Student-Athlete of the Week-Josh Armas

It would have been understandable if Josh Armas had skipped the 2021 Niwot wrestling season. After all, Boulder County COVID-19 rules chased away all but his most intrepid teammates, leaving him as one of eight on the team and the lone representative from the senior class. He was also facing a demanding class schedule, all AP and IB classes, and he could have used the extra time for homework. But Armas has never been one to take the easy way out, and abandoning the team and sport he loves never crossed his mind.

"I was so disappointed when coach Bobby [Matthews] said that wrestling was canceled this year," Armas said, recalling the rocky start of the season. "Wrestling keeps you in good shape, and it's good for endurance and all that stuff. And I feel like there's a real sense of community that forces you to come back."

Armas' decision to return was a huge relief to Matthews, and not just because he fills a blank in the Cougars' lineup. With three years of varsity experience, the senior also fills a valuable leadership gap for Niwot, which is crucial on a team composed mainly of freshmen and newcomers. The coach also called Armas "a great teammate," who perseveres even when he's not seeing a lot of success on the mat.

"For Josh, wrestling is not about the college scholarship," Matthews said. "He likes to be part of the team, and he works hard, but it hasn't been easy for him."

Indeed, Armas is still looking for his first win of 2021, despite adding strength and muscle during the off-season. Unfortunately, his schedule in the 145-lb class-one of the deepest in the region-doesn't get any easier as the season goes along. But Matthews isn't concerned about the senior's record, since he otherwise brings so much value to the team.

"Josh is one of those kids that you always want in your program," he said. "He works hard every day, he pushes himself, and he's a great leader. He's taking all IB and AP classes as a senior, and if you didn't know anything about Josh, the fact that that's his schedule, and it's COVID year, where he has to stay asynchronous, and he came back tells you everything you need to know about the kid. He doesn't know how to cut corners at all. And he's showing that to the team."

There doesn't seem to be much room for corner-cutting in Armas' future, either. Instead of training with Matthews and the wrestling team last summer, the senior spent a sweltering eight weeks in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, undergoing Army basic training. After graduation, he will join the Reserves as a "horizontal construction engineer," and spend two days per month learning to use heavy machinery to complete building and earth-moving projects. He also plans to enroll as a full-time engineering student at the University of Wyoming, which drew him due to its smaller size.

"There's not that many people there, or so I'm told," he said.

But his career plans are still in flux. Mechanical engineering seems his likely path, but Armas is not ruling out "going active in the Army."

Before that, of course, Armas has the last few months of high school to finish, and he hopes to do so sitting next to other members of the Class of 2021. Though he has mixed feelings about remote learning, he is definitely missing the classmates he hasn't seen since March 2020.

"I feel like online school is easier, but you don't really learn as much," he said. "So personally, I would prefer in-person school, but online school is sometimes nice, because there's privacy and all that stuff.

"But I miss the people," he continued. "There's some people that I haven't seen since spring break of last year. Like the people you are only friends with at school, and you don't really talk to out of it. It's hard not to miss them."

When he's not wrestling or studying, Armas likes to climb and hike in Chautauqua. During his time at Niwot, he was also a member of the football and track teams, and volunteered with the set-up crew for Rock & Rails.