On February 18th, the Danbury Hatters Wrestling team traveled to New Haven to compete in their State Opens. Hatters wrestling has always been a successful program, keeping a streak of 452 matches without a dual-meet loss against FCIAC opponents alive. One memorable athlete that had an outstanding performance this season was DHS junior, Deydon Soto. After a break from wrestling last year, he came back strong this season with a FCIACS, State LL’s, and State Opens first place win in his 132 lbs weight class.

Deydon has been wrestling for 12 years, since he was just in kindergarten, and considers it his main sport. In the off season though, he plays lacrosse and runs cross country. He admits that wrestling is the most important to him, and that he does these other sports “… to hangout with [his] friends and stay in shape”. In his free time, he enjoys swimming, cooking, and spending time with his loved ones. When wrestling comes around though, Deydon’s schedule revolves around maintaining his health and stamina. He has committed to waking up at 5am each day, and going for runs or the gym: “Really just 2-3 workouts everyday and eating properly is super important”.

Soto’s winnings were somewhat unexpected to him. Coming back from a season-long break and being just a junior made these results seem impossible for him. What pushed him the most, he stated, was “help[ing] improve [his] teammates” and keeping up Danbury Wrestling’s successful reputation. Off the mat, Soto’s main motivation comes from his faith in God, and the ways in which his religion has inspired him. He says he references these practices to remain humble and stray from sin.

This success is far more than an individual’s accomplishments. The wrestling program and team are putting in the work to better one another. Although wrestling is an individually scored sport, Soto admits that “the team has pushed [him] when they know [he’s] having a bad day or [he’s] feeling lazy”. The team shows up for each other day after day and “remind [him] of what [his] goals are”. Many of his teammates and even peers have shown support through social media posts, and voting for him in Ruden Report’s player of the week. Through the immense support that Deydon has received, his accomplishments continued after he was named Ruden Report Player of the week out of 10 other nominated FCIAC athletes. 

From here, Deydon plans on continuing his sports and focusing his efforts on wrestling to continue his streak and keep up his momentum. His strategy for the upcoming season is to “study [his] opponents and how they’re going to try to score on [him]”. This young Hatter’s performance is something to look out for, and a predicted long lasting mark on the Hatters Wrestling history of the powerhouse program that they are known to be.