Brothers, bonds and history: Inside Maize wrestling’s record-setting state title
The thing about family in a wrestling room is that it rarely stays sentimental for long.
A shove turns into a scramble. A playful tie-up turns into somebody trying to finish a takedown. A brother loses a live go and demands another one. Another brother refuses to leave the mat until he gets his turn to even the score.
That was the daily reality for the Maize boys wrestling team this season, and by the end of it, the Eagles produced one of the most dominant seasons in Kansas history.
Powered by three sets of brothers and a father-son combination woven into the fabric of the lineup, Maize stormed to the Class 6A team state championship in Overland Park this past weekend, setting a modern 6A state tournament record with 237 team points. That shattered the previous mark of 209 set by Goddard in 2008.
For a program that had been left disappointed by back-to-back fourth-place finishes in 6A after winning the 5A title in 2023, the breakthrough felt bigger because of who got to share it.
“We’ve known each other growing up, so it really felt like one big family,” Maize junior Vincent Rosas said. “From wrestling at the club all the way to here in high school, everyone knows each other. So I think that made winning that much more important to us to know that we won a title as a family.”
There was Vincent Rosas, a junior who finally broke through for his first state title at 138 pounds after finishing as a state runner-up the previous two years, and his younger brother, freshman Baron Rosas, who placed third at 157.
There was junior Everett Joyce, who completed a perfect 43-0 season and won his second straight 6A title at 190, and his younger brother, freshman Reid Joyce, who finished fifth at 175.
There was senior Talon Verbeck, a state runner-up at 144, and his younger brother, junior Tucker Verbeck, who also finished second at 126.
And then there was junior Cooper Smith, who won his second straight state title by claiming gold at 113 after winning 106 a year ago, with his father Ryan Smith spending the season on the Maize coaching staff as an assistant after retiring from Newman following 17 years as the head coach.
It was not jsut an unusual collection of family ties. It became one of Maize’s greatest competitive advantages.
The brothers had trained together for years in the Maize Wrestling Club, long before they were piling up points at the high school level. They knew each other’s tendencies, strengths and weaknesses. They knew how to challenge each other without needing a coach to stress urgency. And because they were all close outside the room too, the accountability ran deeper than most teams.
“Vinnie is like a brother from another mother to me,” Tucker Verbeck said. “It really does feel like one big family on the team. We’ve all known each other from wrestling youth club all the way through high school.”
That familiarity made the practice room fierce.
“If we’re going live in the practice room and I lose, we’ve got to go again,” Talon Verbeck said. “And if he loses, then we’re not done yet. We’re wrestling again. Nobody wants to lose.”
Older brothers set the tone. Younger brothers chased them. Sometimes they tried to surpass them. Often they pushed each other into positions no ordinary practice partner could.
Everett Joyce said there was no hiding from stagnation when his younger brother already knew every trick he liked to use.
“We’ve grown up wrestling against each other since pretty much forever,” Joyce said of his brother. “Every move that I’ve hit over the years, he’s eventually perfected the defense for it. He’s always got the counters to all of my moves and I’ve got the counters to all of his moves. So it kind of forces us to create something new and get better at certain positions that we might not get with another person.”
And because they were brothers, of course, even messing around had a way of escalating.
“Sometimes when we flow around and like play wrestle, it escalates pretty quickly,” Joyce said. “Someone will try to put someone in a headlock or someone will get an extra-hard takedown or maybe ride a little harder than you probably should. It gets heated sometimes, but I think it all helps push us.”
Vincent Rosas had that same dynamic with Baron.
“Against my brother, I feel like I’ve got something to prove,” Rosas said. “He’s getting a little bigger than me, so I’ve got to try to humble him a little bit.”
All of that sharpened a team that was loaded from top to bottom.
Maize crowned four state champions in Overland Park in senior Zach Siatka at 106, Cooper Smith at 113, Vincent Rosas at 138 and Everett Joyce at 190. Smith and Joyce became the sixth and seventh multi-time state champions in program history and now have a chance next season to become the first three-time state champions in Maize history.
The Eagles also had seven wrestlers reach the state finals in the 14 brackets and finished with 10 total state placers, tying for the second-most placers in modern 6A state tournament history. Alongside the four champions, Tucker Verbeck, sophomore Antonio Guebara and Talon Verbeck each finished as runner-up; Baron Rosas took third, Reese DeMoss took fourth and Reid Joyce added a fifth-place medal.
Ryan Smith’s presence added another layer to that bond. He stepped down from Newman specifically to spend more time around Cooper’s career, but he was also aware of the balancing act that came with coaching his own son in a room full of wrestlers who all deserved the same attention.
“You’re very careful with that,” Ryan Smith said. “I think I spent more time away from his side of the room because I wanted to be there for all of the guys, not just one kid. But it was still special. I loved being around for the journey.”
That approach fit the broader culture Maize built under first-year head coach Tyler Gonzales. This was not a collection of stars wrestling as individuals under one banner. This was a connected team, one that had grown up together, suffered through near-misses together and finally kicked the door down together.
That made the ending feel complete.
“I don’t think there’s a better ending to the season than getting an individual state title and also a team state title,” Everett Joyce said. “Placing first in both, there’s no room for what-ifs. And that’s pretty rare in the sport of wrestling.”
Wichita-area high school boys wrestling Class 6A state medalists
Campus: Remington Pugh, so., 39-9, 285, sixth.
Derby: Jayden Reyes, fr., 47-7, 106, third; Quentin Williams, sr., 44-12, 157, fourth; Emilio Gauna, jr., 38-11, 132, fifth.
East: Donald Jackson, jr., 43-4, 157, second; Prince Marshall, so., 36-8, 175, second; Enrique Tellez Jr., fr., 36-7, 106, second; Jordan Noble, sr., 40-6, 132, fourth; Anthony Noble, sr., 24-9, 144, sixth.
Maize: Zachary Siatka, sr., 28-2, 106, first; Everett Joyce, jr., 43-0, 190, first; Cooper Smith, jr., 33-2, 113, first; Vincent Rosas, jr., 22-1, 138, first; Talon Verbeck, sr., 40-9, 144, second; Tucker Verbeck, jr., 35-11, 126, second; Antonio Guebara, so., 31-2, 132, second; Baron Rosas, fr., 16-5, 157, third; Reese DeMoss, sr., 30-20, 120, fourth; Reid Joyce, fr., 33-13, 175, fifth.
North: Thomas Shields, sr., 40-5, 113, fourth.
Northwest: Phillip Bowers, jr., 34-5, 165, third.
South: Jayden Kirk-McGowan, sr., 32-7, 215, fourth.
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