By STEVE KRAH
stvkrh905@gmail.com
Ewan Donovan has made a bigger and bigger impact on the wrestling scene as the Hebron High School grappler has gotten bigger.
Now a 195-pound senior, he hopes to end his prep career in a big way.
“I’m really looking forward to the state series,” says Donovan, who among Indiana’s top-ranked grapplers in his weight class. “I really want to get going. I really want to make some noise.
“It’s the heart. I have a desire to be the best. I never want to settle for mediocrity. I push myself.”
Ryan and Shayne Donovan have four children — Heaven (20), Ewan (17), Myah (14) and Hadley (10).
Ewan is the line boy. He has been encouraged by his father in all that he does, including wrestling. Ryan Donovan was an assistant at Hebron when his son took up wrestling around the fifth grade.
“He always told me the best I can be in anything I do in life,” says Ewan Donovan of his father. “He’s been huge in my wrestling career.”
A four-year varsity competitor, Donvan was a 160-pounder as a freshman. He worked out and bumped up to 182 as a sophomore. Working even harder, he went to 195 as a junior.
Donovan has sweated with the trainers at Sports Medical Institute in the off-season to increase his power, speed and strength.
“They shaped me into a better athlete,” says Donovan. “I really couldn’t have done it without them.”
He also put in long sessions at Calumet-based Regional Wrestling Academy led by Alex Tsirtsis and practiced his moves around northwest Indiana.
“There’s definitely a special breed around The Region,” says Donovan.
“It’s a really good environment.
“I love the feeling of all the mat rooms around here.”
Donovan enjoyed a strong junior season, losing just two matches.
Unfortunately, one of those setbacks — against Calumet's A.J. Fowler — came in the “ticket round” at the Merrillville Semistate. Fowler has
moved up to 220 in 2018-19.
Donovan has wrestled bouts at 195 and 220 this season and was on-pace to become Hebron’s all-time victory leader, topping the 81 wins of 2014 graduate Giovanni Phan.
Hawks head coach Todd Adamczyk, who has Donovan in a weightlifting class, and has watched the biggest wrestller on the current squad add to his successes.
“He goes above and beyond and does all the extra things,” says Adamczyk, who is his 12th season in charge at Hebron. “Like most freshmen, he had a rough transition middle school to high school. But he made up for it the next couple years.
“He’s the whole package right now.”
Adamczyk’s advice has stuck with Donovan.
“He says you need to push yourself when you’re training,” says Donovan. “Your mind is telling you stop, but you have to push yourself to keep going.
“Wresting is definitely a lifestyle and it’s year-round and you have to be fully-committed. It teaches you life and about putting in the hard work and trying to be the best you can be at everything.”
That work ethic extends to the classroom for Donovan, who carries a grade-point average in the 3.7 range (on a 4.0 scale). His favorite subjects are History and English.
After high school, he hopes to continue his wrestling career while attending college as a double major for business and environmental. This will help him as he is next in line to run the family farm. The Donovans grow corn and soybean on more than 2,000 acres around Hebron. Hebron had wrestling for two years in the early ’80s then the program faded away. Adamczyk brought it back, first as a club sport, then two years with a junior varsity schedule. The first varsity season with 2009-10.
There were growing pains, but the Hawks have come a long way since then.
“When we first started, we asked ‘are we ever going to get there?,’” says Adamczyk. “We don’t fill every weight class. There’s only 320 kids in the school. We do the best with what we’ve got.”
Adamczyk wrestled at Hammond High School for head coaches Karl Deak and Bill Malkovich. His Hebron staff includes former Crown Point grappler Troy Bush (who is also middle school coach at Hebon) and Hebron grads Ryan Perez and Raul Fierro. Perez is also on the roster at Calumet College of St. Joseph.
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