Strong Silent Type: Glenwood’s Koehler lets his play on the mat, gridiron do his talking
Trophies, medals and accolades tell only part of Mason Koehler’s story.
Behind Glenwood’s two-time state wrestling champion, all-state football player and Northern Colorado wrestling signee is a young man whose success has been built on countless hours of self-driven work and an unwavering faith.
That foundation, paired with a competitive fire that first emerged when he won his very first wrestling tournament at just 4 years old, helped shape Koehler into The Opinion-Tribune’s 2025-26 Mills County Athlete of the Year.
Koehler grew up in an athletic family, playing most every sport in his youth before focusing on wrestling and football at Glenwood Community High School where he earned a combined seven varsity letters in the two sports. His sister, McKenna, was a four-sport athlete at Glenwood, and his brother Max, just a freshman, was an All-Hawkeye 10 Conference baseball player this past season.
Koehler first stepped on to a wrestling mat before he was even in kindergarten. Without prior grappling coaching or a single practice his father, Shawn, threw his oldest son into a Glenwood Youth Wrestling tournament.
“I somehow came out and won it,” Koehler recalls of that tournament nearly 15 years ago. “I just went out there. I’m not sure how much coaching a three- or four-year-old can have but I was like 40 pounds or something like that.”
Football vs. Wrestling. Wresting vs. Football. They constantly competed for space in his young athletic psyche.
“I had football dreams for a while,” he said. “I think every kid in America does at some point. I was really into football when I was younger and in middle school that kind of changed. I still loved football, but I realized wrestling was what I wanted to do.”
Koehler said choosing which sport is his favorite is still difficult, but he calls wrestling his “first love.”
“It’s kind of always been my favorite,” he said. “I was wrestling even before I was in Lil’ Rams playing football and competing in other stuff. Wrestling has always been closest to my heart.”
He thinks the challenge of wrestling, its reliance on “self-motivation” – a popular mantra of Koehler’s – drew him in. The results on the mat kept him there.
“It’s all on you,” he said. “It’s about how hard you can push yourself. How well you can extend your game and your effort to make yourself a better wrestler. That was so appealing to me. It was all about how good you could make yourself no matter what resources you had or who your partner was or your coaching. It was all about how much work you’re willing to put in and how good you can make yourself.”
Beginning in elementary school, Koehler joined Powerhouse Wrestling in Council Bluffs and has been a part of that storied program throughout middle and high school. On the youth club circuit Koehler won his share of AAU medals before joining the Ram varsity as a freshman.
On the varsity level, Koehler is one of only three Rams to win two state titles. In all he is a four-time state medalist who holds the school records for career victories (184) as well as pins in a season (42) and career (142).
Koehler methodically took down Osage’s Gavin Muller 4-0 in this year’s 215-pound state finals before a packed crowd of 15,000 at the Casey’s Center in Des Moines. He pinned all three of his opponents to reach the finals.
Koehler went 51-1 on the mat his season. His lone loss came to Class 3A state champion and University of North Carolina signee Lincoln Jipp of Bettendorf.
Of all the matches his senior year, it’s the one he probably remembers with the most detail.
“That’s the kind of wrestler and person I am,” he said. “I don’t like to lose. But I used that match to hone in on what I needed to work on. I’m actually really grateful to Coach (Tucker) Weber and the whole staff for scheduling tournaments like that. We had a gauntlet of a schedule.
“Any match that happens like that, it definitely stays on my mind a long time. I can also move on from losses fast as well. There’s not winners and losers, there’s winners and learners. I learned a lot in that match.”
Koehler bristles at the suggestion he’s in the conversation for “one of the best Rams wrestlers ever” question. But it’s hard to argue if there were a Mount Rushmore of Glenwood Wrestling, Koehler likely has a place on it.
Jeff Jens (1989 and 1990) and Rick Moreno (1991 and 1992) are the only other Rams to earn the “two-time champion” moniker.
That idea boggles Koehler’s mind. And more than a little, humbles him.
“It feels like a dream,” he said. “I remember as a kid hearing about those guys and then watching Anthony Sherry and Matt Malcom and Brett Mower and Caleb Sanders and thinking, ‘Holy crap, those guys are so good, I want to be like them someday.’ It got me going and pushed me. To be considered among them, it’s an honor.”
Koehler would be the first to admit, he did none of it on his own.
