It wasn’t an accident that after his final wrestling season for Adams State University, Travis Koppenhafer became still-rising head coach Jason Ramstetter’s assistant the very next season.
After all, why wouldn’t he have wanted a three-time NCAA Division II All-American and one-time NCAA Division II National Champion on staff?
And Koppenhafer was also a three-time Academic All-American, a blend of brains and brawn that earned the 1999 Mancos High graduate induction into the ASU Athletics Hall of Fame on Sept. 30.
One of 11 individuals comprising the Class of 2022, the former Blue Jays athlete was officially inducted Friday afternoon, in Adams State’s Student Union Building.
A four-time Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships finalist and three-time RMAC champ, Koppenhafer competed for the Grizzlies exclusively at 157 pounds. He also was 2001 RMAC Freshman of the Year and 2002 RMAC Wrestler of the Year.
Having placed seventh at the weight at the 2001 and 2003 Nationals, he capped his career with a crown in 2004. In Minnesota State-Mankato’s Bresnan Arena, he defeated RMAC rival Jack Quintana of Gunnison-based Western State College 10-6 to earn the long-sought prize and post a career record of 118-33.
The accomplishment followed Koppenhafer being named the Colorado Collegiate Championships’ Outstanding Wrestler, which came after he was named the NWCA Division II Duals’ Outstanding Wrestler, all punctuating an 2003-2004 season in which he’d helped Adams win nine or more duals for the first time since 1990.
Fittingly, the 1990 and 1992 wrestlers, part of ASU’s Hall Class of 2021 as an honored team, were inducted during the same ceremony, along with 2022 inductees and former teammates Adam Mars and Shane Barnes. Both Mars and Barnes have Southwest Colorado ties: Mars did his first two years at Bayfield High before moving to Idaho, and Barnes did his last two years at BHS after relocating from Montana.
After his first season coaching the Grizzlies, Koppenhafer assisted at NCAA Div. I Arizona State University from 2006-07 through 2007-08, then became head coach at Payson, Arizona, High School for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons, leading the Longhorns to seventh- and second-place finishes at the AIA Class 3A State Championships. He then returned to Alamosa for a second stint at Adams State.
At Arizona State, Koppenhafer aided skipper Thom Ortiz, a former Iowa State assistant who’d helped iconic Cyclone mentor Bobby Douglas recruit the legendary Cael Sanderson, the first collegiate wrestler to complete his career with four NCAA individual titles and an undefeated record at 159-0.
Closing out his Mancos high School career under head coach Travis Bryant, who became Steamboat Springs’ skipper in August 2014, Koppenhafer’s prep-level wrestling days ended with Second Team All-2A status at 152 pounds. Kremmling West Grand’s Gabe Frates, also a senior, made the first team pick after pinning Koppenhafer in the state championship bout.
