Econ Wealth Management and OverTime Sports are proud to celebrate local IMPACT athletes. IMPACT athletes display strong values of Integrity, Motivation, Passion, Achievement, Community, and Teamwork. 

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     Econ Wealth Management is proud to announce the IMPACT athlete for the month of July, Mason Leiphart. Skip Skipperson, OverTime Sports wrestling fanatic recently caught up with Mason with an exclusive interview.

     Just talking with Mason for a few minutes you take notice that Mason is one of the most humble and grateful individuals you can meet. He strives to excel in the classroom and on the wrestling mat. He demonstrates the utmost respect to his family, coaches, and opponents throughout the years. His hard work and dedication only continues to grow as he ends his high school career and transitions to the next level.

   Skip added his two cents to describe his own wrestling career before the interview began. “I used to wrestling in elementary school and hold the record for running around the mat the longest without making contact” said Skipperson. “What got you into wrestling?” he asked Mason.  “My family, both my uncles, wrestled so when I was in kindergarten, and failed tremendously at soccer, I gave wrestling a shot and continued with the sport.”

    One of the reasons we like to recognize IMPACT athletes is for their involvement in the community. We asked Mason why it’s important to be involved in the community.  “Community involvement is good for two reasons. First, it generates a lot of support and backing for both yourself and the sport in general. Two, I have been helping out with the youth program and feel the more I help out with the youth in wrestling the chances for Dover to be better at the sport in the future increases.”
 

     Mental adversity, and overcoming obstacles, is something that all IMPACT athletes have shown the ability to do. Things can change quickly in a wrestling match, as Skip relayed to Mason. “I was standing up and the next thing I knew I was on my back and the ref was pounding the mat,” said Skipperson.  Clearly, Skip wasn’t the same caliber of wrestler that Mason is! “What helps you overcome adversity?” asked Skip.   “Adversity is something everyone overcomes in a different way. I tend to get through things by imagining what would happen if I don’t, like if I were to give up, how much would that negatively impact me. Then it’s simply that I try to avoid that outcome. I also like to prove myself capable and by overcoming challenges I feel that I do just that.” Skip added,  “I would have loved to imagine not being pinned in 3.6 seconds but it happened not once but five times in my career,” he explained with a sheepish laugh..

    We always like to ask our IMPACT players what advice would you pass on to the youth of the sport?  “Stick with it. I know it may be tiring and difficult right now, but if you continue to put the work in it will show. When I started wrestling, I was terrible, only winning two matches in my first two years, one of which was a forfeit. But by keeping at it, I continued to get better and eventually got to where I am today,” said Leiphart.

    Skipperson asked Mason to tell readers something most people don’t know about him.  “I have played three different sports in my life. Wrestling, obviously, is the only one that I still compete in and is the only one I was any good at. I played soccer for one year in kindergarten and wasn’t all too good. I also played football for maybe a year or two in elementary school and rode the bench the whole time, only going in for one game where it was snowing and no one else would go out.  “Ha, I can top that,” exclaimed Skipperson. “In a baseball game, our second baseman got hurt and I was the only player left on the bench. The coach chose to finish the game with 8, rather than put me in. I get it though. The team was way better without me out there!”

     Mason plans on attending, and wrestling at, Franklin and Marshall College where he plans to graduate with a mathematics degree and an eventual master’s degree in Engineering.  Good luck Mason and keep up the hard work. 

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     We are certainly looking forward to watching Mason progress through his college career and we say THANK YOU for being a role model and giving back to the community. Good work, Mason!

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              If you know of young athletes who you’d like to recognize as Econ Wealth Management IMPACT athletes, who display passion, motivation, and the desire to make a difference in their community, let our staff know by emailing  media@overtimesports.net.