After sixth place finish in state last year, Hardaway senior wants to win it all
“I didn’t start wrestling until I was a freshman. A friend talked me into it. It wasn’t something I really wanted to do. But once I started wrestling, I realized I had a passion for the sport,” says Emilio Evans-Pagan, a senior at Hardaway who now wrestles in the 160-pound class. While Evans-Pagan may not have known much about wrestling prior to joining the team, he had the drive, work ethic, and mentality to succeed. And, despite admittedly not being the best technical wrestler on the team, those qualities have propelled him to the top of the state’s wrestling heap.
“I don’t like to lose. I always push myself to do the best I can. I want to be the guy who gets his hand raised. I’m not fond of losing. I really push myself. I just keep going and I don’t give up. I wouldn’t say that I’m a great technical wrestler. There’s a lot to wrestling, a lot to work on. But the drive, the passion to be the best, to not lose – all that has helped me to become a pretty good wrestler,” says Evans-Pagan.
Evans-Pagan says he kept wrestling because, quite simply, he enjoys winning a contest of hand-to-hand combat. “I’ve always been drawn to fighting sports and wrestling is another form of fighting. It takes a lot of hard work and effort to be a good wrestler. The best thing about wrestling is getting your hand raised after a match,” he says. Evans-Pagan also likes the individual nature of wrestling. There is an undeniable team component to the sport, but when a wrestler steps on the mat, he has to rely on himself alone to win. “I’d rather depend on myself. If you lose, you can’t blame anyone but yourself. You should have worked harder, pushed yourself harder. It’s just you.”
And just how good is he? In his first year, he finished third in the region. A year ago, he won region, finished second in the west section, and came in sixth at state. He posted a 38-6 record en route to his sixth place finish.
This season, Evans-Pagan, who serves as team captain, would like to go undefeated and win a sectional and a state title. Those are the only accolades his palmares is lacking. He’s won city. He’s won region. He also has a second place in the section. However, he would like first-place medals at every level. “I’d be Hardaway’s first state wrestling champion in a long time,” he says. “I’d like to do that for the school. Most of the state champions are from the Atlanta area. I’d like to win for Columbus, to put our city back on top.”
What does the future hold for Emilio Evans-Pagan? He’s a solid student who should have no problem getting into college. He says he would like to wrestle at the next level but he hasn’t had any contacts with college programs just yet. “I hope I get noticed. It’s hard to know what college wrestling programs are looking for but I hope I can wrestle for a college team,” he states.
There’s one thing about it: Winning a state title will certainly get him noticed. And it should open up more than one opportunity at the collegiate level.
Sidebar #1:
Emilio Evans-Pagan has focused his high school athletic career on wrestling. But he also tried football for a while. He enjoyed the sport but he felt as though it negatively affected wrestling. He played football at 180 pounds, and he played several different positions before landing on the offensive line. Evans-Pagan decided not to continue playing football because he thought 180 pounds was too small for the line and he also knew that once football ended, he needed to cut that extra 20 pounds to get back down to 160 for wrestling season. “I just thought it would be better to focus on wrestling,” he says.
Sidebar #2:
Evans-Pagan says the individual who motivates him to keep working, keep pushing, keep winning is his older brother, Zachary. “He comes to all my matches. He doesn’t miss a one. He keeps me in the gym and he keeps me on my schoolwork. He’s the reason why I’m able to stay focused,” he states.
Player Spotlight/Columbus Valley/December 2015
Emilio Evans-Pagan
Hardaway High School
Columbus, Georgia
written by: Robert Preston Jr.
photography by: Jerry Christenson
