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The Vision Quest Podcast
A podcast about life, sports, and life in sports! Enjoy!
The Vision Quest Podcast
#99 Gabe Arnold's Wrestling Odyssey: Triumphs and Trials
What if the key to success in wrestling wasn't just raw talent but a unique blend of family support, personal passion, and resilience? Join us on the Vision Quest Podcast as we sit down with Iowa Hawkeye wrestler Gabe Arnold, who takes us through his incredible journey in the world of wrestling. From his early days when wrestling wasn't his favorite activity to the pivotal moment in fourth grade when his father opened the Alpha Omega Wrestling Club, Gabe's story is one of humor, perseverance, and triumph. Learn how his father's balance of encouragement and independence allowed Gabe to pursue wrestling on his own terms, avoiding burnout and nurturing a deep-seated passion for the sport.
Family support plays a crucial role in any athlete's success, and Gabe reflects on how his parents' unwavering backing shaped his wrestling career. Drawing comparisons between his experience and the pressures many young athletes face today, Gabe emphasizes the importance of a nurturing environment. Hear about the milestones and challenges he encountered, from training disruptions due to COVID-19 to the significant move from North Georgia to Wyoming Seminary, all underscored by his family's support. This episode not only highlights Gabe's wrestling journey but also delves into the broader implications of parental guidance in sports.
Get an insider look at Gabe's transition to Carver Hawkeye, his experiences with mentors and coaches, and his future aspirations both on and off the mat. From making the tough decision to leave home for high-level competition to grappling with weight management and injury setbacks, Gabe's story is a testament to resilience and ambition. Whether you're a wrestling enthusiast or someone who loves inspirational tales of determination, this episode is packed with insights and motivation. Plus, Gabe shares his unique passion for venomous snakes and dreams of creating a reptile zoo, proving that a champion's spirit knows no bounds. Tune in for a compelling conversation that goes beyond the mat.
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Thank you, guitar solo.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Boom, we're live. It is another episode of the vision quest podcast and we are lucky enough to be joined by an iowa hawkeye who we've watched for a little while. Um, I mean, it's not, it's not new to the game, but we've definitely been watching the shit that he's been doing. But, uh, we're joined by gabe arnold. Uh, the iowa hawkeyes man, I really appreciate you taking the time out to do this today, dude I appreciate you having me brad.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much not a problem, not a problem. We always try to get a mix of whoever, wherever, however right, different stories. I mean, we just had the associate head coach for indiana here talking to him about his thing and he's my age, so we were talking about wrestling and things that we can't even comprehend what you guys are doing. So just kind of looking at the stuff that you guys go through and talking with him about, I was like, oh, finally someone, someone I can relate to, as far as we didn't have this, but we're sitting down today with you to talk about your story and your story is is a little different than most of the guys that we've talked to. Um, even even in your area, as far as age group, um, you are. Well, we'll start first off like where, what was? Like, kind of and I always ask everybody this what was the first sport you remember playing?
Speaker 3:my first sport was actually wrestling. Um, so I tried it out when I was super young, I think I was like, maybe anywhere between five and seven years old. Um, I tried it out and um, at the time it just was not the thing for me. Um, I was just too young to comprehend things and just I didn't really enjoy getting beat up or beating up other people just yet. So it just quite really wasn't my thing. Um, just yet I was still a mama's boy. So, you know, whenever something bad would happen, I'd have to, you know, go um, be on my mom.
Speaker 3:So that just wasn't, wasn't, wasn't what I enjoyed just yet, but wrestling was definitely my first sport. And then after that I quit, after I did my first tournament and, um, I lost all my matches and I got a silver little participation medal and, um, the running joke that me and my brother have is that my medal was. He ended up getting bronze, but my medal was silver. So I was like, dude, like I got silver, you got bronze. So, technically speaking, I'm better than you, exactly, you know, polish it off a little bit, make sure it looks real clean.
Speaker 3:So yeah, but that was my first sport and then, like I said, I stopped for a little bit, just like I said, wasn't my thing, didn't enjoy it that much, um, and then my fourth grade year was when I got back into wrestling. My dad opened up his own club, but before that I played soccer, um so, and I was actually a goalie, and the only reason because of that was because I was about as wide as the goal. So you know, balls didn't really get past me. So, yeah, fourth grade year was when I hit the ground running. Like I said, my dad opened his own club and then I haven't looked back since.
Speaker 2:So, man, so I already I already love the story because I hear the word soccer that's, that's my background, like that's a was really hoping liam would take on to that sport, but not so much because he was missing wrestling practice. So it's, it's a good sport, like when I always talk about this too, and my brother was in college the goalie was a wrestler also great guy to have in that spot because he's not afraid to take anybody on. He'll go after the ball because it's his ball. Absolutely that's, it's, it's a, it's a unique sport and the aspect of of having to run miles all the time the whole time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but that's the thing about the goal. The goal doesn't have to run so that was my favorite. That was my favorite part of it.
Speaker 2:You know, I watched my teammates run up and down the field and I was just like, yeah, you guys can have that one, because it's just not for me, so uh, yeah, I always used to laugh at the water bottle in the corner of the goalie's nest, goalie's net and just sit there looking and be like what do you need that for? It's not doing anything Exactly, so it's a great start. Already you started wrestling, didn't love it, but you kind of mama's boy, you said a little bit, but then you kind of grew into sports more and you mentioned your dad started a club. What club is that?
Speaker 3:Alpha Omega Wrestling started a club. What club is that? Uh, alpha omega wrestling of south georgia. All right, like I said, I'm originally from southwest georgia, closer to florida, um small town called albany, okay, um.
Speaker 3:So um started there and my dad had some buddies that he used to uh train with and crossfit and um, they were like dude, like why aren't you, why don't you run the club? And he was just like you know, dude, I a don't have the money, uh b don't have the time, it's just, I don't have a place and all these things. And a guy by the name of j sharp, um. J sharp told my dad he goes, well, let's go find your building, um. And so j sharp found my dad, we, they found the spot of where they want to do it at and um he paid for it to start it off with and j had some partners that helped him out and yeah, so the club started from there and it was going strong for a while and then it was a little tough to keep up with it while we had because we actually moved from South Georgia to North Georgia another move mainly for wrestling, but my dad had to actually just open.
Speaker 3:He opened up a new um call tech center which he works for a call tech center. Um, they opened up a new call tech center in North Georgia so he went there and started to run that Um. So yeah, I've all kind of all the moves that have been made have been made for me and for wrestling, um so yeah, but after a little bit it was hard to keep the gym open and, um, it closed down, unfortunate. But um, the the, the memory of how I started and how I got back into this will forever be there.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah. So you mentioned these moves, right, these moves were made because they saw something, right. So obviously your dad kind of saw something. Your mom is probably just like. My wife too is like yeah, I see it too, you know, let's do it so as you're let's talk about, just before, you guys moved to North Georgia, so I lived in Cairo, georgia.
Speaker 3:OK, I know that that's that's close. That's close to the south, yeah.
Speaker 2:Southeast corner, I think we're a half hour from Tallahassee. Always a great drive when you're just about to turn 21 always, so I kind of know the area. Man, it's hot as hell down there oh, absolutely right.
Speaker 3:Human is pissed human, and I'll get out right that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:So when you were wrestling down there, when you started back up, you dad had started the club. What were you guys stretching beyond, uh, the georgia, uh, borders to wrestle at that time was, was your dad taking you to? You know, like I don't want to say super 32, but at least like a, you know, a grappler, grappler, fall, classic things like that. What were? What were some of your memories of tournaments back then or events that kind of blew your mind?
Speaker 3:yeah, um, when I first started, um, we would mainly just to. At the beginning we would just go all over the state, being in southwest Georgia, everything, all the big tournaments you know, to wrestle the good kids they were all you know towards the Atlanta area, you know. So we're talking like from my hometown, that's three and a half hours away from me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we were making those trips every weekend and they were, they were grueling and definitely took a hit on the uh, the old bank there, yeah, but it was, it was, it was worth it. You know, and it wasn't just me my dad was taking groups of kids because, like I said, he ran his own club, you know. So we were taking guys every weekend north georgia, you know, further away in south georgia, valdosta, stuff like that, you know. So, yeah, starting off, I didn't really get a lot of opportunities to go out of state, but one that sticks with me I went to. I don't know if you remember, but it was called Kingsport National Duels, aau National Duels. Yeah, so they have them in a different spot now, but originally they were in Kingsport, tennessee.
