There is no Mat Classic this season, but Tahoma’s Steele Starren is still focused on winning

At Tahoma High School, wrestling success has become almost a birthright.

That idea currently is encapsulated in senior Steele Starren.

Maybe Starren wasn’t born a wrestler, but the guy his coach Chris Feist calls the “Man of Steel” grew up watching so many siblings compete on the Tahoma mats with success, his own ascension to state titlist might have seemed inevitable.

“He’s just a great young man,” Feist said. “He’s a two-time state champion who could have been a four-time champ. He definitely would have been in it this year.”

Starren won his first title as a freshman at 126 pounds.

“That was pretty crazy,” Starren said. “I really was just trying to figure everything out. I took some tough losses to some tough kids that year. Nobody really expected me to go out and win it. I was ranked like fifth going in.”

He won again a year ago as a junior at 145 pounds. In between, despite a torn labrum in his left shoulder, Starren still finished fifth at 138 as a sophomore. Of course, this season has been reduced to five weeks of dual meets with no state playoffs or chance at a title due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starren has followed four siblings into and through the Tahoma program. He watched brothers Dallas, Colby and Gunner.

“Even Stormy (Starren’s sister) was on the mat with us for a while,” Feist said. “Steele was always just a tough kid. Then in middle school, he started filling out, added strength and speed to the mindset. He’s always going harder than everyone around him.”

By the time he arrived on campus at Tahoma, Starren was ready to integrate into what the Bears already had, and what Starren himself had learned from.

“It’s more program than team,” Feist said. “It all funnels and feeds to the high school team.”

Tahoma, Feist said, tends to build in cycles. Results bear that out.

Since 2010, Tahoma has finished second in Class 4A twice (2010, 2013) and won team titles in 2012 and 2017.

“When we started, we had some success as a team,” Feist said. “It was very deliberate. What we didn’t know was how to build a program. Connecting with the families and community, a foundation built on love, that’s when we really started to roll.”

Starren is the latest embodiment of that philosophy, taking over a leadership role that others showed him.

“Now, these guys have him,” Feist said. “That’s a lasting impact — a legacy impact on a program. He sets the stage for the type of wrestling we want to have in Maple Valley. We want great wrestlers. But as athletes, we want great human beings that know how to get what they want out of life.”

Starren is well on his way to knowing what he wants.

Despite offers to wrestle at the Division I level, that may not be the direction Starren wants to take with his life. He will graduate this spring from Tahoma with his associate degree from Green River College already in his hands, thanks to the “Running Start” program.

Since he could, Starren also has worked for his dad’s construction company, Monarch Development. That connection to family is important to Starren and one reason he likely will eschew those big-time college offers.

“There aren’t too many D-I programs around here,” Starren said. “It’s just about staying around the family.”

Again, it’s about knowing what you want.

Starren’s nature has carried him through these busy high school years, and that past injury.

“I’m pretty competitive,” Starren said. “I was always pretty competitive. Then I started seeing how good I could really be.”

As a sophomore, Starren said, he actually injured his shoulder twice. The original tear came at a tournament just before the high school season began. He tore the left labrum again as the postseason approached, at the Dream Duals meet in Spokane.

But he didn’t really tell anybody, choosing to tough through it. He still won two of his matches at Mat Classic that year to take fifth place.

“It’s definitely something that hindered me,” Starren said. “After the season, I got surgery. The doctor said it was one of the worst he’d ever seen. But I didn’t want to use it as an excuse.”

Instead, as he continues to do, Starren worked to make a positive out of a negative. He can’t win more titles, so Starren refocused.

“What is the next best thing for me right now?” Starren said. “I want to go out there and dominate everybody I’ve ended up wrestling. I won’t be able to get a third state title. So, I’m going to go out there and try to pin everybody. I want to let people know I’m the best in the state at whatever weight I’m in.”