Central Michigan University Athletics
Photo by: Tony Rotundo/WrestlersAreWariors.com
Anything You Can Do ...
4/14/2021 12:35:00 PM | Wrestling
Wrestling galvanizes deep bonds between Drew and Sarah Hildebrandt
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Drew Hildebrandt has heard the tongue-in-cheek question hundreds of times.
Hey man, how come you're not as good as your sister?
A conundrum, of course. Hildebrandt's response (paraphrasing because, well, mom is likely to read it): I'm better than you, and she'll kick your behind too.
And, he's right. Of course he's right. Hildebrandt recently became a two-time All-American wrestler at Central Michigan and to most, such an accomplished athlete would be the family torch-bearer when it comes to athletics.
But the Hildebrandt family is somewhat atypical. There's plenty of wrestling talent to go around. Just 11 days ago, Drew's older sister, Sarah, finished first at the U.S. Olympic Trials to earn the right to represent the United States this summer in Tokyo. It's the crowning jewel in an ever-burgeoning wrestling crown for the Hildebrandt family, which hails from Granger, Ind.
And for all the successes and, of course, occasional disappointments, there is no envy, no jealousy, no sibling rivalry. Instead, it's all genuinely heart-felt positivity for the 23-year-old Drew and 27-year-old Sarah, two of the four Hildebrandt children born to Nancy and Chris Hildebrandt.
"I think a lot of times we use each other as inspiration," said Drew, who has the option because of COVID to return to CMU for one more year in 2021-22. "If you look at how we improved in our accomplishments side by side, people are like, 'It seems like you guys are competing;' no, it's the opposite: I see something she does and I'm like, 'That is super inspiring.'
"That makes me want to go through the roof and I think it's kind of similar for her."
The Olympic berth and her appearance in this summer's games is the pinnacle in a sensational career for Sarah, who, among myriad mat feats was a 2018 silver medalist at the World Championships, a 2018 U.S. Open champion, and is a four-time winner at the Pan American Championships.
She has wrestled – and mostly won -- all over the country and the world and is now poised to step onto the sport's biggest and most glamorous stage.
Drew's resumé doesn't include the words World, Pan American, or Olympics on it, but he is among the rare Chippewas to have twice earned All-America honors and is a member of the program's exclusive 100-win club.
It's apples-and-oranges to compare the siblings' respective mat accomplishments. And for the record, they don't. They're just thrilled for each other and continue to unabashedly support one another. In fact, each becomes more effusive and emotional when they talk about the other and their brother-sister devotion.
"He's the best," Sarah said, a touch of reflection in her voice. "Just accomplishments aside, how he handles himself and the dynamic of me being involved in the sport – he's always been so supportive and so outwardly respectful of what I'm doing. He's always been like that, even when he was a little kid. It wasn't normal to see a girl on the wrestling team (back then) and he could have taken a lot of crap for it, but he was always so, so, so supportive and mature about it and that speaks volumes to his character.
"On top of that, he's a beast at wrestling. I think I cried harder (watching Drew in the) NCAAs than I cried after I made the Olympic team and I was 100 percent more nervous (for Drew); I would be watching (Drew's) matches and shaking uncontrollably."
Drew watched Sarah's Olympic Trials matches on the live feed rather than traveling to Texas where they were contested. Distance did nothing to dim his ardor while watching Sarah punch her ticket to the sport's premier event.
"I was way more nervous for her (than myself) and it's a good thing that I was stuck at my house and couldn't go to Texas because, man, if people saw me and how I was going during her matches, they'd be like, 'Dude, he's a psycho,'" Drew said.
The wrestling bug bit the Hildebrandt household through older brother Cory, now a 30-year-old law student at Michigan State, when he joined the wrestling team at Discovery Middle School in Granger.
Pretty soon, Drew, then just a first grader, was competing on the mat. The two sisters, Sarah and Amy, went along for Saturday tournaments which, to a child, can overload the senses with the number of people in the gym, the constant yelling, and the seemingly never-ending chirp of the referee's whistle; or it can enthrall and, eventually, indoctrinate.
By the time Sarah was in the middle school, she too was on the mat. Certainly, she dealt with the inevitable sideways glances and questions in a sport that remains male dominant. But she was and is part of a surge that continues to rise. As of 2019, more than 20,000 girls nationwide were wrestling in high schools.
If anybody doubted that she belonged, she proved them wrong on the mat. In just her second year of middle-school wrestling, she was a league champion.
And she was hooked.
"You cannot help yourself," she said. "It really does get into your blood and it's something I've seen happen to so many people and obviously experienced myself."
By the time Drew was beginning to establish himself as a star at Penn High School in Mishawaka and one of the best prep wrestlers in Indiana, Sarah was winning Women's Collegiate Wrestling Association national titles at King University in Bristol, Tenn.
And it wasn't just Drew and Sarah. Today, Amy, 25, is the newly named coach of the budding women's wrestling program at Trine University. Wrestling has long been a focal point for the family.
"We come together for NCAAs, we come together for MAC Championships," Sarah said. "We're all talking, we're on the phone if we're not at the location (of the meet), and that's really neat. I love that about sports and obviously wrestling is our sport. It's naturally just brought the whole family so close and then there's that other level. Drew and I are still competing and at a very high level so there's that bond as well."
It's the byproduct of supportive parents, both Drew and Sarah agreed.
"They've been supporting us throughout no matter what," Drew said. "The best part about them is that they never forced us to do anything. I think sometimes kids get forced into doing things, especially when they have good results early on, and we both certainly did, but they never forced us into anything.