Speaker 3:And that was after my first year of being back with wrestling. You know, my fourth grade year. That was my first time out of state and I wrestled with a team out of Georgia, out of North Georgia, called Morris Fitness, a coach named Charlie Morris, one of my biggest supporters, biggest motivators. You know, he's part of my story and the reason why I've been able to gain so much success, because the things that he taught me run more than just wrestling, you know, just belief in myself, confidence, and he played a very pivotal role in my, in my wrestling and that way. But I went up there and, needless to say, I got my teeth kicked in. I didn't win a single match and the only match that I did win was an exhibition match that my dad and Charlie had set up, because the kid wasn't the greatest, I wasn't really the greatest, I thought I was the greatest because, you know, I just came off of a pretty solid year.
Speaker 3:I didn't place at state Georgia state that year, but I mean, I wrestled pretty well, I went to and out of state but I had an eight and two record at the state tournament. So you know, kids state tournament, of course. So you know, at that point, you know, I was kind of thinking I was hot shit, for lack of a better term. Yeah, and I went there and man, I just got drugged. I just got drugged all over the mag, I got the piss beat out of me. It was, it was, it was tough. But, like I said, that one match that I won was an exhibition match that was set up between Charlie and my dad and you know, I think that match is just so. It was so minuscule at the time but looking back at it it was huge, it's tremendous man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And I think it completely changed the landscape of my belief in myself, my wrestling throughout the years. You know, I think that was a, that was a huge moment for me. You know, that match I completely blew the doors off of the kid. You know he wasn't the greatest. I guess you could say I wasn't either. But you know I didn't know the match was set up, I didn't know anything about it. You know, I just figured that this kid was some out-of-state kid and I just took it to him. I think the team was Indiana Outlaws.
Speaker 2:I want to say oh, I know that team yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I figured you would. Indiana Outlaws has been around for a while. So, yeah, that was one of those moments and that was my first time competing out-of-state of those moments, and that was my first time competing um, out of state, um, okay, and just really I think one of the few times I had been out of state at that point in time, um, so yeah the first time I encountered a little exhibition match, especially with liam we're.
Speaker 2:I can't remember what. I think we were up in uh um, new york doing a uh journeyman classic, I think it was, and there was a he had. He had had some tough matches against a kid named Sam Almedina and his partner his training partner, was at the tournament we were at. Sam wasn't there. We were actually looking for Sam, like Liam wanted a match back with him. He's like there's no way I'm losing him this time. He wasn't there so he didn't get the opportunity to wrestle, but his training partner was there and he's like hey, is it okay if we wrestle over the mat, like do a match over here, just to kind of see? Sam told me a little bit about liam I think it was his dad and I was like, yeah, what? Okay, not a problem, you know, whatever. That literally just took him off to the side. There was a mat available and they started wrestling and you know the other kid did fairly well but liam beat him, I think, by like four points or something like that. But the guy looked at me. He's like damn liam's, liam's tough I. This is weird. I've never had this happen before. But I appreciate you guys reaching out to do that. So that opened Liam's eyes up a little bit too. As far as, like oh cow, this club I thought was like you know, the, the club for me to be is like I can, I can keep with these guys, I can definitely run with these guys, so that's that's important to me.
Speaker 2:To kind of it was eight and two, whatever it was, but what was that like? How was your dad just your parents in general, cause I kind of mentioned how we talk about support systems yeah, when you were going through those ranks and trying to kind of make your way up, what, what was? What was the kind of feedback you're getting from your parents? Was there a man you're not doing good enough? You know, sometimes you got those parents are just hard riders, right? Yeah, or your parents like, hey, we're just trying to, let's work on this a little bit. What was that like for you coming up?
Speaker 3:I think my dad did a a great job with obviously with raising me, of course, um but I think I think he did a great job with, you know, um, making sure it was what I wanted.
Speaker 3:Um, I think too often, especially in today's time and world, that you know, parents get so caught up in these kids winning all these big tournaments and everything, and at the end of the day I'm going to say this as brutally as possible and it's going to sound wrong it means absolutely shit. There's no Tulsa Eagle, there's no belt, there's no nothing. That shouldn't make you see your kid any differently. Um, you know. So I think my, my dad did a a great job with that. You know he would push me. He definitely would push me in the room, but it was never like, all right, dude, we gotta wake up and you gotta go do this right now or else you're never gonna win. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:In the times that it was like that, it was because I wanted to. You know I'd wake up early in the morning to go wrestle, to watch wrestling, to look at my phone late at night and watch YouTube matches. You know he'd come in my room late at night and he would think I'd be on my phone doing some other stuff, you know, as a 10 year old kid would do. And it turns out I was just sitting under the match watching freaking Sergey Belogazov wrestle. You know what I?
Speaker 3:mean. So it's stuff like that. You know what I mean. So it's, it's, it's stuff like that. You know it was just everything was was on my terms.
Speaker 3:But you know, my dad, I had to show my dad that it was what I wanted. You know, I wanted to be something great and you know he took that and he ran with it and he did it. I think he did it the best way he possibly could. You know, I didn't get burnt out. I didn't hate the sport when I was growing up. I mean, did I get injured along the way? Yeah, I mean, it's a part of it.
Speaker 3:You know, when you wrestle so many matches, you know, but but yeah, like I said, my, my, my dad did a great job with, you know, bringing me up in the sport. And, like I said, as I've said it a couple of times, I'm making sure it was what I wanted. You know, and it was what I wanted. You know, and I think so many kids now and I've ran into so many of them, you know, between doing camps, seeing kids at tournaments, you know, just, I've seen so many of these kids just it's just not what they want, you know, they don't enjoy it. You know, you got these little seven, eight year old kids at camps, you know, and they're really freaking good, but they just like want to go home and be on their ipad. They want to go be a kid. You know what? I mean and there's.
Speaker 3:There's absolutely nothing wrong with that um so, yeah, my dad did a great job and my mom just you know, my mom wasn't my mom. I'm always, I've always been a mama's boy. I'm still a mama's boy. I love my mom to death yeah, and you know she wasn't she. She wasn't the the biggest fan of me wrestling. She still isn't the hugest fan of me wrestling, but she knows I love it and she sees how hard I work and she sees the yeah, and she sees the, the, the amount of time I put into it to to be great.
Speaker 3:You know she, she notices it and whatever makes her boy happy, whatever dream that I'm going to chase, you know she's going to support it. My dad's going to support it. You know, you know, and that's that's all they've always been. You know they've always told me. You know, if it's not wrestling, it's not wrestling. If you don't love this anymore, you know there's no, there's no reason to be doing it anymore.
Speaker 3:You know if I don't love it and I'm not having fun, then I'm doing it for the wrong reasons, you know, and so that was something my dad planted in my head when I first started this sport, you know was?
Speaker 2:did your parents have the?
Speaker 3:your mom did the education side dad was the sport side yeah, well, not necessarily so my mom so well, that is true, because my mom was actually an educator. Uh, my mom was a teacher. Um, at the time and when I was living in albany, she worked in the classroom and she was actually the head of the science department of the doherty county school system, which was the school system. Yeah, which is the school system that I was going to school in, you know no running for you, man no, I was, I was, I was stuck, I was definitely stuck.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I guess you could definitely say um, mom was definitely the the educator side of it and dad was definitely the sports side of it I guess you could say um, because for after my um, yeah. So I would definitely say we'll get into this, the second part, more yeah.
Speaker 2:So, with that being said, did you find yourself and I ask this all the time too especially before you even got to high school, because I know, I know the focus definitely shift once high school hit. But what with, with the sports and and you know you talked about kind of having a hard time Was there any point before you got to high school that you were thinking about quitting at all? It just was getting too hard.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, absolutely, a couple of times, a couple of times, I mean. I just had to. I had to step away and, um, I had to look at the bigger picture and look at what I wanted. Um, and I had to, even at a young age, you know, as a 12, 13 year old kid, that's pretty damn tough to do, you know not a lot of kids not a lot of kids can do that honestly.
Speaker 3:You know, that's the that's the brutal truth about it. But, like I said, I think my, my dad did a good job of making sure it was what I wanted, you know and when it got to shit in time. You know he made sure that. You know when I had those internal conversations with myself of do I really want to do this?
