SISSETON — Holden Hawkins is entering a league of his own for the Sisseton Redmen.

The senior 165-pound wrestler overcame the hump to capture his first state wrestling title last year, defeating Philip/Kadoka Area/Wall’s Jace Blasius in a 4-2 decision to cap off his 42-2 championship season.

“I looked over at Kasey (Metz, Sisseton head wrestling coach), he squatted down and just pointed right at me so I knew I won and my mind just went blank,” Hawkins said of the championship match. “I was just so overfilled with joy. I couldn’t explain how happy I was, it was probably the happiest I’d been in my life. I remembered that if I won I was going to try to be subtle about it and humble, but I couldn’t even hold emotions back.”

It was Hawkins second time competing in the state title match, falling as a sophomore to Rapid City Stevens’ Jacob Williams. Hawkins says while the loss was disappointing, it only fueled his desire to come back and battle for a title in his junior campaign.

“When I lost right away, I was pretty upset,” Hawkins said. “I didn’t really do anything for about a week, I just sat on the loss. And then I was thinking to myself, I’m not getting any better here. There’s no reason for me to just be sitting here being sad and crying about the match. I can do something about it.”

And he did, ending a 13-year drought in the Sisseton boys wrestling program in its first season in Class B in the process, a goal he had in mind since making it to the finals as a sophomore.

“I remember I was looking at that when I got second cause I was really wishing I could break it,” Williams said. “But once we broke it, I was happy to be a part of it, be part of the history and have my name up on the wall.”

Now Hawkins enters his senior season a little different than years past. The defending state 157-pound champion says he’s noticed the pressure of performing as the favorite in Class B.

“Having that target on your back, I definitely feel that pressure,” Hawkins said. “Every time I wrestle somebody, I always feel like I have to beat them right away or blow them out of the water, but I have to remember these guys are good wrestlers and I have to take them seriously because they’re coming to beat me.”

He adds that the success from last year boosted his confidence a little too far, and it wasn’t until his third-place finish at the Rumble on the Red tournament in Fargo, North Dakota, on Jan. 9 that he felt he needed a mental reset.

“I felt like I was way up, but then I was underperforming at the beginning. I was beating some good guys from Minnesota but then I started to lay back a little bit and wasn’t wrestling as best as I could. When I went to the rumble and got third there, I realized I wasn’t the best guy and that brought me back down to push myself again and start back over.”

The mindset and leadership Hawkins carries has been learned and built over the past six years, becoming the Sisseton all-time wins leader in school history in the process. Metz says “having a kid like him in your program is a blessing.”

“To have a kid that starts out as a seventh grader and just keeps rolling from there,” Metz said of Hawkins. “He’s a leader, kids look up to him. He’s going to be a hard one to replace. He’s been a blast to have in the room. He’s just a kid that puts in the work.”

Hawkins recently committed to Northern State University to continue his wrestling career. He’ll join Williams in Aberdeen, who is currently a freshman for the Wolves.

“I enjoyed every school I went to, every college I checked out, but Northern just stuck out a little bit more,” Hawkins said of NSU. “I’ve got some friends there, I grew up there when I was a kid. The head coach was my lifelong coach when I was a kid back in AAU, so it felt very homey to me. I really liked the atmosphere and the family there.”

But he’ll have one last run at a second straight state title before beginning his college career.

“He’s just always been a tough-nosed wrestler,” Metz said. “It’s just that confidence he has. He really believes when he walks out on that mat, he’s the best guy on the mat and he’s really bought into that throughout the years.”