Editor’s note: Katie Cartwright, who
graduated from Corona del Sol High
School in 2006, is home for the
summer from classes at the
University of California, Berkeley.
During her stay at home, she is
authoring a series of ‘Where are
they now’ profiles for Wrangler
News.
Upon returning home
from college for the summer I began
scrolling through Facebook, an
Internet community geared toward
college students similar to that of
MySpace, in search of different
people from high school.
Before long I came
across the message “Robert, how was
the OTC?” (short for Olympic
Training Center) posted on Robert
Holbrook’s “wall,” and I immediately
took a second scan.
As an athlete,
finding a reference to OTC is an
instant trigger of both excitement
and curiosity: Robert Holbrook
working out at the Olympic Training
Center?
As I came to find
out, Robert spent a week, May 24-30,
at the OTC’s Field of Juniors
Freestyle trials, competing for a
spot on the U.S. World Team.
Although he had
missed the qualifying tournament, he
had qualified last year and
therefore was invited to compete. He
had spent the first portion of the
week at a camp and clinic in
Colorado Springs before the
tournament began.
Wrestling in the
96-kilo (211.5-pound) weight class,
Robert took second in the challenge,
placing him third overall as a
result of the national champion
automatically bypassing the
tournament to the finals.
As the third-place
finisher, Robert earned unlimited
access to the Olympic Training
Center any time he chooses to train
there.
“It’s pretty cool
because they feed you, and it is all
you can eat,” he said. So any time I
want to go back I pretty much just
need a place to stay and I get fed
and have a place to train all I
want.”
A 2006 Corona del Sol
graduate, Robert was an Arizona
state champion and Corona’s 2006
Male Athlete of the Year.
Prior to competing at
the OTC, he had just finished his
first year at Duke University. As a
redshirt freshman, Holbrook had the
year to train and adjust, both
academically and athletically,
before officially competing next
year for Duke.
The biggest
difference in the wrestling Robert
experienced at OTC was the emphasis
on the mat because of how collegiate
wrestling is scored, he said.
“The first semester
and really even during season it was
just such a huge adjustment, but
after the season ended I got like 10
times better during post-season
training,” he said.
Duke’s wrestling team
was honored this year with the Award
for the Highest GPA in college
wrestling.
Robert says the
theory on the team is to maintain
above a 3.5 grade-point average, and
most likely major in history. That,
he says, will be the key to success.
Robert took that
attitude going in and left for
school with the mindset that it was
going to be different than high
school knowing that he was going to
have to study and work hard.
He proceeded to earn
a 3.675 GPA ranking him in the 20th
percentile of his class and is
presently considering a degree in
chemistry.