Speaker 3:You know I I answered the question the right way and how I wanted to answer it Not because dad wanted me to do it, not because mom wanted me to do it, not because my family is so endowed and rich and wrestling and the culture of it. You know it was just what I wanted to do it, not because my family is so endowed and rich and wrestling and the culture of it. You know it was just what I wanted to do. It was what gabe wanted to do and, um, they've always my dad's always made that at the forefront. You know, no matter what sport, what, what, whatever, you know it didn't matter yeah, so they're.
Speaker 2:They're trying to set you up for life. I mean, they're really absolutely especially giving you the reign, so that was kind of what we had to do to it. You know, I played high-level soccer and my parents weren't athletic right, so I didn't have parents that were saying you had to do this, you got to do this. I mean, I was literally grabbing a soccer ball and just kicking it against a curb. I didn't have a ton of camps. I wasn't sent though too like my parents just didn't know what it took to to make something, to to go that level, so I had to. I had to work with whatever I had, but I also had parents that didn't weren't forcing it down my throat you have to do this, you have to do this.
Speaker 3:The only thing they were doing that about was school yeah, you have to do this that was, that was the one thing that was a non-negotiable and right, so no grades, no grades. No wrestling, no sports. You're done, you know if you don't have that there. You'll be doing absolutely nothing.
Speaker 2:You'll be sitting at home and getting your grades yeah, so high five to mom and dad, already right there, that's awesome, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:So, as you, had those thoughts of I don't want to do this, you know things like that and and you kind of got drawn back. You step back a little bit. Was that? What was? What was the? What was the the kicker for you, once you decided I'm committed, I'm into this, this is what I'm going to do. Where were you at when that finally clicked and you no longer thought that you wanted to quit? Was that not until college?
Speaker 3:um, I mean, honestly, I uh, this is just brutally honest, but uh, yeah, it's an ongoing battle every day, to be honest with you yeah, that's honest man, that's this this sport is is as tough as it gets and, man, it'll beat the piss out of you mentally if you don't fight back and punch it right back in the mouth. You know, and that's that's as, that's as easy as you put it. You know what I mean and it's, yeah, it's a challenge. It's a challenge every day, especially at the level that I'm at right now, in the position that I'm in, um, currently. You know it's a, it's an absolute freaking battle. You know I I battle with it.
Speaker 3:It's internal battles every day, you know, and it's it's, it's tough, it's not easy, but you know I remind myself that there is nothing more in this world that I'd want to do. You know there's, there's nothing more that I want to become than to be the absolute best version of myself, and I think to do that it requires a sport, you know, and at the end of the day it's just wrestling. You know it's never going to define who I am or what I am or what I'll become. You know, but I have poured so much time, so much blood, so many tears into this sport and you know it's like that girlfriend that you're just so attached to. You know I've got attachment issues with this sport. You know, I've left it before and I've walked away from it. A man had killed me. Evil, exactly, evil, mistress, exactly.
Speaker 3:So you know there's there's nothing I would rather do, you know, and, like I said, it is an ongoing battle. You know, when a tough practice happens, a tough, a tough tournament happens and and I don't get the result I want, you know it sucks because you, you see the work that you put in, you know and um, but sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture and you have to look at the lessons you learned along the way, throughout these practices, throughout these turnouts, throughout everything you know. And there's just no other sport that can teach you that, besides this sport that I choose to do every day, you know. So it's, like I said, it's an ongoing battle, but it's a battle that I will keep winning because I love what I do and I have fun doing what I do.
Speaker 2:Persevering I love it. Absolutely so. As you're kind of, you know we talked a little bit about your middle school having to move around or you know what age group that was and going to Northern Georgia. There's a little. There's a little uh event down there called elite eight duels, um, and you are photographed on on their page. So obviously you were in it. Was that one of the bigger events that you had ever been in as far as the, the magnitude of what you were doing and who you were in front of?
Speaker 3:yeah, so elite eight um. Elite eight was was actually towards. I was like more during. That got started during COVID around COVID time. Towards like my seventh and eighth grade year, I was going to the big events, okay.
Speaker 3:I went to a bunch of duels. I went to Super 32. I still didn't do Tulsa or anything, just because my dad and I didn't believe in it and it was just the dumbest thing to us. But I went to Wildwood, new Jersey, for duels VAC, mcdonough duels. I did that whole series of all those big duels that go around the country and by my eighth grade year I was freaking, performing in them and I was showing out. I wrestled guys that I still wrestle to this day Braden Thompson, lorenzo, norman. At one point in time me and Keeter wrestled at Wildwood, new Jersey. I have a win over Keeter. If anyone asks I'm better than Keeter, you're better.
Speaker 3:We're putting that out there on live because if you want to go find the match, it's on YouTube. I basically ran Keeter down for a solid six minutes of the match. He ran for me the whole time. He should have gotten kicked out of the match. He said how much he was stalling. Exactly. But yeah, by my seventh and eighth grade year I was doing all those huge events and that's awesome.
Speaker 3:Okay, it was, it was, it was one, and when it was time to put me out there and throw me to the wolves, hell, he threw me out there and put me to the wolves. Um, so by like, so, like fifth, seventh, eighth grade year, I was doing those bigger, bigger tournaments. But, um, even through like my fifth and sixth grade years, I was still going to kingsport. We went to vac a couple of times. I did a lot of duels, did a lot of duels um, out of the state, did a lot of tournaments out of the state, um, not necessarily to the magnitude of like a super 32 or tulsa, but they were bigger events and they were out-of-state events. Yeah, um, there I wrestled in dixie nationals, which was in state, um, but you know, you got a lot of kids coming down for it.
Speaker 3:Everyone wants to be the triple crown winner, you know. So they go and wrestle Dixie, and at the time it was in North Georgia. Whatever the hell a triple crown really is, I don't know. I know I broke a couple of kids' dreams from that, you know, because every time they beat my bracket they weren't getting past me, so yeah, I did, I did all those things and yeah so, yeah, I did all those things and yeah so. But yeah, elite Eight was during COVID and I forgot that's when it started.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was like 2020 was when the first one happened.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I got to be in the first one, of course, and it was super cool. I got to wrestle on the Minion Legends team, you know which?
Speaker 3:was awesome, absolutely awesome, and by that time, you know, I'd kind of already made a name for myself. You know I had a great freshman year. I placed third at Ironman at 160 as a freaking 14-year-old kid wrestling grown freaking men. The only match I lost was to Paddy Gallagher and he beat my butt, Beat the living piss out of me actually, but wrestled that tournament, got third. Great showing for me, um, great time out. Wrestled national preps, won national preps, um. Won the blair duel, beat master giovanni, um. But I had a, yeah, I had a great, I had a great freshman year.
Speaker 3:I guess you could say and there's things, there's obviously things I wanted to win. I didn't, um, which sucks looking back at it, but you know everything happens for a reason. This, that's what it is. But Elite Eight was a great showing for me, just because I think I was just so hungry, because you know we weren't competing, you know we were all shut down. All we could really do was train and you would have these little small tournaments here and there. But it wasn't for me, it wasn't the level that I needed to be at, you know, it wasn't the level that I craved and itched for. You know what I mean as high-level wrestlers. We just itch for that type of wrestling, you know, because I can't get away from it.
Speaker 3:And so Elite Eight was one of those events. It was a huge event and I got to compete in it and wrestle some high-level guys and man, I was just. I remember it like it was yesterday. I think that was some of my best wrestling to this day, you know, just because of how hungry and ready I was to compete. You know what I mean. And the second that whistle blew, I was on guys and it was just. It was so much fun because it was in my home state. I was with all of my boys that I grew up wrestling with. It was just an awesome experience and it was a great event. Cliff Preble did wrestling with um. It was just, it was just an awesome experience and it was a. It was a great event. Cliff travel did a freaking amazing job. Still does an amazing job with the dual tournament, um.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it was awesome it was awesome that you talked about kind of it sounds like it was it was kind of a coming of age moment for you where you were really starting to realize the power you had and just the, the amount of time that you put into it and the technique that you had with, especially with that C word, covid and it comes up every time I talk to you guys. I mean, obviously it was a big impact, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Guys who missed NCAAs, guys who maybe missed a state tournament, you know things like that. So it kind of burns and kind of thinking about that, even as a high school kid, and knowing that your dad was doing everything he could to give you the best opportunities and to kind of put you out there and then throw you to the wolves. What were you guys doing? You know you had these events, but were you kind of just bringing buddies over, training in the garage, retraining out in the yard, like how was that going for you guys, especially in that hot, hot state of Georgia, and you guys trying to work out and things like that? But what were you doing during COVID as a high school kid? Trying to work things out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, For one it was Georgia, so COVID kind of didn't exist to us, to us Georgians. I guess you could say you know, we still had people going out to the grocery store, no mask on, didn't give a crap. Yeah, yeah, you know, and my parents weren't one of those people. They weren't very, you know, half-minded about it.
