Emmanuel Daigbe is ready. His coach says so, he thinks so, and now there are only three weeks and five athletes between him and a Class 4A high school state wrestling title.
The soft-spoken Kent-Meridian wrestler and wide receiver is working to stay focused on the prize. Last year Daigbe made it to the state championships as a sophomore, with an impressive record that featured less than five falls. A split-second decision dropped him to second place in the 170-pound division.
Coming out strong at the Mat Classic, Daigbe says that he was “shaken up, because there’s a lot of people watching and it’s a new place to be because I was at the Tacoma Dome for the first time.”
The nerves got to him, and he took a pin in the final round off of a single mistake.
“I didn’t know if I was gonna get thrown,” he said. “I came up the wrong way and I didn’t see it coming and I got caught. In the finals if you got caught, it’s hard to come back so you can’t make those little mistakes.”
In the year since, Daigbe has looked at improving more than just his technique, strength and speed. It’s also about mental resilience, he says, as he moves into regional tournament on Friday at Kent-Meridian. The Mat Classic is Feb. 20-21 at the Tacoma Dome.
Last year Daigbe went through a difficult time as he worked to secure himself a slot in district matches, but during his 2015 season he’s seen nothing but victories as he coasts on a 26-0 record.
He credits his football season as a wide receiver to helping him shrug off mistakes, saying that he learned how to let mistakes go and put them behind him while focusing on his goals.
Wrestling, he says, is much less forgiving of errors than football, where a dropped catch can be anyone’s fault and there are plenty of opportunities to correct for a mistake.
The season also taught him not to be overconfident and keep his mind in the game, instead of letting success get the better of him.
“During football, during our second game we got caught up with everything, and when we went against Todd Beamer we had chances to score but we made mistakes and that cost us the game,” he said. “Take the right steps, don’t make no mistakes, do the right things, listen to coaches, ‘cuz they know what they’re talkin’ about.”
As he works his way through challengers this season, Daigbe remembers that mistakes are costly, but it’s the pin, not a score, that often determines a wrestling victory.
“If you’re losing 7-0, if you pin the dude you win,” he says.
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