There’s a time in every competitor’s life where something becomes more than a hobby or an interest and blossoms into a full-blown way of life.  For Jim Crider, that moment happened around the 9th grade in 1958.  Growing up on a dairy farm in Loma, Colorado — a small Western Slope stop along Westbound I-70 — Crider saw his older brother, Elmer, compete in wrestling for the first time.  It looked like fun, so he thought he’d give it a try.  “I went out for the team at Fruita HS, and I picked it up pretty easily. I always really

enjoyed the individual aspect of it, just competing for yourself,” Crider said. “I had fun doing it, I learned a lot. It just hooked me.”

Crider went on to win the junior high championship that year – his first year – without losing a match. And he did a whole lot of winning after that, too. 

 As a prep wrestler at Fruita, Crider captured the 133-pound state championship during his senior campaign in 1961. He went on to rack up a 55-15 record at Colorado State College (now the Univ of Northern Colorado) and was the state’s first, three-time Division I All-American, earning such honors from 1963-65.  “My coach (at UNC) was Jack LaBonde, and he did a lot for me,” Crider said. “I never quite made the big show, but I sure came close. I learned more wrestling from that guy than probably everybody else put together.”  But his passion for the sport didn’t stop even after the final time his hand was raised.

 From a young age, Crider knew he wanted to be a mentor and a teacher.  “My grandmother was a schoolteacher growing up, so I knew I always wanted to be a teacher,” Crider said. “Coaching (wrestling) kind of led me that way.  “I always encouraged kids to go to the highest level,” Crider said. “In fact, I demanded excellence. We did a lot of teaching and a lot of strategy.”  Crider’s coaching journey took him to four stops: Roosevelt HS (1965-68), Highland (1968-77), Bear Creek (1977-89), and Chatfield (1989-99). He helped lead four individual state champions and several place winners while also amassing 233 dual meet victories as a coach. And while the wins were nice, some of the most special memories were seeing young wrestlers walk a similar path as he once did.  “The most rewarding thing is to see a young man, probably a lot like myself, start out as a ninth grader knowing absolutely nothing about the sport,” Crider said. “And to see them blossom and become a state qualifier, a state place winner, a state champ. Knowing that you had an influence on his success … It’s an awesome honor.”