Ever wonder what a wrestler thinks about just before he steps onto the mat?
"What I think about is how hard I've worked, and I honestly think I deserve it more than anybody else on the mat," Penn senior 170-pounder David Stevens said. "Mean and nasty. Nothing real too fancy, just go out there and get mean with the kid. Try and break him."
It was Stevens who broke into the sport at a late age. He did not start wrestling until sixth grade, but has rapidly made up ground on his peers.
"I think here it is kind of considered starting a little bit late because we've got kids in kindergarten that is wrestling nowadays," Stevens said. "But, I mean, if you're working hard, it's never really too late."
That is exactly what Stevens has done and that is exactly what he is known for.
"When David's in practice, he's going hard," Kingsmen coach Brad Harper said. "Every drill, every run, he's setting the tone, and he's setting the intensity high for the team. So he is a definite leader on our team, and you can tell he's hungry, and our other teammates are feeding off that."
"I started getting serious after my freshman year, because I'd always use it just to stay in shape for football," Stevens said. "But after freshman year I realized I really like this sport and I think it could take me places."
Those places will likely include wrestling in college and several schools being interested. But all that can wait for now because there is only one thing Stevens is interested in right now.
"I want to win a team and individual state championship," he said.
