Under the Monocle: Austin Hoffman
This past weekend, senior Austin Hoffman competed at his state wrestling meet at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After a successful season and fourth place at sectionals, the York-hi spoke with Hoffman to find out his thoughts on wrestling and this past season.
TIY: When did you start wrestling? How did you get involved in wrestling?
Hoffman: I started when I was about seven or so. I got involved with wrestling because my dad wrestled and he started us with it.
TIY: How was this season as a senior different from your other years of wrestling?
H: I started to put it all together from all my other years. I realized that I can compete with everyone, because I trained with the best in the state and even in the country. In the last few months, this has helped me get over the edge.
TIY: What was the highlight of this season?
H: My performance at sectionals was my best all season. This is because the first day at sectionals I lost my match, and on Saturday, had to win three straight matches, all against ranked kids, in order to make it out and qualify for state. The match I lost motivated me because I was the better wrestler, but I wasn’t wrestling like myself and over night that’s all I was thinking about. That really helped me win the next three matches to qualify for state. Four out of my five matches at sectionals were against ranked kids, and I also went up a weight class for the postseason because I was 138 the majority of the year then went up to 145 for the state series.
TIY: Who or what inspires you during your season?
H: Mainly all the kids I wrestle in the offseason. Knowing that I could compete with them, beat them, and seeing how successful they were this year in wrestling really motivated me to push myself. It put me in a competitive mindset and helped me work really hard to get where I am.
TIY: What was your record this season?
H: 36-13
TIY: Do you plan on continuing wrestling after high school?
H: Yes, but I am not sure where yet because I didn’t want to decide until after the season ends.
Niamh is a sophomore at York. She enjoys playing water polo and swimming here at school. In her free time she loves to go to concerts and listen to music....
