Wrestling: Legacy’s Funk dubbed Daily Camera wrestler of the year – Broomfield Enterprise

When Legacy’s Quinn Funk won the Class 5A state championship in the 190-pound weight class as a junior, his family joked that he broke the “Funk Curse” that plagued his four older brothers that came before him.

None had won a state title. During his senior season, he obliterated that scourge by knocking down every single opponent that dared match up to him on the mats. None could score points on him beyond a few escapes here and there, as he barreled through his undefeated slate toward another 215-pound title.

He became the CEO of his own family business, a role he credits his older brothers in helping prepare him for. For that, and his incredible success over the last two seasons, Funk was named the Daily Camera wrestler of the year.

“With all of them having wrestled before, I started pretty early, just learning from them and stuff. It really helped,” Funk said. “… We haven’t actually wrestled a full match, so I don’t think I’ve ever beaten them yet.”

His father, Mike, has served as an assistant coach within the Lightning program for the past 14 years, and believes Quinn stacked up to a former standout who went 177-14 over his four seasons with Legacy from 2012-2016.

“Obviously, I’m biased, but other than like Ryan Deakin, he’s probably the best one that’s come through. Those are probably the two best kids I’ve seen come through the Legacy program,” Mike said. “He has been a really quick learner with things. He picks stuff up really fast, faster than most kids, and I think that’s what’s made him successful. You can show him something, you go over it, and then he incorporates it into his own wrestling pretty quickly. But he’s also a pretty great wrestler from the standpoint that he knows what works for him and what doesn’t.”

He believes that Quinn’s composure, as well as his sponge-like learning ability, helped him outwit and outlast every last opponent he faced this year. His formidable mat presence was a stark contrast to the quiet demeanor he held inside and outside of practice. That made him all the more dangerous.

“Quinn’s probably a little quieter. He’s kind of a quiet worker. He works just as hard as his older brothers did,” head coach Mike Thompson said. “His brothers would adjust, just not as quickly as he does. He’s making adjustments mentally, a little faster, to correct or to stop an attack from his opponent.

“He’s making those adjustments on the fly. That just shows that he knows wrestling and he knows the position, not just knowing the move. He knows the position and the style and what he needs to do to score.”

As Quinn begins his transition from the high school scene to the college scene at Division-I Binghamton in New York, he’ll take all the lessons he learned as a Bolt with him and, of course, everything he picked up from his brothers, all of whom went on to wrestle in college before him.