Athlete of the Week: Service’s Baffour rises above all obstacles to claim first state title
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The old saying goes “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work.”
In the case of Service High School wrestling’s Arnold Baffour, both qualities were put on display on Friday and Saturday at the ASAA State Wrestling Championships.
Baffour is the type of guy who catches your attention the second he steps on the mat. From his sheer size to special glasses he wears each match, your eyes are drawn to a kid who looks like he already has a packed trophy case and another one yet to fill up.
Sit down and speak with Baffour and his coaches though, and you will learn that his journey to the top of the sport required more work than the spectators at this weekend’s state wrestling finals could have imagined.
“He has battled through so much adversity. Being a big guy coming in as a freshman over the capacity weight, struggling hard to make the weight. And he finally did it his sophomore year but wasn’t able to compete because of an injury. And then last year he wasn’t able to compete because of an injury. This year was his first time competing in regionals as a senior,” Service assistant coach Matt Unterberger said.
After three years of trials and determination to get both in shape and healthy enough to compete against the state’s finest, Baffour suddenly found himself one win away from a state title on Saturday night.
“I was just thinking I can’t let my teammates down, I can’t let my coaches down, I can’t let my dad and brother up in the stands down,” Baffour said.
Not only did Baffour not let anyone down, but he put on arguably the best show of the entire weekend. A standard match is seven minutes long: three in the first round, two in the second and third. But the battle between Baffour and South Anchorage’s Chris Strawderman, a member of the juggernaut Wolverines wrestling team and competitor that bested Baffour in three prior matches, went into not one, but two overtime periods.
“I did not expect any overtime whatsoever,” Baffour said. “But it is times like these that the conditioning that your coaches make you do comes really in handy.”
On and on the match went, eventually becoming the lone mat active for a brief moment in time. Suddenly, “Arnold!” chants spread from his teammates on the floor to the entire Alaska Airlines Center, a complex designed to hold crowds upwards of 4,000.
At last, the clock hit zero and Baffour was awarded a 4-1 win, making him the first Cougar to claim a wrestling state title since heavyweight Nicholas Stevens in 2016. Through the crowd of hugs from coaches and teammates, Baffour finally had a moment to reflect on what had just happened and speak on the support the arena had shown him.
“It just means that all my work wasn’t wasted, people appreciate it, and it feels good,” he said.
Now with his high school wrestling career wrapped up and college on the horizon, Baffour’s role shifts to the background, a page in the book of Service athletics history that the coaches hope motivate generations to come.
“We’re going to tell his story a lot to all these kids in the future that if you just stick with this sport, good things will happen,” Unterberger said.
And for those future athletes, those kids who encounter the roadblocks of life and in sports, Baffour’s first-hand message will be the first chapter in that story.
“This isn’t all that it is. You’ll get through it. It’s going to be the hardest thing you’ve ever done. It’s also gonna be the funnest. But at the end of the day, it is you, your teammates and your opponent on the mat. Respect all of them, but go for the win,” Baffour said.
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