Butler wrestler Santino Sloboda, the Butler Eagle Male Athlete of the Year, still has more to achieve
Santino Sloboda’s initial thoughts on wrestling gave no indication of his future achievements in the sport.
“I started wrestling when I was 5, and I hated it,” he said. “But then I placed eighth in the state my second year. My dad started taking me to tournaments all over the country and I was going 7-1 or 8-2, and I realized I could be really good at it.
“I had played all the sports when I was a little kid — baseball, football, gymnastics, soccer, basketball. Eventually, I focused on just wrestling and soccer. I really liked soccer, but by the seventh grade, it was just wrestling for me.”
Sloboda is in the midst of a historic varsity career on the mat. He owns a career record of 128-7, including 50-1 this past season, which yielded Class 3A WPIAL and PIAA West Regional titles at 127 pounds. His lone defeat came in the state quarterfinals to Northampton’s Gabriel Ballard. Sloboda did rebound to win four bouts in the consolation bracket and placed third in the state.
That collective performance earned him the honor of Butler Eagle Male Athlete of the Year, but Sloboda knows he is capable of more.
“I had a good year, but that one loss sticks out for me more than all the victories,” he said. “It makes me want to get better.”
His 16 postseason wins last season included two pins, six technical falls and four major decisions.
“I’m pretty familiar with the guys I went up against at WPIALs, so I didn’t need to do much research on them,” he said. “It’s when you get to states and have to face wrestlers from all over, guys you don’t see much, that’s when you have to get onto a (website) like FloWrestling and check them out.
“But no matter how well my opponent can do this or that, I feel if I do what I need to do, I should be fine.”
Sloboda has won two WPIAL championships, a regional crown and earned three state medals (third, fourth, sixth) over the last three years. But there is one victory that sticks out more than any other for the Pitt recruit.
“Winning the WPIAL championship my sophomore year,” he said. “It was against Landon Sidun from Norwin. He was ranked No. 1 in the nation, and I reversed him in the final seconds to win.”
Sloboda credits Butler assistants Blake Caudill and Alex Evanoff for helping him prepare for matches.
“Blake works with me a lot on the technique stuff,” he said. “Alex takes kids through a program that deals with the mental aspect of wrestling, and that has helped me a ton.
“I know kids who think they are going to be amazing, but they get on the mat and just crumble. A lot of wrestlers try to plan a match out before it happens. I used to do that, but it doesn’t work. You just need to go out, have fun and score points.”
