Penns Valley’s Decker hopes hard work pays off
Ask any champion, no matter the sport, what it takes to get to that level.
They will likely respond with one word.
Work.
In the sport of wrestling, athletes have to be willing to put in the extra time to reach the top of the mountain. That mountaintop for a high school wrestler is standing on the podium at the PIAA tournament with a gold medal around his neck.
Penns Valley’s Curtis Decker knew that he had to change his mentality coming into this season.
“Coach (Joel) Brinker always says,” Decker explained, “you have to wrestle each match like it’s the state finals. Looking back on last year, I don’t think I took every match like the state final. I was just happy to make it there again. This year I’m not going to be happy getting there again. I’m not going to be happy unless I get on that podium so I just have to have a different mindset.”
Decker’s journey much like the rest of his Ram teammates begins on Friday with the District 6 Class AA tournament. The tournament begins at 10:30 a.m. inside Altoona High School’s Fieldhouse.
“For some kids,” Brinker said, “they’ve been training for a large portion of their life and the offseasons and stuff. They have really high goals to go deep into the postseason. Others, they want to win as many matches as they can in the postseason to see how they stack up against some of the best kids in the district.”
Decker is one of those kids who has been training a large portion of his life for this moment.
“I’ve put pretty much my whole life into this,” he said. “I want to come out on top, especially this season. I’ve practiced more than I ever have. I’ve put in morning workouts. I just really need to make the hard work pay off.”
Brinker knows what to expect from his senior. He said he has been a tremendous asset to the Ram program.
“He’s always done anything that’s been asked of him for the better of the team,” Brinker said. “He’s a great kid. His academics are really important. He’s a great student-athlete. You want to see a kid like that fulfill all his goals in the postseason and it’s his last crack at it.”
Decker, who is 29-2 on the year and the No. 2 seed at 138 pounds, said his former teammate Corey Hazel sparked him to become even better. Decker became Penns Valley’s all-time wins leader this season by passing Hazel, who set the record last year.
“He made a big impact,” Decker said. “He was explosive. He worked extremely hard. He always tried to do his best and it wore off on me. I realized I wasn’t doing my full potential last year, so I tried to put it all on this year.”
Brinker added: “Corey was a special talent. He would’ve been very successful on whatever sport he was committed to. We’re glad he chose wrestling. The varsity guys got to see firsthand he worked his tail off in the room. In our sport, you got to work your tail off and he did that.”
Decker has been traveling to Bucknell for more practices after normal practices. The training is something he knows he has to trust to come out on top of the 138-pound class.
“The bracket looks tough this year,” he said. “(Westmont Hilltop’s) Carnell Andrews came up from 132. He’s going to be tough to beat. There is Dalton Clark on my side of the bracket too. It’s going to be a good one. I know if I wrestle to my ability I can come out on top.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 11:13 PM with the headline "Penns Valley’s Decker hopes hard work pays off."