At Lakewood, Damion Hahn won three state championships, compiled a career record of 131-3 and was named New Jersey's Wrestler of the Century by the The Star-Ledger"For me, wrestling was a platform to get me where I am," Hahn, associate head wrestling coach at Cornell University, told the Asbury Park Press Friday.
Hahn is arguably the most successful wrestler to come out of Lakewood in the more than a half-century of Piner wrestling. He was a three-time New Jersey state champion for Lakewood High from 1997-99 who went on to become a two-time NCAA champion at the University of Minnesota, a four-time NCAA All-America and an alternate on the 2008 United States Olympic Wrestling Team.
"Any time the sport gets cut, it hurts, but even more so here because this is where I grew up -- the place I wrestled," Hahn said. "It hurts."
The Lakewood Piners wrestling program isn't the only interscholastic sport to find itself in a predicament.
When students return to Lakewood High this fall, baseball, softball, basketball and wrestling teams will be dissolved, as the district continues to struggle financially. The school board refused to approve the budget for the 2017-18 school year; however, state monitor David Shafter overruled board members' objections and adopted the $143 million spending plan. While that might seem like a lot, it's about $30 million less than the previous school year.
The one sport that escaping these budget cuts unscathed is football. The Lakewood Township Committee has pledged to pay $84,000 to ensure the high school will have a football program this fall.
It's not just sports that are taking the hit. Among the other budget cuts: there will be six fewer librarians at Lakewood High.
In the big scheme of things, wrestling takes up a tiny fraction of the school district's overall budget. The high school program runs on about $35,000 and the middle school program has a budget of $17,000, which adds up to just over $50,000 out of $143 million budget.
The final decision regarding the budget is expected to be made at the Lakewood Board of Education on July 19.
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