Photo courtesy of Wade Stanton
SPRINGFIELD- Wade Stanton has always been a fighter. As soon as he put pen to paper and signed his official letter of commitment to wrestle at William Jewell University, he felt like he was making history.
“I felt extremely excited. It was a dream of mine since I was a kid.”
Wade was born in 2005, in the small town of Agency, Missouri, about thirty minutes north of Kansas City. However, the doctor’s realized quickly that not everything would be perfect. Just four days after his birth, Wade was diagnosed with Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS), a genetic growth disorder.
Because some of his organs were outside of his body at birth, extensive surgeries had to be performed to put everything back in place.
“Most of the worst parts were before he could remember,” Wade’s mom, Paige Stanton, recalls. “It was probably harder on his dad and I at that point than for him. But the older he got, the harder the surgeries were for him.”
When Wade was 3 years old, he had the first of two tongue surgeries. Due to BWS, his tongue was larger than his mouth, so a surgery was performed to make his tongue the proper size. A main characteristic of BWS is a large tongue, and this can cause issues with speaking and breathing. So at 5 years old, Wade began speech therapy.
He would go in for an hour every day to work on syllables that were specifically hard for him. He stopped attending speech therapy after sixth grade but went back his sophomore year of high school, after his second tongue surgery. But it wasn’t an easy thing for him to do, not necessarily because talking was difficult, but because to his own ears, Wade sounded normal.
“Speech therapy was hard to overcome because I wasn’t motivated,” he said. “To me, I sounded fine.”
In addition to his speech complications, Wade was still dealing with the repercussions of the surgery he had at birth- the one that was performed to put his organs back inside his body.
This early surgery left scar tissue in his abdomen, which had to be cleared out on four different occasions. Each was difficult and taxing on his body, resulting in a two week recovery period and mild to severe pain almost daily. But he was strong for each and every one.
“Honestly, he was a trooper through everything, really,” Paige said. “He very seldom complained about any of it and we never let him think he was different than any other kid.”
Wrestling had been the center of Wade’s life from the time he was 4 years old. His older cousin, Cage, started the sport and naturally, Wade wanted to do the same. His parents signed him up fairly quickly, and soon he was wresting for Buchanan County Wrestling Club. It was a struggle for Wade to acclimate to the sport at first. “I cried every match,” Wade said. “I was absolutely terrified.”
His parents refused to let him quit. He didn’t win any matches his first year, but from then on he continued to improve and his love for the sport only grew.
So at 11 years old, Wade already had seven years of wrestling under his belt and in 2018, he competed in Liberty Nationals. It was a tough tournament, especially due to the scar-tissue buildup in his abdomen. After beating a kid from Kentucky in the finals, he finally held the title of national champion that he had been working towards for so long.
Photo courtesy of Wade Stanton
Working hard and keeping a strict diet, he practiced wrestling almost every day, and stayed in the weight room. In high school, he led his team with the same work ethic that he held himself to which resulted in them winning two state titles over his four years.
And then, in 2022, Wade committed to William Jewell University to further his athletic legacy. It was something he had fought for, and finally seeing it to fruition was an unimaginable feeling.
However, in November of 2023, the university announced that they would be cutting their wrestling program. “I was heartbroken,” Wade said. “Wrestling was my dream, and having that taken away from me felt like a piece of me was taken away.”
The next day, Wade entered the transfer portal. Drury University was the first choice.
He committed to Drury and by early December he was on the mat with his new teammates and coaches in his corner. The Drury opener was his first taste of college wrestling, but it didn’t have the smooth start that his previous matches had.
“It was pretty nerve racking because it was my first ever college match,” Wade said. He lost his first match and knew he needed to fix something. “I was terrified because I just committed to this school and I wasn’t wrestling right.”
But Wade knew what he needed. After that loss, he immediately went to find his dad.
“It’s still just wrestling,” Wade remembers his dad telling him. “You’re still just doing what you love.”
After that, things improved drastically.
Photo courtesy of Wade Stanton
Now, four months later, Wade is working just as hard as he was when he began his wrestling career. He is trying his best to be a leader on and off the mat. And while Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome continues to be something he battles, Wade is grateful for all of the things he has learned because of it.
“At this point I’ve really learned to wrestle with BWS,” Wade says. “It’s just something you learn to deal with.”
“Wade is one of those guys that makes the whole room better,” says his teammate and friend, BK Seago. “He brings a sense of urgency that helps uplift others into doing the same.”
Despite having to undergo 16 plus surgeries, CAT scans, ultrasounds, cancer screenings, speech therapy and more, he’s bounced back stronger every time. Wade Stanton continues to fight.
