8 year-old champ from Indian Land already has signature move

Every great wrestler needs a signature move, and Indian Land Elementary School second grader Joshua Horn has certainly found his.

Horn, 8, has had tremendous success on the soccer field where he’s played for six years, but his bread and butter lies on the wrestling mat.

The quietly confident Horn has honed in on a headlock and front headlock as his go-to moves. Combined with his natural talent and work ethic, the headlocks have led him to nearly unparalleled success in the four years since he began entering local wrestling tournaments, but this year his act went national.

The combination has resulted in three consecutive Upper State championships and – after he won the South Carolina title last year – to the recent AAU National Wrestling Championships in Kingsport, Tenn, where Horn capture the 60-pound title.

“It’s really fun and I enjoy doing it,” he said.

But don’t let the youthful enthusiasm fool you. When Horn gets opponents locked into the headlock, it’s usually the end.

“His front headlock is deadly,” said Linda Horn, Joshua’s grandmother.

“The (opposing) coaches are starting to teach their kids how to try to get out of it because it’s deadly. If he gets you in it, you’re done. He puts his dad, Ted, in the headlock and he can’t easily get out of it. He wrestles with his dad a lot, especially during the peak of his season and his (dad’s) neck hurts all the time – he has to take Advil and he’s about 250 pounds.”

Joshua’s signature move led to a 45-13 record with 37 pins this year, despite being one of the younger kids in his age group, the Bantam 60-pound weight class. While he’s taken on more losses than usual, they’ve only spurred Horn’s improvement and desire to get better.

“He’s really good at it and very dedicated,” Linda Horn said.

“We take videos of all of his matches. If there is someone who beats him, he’ll watch it and he’ll see where it went wrong. Usually he will go back that second time and take care of business.”

Last year, Horn was 15-0, winning all matches by pins and setting a state age group record for proficiency. After another stellar season, he owns a 118-21 record in four years with over 100 of the wins coming from a headlock-induced pin.

But his final match of this season is the one that is getting him national attention.

Horn pinned his first opponent of the AAU Nationals in 19 seconds and won a hard-fought 12-5 major decision over his second-round opponent.

As he set for the final, Horn said his previous experience had him solely focused on winning the title.

“The first year he went to the Upstate finals he was nervous because the championship is all they talked about all year,” Linda Horn said.

“This year he wasn’t nervous because he’s experienced it before. The gym was massive – it was this fabulous place with a glass dome and people everywhere. We walked in and we were probably more nervous than he was.”

As the final got started, Linda looked through the lens of her camera, but said she hardly got any shots as Joshua secured the fast pin – in 21 seconds – earning his first AAU national championship and All-American status.

“It was pretty cool,” Joshua said.

“The championship match was over in about 15 seconds. I just went in trying to win. I hip-tossed him and he grabbed my leg so I went around and got him in the front headlock and that was it.”

Horn is taking the spring soccer season off from wrestling, but will get back at it soon. He began training at Indian Land Wrestling Club because his older brothers, Michael and Logan, had wrestled in middle and high school, but after winning the Upper State titles he began to take it more seriously. He has since moved to C2X Wrestling, where he has further honed his skills.

Coaches Troy Yegge from Indian Land and Tom Tanis from C2X have been major players in his development, along with soccer coach Miles Rahalewieg, who helped instill toughness at an early age.

But much of the credit goes to Josuha Horn. He says the trophy room at his house takes up much of one wall in his room, but he’s not satisfied with what he’s accomplished to this point. He said his career goal is to one day wrestle in the Olympics and he may well be on his way.

“I’m having a lot of fun with it,” Horn said.

“If I lose I try to beat them the next time, but I’m happy with this year and I really like wrestling.”

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 3:53 PM with the headline "8 year-old champ from Indian Land already has signature move."