Junior Hodge, Coach of the Year, Impact Award, Schalles and Jr. Schalles, Journalist honored (V29I8)

NEWTON, Iowa — Cael Hughes, Cael Sanderson, Anthony Robles, Wyatt Hendrickson, Ryder Rogotzke and Earl Smith are featured as award-winners in the April 28 issue of WIN Magazine, which is announcing its remaining annual awards for the past wrestling season.

Click here or call 888-305-0606 to subscribe to WIN Magazine.

Hughes, WIN Magazine’s top-ranked wrestler at 132 pounds from Stillwater (Okla.), was selected as the winner of the 2023 Junior Dan Hodge Trophy as the nation’s most dominant wrestler.

Cael Hughes

Presented annually by Resilite, the Junior Hodge is the high school equivalent of the the Dan Hodge Trophy given to college wrestling’s most dominant wrestler. Hughes, a future Oklahoma State wrestler, finished the year 39-0 with 21 pins and won a fourth Oklahoma state title after also winning this year’s Ironman and Pittsburgh Classic events.

CLICK HERE FOR A COMPLETE STORY ON JUNIOR HODGE WINNER CAEL HUGHES

Penn State’s Cael Sanderson (left)

Sanderson, who became head coach at Penn State 14 years ago, was named the winner of the 2023 Dan Gable Coach of the Year award after he led the Nittany Lions to a 10^th team championship. Led by two champions and eight All-Americans, the 2022-23 Penn State team won a second straight team title by 55 points.

CLICK HERE FOR A COMPLETE STORY ON DAN GABLE COACH OF THE YEAR CAEL SANDERSON

Anthony Robles

Robles, who won the 2011 NCAA championship at 125 pounds for Arizona State with just one leg, has earned the 2023 Mike Chapman Impact award. Since winning his national title, Robles has been a motivational speaker, returned to coach his former high school in Mesa, Ariz., and created the Robles Unstoppable Foundation. There is also a movie, based on his life and called “Unstoppable”, that is currently in production.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE STORY ON MIKE CHAPMAN IMPACT AWARD WINNER ANTHONY ROBLES

Wyatt Hendrickson

Hendrickson, a heavyweight from the Air Force Academy, has been named the winner of the Schalles Award as the nation’s top pinner for a second straight year. The junior of Newton, Kan., ended the year with a 31-2 record and pinned 17 foes, including three in the 2023 NCAA tournament where he finished third.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE STORY ON SCHALLES AWARD WINNER WYATT HENDRICKSON

Ryder Rogotzke

Rogotzke, a senior from Stillwater (Minn.) High School, also won the Junior Schalles Award for a second straight year. The future Ohio State wrestler broke his own state record with 45 pins, but sacrificed a second straight Minnesota state championship when he moved up a weight to take on the nation’s top-ranked wrestler at 195 pounds.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE STORY ON JUNIOR SCHALLES WINNER RYDER ROGOTZKE

Earl Smith

Smith, a native of Virginia, is the current lead content provider for Intermat, has been named the winner of WIN Magazine’s Journalist of the Year. In addition to writing, the former wrestler and coach learned he could also provide a commentary on the sport and promote it when he first developed a blog on podcast in 2007.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE STORY ON WIN’S JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR EARL SMITH

You can find more information on all these award winners in the April 28 issue of WIN Magazine, which also includes WIN’s 2023 State-by-State High School Wrestlers of the Year and the magazine’s WINNIES awards that highlight special accomplishments by wrestlers and coaches as well as memorable moments from the past year.

WIN publisher Bryan Van Kley presented the Hodge Trophy to Michigan’s Mason Parris.

Bryan Van Kley, the publisher of WIN, also talks about how special college post-season banquets can be after he was able to present Michigan’s Mason Parris with this year’s Dan Hodge Trophy on April 2. WIN had previously announced in its issue that was published just after the NCAAs that the Wolverine heavyweight had won wrestling’s Heisman Trophy, becoming Michigan’s first Hodge winner in program history.

The most recent issue also provides columns by Dan Gable, John Klessinger, Tristan Warner and Rob Sherrill and training/technique pieces by Zach Even-Esh, Eric Everard and an archived technique page/analysis by long-time Minnesota coach J Robinson. There is also a look at the upcoming U.S. Open, including a feature on the changes with the USA Greco-Roman program.

Click here or call 888-305-0606 to subscribe to WIN Magazine.