George Ferguson Column: Tonight's visit from Iowa is one of those defining moments

In the immortal words of the great rapper Eminem, “you only get one shot, opportunities only come once in a lifetime.”

In the case of the Montana State University-Northern Lights wrestling team, and their fans, those words have never been more true. Tonight, the Lights will get their shot at the most prestigious program in collegiate wrestling, the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Tonight, the Lights get their one chance to take on the very best when it comes to NCAA wrestling, and for Northern’s fans, it’s a glorious opportunity to see the very best in the sport, in Havre, in the Armory Gymnasium.

Even I’m taking Eminem’s advice on this one, because, opportunities for me to cover events like this come only once in a lifetime.

But when it boils down to it, it’s about the wrestlers and coaches taking their shot at glory. It’s about Northern getting a chance to show that NAIA or NCAA, it doesn’t matter. Wrestling is wrestling. And tonight is about head coach Tyson Thivierge continuing to get to fulfill his dreams — dreams like coaching at his alma mata where he was a national championship, and getting to coach his Lights in a dual like tonight’s against the Hawkeyes.

“Thinking about it, it sends chills down your spine,” Thivierge said. “It gets you excited. “Coach Terry Brands was an assistant for us when I wrestled here. He coached me when I got an opportunity to wrestle an Iowa wrestler in the semifinals of the Midlands tournament. That was a big match for me. To come back all these years and get to coach my guys against Iowa, to get to coach across the mat from him, and Tom Brands — those guys are world champions and Olympic medalists, and national championships — it’s just very exciting. It’s very special for me. And I’m really thankful that they thought of us and wanted to get together.”

It is special, and nothing says wrestling like the name Iowa Hawkeyes. And that’s why tonight’s dual will mean so much too so many people. There will be wrestling fans from all over in attendance. Iowa fans will be inside the Armory decked out in their vaunted black and yellow. There will be Northern alumni all around and fans who just truly love the sport.

And while it’s not the first time the Lights and Hawkeyes have met, as Iowa defeated Northern 50-0 in November of 1995 in Great Falls, it’s the first time the Hawkeyes, or a team with their credentials, have stepped foot onto the maroon mat in the Armory Gymnasium in a long, long time. Those two or three hours tonight inside the grand old building will be something all of us will never forget.

But in the end, the wrestling is why we’ll all be there. For Northern, tonight’s dual, regardless of what the scoreboard might read when it’s all over, will be something the Lights who wrestle tonight will carry with them the rest of the season and the rest of their lives.

“It’s exciting; this is great for Northern. It’s awesome for our school and for our community,” MSU-N senior heavyweight Toby Cheff said. “It’s gonna be a lot of fun. And I speak for the entire team when I say, we’re all really excited.”

How could the lights not be excited, even as decided underdogs? Think of a guy like red-shirt freshman Andrew Bartel, who’s an Iowa native. Or Cheff and Willie Miller, whose last matches they ever wrestle in Havre will be against the Iowa Hawkeyes. Or Garrett DeMers, who is out to prove that being the best wrestler at 197 pounds doesn’t mean NAIA or NCAA, it just means being the best. Or how about the fact that the Lights have seven freshmen in their lineup. And part of their maturation process as college wrestlers is a dual with the Hawkeyes.

Yes, tonight is meaningful for Northern in so many ways. It’s meaningful to their passionate and emotional head coach, who loves Northern wrestling as deeply as anybody ever has. And it’s meaningful to the Lights’ fans, and especially, to the 10 Lights who will line up in the circle against the greatest college wrestling program in the history of the sport.

In other words, tonight will be the night the Lights, their fans, the community of Havre and even I, got an opportunity to do something that will stay with us forever. Tonight is that one shot.

“It’s special for our program and for this school,” Thivierge said. “And it’s really special for our guys. This is a story they will get to tell for the rest of their lives, that they wrestled the University of Iowa, in this building (Armory). It’s going to be an experience that they’ll remember forever.”