“This is a sport that didn’t punish me for being small, and in fact, it aligns in my favour. That was a good transition.”
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Donovan Neudorf’s first love was hockey.
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Eventually, he switched over to a sport where size doesn’t matter.
Wrestling fits all shapes and sizes, much to Neudorf’s liking.
“I was always too small to be a super-amazing hockey player — especially as a defenceman,” says Neudorf, who is in his fourth year of U Sports eligibility with the University of Saskatchewan wrestling squad.
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“They wanted guys who are six feet tall and I’m 5-foot-5, so that didn’t really work out. I loved contact in sports and I like being aggressive. This is a sport that didn’t punish me for being small, and in fact, it aligns in my favour. That was a good transition.”
Neudorf stands tall as a leader on the Huskies, who host their annual Huskie Open all day Saturday at the Education Gym after their dual meet with the University of Guelph and University of Calgary on Friday.
He’s a two-time silver medalist in the Canada West conference with a long list of academic achievements. He’s also a U Sports community service national award recipient for 2023.
After playing hockey for a decade, starting at age five, Neudorf began to focus solely on wrestling in high school.
“I love the aggression of it and the fact that it challenges in every way and makes you comfortable with being uncomfortable,” the Prince Albert St. Mary’s graduate says.
“So you’re pretty much half-naked in front of a room full of people, half of them wanting to see you win and half of them wanting to see you put in a straddle or something. You bash your body down to the bone to be prepared. I like that it forces you to become a better person when you commit to the program.”
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The 21-year-old is studying interdisciplinary biomedical sciences with a goal of getting into medical school. He says he really enjoys being a good student as much as being a good wrestler.
“I wrote my M-CAT last year and it went super-duper well,” he points out.
He’ll prepare for entrance interviews and plans to apply for the College of Medicine next fall “and hopefully get in the year after.”
Academically, he was awarded the Huskie Academic and Athletic Award of Excellence in Honour of Peggy McKercher in 2021. He was a U Sport Academic All-Canadian in 2021 and 2022. He was also on the Dean’s Honour list for the College of Arts of Science both of those years.
Wrestling-wise, he’s been a two-time Canada West silver medalist (61 kilos in 2022 and 65 kg in 2023). He placed second at the 2022 Canada Summer Games and second at the Greco-Roman National Championship (63 kg) in 2022).
Neudorf placed fourth at the Freestyle Canadian Junior Wrestling Championships in the 61 kg event (2022, 2023). He was first at the Alberta Open (2022) and both the Saskatoon Wrestling Club and Huskie wrestling male rookie of the year.
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“Obviously an incredibly smart kid,” says U of S wrestling head coach Daniel Olver. “Great leader on the team. In terms of his work with community service, the Down With Wrestling program, this is a guy of high character. In terms of his wrestling performance, he’s in a unique position where he and his training partner, Drake (Buechler), they kind of share the same weight class.
“We split them up so that they’re not having to wrestle in the same one. He’s wrestling up in weight class) a little bit, so he’s a little undersized for where he’s at, but he’s a guy who’s committed to his training, committed to finding a way to win so he can be competitive and find success in it, and that’s what we found last year with his matches, wrestling up against these guys, and he’s been showing the same progress this year.
“We’ve had a few minor setbacks with some injuries, but he’s been able to work through them and be able to build on where he can perform at CanWest and U Sport (championships).
“He’s wrestling well, a real leader on the team.”
Weighing 136 pounds, Neudorf wrestles in the 65-kg weight class at the U Sports level and 61 kg for club events.
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“Last year and years prior, I’ve been getting second place at CanWest,” he explains. “This year I’m wanting to improve on that and this tournament will be really good preparation for that because we’re hosting Canada West (championships) as well. To be able to compete to my best at home will be important. It’ll be a good practice.”
Neudorf has been looking forward to this weekend’s competition for a number of reasons.
“It’s a super-big, high-energy event that we love to put on,” he says. “We always make a good show of it with smoke machines, pyrotechnics. It’s a fun event to do.
“We have a program for kids with Down syndrome and I’m pretty sure we’ll have some of them at the dual, which would be pretty awesome. They bring a ton of energy and it’d be fun to show them what they’re learning and what we’re teaching them.”
Neudorf is proud of the Down to Wrestle program, which was launched by the Huskies last year.
“It’s a team effort,” says Neudorf, who grew up as a friend of Cole Blocka, who has Down syndrome.
“In elementary school, one of my buddies, Cole Blocka, had Down syndrome. We were buddies growing up. Some people don’t know how to handle people with Down syndrome. I grew up with him, knowing how capable they are and how fun they are.”
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