When Pahrump Valley High School senior Ethan Rouse signed his letter of intent to continue his wrestling career at Wayland Baptist University, it marked far more than the next step in athletics. For Rouse, the moment represented years of growth, resilience, second chances, and the realization that the sport he never intended to love had ultimately transformed the direction of his life.
Rouse will head to Plainview, Texas to wrestle collegiately while also pursuing a degree in finance, with long-term goals of becoming an investment banking analyst and eventually starting businesses of his own. But his path to collegiate athletics was anything but straightforward.
“I didn’t expect to go to college in the first place,” Rouse admitted. “I was just working, thinking about doing online college and starting a business.”
Instead, the PVHS senior now finds himself preparing to compete at the next level in one of the toughest sports imaginable.
Rouse’s wrestling career only began four years ago, during his freshman year at PVHS. Even then, it was not because he had a lifelong dream of becoming a wrestler.
“I only got into it because I was forced to,” he said with a laugh.
The push came from a volunteer coach and wrestling parent Benji De Santiago after Rouse experienced a difficult period early in high school. Prior to moving to Pahrump, Rouse lived in Washington and admits he had fallen in with the wrong crowd as a middle schooler.
“I started doing vandalism, like graffiti,” he said. “Started smoking, drinking… and it brought me to a point where I got suspended.”
Rouse openly acknowledged that, at the time, he was making choices that were pulling him in the wrong direction. After falling in with a difficult crowd while living in Washington, he said he began spending time around people who encouraged destructive behavior and poor decisions. What started as smaller acts of rebellion eventually escalated into habits and actions that negatively impacted both his attitude and future.
By the time he arrived in Pahrump, Rouse said he was carrying much of that mindset with him, and it eventually resulted in a suspension during his freshman year at PVHS. Looking back now, he sees that moment as a major turning point in his life — one that forced him to step back and reevaluate the path he was on.
“It was a wake-up call,” he said.
After moving to Pahrump following the death of his grandfather, Rouse said he realized he wanted a completely different future for himself. His coaches and teammates helped guide that change.
“When I moved here, I was like, ‘I don’t want to keep living the life that I had. I want to be something better,’” he explained. “After getting suspended and everybody was like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ I was like, we’ve got to change. We can’t keep doing this.”
De Santiago encouraged him to try wrestling, believing the sport could give him structure and purpose during the winter season.
“He was like, ‘Wrestling can turn you into a man,’” Rouse recalled. “I was like, what is he talking about? I’ll just do a season to make him happy and I won’t come back.”
But one season quickly became much more.
Rouse said the demanding nature of wrestling hooked him almost immediately. Even after suffering a broken collarbone early in his career, he returned more motivated than ever.
“I thought I was just going to do one season,” he said. “But then I broke my collarbone and realized I just wanted to go beat up on more kids.”
By his sophomore year, Rouse had already won a regional title and placed at the state tournament, fueling his belief that wrestling could become something serious.
“I was like, I’m going back. I can’t stop there,” he said.
His journey, however, was far from smooth.
During his junior season, Rouse suffered a concussion that sidelined him for half the year. When he eventually returned to competition, he said he struggled both physically and mentally.
“I came back and I didn’t feel like me,” he said. “For the rest of that season, I just wrestled horribly.”
Still, he refused to walk away completely. His senior season brought renewed focus and another strong year, including a second-place regional finish.
While wrestling became his passion, sports had already been a major part of Rouse’s life long before he stepped onto the mat. He competed in football, soccer, track and field, basketball and even skateboarding, but swimming was originally his strongest sport.
“I used to do swimming and people used to call me Michael Phelps Jr.,” Rouse said. “I was like 13 swimming against 18-year-olds and 21-year-olds.”
After moving to Pahrump and realizing there was no swim team available, he reluctantly turned toward wrestling instead — a decision that ultimately changed everything.
By sophomore year, Rouse began taking the sport seriously enough to consider college wrestling. With help from his mom, he created a recruiting profile through NCSA and started contacting schools across the country.
Wayland Baptist first connected with him during that time and maintained communication throughout his high school career. But after his difficult junior season, Rouse nearly gave up on the recruiting process entirely.
