Danny Martin was not ranked in the top 10 in the state for most of last season as a junior for Simley wrestling at 170 pounds.

He finished with a 29-22 record, and won a match in his individual state tournament bracket.

But Simley needed more Martin — literally — if the Spartans were to chase a sixth-straight Class 2A team state title.

“I told him, ‘You have to get big enough to wrestle at 189, because we don’t have another guy (at that weight),’” Simley coach Will Short recalled Wednesday. “ ‘And you have to be a force for us at 189.’ ”

Done, and done. Martin, a senior captain, bulked up and is now the sixth-ranked 189-pound wrestler in Class 2A, according to The Guillotine. He’s a 40-match winner this winter.

“It took a lot of time in the weight room, eating the right food, but also just trusting my coaches who were helping me along the way,” Martin said.

The right food?

“Sometimes it wasn’t as clean as I would’ve liked,” Martin said with a laugh. “I was just eating whatever I could. But especially in wrestling season … I was giving up unnecessary food that’s just bad for you. I’ve been trying to eat more clean, (and) I definitely have felt the results.”

Fellow senior captain Derrick Dahmen was slated to wrestle at 160 pounds this season. But Simley has lost three wrestlers this winter — JJ Salas, Amilio Salas and Derek Buck — to season-ending injuries.

To compensate for the major losses and fill up the reconfigured lineup, changes needed to be made. Simley had an adequate 160-pound reserve in Judah Heeg. It had no varsity-ready options at 145 pounds.

So Dahmen went down. And, after winning 24 matches a year ago, he’s a 30-match winner and individual state tournament qualifier this year at 145.

And therein lies the true magic of Simley wrestling.

Yes, the Spartans have stars in the lineup. Turner Ross (107 pounds), Austin Grzywinski (114) and Raymond (152) are all ranked No. 1 at their respective weight classes entering this week’s state tournament.

And Simley did receive an injection of talent when the Heeg family moved into the Twin Cities. Eighth-grader Justus Heeg is a rising star at 133 pounds. Judah, a sophomore, wasn’t expected to be a varsity contributor this year, but has grown into that role out of necessity.

But the program sustainability is born out of the development of others. You don’t compete for a sixth-straight state title — which would be a new program record — without a complete lineup.

Simley (20-1) is the top seed in the Class 2A team tournament, which will play out throughout the day Thursday in St. Paul, starting with a quarterfinal match against Little Falls (19-4), and potentially ending with a state title match at 7 p.m., where Kasson-Mantorville or Totino-Grace likely will be waiting.

Which maybe isn’t something Short would have forecasted a year ago. Because this Simley team isn’t as flush with top-tier talent throughout the lineup. The Spartans of recent years won every match because they were far superior to their opponent.

This year’s team is proving it can be just as successful through different avenues.

Guys are moving around weight classes and raising their games from good to great. Others are performing admirably to simply give Simley a shot at certain weight classes — as Parker Davis and Brandon Kropuenske have done at the heaviest weights.

“The fact that we’re competitive, that we can compete at those weights, wasn’t something that we were sure we could do on a regular basis,” Short said. “We thought we were going to take a long year. But we’ve done a pretty good job at developing guys, and that’s the key.”

That’s how you compete for state titles every year and sustain for the long haul. Simley has been a top-10 team throughout the entirety of the past four decades. Short is committed to maintaining the Inver Grove Heights school’s standard.

Simley currently has 65 kids in its elementary school wrestling program, 30 at the middle school level and 55 in high school.

Those 55 high school wrestlers consist of the varsity and the junior varsity. Short and his coaching staff are constantly making sure the JV kids are getting ample time around the varsity wrestlers so they can see the level of work required to maintain a certain level of excellence.

“Everybody around you is doing the right thing,” Martin said. “If you’re slacking off, it’s really obvious to everyone around you. The coaches will call you out on it, and not only that, some of the guys will be like, ‘Hey, you’ve got to pick it up.’ ”

Short noted for those who are willing to enter that room and go about things in the proper manner, “there is a map and a pathway” for athletes to reach the highest level.

“I think right now, it’s a strong program,” Short said. “And when you have a strong program, you can turn out another set of guys.”

Could Simley win another state title this year? Absolutely. Is that a foregone conclusion? No. It was in past years, but because the talent gap simply doesn’t exist, anything could happen Thursday at Xcel Energy Center. Short loves that. He’s the ultimate fan of the state tournament, but noted it’s an earned experience.

His athletes have done it the hard way. There was a point after all of the injuries that Short could feel his team — and, frankly, even himself — thinking that a sixth-straight title may not be in the cards. That was right around the team’s lone dual-match loss to Mounds View in late January.

“We kind of just sat down and we just made a decision that we were going to commit to taking the guys we’ve got and still achieving our goals,” Martin said. “Just because we lost a few key guys doesn’t take away from anything we have.”

Ever since then, it’s been onward and upward for the Spartans. Short describes this group with a palpable excitement in his voice. He’s giddy about the progress and sacrifice each individual has made for the betterment of the collective.

“We’ve just had a lot of guys step up and make major improvements. I’m really proud of this team. I’m more proud of these guys than I ever have been,” Short said. “This group of guys has really impressed me this year about who they are as people. How Derek and Danny have said, ‘We’re going to be in this, we’re not giving up and we’re going to go try to win a state tournament.’ They’re focused and committed.”

For the first time in awhile, Short said the Spartans have a chip on their shoulders. They’re entering Thursday ready to wrestle, knowing they’ve given themselves the best possible chance to succeed.

“We’ve got no regrets at Simley right now. No one is going to be sitting on the bench going, ‘I wish I’d done this.’ These guys have given everything they’ve got. They’re truly committed to try and win, and they’re going to go put it on the line against every team,” Short said. “They have a little bit of swagger right now and a little bit of a chip on their shoulder like, ‘Hey, you think we’re done? Well, we’re not done.’ ”

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