Keith Sieracki has been rising in rank ever since he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1990.
But not through the usual chain of command. Sieracki, a military policeman by trade from Richland Center, has made most of his progress on the world wrestling scene.
Too inexperienced and physically underdeveloped to earn a college wrestling scholarship out of high school, Sieracki has developed into one of the top Greco-Roman wrestlers in the country.
He is within two wins of representing the United States at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta in July. By virtue of winning the U.S. Nationals, Sieracki is the top seed at 163 pounds at the Olympic Team Trials, which will be held today and Sunday in Concord, Calif.
As the top seed, Sieracki, 24, receives a bye into Sunday's championship round. The other finalist will emerge from a 12-man mini-tournament held today. The winner of the best two-of-three final earns a spot on the Olympic team.
``I never really thought I could do it until this year,'' Sieracki said last weekend from Ft. Benning, Ga., where he lives with wife Tina and their 2-year-old son, Dylan. ``It's always been a dream to be on the Olympic team, but realistically I never came close until January or February of this year.''
Sieracki entered high school as a 98-pounder and never advanced past the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association sectionals until his senior year, when he won the Class A title at 145 pounds.
``When I went into high school, I was considered a good wrestler, not a great one,'' Sieracki said. ``It took me four years to get everything together and win it.''
While that effort was laudable, it did not reap any college scholarship offers. Without enough money to foot the college tuition bill on his own, Sieracki went looking for a place to continue his wrestling career.
He found that place in the Army. Sieracki enlisted in August 1990 with plans to enter the service's wrestling program. Good idea. Bad timing.
``My first six-to-eight weeks in basic training, I talked to somebody about it and they told me I was crazy,'' Sieracki said. ``The war was getting ready to go on in Saudi Arabia, and they told me forget about it, I was going to war.''
Sieracki did end up in the desert. But it was in Utah, not the Middle East. While stationed at the Dugway Proving Ground, southwest of the Great Salt Lake, Sieracki's interest in the sport was rekindled when he noticed a poster advertising Army wrestling camps.
With the permission of his commanding officer, Sieracki went to the camp and made the Army team. He was sent to Ft. Benning in October 1991 and has been there ever since.
Sieracki followed up a fifth-place showing at the U.S. Nationals in 1994 with a third-place finish in 1995.
``Besides high school, that Army program more or less made me,'' Sieracki said. ``I mean, I made myself, but it gave me all of the opportunity. It gave me a place to train, the best training partners in the country.''
Still, it took six years and a Kazakh coach-turned-refugee from the Soviet Olympic wrestling program, Anatoly Nazarenko, for Sieracki to get to the top.
Nazarenko, 48, a three-time world Greco-Roman champion and a Olympic silver medalist, became Sieracki's coach in October and attacked the situation in textbook Army manner: first, break down your charges, then build them back up in your own system.
He sent Sieracki to Colorado on a physical conditioning regimen that included hiking, mountain climbing and running.
Then he focused on technique. Always a head-and-arm thrower, Sieracki had been pulled away from his natural style by previous coaches who feared it was too adventurous. Nazarenko preferred simply to strengthen Sieracki's tendencies.
``He took what I had,'' Sieracki said. ``Instead of veering me away from it, he put me on the weights, sent me to Colorado, and then he taught me how to do head throws and arm throws right, to work to my benefit.''
The approach has resulted not so much in an improvement as in a transformation. Sieracki went 7-6 on a tour of Eastern Europe this winter and has not lost to an American opponent this year.
That statistic includes his stunning performance at the U.S. Nationals. In the semifinals, he caught top-ranked Gordy Morgan in a head throw and pinned him for his first win over the three-time Nationals champion in four attempts. In the finals, Sieracki turned second-ranked Matt Lindland with less than 20 seconds left in their match to seal a 5-2 win.
While Sieracki will likely have to go through either Morgan or Lindland in the championship Sunday, he will have the benefit of being fresh. That could be enough of an edge to earn one of the 10 spots on the Olympic Team.
``Sieracki is only on the beginning of his career,'' Nazarenko said. ``People who are that flexible, have good endurance and an ability to recover are rare.''
