Blackfoot High freshman wrestler Keanna Conrad undefeated
Blackfoot High School freshman Keanna Conrad competes at the Rollie Lane Tournament on January 6 in Nampa.
By LORI ANN EDMO
Sho-Ban News
BLACKFOOT — Blackfoot High freshman wrestler and Shoshone-Bannock tribal member Keanna Conrad is undefeated 21-0 thus far in her season and won the prestigious Rollie Lane Tournament January 6 at the Ford Center in Nampa.
Wrestling at 126 pounds, she was also the Idaho High School Activities Association Athlete of the Week January 1 to 7. The IHSAA Facebook post read she didn’t have a single point scored on her until her finals match at the Rollie Lane Tournament. Keanna received the Outstanding Wrestler award for the girls middle weights.
There were 66 wrestlers in her bracket and the tourney had a total of 99 teams from Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and Idaho.
Keanna’s mom Johnette Hill said her daughter told her at the Rollie Lane Tournament wrestling is her life. Keanna’s been wrestling since third grade and doing really good winning a lot of tournaments. “We’ve been everywhere,” Johnette said and she’s getting ready for state and women’s nationals.
“She all around loves wrestling and I tell her if she doesn’t keep her grades up, she can’t,” but Keanna is currently an honor student and a few points away from high honors, Johnette continued.
BHS wrestler Keanna Conrad with a Rollie Lane Tournament representative.
Keanna said wrestling has made her more confident and taught her self-discipline to try new things. “To be patient and understanding cause I’ve learned that there is a lot of time and dedication that goes into wrestling.” One of her short term goals is to place at state and be undefeated. One of her long term goals is to win four years at state for high school. She wants to go to college for wrestling and travel to help the youth learn and understand the sport and to help grow women’s wrestling.
Wrestling is also in the family as Keanna’s younger brother Delbert is on Mountain View Middle School’s team and her little sister Devina, 5, has started.
To keep in top shape, her mom said she practices in the morning, after school and at times gets three practices in by going to Idaho Falls to practice with her year round coach Brock Zollinger at East Idaho Elite. Her Blackfoot coaches are Stephen Adams and Lana Hunt. At the high school practice she warms up with the boys as there are a couple willing to push her. Johnette said Zollinger has taught Keanna a lot of technique and she’s learned a lot.
Keanna wants to thank her coaches Brock Zollinger and her Blackfoot High coaches Stephen Adams and Lana Hunt. She also wants to thank all her family and friends who’ve been there and continue to support her.
She’s not scared to go up in weight, if necessary, to get a match. She’s gone up against some really big girls but her coaches have taught her how to get around them.
In addition, to wrestling and school, Keanna also works part time at Papa Murphy’s in Blackfoot.
Keanna wants to win state and she wants to get into a good college to wrestle.
Johnette said they want to thank the community for the support as Keanna reads all the comments on her mom’s Facebook page. She has a couple of sponsors to help with big events.
