Duke set to wrestle for Kentucky Wesleyan
About a month before the start of the 2020-2021 high school wrestling season, Gordon Lee senior Tomy Duke was in the process of filling out questionnaires from various colleges that he was considering for next year.
One morning, he woke up to an email from Kentucky Wesleyan College, an NCAA Division II program in Owensboro, who asked that Duke to give them a call.
Approximately six months later, Duke is signed and ready to become a Panther when his time in Chickamauga is finished this spring.
“They said they had seen me wrestle and we’re interested in talking to me,” he explained after signing his letter of intent this past Friday. “I called and talked to them about it and they offered me a scholarship at the beginning of the (high school) wrestling season. They ended up giving me a partial scholarship, which is paying for half.
“A lot of it is determinant on grades and they said if I can bring my grades up a little bit higher, they can probably offer some more, so I’ve been working on that.”
However, Duke said one of the biggest reasons he’s getting a shot to be a college wrestler is because he was willing to put in the effort and allow himself to be coached.
“It’s just going up to the wrestling room, listening to what the coaches told me to do and just trying to do it to the best of my abilities,” he added.
Duke got a firsthand look at the campus during a visit prior to the start of the season, about a month after the email that led to the first phone call.
“I got to go up there and check it out and meet some of the coaches and the staff,” he recalled. “I really like how they stood for their students and how they helped them out with a lot of stuff, so that was another big deciding factor in me going there.”
Gordon Lee head coach Jason Mull said it was “fitting” for Duke to be able to get the opportunity as the senior is something of a gym rat when it comes to the sport.
“He started wrestling in eighth grade and he’s always around wrestling,” Mull said. “His mom works tournaments. He and his brother Timy work tournaments and they both referee at tournaments. I’m really proud for him to be able to take advantage of this opportunity to move on to the next level and see what it’s about.”
He said that the Panthers want him to wrestle at 125, a few pounds down from where he wrestled this past season for the Trojans. Duke was area runner-up at 132 and was a state qualifier for the Navy-and-White.
“I’m going to bring as much as I can (to their program) and I hope I can bring them some wins,” he said. “They’ve got some really good guys up there, so I’m not going to say I’m going to go up there and be the best or the worst, but it’s definitely going to be a challenge to beat the guys that are in my spot and try to make the varsity team in my first year. It’s definitely going to be a bit of a fight.”
Duke said he planned to study weight training at college in the hopes of one day opening his own training, nutrition and personal fitness business.