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and the drive to achieve it. I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. It was the perfect place for me,” said Boumans. At 58 kg/127.75 lbs., he was in a
loaded weight class which included two- time World champion Terry Brands, three-time NCAA champion Eric Guerrero, and talents such as Tony Purler, Danny Felix, Yero Washington and others. “I knew I had guys in my weight class
who were good. I looked at them that they were just like me. I thought I’d beat them all. I didn’t look at myself as a kid who started late from Louisiana. I saw myself as an Olympic champion and it drove me. They tied their shoes the same way as I did. They were tough, but they were fun to wrestle against,” said Boumans. At the 2000 U.S. Open, Boumans
scored wins over Mark Ironside and Yero Washington along the way to the finals, where he faced Danny Felix for the title. Felix had beaten Guerrero on his side of the bracket. “Felix and I wrestled a ton, and I had
been able to score on him. I knew if I got on top, I could turn him. I got on top and turned him and it was the only two points of the match. I had the time of my life. I always thought I could win the Open, but until you do it, you don’t really know. It was great,” said Boumans. Boumans advanced to the final two-of-
three series at the Olympic Trials. He was in the same situation as his OTC roommate and friend Brandon Slay, who was also the Open champion at 76 kg. Going through the experience alongside Slay gave Boumans the right mindset to be fully prepared for the challenge and enter the Olympic Trials in Dallas with confidence. At the Trials, Terry Brands returned to
the mats after taking time off, and he powered through the Challenge Tournament to face Boumans in the championship series. The championship series proved to be highly exciting with outstanding action from start to finish. When the battle was over, it was Brands who emerged as the Olympic Team member, but Boumans gave him the fight of his life. “I trained for him. I was mentally pre-
pared. He wanted to be a gold medalist, just like I did. You are on a high. You win a national tournament. I told myself that I was this close to my dream that started in 1980,” said Boumans. Boumans has never watched the video
of those matches against Brands. “People tell me those were the great-
est matches ever. I know that, because I was in them. I wrestled hard. Even though I lost both of those matches, I walked off the mat crushed, but I knew I gave everything I had. You can’t feel bad about that. I wrestled Terry really well. I had opportunities to win both matches. I competed against a two-time World champion and had him on the ropes a few times. I think about it still to this day,” said Boumans. Boumans continued wrestling in 2001,
and had a good season, winning the World Cup, taking second at the Open and second at the World Team Trials. He lost to Guerrero in the Trials finals series, winning the first match and but ultimately losing in bout three in overtime. Boumans’ life had changed. His wife,
Terry, a volleyball star he had met at the Olympic Training Center, was pregnant with their first child. “I trained, but not near what I did for
the Olympics. I had the hunger, but my mind was distracted. My mind kept bat- tling which way to go. Second place was not going to pay the bills. I was at a crossroads. After the Trials, I thought about it, and decided to hang them up,” said Boumans. Boumans followed his wife to Chicago,
where she played professional volleyball before the league folded after a season. He took jobs in other areas of business, helping his wife support their family. But Boumans had the desire to remain in wrestling as a coach. Sean Bormet called him and offered
him an opportunity to coach at Overtime, the elite youth club program he founded in the Chicago area. Boumans jumped at the chance to return to the sport. His wife was also a native of the area. “When I got on board in 2005, he had
an elite club going. Sean was a great coach. He had those kids dialed in. He taught them stuff that they were using at the Senior level, and the kids did great. It was a beautiful facility, a real nice place. When the kids and their families showed up, there was a WOW factor. You can’t top the coaching there,” said Boumans. The development of the Overtime Club
went hand in hand with the strength of the entire USA Wrestling program in Illinois, which has climbed to the top of USA Wrestling on the age-group levels. “Overtime created a model that is sus-
tainable. It is not a volunteer system. We all have families, and we pour our heart and soul into wrestling. Once people buy in, they are willing to pay for that value. It helped create a buzz in Illinois. Now there are similar clubs all over. People are trying to do what we are doing.”
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33 USA Wrestler
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