Speaker 1:You know they still, they had to you got it, you had to be aware of it. You know and I don't.
Speaker 3:I don't want to get political about it because I could give a crap less, but at the end of the day it's just about they wanted to be safe, you know so I mean, whoever has a problem with that?
Speaker 3:I could really care less. I don't care about the politics side of it and I could, yeah, no, not my guarantee, um, so I'm not the person to argue with when it comes to that. Yeah, um, but yeah, so I mean, we completely, um, we transformed my garage immediately to you know, my little, my little workout area. You know, we, we, uh, my dad, one of his buddies that he works with, they built me a um, uh, a um, a weight, a weight rack and a weight bench out of wood. Um, so I had, and then we bought some weights off of Facebook marketplace and bought this another weight machine off of the marketplace. Um, so we turned my garage into my own workout area. We put mats down in the corners.
Speaker 3:I would have my buddies over Um, actually, one of the kids I wrestled in um the trials finals last year, matthew Singleton, me and him were each other's main workout partners. We would work out at my place in the garage. I would drive to his place and his dad had this own kind of like little warehouse that he had mats in. We'd work out there together, you know. So I still got it in, whether it be with a partner or by myself. You know, I made sure we were, we were rest. I was still getting what I need, you know, and thankfully I had such a great club level up wrestling back in in Marietta, georgia coach, down in Pannone. He always had the doors open, we knew where the keys were. So we would meet and buddies like Matthew and Michael Killick and RJ Weston, who goes to you and I now literally right down the street, yeah, we would all go in and just freaking man, it'd be murderers. Row caleb, henson, jackson, smith, man like these guys. I was training with a national champ dude.
Speaker 3:you know so these are guys that you know I freaking grew up wrestling with. You know what I mean and it's just, it's not. It was never anything new to be away from the level that I wanted to be with, because the guys that I was surrounding myself with are freaking hammers. I mean, looking at them now. I mean Caleb Henson's, an all-american international champ, dude and correct, pretty, it's pretty damn good. If I do say so myself, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that was like one of my, you know one of the guys I grew up rolling around with. You know what I mean. So I, I had, I had what I needed, you know what I mean, as long as I had a mat and I had some like minded friends that wanted to get in there and, you know, get working and become the best people we could be. You know I was, I was set and you know, yeah, covid put a dent in some tournaments and some opportunities that we all had, you know. But you know we had each other and we made the. We made the frickin most of that because, man, we would beat the piss out of each other. We would go, it would be a couple minutes of drilling and we would be freaking, punching each other in the mouth. You know what I mean. That's just how it was. That's awesome. We would go hard. There were some real tough days sometimes, but it had to be done and we had to get the work in.
Speaker 2:So at what point, when you were in the sport, at what point were you telling yourself I want to do this in college, I want to continue this in college. Was that middle school? Were you telling yourself that already?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I made my family and I made the huge decision to send me to boarding school coming my my eighth grade year of high school, and for one that is just completely unheard of yeah um. For a kid like me, from a small town, you know sending your kid away however many miles, you know yeah georgia to freaking pennsylvania. That's just unheard of in the place where I was born and raised, you know yeah, and albany, georgia, exactly, exactly things like that, opportunities like that don't just they don't present themselves.
Speaker 3:for the kids that were born and raised in my demographic yeah, you know what I mean. And just, it just did not make sense, it didn't fit the bill of you know what. What was going on? Um, so by my eighth grade year we, we, um, we were looking at some options. We came down between Woodland High School, which is a school out in North Georgia, same school that Jackson Smith, caleb Henson, cade McCreary, all those guys went to Literally one of the best schools. It was one of the best schools in the nation because of those guys at one point in time. So we looked at there, which was literally right down the street from me in Cartersville, georgia, looked at there. Baylor High School in Tennessee, coach Rex and Daniel, all those guys, great program, great school. And then we looked at Wyoming Seminary, of course, which ended up being my option, and then Northfield, mount Hermon, all the way in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2:Oh geez yeah.
Speaker 3:So we looked at an array of options, yeah, and um, scott had actually reached out to my dad in my eighth grade year, um, about going to school there. And so, um, we, we looked at the school, we went there and we actually, when we visited sim, it was in the middle of a freaking snow blizzard, um, so no, classes were going on, no, nothing. We literally just went there and we sat down and we talked with green. That was mainly all we did. We looked at one building and you know, just that was about all we could do. Everything else, exactly everything else.
Speaker 3:We just sat down and talked to coach green and, um, after having that conversation with him, you know, I knew that was where I needed to be and that was the type of guy I needed to surround myself with, because of how much he reminded me of my father and how much the values that he had were the same ones that my father had instilled in me and instilled in what is important and what is really important, besides just winning these tournaments and being the best wrestler you can be.
Speaker 3:You know that I could. You know I could lose my leg tomorrow and you know I would probably be done wrestling, but you know it's more than just wrestling. It's, at the end of the day, it's just wrestling. You know, it's just something my dad instilled in me. It's just the same thing that coach Green instilled into all of his guys and all of his wrestlers. You know, it was just, it was important. So, yeah, so that was the big decision to go from being a small little hometown boy you know, we were living in North Georgia at the time, but I was this hometown kid in Albany, you know to making this big jump all the way to Wyoming Seminary and being a boarding school kid. And I think that was when, I mean, I knew if I was going to make that big of a decision.
Speaker 1:Then you know we were going to take this to the house.
Speaker 3:You know, we're going to take this all the way. We were going to take it all the way, and there was no, there was no slowing down you know what. I mean, I knew, if this is the decision I was going to make, then this was going to be what was gonna be with us for me, you know so at 14 you're going.
Speaker 2:You're going a couple, maybe a couple thousand, maybe a thousand or two miles away and now you're in a community, like you said, a small community but at the same time, where you're at, maybe they wanted you to stay there, maybe they wanted this big cat to be hanging out and doing that thing for their school and, and obviously a lot of people still have places that they left, that were really supportive about them leaving. What? What was that for you as a 14 year old, number one going to you know, just a such a distance away from mom and dad, also not being able to kind of represent in your area. Now you have a goal, you have things in mind, you guys see the pathway to it, right, but was there any kind of bite back about you going to wyoming seminary saying we should keep him here?
Speaker 3:I still catch hate about it from this day um there was people. There was people nagging on me, my dad. They were on these forums running their mouths about, yeah, how I my my parents just shipped their kid away and doesn't want him to be a georgia boy. But um, opinions are like assholes, everyone has them they all stink and they all stink absolutely.
Speaker 3:And you know, we just I mean, I'm not saying it it obviously can be done, it can be done, it can be done in georgia, you know. And that that wasn't what the thing was, it was just what was for gabe arnold for you um.
Speaker 3:And I think at that point in time, that was what I needed. I wanted that exposure. I wanted to wrestle these high level guys. Every freaking weekend, dude, I was going from Ironman, I wrestled a small tournament back in Wyoming, back in Kingston, and then the next weekend I was wrestling Powerade. After that I had a couple of weeks off and then before that, the next couple of weekend after that, I was wrestling Blair and I was wrestling St Ed's, and then I had prep stage, which is the qualifier for preps, and then I was wrestling national preps. So this was the schedule that I was, this was the schedule I wanted. That I dreamed of.
Speaker 3:You know, I, I, I craved that high level wrestling and, like I said, it can be done in Georgia, it can be done in my home state. But it wasn't what I needed at the time. You know, I, I, I crave that high level wrestling and um, I went to where I could find it and that was at Sim and um. You know it was. It was what, like I said, it was what I needed and it was what was for me and I needed that, I needed that exposure, I needed to be around those type of people, types of people. You know I needed to be around those coaches, I needed all of that, you know, and it just made my wrestling go from here and just skyrocketing, you know, and that's, that's not to say you can't, it can't be done at home.
Speaker 3:Right, it can most definitely be done at home, and my coaches that I had at home I'm still in contact with about technique, about life, about mindset, about everything you know, and between Charlie Donovan, you know, terry Allison, all those guys you know, I'm still in contact on a, on a daily basis, talking about you know about, about anything you know, because they were in my corner for so long that it's more than just a wrestling coach. You know, these are, these were father figures that were implanted in my life that played such a pivotal role in the man and the wrestler that I've become to this day.
