Jaeger Clark has been named wrestleutah.com "Athlete of the Week" for July 10th, 2015.

Each week, wrestleutah.com will select two "Athletes of the Week." One for the PreK-9th grade age groups and one for the high school and above age group which will include high school, college, coaches and teams. The selection committee will consider and choose from nominees based upon performance within wrestling that week.

Jaeger Clark is 15 years old and recently moved from eastern Montana to Sandy. He has been homeschooled his whole life, traveling extensively—living in several countries, visiting 48/50 states and 10 countries.  Often living in very rural locations with no organized sports programs, he spent lots of time outside with his brothers.  One of Jaeger’s best assets is his relentless drive to perfect a new skill, and he certainly applied that to wrestling this year. 

In November 2014, his family received word they were being transferred to Utah, and Jaeger was excited to try an organized sport in high school. His mom looked up the available sports, and Jaeger said “I think I’ll try wrestling.”  He walked onto the team at Jordan High School, two weeks after they’d started and just days before the first meet. Being brand new at that first meet, he didn’t even realize that a pin ended the match.  But, he won with a pin in both matches pinning his first opponent in 11 seconds, and he was in love with the sport.

Jaeger’s high school season was a learning experience where he spent time on every team from Extras on up through Varsity. The move up to Varsity was very trying—he was often teched, but rarely pinned. He was a freshman in the 170 class wrestling many seniors with years of experience. But, Jaeger wasn’t deterred and used every loss to better his wrestling. Learning how to counter the moves that lost him the match, he kept his signature smile and kept moving forward.   He often talked to his opponents to get advice directly from them.  The high school season ended with only 4 varsity wins for him, but Jaeger wasn’t done yet, and he was excited to learn of club wrestling. He joined Tactik T3 practicing at Jordan and Riverton High Schools, and getting his first chance to try Greco and Freestyle.

 Just 5 months to the day he walked into that first practice at Jordan, he took first place at state for Cadet 182 lbs Greco with no points scored against him in any match. The next day, he placed third in Freestyle.  He is headed to National Cadet Duals in Pennsylvania this week, and Fargo with Team Utah in July.

Some of his favorite activities off the mat are scouting, camping, hiking, skateboarding, riding his unicycle, card tricks, and playing guitar.  He also did Track this spring, and is thinking about football this fall or a martial art.

 To nominate someone for the "High School Athlete of the Week," please submit your nominations to wrestlingutah@gmail.com.