Panther Profile: Abe Wilson

Abe Wilson is a senior at Mt. Pleasant High School and a member of the Panther wrestling team. Wilson has been a wrestler since his freshman year, and wrestles as a middleweight.

Wilson Met with The News on Wednesday after practice The questions are in bold with his answers following.

Did you grow up in Mt. Pleasant? No actually. I was born in Seattle, Washington. I grew up in North Carolina. We moved when I was about three months old, so I never met my biological father.

So you've been raised by your mom? Yeah, and as far as I can remember, my step dad. I can remember further back than that. I was like five years old when I met him. But I moved around to a lot of different elementary schools and never got to make friends there.

So when did you find your way into Mt. Pleasant? Middle of eighth grade. We were going to move to Tennessee, or maybe it was Missouri. I don't remember which state. Well, first we were going to move to Oregon, or somewhere around Washington state. It was interesting. But we chose Iowa because my step dad was like, ‘I grew up here.'

He's 27 years military, retired. He's a hardcore person.

Have you ever sparred with him? No! I still don't dare to! He's almost on crutches too … he's tough. He was like 82nd airborne for I think a decade and a half.

How long have you been wrestling? I started in seventh grade and got injured eighth grade. I've had problems every year. I think the only year I didn't have problems was probably freshman year, but that's a little fuzzy. I remember seventh and eighth grade years better than freshman, I don't know why. I almost went districts my seventh-grade year actually, it was pretty cool. I broke my pinky in eighth grade and it took me out the entire time. I didn't get to wrestle at all.

Have you made plans for after high school yet? Yes, I actually signed up for the army reserves.

Awesome, so do you know when you're going? July 2nd. That's when I'm shipping off to Jackson, North Carolina. Ft. Jackson for basic training. And then I got to AIT right after, of course, in Ft. Lenard Wood, Mo. My MOS is the 12th of Nov.

All my friends that joined National Guard say it was a dumb decision. My parents think elsewise, but I don't know. Oh, and I was going to do four years of college with Army Reserves and then go back, and then go back to college and get an education and then choose a career path that I want. Honestly, I don't have any real clue of what I'll do.

You're a pretty talkative person. Are you that way on the mat? Yep! I did before, actually. It wasn't the first time I went in to overtime, but every overtime I've been in I think I've won, besides one … but he didn't say a thing. It was blood time, or they were confused on whether I got an escape or not so there was a pause. I just looked at him, and I was like … let me restart that because this makes sense if you know what time it was. It was the last meet, my last match right before Christmas break. It was a Tuesday.

So what did you tell the kid? I was all like, ‘You know, after this. I'm going to go home and I'm going to eat three massive, big bowls of Frooty Loops.” He just looked the other direction. It was stupid.

He thought you were trying to get into his head. Well it worked. But the thing is, I never thought of it that way. I was just talking.

Who has been your favorite sparring partner? Jaden Davis.

What about before the match? Are you relaxed, listening to music or just silent? It depends on how I feel most of the time, but I talk. I have to say something or I'm going to get in my own head and psych myself out. I used to be like that. Now that I'm a senior there is like a level of superiority. It kind of sounds funny.

Is there someone you know you can go talk to before a match? Coach Blint. You don't really chat with anyone else, because nobody else is like me before I wrestle. Sometimes I'll listen to music, but not all the time. I don't really bring my phone and headphones, especially if we're at a different school. There was a time I actually got my phone stolen.

What's the hardest food to give up when you have to cut weight? All of it! When I was in middle school, it used to be macaroni. My mom, when she makes macaroni from scratch. It's bomb. Besides that, nothing since high school. I haven't really ever had strong opinions on food.

Do you have any nicknames? That's a hard one. I know it sounds funny, but I do and I don't. I've had so many different nicknames throughout my childhood. My snapchat name is Abrohammer, and it used to be Abrojammer. I know it sounds kind of funny, but some people refer to me like that, like Abroham.

Do you have any superstitions? No, nothing. Actually, this year I just recently had this funny superstition. I actually had to tape both my wrists to make me look like a boxer, to make me look sort of like … what's his name?

Rocky? Sort of, yeah! I had to tape them exactly like that.

If you won a million dollars right now, what's the first thing you would spend it on? Just so I can stop worrying about it, my education. If I don't have to worry about college and everything else, the rest of my life as of the next 10 years would probably be hella easy. Other than that, I don't have a strong opinion.

You're running for president and have to pick one of your teammates to be your running mate. Who gets the call? Can it be previous teammates?

Yes. The most reliable dude would be Tyler Davis, Jaden Davis' older brother. That would probably be the person I would be most comfortable with, though I never talked to him or anything. I just feel like if we were going to be at that level of professionalism, it would be a different story.

If you could hang out with one celebrity for a day, who would it be? Probably Kevin Hart. Maybe. Or Gabriel Iglesias.

So you like standup comedians? Yeah. Or maybe Will Smith, because he's cool. Or just because people say I look like him, or the other one because I'm curious what his back story is, Leonardo DiCaprio or Matt Damon maybe.

You do kind of look like Matt Damon. Yeah! I just watched Good Will Hunting, and I was like, ‘it's like I'm living through this.' I can see it, because I honestly did similar things. I'm just not a genius at math like that.

What if you could pick a superpower to have? Jeeze, that would be a hard one. I'd want one that is exciting. There are so many different ways to do the same thing, and one are the coolest out of all of them. But then you've got ones that are coolest out of all of them in that category, and you're thinking, ‘do I want stability, or like a protection kind of thing? The ability to read others, or to morph, or to go through objects, or be super strong?' Maybe being a god, but who wants to do that?

A lot of responsibilities in being a god. You know what? I can't answer that question.

Favorite teacher? Mrs. Kohorst, hands down. It's a tie between Mrs. Kohorst, Mr. Peterson, Mr. Wagner, Mr. Waggoner. All of them are good teachers. Mrs. Kohorst has great teaching methods. They're unique, and I think they're kind of beautiful. I think other teachers should learn from her. It's just her thing. There is a lot I can go into, but you probably have a couple more questions.

Any shout outs? To my mom … If I said shout out to Beyonce, would you put that in the paper?

I sure would. So shout out Beyonce? No! Maybe shout out Kanye, I remember that being a meme. That's a hard question. Leave it undecided.

Panther Profile is a series of interviews with Mt. Pleasant athletes currently in season. This season will focus on members of the Panther basketball, bowling and wrestling teams.