ROCK SPRINGS — Western Wyoming Community College is a special place for Lucas and Rebecca Kjar who recently made a $125,000 donation to the school’s wrestling program.

“What they’ve built is pretty awesome,” Kjar said “We’re happy to support and looking forward to seeing how it builds in the future.”

Lucas wrestled for the Mustangs in 2004-2005 under Bill Hodges, who is now an assistant on the current coaching staff. At the time, Art Castillo would come in and drill with the team and Kjar always had respect for him. As he’s watched Castillo build the program over the years, he said he’s always been impressed with the program and it’s focus on building good individuals.

“That’s really a main reason we were interested in supporting. I know it’s going into very, very good hands where it will make the most of the resources to impact the boys and produce a great program,” Kjar said.

During his time at Western, Kjar met his wife Rebecca who played basketball for the Lady Mustangs. The two married and now have five children. For them, Western served as the beginning of their family and lives.

“So many memories from moments here at Western, there’s a lot of nostalgia,” Kjar said.

Lucas’ cousin, Christian Smoot, is currently on Western’s wrestling team and earned a trip to the national tournament next month. While Lucas won’t be able to attend nationals, he did say he looks forward to being around more next year if Smoot decides to return for another season.

Lucas and Rebecca are currently working on opening a private school in Liberty Lake, Washington. The school will center around athletics — wrestling in particular. The goal is to not only educate and build strong individuals, but to also produce wrestlers that can feed into Western’s program.