Line ’em up. Ask around.

The wrestling community is pretty open and honest.

What does it take be a state champion?

Talk to coaches: Those who have won a team state championship and/or coached a wrestler to a state champion. Really bend their ear – not the kind that can lead to ‘cauliflower’  – and have a conversation with a coach who won a state title himself and coached a state champion.

Find competitors: The ones who continually find their way to the top of the podium. You know, the ones who have a bunch of big brackets in their house somewhere. Especially, the competitors who can call themselves state champion.

Strike up a debate about what it takes to earn the sport’s ultimate designation at the high school level. To be the best within the state boundaries. Try to get them to narrow it down.

What are three traits of a state champion?

“There’s usually a through line that can be found in every state champion,” said Mesa coach David DiDomenico, who has coached 27 state champions. “One aspect is an eventual state champion is willing to outwork anyone else in the room.”

Wrestlers need to believe a state championship will happen before it can happen. (Photo courtesy of Steve Paynter)

There will be all types of answers but for the most part there will be a combination of a handful of attributes - coachable, a mention of impeccable technique, willingness to put in extra work, being able to scramble well in those big moments that decide a close match, being self-motivated, and discipline.

Essentially, all of the characteristics you’d expect of just about any successful, elite athlete.

Yet, there’s one specific trait that ultimately is vital on the timeline of becoming a state champion: belief.

It can be a thought, said out loud and/or written down.

One way or another it has to be a stated goal. Sure, there is a rare case where an individual who has always been talented, and he has been great at moments who gets hot at the perfect time wins an unexpected state championship.

It may even happen Saturday night when 56 state champions – one per weight class for the 14 weight classes in the four boys divisions in Arizona – are crowned this weekend at Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum.

There will be team state champions crowed with Division I coming down to Sunnyside or Liberty, Division II is headed up by Canyon View and Arizona College Prep, Sahuarita and ALA Gilbert North have a the best shots in Division III, while Division IV might be the most wide open with Santa Cruz, St. John’s, Mogollon and Morenci all in the running.

It’s almost guaranteed the team champion has at least one state champion to help propel the squad to the team title.

And chances are just about every state champion knew he would be one before it can actually happen.

Former coach Tom Wokasch, who spent time at Ajo, Cottonwood Mingus and Queen Creek, has coached 25 individuals to 40 state titles. He always made sure that his wrestlers physically saw the goal.

“They need to have it written down somewhere,” he said. “A lot of my kids wrote it down every day. Some even posted it by their bed so one of the last thoughts before falling asleep was the belief of being a state champion someday.”

Former Mesa head coach and current assistant Bobby Williams, who was also a state champ in his own right for the Jackrabbits, said the timing differs but the idea of being a state champion has to manifest at some point.

“It doesn’t have to happen when they are younger,” Williams said. “There are some late bloomers, but at some point, they have to believe they can be a state champion.”

For Williams, it happened when he was a Powell Junior High before putting on the singlet at Mesa High and won an individual title in 1977 to help power the Jackrabbits to the team title.

“The mentality is the same,” Williams said. “They all know they are going to be a state champion. Usually, they decide at that moment whether or not they are going to take the necessary steps.

“I knew what was ahead. In junior high, I knew I was going to do whatever it took. That’s when a lot of (future state champs) become men. Then they got to decide what kind of man they are going to be. Right about there is when they decide whether they are going to be serious or not.”

The field has 30 returning state champions spread across the four divisions with Division I having seven, Division II returning nine state champions, Division III has five and Division IV has nine.

The are four wrestlers going for the third state individual title in Sunnyside junior Xavier Chavez (150 pounds) and senior heavyweight Zayne Candelaria, Canyon View junior Christopher Ramirez (120), and Blue Ridge senior Erick Galindo (120).

It is going to take a ridiculous effort to unseat one of the 30, but should it happen there’s a good chance that the individual told himself it was going to happen before in manifests itself on the mat.

“I think it’s always there at some point before it happens,” said Desert Vista coach David Gonzalez, who has coached has coached 21state champions to 28 overall titles. “It’s hard to become one if they belief isn’t in there already.”

Send comments and story ideas to jskoda@azpreps365.com