Leprechauns.
Jack plans to attend UW-Oshkosh to study supply-chain management and will most likely play rugby but not wrestle.
Name: Jack Ehrfurth
School: Bay Port
Sport: wrestling, rugby
Weight class: 195
Twitter: @Jehrfurth
How do you pronounce your last name? “Air-Furth.”
Do you have any siblings? “I have an older sister named Katie who’s in college at UW-Eau Claire and a younger brother named Charlie who is a sophomore here at Bay Port.”
Do you come from a sports/wrestling family? “My brother plays lacrosse and my dad did wrestling, and other sports in high school. He also played rugby in college. My mom and sister didn’t do much for sports.”
Have you ever done any other high school sports? “I used to play football my freshman and sophomore year, but nothing since.”
How many years have you been involved in wrestling? “I used to wrestle when I was five or six but then stopped up until my freshman year of high school. I lost some of my skills not wrestling for all those years but picked them up after a year of wrestling.”
What do you like most about wrestling? “I like the physicality of it and the fact it’s one-on-one. It’s not political – you’re the best one out there for your team and whoever is the better wrestler wins. All eyes in the stands are on you.”
It’s a hard sport! “You have to be in good shape for sure. Even if nothing really happens out on the mat for a few minutes, you are still banging against each other and wearing down. Mentally you have to believe you are the best guy out there and that nobody can beat you.”
Did you ever get nervous before a match? “I never did, but I know a lot of other guys did.”
Talk about that FRCC match against Pulaski! That was a crazy way to win the conference title. “That was a dream come true as a senior to win a conference championship like that. There’s nothing that could top that – the last match, we have a freshman (Drake Anderson) wrestling against a state-ranked kid and he beats him. It was amazing. Nine times out of ten he probably loses that match, but we got the one that mattered that night.”
Which teammate would you NOT want to wrestle against if they were on the opposing team? “Austin Heim or Chandler Stordeur. They are both such technically-sound wrestlers. It’s insane what they can do out there.”
Who is the best wrestler you’ve ever gone against? “My own teammate from last year Ben Kitslaar. Drilling with him and going live with him helped me. I wrestled a lot of good guys, but he is still probably the best I’ve ever gone against. A lot of the stuff I learned was from him.”
How about a high school sport you wish you could have done? “Maybe golf at a younger age but not much else. I wish I had started rugby earlier.”
Besides winning the FRCC title this year, do you have a most memorable wrestling moment? “My freshman year watching Alec Ingold win a state championship. He just dominated. I never had to wrestle against him because he probably had 50 pounds on me.”
How about a most embarrassing one? “At the start of the year – the first time I put it on – my singlet ripped. I had to wrestler the entire day in that. Not a whole lot embarrasses me.”
What are some of your non-sports related hobbies? “I like fishing and hunting a lot. I also like to ice fish and got out as many weekends as I could this winter. I hang out with my friends, too.”
How will Jack Ehrfurth be remembered at Bay Port High School? “Just as a guy who was nice, easy to talk to, was approachable, athletic and was a solid person all around.”
Dogs or cats? “Dogs.”
Tent camping or camper? “Camper.”
Tiny house or tree house? “Tree house.”
Read the book or watch the movie? “Watch the movie.”
Lie on the beach or ski down the slopes? “Lie on the beach.”
Favorites
Food: hamburger
Movie: Batman The Dark Knight Rises
Subject: history
TV show: MythBusters
Cereal: Cinnamon Toast Crunch
Notes: Suggestions for the senior spotlight can be submitted to Rich via email ([email protected]) or via Twitter (@richpalzewic). All spotlights can be found online at thepress.media. Check out last week’s spotlight on boys’ swimmer Alec Jeffers.