Ever since he was young, wrestling has played a major role in Quincy Rice’s life.

If Rice has his way, the coming postseason won’t be the end of it, either.

“What I like about wrestling is the community,” Rice said. “I really enjoy talking to new people every week. I have been wrestling since I was four, but my family has been involved in the sport for a very long time, so I would practice with my family long before I joined a team.”

Rice and his Wright City wrestling teammates head into this week’s Class 2 District 2 tournament at Mexico, which will take place on Friday and Saturday, ready to give it their all.

Rice, who owns a 29-11 record wrestling at 215 pounds this season, owns a career record of 90-79 according to Flowrestling.com.

“I feel the season is going pretty well,” Rice said. “My goals for the season are to place at state, and if possible, get to 100 wins.”

This weekend will be very telling for Rice, who has fallen in the district tournament's knockout round each of the past two seasons.

Wright City Coach Fred Ross said he can see the work Rice has put into his craft and is hopeful he can reach No. 100 by advancing to the state championships at Mizzou Arena in Columbia on February 25-26.

“In the past four years, I have seen him work to be a better athlete,” Ross said. “He has moved some of his weight around in his body into muscle and has become a lot faster and stronger. This has helped him improve in all three of his sports. He is more vocal as a leader and gets more involved in teaching younger wrestlers at practice.”

Ross said that one thing he likes about Rice lies in his personality.

Rice makes it very easy to coach simply because of who he is.

“Quincy is a very personable and coachable athlete,” Ross said. “Even though he has a lot of wrestling knowledge, he is still willing to listen to new ideas.  He is one of the nicest athletes that I have coached. This makes him a great leader in the wrestling room and on the track team.”

For his part, Rice said that he would like to continue in a leadership role if it works out.

He would like to help younger wrestlers find their way in the sport.

“I do not have plans to continue on with sports in my future as an athlete,” he said. “But I may coach for the junior (Wildcats) wrestling team.”

Where Rice and his teammates hope things work out in the near future is at Mexico, where the Class 2 District 2 tournament takes place.

Preliminary round matches will commence on Friday, and the event will conclude with first- and third-place matches on Saturday to determine state participants.

The other Warren County wrestling program, Warrenton, also begins its postseason push as the Warriors will host the Class 3 District 2 tournament on Friday and Saturday.