"Comeback" Wrestler of the Year - Rodriques

When the finals seconds ticked down signaling the end of last month’s Class 2A-1A state championship 4-1 decision victory over Middletown’s seventh-ranked senior repeat finalist Carter Canale, sixth-ranked Southern Carroll senior Anthony Rodrigues executed a high amplitude, somersault to a back flip that sent his fans into a frenzy.

Rodrigues then calmly allowed the referee to raise his hand into the air and turn him slowly about so that his full accomplishment could be appreciated by his Cavaliers’ coaches and supporters, who responded with standing ovations at The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro.

Armed with a year-ending record of 38-8, Rodrigues won his second state title, having returned after missing all of last season due to a back injury and winning Carroll County, regional and state crowns as a 152-pound sophomore.

“The past four years of wrestling have been a landslide,” said Rodrigues, who pinned 14 opponents to go with six technical falls this season. “From being a freshman in a senior-heavy weight class and managing to place sixth at states to now being a senior winning my second state title less than a year after having a major back surgery, this is amazing.”

Rodrigues was joined on the victory podium by top-ranked four-time title-winning senior JoJo Gigliotti (138), second-ranked three-time champion senior Landon Hamper (215) and fourth-ranked junior first-time titlist Davy Snyder (157), but to some, his gesture of celebration may not have been fully appreciated.

“My junior year was something I’d never expected. I had played a tournament for another sport during the winter,” said Rodrigues, Legacy Wrestling’s Comeback Wrestler Of The Year. “I ended up with a stress fracture in my back.”

Rodrigues is the youngest of three wrestling siblings in family legacy whose patriarch, Tony, was a private schools' state champion as 125-pound freshman at DeMatha Catholic High in Hyattsville, Maryland, of Prince George’s County in 1997, and a Class 4A-3A state title winner as a 125-pound sophomore at Seneca Valley High of Montgomery County in 1998.

“By the time Anthony got to the states, he was locked in to go out to win the tournament, and he did it,” Tony Rodrigues said. “For Anthony to remain focused and resilient after what he had gone through including his overcoming the back injury and not playing any sports at all during his junior year was amazing and I’m super impressed.”

Rodrigues became one of Cavaliers’ Maryland public school-leading 49 individual state champion wrestlers, 36 of which have been coached by Bryan Hamper, who completed 13th season after spending 13 years as an assistant.

A 2001 South Carroll graduate, Hamper coached his alma mater to Class 2A-1A state tournament titles in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 before the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association ceased scoring the state tournament in 2018.

“I’m very excited for Anthony to cap off his senior season with his second state championship,” said Hamper, who was twice a state champion and twice placed fourth at the states. “Anthony battled through a lot of adversity with injuries over the course of his career, so to see him wrestle his best when it meant the most was awesome as a coach.”

As a freshman, Rodrigues was a county runner-up who finished third at regions and sixth at

states on a Cavaliers’ team whose record was 33-1 toward earning the program’s second of a current five straight Class 1A state dual meet titles.

Coached by Andrew Winfield, that 2022-2023 squad received individual crowns from senior three-time state champions Mike Pizzuto (145) and A.J. Rodrigues (160) – the latter being Anthony’s older brother.

That team’s other champions were two-time state title-winner Gage Owen (138) and state champ Rylan Moose (182), each of whom were seniors. Then-sophomore Manny Rodrigues (195), another of Anthony’s brothers, was a runner-up on that 2022-2023 squad.

“Coming into my freshmen year, I had big expectations from my older brothers and being on the team we had. Being at 152 pounds as a 14-year-old doesn’t have most of the advantages you would think, but wrestling is a mental sport,” said Rodrigues, whose freshman record was 37-14.

“I had to battle in every match and for every point just to win matches as a ninth-grader. Being weaker with less high school experience makes it tough in certain matchups, and it brings you down sometimes. But you have to push through it. You wrestle whoever is in front of you.”

Although Rodrigues jumped two weights to 175 pounds as a 10th-grader, sweeping counties, regionals and states and finishing with a record of 47-3, the path to glory was far from easy.

“My sophomore year took a big turn from jumping three weight classes up to 175 with a team that had lost a heavy senior class,” Rodrigues said. “With no leaders, the emotion on the mat and in the practice room changes so often you don’t know what to do. You find yourself and your team in a self-doubt spiral.”

But in 2024, the Cavaliers nevertheless finished with a record of 27-0 for their third consecutive Class 1A state duals title with their 34th dual meet win in a row. Along with Rodrigues, Gigliotti won his second state championship, 10th-ranked then-sophomore Grayson Barnhill (106), his first after being a runner-up as a freshman, and Hamper (165), his initial crown.

