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Says Chris Chartier, who wrestled at Western New England and with a Division III all-star team in Europe before transferring here, "Coach cares about us as people, and he trains each of us as an elite athlete."

Ryan Holder '05, a New Hampshire state high school champion from Timberlane's powerhouse program, sensed something special happening here. He had been offered money to wrestle elsewhere, had checked out Plymouth State and Springfield colleges, where dedicated wrestling rooms have mats down permanently so wrestlers can work out at any time of day. "My brother wrestles D-I at B.U.," says Holder. "They have their laundry done for them, locker rooms, Gatorade, food on all their trips, eight sets of sweats. We get two pairs of shorts. But I didn't get the same vibe there that I got here. Coach Butler hits you on a different level."

Beau Dionne, a lightweight and the only senior on the club team, had wrestled for paid Division III coaches at Plymouth State. "You know," he says, "you might learn to shoot a double-leg takedown up there, but there are more important things."

In essentially two years of competing in the NCWA (that first year, just six athletes consistently wrestled), UNH has emerged as one of the stronger clubs in the country. It finished the regular season ranked fifth nationally in points, and eleventh in the coaches' poll. The club claimed the coveted "outstanding wrestler" award in three tournaments this year: Chris Chartier at the Apprentice Tournament in Virginia and the Regional Championships in Pennsylvania, and Beau Dionne at the Bryant Invitational. And all this, Butler points out, with a young group with a mix of experience coming in. "They've worked extremely hard," he says.

Seven wrestlers represent New Hampshire at the national championships in Lafayette. Chartier, Holder, Dionne and Mike Woodworth '04 had all qualified by finishing in the top six in their weight classes at regionals. Three other wrestlers had finished seventh, earning alternate status. Butler says he "happened to be" on the Internet site of the NCWA around midnight when openings for alternates were listed, and he was able to get the three additional UNH wrestlers placed.

The rift that threatened to wreck this team two weeks earlier is almost entirely healed. Each of Chartier's teammates had sought him out and talked with him. They had vented their feelings, listened to him explain what he had tried to do, worked out their differences, found a way to move on together. "I can't tell you how proud I am of these people as individuals," says Butler. "I've worked with adults my whole life who couldn't do what they did."

After pinning his first two opponents, Chris Chartier makes a risky move late in his third match, with every point counting, and loses the gamble. He pins his next two opponents, winning both matches and taking third place overall and earning All-American honors. Ryan Holder, wrestling on an injured right knee in the demanding 157-lb. weight class, hangs tough through six matches, winning four, taking sixth overall and is also named an All-American. As a team, UNH finishes 13th out of 48.

"You'd have to say that was a good showing, given how young a program we have," says Butler. "But we were so close to being in the top eight or 10."

Practice ends with a traditional closing that emphasizes strength, commitment and excellence.

Butler is already looking forward to next season. He's working to find sponsors to help pay the $7,000 cost of a new set of mats. Word is getting out. Butler had 20 guys on the mat at the start of this season. Next year he hopes to have at least two wrestlers in each of the 11 weight classes. "That's ideal," he says. "It makes the room more competitive." High school wrestlers are starting to contact him. ("That's unheard of at a club program," says Ryan Holder.) His returning athletes are looking into petitioning the university to reinstate varsity status. "We've stirred the dust," says Butler.

A sports story, strictly speaking, should end there, leaning forward into the arc of the next season. But something remarkable happens at that March practice when only five wrestlers show up, something that is likely to stay with these students long after they have forgotten the wins and losses of competition. The club status is irrelevant this morning, as, indeed, are the looming national championships. David Butler asks each of the wrestlers to put themselves in Chris Chartier's place as they decide how they want to react. He asks each of them if they have ever made mistakes before, if they've ever wanted forgiveness. "A very important person once told me that success is not final. Failure is not fatal. And that the most important thing is to have the courage to get out of bed every day and keep doing the right thing." He asks them to consider carrying Chris with them, to a different, more positive place. He asks them to be honest. He leaves their decision, and their means, up to them.

In the end, they do the right thing. In the moment, though, on a bleary morning under harsh fluorescent lights, on borrowed wrestling mats in a rented church gym, college athletes of the highest level are learning about something more than wrestling. They are learning about life. ~

Former editor of Yankee and the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, Jim Collins lives and writes in Orange, N.H.

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