- April 2, 2025
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It’s fair to say that Aiden Sanders is addicted to wrestling.
The Lakewood Ranch High junior starts his fix each day at after-school practice in the school’s wrestling room, which he said is the ‘one thing he looks forward to each day.’
Many nights, that leads to teammates coming over to his house to spar on his mat. When he’s not practicing, there’s a good chance he’s watching YouTube videos or social media clips of his favorite collegiate wrestlers.
That passion has taken Sanders to becoming a wrestler who has state tournament potential this season.
“He’s a high school wrestling warrior,” Lakewood Ranch wrestling coach Pat Ancil said. “We have other great kids on the team, but at the end of the season, we’ll still do open mats, but you won’t see them very often. They don’t want to make that commitment to the sport year-round. But not Aiden. He’s there all the time.
“He has a lot of talent, and if he wrestles well, he's got a real shot at the state tournament and potentially getting up on the podium.”
It wasn't that long ago that Sanders couldn't wrestle at all.
He started wresting when he was 4-years-old under the tutelage of his father, Blaine Sanders, in Pennsylvania.
He said he won two youth wrestling state championships, and was competing with the best wrestlers in his age group until injuries derailed him.
His dreams of wrestling at the collegiate level seemed over after he sustained three concussions.
At his doctor’s strong suggestion, Sanders gave up the sport entirely when he was in sixth grade.
“I was told I couldn’t wrestle again, and I had kind of given up the dream,” Sanders said.
His freshman year at Lakewood Ranch provided a tease. During a lockdown drill at the school, Sanders’ class was put in the wrestling room.
“I remember sitting down on the mat, and I was like, ‘Man, they put me in the worst spot,’” he said. “I went in the room, sat down and sent a picture to my dad and was like, ‘I want to be back.’”
Later in his freshman year in gym class, Sanders was playing pick-up basketball wearing a wrestling shirt, and Ancil happened to be there as a substitute teacher for the day.
Ancil invited Sanders to come to practice, even if just to have some fun or be a part of the environment.
After coming out to watch practice, Sanders couldn’t take it anymore. He begged his parents to allow him to wrestle again, and his persistence was rewarded.
Years away from the sport, though, had done Sanders no favors.
He said he couldn’t beat the Mustangs' 106-pound junior varsity wrestler and had forgotten much of the technique he had learned from youth wrestling.
All that meant was that he had to push himself harder to make up for lost time.
Sanders’ father took it upon himself to train his son at home.
With the added motivation of some teammates joining them, Sanders became a fast learner.
He still took some lumps along the way.
Sanders finished last season with 15 losses and was eliminated in the regionals — one win short of making it to the state tournament.
Even though he had progressed from junior varsity competition to nearly making states in less than a year, that didn’t sit well with Sanders, who knew he was capable of more.
“That’s where my passion for the sport changed,” Sanders said. “I couldn’t accept not making it to states, and it’s the same this year. I have to make it.
“Seeing all the kids I grew up with wrestling, all of those kids placed in state or were state champions. I know a kid ranked top five in the nation that I used to beat up when I was a kid. That hurts. As an athlete coming back to it, that’s been the worst. Seeing all of these kids that I used to compete with doing bigger things than I am, that’s why I want to get better so bad.”
Sanders estimates that he wrestled over 100 matches this offseason as he traveled to tournaments around the state, coupled with a no-days-off mentality in practice.
Last season, Sanders was more of a defensive and hesitant wrestler as he gained his confidence back, Ancil said.
That’s now a thing of the past.
Sanders, now a competitor in the 120-pound weight class, said he tries to bully his opponents into submission.
That mentality has turned him into a formidable opponent with a 41-6 record this season, and it’s an edge he might not have had if not for his comeback efforts.
“This year he is much more offensive,” Ancil said. “He has a nonstop motor. He’s changing positions constantly all the time, creating momentum and keeping his opponent off balance to where they don’t know what the heck is coming. It’s a big difference from last year.”
Sanders said he hopes to continue wrestling at the next level, and those opportunities could weigh in the balance if he can advance to the state tournament.
That quest begins with the district tournament at Riverview High School from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Feb. 21.
