WILLIAMSBURG, VA (WTKR)- Since he was a kid, Brogan Hurt has been hooked on wrestling, and it didn't take long for him to realize that the sport would become his passion.
"Probably when I first started back when I was about five," the Lafayette senior said of when he fell in love with wrestling. "I definitely cried a lot more back then, but I loved it from the start."
The sport is in his blood as well. Brogan is the fourth member of his family to leave his mark on the mat in the Rams' wrestling room, following in the footsteps of his three older brothers.
"I'm following it their path, but also at one point I did make a decision that I was doing it for me and not just because they did it," he recalled.
"To watch him grow up from a kid that was a struggling youth wrestler into a mature team leader the way that he has, it's been an amazing journey," added Lafayette head coach Christ Wiatt.
That journey, however is not complete. Brogan finished sixth in the state last season and this year finds the Rams' senior 157 pounder with his sights set on being king of the commonwealth.
"When I first started, my goal was only to be better than my brothers were and I talked to my coach one day and he said 'you've already done that. I want you to set your goals higher,'" noted Brogan. "Ever since then I said I wanted to be a state champ."
"If he wrestles his hardest and puts himself in the best situations to win, he could win a state championship," Wiatt said.
As he wraps up his senior season at Lafayette, Brogan is also thinking about the future. When his days as a Ram have come to a close, he plans on joining another team with a pretty big and powerful roster of its own- the United States Military.
"I have applied to the U.S. Naval Academy and I'm still undecided on whether I'll go if I get in, but I'm also looking at ROTC scholarships," he said. "No matter what, yes, I'm going military."
That's another thing that runs in the family. Brogan hails from a family with a deep military background and he plans to follow in those footsteps as well.
"I've seen how it's helped them develop as people and professionally and everything it's done for them," he said. "Ever since I was little I've seen how amazing it is and I've wanted to do that, too."
Brogan also excels in the classroom, boasting a 4.2 GPA and ranks second in his class. He says he has yet to decide if he'll wrestle at the college level if that's the avenue he chooses for the future.
If you have a nominee for Esprit Decor Student-Athlete of the Week, just send an email to marc.davis@wtkr.com.