Speaker 2:Couldn't have said it better, yeah.
Speaker 3:So it's, it's, it can be done at home, and those relationships that I did create when I was at home, I still have those. Those guys have no hard feelings against me. It was never any. No, it was no harm, no foul, you know and they knew why they knew what I did, what I did, and they knew that I would always know where home is. And hell, I always know where home is. That's why I got a tattoo behind my ear.
Speaker 2:So so that's that, that's that that's I mean. So not only do we have parents, you know, coming up as athletes, but you build relationships with those people that also become a support system. No-transcript. Were you at a, at a, ever at a point when you were at Wyoming seminary and we're going to talk about? You know some of the milestones that you had there, but were you ever at a point when you first got through like holy man this is I'm on my own, like I'm you had people there, don't get me wrong. I mean I'm sure that they're watching.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that happened 20 minutes after my parents left I got you, got you as a 14 year old, that's kind of what I expect man, we were all a wreck.
Speaker 3:I, we were all a wreck, we were emotional wreck and and it was tough, and it's one of the toughest things that I have done to this day, man, and it's hard, it's really hard, being away from your mom and your dad and I don't know. They've just been, they still are, they've been so pivotal everything that I've done. They've been my biggest cheerleaders, my, my, my dream. They've chased this dream, this goal, with me. You know, and being thousands of miles away from them was tough. It was tough. It was tough on a 14 year old kid and you know, it was just. It was hard and it's looking back on it. It's still hard. It was still difficult. It was a tough decision to make, yeah, but it had to be done. You know it had to be done.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, and so you're, you're, you actually had to kind of get a grip of some things that most 14 year olds don't have to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had to learn the responsibility. I had to learn how to do my work by myself, because previous to that I was homeschooled, so I can wrestle and travel more. So mama had her foot up my butt constantly to get work done. Um, so, yeah, I had to learn to do that. Uh, I had to do my own laundry, clean my room um yeah I know things that are just unheralded, unheralded, you know yeah, made no sense.
Speaker 3:I have a 16 year old that can't handle that right now I'm 14 on my own, I got a roommate and I'm like living like a college kid so it was it was a complete. I had to grow up really quickly um and there was no looking back from it either. I had to grow up real quick. Whether I wanted to or not. If I wanted to do what I said I wanted to do, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:That's for sure. So, as you're as you're you, you get there. Let's say, you get your your feet underneath you, you're. You hit the ground running a little bit as you, as you kind of get more comfortable with with being on your own and with having to focus not just on school but, like now you're focusing more. It's. This is gabe's path. Right now you're kind of on your own. You really get to think of man, I'm doing this by myself, I'm doing this on my own.
Speaker 2:This is, this is did it seem like at that point, once you kind of were able to be a little more comfortable, did you feel like that? This was like the, the beginning of something great, even greater than what you already had, because you're at a school already now that is known for that. That's that that brings up these kids that are, that are just elite level, like constantly, and they even build. They, you know they're, they're developers there. They're not just guys that are just getting kids that are automatically awesome. They also develop. So, but as you're kind of developing yourself, were you? What were some of the milestones that you surprised yourself with? That You're like, oh man, I did it. I'm here by myself and I just did this. What were some of those milestones for you?
Speaker 3:Um, I hell, I think, clearing my room for the first time by myself as well. That's big man, I think. Doing, I think, doing homework without having a foot up. My butt was one of them too. Um, yeah um, but honestly, man, every single day was a milestone all right and just yeah, living by myself was a freaking milestone.
Speaker 3:You know and just, obviously I had, I had people there, I had a support system there and I had a community that supported me and whatever I needed, um that that they were there. I knew I had those people there. But the thing that was just, you know, it was just, it was different being on my own. I was still on my own, you know. I could still go walk off campus if I really felt like it. I still, yeah, I had room checks, but hell, the second they left I could just pop right out of my room there's no invisible fence with like a collar on or like something around your ankle.
Speaker 2:A little shock like that no, nothing like.
Speaker 3:There were alarms on the doors, but the cameras didn't work half of the time. So um, so yeah I figured. I figured out the blind spots really quickly, um, but anyways. So yeah, every day was a lot, milestone man. Just living by myself for the first time was a a big thing and doing things by myself, how I was doing life by myself for for three years of my life.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. And uh, yeah, my parents are there. I had my support system there, but they weren't there. You know, they couldn't control what I did and no one could. You know, I I still did my own thing and marched to the beat of my own drum. At the end of the day, um, but I would say, a big thing for me was um, making the lineup, um, and that was. That was a process in and of itself. Um, I had to wrestle off a kid named nico katsuyoshi. Kid was pretty good at the time and I don't really know what he's doing now. I think he's at some school, or he may not be in school anymore, but I know he's making a lot of money, so I think that's yeah, he definitely ended up being more than successful at the end of the day, so it's um, actually, no, I think he made his own um, like bitcoin or whatever, like his own coin, or whatever, oh boy yeah yeah, so he was pretty dang smart for one and uh yeah apparently he went to harvard for a little bit, so he definitely uh had the brains there for sure yeah
Speaker 3:absolutely, and then some. But, um, yeah, I had to wrestle off him and um won that wrestle off and I, you know, I wrestled to the way that I wanted to wrestle, yeah, and just the, the jump from the, that jump from my eighth grade year to that first wrestle off was just like there was like so many levels in between it, you know the motion, the leg attacks, the hand fighting, the, everything. Just there was so many little minuscule levels to just even get to that point of winning that wrestle off. Um, so it was huge, it was, it was freaking, mind blowing and, um, you know, that was, that was a big moment for me and I think an even bigger one from that which was right at the beginning was Ironman.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay.
Speaker 3:I was untested. I was unranked as a freshman in high school and just being at that level, being at that tournament, being with the teammates that I had, dude like I was on a team with freaking Bo Bartlett, lachlan, mcneil, cool yeah, dude like absolute killers. Right, jacob Kaminsky at the time was really freaking good. He was a cadet world bronze medalist in Greco, which, with my Greco status right now, is a pretty big freaking deal. Like dude, I was on a team with killers, absolute killers. These are the guys that I surrounded myself with on a daily basis man, um, I had hell.
Speaker 3:I was on a team with nick bazakis. Nick bazakis on that team as well.
Speaker 3:Can't forget bazooka um, so I was that's what we used to call it back on the team. So, man, I had a. I had a really high standard to live up to. Like it wasn't necessarily placed on me, but these guys that I had on my team, you know they expected it of themselves, but they expected it of their teammates and the guys that they were rolling with too. You know what I mean. So it was, it was a lot of pressure. It was a lot of pressure and, um, there was a lot of eyes on me coming into that tournament. No one had me placed in. I wasn't seated. I think I was seated, maybe like 17th or something like that. Like, like I had, like it was. It was.
Speaker 3:It was a tough tournament, man, it was a really tough tournament and you know just it. It took a lot. It took a lot and it was a. It was a battle to to get third place. I was beat the hell up after that tournament. My, I have a pic my dad has a picture on his phone. It's of me winning my blood round. It was after I won my blood round match and I facetimed him and my whole mouth is just dripping blood I don't know what happened, but my teeth are literally bright red.
Speaker 3:My mouth is soaked, like I have no clue what happened to this day. I don't know what I did all I knew is that I was excited as hell and I had just placed at the freaking iron man tournament as a 14 year old kid, as a freshman at the, at 160 pounds unheard of the president like this, isn't this? Isn't. This isn't 106, this isn't 113.
Speaker 2:Nothing against my little guys out there, no, no, yeah, I'm wrestling, I'm actually grown men as an undeveloped 14 year old kid I had no facial hair, I had a baby face.
Speaker 3:Competing with these guys, man, like it was, it was tough and looking back to this man, it was a tough tournament. Oh god, it was a tough tournament to put that into perspective.
Speaker 2:So you, that was that was powering, so liam that was iron man, iron man iron man. Sorry, that was iron man. So liam going into, I think going into his eighth grade year just before he was a freshman, he was kind of at the 100-pound range just before state came and I took him in for his health check at the school and they told me he was 125. I said he's 100. What I? Just literally had him.
Speaker 2:That was COVID and I had him registered for that year before they said it was kind of canceled, that I had him registered at a hundred pounds. So I took him and I put him in a 15 year. He was 12, 13. I think I put him in a 15 year tournament at 125 pounds Cause I told him I was like this is what you're headed towards. So, unless you think you want to keep doing this, that was another come to Jesus moment for him. But for you to be going into Ironman and 160 pounds at 14, yes, highly impressive. That is that man you were. Obviously. What Wyoming Seminary was putting into their food was working all right and the work you've been putting in too was pretty impressive. Were you at any point like was that the birth of the mouth guard for you by chance?
