Inside The Rivalry: Mack Reiter (Don Bosco) vs. Justin Swafford (Mepo) PART 2, MACK AND JUSTIN’S BACKSTORIES

 

So who are Mack Reiter and Justin Swafford and what factors influenced them to be the warriors that they are? I feel that to better understand this rivalry, answering that question may help. This article will include a few things about their upbringing, wrestling roots, etc. as well as a questionnaire answered by Mack and Justin that will supply you with a general understanding of who they are, what they accomplished and a glimpse of their personal approaches to life.

 

Justin Swafford was from Mediapolis, Iowa. His parents are Mark and Jacinta. He has an older brother, Joshua (me) and two younger brothers, (Shea and Brennan) and they all wrestle. There are more wrestling stars on our mom’s side of the family (McLaughlin’s) than our dad’s, most notably Nick and Tucker Weber from Clear Lake. Our dad and his twin brothers came from a basketball family prior to giving wrestling a try late in Junior High, in which they all fell in love with it immediately. Dad is a very naturally athletic person, but was at a disadvantage because he was inexperienced as well as the youngest person in his graduating class. He could have been held back a year like most are today, but wasn’t. He qualified for state as a Senior and was rapidly improving around the time HS wrestling came to an end for him. When he was hitting Open tournaments following his Senior year, he was better than he was in High School. He had a moment where he took down 3X state champion, D1 Champ and former Head Coach at Iowa State,  Jim Gibbons in a match… That was something that just didn’t happen against Gibbons… ever…. especially by guys who had only been wrestling for a few years.  Gibbons made my dad pay for the remainder of the match and I think Dad’s primary goal in that match became survival at that point, but if Dad would have started wrestling years earlier, I am guessing he would have had much heftier goals than just surviving that match… He would have been elite and likely hell-bent on winning that match given how competitive he is. And he denies this, but I always assumed it bothered him that he didn’t have a very long competitive wrestling journey. The ride ended just when it was starting to get fun, it should bother him!  It would bother me. It’d bother a lot of us. I mean, he fell in love with wrestling immediately and the moment he started stepping his game up to the level he was aiming for, his career ended. You’d have to lack emotion to not be left with an array of questions in regards to what could have been. With that said, I am not going to say that Dad lived vicariously through his sons’ wrestling careers, but I feel like it filled a few voids seeing his own flesh and blood not having any “lack of experience” disadvantages and consistently competing with the absolute best in the state every year and even setting the bar for the entire grade at times as Justin did. Justin and his brothers could be considered confirmation for Dad of the extremely high potential he did in fact possess himself. Justin’s career brought an incredible amount of joy to his life. Justin knew that and it drove him to do anything in his power to win.

In short, our Dad REALLY wanted the last name, Swafford to enter the wrestling shark tank with the rest of the tiger sharks.

HERE IS A VIDEO OF JUSTIN’S FIRST EVER MATCH AT THE AGE OF 5:

Justin began wrestling kind of inadvertently as a 5 year old.  He was a member of the Burlington Youth Wrestling Club growing up. The intentions were to take me (Josh) to practice, for I was 2 years older and at that time was the presumed the much tougher kid and Justin went from just rolling around on the mats to becoming a full participant in practice. Justin was very skinny and a silly, little happy kid who acquired the nickname “Bird” from our teammates in the Burlington Youth Wrestling Club. There are a few people like Adam Roberts and Phillip Klees who still call him that… and he didn’t get the nickname because he was some sort of stud that flew over the competition. He got the nickname because of his skinny legs and the way he seemed to float and bounce all over the place. He resembled that little Woodstock bird from the Peanuts comics. His career didn’t begin with lofty expectations from my parents or anyone and sometimes they entered him in tournaments thinking that it would be cute to see him try to wrestle. They just hoped that he just wouldn’t get hurt. Nobody at that time would have ever guessed that he would become as good as he did. He struggled mightily at times and was beaten quite a bit his first 3 years until all the sudden his 2nd grade year, out of nowhere, it became rare to ever see him lose. Not long after, it was rare to see him have a close match. It took forever for us to realize that he was the real deal and that it wasn’t a fluke, for we just didn’t see it coming. We were all a bit skeptical of it. He was too happy, skinny and bubbly to be a wrestler… He didn’t have that stereotypical gruff wrestling personality as non-wrestlers may call it. As so we thought anyway…. We weren’t aware that he had an altar-ego that had an appetite for systematic destruction and domination and was basically the total opposite of his normal bubbly personality off the mat. This altar-ego only emerged when he put on wrestling shoes. He developed this mean, mat swagger about him in which he would stare opponents down before matches and sometimes resemble a raging lunatic on the mat for his intensity was so high… We don’t know where it came from. No, that’s a lie. He developed that swagger because of the manner in which he responded to our dad’s coaching style, which could be responded to in a variety of different ways and will all result in different reactions from our dad. You could get defensive and not abide with Dad’s expectations and stubbornly fight with him…. Brennan and I tended to do this and the reaction that Dad had to this response was, to put it lightly….not pleasant. You could be quiet when he was lecturing, nod your head, comply with Dad’s rules and just try to get through it like our brother Shea did and Dad was ok with that response for the most part. Or you could respond how Justin did…. which is buy in fully and train like a madman. Some quotes my dad would recite to us on a routine basis were, “show your opponent no respect,” “there’s no such word as can’t in our house,” “create legal discomfort for your opponent to where he wants to quit and get off the mat,” “punish this kid for trying to take what’s YOURS,” “ride him so ferociously that you are like a second skin to him,” “if you practice doing something wrong, all you’ll get better at is doing something wrong,” etc. These speeches and quotes pumped Justin up and it helped summon the wrestling warrior that lurked inside of him. This warrior gave him an edge on the mat 99% of the time.

