Athlete of the Month: Jaedin Sklapsky

Written by: Elizabeth Prieskorn '14

           

           How many freshmen wrestlers have a record of 26-1? One: Jaedin Sklapsky. Jaedin Sklapsky is a 15 year old freshman on the varsity wrestling team. He’s been wrestling since he was five. For ten years straight wrestling has been Jaedin’s number one sport, although he also plays football. Throughout Jaedin’s wrestling career he’s had four coaches; Mr. Warriner, Troy Nault, Dave Milheim, and Bill Dorner. The one coach that has stuck with him has been Troy Nault.

Troy Nault has coached Jaedin for seven years and is part of the reason why Jaedin is as successful as he is now. “Troy has been the most fun coach I’ve had. He’s been with me the longest and he’s just fun to be around,” says Jaedin. Another factor to Jaedin’s success is his family. His parents have always supported him in anything he does and his brothers, being wrestlers themselves, always set high expectations for him. Jaedin looks up to them and sees them as his role models. They inspire him to do more. He hopes that soon he’ll be better than both of them.

The two main differences between middle school wrestling and high school wrestling are coaching, and talent. “The talent and competition is at a lot level in high school. The coaches work you harder and push you to be your best”, says Jaedin. Jaedin’s transition into high school was fairly easy. Balancing school and sports is no obstacle for him. He works diligently in class to get his work done. Like many of us, Jaedin enjoys high school more than middle school. Jaedin says, “Yeah high school is way more fun than middle school, even though the classes are stricter.” During his free time Jaedin likes to do the same things as many high school boys do. Eat, sleep, and hangout with friends.

Jaedin has many goals for his wresting career. The goals that he has set for himself for this year are to beast the Most Wins record. The goals that Jaedin has for his full high school wrestling career are to win leagues all four years, break all of the wrestling records, and to win states his junior and senior year. After high school Jaedin would like to attend a Division-one college and wrestle. After college Jaedin would like to become a wrestling coach at a high school.

Jaedin’s favorite wrestler is Anthony Robles. He’s a graduate from Arizona State University and is one of the most accomplished wrestlers in Arizona State history. His interests are in Michigan State University, Iowa University, and Penn State University. They all have extremely good programs and Jaedin plans to work hard during high school to reach his goals. Jaedin’s greatest accomplishment in wrestling was when he was in seventh grade. Jaedin went down to Orem, Utah and won his weight class at Nationals. Jaedin is very excited for the rest of his high school wrestling career and beyond. In his future he hopes to reach all of his goals.