Speaker 3:at any point like, uh, was that the birth of the mouth guard for you by chance? No, the birth of the mouth guard, um, was um rest of master giovanni.
Speaker 3:Um, yeah, because I freaking, I got the takedown in overtime and I came down on his hip with my mouth open, so I took a hip right into my tooth and my mouth was just completely bloody and, um, I remember, like after the match, my mouth was just an excruciating pain. Adrenaline was gone, um, and I was just like, oh my god, like this is like, yeah, I just won this match, but holy piss, this, yeah, like this is so painful. I literally had my tooth, was literally lodged in my gum. I was like I don't know what I'm gonna do about this and I'm like so that, uh, the next, those next couple of weeks, I ended up getting the mouth guard fitted for a mouth guard and now it's yeah. Ever since then, I've been wearing a mouth guard. I I hate wrestling without one. I can't do it.
Speaker 2:So let's, let's talk a little bit now, cause I on the flow, wrestling or whatever to be able to see some of those matches, and you should. I watched about four of them today and, dude, you're so, you're it's watching, you wrestle and you're not, you're not predictable, because you have so much in your toolbox and watching the pace that you wrestle at and that you're able to go to is is impressive. So obviously, all this stuff, going into everything you've put into it, you can see it. I mean, just watching all these flow matches, where were you starting to get, uh, like I guess not contacted, but coaches, like you're at a tournament, super 32 for example, anything like that? Where are you starting to have college coaches kind of walk up to you? Hey, we're watching you, buddy, you know that kind of thing. When did that start to kind of happen for you?
Speaker 3:um, probably around Ironman, was it? I mean?
Speaker 2:that tournament was just They'll put you on the map.
Speaker 3:I mean, it was so pivotal and I think a lot of people knew who I was. You know I was a freshman coming in. I was on the starting lineup for Sim. You know that's already unheard of Freshman starting lineup at Sim doesn't make a lot of sense. Not a lot of guys do that, unless your name's Bo Bartlett, right, and that guy is a hammer in and of itself. Um, you know he was. He was then too, even when he was a freshman in high school, so it's just unheard of. Um. So that already raised some flags, I think, for people. And I think my performance there and I think these guys watching me, you know, run through the tournament the way that I did there, was like holy, holy, piss, dude, this kid might be, might be the big deal. Um, so yeah, and I think that was that was kind of when I saw coaches and um. So my dad went to mizzou. I'm related to jayden cox yes, that's his alma yeah, my cousin.
Speaker 3:That's his alma mater where he graduated from on three national titles there, so you know, I grew up going to the tiger style camps.
Speaker 3:You know I I trained with mike ireman a few times, yeah, um, like I, I that was. That was like my school. I guess you could say that was where, like, at the end of the day, that's where I thought my head was going and that's where I thought I was gonna be like. I ended up having to change my headgear, like at the beginning of the year my freshman year because I would wear this mizzou headgear with tigers on them, you know and I was like.
Speaker 3:I just don't know if that's really what I want to keep wearing I'm just gonna drift some colleges away from me.
Speaker 3:Um, so that was the headgear I was wearing at the time and um, yeah, so I would wear it all the time. And, um, it was just, it was my thing. But yeah, so that was like my like school that I thought I was always going to end up at Like no matter. I was like no matter what happens. I didn't even know about the recruiting process at this time I was like no matter what happens, I'm going to be a Tiger.
Speaker 3:That's what I thought was going to happen. So yeah, but I think that match was when I got a lot of eyes and you know, obviously got the, the, the mail that you guys probably get, the filling out the recruiting sheet oh yeah school sent to everyone, of course um but yeah, that's when you know it first started to pick up.
Speaker 2:Okay, sure, that's it. That's kind of why I asked, because it again, you, your path wasn't the typical path, like you know, the whole moving at 14 and things like that, and I I think it kind of goes with like Carrie Cole I'd said the same thing, like my dad did this with me, it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to work with the next kid. No, they, they obviously your parents were, you know, they talked to you about things you had. You had some input and you decided this is what you wanted to do and obviously, if it paid off, so we can see, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3:It was definitely what I needed. You know what. I mean, and at that point in time that was what I needed, and that's the type of parents that I needed, and the type of parents I still have to this day. That's how they operate with me, you know, because they know that's how I thrive, that is how I do my absolute best, you know.
Speaker 3:And with them in my corner, the way that they are, the way that they have been. That's what I needed. It is not for every kid. It is not for every kid to go to boarding school at 14 years old. It's not, and it takes a special type of kid Hell, it takes a special type of parent to ship their kid off like that. You what I mean it takes, it takes a lot, it takes a lot.
Speaker 3:It takes a special type of household to be able to do that and um I think we had a special type of relationship me and my mom and my dad to be able to do that.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so you, it was three years at wyoming sim, right, yeah, so freshman sophomore junior year. Yeah, yeah. So where those three years at the end let's talk about, maybe kind of towards the end of it? Was that because you moved to Iowa City, right? Was that a decision based off of already what college you wanted to go to Like? How did you guys kind of decide that move?
Speaker 3:My junior year was a very, very, very challenging year for me. Okay, it started off great Like the beginning of my junior year was a very, very, very challenging year for me. Um, it started off great. Like the beginning of my junior year, I won who's number one? Number one in the nation. I completed. I completed a milestone of mine since I started wrestling. You know that was. I always wanted to be number one in the nation. That was my thing. Um, recruiting was tough. Recruiting was was really tough, and it it's it doesn't get tough.
Speaker 3:It doesn't, yeah, it doesn't get talked about a lot of enough. I don't think, um, as a high level kid man, I was getting hounded like I was. I was like top five in my recruiting class at the time, like I was getting hounded by schools, like coach would text, text me hey, what are you doing? I don't know. Probably the same thing I was doing 10 minutes ago when you texted me and asked me the same thing. Still sitting in my room. I'm actually currently looking at my chem honors homework. Right now that I have no clue what I'm looking at because I haven't been able to pay attention to classes because I've been on the phone every second with 20 different college coaches. So, yeah, yeah, every second with 20 different college coaches. So, yeah, yeah. So it is it, man, it's a lot, it's a lot and it the, the texts, the calls, the visits, the, the questionnaires, the freaking everything.
Speaker 3:Man yeah it's a freaking lot and it takes a toll on you as a I was what, maybe 16 years old, 16 years. At this time, it takes a toll on you because you're I was what maybe 16 years old, yeah, 16 years at this time it takes a toll on you because you're not used to that. You're not used to having that type of like oh, we want you. You know what I mean. And like, I remember when, when July 15th is the, is the recruiting date? Right? I think that's what it is.
Speaker 2:I think it's July 15th or 16th, yeah, something like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think yeah, yeah, I don't want to. Yeah, I think it's 15th, it's definitely july. It's definitely july 15th. Yep, yep, because I remember so at the time I was still a cadet, um, but july 14th I was going to tulsa duels, or junior, junior duels in tulsa, oklahoma, right and um, it was july 14th.
Speaker 3:Was that night that we left? I'm in the middle of cutting weight. I don't want to deal with people. I'm kind of hating my life right now, like I don't want to talk to anyone. Leave me the hell alone, right? Um, unfortunately it just didn't happen for me. Um, so I remember getting on the bus and um, my coach is one of my coaches, coach Terry Allison. He's like hey, dude, like I know you want to go to bed, but you're going to have to be up. I'm like, terry, I just got done working out. I do not want to talk to anyone. And sure enough, before we got on the bus, 12 o'clock hit. I got a phone call. I'm like, dude, you got to be shitting me, was it Terry man phone call.
Speaker 2:I'm like dude. You gotta be shitting me, was it no?
Speaker 3:terry allison okay, I was. I thought, oh, you're just calling. Who called me? Oh no, no, it was it was alex clemson.
Speaker 3:Oh really, yeah, okay he used to be an assistant at mizzou, yeah, and so we obviously had that relationship from him being there. So, yeah, um, yeah, that was. He was one of my first phone calls and I was like I answered it, you know, I was like, oh, that's pretty cool and I was like I just didn't really think people were gonna be calling at 12 o'clock. Oh and um, dude, this was this, was. This is funny, this is funny stuff yeah, I go to.
