MIDDLETOWN>>> Student athlete Jason Gerst has found success during his competitive wrestling high school career. Gerst is a 17-year-old senior on the varsity wrestling team at Middletown High School. He started wrestling in his freshman year and shared “Honestly I just wanted something different.” Now in his senior year it seems he may have found it.
Gerst expressed the important role that wrestling has played in his personal life noting ,“I have learned how to keep my temper and how to be a better person in general from all of my coaches.” Being involved in multiple sports requires a certain level of discipline and dedication where wrestling continues to aid him in building those skills. Coach Brian Hunt said he has had the pleasure of being one of those influential coaches sharing, “His sophomore season showed great promise of things to come.”
In the little free time he has, Gerst enjoys also playing both football and baseball, spreading himself out over three teams. He said, “Honestly it is relatively easy to balance wrestling with my personal life, it was definitely hard at first but got easier over time.” Senior life can get rather busy when you have several goals and big dreams like Gerst, who shared “After high school I am going to the United States Navy to become an aeronautics engineer.” This is a field in which he believes the life skills he learned from wrestling, football, and baseball will surely come in handy.
Despite a full schedule Gerst is dedicated to his team and the sport. “The reason I want to keep wrestling is honestly my passion for the game. I love the feeling I get when I step on the mat,” he said. Coach Hunt also noted “We’re quite excited to have him back on the mat. He missed all of last year due to injury.”
For those who share his ambition and are seeking to start their journeys into competitive wrestling Gerst shares “My advice for any younger wrestlers would just be to keep at it even though it may get hard but in the end, you will not regret it.”
Coach Hunt shared “The schedule this year is designed to get our team exposed to as much of the North Coast Section as possible, and we have some high expectations.” According to said schedule, this upcoming Saturday the team will play at the Redwood Rumble tournament, their first match up of the season. The annual all-day tournament starts at 7 a.m. at Redwood High School located at 395 Doherty Dr, Larkspur, CA.
