By Loyd McIntosh Photo by Jordan Wald
Apair of Mountain Brook wrestlers finished in first and second place at the 2026 Team Alabama Youth Wrestling State Championships held in Montgomery, January 31-February 1.
Hunt Robinson won first place in the U10, 77-pound division, while Owen Shea finished second in the U14, 85-pound division. Both train with Elevate Wrestling Club, a private nonprofit program based at Mountain Brook High School that trains some of the best wrestling talent in the state. Coach and club founder Ricky Korn believes the two young athletes have bright futures and are already among Alabama’s elite youth wrestlers. “There are probably more state champions in that room than any other wrestling gym in the state, and those guys are just getting started,” Korn says.
Robinson, a fourth grader at Brookwood Forest Elementary School, sliced through the competition, winning all of his matches by technical fall (mercy rule) or pins en route to an impressive state championship. Korn says Robinson’s performance was all the more remarkable considering he only began wrestling a year ago. Focused entirely on wrestling, Korn says Robinson has grown tremendously in a short amount of time.
At just 10 years old, Korn says he possesses a solid understanding of the sport, and his potential is virtually unlimited. “Hunt is a year-round wrestler. A lot of kids only train three months out of the year, but he’s committed year round, and it’s made a ton of difference,” says Korn. “He went from being a kid going into the season thinking, ‘Man, I don’t know where I fit,’ to winning most tournaments, and not just winning, but dominantly winning. That kid’s phenomenal, and he’s just getting started.”
Hunt is the son of Katie and Donald Robinson, a pair of former basketball players who have instilled their love for athletics in their children. Katie says Hunt’s personality is suited for wrestling. Tenacious and self-reliant, Katie says her son doesn’t let a problem keep him down and can push through setbacks despite the odds.
“To be perfectly honest, there is zero quit in my kid,” Katie says. “He just never quits. When he first started wrestling with Elevate, he didn’t know anything. He was wrestling really good kids and spent a lot of time face-down on the mat. But he kept coming back five days a week, even when he was losing. That attitude has really paid off for him. He absolutely loves it.”
For instance, Katie recalls a match from last year in which Hunt trailed 15-2 with about 20 seconds remaining but rallied in the final moments to pin his opponent and steal the victory, which perfectly illustrates Hunt’s personality and marked a breakthrough to his ensuing success on the wrestling mat. “I’ve watched enough wrestling now to know that he can just find that other gear,” she says. “When things get hard when he’s on the mat, he can just somehow summon that gear that everybody else can’t seem to summon and get himself where he needs to be to get it done.”
A sixth grader at Mountain Brook Elementary School, Owen Shea has already built an impressive resumé at a young age. The younger brother of William Shea, a wrestler on the Mountain Brook High School team, Shea competes in the highly competitive U14 division and battled his way to a runner-up finish against some of the best youth wrestlers in the state. Korn says Shea’s experience wrestling in major tournaments across the country has helped sharpen his skills and prepared him for high-level competition. “Owen’s phenomenal. He’s a multiple-time state placer,” Korn says. “He’s wrestled at the national level and went to Tulsa, which is the toughest youth tournament in the country, year after year. He’s won matches out there, and he’s a tough kid.”
With several years of competitive wrestling already behind him, Korn believes Shea’s future could be just as bright as his present. The young standout will enter seventh grade next year and could soon challenge for a spot in the Mountain Brook High School varsity lineup. “He’s good enough,” Korn says. “The question is whether he’s big enough, but he’s definitely talented enough to compete at that level.”
