Dick Briggs likes to jump out of airplanes. He also likes to wrestle with the guys on his team at Jefferson.

“Not as much as I used, but I do,” he said. “It takes longer to recover, you know? Instead of being like 10 minutes, it takes like a couple of weeks now.”

Briggs is 54 years old now. He has to be more careful, at least on the mat. He has no plans to quit sky-diving and probably will make his 2,000th jump next year.

This is wrestling season, however, and he needs to preserve his body a little more these days.

“Maybe I’m a little more selective with who I wrestle with,” said Briggs, starting his 28th year as Jefferson’s head coach and 31st year all told. “Like I’m not sure I’ll get on the mat as much with Conner as maybe I might have 25 years ago.”

Conner is Conner Herman, Jeff’s heavyweight wrestler who placed sixth in the state meet last season as a junior. It might be a good idea to avoid Herman, because he’s very unhappy about finishing sixth after winning his first two matches in Des Moines. He got off to a good start, then lost three bouts in a row at the state tournament.

“That’s a bad taste in my mouth, because losing three matches in a row isn’t something that anybody can get used to,” Herman said. “It just sucked. It was right in my grasp to go right up to the top of the podium.”

Herman has been a heavyweight wrestler throughout his prep career, but he weighs 230 pounds and could drop from heavyweight to 215 this season. That might work to his advantage.

Brody Berrie of Bettendorf, who won the Class 3A heavyweight title last season, is back this year. And Cody Krumwiede, the two-time champion at 215, has climbed to heavyweight, according to Briggs.

“If I had to or wanted to, I could,” Herman said two weeks ago about a possible shift to 215. “It’s kind of up in the air right now. I’m going to keep my options open.”

Jefferson has not had a state champion since Tim Ironside took top honors in 1998. Herman is motivated to change that, because he hates thinking about being sixth.

He’s thought about it every day since last February. The bad taste lingers.

“It couldn’t go away for awhile, and it still hasn’t gone away,” he said. “So I’m really thinking about that.

“I mean, they have my name up on the wall right there and it’s under sixth place, and that’s not what my goal was last year.”

His goal has always been the same: Win a state title.

“That’s where I’ve set my goal from Day One when I came in here as a freshman,” he said. “I wanted to bring a state championship back to Jefferson High School for wrestling.”

When Herman was a sophomore in 2009, he pinned Washington’s Brandon Burrell a few weeks before the district meet, only to see Burrell win the state title that year.

“So that left a bad taste in my mouth too, knowing that I pinned the state champion,” he said.

Yes, it might be a good idea for Briggs to wrestle with someone else this year, maybe someone who isn’t quite as determined to bring home the gold.

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SCHEDULE

Thursday, Dec. 2 — Jefferson, Cedar Falls at Iowa City High, 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 4 — Keith Young Invitational, Cedar Falls, 10:30 a.m.

Thursday, Dec. 9 — Jefferson, Waterloo East at Linn-Mar, 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 11 — Maquoketa Tournament, 10 a.m.

Thursday, Dec. 16 — Hempstead, Washington at Jefferson, 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 18 — Southeast Polk Tournament, 10 a.m.

Thursday, Jan. 6 — Wahlert, Jefferson at Iowa City West, 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 8 — Ottumwa Tournament, 10:30 a.m.

Thursday, Jan. 13 — at Kennedy, 6:45 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 15 — Jefferson Tournament

Thursday, Jan. 20 — Jefferson, Xavier at Dubuque Senior, 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 29 — MVC Tournament, at Xavier, 10 a.m.

Thursday, Feb. 3 — Prairie, Waterloo West at Jefferson, 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 12 — District Tournament

Feb. 16-19 — State Tournament, Des Moines

Saturday, Feb. 26 — State Dual Meet, Cedar Rapids