Meet Henry Clay's Little Big Man
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At 5-foot-5, 119 pounds, Matt Zarth is hardly the biggest athlete in the storied history of Henry Clay High.
But few scholar-athletes have stood taller than Matt.
Consider his resume.

He graduated in June from Henry Clay with a 4.9 GPA in mostly AP classes.

He scored 35 on his ACT, one point short of perfection.

He passed five Advanced Placement tests last year and took six more this spring.

His course load as a senior included AP classes in physics, calculus II, English literature, art history and Spanish.

He was a member of the state champion high school debate team that competed for the national title in New York City.

After being courted by Ivy League schools Princeton and Penn, he chose Davidson in North Carolina where he will major in pre-med.

He volunteers at the Salvation Army and the Ronald McDonald House.

He traveled to Bolivia last summer on a work mission trip through his church.

And he’s arguably the best high school wrestler in Lexington’s history.

Matt completed his senior season with a 49-2 record and won the state championship, becoming the first Lexington wrestler to win three state titles.

No wonder the Lexington Rotary Club awarded him the Tommy Bell Award as the top high school scholar-athlete in the city.

Matt’s story is one of determination and perseverance -- as a student and an athlete.

In the fourth grade, he received his one and only “B.” He vowed never again. He stuck to that vow and then some.

“He’s been very competitive since he was born,” says his father Bruce. “He viewed grades as a competition and is self-motivated." “The good part is that he isn’t competitive with others. He just wants to see how well he can do against himself.” Matt agrees, acknowledging that carrying a heavy course load while competing as a wrestler tested his resolve.

“But I push myself. When things are tough I just push through it,” he says. That was evident in sports too. An all-star youth baseball and football player, Matt made the Henry Clay varsity as a seventh-grader -- and spent most of the season getting beat. He lost 18 of 24 matches.

Undeterred, he was 12-12 as an eighth-grader, placed fourth in the region and advanced to the state tournament. That same season, he won the state middle school championship. After posting a 41-10 record with a second trip to the high school state championship as a freshman, Matt had a breakout year as a sophomore.

Wrestling at 119 pounds, he was 53-3 and won the first of his three state titles. He also advanced to the national high school tournament in Virginia. Over the next two seasons, he won 98 of 105 matches, two more state titles and six of 10 matches in two more national tournaments.

Wrestling is a grueling sport – “the toughest six minutes in sports.” The key ingredients are hard work, hard work and more hard work.

So why wrestling? “That’s why,” Matt says. “You’re only as good as how much work you put into it. “It’s just you out there on the mat. No excuses.” Matt’s determination and perseverance will serve him well in his chosen career path -- medicine. Science is his favorite subject, and he has witnessed a dozen or more surgeries -- his mother Joan is the business manager at Kentucky Surgery Center. But here’s a secret about Matt -- while watching surgery to repair a broken nose, he passed out.

“I had seen gall bladders removed and knees cut open, but watching the doctor re-break this guy’s nose, I just lost it.” Not to worry -- Matt is hardly faint of heart. In fact, that’s his best attribute. “With all his volunteer work,” his father said, “that’s what I’m most proud of, his heart.”