PCM’s Roland gets storybook ending

By the time Prairie City-Monroe junior Lucas Roland stepped on the mat for the Class 2A 170-pound championship on Saturday night, most of the fans in attendance knew his situation.

Roland, his family and the PCM community had been featured on all three of the local television news stations in Des Moines.

I told the story in a previous column and the TV stations ran their own stories on the Roland family.

He had a lot of motivation to complete this season with the school’s first individual wrestling championship, but the biggest being his mother Jeri’s battle with breast cancer.

The support the Roland family got all season was incredible. And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, I was wrong.

After second-ranked Roland locked up a 5-1 win over top-ranked Kolton Bartow of Dubuque Wahlert, the entire sold-out crowd at Wells Fargo Arena stood up and cheered as Lucas climbed into the stands to meet his family.

He first jumped into the arms of his father Dan, who greeted him with tears of his own.

Then it was on to his mother Jeri, who also had tears of joy.

“It’s great to know that everyone is there for you,” Lucas Roland said. “I haven’t met most of those people in my life. There are so many people around the wrestling community that have supported us. It’s one big family.”

Camera phones were out. Pictures were being taken. Videos recorded. The story was out there and everyone knew about it.

As Lucas hugged his mother, his youngest sister Briar was tugging at his legs. She wanted in on the love, too.

Her smile said it all.

The family had been through a lot the past year or so. The end result on Saturday helped ease some of their pain.

“It was the greatest feeling I have ever felt in my entire life,” Lucas Roland said when asked about greeting his mother in the stands. “Being able to see her after I accomplished my goal of winning a state title was the greatest feeling in the world.”

There was plenty of pink in the Wells Fargo Arena stands last weekend. Fans wore pink shirts made to support Jeri.

Not just PCM fans. But fans all over the state.

“As far as our shirts go, we shipped them all over the state of Iowa and even to other states,” PCM coach Jeff Nicholson said. “All of the (PCM) boys wore pink on the medal stand. Our fans wore pink. We wore pink shirts with our suits. That was all to support Jeri.”

There was another wrestler wearing the pink shirt before his championship match. Albia junior Aden Reeves used his “Takedown Cancer” shirt as his warmup for state and districts.

Reeves sat next to Dan Roland during Lucas’ championship match. He was another one who couldn’t hold back tears when giving his friend a hug.

“We are all a family,” Lucas Roland said. “We are opponents at some point but in the end we are all one big family, and that’s what counts.”

The state tournament experience as a whole has been much better the past few seasons. It’s been easy to rail on the Iowa High School Athletic Association for their decisions in recent years, but I want to give a shout out to new Communications Director Chris Cuellar.

Since Cuellar has jumped on board, I can tell he’s impacting decisions. He is working toward fixing a reputation that isn’t necessarily good statewide.

Cuellar, who worked several years for the Des Moines Register, knows what media folks need so that helps his cause I am sure.

But he greeted us every day, asked if we needed anything and had print outs of the daily internet password that he passed around to all the tables.

The IHSAA still has some flaws. Chris knows that.

But he’s working towards doing what he can to make sure the reputation is repaired.

Contact Troy Hyde
at thyde@newtondailynews.com