Damion Hahn’s legend continues to grow
Lakewood product wins second straight national title, eyes Olympics
BY GEORGE ALBANO
Staff Writer

JERRY LEE/University of Minnesota athletics Lakewood’s Damion Hahn made a name for himself at Lakewood High School, winning three state championships, and has continued his assault on the wrestling world with a stellar career at the University of Minnesota, where he earned two national titles.

Damion Hahn can laugh about it now, but he still remembers the first time he was exposed to the sport of wrestling. It was no laughing matter, either.

"I was in the second grade, and one day I came home with a flier about a wrestling program that the town of Jackson recreation department was sponsoring," Hahn, now 24, recalled. "I thought it was professional wrestling, like the kind I watched on TV. I was expecting it to be the real deal — the WWF — and I was going to be able to do drop kicks and pile drivers.

"My parents told me it wasn’t like that, but I said, ‘I don’t care, sign me up.’ So, my mother brought me the first time, and I walked in and saw these two big square mats on the floor. I looked at my mother and said, ‘Where’s the ring and ropes?,’ and she said, ‘I tried to tell you it wasn’t like that.’ So I told her this is dumb, I’m not doing this, but she said, ‘Well, we’re here now, so you’re going to stay and do it tonight.’ I did, and by the end of the night, I loved it."

Did he ever. And from those humble beginnings emerged one of the best high school wrestlers to ever come out of the state of New Jersey who then went on to become one of the best collegiate wrestlers in the country.

Hahn recently won his second straight NCAA championship, capturing top honors in the 197-pound weight class for the University of Minnesota. That also put the finishing touches on a 33-1 season and an outstanding career that saw him go 118-21.

All that after an equally remarkable four-year career at Lakewood High School, where Hahn was a three-time New Jersey state champion, the first four-time state finalist in history, a three-time All-American and a four-time All-County selection. He finished his brilliant career with a glossy 131-3 record, including a perfect 36-0 mark with 29 pins as a senior in 1999 when he was named the Asics’ Wrestler of the Year. What’s more, his 102 consecutive wins and 89 career pins were state records

And to think, all because of a flyer he brought home back in the second grade.

"That’s how I got started," he said.

But while it wasn’t exactly professional wrestling as he first thought, Hahn did become known by his nickname, "Diesel," just like a former popular WWF wrestler he used to watch on TV.

A bigger influence in his career, however, was Madds Matsen, Lakewood’s longtime wrestling coach.

"He was one of my coaches," Hahn, who moved from Jackson to Lakewood when he was in middle school, said. "And my dad also coached me. They were there always pushing me, and got me to where I needed to be. So I always had good coaches."

Hahn’s talents on the mat in high school also caught the eye of the University of Minnesota, a national wrestling power, and J. Robinson, the Gophers’ legendary coach.

"What attracted me to him were the things that attracts all kids to everybody, and that’s how good they are," Robinson said. "He won the junior nationals a bunch of times so he kind of stood out right there.

"Then as you go through the recruiting process, you get to know the wrestler and his family. At every level, I found out more things about Damion, like how important his family was to him and they being a part of his wrestling. Those were all important to him."

Meanwhile, the University of Minnesota (UM) seemed to have everything Hahn wanted.

"I was highly recruited coming out of high school by a lot of the top wrestling schools, and it came down to Minnesota and Oklahoma State," he said. "I wanted to go to a big program where, when there’s a meet, they had a couple of thousand fans in the stands, and Minnesota had that.

"I just fell in love with the place. It was a great situation for me," he added. "Everybody on the wrestling team was for one another, and the coach was more like your best friend than your coach. They were also in the Big Ten Conference, which is the toughest conference in the country. It was also easy for my parents to get to, just 10, 15 minutes from the airport and a direct flight.

"So a lot of factors played in my decision, and I think I made a great decision. It was a perfect fit for me."

And for Minnesota. After red-shirting his first year, Hahn compiled an impressive 35-7 record as a freshman at 184 pounds, finishing third at the Big Ten tournament and fifth at the NCAA Championships. As a sophomore, he went 30-10, also at 184 pounds, but this time winning the Big Ten title while finishing fifth again at the NCAAs. The Gophers also won the national championship his first two seasons.

Hahn missed the first part of his junior season because of off-season knee surgery, but he returned in time to go 20-3 and win a second straight Big Ten title at 197 pounds.

He saved his best for last, though, going 5-0 at the NCAA tournament, including back-to-back thrilling victories in his final two matches. First, he scored a 4-3 decision over No. 2 seed Muhammed Lawal of Oklahoma State in the semifinals. Then he came from behind to edge top-ranked Jon Trenge of Lehigh, Bethlehem, Pa., 5-4 in the finals and win his first national championship.

"I made it to the semifinals my sophomore year," he noted. "My two roommates won it that year, and as happy as I was for them, it kind of hurt seeing them wrestle in the finals and not being there myself. It made me work even harder my junior year to get that national title."

He got it, but it also made Hahn a marked man coming into his senior year.

