“If you are going to get got, you better get got good.” That is what freshman and varsity wrestling athlete Sawyer Lindley said when asked about his favorite advice he has ever gotten. This advice came from his high school wrestling coach, Jordan Jimenez. He says it means if you lose, you better do everything in your power to make sure that does not happen again.

Freshman year has been a test of Lindley’s mental and physical ability to push himself, but he has pushed through and dominated every step of the way. How has he been doing it? What are his secrets? Has he enjoyed it? We are going into the mind of Lindley and into his highly acclaimed freshman year.

Lindley started wrestling at the age of ten during the winter of fifth grade. He started because he had tried team sports in the past and did not enjoy them. When he tried wrestling, he loved it because he was the sole reason for his failures and successes. He also enjoyed seeing his personal growth and obviously winning. The wins he has gained, with major success going into high school so far, recording a 20–11 record in the 120 lb. weight class.

He has been able to maintain his winning form throughout the years by doing other sports, such as tennis and cross country, while also participating in club wrestling from summer to around March. When asked how he has been able to manage his time through all of this—life, friends, and school, he told us that he plans his days. Knowing school and wrestling are going to happen every day at a certain time. He puts his full attention into what needs to be done, such as homework, which in turn makes him more efficient.

Staying focused year-round not only sounds good, but it is paying off big time for Lindley. Not only on the mat but in the classroom as well. While taking Honors Math II, Honors Earth Science, Honors English, and College Speech, he was able to keep up and thrive with a 4.0 GPA in his first semester of high school.

When asked how he stays so disciplined throughout the full year, he told us, “My secret to being disciplined through the year is knowing that I only have today. Knowing that tomorrow, if I did not do what I wanted, I would have failed. I can always feel that guilt, and I know how bad of a feeling it is, so I remind myself every day of that guilt.”

Not only is he just staying disciplined he’s focusing on the right things and targeting weak points in his game while continuing in developing his strengths. He told us his biggest strength was never giving up in anything and especially wrestling, while on the flip side he has been trying to improve setting up before making a move, playing smart and not just attacking he stated  “I need to add a pressure of heaviness to the way I wrestle and that will help me be able to push and pull and move someone into the positions I want”

Colton Eberly, a fellow freshman and close friend of Lindley, stated, “I think he approaches challenges with aggression. He approaches them with the intent of completing them in a quick hurry.”

Lindley had a few words of advice for up-and-coming freshmen that want to wrestle. He said that you need to cut a lot of things out of your life: “Sacrifice is needed to be able to do what you need to do.” He later stated, “You need to learn discipline, not motivation.”

Lindley can be an inspiration to all, from his demonstrations of discipline in and out of the classroom to the way he tackles challenges. He still says that he has a lot to learn but is ready to do what it takes to continue improving and tackling the next challenge in his way.  “One day you will need to work hard, and it won’t be fun, it won’t be the best, but every so often you will get that kick of success, and you will ride off that fuel as long as you can. Nothing is easy in life and that’s the way it’s always been, you need to teach yourself to know that it won’t be easy.”