Name: Ty Edwards

School: Yorkville Christian, senior

Sport: Wrestling

Why he was selected: Edwards was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler at Plano’s Reaper Classic, as he won the 132-pound championship with three pins. He was chosen as the Athlete of the Week in an online vote. Here is his interview with Joshua Welge.

Welge: What did it mean to win the tournament, especially one that has a lot of tradition like Plano’s?

Edwards: What winning Plano meant to me was just me doing my best to help out the team as best as I could.

Welge: How did you feel about how you wrestled? Any matches stand out?

Edwards: I feel that there are definitely some areas I could improve in because some of my moves felt a little rushed, so relaxing a little more in the match. No matches really stood out to me. Obviously the finals was against a ranked kid but that didn’t stop me from treating it like any other match.

Welge: What areas of your wrestling have you focused on for improvement this year?

Edwards: I have focused on being more physical with my hand fighting and adding more pressure on top.

Welge: What are your goals for this season? How big of a goal is it to win a state title?

Edwards: My goals for this year are to wrestle with as much physicality as I can, to try and break my opponents will during the match. A state title would be an amazing achievement but right now my goal is to improve every aspect of my wrestling before the state series starts.

Welge: How’d you make your college decision [to commit to Gardner-Webb]? What do you plan to study in college?

Edwards: I made my college decision based on multiple factors, the main ones being: how well I connected with the team, how easy it was to connect with the coaches, and the Christian atmosphere of the college. I think that God has guided my life to Gardner-Webb for a reason and I’m excited to see what God has planned for the rest of my life. I plan to study biology and from there go somewhere in the medical field learning more toward an orthopedic surgeon.

Welge: Any other big tournaments you’re looking forward to?

Edwards: I am looking forward to the Flavin. I believe I’ll get some good matches and that will open up the door to what I need to work on.