By Gary Fauber

Register-Herald of Beckley

 

When Ethan Osborne left Mountain Health Arena on the final day of the state wrestling tournament — state championship in one hand, Most Outstanding Wrestler award in the other — he thought it was the perfect end to his high school career.

 

Not quite.

 

The Woodrow Wilson 157-pounder has been selected as the winner of the Dutton Award, given annually to the top high school wrestler in West Virginia.

 

Osborne closed out a successful four years with a 7-4 win over University’s Dom Parker for the Class AAA 157-pound state championship. He was later announced as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler.

 

The Dutton Award came as a shock to both Osborne and his dad and coach Matt Osborne. Matt found out before Ethan and decided to have a little fun with it.

 

“He didn’t tell me. He said, ‘Guess’ first,” Ethan said. “I didn’t expect to win anything else. I had already gotten more than I expected with the Most Outstanding Wrestler. So I didn’t even have a guess for it. I was really surprised.”

 

Osborne is the first Flying Eagle to receive the Dutton Award, which has been handed out every year since 1985. It is named for legendary Parkersburg coach Robert Dutton, who led the Big Reds from 1957 to 1976 and coached them to eight state championships. He is also a charter member of the West Virginia chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

 

Osborne is only the third Raleigh County wrestler to win the award, joining Independence alumni Jeremy Hart (1996) and Noah Adams (2017).

 

“It’s an honor to be (mentioned) with those names,” Osborne said. “It’s crazy to look at the guys who won it before me, how good they are.”

 

Osborne was a four-time Region 3 champion for the Flying Eagles and placed at the state tournament all four years. He was state runner-up at 152 pounds as a junior, falling 1-0 to Spring Mills’ Patrick Jackson in the finals.

 

He finally captured the dream earlier this month with his 157 win over Parker. It capped off a 59-2 season and left his career record at 165-21.

 

Osborne started wrestling at age 4 when Matt signed him up for the Beckley Junior Eagles youth program.

 

“My dad just asked me, ‘Do you want to go start wrestling?’ And I said yeah,” Ethan said. “So, as long as I can remember.”

Matt said the discipline that wrestling not only teaches but also demands is what led to him wanting Ethan to get into the sport.

 

“What little I did wrestle, and I wasn’t very good at it, my tough practices, I could look back on that stuff and the tough times in my life … I went through a lot of hard stuff in the mat room and I wasn’t even as competitive as when Ethan wrestled,” he said.

 

“So I knew that was something I wanted to bring into my family. I knew if he could go through these wrestling seasons and practices, he could do anything. I knew what the sport would do, how it molds people. It’s extremely tough and when you can do that, it makes life a lot easier.”

 

One simple word that seems to always come up when wrestlers describe the sport is “hard.” That word could keep many from sticking with or even trying wrestling, but it actually draws Ethan in.

 

“I like how hard you’ve got to work, and the competitiveness of it,” he said. “It’s a lot different than all the other sports. There’s nothing really to compare to it. There’s a reason not very many people do it — it’s hard.”

 

Matt said Ethan’s top attribute is his cerebral approach. He used the state championship win as an example.

 

“He goes through progressions really well and he’ll make adjustments in the match,” Matt said. “I thought he showed that at the state tournament. He changed his lead leg and did things to take away the high crotch (takedown) from (Parker). That’s just something he can do.

 

“It’s not just beating the lesser experienced kids. He’s in there in a really tough match in the state finals and makes adjustments in the middle of it. He’s a thinker.”

 

“I’ve watched so much wrestling, and of course I could know more and I should probably keep watching it to get better. But I’ve watched so much, I know a lot,” Ethan said.

 

Ethan was honest in describing how the coach-wrestler relationship between father and son has been mutually beneficial.

“Every time I’ve gotten better, he’s gotten better, too. He’s had to get better to make me better, all the way from when I was little. When I started out, he wasn’t very good either,” he said.

 

“We watched wrestling and went to a lot of tournaments, and he got better, too. He taught me and we, every year, got better and better.”

 

Matt was named the Rod Oldham Class AAA Coach of the Year at the end of the state tournament. He has helped turn Woodrow Wilson into one of the top rising programs in West Virginia, with a ninth-place finish in 2021, sixth in 2022 and fourth this season.

 

Things aren’t over for Ethan Osborne, who plans to wrestle in college. He is leaning toward Beckley’s WVU Tech, which is coached by Joel Harris, the father of Osborne’s Flying Eagle teammate Troy Harris. But he also plans to visit Glenville State soon.

 

“I’ve really just been set on staying here, but of course winning the state tournament kind of changed my mind a little bit,” he said. “But it’s not really fully changed my mind. I still am thinking about going to Tech, being home with all my family and friends.”

 

Osborne will be honored at the 76th Victory Awards Dinner on May 7 at the Embassy Suites in Charleston.

 

All-state honorees can obtain state-shaped, wood plaques with name, school, year and honor at wvswa.org or bearwoodcompany.com.

 

Editor's Note: Photo by Ryan Fischer