 

Justin Swafford: I was a very hard worker that prescribed to Dan Gable’s “out work your opponent” philosophy. Dad encouraged this and taught me how to be fearless and tough. He was also big on Wade Schalles’s philosophy of always creating legal discomfort for your opponent to give yourself a mental edge. I took this to heart. I made it a large part of my life… A huge part of what drove me for everything else in life as well.

 

Phillip Klees (Justin’s Youth Teammate): And the moment Bird walked off the mat, he was looking for the first person to play Nintendo Game Boy and clown around with. He was the best.

Adam Roberts (Justin’s Youth Teammate): What I remember most about Justin (with an exception of his wicked claw and tight waist riding style that used to make kids cry), was his intense focus and never-ending motor. Bird would start a match staring through all distractions and lasering in on his full arsenal of how he was gonna control a match. The crazy thing was, from the start of the match to the middle to the end, he maintained the same intense expression on his face and always appear as if he couldn’t wait to get back into action if the match was stopped. That’s just how Bird was. He genuinely loved to compete and work hard. He enjoyed it. He went out there to break his opponents’ wills because that was his sole intention. Bird wasn’t a fancy wrestler. He was just determined with a smooth way of controlling the tempo of the match topped off with grit. He is the best wrestler I grew up with, no questions asked. And you know, the main thing that separated Justin from the rest of the good to average wrestlers is that he actually LOOKED FORWARD to wrestling guys like Mack Reiter while the rest of us would have been dreading it.

 

Here are some various questions Justin answered that will help you get to know him better: 

 

How did you do in youth wrestling? Any rivals there? Was wrestling full-time or seasonal for you?

Justin Swafford: Beginning in 5th grade I wrestled all year round. I placed 2nd as a second grader wrestling 3-4th graders, 1st, 4th, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 3rd. JP Davis, Derek Webb, Blake Jacobi, Tyler Everson, Derek Fuglsang, Henry Wahle, Moza Fay, Brian Leyhes(spelling??) were some huge rivals of mine growing up.

 

What was your overall record in HS?

177-11

 

What were your high school state results?

2nd, 2nd, 1st, 7th

 

What was the highpoint of your HS wrestling career?

That is a tie between being a sophomore seeing my oldest brother Josh pinning his way into the semifinals at state his senior year and me finally winning a state title my Junior year after being a 2x runner-up.

 

What was the most upset you ever felt after a loss?

All of them. Lol! I hate losing. That being said for my HS and prior wrestling career, the loss to Moza Fay in the quarterfinals my senior year, both finals losses, and both AAU losses to Mack are all up there for most upset I ever felt because I didn’t wrestle my match in any of them. I wrestled theirs’ and they deserve credit for that, for that means they won the mental battle over me in those matches. I was the 5th man in my pool at Fargo my Senior year, losing that last match and missing AA status was pretty painful. Especially after a lackluster performance at state my senior year and I really wanted to prove myself. My Senior season was a nightmare. In college it was the loss of my Senior season due to a shoulder labrum tear that ultimately was a large part responsible for ending my career. I was coming into the year with a good summer of training, I had physically matured for wrestling at 149 lbs. and just felt more dominant and confident in the room. After I suffered a shoulder subluxation during homecoming, had shoulder surgery and the doctor told me I wouldn’t have recreational use of my shoulder, I was shocked and didn’t really know how to recover mentally. Because in my heart I didn’t feel done with wrestling/competing. It felt like something inside me was mortally wounded. I HATE losing.

 

Did you wrestle after high school?

I wrestled for the University of Northern Iowa.

 

Who was your most influential coach?

Dan Cummings

(I don’t know if you want to include this but Tom Mashek and Mark Reiland were also big influences on me for freestyle and Derek Mountsier at UNI)

 

Which wrestlers did you look up to the most growing up?

