Before he became a wrestling voice for the Big Ten Network, ESPN, and FloWrestling Radio Live, Shane Sparks was a top-ranked high school senior who was a minute away from becoming a state champion in Wisconsin's private school division. 

Known then as Shane Nebl — his sports talk show co-host later gave him the radio name Shane Sparks — he was a skinny 103-pounder for Winnebago Lutheran Academy who was zeroing in on the school's first state title. 

Then everything unraveled.

Sparks led 11-6 with roughly 70 seconds left against Thomas More sophomore Rudy Ruiz. He got called twice for stalling on top. Ruiz scored another point on an escape and sent the match to overtime when Sparks got hit for stalling again — this time a two-point penalty — with four seconds left. 

In the waning seconds of the extra period, Sparks went for a throw attempt and Ruiz covered him for the winning takedown. 

This is Sparks’ account of his greatest loss and what he learned from losing to Ruiz in the 1994 Wisconsin private school state finals. 

BACKGROUND

Sparks was well undersized during his first two high school seasons before growing into the lightest weight class as a junior when he placed third in the Wisconsin private school division. He grew even more as a senior but opted to cut down to 103 and he compiled a 30-1 record going into the finals. 

“You’ve got to tell the whole story — 30-1 sounds good on the surface, but I’d be curious to know how many matches I wrestled,” he said. “When I was a senior, I was weighing 113, 114, growing and cutting weight to get to 103, which to this day will always bother me because why did I cut to 103? I was looking for an easier path. That year, 112 was very good and the kids in the state finals that year in the private schools, I beat them both. 

“I would’ve had a way better experience (at 112). I can remember being a senior in high school and counting the days down until the season got over. Why would you do that? I’d love to have that conversation with myself now: Why would you do that? You’re a senior in high school and you don’t have a social life because you’re afraid you’re going to go to Taco Bell and eat too much? It wasn’t good. I would never do that again. But that’s why I cut the weight. I would never do that again, not only for the health benefits but first and foremost, it’s not the right mentality. The great ones in this sport want the hardest ride, and I did not think like that.” 

“I didn’t get good matches. I didn’t get better. I didn’t test myself. I was getting a lot of forfeits. I wish I would’ve been getting better competition throughout the year — and he did. And I think that was a big difference. One thing I learned from this was to test yourself. There’s a huge difference between improving your record and improving your skills. It’s a huge difference. I think Rudy that year had — I don’t know — six or seven losses. They made him better. Meanwhile, I’m getting forfeits and wrestling kids who weren’t very good and it was a short-sighted sense of security. You’ve got to get better.”

‘HE WAS THE GUY I THOUGHT ABOUT ALL THE TIME’  

“I was ranked No. 1 all season long and he was ranked No. 2," Sparks said. "I remember the first tournament of the year I beat him. I think it was 6-2. It was a bookend deal. I wrestled him in the first tournament of the year and the last tournament. He was good. He was a little undersized. But he was the guy I thought about all the time. I thought about that guy constantly. 

“I love the letter ‘p’ in wrestling — preparation, pace, physicality, purpose, poise, persistence, precision — all these great words. And the one I added recently was paranoia. You’ve got to have a little bit of paranoia. It’s kind of like a recipe that calls for a teaspoon of salt. You don’t put a cup of salt in it, you’ll ruin it. But you need a teaspoon. And you need a teaspoon of paranoia. I had probably a healthy level of paranoia with him. I thought about him all the time. I remember always training and saying his name out loud. That’s who I thought about all the time, and looking back on it, I probably wouldn’t have done that. I think that was a mistake. I should have been enjoying the process. I probably would’ve changed the mindset on that.”

Shane Sparks is known for his intensity on the mic

LEADING UP TO THE FINALS

“I remember they had a cheerleading team come out and do a dance routine and they were building this event up," Sparks said. "They had a march of champions that I was looking forward to, and I was looking forward to the face-offs. I probably shouldn’t have been focused on that at all, but I thought it was really cool to be a part of that because it was something I always wanted to do. 

“I had a routine. I remember I won that morning in the semifinals at 9 a.m. and I’m going to guess (the finals) started at 4. So I had seven hours to sit in that gym and think about the finals and everything that came with it. If I had it to do again, I would’ve gone to a hotel room and taken a nap and gotten away from it all. I could go back and talk about this stuff for days. I warmed up for a good hour. I know I warmed up for an hour. 

“Another big part of this — it’s not an excuse, it’s just part of learning — I worked at a radio station … and the state tournament started on Thursday and ended on Friday afternoon. I had to battle my weight. It was a challenge, but I did a pretty good job. I worked at a radio station and I worked on Sundays. I was in there all by myself on the Sunday afternoon before the tournament and there was a box of Wheat Thins in the break room. I open up this box and I’m going to have a Wheat Thin. I eat the whole box and I have a soda. It wasn’t a Barry Davis epic meltdown, but it was my version of the Barry Davis meltdown. I remember going to the Sheraton in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin and I stepped on the scale and I was 10 pounds over. I had to make 106 and I weighed 116. I remember standing on the scale thinking, ‘What did I just do?’ I had never gotten that big all year and now I’m going to do it five days before the state tournament? Twenty-four hours later I was right on. I did a ton of biking, a ton of running, wrestling practice. I went crazy. I got down, but knowing what I know now, you can’t get away with that stuff. And Rudy was very good. He ended up winning three private school titles, won Fargo that summer, went to Stanford. I think he made the NCAA tournament twice. I think he wrestled (Stephen) Abas in the Pac-10 finals. You cannot beat good guys when those things happen.”

THE END OF THE MATCH AND THE AFTERMATH

“I kept getting called for stalling. It’s highly debatable whether those were the right calls. It really bothered me for a long time. But looking back at it now, I work for Trackwrestling and the Big Ten Network and it’s all worked out great. I made that match way, way bigger than what it was. My perspective was off balance. I learned a lot from that in life. I find that with my kids right now in sports. I tell them, ‘Do your best and have fun and compete.’ That’s it. You do that and you’ll be great. But that was a tough one. It bothered me way more than it should have for way longer than it should have. It was years that it was negatively affecting me, which, it was a high school wrestling match. It wasn’t the Olympic Games.

“(But) it doesn’t matter what level you’re at, to be able to wrestle in a high-stakes event was so cool. That’s why I’m a big believer in the experience. Nobody was ever going to remember me. But to me it was super important. I think, in a lot of ways, I’m a good example of what this sport is supposed to be. I didn’t have my parents jamming it down my throat. I did it because I loved it. It’s a big part of my life. I love this sport. You don’t have to be an Olympic champion to experience that. But getting to experience that match was a really cool experience. It wasn’t the best match of my life. Even though I lost, that whole season and that match was one of the coolest things I’ve gotten to experience. It was great.

“Rudy and I stay in touch a little bit via Facebook. He’s doing some great things in Baltimore. He’s a smart kid. I sent him a Facebook message a while back and was like, ‘Hey Rudy, I know it’s been 20-some years.’ He sent me a nice message back and said I was a guy, too, that he thought about. At the end of the day, I’ve got a lot of respect for him. I’m really proud of the things he’s doing and I think that’s another one of my biggest takeaways — and again, this was not high-level wrestling — but the respect you develop for people in competition, I think it’s really cool. I wasn’t talking to him in high school, but here we are in our 40s, we’re grown men and we stay in touch. I know he’s proud of me and comments on the job I do broadcasting and that’s the kind of big-picture stuff that lasts. That’s the stuff that really matters.”