Speaker 3:I go to bed. I go to bed on the because we took a bus there. We drove from georgia to oklahoma. We took a big old you know party from Georgia to Oklahoma. We took a big old party bus there. Cool, I went to sleep, knocked out. I'm like, dude, I'm tired. I got done working out. We got a long bus ride. I need to go to bed, go to sleep. I wake up to Terry shaking me. Dude, you need to answer your freaking phone. I got coaches calling me like saying you're not't. I grab my phone, I look at it Holy piss, missed call. Missed call. Text text text Missed call. Missed call, missed call. I'm like, oh my God and dude, I was just like I was mind blown and even when I woke up the second I woke up, I had another phone call. I'm like, hey, who's this? I'm trying to worry about wrestling, but I got all these freaking college coaches blowing up my phone like a crazy girlfriend.
Speaker 3:I'm like holy hell, dude. So it was crazy, man, it was crazy, but it was just it's a lot, and I say that because that kind of took a toll on me in my junior year. It was just a lot of. Oh yeah, it was a lot of. The visits were a lot too, man. It's just, we set up my visits for after who's number one and I was gone basically every weekend. Like one weekend, one weekend, this visit, next weekend, this visit, next weekend, this visit. I had five. So I had like five weekends of back to back to back to back to back official visits. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:And they go all out for your official visits. You eat a lot of food, you get real heavy, you know, and that end of the month I had to go back to Ironman.
Speaker 2:Yeah, nike's.
Speaker 3:Yeah, wow, and I was 170. And at the time I was just nowhere near 170. So that was um makes two of us um. So I'll give you the whole lore of my junior year.
Speaker 3:yeah and um, so, yeah, that happened and I think the last one I took was virginia tech I want to say it was my last one that I ended up taking and, um, so I took that visit and, um, you know, I came back and I had to certify for, for um, I had to certify for the year. I hadn't certified yet. All my teammates had certified, but I hadn't certified yet. So I had to. Yeah, I was like here here, here, here, here over here I'm actually over there too um, so, yeah, I had to get, I had to freaking certify weight and I didn't certify for the weight class until for my weight class, until like that week of ironman, oh yeah, yeah, and I certified and that took a lot out of me, as is I had to get down to a certain amount of weight. So, because I had to basically be on weight, because I didn't have enough time to get it off, you know, and the the weight certification plan works you weigh in a certain way.
Speaker 3:You can lose x amount of weight each week I had to be on weight because we were the week of the tournament just like that exactly. My descent program was half a pound. I couldn't do. There was nothing. There was nothing more, so wow we got.
Speaker 3:We got it in at the last moment and um, holy cow, yeah, dude, it was. It was challenging to get down and um, so we got there, we got down and um got down to wait for iron man and uh wrestled the first day and, you know, second day rolled around and it was challenging to get weight off. Um, I had to put so much back in me because I had completely fried my body that whole week just to get just to fricking, make weight, make weight for certifications, you know. And um, just weight wasn't, weight was sticking on me, man, I couldn't get it off and it sucked, it was awful and that was like one of my worst weight cutting times, right there.
Speaker 2:And just, it took a lot. It took a lot out of me. Were you ever kind of taught about not weight cutting but like nutrition? Oh, definitely.
Speaker 3:I definitely had my fair share of nutrition meetings and how to do it the right way. Was I listening? Absolutely not. We had my fair share of nutrition meetings and how to do it. The right way um was I listening absolutely not because I talked about um marching to the beat of my own drum. Sometimes, yeah, I do that a little too much, actually yeah, the drum is your plate. Yeah, exactly you know, I'm just picking up food to food to mouth, food to mouth with the mouth sure yeah, but anyways.
Speaker 3:So yeah, day one iron man happened and uh couldn't get that weight off, and second day came around and I missed weight by a pound and a half, something like that.
Speaker 3:I missed weight by a whole pound and it was, like I said, it was tough and you know that was junior year, was hard and that kind of started the descent a little bit. After that I took some time off and regathered myself and came back home and had a couple more house visits and, um, by that time I wrestled powerade and powerade didn't go the way I wanted. After I I thought I, I or this was before, this was before powerade, um, so I went back home.
Speaker 3:I went back home after a tournament. It's called I forget the name of it, but we have our own tournament, that Wyoming Sim runs, and so I didn't wrestle in that. I skipped that. After that I went back home because Ironman's in December-ish time, so by then it's time to go back home for Christmas. So I went back home.
Speaker 3:I was home for a little bit, and the time that I was home we had made a decision on which school I was going to and so it was a. It was a huge, huge weight lifted off my plate, but I still had the, I still had the voices and everything else going on and having to deal with it. So Ironman ended up not going as planned, ended up getting. I lost on the front side to Danny and then on the back side I lost to Rocco. Um, suck, butt, but you know it was what it was. Um and that was. But it was to me like that tournament sucked because I didn't win, but at the same time it was such a sigh of relief because I had already committed. I had told Iowa that I was going to be there and I told all the other coaches no, like I was. It was a huge weight lifted off my shoulder, but I still had a little bit of carry on anxiety from you know, from that a little bit, because of you know, just telling coaches no and making this big decision Like this is a big, life-changing decision, you know.
Speaker 3:So, at Powerade South, now winning, winning it. But at the same time I was like dude, like I am glad this is over. You know, I I am, I am more than glad that this is over. This is the greatest thing ever. I just had it felt like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders and, um, I remember like I um, stayed at my girlfriend's place my girlfriend at the time.
Speaker 3:I stayed at her, her place after Powerade and I was there. I was just so happy because this recruiting process was done and I made the right decision and knew where I wanted to be at and it was a great time, man, I had found my home and even with Powerade not going the way I wanted, I was happy, I was content. I got back to Sim and I worked out that day. I felt great. Then that next morning rolled around and I was like I'm going to go work out in the morning, it's time to get back on my horse. It's time to do the things that I know I need to be doing to be the best possible wrestler I possibly can. This was a practice I didn't have to go to. I went and I you know I was doing well, I was wrestling well, and I'm going live with one of the guys on the team and, um, I put I'm wrestling them and put my hands, I place my hands on them and I turn my hands and my body turns, but my leg stays in the mat oh second
Speaker 3:that happens heard a and that was all she wrote. I was in instant pain. I was just like I knew something was wrong. Something was wrong and it was my meniscus. It's not a huge thing, but you know, at that point in time we were at the end of the season, so I had maybe a couple more events left until, or I had we had like a couple duels left and then we had a tournament, then preps. I didn't have enough time to get my knee healed. My meniscus was displaced and it sucks because that was the week of the Blair duel.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, good one for you guys, man. Yeah, it's a huge one for us.
Speaker 3:You know, yeah, for you guys, yeah, it's a huge one for us. You know, um, and I, I, I left out of it and, um, you know that my junior year was just so high and low, high and low, and it was more low than high, more than anything, and I, I needed my, I needed my parents with me, no matter we knew at the end of the day, no matter if, because we were throwing around the idea of because I didn't want to leave, I, I just, yeah, I I didn't want to leave, but at the time I didn't have. Scott green wasn't there at the time. Scott was coaching at west point. Um, the assistant coach that had been with me since my freshman year. He wasn't there anymore. He was coaching another school. It was, um, what else is his name? Uh, cornell. Cornell was the head coach at the time and he wasn't. He's not a. Uh, I I won't say anything bad about him because he was. He's not a bad coach whatsoever. He has tons of success. Yeah, but he wasn't what I needed. Yeah, he wasn't what was for me at that point in time.
Speaker 3:I needed someone to be up my butt and I needed someone to, because I'm still a kid man. I'm still in my development years. I still needed someone to take me out of the ring and really push me to the level I needed to be at, and I just didn't have that. So that took a toll on me. It took a toll on my mental, it took a toll on my wrestling, it took a toll on everything my emotional, just everything. And junior year was rough. It was a rough year for me and after that me and my parents decided, like, wherever it's going to be at, it's either going to be at Sim or it's going to be in Iowa City. We're going to be with you. And I was completely fine with that because that's what I wanted. I knew I wanted my parents with me for my senior year of high school. I wanted them to be there for senior night and to take pictures and to walk out with my mom on the mat and her get flowers.
Speaker 3:You know, these are things that you, you want to do as a correct, as a senior in high school man, and I wanted my parents to be a part of it for my senior year, you know. So we didn't know where it was going to be at at the time, but, um, me and my dad came and we saw a duel. Um, we watched um, I think it was I think I was wrestling wisconsin at the time a couple years ago um, and then we came out for a duel and ben was like jokingly.
