| For as long as I could remember, I was always playing sports. There really wasn’t ever a time that I wasn’t playing when I was growing up. My wrestling career started at the age of 5 when we were stationed in Hawaii. My dad wrestled when he was in high school and put me in once I was old enough, and I fell in love with the sport. When my dad was re-stationed in Germany, he put me in another club as soon as we settled in. I didn’t miss a beat and picked up right where I left off |
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| About four years later we moved to Vegas and I started dabbling around with different sports. I really loved playing football during the summer, wrestling in the winter, and baseball in the spring. I first wrestled with the Jr. Longhorns out of Legacy and then we switched to Team Vegas. That is when I first got introduced to Coach James Downing. For about 2 years we battled through tough practices and tournaments and ended up branching out and making our own team, Gladiators Wrestling Club. |
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| This is when I really started taking wrestling serious. Everything began to click and I began going to bigger and tougher tournaments. Around my sixth grade year, I ventured into Greco and Freestyle. I fell in love with the sport again. The high action throws were different and they were so much fun. I ended up being Nationally ranked #4 in Greco by the time I was an 8th grader. In high school I wrestled Varsity all four years. I still played football, but I dropped baseball in order to focus on off-season wrestling. I ended my high school career placing twice at Regionals (3rd & 2nd), and twice at State (4th & 3rd). |
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Going into college, I decided to stay home and wrestle at UNLV. This is where I reconnected with Coach Downing. In 2019, I was WCC Conference Champ, and I was one match away from placing at Nationals. This year, I was the WCC Conference Champ again, and I am going into Nationals 16-1. I am currently a Senior majoring in Kinesiology with plans on being a Paramedic. |
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I wouldn’t be here without the unbelievable coaching staff that I had growing up. They all have pushed me to be a better athlete, teammate, brother and young man. |
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