When compared to his teammates and adversaries on the mats, Elijah Trufan has had quite a truncated career as a high school wrestler. Yet despite the short stint, he has certainly made the most of it by creating connections, providing victories, and learning a great deal about life and his own natural abilities and intangibles.

The senior grappler for the East Haven wrestling team did not begin the sport until last season as a junior after previously taking up boxing. After being encouraged by Head Coach Mark Tolla, Elijah joined the squad last season. This year, he helped the Yellowjackets improve immensely as a squad–going from 10-11 overall to 16-8 and finishing eighth at the SCC Championships–as he compiled a record of 24-12 this year and 39-21 for his two-season stint.

“I just wanted to get as good as I could as a wrestler, even though I joined the team later and did not have a lot of time, so that drove me,” says Elijah. “My success has come from the people around me being so supportive. My teammates have become some of my best friends, and they helped create a really good atmosphere here at East Haven.”

The grind of the life of a high school wrestler and student-athlete can be very grueling for any individual with many ups and downs. Yet Elijah notes that when things get tough, he reminds himself about the highs, which enable himself to push back the lowest of lows.

“My favorite parts of wrestling are when you win and also when our team is involved in one thing as an entire team and you can see how passionate we are about it as a team,” Elijah says. “There were some gruesome days in the room and on the mats. When things are rough, I remind myself why I joined the sport and the good feelings and moments, such as when I win a match. All the hard work stands out to me at East Haven, plus the kids I worked with. We had amazing coaches and amazing teamwork together.”

In trying to surmise the source of the turnaround for the Yellowjackets from last year to this season, Elijah points out that a small core of athletes really dedicated themselves to their craft a dozen months out of the year–setting the table and example as a senior leader.

“We were able to improve as a team this year, I think, partially due to a handful of kids on the team where all we did in the offseason was wrestle,” says Elijah. “We learned and observed as much as we could in order to be better as wrestlers this year. Being a senior on this team was a great experience; I loved everyone on the team. It was also great knowing as a senior that you could influence kids to do better.”

Mentally, Elijah has captured and calculated the leaps he has made in his mindset and what it truly takes to have the mentality of a champion. It is not always about improving your win-loss record and staying above the .500 mark because sometimes you just have to get out there and give it your all, even when you fall.

“I have improved a lot mentally as a wrestler in a short time,” Elijah says. “When I started, my mindset was concerned only with winning. As time went on, I just put it in my head to show everything I worked for to everyone when I went out there, whether I won or lost.”

Sports can be a great form of entertainment or exercise to relieve any stresses or anxieties, and athletics can also instill some invaluable life lessons regarding perseverance through adversity and how to still excel despite being dealt a bad hand on any given day. Elijah is no exception to this, as he recalls that Yellowjackets’ wrestling showed him how to produce and prevail in life through the pinfalls.

“As a person, wrestling helped me in a lot of situations in life when things were hard,” says Elijah. “I loved wrestling and learning all about it. It taught me how to deal with losses in life. It taught me a lot of big and crucial things in life.”

Tolla explains that Elijah made an impact not only with the Yellowjackets via his efforts, but he additionally impacted his opponents with his respect for any adversary.

“Elijah has been wrestling for less than two years. For him to accomplish the amazing feats that he has in such a short period of time is a testament to his natural athleticism, but more importantly, his unwavering dedication and effort over that time span,” says Tolla. “He club wrestled year-round after his junior year. By his estimate, he probably wrestled somewhere between 50 and 75 matches during the offseason. He knew developmentally that he was behind the other top kids, so he did everything in his power to close that gap. He was an excellent team leader and was voted captain by his peers. As a person, he is a kind and caring young man. At a club wrestling practice, I had a parent come up to me and express how impressed she was with Eli after her son had wrestled him. In her words, ‘He was the nicest, most respectful opponent that her son had ever encountered.’ Eli led a group that made wrestling fun but still focused on the hard work that allowed our team to grow exponentially this season. I feel very fortunate to have been his coach these past two years.”

Wrestling may not be in the cards for Elijah’s future, though he knows that his memories from the mat will serve him well in his next trade.

“I am looking to attend Porter & Chester or some other tech school to learn a trade,” Elijah says. “I will also look to continue some kind of martial arts with respect to sports.”