"You are the returning national champion and everybody is gunning for you," he said. "So there was a little pressure to win, but I fed off of it. It gave me confidence, and then at the national championships I knew I just had to go out there and do the job. I think it gave me an edge."

That "edge" translated into a 33-1 record, a third straight Big Ten crown, and a second straight NCAA championship at 197 pounds when he scored a 7-2 decision over Ryan Fulsaas of Iowa in the finals.

"It was a nice way to end my collegiate career with a second national title," Hahn said. "Everything just came together, the Big Ten title and the national title. I was just ecstatic. It was a great way to go out."

After the back-to-back NCAA team titles Hahn’s first two seasons, the Gophers finished runner-up last year and eighth this past season.

"That was probably the only disappointment — how we fared as a team," he said.

"It would’ve been great to win an individual title and team title, but things don’t always work out. I’m happy I won my individual title."

In fact, Hahn became just the third wrestler in school history to win two national titles, and he was also only the fourth UM athlete in any sport to be named a four-time All-American.

"And the school has been around for 150 years," Robinson pointed out. "Damion wrote a lot of Gopher history. He’s got two things. One is a feel for wrestling, just a natural feel for it. The other thing is, he’s an absolute competitor. He competes to win. It’s hard to explain, but I’ve seen him in certain situations where he fights himself and goes through certain pains. That’s how much he wants to win.

"I remember, in his freshman year, we were wrestling out in Omaha and the guy he was wrestling had him twisted in a move. I thought he was going over [on his back], and a lot of kids would’ve gone over, but he fought it and didn’t get pinned. You see little snippets like that, and when you see that, you know what resides inside."

Something else resided inside of Damion Hahn during his collegiate wrestling career: constant thoughts of his father.

"He’s had kidney failure and he’s been on dialysis the past couple of years," Hahn said of his 51-year-old father, Miles, who wrestled himself in high school and played such a big role in his son’s success. "He’s had triple-bypass surgery, and right now his heart is only working 20 percent. He needs a heart and kidney transplant.

"He gets hooked to a [dialysis] machine five hours a day, and it takes a lot out of you. It’s been hard on my mother and I have two younger sisters there, and it hurts me not being there. It’s a hard situation."

Especially during wrestling season.

"We almost lost him once, and the coaches sent me home," Hahn said. "We had a big match against Michigan and Michigan State, but they said, ‘No, you have to go home.’

"But when I got there, my father just looked at me and said ‘what are you doing here, you have a big match.’ I told him it was more important to be there, but he told me to get back to school and wrestle. That was his outlet, watching me wrestle. It put a smile on his face."

It’s also why Damion dedicated his championship seasons to his father.

"He’s one of the main reasons I accomplished a lot," he said. "He’s been through a lot. Just to see him go through dialysis makes me sit back, and think about wrestling and life. Some days he’s fighting for his life, and I just have to wrestle for seven minutes. I think of him and it puts everything in perspective. It’s given me the motivation and drive when I need it. He’s been a big part of my wrestling career and my life. It means a lot to me to win for him."

"In some ways, I think it helped Damion," Robinson added. "Sometimes it’s easier to do something for someone else than for yourself. It’s easier to let yourself down than to let someone else down. He brought something into his matches that a lot of people don’t bring. It’s sad and it’s tragic, but in other ways where there’s tragedy, you get to see the brighter side it brings out in people."

Damion Hahn calls his mother and fa­ther, Betty and Miles Hahn, the most in­fluential people in his life, and in return, he certainly gave them a wrestling career to be proud of.

"I put a lot pressure on myself and I had a lot of expectations," he said.

"But I’m satisfied with what I did and happy with what I accomplished. You al­ways look back and wish you could’ve done more."

In Hahn’s case, however, he still may do more.

"I qualified for the Olympic trials at the end of March, and I’ll be going there soon," Hahn, with an eye on this year’s Summer Olympics in Greece, said.

"The guys I’ll be competing against [for a spot on the USA team] have been wrestling freestyle all year, so that’s an advantage for them. But I’m just coming off a college season, so I’m probably in the best shape of my life, and I have the ad­vantage there. I think I’m in a real good situation."

College wrestling uses folkstyle com­pared to freestyle.

"I actually think Damion is better freestyle wrestler than college wrestler," Robinson said. "He likes it, and it lends itself to his style. He lacks a little experi­ence, so it’s gonna be hard, and if he makes the team it would be considered an upset. But in another year, some of those guys will retire and he could make it in four years. Or he’ll make them retire."

For the immediate future, Hahn grad­uates on Sunday with his degree in edu­cation and youth studies. He’ll stay in Minnesota, though, to finish his masters and, of course, continue training.

"Hopefully, I can be a graduate assis­tant next season, and stay with the pro­gram and help out with the team," he said. "Once I can’t wrestle anymore, I’ll find a real job. I’d love to come back east some day and teach and coach, but I still have a lot of wrestling left in me."

Who could argue with that, especially after the last four years at the University of Minnesota.

"When you look at all the stats," Robinson said, "you have to look at Damion as one of the best we’ve ever had."

He’s certainly the best to ever come out of that wrestling program the town of Jackson recreation department sponsored 17 years ago.