This past weekend, Schimek returned to the competition, but he knew it would be tougher as he moved up into the 10U age group.

While he did not reach the heights of last year, Schimek showed he can hang among the best in the United States by taking fourth place at the 84-pound championship.

“We’ve been training freestyle since the regular season ended, so the beginning of April,” Kamdyn’s father, Kris Schimek. “He decided he wanted to go back and try to win it again. Competing at the national, especially at their level, is a great experience. You’re getting to compete in a big tournament in a big arena and I don’t think people realize how valuable that is in the long run. The more experience under the lights on the big stage in front of thousands of people, if your goal is to make the state tournament and do well in high school, you’ve already been in that situation now.”

Schimek’s round to the podium was not an easy one as it began against the eventual runner-up in Oklahoma’s Jaxon Huffman, who sent him — Schimek — to the loser’s bracket in his first match.

Submitted Photo Kamdyn Schimek, left, is pictured with his dad, Kris, after taking fourth place in the 10U 84-pound bracket at the USA Wrestling Kids Freestyle & Greco-Roman Nationals.

“This year he was in the younger end,” Schimek said. “He was 9 wrestling in the 10U division. Any time you are in the down year, you go to a national event you are happy to just get on the podium. Being a returning champ, we set our goals a little higher than that.”

After winning the tournament last year, Schimek faced adversity immediately in the new age group and he would need to respond positively to earn a spot on the podium.

Schimek got back to business and rattled off two victories that landed him in the third-place match.

First he defeated Ryland Hendricks of Indiana with a convincing 12-2 technical fall and then pinned Alabama’s Hunt Robinson in 2:19.

“It’s always tough to respond after a loss,” Schimek said. “I always tell him it is done and over with, there is nothing we can do about it now. There is no reason to sit and pout about it, so just move on to the next one and take care of business and he does pretty well with that. A lot of it is just experience. He has been in that situation many, many times and we knew that the first opponent was really good.”

Submitted Photo Kamdyn Schimek, right, is pictured with his coach, Jason Beichner, after taking fourth place in the 10U 84-pound bracket at the USA Wrestling Kids Freestyle & Greco-Roman Nationals.

Schimek’s weekend ended with a loss against Tucker Hoffschneider of Colorado, but for the second year in a row he earned a spot on the podium, taking fourth in the 10U 84-pound bracket.

“He wasn’t upset with how he did,” Schimek said about his son’s placement. “I think having the experience definitely helps, he wasn’t any more nervous than he normally is to compete and doesn’t really seem to mind the big-stage environment. He tends to want to do more things like that. It’s just not always reasonable to travel around the country all of the time.”

Whether it is taking first place last year or coming in fourth last weekend, it was not about the results for the Schimeks, it was instead about gaining the experience and placing well was just a bonus.

“The results are good,” Schimek stated. “One thing I preach is process over results. I preach if you keep doing the right things, good things will happen, and for him to put in all those extra workouts and do more than most kids do and see results from it just makes me happy. I don’t feel like I’m preaching him something that’s not true. He sees it and he knows that if he puts this work in he gets the results.”

Even with the podium not being the main purpose for the Schimeks, seeing the results after all of the hard work is very rewarding.

“There are a lot of words I could say, but the biggest one is proud,” Schimek said. “I am extremely proud of him because most kids don’t get opportunities to set goals that big and actually chase them down. Every kid that plays sports at some point wants to be a professional athlete, but how many are actually taking the steps necessary to chase those goals down and how many know what they need to do to even come close to them. For him to put the work in and know what it takes, I’m just very very proud of him, and I don’t know if he believes me but I tell him all the time.”

It is by no mistake that Kamdyn has had this success because his efforts off the mat go beyond what coaches and parents ask of him, but what he expects from himself.

“We have our club practices twice a week,” Schimek said. “A lot of it is stuff that he does on his own at home.”

Although Kamdyn is too young to lift weights, he will do kettlebells, run and do hill sprints, along with workouts in his home wrestling room accompanied by circuit training.

“I would say he’s working out six days a week and maybe nine times a week leading up to an event,” Schimek said. “We talk about it all the time that if your goals are to be the best you have to train like them and he is pretty receptive to that for his age. I give him a lot of credit. He has national contender ideations and I told him as long as those are your goals this is the standard we have to set.”

Schimek will take a well-deserved break, but then it is right back to training and preparing for football later this summer.

“We’re probably going to take a couple days off,” Schimek said. “Now that we’re not training for one specific event, I asked him what he wants to do now and he said he wants to take a couple of weeks off then wrestle twice a week and get ready for football. So we will start wrestling twice a week, get ready for football and start setting some new goals.”