Aydenn Sanders '23 Recruiting Profile

I quit wrestling my freshman year of high school after one tournament because my ringworm was out of control, or rather, that's I told my coach and teammates. The truth is, I was too undisciplined and lazy to apply antifungal every morning. Sophomore year, I had many excuses to use for my continued laziness including the pandemic, mother's deployment, online school, chronic heartburn, offseason club being closed, etc. I used these excuses to explain things like why my grades were bad or why I wasn't working out. Junior year, I still did wrestling even though I could've easily quit. I stayed in the sport because deep down I knew that wrestling was the cure to this lack of discipline. I was even going to indoor track practice before wrestling practice just for the challenge. Choices like that one were made with the right mindset, but I overall was still making poor choices. The night before the district tournament I went with my family to eat pizza, making me overweight for the tournament the next day. 

My senior year, I self-evaluated where I was as an athlete and a person and decided that I wasn't good enough. I decided not to make excuses for why I shouldn't workout in the morning before practice or why I shouldn't go to optional practices on the weekend. This new mindset has gotten good results, allowing me to make it to states for the first time. Even my grades significantly improved, which made me realize the usefulness of the sport. I want to wrestle in college because doing so will improve me as a person, allowing me to delay gratification longer, leading to a truly happy life.