Rebel Jays head coaches dedicated to wrestling and student development

The Wabeno-Laona-Three Lakes wrestling team has been very successful to date, with four wrestlers winning at least 10 matches and several others off to great starts with solid match records. While the early successes of the Rebel Jays have been great, according to the head coaching duo of Seth Senter and Colin Schubert, helping to shape the students to succeed after high school is equally important.
“Wrestling is a sport of physical and mental toughness that requires high levels of personal commitment and dedication to succeed,” Senter said at a team practice last week, “but as coaches, we also understand that good sportsmanship and an academic focus are key ingredients that can last a lifetime.”
Schubert agreed and added, “It is important to us that we help promote good skills of discipline and personal responsibility which will serve our kids well as they become adults. Watching a kid win his or her first match is exciting, but it is similarly rewarding for me to hear about a first job opportunity or a decision on which college to attend.”
The current Rebel Jays co-op arrangement began in 2020 and in each year that followed, Senter and Schubert have coached state qualifiers. Reegan Roy and Brady Shepard were the latest qualifiers from Wabeno competing in the WIAA Individual Championship event in Madison last season, while Gus Fink was the last wrestler from Three Lakes High School to make the cut two years ago.
Both coaches agree that one of the factors that made these appearances in Madison special was the fact that they occurred while Roy, Shepard and Fink were also being honored for their academic achievements by the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association by maintaining a minimum 3.5 grade point average. Several Rebel Jays have reached this level in recent years, something that brings pride to the two head coaches.
Regarding the sport of wrestling itself, Senter and Schubert have reached their own levels of success. Senter was a four-year wrestler and two-time state qualifier for Three Lakes High School. He went on to club competitions before coaching at the high school level in the Green Bay area. He returned to Three Lakes 10 years ago where he became the head coach of the Bluejays wrestling team.
During this time, he also got married, had two children and started his own building company. Family is important to Senter and he can often be found in tournaments with his kids running on the sidelines wearing Rebel Jays gear, which he says is reminiscent of his younger days when his grandfather used to drive him to wrestling meets, often coached by his older brother Phillip.
Schubert won the WIAA Division 2 Individual State Championship in 2013 as a 145-pound senior at Southern Door High School. He also placed first in sectional competition that same season and had several top-five finishes on the way to the state title.
He went on to wrestle successfully for Northern Michigan University and then competed in a variety of programs nationally and internationally before ending up at Wabeno High School five years ago to coach and teach physical education and health. Schubert earned All-American status in Greco-Roman grappling, and at one time was a legitimate Olympic wrestling hopeful.
The two head coaches are also good friends and originally met through a wrestling club operated by Dennis Hall, a U.S. Olympic silver medalist and member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Each received training instructions from Hall at different points, but the early connection ultimately led to a long-term friendship and the start of the current co-op arrangement between the high schools of Wabeno, Laona and Three Lakes.
The unique competitive nature of wrestling is the common bond that each has appreciated throughout the years.
“This is one of the truest forms of sports competition,” Schubert said, “with just one person standing in front of a single opponent. It does not get any better than that.”