Nick Strand looks back on legendary Lumberjack career as he prepares to wrestle at Northern Illinois

Apr. 11—On Feb. 28, Nick Strand walked off the wrestling mat for the final time as a Lumberjack.

In his fifth straight state tournament appearance, he won the third-place match in the 139-pound weight class at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul.

It was his 220th and final win in a career that will go down as one of the best in Bemidji High School boys wrestling history.

Three section titles, five straight state tournament appearances, two top-five state finishes and the school leader in career wins, passing head coach Greg Skerik's mark of 217 wins.

Still, he'd be lying if he said he had no regrets.

"I'm not satisfied (with my career), but I'm happy that it happened," Strand explained. "I can't go back and change it, so I'm not going to dwell on the past. I wish I could've did things differently, maybe try a little bit harder when I was younger. (But) I made a lot out of it, so I am happy about that."

That's the competitor in Strand. The third-generation wrestler always had the highest expectations of himself. It was instilled into him by his father, Rob Strand, a former BHS wrestler himself.

"He wanted me to be better than he was," Strand said, "and I wanted the same thing."

Strand isn't quite done on the wrestling mat. He'll be competing in college at the Division I level for Northern Illinois this fall.

Naturally, he has some lofty goals for his collegiate career, too.

"My first goal is I don't want to redshirt. I want to start on the team right away" he said. "And I want to be All-American my first year, at least."

With his track record, who says he can't do it?

Strand's high school wrestling career began in the fall of 2020, when he was just in seventh grade.

He wasn't alone — fellow seventh grader and longtime friend Gabe Morin was also called up early. Having someone his age to share the high school wrestling experience helped Strand adjust to the level of competition.

"I mean, if you pull up a kid solo there, it's like throwing a baby a fish with a bunch of sharks," Strand quipped.

At the time, he was just 95 pounds and had to wrestle in the 106-pound weight class.

"(I) would have to eat and drink like three, four pounds of food just to make weight," he recalled.

It took a little time for Strand to find his footing. Despite some rough first few matches, he eventually got

his first win

at Fergus Falls.

That first season was up and down, as expected, for his age. Strand was trying to find his way in the sport while soaking up as much as he could from the older wrestlers.

"All my practice partners were a lot older and a lot bigger than me, so I didn't do a lot of winning in the room that year," he said. "But it definitely made me better. ... The seniors that year, they told me what was going to happen. They were like, 'It's all just part of the plan.'"

That plan started to come to fruition in his eighth-grade season, when he broke through by getting his first individual section title at 106 pounds. Even then, he thought he wasn't wrestling with as much confidence as he should.

By freshman year, everything clicked.

Strand found his style, dominating his way to another section title, this time at 113 pounds. His pin-focused approach on the mat was something he was comfortable with. And it gave him results, notching over 30 pins that year.

"Once I got into that groove my freshman year ... I was really finding out what worked and how I could beat other good guys," he explained.

Individually, he frequently stood out as one of the best wrestlers on the Jacks, winning two more individual section titles after his freshman year, four in total.

His finest year, arguably, was his most recent. He went 43-2 during the regular season at 139 pounds before taking third place at the state tournament, the best state finish in his career.

As a senior, he took on leadership responsibilities along with Morin. After a myriad of injuries to some key wrestlers on the team, both were leaned on to lead the young, inexperienced wrestlers.

The previous year, though, is one Strand will never forget.

Strand didn't cite a specific match or an individual title when pondering his favorite BHS moment. Instead, he pointed to the 2025 Section 8-3A Championship Bemidji won as a team his junior year.

The Jacks had finished runner-up for four years in a row to Willmar. Strand had a front row seat for each loss, adding fuel to the fire come 2025.

The Lumberjacks entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed, dominating Buffalo and Brainerd to make yet another section title game against No. 1 Willmar.

To say both teams were dead even would be an understatement.

Bemidji was trailing 29-20 with two matches remaining. When it needed it most, Ben Derosier secured a pin and Nehemiah Schwinghammer got a win by decision to tie the Cardinals 29-29. With seven match wins compared to Willmar's six, BHS came out on top by criteria.

Celebrating an individual section championship has its perks, and Strand has had plenty of opportunities to celebrate them. But to win a team section championship is just more special to him, especially with the heartbreak that came before.

"That was pretty surreal," Strand said. "I felt like my time was running out to win a section championship, because that was one of my big goals.

"That bus ride home was just ... it was awesome, because that senior class, that was a whole group that I wrestled my entire life, all the way through youth. It was their last year, and we felt like it was one of our last chances."

Strand hopes to have more memories like that at Northern Illinois. As a team, the Huskies have been above .500 for four seasons in a row.

Strand was looking for a program and a coach who are true to themselves, and he believes he's found that at Northern Illinois. He won't be the only Minnesotan there, either. Shakopee native Tyler Turzinski gave him a tour of the campus and an insight as to what it's like to be on the team.

"I wouldn't say I'm like him, but I definitely have the same goals as him," Strand said of Turzinski. "He wants to be the best and I want to be the best. So knowing that there are other people like that there, you want to surround yourself with people that you want to be like."