Konner Doucet set out to prove he was one of Oklahoma’s most dominant high school wrestlers this season, and the Comanche senior made a strong argument in his favor after recently breezing through the Class 3A State Wrestling Championships in Oklahoma City.
Doucet, who finished his final prep season with a stellar 47-0 record, pinned each of his three opponents in the 220-lb weight class in less than a minute. The impressive performance earned him Most Outstanding Wrestler honors in Class 3A.
“Since I didn’t win Most Outstanding Wrestler last year with all tech falls, I figured why not go for pins and see if that’ll get it done,” stated Doucet, who didn’t allow a single point last year en route to a state title. “That was always one of my goals, to win Most Oustanding Wrestler at the state tournament.”
“He wanted to show everyone last year that he could dominate,” said Comanche coach Jason Miller. “This year, he said he was going to pin everybody in the first period. And he did it.”
Doucet, who’s ranked 5th in the country at 220-lbs according to InterMat, also became just the 40th wrestler in Oklahoma history to win four individual state titles.
“It was a dream of mine as long as I can remember,” said Doucet, who has committed to wrestle at Oklahoma State. “It’s crazy looking back on it that it’s finally over and I accomplished a dream that not many people get to accomplish.”
Miller attributes some of Doucet’s success to the fact he was on the smaller side when he began wrestling. He wrestled in the lower weights until experiencing a pair of substantial growths spurts in middle school.
“I was a smaller weight so I learned how to wrestle quick and fast,” recalled Doucet. “I learned a lot of technique. I wasn’t really focused on strength when I was younger, so that definitely play a role in my success.”
“He just started off small and grew,” added Miller. “He knows how to wrestle like a little guy.”
The individual title capped off an impressive season for Doucet and Comanche. The Indians captured the 3A Dual State title in February with wins over Bridge Creek, Sperry and Marlow. It was their first Dual State title since 1993. Then they proceeded to win Regionals and their first team state championship since 1988.
“We knew we were going to be pretty tough,” said Miller. “We knew what other teams had coming back. We knew we had a real legitimate shot if we could stay healthy.”
Konner’s dad, Benji, was a member of one of those earlier title teams and it led to a lot of playful arguments about which Comanche team was better.
“Oh ya, for sure,” said Doucet with a laugh. “Me and my dad always joked around. He said his team won a title and was the best team. We figured if we could win dual state and state in the same year, there’d be no argument which team was best.”
They’re the first team in Comanche school history to win all three events in the same season. They even came within a few hundredths of a point of winning the state academic championship as well. It’s a feat that wouldn’t have been possible without the senior leadership of Doucet, 195-lb champion Gage Miller and 170-lb runner-up Cade Cook.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a freshman or a sophomore,” said Doucet, “the time to win is now and I think we really focused on that as a team. We weren’t going to take a back seat to anyone.”
“After Dual State, you could just see the confidence build in our younger kids,” added Miller. “These guys really wanted to win for each other. When you’ve got kids like that, who are confident and can back it up, it’s fun to coach kids like that.”
Comanche’s title run also put an exclamation point on Miller’s tenure as the Indians wrestling coach. He’s taking a step back from the wrestling program, but will continue to teach and coach track and cross country.
“It means the world to me,” Doucet said about sending Miller out with a state title. “He wrestled in high school on teams with my dad and my uncle. He’s been around my whole wrestling career. It just brings a lot of joy to my heart to know that we sent him out the right way.”
