School: Hatboro-Horsham
FOOTBALL, WRESTLING
Favorite athlete: Rulon Gardner
Favorite team: Phillies
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that happened while competing in sports: “I don’t have a funny thing, but the thing that sticks out in my mind the most is breaking my hand in three places while wrestling in regionals last year – then still managing to escape from the guy.”
Music on iPod: Heavy Metal
Future plans: “Combat Engineer in the Army National Guard then college hopefully to wrestle”
One thing people don’t know about me: “I like country music.”
Alex Myers bears no resemblance to the young man who entered Hatboro-Horsham as a freshman. In fact, the Hatter senior looks a whole lot different than the athlete who came out for wrestling several months ago.
The most recent change – Myers lost 20 pounds - can easily be explained by the rigorous work ethic and conditioning of the Hatters’ star heavyweight, who recently captured his first ever sectional title.
“He’s lost literally 20 pounds in the last month,” Hatboro coach Glenn Kaiser said. “He knows he has to get in peak shape and peak at the right time. If you saw him four years ago, you wouldn’t recognize him.
“He’s not the same kid. He’s transformed his body and his work ethic into something I wish every kid on our team would emulate. It’s been a transformation. It’s been a lot of hard work, a lot of soul searching.”
Myers’ transformation off the mat isn’t quite as simple to explain, but it’s even more impressive. He went from an athlete who sat out his freshman football and wrestling seasons because he was academically ineligible to a solid student with his sights set on pursuing a college education after completing basic training with the Army National Guard.
“I didn’t wrestle my whole freshman year,” Myers said. “I really would have liked to have been part of it.
“My sophomore year I just committed myself a little bit more to my schoolwork than I did in previous years. It was a little difficult, but it was definitely for the better, and it just kind of fell together.”
Myers also received an assist from his family.
“They pushed me and told me, ‘This (wrestling) is something you enjoy doing, and your grades are preventing you from doing it,’” he recalled. “That’s kind of how it worked.”
Myers walked onto the wrestling mat with some very big shoes to fill. His brother – Drew Myers – was a four-year starter and state qualifier who holds the all-time record for pins at Hatboro.
“The reality was Alex really struggled in the classroom, on the football field and on the mat,” Kaiser said. “He got himself together as a sophomore just enough to get through wrestling season but still struggled in the classroom.
“Last year, he just made a real concerted effort in the classroom, on the football field and in the wrestling room to change his whole approach. He really stepped up. He’s no straight A student, but he certainly has turned things around. He found a path.”
No one is more impressed by the path Myers’ life has followed than his older sibling.
“From the time I left school, he has kind of stepped out of the box and decided he was going to do his own thing and forget about trying to follow through with what I did,” Drew Myers aid. “He started to realize he was his own person, and he didn’t have to live up to anything.
“He went out and started lifting. He got bigger and devoted himself 100 percent to doing what he needed to do to get to where he is now. He’s more than I ever expected him to be. It’s been great.”
Drew is now a volunteer assistant coach for the Hatters’ wrestling team.
“He’s really good with me,” Alex said. “I don’t feel like I’m living in his shadow all the time.
“That’s always been difficult because he wrestles a different style than I do, but he’s helped me develop who I am, how I wrestle and how I present myself. He’s played a big part in what I’ve become.”
What he’s quietly become is one of the state’s top heavy weights. He is ranked third in District One and 10th at 285 in the PA Power rankings. He has compiled an impressive 29-4 record. Two of those losses have come at the hands Abington’s David Osei, a two-time state qualifier.
This season Myers captured the championship at the Southeast Classic and placed seventh in the prestigious King of the Mountain Tournament.
“He’s a very, very tough kid – I mean athletic tough,” Kaiser said. “He can really step up his game when he needs to and can handle much bigger opponents at times.”
Myers is not a captain, but he is unquestionably a leader. Kaiser recalls that after a recent practice – ‘the hardest of the year’ Myers remained in the wrestling room for 10-20 minutes jumping rope on his own.
“The kids are realizing that the two toughest kids on our team are Alex Myers and Matt Harkins,” the Hatters’ coach said. “They’re not captains, but they’re the most successful wrestlers because they’re the toughest mind setted kids on the team.
“They’re the kind of leaders you want. Alex leads by his efforts on the mat.”
Making Myers’ success story even more impressive is the fact that he wrestled when he was five and six but then stopped until he was in eighth grade. Back then, football was his sport of choice. He remains a standout on the gridiron and was the starting defensive tackle for the Hatters last fall.
As for his final high school wrestling season, Myers can’t imagine anything better.
“It’s been fantastic,” he said. “Winning my first varsity tournament felt good. It’s a good feeling to feel good about the rest of the year.”
And it’s not over yet.
“This is what I always wanted for him,” Drew Myers said. “I never was in a position where I had someone in my family that was older than me to look up to and have that kind of shadow thing going on.
“To see him actually do this – I have great pride in what he does. It makes me feel great to be his older brother. Also the fact that he actually stepped out and followed me into the military - I’m so proud of him. I can’t even think of words to express it.”
Next on the schedule for Myers is the upcoming District One North Tournament.
“Opportunity comes in different ways,” Kaiser said. “He has created his own opportunities.
“Alex turned it around altogether. He overcame academic struggles and righted his ship in the classroom. He’s an outstanding young man who has dedicated himself in the classroom, on the football field and wrestling mat. He’s just an outstanding kid. It’s just a tremendous story.”
