No longer biggest T-Bird’s little brother, Caden Hicks leads Tumwater wrestlers

Caden Hicks’ senior year of high school has been transformational.

An Olympian All-Area offensive lineman and two-time state placer in wrestling for Tumwater, Hicks has always accomplished enough to avoid being overshadowed by his older brother, Cy.

Yet, Cy, a Class 2A 285-pound wrestling champion who started as a true freshman this season for the College of Idaho’s football team, was always there to motivate and inspire Caden.

“From the time we were little, everyone knew Cy was going to be great,” Caden said. “He truly was. He saw a lot of potential in me. Every practice he would push me until I honestly didn’t have anything left.”

This year, with Cy going to school 500 miles away in Caldwell, others are looking up to Caden, ranked third among 220-pounders by Washington Wrestling Report as the postseason approaches.

“With Cy here, he didn’t have to be a leader. Caden’s had to learn how to be the leader of our team,” Tumwater coach Tony Prentice said. “The older he gets, the more aggressive and determined he is. He’s a better leader and more responsible.”

As hard as he and Cy fought over the years as constant practice partners, his older brother’s positivity shaped Caden’s leadership style.

“I want to be as good a leader as he was. A lot of kids respected him and listened to him because of how hard he worked. I want to do the same, lead this team to be better,” Caden said. “I push the other kids as hard as I can, encouraging them, letting them know I believe in every single one of them.”

With a 19-2 record this season after sixth- and seventh-place finishes in the last two Mat Classics, it might seem Hicks took to wrestling right away. He did get an early start, at age 4, when his mom decided he and Cy had too much energy not to be participating in sports.

But growing up in Orting before moving to Tumwater in eighth grade, Hicks wasn’t sold.

“For a while, I honestly didn’t like it. I thought it was too much hard work. I wasn’t really into it. I just wanted to play football,” he recalls.

The atmosphere surrounding the T-Birds program changed his mind.

“When I got up to this room, it was so close-knit and family-oriented,” Hicks said, standing just off the mat in Tumwater’s wrestling practice area high above the gym bleachers. “I got really close to the guys and we pushed each other. It made me want to come back.”

While he still excels in football and will make an official visit to COI this weekend, Hicks has an interesting take on the crossover benefits of playing both sports.

“Nothing from football helps wrestling,” he said. “But everything from wrestling helps me in football. Wrestling teaches me a lot about work ethic. It teaches better form and better body position.”

Hicks hasn’t decided whether he wants to play football in college or wrestle. He mentioned Iowa’s Luther College as a school recruiting him for a career on the mat.

First comes a desire to finish his senior season with a state championship, something Cy didn’t do. After winning the 2A title as a junior, the elder Hicks lost a hard luck 1-0 match to Isaiah Perez of Othello last year. Tumwater supporters thought should have been scored differently.

“It was kind of an emotional thing, because that was the last sport I was going to do with him and we’ve done sports together our whole lives,” Caden said.

With only defending champion Amadeo Flores-Pimental of Selah and Dawson Lieurance of Columbia River ranked ahead of him at 220 this season, Hicks is a contender to go out atop the podium. He and Prentice see the same potential roadblock to be overcome.

“I need a more confident approach going into matches,” Caden said. “Upstairs in this room, I have so much confidence. Sometimes when I get out on the mat for a match I can get kind of nervous, don’t feel like myself.”

“He’s got to get more offensive-minded on his feet. He’s got all the tools but sometimes he doesn’t pull the trigger,” Prentice said. “He’s got to find a couple of different ways to attack than he’s used to. He likes to just run through people like his brother. But, at the state level, you’re not going to run through the top guys. You need technique.”

Something, perhaps his self-professed hatred of losing, has helped Caden build an enviable career with the biggest prize still within reach.

“Winning state requires a lot of hard work, but there’s a little luck involved, too. The calls have to go your way. We saw that with Cy’s final last year,” Prentice said. “Caden can definitely win a state title. Will he? I don’t know. That’s why they wrestle.”