By Matt Gade

605 Sports

RAPID CITY — Since the age of five, one constant for Parker Graveman has been his grandparents cheering him and his sister, Taylor, on from the stands.

The only time that his grandparents, Lyle and Linda Randen, would miss one of their wrestling matches, it was because they were watching their other two grandchildren, the Graveman’s cousins.

That is until about a month ago when Lyle suffered a severe stroke that required being airlifted to Rapid City and undergoing brain surgery. 

Nearly four weeks later, Lyle returned to the wrestling mat for the first time to watch his grandson Parker wrestle for the Sturgis Scoopers one last time at the Region 4A tournament on Saturday at Rapid City Central.

In Parker’s first match of the tournament, Parker’s mom, Kara, helped Lyle to the side of the mat where Lyle cheered on Parker from his wheelchair with Kara at his side and Linda behind him.

Parker defeated Belle Fourche’s Dylan Park 22-5 by tech fall. As Parker won his match, Lyle stood from his chair and clapped in celebration of Parker’s win. 

“Well, it's the highlight of my day. No question about that,” Lyle said of watching Parker wrestle. “I wouldn't, wouldn't want to do anything else.”

“It's amazing. We're super grateful, extremely grateful. I think we take a lot of things for granted every day,” Parker’s dad Shane Graveman said. “But to have him here, because they've been so supportive of our kids over the years, we're just ecstatic.”

Sturgis' Parker Graveman wrestles Belle Fourche’s Dylan Park in the first round of the Region 4A tournament on Saturday at Rapid City Central. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

Kara said when Lyle first suffered his stroke, the family was preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.

“The drive he (Lyle) has and the ability to come back from something like that. He set that goal, to come back to regions, to be able to watch it is just something that I can't do anything but admire his ability to just want to live life and be a part of his grandkids events,” Kara said. “He's been there from day one on, everything our kids have ever done. So it's been hard these last few weeks not being able to have him here next to us. So to be here today and come as far as he has from ICU to here, just pretty heartwarming, and we're grateful for every bit of it.

“There's something definitely bigger than us in play. He took a helicopter flight, and they ended up having to do brain surgery after the stroke here in Rapid City. So it's been a long four weeks of recovery, but he's really put his mind to everything he wanted to do and and the goal that he set for himself, I couldn't be more grateful where we are, but as I said, something bigger than us is in play to have him come back and be able to watch this.”

Due to the stroke, Lyle missed quite a few of his grandson’s last events. Lyle missed senior night for the Scoopers and the state duals.

“It was hard, you know, without him being there for state duals and all that. But I know he was always watching. So him being here today and me being able to look over during my matches and see him cheering me on is, it's something kind of, one of those things you almost take for granted,” Parker said. “You know, you don't appreciate it till it's not there. So it's just made me appreciate the little things so much more than it really is worth.”

Because Lyle couldn’t be there directly, the family had to figure out ways for him to still follow Parker and Taylor’s wrestling matches.

“One of the things we've had to teach them is how to use their phones and flow wrestling a little bit more, and so that has been kind of the trial and error piece, especially when they can't participate in person,” Kara said. “They couldn't be more supportive.”

“They were trying their best to do everything they could,” Parker said of his grandparents following his matches. “And she (Kara) even went down (to the hospital) and she set up a tablet for them, so he had a bigger screen he could watch on. It was great. Still, him wanting to watch wrestling, it's great to see and it's great to hear. It just makes me so happy. He's doing so much better.”

For Parker and Taylor, grandma and grandpa Randen have always been willing to make the trip from Gillette (Wyo.) over to Spearfish or Sturgis to watch them. Whether it was AAU wrestling, school concerts, any activity they had going, they made the trip according to Kara. 

Seeing Lyle’s determination to recover from his stroke, might be a trait the Graveman kids get from Lyle, according to Kara.

Having followed Taylor, since her time at Spearfish High School and now collegiately at North Central College in Illinois, Lyle knows how good of wrestlers the siblings are. 

When asked who’s the better wrestler, Lyle said “depends on who’s the most angry.”

While he’s not going to be able to make it to Sioux Falls to watch the state wrestling tournament next weekend at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center, Kara said they’ll figure out how her parents will be able to watch with the livestream on South Dakota Public Broadcasting as the most likely option.

“We haven't crossed that bridge quite yet, but it is next week,” Kara said.

Kara Graveman, left, sits alongside her dad, Lyle Randen, while her husband Shane Graveman watch as Parker Graveman wrestles Belle Fourche’s Dylan Park during the Region 4A tournament on Saturday. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

While Lyle can’t make the trip to Sioux Falls, Kara said Lyle is recovering nicely and can hopefully go home in a month or hopefully sooner.

“We've had great care here in Rapid City,” Kara said of Monument Health. “I couldn't ask for more. He's been through ICU to an inpatient rehab, and now he's at another nursing facility, hopefully gets to go home in the next few weeks or in a month.”

For Parker, the Region 4A 132-pound champion, the first person he met stepping off the mat was his grandpa. 

“He's always the first person to come up to me after my match. He's always the first person to congratulate me, always the first person to do this and that. And it's just amazing,” Parker said.

Now the senior and future North Central College wrestler is gunning for a state crown, one he knows his grandpa Lyle will be cheering for him back in Rapid City.