From Mat to Major: Mahomet-Seymour Wrestler Gage Decker Pins Down His College Dream at Wisconsin-Whitewater
By FRED KRONER
Eight years after he began wrestling, Mahomet-Seymour senior Gage Decker is still waiting to learn about the downside of the sport.
“I started wrestling back in fifth grade, and ever since that year I’ve loved every second spent competing in it,” Decker said. “It’s hard to put into words all the things I like about wrestling because I just love every aspect of the sport.
“It builds strength and conditioning, while also teaching you how to be a man and a respectful person.”
The best part is that the end of his senior season didn’t mark the end of his competitive career.
Decker has accepted an offer to continue wrestling at Wisconsin-Whitewater.
“I’ve always thought being a college athlete would be a dream, but never thought I had a chance of it to come true until this year,” Decker said. “It kind of simmered down over the years because I knew becoming a collegiate athlete may have been out of sight.
“Throughout my career, the biggest goal was always state qualification, and/or placement. Once I made it, I set the goal for collegiate wrestling.”
Decker advanced to state for M-S as a senior in the Class 2A 157-pound weight class. He was 2-2 at state (both wins by pin) and was one win short of earning a state medal.
His 40-11 record included a 10-match winning streak to start the season and helped him become the winningest wrestler on the Bulldogs’ 17-5 Class 2A state quarterfinalists.
His 25 pins were second on the team, one behind Justus Vrona. The 5-foot-10 Decker was the team’s most valuable wrestler.
As evidenced by his pinfall totals, Decker considers one of his best areas “the ability to turn most people.”
Decker also posted three wins by technical fall.
“Gage’s strengths are that he works extremely hard in all practices, running and so on,” M-S coach Rob Ledin said. “He has a great motor and gas tank. He is never out of a match.
“He wears out his opponent through the course of a match and no lead is safe against Gage. I think Gage will do well at Whitewater. He’s not afraid of the work that a college sport requires. I believe he is built to take the physical grind. He will be missed.”
Decker had a priority besides wrestling as he looked at colleges.
“My original plan for college was just go to the University of Illinois for ROTC, but then I was looking at Illinois State University because it had a more cost-efficient education,” Decker said, “but all of them were left in the dust when I had the chance to wrestle.
“Wisconsin-Whitewater was the only real ‘offer’ for wrestling. Other schools reached out as well and were interested, but I didn’t look into any schools without an ROTC program.”
Wisconsin-Whitewater is a Division III university with an enrollment of approximately 11,500 students. Division III schools are unable to offer scholarship aide strictly for athletics.
“I have an academic scholarship, along with a three-year ROTC scholarship from the school,” Decker said.
His only visits were to the Whitewater campus as well as to the University of Illinois, where he would not have wrestled.
The connection to the out-of-state school was courtesy of a coach at M-S.
“Dan Casillas helps coach our high school team, and he is friends with Adam Latella, a coach from UWW (the head assistant coach) and he put us in contact,” Decker said.
Latella watched Decker at the state tournament and made contact for the first time that weekend in February.
“I kept in contact, checked out the campus, saw the team and loved it all,” Decker said.
Decker’s father (Tom) was a two-time high school state champion in Arkansas and his three brothers (Talon, Chance and Justus) are also into wrestling.
“I come from a wrestling family,” Gage Decker said. “My first year, back in fifth grade, I was awful, didn’t compete at all, just was trying out the sport, and was simply practicing.
“As the years went on, I slowly got a little better each year until high school. Then I started to grow a lot more each year.
“The most significant skill jump was definitely between my junior senior year.”
His skills improved as he devoted more time and effort to wrestling.
“I would 100 percent say the key for me was commitment,” Decker said. “It has always been one of the most important aspects of all I do because if I can’t commit to something, I shouldn’t do it at all.
“Some people that have been very instrumental in my development are my dad, and my coaches (Craig Acree and Rob Ledin).”
Decker won at least 25 matches each of his last three years at M-S and accumulated a career record of 94-54 with 59 of his wins by pin.
He was a three-time sectional qualifier and was an Apollo Conference first-teamer as a senior, following second-team designations as a junior and sophomore.
A four-year tri-athlete, Decker earned four letters in wrestling, three in football and one in tennis. He also participated in track and field.
Decker spends time on the mats in the off-season. He has competed in the Midwest Nationals with Illinois Top Dawg the past three years.
After his senior season, he wrestled with Team Gotcha at the Viper Pit Nationals in West Virginia and won his weight class.
He is taking a realistic approach to his first year at Whitewater with the Warhawks.
“I see myself being a JV guy in the 2024-2025 season, but a great thing about Wisconsin-Whitewater is they get their JV wrestlers just as many matches as their varsity guys,” Decker said.
He is confident that the level of competition will lead to further development of his skills.
“I feel like there is always room for improvement, and just being in a room with only guys at my level and higher will be great to help me grow,” Decker said. “I like that I could step right in and contribute, but I most likely won’t get any varsity mat time freshman year.”
During his formative years, Decker tried numerous sports, ranging from football to gymnastics, from soccer to swimming, from track to tennis and baseball to basketball.
“I also love football and fully commit to that sport in that season, but I have never favored a sport over wrestling.” he said. “Nothing has stuck with me and helped me as much as wrestling.”
Decker plans on majoring in marketing, but will also be involved with ROTC.
“Ten years from now I see myself serving my country in the Army,” he said.
The distance from Mahomet to Whitewater is about 220 miles.
“I think it (the distance) may be a little hard at first, but I don’t expect it to be too bad because I won’t be that far from home, and my grandparents (Dean and Diane Willerth) are even closer than home,” Decker said. “My grandparents are about an hour and a half away (in northern Illinois) and I’m about 3 ½ hours from home.”
