It was a buoyant evening March 30 in the Jefferson High School gym, as around 30 boys and five girls, along with their parents, families, and coaches, gathered for Little Guy Wrestling’s annual end-of-season awards dinner.
While cheesy beef tortillas were heaped onto paper plates, anticipation loomed for the main event: the trophy presentation. Most awards are decided by the coaches, and wrestlers have no idea who the winners are until a name is called. So all eyes were on 9-year-old Beau Hadfield, winner of the highly coveted “hardest worker” award, given in memory of Trysten Strong, a Little Guy wrestler who passed away. Little Guy secretary Samantha DeWit said this is the trophy wrestlers are most encouraged to go for, and she was glad to see it in Hadfield’s hands.
“[Hadfield] worked hard every night at practice and never complained,” she said. He wrestled in novice at 75 pounds – but weighed in before the divisional meet at 75.1, which put him in the tougher 80-pound class. “He didn’t bat an eye,” DeWit said. Hadfield qualified for the state tournament, and won third place there, despite getting banged up by bigger athletes. “There were days he was dog tired and bent up like a pretzel, but he kept pushing,” said Little Guy coach Travis Newman.
