Ever since he was six years old, sophomore Tyler Dickman has been wrestling competitively.

“Everyone in my family has wrestled but my dad most encouraged me to start wrestling,” Dickman said. “Both of my parents support me and come to all of my meets. I think I wrestle better when I have people there that I know.”

Aside from his family, one of Dickman’s role models is Cael Sanderson, a 2004 Olympic wrestling champion and current head wrestling coach at Penn State University.

“[Sanderson] was undefeated in college,” Dickman said. “I am inspired to be as good as he was.”

Dickman is currently ranked fourth in the state, an achievement that took many hours of practice to accomplish.

“I probably practice like ten hours a week,” Dickman said. “But tournaments can either be one or two days depending on which tournament it is. It’s hard to motivate yourself every day before practice but it’s fun to compete.”

The large amount of work that is put into wrestling is preparing Dickman for what he wants to do after high school.

“I want to wrestle in college somewhere,” Dickman said. “I would like to go to a Division I school but I would go anywhere that would give me a scholarship.”