Personal Statement
Hello, my name is Royce Butt I’ve been wrestling for 13 years but started getting serious in 5th grade. I live in Clinton IA but I go to Central Dewitt (2a) IA. I’ve been training at the Agoge wrestling club in Bettendorf IA since I was in 6th grade the practices are always high pace never any slacking. Agoge is coached by 2 former hawkeyes and 2 former UNI Panthers Nick Trizzino, Brody Grothus, Jacob Schwarm, and jay Schipper. In my 1st year at Dewitt, I went 113 and trained with Keaton Zeimet 4 time place winner with over 100 career wins. I trained with him almost the whole season.
My first High school wrestling match ended in 57 seconds with me winning. In my first real wrestling match in high school, I wrestled the #5 in (3a) and I was winning the first 2 periods, in the 3rd it was tied 3-3 and I made the mistake of taking a shot with my head down and got pinned. 2 days later I wrestled in my first high school tournament and I got to wrestle the #5 in (2a) and I won 3-2 which was a big win for my name because I wasn’t ranked nor predicted. That win got me to be ranked #10 in 2a. I wrestled another ranked match against the #5 in (1a) a month after and I was the aggressor of that match, I was outshooting him by a long shot. By the 3rd it was 2-4 and I got a takedown to tie it 4-4 he ended up getting out with 1 second left. Sectionals come about and I dominated my bracket only giving up 2 escape points because I wanted to work on my feet and I won my 1st place match 13-0 almost getting a pin in the last 5 seconds. Then districts come by and I won my first match 5-2 against the #9 and then I wrestled the #5 I wrestled earlier in the season and I scored first within 10 seconds of the match. I ended up losing 3-4 almost getting a takedown at the end. I ended up being the 2nd Freshman ever in the school to qualify for state in wrestling. At state, I wrestled the guy who made it to the finals I lost 3-11. In the wrestle backs, I put everything on the line and almost placed but fell short in the blood round. I did freestyle and Greco over the summer and did pretty well at the 126-135 weight range. Wrestled at freestyle state and in the first match wrestled the guy who won the bracket losing 5-6. Wrestled back, dominated the wrestle backs with 3 techs, and lost in the blood round.
In my sophomore season, I had an unstable break in my fibula due to football leading to me being gone almost the whole season. I did really well in P.T and got released middle of January. I got to wrestle in our last home meet and sectionals, and districts, qualifying for state but went 1-2. I did Freestyle only, in the postseason and did better than my Folkstyle season that year. I wrestled in the 132-140 weight range. I beat people that beat me before in close matches and teched them. I wrestled in the freestyle state tournament and beat 2 state placers by major and tech and fell in the finals to a fellow teammate from Agoge.
I want to study engineering because I do construction and I like it and want to go on with it. I don’t know which engineering degree yet though. I did get honor roll my freshman year for academics. I am in 2 leadership groups at my school one is Value up which tries to bring modern-day issues and talk about how we can steer away from them and how we can better ourselves and others. (Lead by Carrie Viel) The other is sports leadership 2 from every sport is chosen and talks about how the teams are doing and talks about ways we can be better teammates and leaders. (Lead by Jered Birt) My dream college is the University of Iowa because of the wrestling program's style and the team atmosphere. My style is kind of a brawler style where I overwhelm you with my hands and shoot to score and score more points and I have great endurance. Neutral I need to work on moving my hands and moving my feet and setting up shots. Top I need work on mat retuning. Bottom I need to work on constantly moving and knee sliding out.
Currently ranked 7th at 126 (2A) by IAWRESTLE.