Jeff Chaney
Sports Scene
It’s not easy to become a four-time state champion wrestler.
It takes a lot of hard work, and a lot of sacrifices are made along the way, according to the state of Michigan’s newest member to the elite club.
St. Johns senior Zac Hall became just the 18th wrestler to win four titles when he accomplished the feat March 1 at The Palace of Auburn Hills. He accomplished it when he beat Greenville’s Alec Ward 12-2 in the 140-pound final in Division 2.
The journey to become a four-time champion began at age five for Hall. But wrestling wasn’t the only sport in which he participated as a young athlete, and he wasn’t even sure how much time he wanted to dedicate to it. “I didn’t know at first,” he said “I played football and a little baseball, but I started to have so much success in wrestling, that I decided to quit baseball to concentrate on wrestling.
“I played football through the eighth grade, but then I gave that up, too. Once I got into high school, I realized I could get a college scholarship in wrestling, and I concentrated on wrestling solely.”
But giving up football wasn’t that easy, especially because he played quarterback. “It was definitely hard to give up football,” Hall said. “I look back now and I wonder if I still played football. At that time, I was still at Ithaca High School, and we never lost. Football was so much fun, and I loved to play quarterback.”
But size matters in football! “I was good at football, but I was small,” Hall said. “I was trying to look at this long-term, and I didn’t see myself playing college football, so that was the ultimate decider.”
So he made the decision to stay with wrestling and change to St. Johns High School, which rarely loses in wrestling.
It was a good decision, not only because he won three team titles to go along with his four individual titles, but also because of the work he got in the St. Johns practice room and beyond.
Success breeds success, and that’s what happened at St. Johns, and that is what Hall loves so much about the sport.
“Best part of wrestling has got to be the winning,” Hall said. “The feeling you get when you get your hand raised. And the bigger the match, the bigger the victory, the more rewarding.”
It was a thrilling moment for Hall when he won his fourth title, and the large crowd at The Palace gave him a standing ovation for his great accomplishment. “That will be a moment I will never forget.”
Hall also pointed to all the relationships he has formed along the way – not only at St. Johns, but across the country. That’s because champions in wrestling are made with long car trips to national tournaments across the country.
“All the people you meet along the way, you travel a lot, and you meet so many great people,” Hall said. “I have a wrestling family; it’s a brotherhood.”
Now he leaves this chapter of his life and moves on to the University of Michigan, where he will wrestle for the Wolverines next year.
He leaves St. Johns with a 198-2 record, three team titles, and individual championships in the 103-, 112-, 125-, and 140-pound weight classes.
Did he ever think he could accomplish all of that?
“It was always in the back of my mind [that I could win four],” Hall said. “I heard of it being done before, but never witnessed it [until his teammate Taylor Massa did it two years ago]. I wanted to be a state champ, but it didn’t set in that I could win four until I won that first one. And now four years later, here we are.”
But even as a four-time champion, he knows he still has to get better before he heads to Ann Arbor.
“I need to keep working hard,” he said. “The biggest thing, and it should take a couple of months to settle in, is that I will be wrestling men. But I don’t think there is a better place to get ready for that than at Michigan. I will be working with a great coaching staff at Michigan, and I’m ready to get started.”