Meet the Larkins: Arizona’s ‘first household’ of wrestling – Sun Devil Athletics

By Jonah Broos, Cronkite PR Lab

Eric was a four-time All-American, 2003 nationwide champion and a three-time convention wrestler of the yr. The Tucson native stays the one Sun Devil to win a Dan Hodge award, given to the NCAA’s most excellent wrestler. He gained the award in his senior yr, capping off an undefeated season.

“It was awesome,” mentioned Eric of his dominant senior yr. “To me, it was more of a relief. I know it’s crazy, but I felt like I should have always been. I was always competing for a national championship, but to end on a year like that, it was pretty nice.”

Throughout Eric’s life, wrestling has all the time been a optimistic pressure.

“Ever since I started wrestling in seventh grade, I just fell in love with the sport,” he recalled.
“Everything that comes along with it, the life lessons, just the hard work. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it.”

Eric has handed his love of the game right down to his sons. Growing up, the Larkin boys have been
continuously across the sport, as Eric was an assistant Sun Devil Wrestling coach from 2004 to 2008. In 2018, he based Valiant College Preparatory, a faculty devoted to growing Arizona’s subsequent era of wrestlers.

“When I was done competing myself, I have five boys, so I wanted to create something for them,” Eric defined. “I knew that they were going to enjoy the sport because they were always kind of around it as little kids running around on the mat when I was coaching at ASU. So, I wanted to create something for them and make sure that they were getting what they needed to be as successful as they could.”

Eric’s work at Valiant has helped push his sons and lots of different native youth and highschool wrestlers to the following stage. The secret is consistency all year long and a deal with growing wrestlers, residents, and students.

“We get our kids all year long, that’s very beneficial,” Eric mentioned. “We can track them a lot better, work on stuff that we feel needs to change, or build on. They push each other in the classroom. All of our kids do really well in the classroom. There’s not much time to go and get in trouble.”

Eric’s measures paid off over his sons’ highschool careers. Kaleb, now a sophomore after redshirting final yr, was an NHSCA runner-up and Greco Nationals fourth-place finisher in Fargo, the biggest annual match on the planet. He earned a sixth-place end on the 2021 Junior World Team Trials Freestyle. Kyler was the 2023 Fargo champion and likewise gained the school division on the Reno Tournament of Champions at 133 lbs.

“Watching them progress and actually learn the sport and each position with the people that we’ve surrounded them with, they just really understand the sport,” Eric defined. “That’s been a lot of fun. I didn’t understand it that much, certain positions, when I was younger.”

Both Kaleb and Kyler see the chance to develop in Tempe. For Kyler, the distinction is within the quantity of competitors in comparison with his highschool profession.

“It’s definitely a lot different because, at Valiant, we didn’t really compete too much, because we were a private school, and it was just a little bit different,” Kyler elaborated. “I’m going to be able to compete a lot more often here.”

From his perspective, Kaleb has solely not too long ago scratched the floor of his potential, and he’s began to hit his stride.

“I didn’t have a whole lot of success in high school, and even less so when I was younger,” Kaleb mentioned. “My success started to come last year, maybe two years ago, and still I haven’t done a lot – nothing like what I want to do.”

It means the world to the Larkins to have Kaleb and Kyler be a part of the Sun Devil wrestling household.

“It’s just really exciting,” famous Kaleb. “I’m just super excited to be here with my brother, and we’re both wrestling at the same time. We’re going to be here every year with each other, and then just being able to have my whole family come out to watch.”

“It’s just surreal,” mentioned Kyler. “This was always like a second home, but now it is home. I’ve been watching it ever since I was six years old, my moment has come.”

“I love it,” Eric famous. “I didn’t want them to go anywhere else. Not because I wanted them to follow in my footsteps, but I just knew what we had really worked, them staying together and not having them go to different schools.”

Both brothers have excessive hopes for his or her careers as Sun Devils and past.

“My paper goal is to win the Olympics,” mentioned Kyler. “I want to win worlds, I want to be a four-time national champ. Realistically, I just want to change the sport of wrestling and show people this is something that a lot of people can do.”

“What we’re all working towards is probably that NCAA championship at the end of the year,” defined Kaleb.

The Larkins could have the identical final identify, however there are each similarities and variations between them on the mat.

“They can scramble unorthodox,” mentioned Eric when evaluating his fashion to that of his sons. “I think our styles are very similar. They have a bit more knowledge and technique in certain positions than I did at the time. I think I won a lot off of grit and just being a little unconventional, but they’re like that too. They all wrestle differently, each one of my boys.”

“I guess, not really trying to avoid any positions,” mentioned Kaleb. “I’m not really going to be too worried about people getting in positions where they might score. I’m just looking to advance every position for what it is. I’m not going to try to avoid anything.”

“My dad was a little more slick, and he’d play from the outside,” noticed Kyler. “I like to get my hands on, be a little bit grimy. I think I still have his funk in me. I think that definitely carried over, but I’m more of a hands-on wrestler. He was kind of from the outside. My style is more similar to my brother’s because we both wrestled under (elite former wrestler and current coach) Angel Cejudo.”

“It’s a great story,” mentioned Jones. “The Larkin family is the first family of Arizona wrestling. Eric obviously winning a national title, a Sun Devil great, and now you have sons that want to forge their own path but understand the family’s history and tradition, and they not only feel it, but they love it and embrace it.”

“They love the fact that they are a family, and they want to do this together,” mentioned Jones. “It’s fun to be a part of the journey, to watch them do what they do.”

Kaleb and Kyler are prepared for his or her second. They’ve been getting ready for it their whole lives. For Arizona’s “first family of wrestling,” the time is now, and the potential is sky excessive.