You can’t keep Sean Blackwell off the wrestling mat for long even when he gets injured. Blackwell may be the toughest wrestler on the Queen Anne’s High School team, and he’s competing in the stacked 220-pound weight division.
“Every time he turns his ankle or has another injury, we say, ‘You can sit out this one,’” Queen Anne’s Wrestling Coach David Stricker explains. “He says, ‘No. I am going to suck it up.’ He wrestles through everything. It’s mental toughness and grit that he has.”
But there was one injury last fall that did sideline Blackwell, a junior. He suffered a torn labrum in his shoulder during football season and had to miss the final two games. It took him five weeks of physical therapy before he could join the wrestling team.
When Blackwell, who carries a 4.0 grade-point average, did return, it was as if he’d never been away from the Lions. He almost immediately put together a 29-match winning streak—one of the longest of any wrestler Stricker has coached.
“That came as a little bit of a shock,” Blackwell says of his success. “And I was coming off a tough injury. Some of the matches I have won pretty fast against top-notch competition.”
Stricker attributes Blackwell’s eye-catching season to his work ethic. He says the time he put into physical therapy and working out ensured that he came back at peak form. “He is one of our hardest workers,” the coach says. “He is one of the two or three guys on the team that never takes a break in practice.”
Blackwell never wrestled before high school, but he could finish his career with some championships and a milestone. “He will definitely get 100 career wins, and probably hit that next year,” Stricker says. “With what he has shown this year, he has the potential to win a state title next year.”
Blackwell just keeps improving year after year. He went 9-9 as a freshman at 195 pounds, and jumped up to 30 wins as a sophomore while placing fifth in the region and second in the Bayside Conference at 220 pounds.
Then the Millington resident emerged as one of the best wrestlers in the state this winter. “I just wanted to have a better season than last year,” Blackwell says. “I didn’t think I would improve that much.”
Besides posting a sterling record, he recorded some outstanding victories. Blackwell registered a first-period pin over Kent Island’s Hadyn Blanchard, whom the Maryland State wrestling Association ranked No. 1 in the 1A/2A division. He also took down No. 6-ranked Jojo Herring of Southern in the first period.
“He just has more confidence this year,” Stricker says. “He almost won the Bayside Conference title last year. The kid he lost to ended finishing top four in the state and he was like, ‘I can do this. I can be pretty good.’”
The 6-foot-3-inch Blackwell was a valuable member also of Queen Anne’s football team on both sides of the ball. When injuries hit the offensive line, he stepped in at the guard and tackle positions, then moving over from his wide receiver position. Blackwell provided solid run and pass blocking.
“Now, kids are pretty much interested in doing their thing and playing the position they want,” Queen Anne’s Football Coach Donnie Graef says. “Sean is a throwback. He would play wherever we asked him to play. Players like him are few and far between. He did a fantastic job on the line and that was first year playing there.”
Blackwell also showed his talent as a first-year starter at defensive end, earning Bayside Conference Honorable Mention recognition. “He has a motor that doesn’t stop,” Graef says. “He is relentless. He plays hard all the time.” Graef expects Blackwell to play college football.
“I think he will be a very interesting player to a lot of schools,” the coach says. “I think he can play Division II and Division III.”
After wrestling season ended in March, Blackwell didn’t take too much time off. “I’m doing a lot of weightlifting for football and offseason training for wrestling,” he says. “I will also be going to camps for football and a club for wrestling (in the summer). I just want to show colleges what I have to offer.”