He’s quick to credit his parents, his coaches and his faith in building the man he is today. A dedication to improvement in everything he does has always been a driving force.
“God gave me these gifts and this ability to wrestle and the opportunity to wrestle in middle school and high school and now college and I’m so blessed for that. How good of a person I can be, how good of a wrestler I can be and, in all aspects, has always motivated me. I feel like this is the path God put me on and I’m ready to push it as far as I can until it’s time to move on to something else.”
His parents, both high school athletes emphasized hard work and effort in their children’s endeavors, whether that be in sports or the classroom.
Koehler can still recall all those times he needed to cut weight for wrestling, trudging away on the treadmill, hating every minute of it thinking about how much he wanted a cheeseburger and there was his dad, always encouraging, always driving him.
“How bad do want it?” the elder Koehler would say. “How bad do you want to win?”
“I think that work ethic was instilled in me from both of them at such a young age I had no choice but to work hard,” Mason said. “And now working hard is what I love to do.”
“Working hard” as is an apt description of Koehler, according to Glenwood wrestling coach Tucker Weber. But it’s a drive to always be prepared the second he steps on the mat that truly separates him.
“Mason is the kid who has wrestled a lot and is comfortable in a lot of positions and knows a lot about wrestling and the kids he’s going against,” Weber said. “He breaks down a film quite a bit compared to other kids which can help separate him but it’s his experience on the mat and wrestling all year has helped his success.”
It’s made him what Weber calls “as good as any wrestler” he’s ever coached.
“We’ve had a lot of tough kids come through, some that didn’t win state titles, and were talented,” Weber said. “From freshman year on he was a kid that maybe didn’t grow up with natural talent but has worked really hard beginning in his middle school years to change his body and learn how to wrestle a lot of different ways. For what he’s accomplished, all his records and his state titles, he’s definitely up there among the best (to wrestle at Glenwood).”
That sentiment doesn’t end at the wrestling mat.
Glenwood football coach Cory Faust uses words like “detail oriented,” “high IQ,” “technically sound” and “disciplined” when describing Koehler, one of three captains on the Rams’ football team last fall.
Koehler rarely left the field the last three seasons as a starter on both the offensive and defensive lines. He led last season’s 7-3 state playoff qualifiers in tackles for loss and was second in sacks while earning second team all-state honors from the Iowa High School Football Coaches Association.
“He is one of the rare human beings who is able to set aside what he wants to do at the moment to take care of business and do the preparation and hard work it takes to get better,” Faust said. “He puts in the time outside of what he does with us coaches.”
That work was apparent in both of the sports Koehler excelled.
He has no doubt the skills developed in wrestling – hip flexibility, hand movement, quick twitchiness – aided his football play, and vice versa. Even if he wasn’t always conscious of the connection.
“They naturally mesh together,” he said. “In wrestling you don’t want anyone’s hands on you and in football you don’t want hands on you. It just kind of molds together. The skills just kind of fit. There’s leverage. It’s why I always push any football player to wrestle even if you don’t want to do it after high school. It just translates so well.”
His favorite memory of his senior football season wasn’t a sack or the Rams’ historic 25-point comeback win over Council Bluffs Lewis Central or even anything on the field. It was his teammates.
“I had so much fun with all my friends,” Koehler said. “It was a blast. The honors and stuff were nice but in all reality that’s opinion and doesn’t really matter to me. Just having fun with my friends and being able to hit people being with us hogs, the lineman, those are memories I will never forget.”
Koehler did have some interest in playing football in college but the further along he got in high school, that dream transitioned to Division I wrestling. He signed with Northern Colorado last December.
He enrolled in June and has been taking classes and working out with his Bear teammates all summer.
Koehler has every intention to earn a spot in the lineup this season. He already feels like he’s a better wrestler than he was when he stepped off the mat in Des Moines a state champion.
“It’s a very structured program. It feels like my development is really taking the next step. There are things I need to work and things I need to fix but I can definitely see myself on the mat this year.”
As he prepares for his next chapter, Koehler still isn’t sure how to assess his legacy at Glenwood.
“I guess it hasn’t hit me,” he said. “You go to college and it’s like, ‘Hey man, you haven’t done anything yet.’ I think it will dawn on me. But coming straight into college like I did, none of that kind of matters. That was very apparent to me, but I was prepared for that, making that transition to college.
“But I feel later it life, I think it will sink in. To even be considered among the Glenwood greats, it’s a huge honor.”