Published December 8, 2025
BY SOPHIE CANAN
After a successful year in the Central Coast Section, junior captain Skyler Madsen has prepared for this year’s wrestling season with hopes of placing fourth or better and ultimately making it to the state tournament.
Madsen has been wrestling since seventh grade, as former Carmel High School wrestling coach and close family friend Russel Shugars encouraged him to start the day they met.
Skyler Madsen is a leader on the wrestling team who constantly challenges himself and his teammates. photo by SOPHIE CANAN
“It came as second nature,” Madsen explains. “Since I started, I was hooked.”
Shugars was the CHS wrestling coach through the 2023-24 season and played an important role in Madsen’s improvement in wrestling by focusing on skills like outpacing opponents and competing with intensity.
“[Shugars] had a fiery spirit and pushed us all to do as best as we could,” Madsen comments.
His freshman year, Madsen had a slower start to the season due to an injury, but still went 8-0 in league.
Following Shugars’ departure, there was uncertainty during Madsen’s sophomore year concerning who would fill the role.
“With only a week before the season started, my dad stepped in to fill the position,” Madsen says. “He proved he was capable of helping us better ourselves.”
Current wrestling coach Shadd Madsen describes how his son also stepped up as a leader on the team that year, setting the standards high to challenge both himself and his teammates.
“Skyler is a force to be reckoned with,” Coach Madsen says. “He is a hard worker and puts the time in, which is necessary to excel.”
Wrestling captain Skyler Madsen (right) used skills like outpacing opponents to place 9th at CCS during the 2024-25 wrestling season. Photo by PETE NOTO
Despite another injury last winter and coaching changes right before the season started, Skyler still went 5-3 in league and was able to place fourth in the Pacific Coast Athletic League championships and ninth in CCS.
“From a teammate’s perspective, he’s a solid wrestler who helps out everyone by just being there,” says junior Dominik Ranansky.
This season, Skyler hopes to work hard and remain injury free in order to place at least fourth in CCS, which would get him to the state tournament.
“With enough work and the kind of coaches we have,” the captain says, “I am more than confident in my ability to make it where I want to go.”
