In sports, it is rare that a team or individual can begin the season by losing 11 straight and still qualify for postseason play. But 11-year-old Garrett Girard beat the odds.

After finishing with an 18-12 record in the 10-U wrestling division last year, Garrett fell on hard times this season – literally. He did not win a match during his first four tournaments and endured his most difficult stretch of his six-year wrestling career.

After wrestling with the Lawrence Junior Wrestling Club, Garrett has spent the past three years wrestling with the Aquinas wrestling club in Overland Park.

The change proved beneficial.

Garrett qualified for districts the past two years but went winless in those matches. This year he went 3-1 and defeated the top-seeded wrestler out of the North sub-district, an opponent Garrett had lost to earlier in the year.

“I’ve really been trying hard this year,” Garrett said. “My dad tells me just to don’t give in, and I tried to go full-out.”

Putting forth a great effort was never an issue for Garrett. The losing streak, his father, Lee Girard, said, was really more of a result of the tough competition that Garrett went up against.

“I kept telling him he wrestled a lot of good wrestlers that could be state qualifiers,” Lee said. “I think it paid off later.”

But during that difficult stretch, Lee thought at one time Garrett might consider giving up wrestling altogether.

“I felt bad because I could see that it was weighing on him,” Lee said.

Garrett’s family jokingly gave him the nickname “0-fer,” which Garrett chuckled about. But jokes aside, Lee remembered the time Garrett talked to his mother about the winless streak, telling her he was tired of losing.

From there, Garrett practiced even harder, and through his own determination, improved and went 13-8 the rest of the season.

Garrett’s hard work paid off last weekend in Ottawa when he placed third at the District One Championships in the 12-U 68-pound weight division. That performance qualified Garrett for the Kansas State Wrestling Folkstyle Championship this weekend in Topeka.

“We weren’t expecting that (making the tournament),” Lee said. “I’m super proud of him for doing that.”

Before leaving for the tournament, Garrett said he had one particular goal in mind he hoped to accomplish at the state meet.

“My goal is to win at least one match because my dad never won a match at state,” Garrett said.

During Saturday’s action Garrett was able to meet his goal, as he pinned his first opponent in the second period. Garrett moved on to a second match where he lost to last year’s 60-pound state champion.

That first win was enough to get Garrett to Sunday’s semifinal action. Unfortunately his run ended there with a loss in his first match.

Garrett entered the tourney with a 13-19 overall record and finished with a 14 -21 mark for the year.

While Garrett did not have a “winning season” where numbers are concerned, his father thought Garret still had the most successful season of his wrestling career.

And Garrett said that no matter what the outcome was, always having his father in his corner made him a winner. “He told me no matter win or lose, I’m still in his book of champions,” Garrett said.