"But they always had our back. They get the credit for a lot of our success. Without them, who knows where I'd be. It's been awesome."
Hey man, how come you're not as good as your sister?
A conundrum, of course. Hildebrandt's response (paraphrasing because, well, mom is likely to read it): I'm better than you, and she'll kick your behind too.
And, he's right. Of course he's right. Hildebrandt recently became a two-time All-American wrestler at Central Michigan and to most, such an accomplished athlete would be the family torch-bearer when it comes to athletics.
But the Hildebrandt family is somewhat atypical. There's plenty of wrestling talent to go around. Just 11 days ago, Drew's older sister, Sarah, finished first at the U.S. Olympic Trials to earn the right to represent the United States this summer in Tokyo. It's the crowning jewel in an ever-burgeoning wrestling crown for the Hildebrandt family, which hails from Granger, Ind.
And for all the successes and, of course, occasional disappointments, there is no envy, no jealousy, no sibling rivalry. Instead, it's all genuinely heart-felt positivity for the 23-year-old Drew and 27-year-old Sarah, two of the four Hildebrandt children born to Nancy and Chris Hildebrandt.
"I think a lot of times we use each other as inspiration," said Drew, who has the option because of COVID to return to CMU for one more year in 2021-22. "If you look at how we improved in our accomplishments side by side, people are like, 'It seems like you guys are competing;' no, it's the opposite: I see something she does and I'm like, 'That is super inspiring.'
"That makes me want to go through the roof and I think it's kind of similar for her."
The Olympic berth and her appearance in this summer's games is the pinnacle in a sensational career for Sarah, who, among myriad mat feats was a 2018 silver medalist at the World Championships, a 2018 U.S. Open champion, and is a four-time winner at the Pan American Championships.
She has wrestled – and mostly won -- all over the country and the world and is now poised to step onto the sport's biggest and most glamorous stage.
Drew's resumé doesn't include the words World, Pan American, or Olympics on it, but he is among the rare Chippewas to have twice earned All-America honors and is a member of the program's exclusive 100-win club.
It's apples-and-oranges to compare the siblings' respective mat accomplishments. And for the record, they don't. They're just thrilled for each other and continue to unabashedly support one another. In fact, each becomes more effusive and emotional when they talk about the other and their brother-sister devotion.
"He's the best," Sarah said, a touch of reflection in her voice. "Just accomplishments aside, how he handles himself and the dynamic of me being involved in the sport – he's always been so supportive and so outwardly respectful of what I'm doing. He's always been like that, even when he was a little kid. It wasn't normal to see a girl on the wrestling team (back then) and he could have taken a lot of crap for it, but he was always so, so, so supportive and mature about it and that speaks volumes to his character.
"On top of that, he's a beast at wrestling. I think I cried harder (watching Drew in the) NCAAs than I cried after I made the Olympic team and I was 100 percent more nervous (for Drew); I would be watching (Drew's) matches and shaking uncontrollably."
Drew watched Sarah's Olympic Trials matches on the live feed rather than traveling to Texas where they were contested. Distance did nothing to dim his ardor while watching Sarah punch her ticket to the sport's premier event.
"I was way more nervous for her (than myself) and it's a good thing that I was stuck at my house and couldn't go to Texas because, man, if people saw me and how I was going during her matches, they'd be like, 'Dude, he's a psycho,'" Drew said.
The wrestling bug bit the Hildebrandt household through older brother Cory, now a 30-year-old law student at Michigan State, when he joined the wrestling team at Discovery Middle School in Granger.
Pretty soon, Drew, then just a first grader, was competing on the mat. The two sisters, Sarah and Amy, went along for Saturday tournaments which, to a child, can overload the senses with the number of people in the gym, the constant yelling, and the seemingly never-ending chirp of the referee's whistle; or it can enthrall and, eventually, indoctrinate.
By the time Sarah was in the middle school, she too was on the mat. Certainly, she dealt with the inevitable sideways glances and questions in a sport that remains male dominant. But she was and is part of a surge that continues to rise. As of 2019, more than 20,000 girls nationwide were wrestling in high schools.
If anybody doubted that she belonged, she proved them wrong on the mat. In just her second year of middle-school wrestling, she was a league champion.
And she was hooked.
"You cannot help yourself," she said. "It really does get into your blood and it's something I've seen happen to so many people and obviously experienced myself."
By the time Drew was beginning to establish himself as a star at Penn High School in Mishawaka and one of the best prep wrestlers in Indiana, Sarah was winning Women's Collegiate Wrestling Association national titles at King University in Bristol, Tenn.
And it wasn't just Drew and Sarah. Today, Amy, 25, is the newly named coach of the budding women's wrestling program at Trine University. Wrestling has long been a focal point for the family.
"We come together for NCAAs, we come together for MAC Championships," Sarah said. "We're all talking, we're on the phone if we're not at the location (of the meet), and that's really neat. I love that about sports and obviously wrestling is our sport. It's naturally just brought the whole family so close and then there's that other level. Drew and I are still competing and at a very high level so there's that bond as well."
It's the byproduct of supportive parents, both Drew and Sarah agreed.
"They've been supporting us throughout no matter what," Drew said. "The best part about them is that they never forced us to do anything. I think sometimes kids get forced into doing things, especially when they have good results early on, and we both certainly did, but they never forced us into anything.
"But they always had our back. They get the credit for a lot of our success. Without them, who knows where I'd be. It's been awesome."
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