Ryan Cummings, Brandon Cummings, Dan Gable, the Brands brothers, Eric Juergens, Dave Shultz, Jeff McGinness, Josh Budke, John Smith, Wade Schalles, Lincoln McIlravy and Mark Ironside were the wrestlers I looked up to the most.

 

Who are your favorite current HS wrestlers?

I’m probably biased because I coached them in youth wrestling, but Hunter Garvin, Graham Gambrall, and Will Hoeft are up there with my favorites right now. Drake Ayala is a beast too.

 

Was your team competitive?

Yes, we made it to the state duals my Freshman year, and were 1 round away from going to state duals my senior year. Mediapolis always puts out a tough team.

 

If you could go back and change one thing about your wrestling career, what would it be?

Making better choices leading up to and in college. For example, I wish I would have visited more college campuses before making my decision. I also wish I had better eating habits and got my sleep routine before tournaments under control.  Participation in more freestyle tournaments, better self care and focus off the mat are some other things.

 

What was your best wrestling memory/accomplishment?

Watching my 3 brothers’ successes. Josh pinning his way to the semis at state as a Senior and only needing 3 minutes total to do it was cool. He was one of the best wrestlers I grew up with, but had issues with weight and adrenaline dumps along with hip dysplasia that they didn’t find until he was in college. It was too late for his hip to be cured with braces by then so he essentially wrestled with a handicap without knowing it his entire career. A state place-winner with untreated hip dysplasia…think about that. Brennan winning a NAIA national title in 2020. Shea placing 7th, 4th, and 5th at state. For myself, getting the monkey off my back and winning state was a great memory. All of the experiences and stories I have with club wrestlers growing up and my HS and some of my UNI teammates are hard to beat.

 

What other sports did you play?

I played baseball thru freshman year of high school where I only played 1 game before I was forced to quit due to some overly strict attendance policies. It was either wrestle state and regionals and basically sit out every baseball game of the rest of the season or quit baseball to strive towards a goal of being an All American; I chose the latter (which paid off because I AA’ed that year at 103.5 lbs placing 4th at Fargo). I also ran cross country and track where I was a CC state qualifier as a senior and ran a 4:38 mile my Junior year at the state track meet in class 2A.

 

What are your favorite sports teams?

Along with the rest of my family I’m a big St. Louis Cardinals fan. Although I follow more NCAA football (I’m a UI Hawkeye and UNI Panther fan) I also like the Kansas City Chiefs.

 

What are your hobbies?

My biggest hobby is writing songs as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist with a focus on the guitar, piano, drumming, sound engineering/recording, and producing. I love music and it is my other passion in life. I was part of UNI’s Jazz III band my senior year as their guitarist even though I didn’t start playing guitar until I was 19. I played trumpet in band from 5th-12th grade as well as took piano lessons from 2nd-9th grade. I also am a very nature-drawn outdoorsman who loves gardening, fishing, landscaping, long bike rides with the family, hanging around a campfire with family and friends, cooking, movies, HBO tv series shows, and chemistry.

 

How has wrestling shaped you as a person to this day?

The biggest impact it has instilled in me is the sense of work ethic and self-resilience. In wrestling there is no one else to blame for a bad performance, only you, which also teaches you the skills you need in life to pick yourself up after defeat or hardships. I always liked the fact that you very often get back what you put into the sport, which is a very rewarding aspect of the sport. Your fate doesn’t reside in the hands of some coach who wants to fit in with the booster club. It’s up to you how well you do. There is a certain story element to any wrestling match if you watch with the right eyes, in a sort of Gilgamesh and Iliad sort of way, two heroes battling it out to see who will be the victor – that’s a beautiful thing if you ask me.

 

 

NOW LET’S HERE MACK REITER’S BACKSTORY!!!

I don’t know personally, but from a lot of the stories that I’ve heard over the years, Mack’s dad, Doug Reiter had similar coaching tactics and philosophies as my dad and was also in the same boat in terms of demanding effort and respect, abandoning weakness and embracing the grind. The Reiter boys, all 4 of them, were tough people and I’m sure a lot of it is because that’s what was expected from them. Mack, like Justin, also started at a very young age. Like Justin, Mack was also the 2nd son and was also two years younger than his older brother, Joe. Also Like Justin, Mack had two little brothers, Bart and Eddie.  Every Reiter brother was a hammer. I went to college with his sister, Audrey at Loras College and to my understanding, she was a hammer on the softball field herself.  Even the Reiter cousins were hammers.  They resided in a variety of communities too.  There were some from Union…I believe that’s where Brock Reiter was from. Dane Reiter went to Hudson. I can’t remember where Nick, Cheyne, etc. Reiter went to school, but I assume it’s in that region somewhere.  The Reiter family has been a well-respected wrestling name in Iowa for decades now.   

