Andrew Donahue OH: Camaraderie Breeds Champions
Andrew Donahue OH: Camaraderie Breeds Champions
By Bill X. Barron
“Life is more than a wrestling match,” asserts Andrew Donahue from Ohio, whose mother used to take him for Krispy Kreme donuts after wrestling camp. “Kids get too wrapped up in the moment. Relax, open up. It’s not going to define the rest of your life.”
A member of Wyoming Seminary’s 2020 National Prep School Championship team, sophomore Andrew dominated the 170 lb. class with 3 falls, including a 44-second pin in the finals. Both Andrew and Coach Scott Green concur that it’s their team’s “sense of camaraderie” that breeds champions.
Back in 2012, as part of an undefeated 56-0 season as a ten-year-old, Andrew earned the elite RMN Events Triple Crown, where a wrestler must win two RMN tournaments in the same weight in addition to capturing the title at the RMN National Championships. His season was featured in the RMN Events News under the title “Suffer Now: Mantra of a Champion.”
So taken were they by this experience that Andrew and his father felt the need to give back by voluntarily manning a mat table for several hours. At those same March 2012 RMN Nationals, his dad Michael still relives a defining moment in the semis where Andrew moved up a weight to challenge for his 2nd Triple Crown against a tough Tulsa rival.
“When Andrew and I looked at the clock, it showed 6 seconds left, and we were down by one. On the way back to the middle, I reminded him that he had already won a Triple Crown that day, so this was just a bonus.
“Knowing he had been practicing a Granby, this was the time to kill one. Our little sign for the Granby was to circle my finger like the injury motion, only in the vertical plane. At the buzzer, the referee hesitated, then put up the signal for a 1-point escape,” he continues.
“Within 15 seconds of the start of overtime, it was over! Andrew had shot in hard, executing his favorite head inside single-leg move. With a hard sprawl, he quickly slammed his right hip down, right elbow to the mat, then ran his feet around the corner.”
Michael concludes: “This was one of the best matches of his life. Going back now to RMN could not be any sweeter. Back in 2012, RMN CEO Ed Gutierrez personally announced Andrew’s finals matches to the entire coliseum. That experience settled his nerves and taught him how to absorb the pressure at an early age.”
When the 2019 Virginia Duals stopped all adjacent matches to spotlight the 150 lb. clash of two that year’s Super 32 1st-place 15U winners – 157-lb. champ Andrew vs. Cali’s 145-lb. titlist Robert Paul Perez – Andrew had been in the limelight before, like no other youth wrestling championship, courtesy of RMN Events.
“I just wrestled my match, feeling out RPP in the first period, then riding legs in the 2nd. I chose down in the 3rd, knowing I could get out and had to score (it was 0-0).” Perez drove Andrew out of bounds for a flee call; that combined with an eventual escape to make the final score 2-0 Donahue.
In a December 2012 RMN Events interview, Andrew cited: “I dread every minute of training, but I replay a Muhammad Ali quote that my mom used for our North Carolina wrestling club: ‘Suffer now and live the rest of your life like a champion.’ On the mat, there is no place to cover up or hide.”
Andrew is a cerebral wrestler who has never relied upon strength, even as he has grown to the 182-lb. class this year. While he regrets that certain high school opponents have resorted to shortcuts such as steroids, Andrew is committed to achieving his mental and physical peak. He has devised a training and nutrition regimen that prepares him to perform his best at his natural weight, meanwhile respecting his health.
Viewing a wrestling competition as a chess match, Andrew “lays back, waiting for my opponent to make a mistake. If I pressure too hard, I open myself up to attack. I let him wear himself out, then look to seize the advantage in the third period when he begins to tire.”
Donahue is excited to “relive the RMN glory days” along with the entire Seminary team when they travel across the country to compete in RMN’s Rumble in Arizona. “Seminary values togetherness, Andrew continues. At the conclusion of every practice, we circle up and shout “together” in one voice. It’s the same for all our matches: the whole team and a good part of the school are there in our corner.”
Like many other young wrestlers, Andrew harbored dreams of being a World and Olympic champion, as he related almost a decade ago in the RMN Events interview. Just the same, even as a 10-year old, he embraced a broader perspective: “Wrestling prepares you for life.”
“Now I consider wrestling as an opportunity to acquire a better education. Being an NCAA champ is important, but I also have to prepare to live a successful life by securing a professional career and taking care of my family.”