FORT WAYNE, IN — Cresthaven Jiu-Jitsu honored Trevor Hannigan, a 26-year-old account executive at a regional insurance brokerage, as its 2025 Athlete of the Year at a Saturday banquet held in the academy's open-mat area, where staff confirmed the recipient has not attended a single class since November 12 and is, to the best knowledge of his teammates, no longer a practicing jiu-jitsu student.
The award was presented in absentia by head instructor Pedro 'Pelado' Sancho, a third-degree black belt who founded Cresthaven in 2014 and has, according to multiple students, never recovered from the period between 2019 and 2021 when the academy briefly had two competing brown belts and a functioning competition team. Sancho read a one-page summary of Hannigan's contributions to the Cresthaven community over the gym's bluetooth speaker while a slideshow of unrelated photos played behind him, the most recent of which was time-stamped October 2025.
'Trevor brought a positive energy to every session he was in,' Sancho said, addressing approximately 38 students seated at folding tables placed on top of the rolled-up mats. 'When he was here, you knew he was here. And now, in a way, he is still here.'
Hannigan, who paid for a 12-month unlimited membership in August 2024 and has, per the gym's check-in records, accumulated 23 total training sessions across that period, was nominated for the award by Sancho himself, who confirmed in a follow-up that no other students had been considered. The runner-up, an active blue belt who trains five days a week and competes locally, was informed of his loss via a Cresthaven Athletic Department email that arrived two minutes after the banquet ended.
'Pedro gave it to him because Trevor's dad runs the HVAC company that services the academy for free,' explained Marisol Devereaux, a purple belt who has trained at Cresthaven for nine years and was passed over for the award for the eighth consecutive time. 'Last year it went to a guy who tore his ACL in February and never came back. The year before, it was a teenager whose mom wrote a five-star Google review and tagged the gym in a Facebook post.'
Sancho denied any preferential treatment when pressed, telling reporters that 'the criteria are the criteria' before declining to share the criteria. When pushed further, he gestured vaguely at a laminated poster on the wall reading THE CRESTHAVEN WAY that listed twelve principles, none of which mentioned attendance, training frequency, technique, competition, or being a person who currently exists at the academy.
The plaque, ordered from a trophy supplier in Schaumburg, Illinois, featured a generic clip-art image of two stick figures locked in an unrecognizable grappling position. It was accepted on Hannigan's behalf by his college roommate Greg Pollard, who happened to be eating at the Buffalo Wild Wings next door. Pollard, who has never trained jiu-jitsu and confirmed he was 'pretty sure' Trevor had quit, posed for a photo with the plaque while holding a Bud Light.
'Trev said the schedule got crazy with his sales quota,' Pollard told the small crowd from the podium, reading a text message Hannigan had sent him 11 minutes earlier. 'He said to tell everyone thanks, and that he might come back in the summer when work slows down. He also asked if anyone wanted to buy his gi. He said he'll do $40 firm, no trades.'
Sancho cited Hannigan's continued presence in the Cresthaven WhatsApp group as evidence of his ongoing commitment, despite Hannigan having last opened a message in the group on January 4. He also pointed out that Hannigan's Instagram bio still reads 'Cresthaven JJ | White Belt | OSS 🥋,' a detail Sancho referenced three separate times during the speech and one that heavily influenced the awards committee, which is also him.
Other categories announced during the banquet included Most Improved (given to a 7-year-old yellow belt who has been moved up to the kids' intermediate class because her older brother is in the youth program now), Most Dedicated (presented to a 41-year-old man on a six-month elective break for what he described to his wife as 'mental reasons'), and the inaugural Spirit of Cresthaven Award, which went to a former student who passed away in 2022 and was, according to the program, being honored for 'still believing.'
The banquet concluded with a speech from Sancho's wife and academy administrator, Brielle Sancho, who announced the launch of the Cresthaven Hall of Fame, a corkboard near the men's bathroom on which photos of past Athletes of the Year would be permanently displayed. Hannigan's photo, which Brielle was unable to locate on his Instagram due to a recent privacy change, was represented on the board by a printout of the gray silhouette icon used as the placeholder for accounts with no profile picture, captioned in Sharpie: Trevor H. — 2025.
At press time, Hannigan had unfollowed Cresthaven Jiu-Jitsu's Instagram account 14 minutes after the banquet ended, and Sancho was already drafting next year's nomination, which a source close to the academy confirmed will be his nephew Drew, who lives in Tampa, has never set foot in Indiana, and recently posted a TikTok of himself hitting mitts at a Planet Fitness.