Becomes first-ever Panther freshman to qualify for state, places 7th in Greensboro
It’s been a good season for freshman Garrett Young.
After starring at fullback and linebacker for Panther football last fall, Young has perhaps been even more impressive for Panther westling this winter, becoming Franklin’s first ever freshman to advance to the state tournament. At the 3A State Championships Feb. 22-24, Young finished among the top wrestlers in his weight class.
“My first match we went out there and he was a #1 seed, which, I was ready – I had my mind ready,” said Young of the 215-lb. bracket. “I felt good the first match, and in wrestling at a high level it comes down to a one-point match normally, so I was really gonna wrestle smart. I went out there and I ended up taking the kid down slowly. It took a while but I ended up taking him down, and I just built my confidence up [from] there.”
Having placed 4th at the 3A West Regional a week before, earning the region’s last state tournament berth, Young drew a difficult first-round opponent in East Region Champion Jamarion Ward from South Johnston. Despite the pre-tournament seeding however, Young looked like the better wrestler, routing Ward 10-1 to advance to Round 2. There, a pre-match scheduling change put Young behind the 8-ball.
“I really thought we were looking good after that [first] match going into the quarterfinals on Sunday, but our schedules got conflicted a little bit and got rushed Sunday morning,” said head coach Jimmy Barnett. “That got us out of whack, and got everybody ... I don’t know how you would describe it – craziness. We weren’t on schedule [with what] we needed to do, and everybody was nervous, and I think it showed. We got up 9-1 on the kid real fast in the first period. Second period he deferred and gave us our choice, and it might have been my fault that he lost, but I just felt like we were doing good on our feet. We went neutral, and we got thrown straight from our feet to our back, which [made it] 9-8. Garrett had to fight for about 40 seconds off his back.”
“The second guy I ended up wrestling the next day,” said Young. “What I would have changed was, I definitely had a hot head because he was kind of a chunkier, shorter kid, and I was like, ‘I feel like I can get it.’ I knew he was a strong thrower, and when I went in there I actually got a 9-1 lead on him, but after that it went downhill. He caught me in a throw, and I made a bad mistake of backing up trying to get out of the throw because I knew he was strong, and he ended up tripping me and throwing me right to the back.”
In one wrong move versus West Rowan’s Dakota Athey, a comfortable lead turned into a dogfight for Young, who was eventually pinned in the final seconds. With the quarterfinal loss Young was relegated to the consolation bracket, where he quickly got back on track.
“I definitely had a chip on my shoulder because everybody came to watch me, and he was the #1 seed for [the Midwest Region],” said Young. “I went in there and I wrestled very smart and I wrestled hard, and I ended up pinning him after a 9-1 lead.”
Just an hour after falling to Athey, with his family and several FHS staff members in the stands, Young pinned Harding University High School’s Jacob Banks in the third period. In so doing he advanced to the final eight, where he narrowly missed out on the consolation semis.
“We moved on Monday, the third day, which is great for a freshman to even do because half the field’s gone then, so you’re cutting 1,100 wrestlers down to 550,” said Barnett. “He wrestles a good hard match; it’s 1-1. We go to overtime, which is neutral for a minute – still no takedowns. ... Overtime period number two we go bottom, the kid rides us out, which, that means Garrett needs to ride him out and not let him get an escape. He gets an escape and then Garrett gets in on a single leg, but can’t finish it. The kid jerks his leg away from him, and [Young] gets beat 1-0 in a sudden victory.”
With his second loss of the tournament to Union Pines’ Dantrell Williams, Young was eliminated from contention, placing seventh overall. In nearly matching Franklin’s best-ever state tournament result (a fifth-place finish from his now-assistant coach, Isaac Jennings, in 2022), Young thanks Panther fans for their support throughout the season.
“It’s an honor – it feels amazing,” said Young of becoming Franklin’s first-ever freshman to compete at state. “The whole community is so supportive ... just to have so much support from all my coaches, all my friends, and everybody just coming to support. It was crazy how they were watching my match from here – I thought that was amazing. ... If they weren’t there I probably wouldn’t have cared as much. I was wrestling for them – my whole family, my coaches and whoever came to watch me. I knew they were watching me on TV, so I was wrestling for them – I was representing our school.”
Following the State Championships, Young has no plans of slowing down, planning to attend several elite national tournaments this offseason. Having also finished his own first year with FHS wrestling, Barnett (a former longtime coach at Macon Middle School) wished to thank Haywood Smokehouse in Franklin for providing meals to wrestlers at the team’s home meets this year, and credited his wrestlers for a strong season.
“Well, I think we had a good first year, especially going to state,” he said. “We took one and I would have loved to take more, but for the first year that’s what we needed to do. ... We had a sophomore and two freshmen [Young, heavyweight Devlin Bailey and 165-lb. sophomore Preston Douglas] going to regions with a team just overloaded with underclassmen, and we’re looking to put more underclassmen on the map next year with all the eighth-graders moving up.”