Mullen’s Dale O’Blia, 58-0, looking like a special wrestler

Lyndsey O’Blia was a frazzled working mom.

Dale, her 3-year-old son, was a non-stop ball of energy. Needing something to wear out her hyperactive toddler, she enrolled him in a pee-wee wrestling program. Voilà! Problem solved, a wrestling career was born.

Dale Sr., an electrician, recalls the moment like it was yesterday.

“I was working on a project in Vail at the Four Seasons and Lyndsey called me up,” he recalled with a laugh. “She said, ‘Honey, I think I found something. I took Dale to wrestling practice and then he slept in the car the whole way home. I’m going to keep taking him to wrestling.’ ”

By age 6, O’Blia was winning youth tournaments in Colorado and around the country. Last year, as a 106-pound freshman, he won a state title for Mullen, the Mustangs’ first individual state crown since 2017.

Thursday afternoon at Ball Arena, O’Blia, still in the 106-pound division, pinned Platte Valley sophomore Julian Marquez in the second period in the Class 3A preliminary round. O’Bila, 41-0 this season, improved to 58-0 in his high school career. In Friday’s quarterfinals, he’s scheduled to face Delta’s Dawsen Drozdik (40-8).

“I love this so much,” the 15-year-old O’Blia said. “I mean, I’ve been wrestling for 13 years, since I was 3 years old. It’s something that helps me with every aspect of my life. I’ve had a passion for this since I was 5, and then when you start to win, it really starts to grow on you. That’s when I knew I wanted to be part of this sport forever.”

Ask wrestling aficionados gathered at Ball Arena and they will tell you O’Blia just might be one of the top five wrestlers — at any weight, in any class — in this year’s tournament. He’s quick, deceptively strong and always on the attack. Once he gets his opponent in a vice-like grip, it’s a game-ender. He knows enough moves and holds to put his opponent on their back, in a hurry.

“The amount of work and the extra stuff he does outside of practice, and during our offseason, is amazing,” said Nick Floerchinger, an assistant coach to Mullen’s John Howes. “Dale tries to gain as much knowledge as he can by watching a lot of videos of college wrestling.”

O’Blia also works with Duane Goldman at the Wrestling Academy of the Rockies in Colorado Springs.

Goldman is a Colorado wrestling legend. During his high school career at Cheyenne Mountain, he went 85-2 and won state titles as a sophomore and senior. He was a four-time All-American at the University of Iowa, reaching the NCAA finals four times. In 1986, as a senior captain, he became the NCAA champion at 190 pounds. He was the head wrestling coach at Indiana from 1992-2018 and coached three NCAA Champions.

Goldman sees something special in O’Blia.

“I try to focus on these kids’ futures and get these guys looking at the bigger picture,” Goldman said. “Dale seems interested in that. I’ve seen wrestlers from all over the country, and while talent is a huge thing, there are other things that matter. He’s set lofty goals for himself and he’s got the right qualities to get to the next level.”

O’Bila has had two close calls this season. At the Jimmy John’s Northern Colorado Christmas Tournament in December, he beat Class 4A Pueblo County’s Zion Mares, 3-2, in the championship match. At the 3A regional finals, he eked out a 2-0 decision over Holy Family’s Brayden Bach. There is a good chance the two could meet in the finals Saturday. That match could be extra huge because Mullen also has a chance to win its first-ever state wrestling team title.

O’Bila is paving the way. Lyndsey said it’s her son’s heart and work ethic that set him apart.

“He gets up at 4:30 in the morning to workout, even in the summertime,” she said. “Plus, he’s always been a straight-A student.”

O’Blia’s intelligence and years of practice have given him an array of moves that often confound opponents. Now the hope is that he will hit a growth spurt that will get him above 120 pounds by the time he’s a senior at Mullen.

“Dale’s I.Q. in wrestling is very high, so now he’s just got to have his body catch up with his I.Q.,” his dad said. “I believe he’s got a really bright future.”

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