Being a student-athlete can be a daunting task for most high schoolers. Maintaining acceptable grades while also making time for practice and competitions can be a struggle for a lot of student-athletes. However, that is not the case for Ames High junior, Jabari Hinson. Hinson has been named academic all-conference all three years of high school and boasts a 3.5 GPA while taking some of the most rigorous courses Ames High has to offer. He also went 47-7 on the wrestling mat this past season, placed 4th in state, and was the runner-up at state the year prior.
“I think there’s a large stigma in the world of wrestling and in other sports,” Hinson said. “You’re supposed to work really hard at your sport and just sort of get by in school. For me, it’s essential to get a good education at school.”
Hinson credits his parents for shaping his mentality towards academics and athletics. “I was raised to excel on the mat and in the classroom,” he said. “My parents always told [me to] ‘Be D1 in the classroom before you’re D1 on the mat.’ That’s been my mentality.” Jabari’s father, Dwight Hinson, wrestled for Iowa State and is a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. He also coaches Jabari’s offseason team, Central Iowa Wrestling Club’s Team Intensity. “My dad’s a great resource and he’s a great coach. I give him a lot of credit for my success,” Hinson said.
One of the most important parts of Hinson’s mentality is his attitude towards failure. While most athletes reject the idea of failure entirely, Hinson has a different approach to it. “Wrestling has taught me that there are no losses and failures, there are only lessons to be learned. I feel like school and sports are very concrete with failure. It’s only, ‘You lost, you lost,’ and it’s very negative. All I see it as is something to improve upon,” he said.
By maintaining such a pragmatic mentality, Hinson has been able to overcome some very difficult challenges in his wrestling career, including a shoulder injury that derailed his past offseason. After suffering an injury to his right shoulder at the Night of Conflict tournament last March, Hinson underwent surgery in June, effectively shutting him down until the start of the school season.
Even after the rehabilitation process, Hinson wasn’t at 100% for most of the season. “I just knew at the beginning of the year, I’m not at an advantage at all,” he said. “At the beginning of the year, I was very hesitant. My shoulder wasn’t feeling 100% and I wasn’t attacking like I should.”
After a midseason slide that saw him take uncharacteristic losses at the Mendenhall and Winger Invitationals, Hinson was forced to reconcile with himself. “I really sat with myself and said, ‘Your shoulder’s okay, you’re fine, you got the operation done and now it’s crunch time.’ It was really a big turning point for me,” he said. Hinson bounced back by winning the IAC Invitational and going undefeated in his district bracket. He finished the season placing 4th in the state tournament in a weight class riddled with talent.
To no surprise, Hinson’s prowess both as a wrestler and as a student has inevitably caught the attention of some Division One wrestling programs. Last fall, Hinson visited the Columbia University campus in New York, one of the most prestigious universities in the country that also features a respectable Division One wrestling program.
“Columbia was a great place,” said Hinson. “It was a really fun trip and it was really cool to see how many of those guys are out there that are also excelling in the classroom and on the mat. It’s a comforting thing.”
