A shop class accident nearly ended his season. But Valley wrestler is favored to win state
New Plymouth’s Kyle Rice started his freshman year with a bang, going 33-2, finishing fourth at Rollie Lane and winning all but two of his competitive matches via a pin.
Then a table saw sliced off a chunk of his right thumb.
Rice pushed a board through a jointer in shop class Jan. 18 when a friend reminded him to use a push block as a safeguard. That caused Rice to look away for a moment, allowing the blade to carve into his right thumb and hack off half an inch of flesh on the bottom of the digit all the way down the first joint.
But that hasn’t stop Rice (36-2) on the mat. He entered this week’s state tournament as the No. 1 seed in 2A’s 106-pound division. And he lived up to the billing Friday, pinning his only opponent in 14 seconds after receiving a first-round bye.
“He has no grip on that hand. He’s pretty much in constant pain,” New Plymouth coach Caleb Campbell said. “But he’s tough enough to take it.”
[Related: Full state brackets, results]
A rushed trip to a hospital in Emmett stopped the bleeding. Rice then saw a hand surgeon in Boise two days later, who instructed him to stop wrestling in order to let the thumb heal.
But Rice would have none of it. He returned to the mat after a month to win a district title, points the Pilgrims needed to split the team championship with McCall-Donnelly.
“He said I’m not supposed to (wrestle) right now, but who cares?” Rice said. “This is more important.
“The doctor said if I wasn’t doing anything, it would only take a month to heal over. But since I’m wrestling, it’s going to take a little longer. After state I’m going to take a couple breaks.”
The sliced thumb is expected to heal fully, if shorter. But it comes with its limits for now.
Rice said his nerves are constantly firing. He wraps the thumb heavily in tape before each match, allowing it some cushion. But he has to remain careful where he sticks his dominant hand, using his left hand as much as possible. If he must grip someone with his right, he tucks his thumb under and locks the opponent’s wrist, preventing a counterattack toward his injured hand.
“I’m trying to keep it out of the way, which is really hard,” Rice said. “Your thumb is in a lot of situations.”
His solution: Fire out and end matches as soon as possible. It’s worked so far as he pinned his opponent in the district finals in 57 seconds, then followed with a 14-second pin Friday against Salmon’s Wyatt Platz to advance to the semifinals.
Bear Lake’s Wyatt Lloyd (18-13) looms in the next round, with No. 2 seed Dylan Burtenshaw of West Jefferson (33-9) waiting for a possible championship rematch. Rice pinned Burtenshaw in 33 seconds a week before his shop class injury. But that was with two hands.
A championship Saturday would put the youngest Rice on pace to keep up his with his brothers. The oldest brother, Joe Rice, won his fourth state title last season. Brendon Rice, a junior, won a championship as a freshman.
All three are the son of New Plymouth’s middle school coach, Matt Rice. So even after Campbell learned a table saw sliced into his star wrestler’s finger, he knew he’d return to the mat as soon as possible.
“If it was anybody else on the team, I would be worried about it,” Campbell said. “But with the family he comes from, even if I told him no, they would have beat me up until I let him.”
KUNA LEADING 4A RACE
Kuna ended Friday at 4A state tournament on pace for its first state team title since 2014. The Kavemen finished with 127.5 points and eight wrestlers in Saturday’s semifinals. Columbia remains the closest team with 97 points and seven semifinalists. And Jerome had 82.5 points with eight still alive in the semis.
Two-time defending 5A state champ Post Falls had a solid lead with 130.5 points, 23.5 points ahead of Centennial. Post Falls also held an edge in semifinalists with seven qualifiers to Centennial’s six.
In 3A, Fruitland was the top Treasure Valley team in fourth place with 95 points, 15 behind Snake River. And in 2A, McCall-Donnelly sat in third place, 26 points behind Ririe.
This story was originally published February 22, 2019 at 5:00 PM.
