The Red Life with Rob Sanders

Coach Mark Manning sometimes see his wrestling student-athletes as investments. He and his staff commit their time and energy to recruiting and training outstanding athletes, who will achieve on the mat and in the classroom. Each student-athlete comes with a certain amount of risk, and each brings his own potential for the future.

Manning believes that comparing current Husker Rob Sanders to an investment would yield only one conclusion - buy now.

“If you could invest stock into a kid, Robert Sanders would be a great investment," Manning said. “Rob brings his whole heart and soul to the mat. He does everything right,” explains Coach Manning. “Rob always wants to compete at the highest level.”

Entering his senior season, Sanders has grown into a dedicated, positive leader for the Husker wrestling team. He prides himself on being positive and hardworking. Sanders earned the reputation of being one of the strongest leaders both on and off the mat for the Huskers because of the way he always goes above and beyond what is expected of him.

Sanders started to show his leadership ability at early an early age by participating in Boy Scouts and by growing up in a small town.  With a population of 3,500, Blanding, Utah helped Sanders gain his individuality.

“Living in a smaller community, everyone knows everyone else.” 

Sanders said he wanted to stand apart from the rest of the community and wanted to lead by example for others in a positive way. He prides himself on always remaining positive through whatever adversity life throws at him.

Sanders’ role models have been his parents. He gets his positivity from his father, who was his high school wrestling coach. He also said he inherited his drive to succeed from his mother. 

Sanders said he still remembers crying when he lost a match in the fourth grade and his dad’s encouragement motivated him to become better by practicing the moves his dad taught him.

By the time his high school career rolled around, Sanders had put his determination and his dad's best moves to good use by winning two state championships. He went undefeated as a junior in high school. Rob's younger brother, Paul, who is a sophomore on the Husker wrestling team, also went undefeated the same year.

Rob and Paul were workout partners, going head-to-head on the mat everyday in practice. Their dad asked Paul why he was beating everyone up and Paul replied, “I have to wrestle Rob everyday,” who was 15 pounds heavier than Paul at the time. “Compared to him, these guys are easy.” 

Rob and Paul are now workout partners in the Husker wrestling room. This weekend, the Sanders and the Huskers will compete in the prestigious 16-team NWCA National Duals in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The Huskers enter the tournament ranked No. 4 in the nation.

Sanders knew he wanted to compete for an elite wrestling program. During his senior year, no Division I schools in Utah offered wrestling. He researched Nebraska and found a new home with a prestigious athletic and academic reputation. He also appreciated the coaching staff’s high expectations and work ethic.

Starting as a freshman walk-on, Sanders finished strong his first year when he placed in four open tournaments. He has grown to become a team captain, earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, earned academic All-Big 12 honors, and has been a consistent leader within the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). In addition to his role as a SAAC representative, Sanders is most proud that he led the wrestling team from finishing last in the Life Skills Team Competition his redshirt freshman year, to finishing third overall following his sophomore season.

Sanders is facing the new challenge this season of competing in the 157-pound weight class, two weights higher than the 141-pound class he performed in last year. Despite the new challenge, he still hopes to acheive All-America honors by finishing in the top eight for the Huskers at nationals in 2009.

Outside of the wrestling Sanders strives to be a well-rounded person. He has played piano nearly his entire life. He started taking piano lessons when he was in second grade and continued through his senior year of high school. He still enjoys playing the piano in his spare time.

Sanders also enjoys Geocaching . Geocaching is a modern-day treasure hunt. He uses the Internet to obtain GPS coordinates to find trinkets that are left in a variety of places. He has been geocaching all over the United States such as Utah, Colorado, Arizona, California, Nebraska, and Oklahoma to name a few. He types in the zip code to his location and tracks down the hiding places through the coordinates provided.

“It’s a take one, leave one” trinket mentality Sanders said. He has collected more than 40 trinkets from all over the world.

Sanders is a nutritional science major and hopes to work with athletes in the future by helping them with their performance, physical training and nutrition guidelines.

“It has been a great pleasure having Robert on the team," Manning said. "He is a tremendous example of an exemplary student-athlete.”