“Once we found our footing and communication, we were unstoppable with an undefeated record and a team title,” Rodrigues said. “Going into the state tournament for individuals with three losses on the year, I was feeling on top of the world. I kept my eyes on the title, and with the work I had put in and out of the room, it paid off.”

But then came the injury “that eventually turned into four fractures in both sides of my L3 and L4,” according to Rodrigues. The L3 and L4 vertebrae are the third and fourth bones in the lumbar spine or lower back. They help to support body weight and allow bending and twisting, also being where a spinal nerve exits and a cushioning disc sits between the two bones.

After winning the season-opening King Of The Rock Tournament in December 2024, coach Hamper still had hopes that Rodrigues would be joining his Cavaliers before the second half of the year in 2025.

“We’re optimistic that Anthony will return,” Hamper said at the time. “He’s just working through a lingering injury that doesn’t appear to be too serious.”

But that would not be the case, said Rodrigues, who missed being a member of a 2025 squad that went 25-1 for the Cavaliers’ fourth consecutive state duals’ crown.

“I was told I couldn’t wrestle for the season and ended up getting surgery in April,” said Rodrigues, “But recovery was faster than expected. Doing the right things at physical therapy, eating the right meals and taking care of my body lead to me getting cleared in September of my senior year.”

Rodrigues felt good enough during the fall to participate on the Cavaliers’ football team, but an injury happened, yet again, this time, in his left shoulder.

“I played my senior year of football and ended up with a minor tear in my labrum,” said Rodrigues, a running back and linebacker. “But I managed to push through it with the right recovery and to finish the season. Now with wrestling coming up, I ended up being more out of shape than I thought I would be.”

With Rodrigues being part of their lineup, the Cavaliers went 32-0, earning their 46th and 47th consecutive dual meet victories and ninth overall state dual meet crown.

“I was weaker than I expected and very small for my weight class,” Rodrigues said. “I expected to have an undefeated season with no problems whatsoever, but it was the complete opposite than what I had thought.”

Among Rodrigues’ losses were those to Northwest’s top-ranked junior Logan Brown, Gilman’s third-ranked junior Arthur Konshak, Bullis’ fourth-ranked sophomore Soshiant Ahanj-Elias and Northern-Garrett’s eighth-ranked junior Lukas Wolf.

Brown went 40-0, having finished first and second in the Montgomery County Tournament, first once in three regional championship appearances, and first and third at Class 4A-3A states.

Konshak is a two-time 175-pound Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association champion who has placed first and second at the Maryland Independent Schools’ States (MIS), and Soshiant Ahanj-Elias has twice placed third in the MIS.

“I was winning matches by one point. I ended up with eight losses on the year. I was in a mid-season slump where I wasn’t there mentally. I didn’t want to finish out the season,” Rodrigues said. “By talking to my parents and coaches, I found a better mental state and finished out the season. During the postseason, I ended up dropping from 175 to 165, and that made me bigger and stronger than my opponents.”

At counties, Rodrigues used pins in 3:08 and 4:26 to reach the finals, where he earned a 4-2 decision over Manchester Valley's 11th-ranked junior Beau Snell.

“But it wasn’t all good news,” Rodrigues said. “I ended up losing in the regional semis, and that had brought my mental state back down.”

Rodrigues was referring to his setback in the Class 2A-1A West regional semifinal bout by 7-1 against Wolf, an eventual tournament runner-up to Canale following a 5-4 title match loss. Rodrigues won his third-place regional bout, 8-6, over Snell, who placed sixth at states.

“But the one person who pushed me the most was my dad,” Rodrigues said. “With him in my corner, it motivated me to push through these final four matches.”

Tony Rodrigues recalled his pep-talk to his youngest son.

“When Anthony was headed to states, and after finishing third at regions, I emphasized to him that the most important thing for him to do was to win his last match,” Tony Rodrigues said. “At first, I told him, ‘it doesn’t matter if you were going for first in the finals, third or fifth, just win your last match.’ But then I switched it up and said, ‘hey, we’re at states, let’s go 4-0.’”

A zoned-in Rodrigues used a first-round technical fall, a 5-0 decision and a 9-7 overtime semifinal decision over ninth-ranked previously unbeaten Kent County senior Scottie Ford to reach the finals against Canale.

Ford had entered with a record of 32-0 against Rodrigues, having won his semifinal bout, 3-2, over Wolf. Wolf later defeated Ford, 7-2, for third place at states.

“The one thing my dad told me that stuck with me was ‘let’s end on a win.’ I ended up winning my second state title, and all the work in the past four years has finally paid off,” said Rodrigues, who won’t wrestle in college. “Everyone has a different future and a different path. I’ve decided that for my future, the best route for me is working in the trade because I want to keep my body safe and healed.”