by Tiyana Randle 

Down the hallways of Robert B. Glenn High School stands a young wrestler on his rise to success.  Glenn Junior Austin Tucker is the topic of many conversations between the wrestling coaches.  Last year Tucker wrestled at the State Championship games as a sophomore.   This year his record is 45 wins and 4 losses.

“He is a fighter.  He goes out there to win, not maybe win,” Bobcat wrestling Coach Spencer said.  Tucker has been wrestling for eight years and his method of preparing for a match is thinking about situations and about what kind of moves he wants to do when he gets on the mat.

“Wrestling is life,” Tucker said.  He just got his 100th win overall.  His win-loss record was almost perfect before his recent loss at the match with Parkland.  “Trying harder and learning from my mistakes is how losing motivates me,” Tucker said.

Tucker has a good chance of returning to state.  He says the best thing about wrestling to him is winning.  Practice, keeping weight, and losing are some distasteful things that he deals with so he can win.

“Tucker’s style of wrestling is weird and different from everyone else’s,” Coach Spencer said.  “(Tuckers’) intense and can be mean at times.”  Coach Spencer says that the best way to motivate Tucker is to show him things to work on.  Yelling does not help.

Tucker hopes to attend either Appalachian State University or UNC Wilmington.