That changed after witnessing a fellow PVHS athlete celebrate receiving a scholarship offer.
“I was there when Austin (Alvarez) got his offer,” Rouse said. “Seeing him so happy and jumping around his house was like the most heartwarming thing I’ve ever seen. I was like, I just can’t give up now. I want to be like that guy.”
For Rouse, that mindset became bigger than wrestling itself. “A dream not being fulfilled now, is thousands of future dreams left untouched,” he said.
Rouse reconnected with Wayland Baptist shortly afterward, and the school quickly made it clear they still believed in him.
“They were like, ‘I can get you a scholarship in the matter of a wrestling match,’” he said. “And I was just like, alright. There’s no turning back now.”
Now, with graduation approaching, Rouse has shifted his focus fully toward preparing for college competition.
He continues training at PVHS through offseason open mat sessions with his coaches, determined to arrive ready for the jump in competition.
“There’s grown adults that are going to throw me around,” he said with a grin. “I’ve got to train as hard as I can to try to keep up or get to where they’re at.”
Rouse will likely compete at either 125 or 133 pounds at the collegiate level. Unlike many wrestlers who struggle through dramatic weight cuts, he joked that his biggest challenge now is often making sure he eats enough.
“At some point I did have to cut,” he said. “But then I started working at Rally’s, so I’m in a hot area all the time. I started losing so now I have to make sure I eat.”
Still, he remembers one particularly difficult experience during his junior year when he had to rapidly lose five pounds in a short period of time after being unexpectedly cleared to wrestle.
“I was in the wrestling room with sweatshirt on sweatshirt, a Letterman jacket, hoodies on, running around,” he said. “It got to the point where I could barely run.”
He successfully made weight — only to later discover he would not wrestle that evening after all.
“I got two forfeits. I was livid,” he admitted.
Though wrestling became central to his identity, Rouse repeatedly emphasized that the relationships built through sports had the greatest impact on his life.
He credits numerous people around the program for helping shape him into the person he has become.
“Benji had a lot of impact,” he said. “He’s the reason I started this sport.”
He also praised coach Mike Colucci for instilling toughness and accountability.
“Colucci was the main guy that goes, ‘Don’t be weak,’” Rouse said. “‘You fell short? Stop focusing on the wrong thing.’”
But among all of his mentors, Rouse said Coach Sandoval may have influenced him the most personally.
“He was the only one that treated me like a son,” Rouse said. “He was the coach that didn’t care about winning. He cares if you get to go out and do something with your life.”
One moment in particular stayed with him. During a fire drill, Sandoval approached him and asked a simple but meaningful question.
“He was like, ‘How are you.’ I said fine and he was like, ‘No, mentally, how are you?’” Rouse recalled. “He actually cared about my answer. He cares about other kids and their health and their well-being.”
Rouse believes that balance of toughness and compassion helped many student-athletes succeed.
“The other coaches give the toughness,” he said. “And he gives the love, which brings the tough love every kid needs.”
Beyond coaches, Rouse also credited numerous Pahrump families for supporting him and his family throughout high school, including the O’Neals, De Santiagos, McLaughlins, Stepps and Alvarezes.
“Those families personally were there,” he said. “They would randomly text and ask if we needed help.”
Looking ahead, Rouse’s ambitions stretch far beyond wrestling. He plans to study finance in college, building on an interest in investing and the stock market that first began years ago in middle school.
“I’ve been learning about the stock market since middle school,” he said. “I’m too far into the learning process to give up on it.”
His long-term goals include working in investment banking, launching a proprietary trading firm and eventually creating businesses focused on affordability and accessibility.
Growing up in difficult financial circumstances shaped those goals deeply.
“I sometimes would go home and wonder if there was going to be electricity today,” Rouse shared. “Kids deserve to have something at their house. That’s what I want to help with.”
As he prepares to leave for Texas later this year, Rouse understands how dramatically his life has changed over the past four years.
The teenager who once viewed wrestling as a punishment now sees it as the opportunity that gave him direction, purpose and a future.
“I came back,” he said, reflecting on his journey through injuries, setbacks and doubt. “Now I’m ready for what’s next.”
