Wooden hungering for taste of state title
Owings Mills senior primed to make good on last chance
For Owings Mills senior wrestler Amondre Wooden, the time has arrived. Finally.
While most freshmen would be ecstatic at a third-place showing at the state tournament and a 40-6 record, Wooden, a 15-time junior state champion, was disappointed and determined for more.
And then came the coronavirus pandemic, wiping out his sophomore season. And then, after winning his first 18 matches as a junior, poor grades ruled him ineligible for the second half of the season.
All the bitter disappointment — much he acknowledges was his own doing — has made the standout 152-pound wrestler a stronger person. On the mat, he’s that much more hungry. That very well might be bad news for the rest of the 152-pound field at the Class 2A/1A state wrestling championships, set for Friday and Saturday at The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro.
Wooden takes a 37-1 mark into the season’s biggest tournament with Baltimore County and 2A/1A North Region titles on his resume. For Wooden, though, the season has been all about having his hand raised in the final match of his high school career.
“I’m very confident,” he said. “I want to set the same tone like in past matches and just be me. I’m going to win it, for sure.”
His plan to “just be me” adds up to wrestling that is entertaining to watch. He’s strong, explosive and dynamic with an array of moves on his feet, clearly his strength. One move rolls into the next, and before an opponent can blink, Wooden has stacked up points to take the lead. His only loss of the season came against an out-of-state foe in the championship match of the 36th annual Top Gun Tournament in Alliance, Ohio.
On rare occasions, Owings Mills coach Ryan Mackin will say, you have a wrestler who you can sit back and just watch do their thing. Wooden is one of them, and Mackin has enjoyed his front-row seat this season.
“On his feet, Amondre is a tough puzzle to solve,” he said. “A lot of times with kids, it’s like stay out of this tie or avoid this move and you can kind of keep it closer. But he has such an arsenal on his feet and such a wide variety of attacks. He can score from distance. He can score from several different tie-ups. And he’s often running the score up on people to the point where he puts them in a hole that they can’t get themselves out of.”
Some life lessons can be harsher than others, and Wooden is quick to point out he messed up when he let his grades slip. Fortunately, this senior year has provided him an opportunity to make things right and he hasn’t faltered in the classroom or the mat. It’s proven a positive example to his younger teammates.
“I’ve been wrestling for 15 years and failing off a team and not being able to wrestle definitely hurt,” he said. “Last year definitely taught me grades always come first and I need to focus on them before everything
else. It has definitely motivated me a lot to win states this year.”
Wooden showed immediate gifts on the mat when his father, Andre, who also was a high school wrestler, signed him up in his first league when he was 4 years old.
“He was just strong and natural with it, throwing the kids all around and I started showing him more and more moves,” Andre said, “and it was all she wrote.”
During practice this season, the Eagles’ Sababu Allston, who qualified for states at 145 pounds with a 32-10 mark, is often paired with Wooden. The everyday challenge exceeds what he goes against in matches, which has helped him become a better wrestler in his senior year.
“He’s pretty fast and explosive and he does a lot of different moves — a lot of moves I’ve never seen before,” Allston said. “So adjusting to them has been very helpful preparing for my matches. It’s very tough — ridiculous at times and overwhelming, too.”
Wooden doesn’t back down from how confident he is going into the weekend.
The other region champions are Stephen Decatur junior Gavin Solito, who is 44-1 and a returning state finalist; Huntingtown sophomore Tyler Hayden, who owns a 38-2 mark; and Manchester Valley senior Travis Green, who is 48-0 and placed third at last year’s state tournament and a potential semifinal opponent for Wooden.
While he respects some of the better
competition he will face at the tournament, Wooden has no doubt what the outcome will be.
“I feel like I’m going to dominate,” he said. “We’re going there, setting a good tone and I’m going to win states.”