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Click here for live updates and full coverage from the 2012 Nebraska state wrestling meet

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Get behind Thomas Gilman's eyes.

Skip past the stare. Ignore the intensity.

Behind those eyes is where the Omaha Skutt senior's power lies. Inside his head, things always are in order.

Thus, even in the biggest matches, there are no wide-eyed moments for one of the best wrestlers Nebraska has seen at the high school level.

"Nerves don't seem to hit him," says Gilman's dad, Pat.

His son will try to finish off a decorated high school career starting Thursday at the state tournament at CenturyLink Center. A fourth gold medal would put him in elite company — the group of four-time champions currently numbers 16.

Should Gilman join them, that alone wouldn't be the reason he could be considered the new standard by which other Nebraska high school wrestlers are measured.

Even before his last state tournament, Gilman already has raised the bar. He's a prime example of what elite wrestlers do when they're not wearing their school colors.

Gone are the days of the state tournament signaling the end of a season. Nowadays, the best continue to wrestle everyone they can find.

His offseasons have been unsurpassed by anyone from the state, says Skutt coach Brad Hildebrandt, who then adds: "He's one battle-tested kid."

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Steel sharpens steel

Gilman lives in Council Bluffs — it's not uncommon for private schools in Omaha to have students from across the river. And he's always been an Iowa kid. The Hawkeyes have been the standard. Not just in wrestling, in life, too.

He earned his lifelong dream — an Iowa scholarship — not in the dead of winter during the high school season but in the heat of summer.

He won the prestigious Cadet Nationals in April in Akron, Ohio, to clinch a spot on the U.S. national team for high school-age wrestlers. Later came a national championship at Fargo, N.D. Then came the moment he calls his best in wrestling: a trip to Hungary to compete in the Cadet World Championships.

Top national and international experience hardens even veteran competitors. For a high school wrestler, such competition nurtures greatness.

But facing such high-level competition takes a toll on win-loss records. There's no zero in Gilman's loss column — not even during his senior high school season. Only as a junior in 2010-11 was he unbeaten.

Gilman is unmoved by the nicks to his record. Steel sharpens steel at the biggest showcases for youth wrestling in the spring and summer. He's a product of that environment.

"I'd rather end my high school career with five or six losses than undefeated and not having sought out the best competition possible," he said. "To be successful, you have to do more stuff out of the high school season."

In season, too.

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Seeking the best

Adding a degree of difficulty this high school season, Gilman has wrestled up a weight class. Usually weighing between 127 and 130 pounds, he's been at 132 all season. At that weight, he's taken on some of the top wrestlers in the country.

Austin Roper of Kirksville, Mo., is going to Missouri. Kyle Garcia of Choctaw, Okla., is headed to Oklahoma. Skylar Wood of Kansas City's Park Hill High School will wrestle at Nebraska.

Gilman beat all three.

"He seeks out that competition," Hildebrandt said. "With our schedule, he's wrestled a No. 1 from Iowa, a couple of No. 1s from Missouri, a No. 1 from Oklahoma. He asks if they're going to be there and in his bracket. And if they're not, he's disappointed."

That's where having a coach such as Hildebrandt has paid off for Gilman. He doesn't shy away from steering the Skutt team van out of state.

In the season's first eight weeks, the SkyHawks went to tournaments in Kansas and North Dakota and to two in Missouri. They had duals with traditional Iowa power Council Bluffs Lewis Central and three-time defending Nebraska Class A team champion Grand Island.

Mix in the Boys Town Invitational with a couple of the top teams in Class B and Skutt's own tournament, a field that included Class A No. 2 Omaha Burke, and you've got an idea of what attracted Gilman to Skutt, located in west Omaha.

"That's the reason I came here," Gilman said. "They're all just steppingstones to get to that next level."

Skutt coach Brad Hildebrandt has taken his team to meets in Kansas, North Dakota, Missouri and Iowa this year. "That's the reason I came here," Gilman said. "They're all steppingstones to get to the next level." (Rebecca S. Gratz/The World-Herald)

Hildebrandt says some of his other standouts through the years didn't get the type of tests during the high school season that Gilman has faced. For instance, Todd Meneely was a four-time Skutt state champion, went to the same Cadet World Championships, won national championships at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and recently qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials. But the national exposure didn't happen during the high school season.

"We went to a big-time tournament or two, but we didn't have the ability and finances to travel like we do now," Hildebrandt said. "There weren't the tournaments that we have in our area now."

This season Skutt went to a tournament at Gardner-Edgerton, Kan., on the opening weekend of the season. There, Gilman took his lone loss of his senior year to Iowa State recruit Dakota Bauer in double overtime.

Two weeks later the SkyHawks were at Platte County High School north of Kansas City, Mo., for a tournament one publication called one of the most difficult in the country. Two weeks after that it was Fargo. In January, they'd again go to Platte County.

It's what top wrestling teams do these days.

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Team player

Thomas Gilman was a tough kid, demanding the most out of himself even as a youngster. Brad Hildebrandt is a tough coach, demanding the most out of anyone who puts on a Skutt singlet.

They clicked from the beginning.

Gilman found the coach who would push him. Hildebrandt saw what every coach seeks in an athlete.

"He's got this drive and this fire and this ultra-competitiveness that you see in the best athletes," Hildebrandt said.

It didn't take long for Gilman to immerse himself in the school and the sport. He studies international wrestlers on YouTube. Obsesses with getting better.

Not just for himself. Hildebrandt said Gilman is as good a team guy as he's been around.

After winning the outstanding wrestler award at Skutt's invitational, Gilman gave it to fellow senior Austin Newcomer, who had filled in for an injured starter and won a pair of matches to help the SkyHawks to the team title. He did it privately, and Hildebrandt didn't find out about the gesture until a parent told him.

If a teammate takes a tough loss, Gilman is usually one of the first to greet him with support and a little advice.

But his passion for the sport burns so hot on the mat that it at times comes across as anger.

"He's got a heck of an edge on the mat," said his dad, Pat. "He's a Jekyll and Hyde kid out there."

Wrestling for the team that annually gets the most boos at the state tournament adds to the attention. Gilman feeds off of it.

"I like it more than cheering," he said. "I don't know why. You've got to almost be two-faced as an athlete. When you're on the mat . it's war. And when you're off of it, it's not that way. You can't let the two interfere with each other. What people think about that is up to them."

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Plenty still to do

Anytime he's grappling, Gilman is in his element.

Wrestling is his language.

When he clinched a spot on the U.S. World team, Gilman was far less excited about seeing parts of Hungary than about getting knocked around a little by some of the best wrestlers on the planet.

"Everyone there was a hard-core wrestler," Pat Gilman said. "He fit right in."

He can't get in to that Iowa wrestling room soon enough. He spurned Nebraska and Oklahoma State when the Hawkeyes came calling.

He's lived the Iowa mentality since he began wrestling. When Cory Clark of Iowa's Southeast Polk High School, another top prospect, committed to Iowa, Gilman briefly thought about wearing colors other than black and gold.

But when Iowa coach Tom Brands came to Omaha in October, Gilman shook his hand, looked him in the eye and told him that he wanted to be a Hawkeye.

The dream doesn't end there. There's another gold medal to win in Nebraska. Then it all starts over again in college.

"I've worked hard and accomplished a lot of my goals," Gilman said. "But not all of them."

There's still plenty left to do, he says. And that's not just talk.

You can see it in his eyes. Behind them, everything is in order.

Contact the writer:

402-850-0781, nickrubek@gmail.com

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