Carpenter High wrestler wins provincial banner

Jan 12, 2018 | 1:00 PM

Carpenter High School may have many provincial sports banners hanging in their gym, but one for wrestling is a first.

In 2017, Jacob Ambroziak won in the 130 kilogram weight class, and on Thursday, Jan. 11 the school officially accepted the banner in his honour.

He said he felt honoured to be able to be part of history at the school.

“It’s making me feel pretty accomplished,” he said. “The fact that it’s going to be there forever, hopefully it’ll bring some more inspiration to others.”

He said wrestling became a true passion for him over the years. 

“When I first started I was a bit iffy on it,” he said with a laugh. “I did like it, but I didn’t know if I could see myself doing that much in it. With every practice I kept liking it more and more, and basically that got me to where I am today. I like representing the school.”

The team coaches, Jason Guenther and Chris Brownrigg said Ambroziak is a positive ambassador for the school and wrestling teams, which have about 17 students total.

“We’ll be talking about this for years and years,” Guenther said.

“It’s probably one of the hardest sports out there,” Brownrigg said. “Jake’s an incredible athlete, and even if he wasn’t so successful from a medal point of view, he’s just such a positive influence to the club.”  

Guenther said the club came a long way since starting over 10 years ago, and last year was a triumph for the teams as they boys and girls squads both won at 3A regionals.

“The program has grown quite a bit,” he said. “They’re all really committed athletes. Now that we’ve won regionals, provincials is possible.”

 

kathy.gallant@jpbg.ca  

On Twitter @ReporterKath