Football player finds success on mat

LEHI — Dylan Stadel had always thought of himself as a football player.

The junior at Lehi High School played offensive and defensive line in the fall, but last season a coach asked him to join the wrestling team during the offseason, because it could make him better on the gridiron.

A year later, Stadel doesn't necessarily see football as his top sport anymore.

He's still committed to it, but in just a season and a half, he has made a name for himself in Utah and in wrestling circles across the

country for what he's doing on the mat.

"I tried it out, and I was pretty good," said Stadel.

Dan Rice, Lehi's wrestling coach recruited him along with half a dozen other young players from the football team. He thought it would make them better football players and they could also contribute to the school's wrestling program.

A year later, Stadel is the only one of the group still on the mat.

"He's the only one that stuck it out," said Rice. "I promised all of them that not only would it make them a better football player, but they could place at state if they worked hard. He's the only one that took the challenge and he's on his way to being a champion."

It's only taken a year for Rice's promise to come true for Stadel.

He says unequivocally that he is a much better football player, and as a first-year sophomore wrestling with the heavyweights, he finished fourth in state in 2007.

"He did better than I thought he would off the bat," said Rice. "He's got a great work ethic.

"He's athletic. He's coachable. He wants to become better. Now that he knows it's something he can do he's even more coachable."

Besides his inexperience, Stadel is also significantly undersized for the 285-pound heavyweight division. At the end of last year he actually could have made weight for the 215-pounders. He's bulked up a little this year and is up above 230, but is still regularly going against opponents 30 to 50 pounds bigger.

Stadel doesn't deny that he's sometimes intimidated looking across the mat at someone much bigger and more experienced, but he says his confidence has grown with experience and success.