Kevin Lindholm doesn’t tick away the moments of a dull day.
There aren’t any for the senior in small-town Eads, where he’s ridiculously large and helping lead Eagles sports into the high end of Class 1A.
He sounds tired over the telephone, but there’s good reason.
As one of the few high-schoolers who chose to combine basketball and wrestling in one winter season, remaining active isn’t a problem.
Remaining upright? It’s another story.
“Pretty much, yeah,” Lindholm said.
Seems Lindholm and Kenan Gooden made a pact heading into 12th grade. Organized sports would be over soon. This would be it, they agreed, so why not? If Gooden came out for football, Lindholm, 35-6 and fourth at 171 pounds a year ago, would play Eagles hoops.
Gooden played football, so the 6-foot-3 Lindholm, despite returning this week from a ligament tear in his right knee, has been dutiful, even recording an 18-rebound game.
And he continues to wrestle.
Is it me or is that the most unlikely male combination possible in Colorado’s three seasons?
One involves a ball, includes teammates and frowns upon contact; the other is full of competitors who don’t care about other sports.
No one ever said Shaquille O’Neal couldn’t have been an interesting heavyweight wrestler, but do you really think The Hulkster or Dan Gable would have had a perimeter game?
When does Lindholm rest?
“I guess I had a three-week break (because of injury), but before the (holiday) break it was pretty intense,” he said.
Lindholm eats intensity for snacks. He’s out there because he’s young and it’s fun, and small schools such as Eads have been so dependent on front-liners — 62 boys and girls in four grades — but stands at the threshold of a significant entry into annals.
In May, Lindholm was 3-for-3, scored a run and drove in two others in the small-school finale as the Eagles won their first baseball championship.
In November, he scored four touchdowns and ran for 121 yards as Eads ruled 6-man football. He had a memorable second quarter by scoring a touchdown on defense, catching a pass for a second and running for a third.
He was named MVP by The Denver Post after both efforts.
Before the holidays, he won two wrestling tournaments and had a double-double in a basketball invitational.
His main individual goal is a wrestling title, but the boys basketballers are 10-3 entering today’s game against Wiley.
Who knows? He could be a champion in four sports in a school year, a five-time titlist over four seasons.
“He’s one of those types of athletes who can do anything he puts his mind to,” Eads athletic director Larry Gifford said.
It was happenstance Lindholm injured his knee in wrestling practice — coaches were worried it would happen on the court — but much of the Eagles’ current run has been by design and through tradition.
Gooden, a 6-man first team all-state end, threw a complete game in the 1A baseball championship game, and is the son of Lane Gooden, who coaches Eads girls basketball. The elder Gooden was one of the state’s most prolific scorers at Kim from 1973-76 and poured in 970 points as a senior, when he averaged a Pete Maravich-like 38.8.
Glenn Smith, Eads’ wrestling coach, has a sophomore son, Garrett, who’s also doing the basketball-wrestling combo, and Shawn Randel, who heads Eads boys basketball, in 2003 became the first Colorado coach to lead both genders to championships in the same school year. Randel also won a football title.
“At small schools, you have to do this to field a team, let alone be competitive,” Kenan Gooden said.
It’s working. Lindholm, who hadn’t played organized basketball since the ninth grade, used to play both sports in middle school, where they are offered consecutively in winter.
And Randel feels good about having Lindholm when it counts most — next month’s wrestling championships will be completed before district basketball.
For his part, Lindholm (3.5 grade-point average), doesn’t fuss.
“I just go around and play,” he said.
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