 

 

Mack Reiter: I started wrestling when I was 4. The very first tournament I ever entered had Corey Kalina, Nick Reiter and Dane Reiter in it. It was at Gladbrook Reinbeck. I remember I ended up winning the tournament, but it was by a 3 way tie. Corey beat me that day, but I beat my two cousins. I don’t know if I was a natural or that good when I started. We didn’t really compete enough to know. When my parents entered Joe and I into the AAU districts when I was in 2nd grade and Joe was in 4th they had no idea how we would do. Then we qualified for state so they took us to state. Then I got 3rd and Joe got 4th and I think that was the first point my parents realized we might actually be good at this. It was all such a small world before that point. I remember my mom telling me one time that they couldn’t believe how well we did that first time in Cedar Rapids. I placed 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st at AAU state. I bumped up into the 3rd-4th grade division when I was in 2nd grade to compete. DNP, DNP, 5th, 5th, 3rd, 1st at Tulsa Nationals. We always viewed Tulsa as the biggest tournament of the year and then AAU a close second behind that.

 

Here are some various questions Mack answered that will help you get to know him better: 

 

What was your overall record in HS?

181-3

 

What were your high school state results?

4x champ

 

What was the highpoint of your HS wrestling career?

After winning state my senior year and running over to hug my mom and my dad. As I said earlier my dad always knew the right thing to do with me. He raised each of us four boys differently because he had to. None of us were the same. There were certainly times I disagreed with him and would fight him over things, but in the end, he was always right. Getting to hug him and mom was a culmination of an incredible group effort to accomplish something great.

 

What was the most upset you ever felt after a loss?

After losing to Franklin Gomez in the NCAA quarterfinals my senior year of college. My entire life I wanted to be an NCAA champion. After losing the match I knew a window closed on a goal of mine and it would never be reopened.

 

Did you wrestle after high school?

Yeah I wrestled at the University of Minnesota.

 

Who was your most influential coach?

I think it would be to hard to name just one. Mark Schwab on the technical side of wrestling. J Robinson on the mental side of competing. Mark Reiland on taking accountability! Theres a story there that I will let Mark share someday if he wants! I was at an age where I needed to grow up and Mark was there to help me! Lastly, my dad even though he was never my coach again after AAU state my 8th grade year.

 

Which wrestlers did you look up to the most growing up?

Mark Ironside, Jody Strittmatter and Eric Juergens. I remember going to the 14 day Iowa intensive camp when I was younger and Jody/Eric were my main instructors. I really liked those two.

 

Who are your favorite current HS wrestlers?

I coach at PINnacle up here in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. We had 116 state entrants in the Minnesota/Wisconsin tournaments. 17 state champions, 31 finalists and 72 placers. I absolutely love being involved with that program and to name my favorites would be to rattle off the entire list of not just qualifiers but every kid involved in our program. We have kids drive over 2.5 hours one way to come to practice 3 times a week.

 

Was your team competitive?

In High School we won state duals my junior year. We finished 2nd in state duals my sophomore and senior years. We finished 2nd at traditional state my freshman and junior years. In college my team finished 5th, 2nd, 1st and 10th.

 

If you could go back and change one thing about your wrestling career, what would it be?

I don’t think I would change anything. I never accomplished my ultimate goals, but that wasn’t the path for me. I believe that I got the most out of my abilities.

 

What was your best wrestling memory/accomplishment?

Winning NCAA’s as a team my junior year. That was the only year I didn’t earn All-American honors. I tore my ACL on Oct. 19th of my junior year, had surgery on Oct. 24th and made my way back wrestling in an open tournament at the end of January. I went into NCAA’s my junior year with 14 matches and ended up losing out in the blood round 3-2. As bad as that night was for me personally, the following night when Cole Konrad won his second individual title and clinched the team title was the greatest night of my life up until that point.

 

Did you wrestle all year or was it seasonal for you?

I wrestled year round. I had a personal policy to take the week after high school state tournament off and then the month of August off of the mat. Other than that I was always looking for a practice somewhere. I was a wrestler who had a real love for competing… I loved to do it. 

 

What other sports did you play?

I never really played any other sports past 6th grade. If I wasn’t wrestling or doing something for wrestling we had work on the farm to do or we were helping my dad with home construction.

 

What are your favorite sports teams?

The Minnesota Twins. I love watching baseball. Other than that everything University of Minnesota.

 

What are your hobbies?

Golf. I play a lot of golf and it is my favorite thing in the world to do. Other than that coaching at PINnacle pretty much year round as a side job.

 

How has wrestling shaped you as a person to this day?

I would say it has had a hand in everything in my life. Since I was 4 years old it has been the one thing I can always count on!

 

“PART 3: THE FIRST TWO BATTLES” COMING SOON!!!!