This past weekend at Ford Field Detroit, history was made by St. Louis Shark Wrestler, Alex Rodriguez who won the Division 4 individual wrestling state championship at 113 lb. pounds. Rodriguez has spent every moment of the past 11 years of his life working tirelessly to accomplish his goal of winning an individual state title, and not only did he accomplish that goal, but he did so by a landslide, pinning each and every one of his opponents during his run to the gold.
Rodriguez has dedicated thousands of hours to becoming the best wrestler he could possibly be. During the winter he wrestles folkstyle. Then in the summer following, Rodriguez continues to perfect his craft by competing in Freestyle and Greco Roman. Although he may be one of the best wrestlers in the state, Rodriguez also makes time to compete in cross country during the fall.
Rodriguez has worked through injuries, blood, sweat, and tears to be where he is today, but none of those previous obstacles have made him give up. In fact, it had quite the opposite effect. The challenges placed in front of him only bolstered his resolve. Rodriguez commented on how this amazing work ethic has let him streamline his focus on winning the state title with, “Everytime I go to practice, or step on the mat, I’m thinking about how I gotta get better. I’m not thinking or worrying about weight or other things like that.” Rodriguez then went on to discuss the support system that has surrounded him to make this dream a reality, thanking the Sharks Wrestling Coaching staff, but more importantly his own father and biggest supporter, Anthony Rodriguez. “My dad has been the main driving force that kept me going. I did this all for him.” Mr. Rodriguez then shared his thoughts and emotions on his son winning the championship. “When I saw he won all I could muster was tears, tears of joy, and all I could think was that he finally won it! I want to thank all the coaches and his teammates for supporting him and making this moment possible, and also the Kuhns for taking him to practices when I couldn’t,” added Mr. Rodriguez.
As stated before, Rodriguez has wrestled all his life for St. Louis, and so Shark Wrestling head coach Kuhn shared what it was like watching him grow year after year to be the champion he was meant to be with, “Alex has been in our program since the third grade, and that was when he and my son became our managers and began rolling and drilling together in our room. And from there, anytime there was anything wrestling related going on he’s always been there. He’s traveled across the country with us, so I’ve always fully expected that he would be a state champ at least one time, if not multiple times.”
Rodriguez was also able to garner both his 100th win and 85th pin at the state tournament as a sophomore and is well on his way to breaking and setting the school record for pins.
