Conner Roberts is this week’s Walborsky, Bradley and Fleming Student Athlete of the Week

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -Wewahitchka senior Conner Roberts is a district wrestling champ and heading towards his second straight regional meet. For Roberts, that’s a pretty big leap from where he started. “I was about 5 feet tall, 160 my 7th grade year and I was like, “this is a hard sport, I’ll lose some weight”, then I just fell in love with it I guess.” And that love came pretty quick. Wewa Wrestling head coach Tracy Malcolm seems to believe it’s because he was made for it.

”He’s the whole package when it comes to wrestling, his attitude, drive, everything about him just, he wrestles, he’s a wrestler.” “When I got out on the mat, I just had the stupidest smile on my face and I was like, this is fun!” says Roberts. Conner has been a team captain for the Gators for the past 3 years, a position he’s taken hold of but has not taken for granted, says the coach. “He’s always helped other wrestlers when they didn’t get anything and it was just a natural selection for him to be the team captain.” “It kind of makes you proud because he knows I can lead them, I can keep them in line. I can coach them.” Roberts told us. I can coach them. That’s the big one because it’s a step towards Conner’s life goal, becoming the head coach of Wewa wrestling... but he knows that wont be possible from hard work solely on the mat. “I know if I get good grades, I’ll have better opportunities in life, I can go to colleges, I can get a better job. Set me up better for later in life.” says Roberts. I think Coach Malcolm summed it up pretty perfectly. “Aww, how do you say he’s just dang smart.” A 4.1 GPA is pretty good backing for that claim. Now, Roberts doesn’t have a set plan for after graduation yet, so instead of looking forward I asked him to look back at a goal he accomplished this season. “I wanted to better myself and my team. I wanted to take an extra step towards that coaching goal.” But don’t let the nice guy, player coach persona fool you, he’s got a whole different mentality in that circle. “I’m mad. I mad they have the audacity to step on the mat with me.”

Roberts getting set for regionals next Saturday, hoping to improve on last year’s exit in that round! Newschannel7′s Student Athlete of the Week is sponsored by Walborsky, Bradley and Fleming.

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