By Coach James Denton
Guest Writer
Seventh grader Brett Hanna closed out his successful Hayesville Middle School wrestling season with a gold medal this year. His season record was 5-0 beating Robbinsville and Swain County by pins, Murphy by points and Andrews and Cherokee with a bye.
Throughout the season Hanna has been a hard working and dedicated student athlete. He has grown an incredible amount in the sport in a short time thanks to his willingness to learn, respectful attitude and growth mind-set. These are no small feats for a middle school athlete.
Two other athletes brought home bronze medals from the Smokey Mountain Conference: Brandon Prieto at 83 pounds and Edwin Nava at 152 pounds. Both athletes fought hard for these victories which were their first conference pins of the season. Other notable HMS athletes this season include Kaden Harbuck 3-2, Brayden Aman 3-2, Hunter Hill 2-3, Byron Engelmann 2-3, Evan Burks 2-3 and AJ Austin 2-3.
As a 160 pound wrestler Hanna was trained primarily by Coach Jacob Handy, a multi-time state qualifier and state placer from a 7-A high school in Huntsville, Alabama. Hanna’s wrestling training began in 2019 in the Hayesville youth wrestling program. This program struggled to remain operating throughout Covid but is now back up and running full speed providing free wrestling fundamentals to athletes ages 4-14. For details call Coach James Denton at (203) 581-2298.