Sitting at just the No. 6 seed heading into the weekend’s AHSAA Class 6A Wrestling Championships, the expectations weren’t exactly high for Stanhope Elmore’s Dominic Sager.
Of course he wanted a spot on the podium, but he had to face wrestlers who were seeded higher than himself — and even one who had beat him the week previously at sectionals.
However, Sager overcame all the odds to win the 285-pound state championship on Saturday.
“It was just an unbelievable feeling,” Stanhope Elmore coach David Adams said. “Last year when I became head coach for the first time, I actually wrestled him a lot. I mean, I was beating him up left and right. Then this year, about halfway through the season, he started to beat me. I could see he was getting better. Then watching him win it all, it just felt unbelievable. It felt very, very great to see all of his hard work, effort and dedication get shown off like that.”
Sager’s tournament journey started against the No. 3 seed, Malik Watts, out of Pell City. Adams said he and Sager watched considerable film on Watts and Sager executed the game plan perfectly, picking up a 4-3 decision after holding Watts off in the third period.
The next two matches for Sager weren’t as nail-biting.
Next up was Mountain Brook’s Daniel Ellis, who had previously pinned Sager in the first period during sectionals. However, it was Sager’s turn to flip the script, flattening Ellis in a mere 1:45.
“He was definitely coming in as the big underdog again,” Adams said. “This guy was about 6-foot-4, and Dominic’s standing at like 5-foot-8, but Dominic goes out there and he surprises everybody.”
The win advanced Sager to the championship bout, where he faced Gardendale’s Gage Beyke. The two went toe-to-toe for the first two periods, and it looked like Beyke was going to overcome Sager in the third. But just as Sager was slipping to his back, he notched a reversal and pinned Beyke in 4:26.
“I’ll be honest, I still can’t believe he did it,” Adams said with a laugh.
Now though, Sager will have all eyes on him. As just a sophomore winning a state championship, Sager is going to have high expectations through the final two years of his career. But the target just got a lot bigger.
“Since he has that title of state champion, there’s going to be a big target on his back coming up in the next season,” Adams said. “I’m really gonna emphasize that with him about how people are now going to be looking at you as the person to beat, and if they beat you, then they know they have a shot at winning state and taking your title from you.”
