Hayden Anderson comes from an athletically gifted family. His brother, Cooper, is a junior defensive back and tight end for the Pam Pack baseball team, and a talented catcher on the baseball team, too. His father, Rick, is an assistant baseball coach.

Hayden is a three-sport athlete himself at P.S. Jones. In this season alone, he has racked up awards as an all-conference football player and as the team’s most-valuable player — all while shifting his focus from the gridiron to wrestling.

As much football prowess as Hayden has shown on the football field, wrestling — his most recent endeavor — is the sport which he has taken to most.

“I just started wrestling last year, so this will be my second year,” he said. “I mainly started it because I thought it was going to make me better at football and baseball. Once I did it, I liked it a lot. Now I just do it to do it.”

It didn’t take long for Hayden to notice that wrestling has helped him get in better shape and improve his techniques in other sports. He said that it’s helped him become a better football player, especially when it comes to tackling.

Hayden got into football at just 5 years old. He showed promise quickly as he skipped past flag football and jumped right into tackle.

“I just really liked playing it in the yard, so I might as well do it in rec,” he said.

He started baseball even younger. His brother taught him a lot of the basics from hitting to catching. He got into tee-ball at 4 years old. He started as a baseman and has since explored roles as a catcher and outfielder.

“But hitting is my favorite out of anything,” he said.

Hayden’s drive is apparent in whatever he pursues. For a few months now, he’s been getting up every morning at 5 a.m. and going to CrossFit with his mother.

“We don’t wake him up to do that. If he’s awake, he goes. If he’s not awake, we don’t bother him,” Rick Anderson said. “It’s not something we push on him. He does that on his own accord.

“The thing that stands out most about him is his motor. He has a motor that stays on all the time. I think it serves him well in wrestling. He’s strong, but he refuses to lose. His will is stronger than most.”

Hayden added, “I started working out with my dad when I was 12. I recently started doing CrossFit, and I liked that a lot more.”

Hayden is more than a promising young athlete, though. He’s also a model student and member of the community. In addition to his sports awards, Hayden collected highest academic honors and got a countywide citizenship award.

“I just don’t want to do bad,” he said. “I want to do good in life when I’m older. I know that it starts right now. … I do sports because they’re really fun. Homework always comes first.”

He hopes that his academic and athletic feats will help him get into a top-notch college down the road. He wants to be an engineer. While wrestling has been his favorite sport since he started competing, he’d ideally like to do all three in college — wrestling, football and baseball.

“If I had to only pick one of them, I’d probably do wrestling,” he said.

Hayden has his long-term goals set. Some of them are still a while away, but he’s already shown that he can do just about anything he sets his mind to.