Speaker 3:he was like, hey, dude, come check out my high school. I'm like all right, dude, me and my dad think it's just gonna be super informal, just gonna be me and him, um, me, him and me, ben and my dad, um, the head coach ended up coming and showing us around. Wow, we got to walk around the school. We're like, wow, this is cool, not thinking anything of it, of course, me and my dad had a few conversations of maybe moving here. We're like, yeah, it probably just wouldn't happen. What are we thinking?
Speaker 3:dude, all right, whatever we come here for training camp, training camp, you guys have actually been to a couple of times uh training camp for the us open. Um we go there, and um we go there. And so my mom, my mom, ended up coming up um why, I don't really know. You know, I think we wanted to see the coaches again, see the school hang out with the coaches. Whatever, it's cool I was there exactly.
Speaker 3:You know, I was there to train for the freaking open um. At that time I was still u17, I was training for u17 trials. Um, I was hanging out with all my boys, colby ben, all those guys you know, nice, yeah, so that happened, they came out, and so now my mom, my dad, went to city high, got a tour from the principal and the head coach and so, for lack of a better term, shit started to get real.
Speaker 2:Yeah right.
Speaker 3:At this point we're like all right, dude, this ain't no just casual walk around. We had.
Speaker 3:I remember we got. I remember we had a talk and we were just like, yeah, dude, I think this is we got to make that. It wasn't until after trials U-17 trials that we made the decision to move to Iowa City because trials didn't go the way I wanted and I didn't have what I needed still then and we didn't think that I was going to get what I needed at sim again. You know, okay, yeah, it was a tough decision to make because that was the place I called home for three years, right, um getting there was hard, leaving there was even harder.
Speaker 3:You know, I had made so many friends. I had made so many just friendships that I still have, to this day, one of my roommates that I I room but I still talk to this to this day. I FaceTime all the time. He lives in California. We, I talked to him all the time. His name's Chris and he's one of my best. He was one of my best friends Then, one of my best friends now. You know I had to.
Speaker 2:I had to leave all that behind you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:It's a huge, was really tough. Trials didn't go the way I wanted to. I was still not feeling the well I'm feeling the greatest emotionally and mentally, and, um, you know, my parents and I decided it was it was time for for a change and um, we made that big leap from living in georgia to moving to iowa city and, man, we haven't looked back since but um, I will I talk about after trials a little bit, because we talked about earlier about, you know, um, just being able to take a break, take a walk away from a little bit.
Speaker 3:And after trials, that was one of the times I knew I needed to take a break because if I would have kept competing I would have burnt out. Okay and um, interesting, we, we took time off. I took a lot of time off. My next time competing after cadet trials wasn't until lead eight that August.
Speaker 2:Okay, that was a break, yeah, break, yeah, yeah, I took a long time off.
Speaker 3:I took a long time off and it was just strictly training, strictly being around friends and the people that care about me and that I care about, and, man, it was the best time for me.
Speaker 2:It was so I can appreciate that because, looking at what you know, just kind of like with liam right now, with the amount that, like when we talk about covid man, I was taking him to any dual tournament I could get him into Cause he didn't know when the stuff was going to close up and running him through the gauntlet all the way up until you know 15 when we finally got him to a spot where I'm like I can let him go, but you get to a certain point.
Speaker 2:I mean it could be at 14 or it could be your junior year where you got to be able to sit back and be like I really love this thing, but I need to get re. It's almost recentering right. Like you're, you're getting back to what you thought you, who, the person you were being a kid, going camping or you know doing whatever, just having fun and just not having to think about it.
Speaker 3:Do the things that make you happy, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that that make you you, you know right. That's that make you you, you know right, absolutely. I mean, it could be either it's you know, liam, or you or Austin Asante, it doesn't matter who it is. You've got to figure out who you are and do the things that are going to make you recenter, especially when you're in such a grueling sport that this is. You guys are taking that trip around the high school. You guys made the move.
Speaker 2:Obviously, I'd made your decision on where college is going to be. Yeah, um, at that point, where did you, did you, did you find yourself? Re, I guess, refocusing on what you actually want to do? Obviously, everybody wants to win, you know, an ncaa title. Who doesn't want that right? That's why you go to a big 10 school like iowa to be able to to accomplish those things. Did you ever think about? And you said we know you compete in it, but were your eyes on a larger prize the whole time when you were thinking about a college Cause? Even talking to Liam, his goals are trying to get the world. You know world trials and or world teams, and in Olympic trials and Olympic teams, was your focus a little further down the road and not so in in front of you, like next year's a. I got to make sure I get to the big tens or anything like that. When you were thinking about college, was your? Were you thinking about RTC? How am like that, when you're thinking about college, was your were you thinking about rtc?
Speaker 3:how am I going to train to become the best guy that I can make? A world team, olympic team, aside from ncaas? Was that your thought process as well? My thought process was I need to be at the place that's going to make me the best gay brother that I can possibly be.
Speaker 3:And, um, all those milestones, all those minuscule things that you talked about, in the grand scheme of being a better person, iowa fit the bill for all of us. So, national titles, world titles, olympic titles, all these, my thing is I try to minimize these materialistic things that people will forget about along down the road. I minimize them because, in the grand scheme of what I want to become, they're small and they do not matter and as much as they may matter to me and I, you know, I really want to be a world champ, I really want to be an Olympic champ, I really want to be a four time national champ, like, I really want to do those things. But I got to look at the huge picture of, you know, this crazy thing that we call life. You know what I mean and it's it's important, you know, and it's things that you have to do to stay centered. You have to do to stay centered and that's what you know. That's what the time that I had from, from trials a couple of years ago to you know, elite eight duels you know that was what I did in that time. You know I I recentered, and for me to stay within myself, to stay who I am, to keep my composure, I had to realize how small these things were in the grand scheme of things.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean and it sounds crazy and I probably sound like this guy who has this like super, like weird makeup on life, but you know it's important because it's how I would cope, it's how I cope, it's how I, it's how I um, it's how I am able to do the things that I do and compete at a high level and go to Iowa and do X, y, z, you know it just doesn't matter.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean and it's what I have to do, what I have had to do to be at the level that I'm at. But I knew that if that is what I wanted, what I'm telling you right now, if that is really what I wanted, iowa was the place, was the choice for me, and they fit the bill for being the best version of Gabe Arnold, and they want that for me as well. And obviously they want the titles, they want the accomplishments, they want the dreams that I have. They want all those things, but they care about me being a better person. Tom and Terry instilled that into me, and Morningstar and Telford and Dennis and all those guys in that room instilled that into me on a daily basis. It reminds me that I made the right decision a couple years ago.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. As you're edging towards the end of high school because you moved to Iowa City, I watched your finals match Close match. That was a barn burner man.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, I'll tell you that. But you gave those guys a show Both you guys did. I mean, it was an awesome match, right? I'm watching, as now you're wrestling 174 this year, I believe. Right, I don't know if you can give whatever, but I think you're wrestling 174. What weight? Whatever, but I think you're wrestling 174. What weight was that your senior year? 82, 182. Let's talk about that for a minute. So have you you're? Yeah, I know you talk about cutting and having to make weight for certain things and you know, once you get to a certain level, it's just part of the game. When you started getting bigger, were you always wrestling up and not cutting like, let's say, you're cutting. I sounds like an iron man, you're cutting quite a bit because it was hard right. Were you ever at a point where you're like I'm done cutting, I'm gonna wrestle up?
Speaker 3:yeah, that was, that was my senior year that was your senior year, my senior year, I did that because I was like I'm gonna wrestle 74 next year, there's no reason for me to drop lower than 74. I'm not wrestling 170, I refuse to. And so I was like, yep, not happening, I'm going up. And then connell was okay with it. Hell, I was okay with it. I was like, yeah, dude, this is awesome, let's do it yeah yeah we needed it.
Speaker 3:At the time we needed an 82 and I was like, hey, it turns out, I happen to be 182 pounds works out perfectly yeah that's awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was the decision and, um, I think the times in the past it was never necessarily cutting per se. Um, I just wanted to be a little, uh, fat kid and, um, not worry about my weight and not care about nutrition. Um, right now I'm in that same position. You know, I wrestle 74 and right now this is me being brutally honest I'm probably like a buck 95 right now. Nice, just how, just how it goes.
Speaker 3:Once preseason once preseason hits, that weight will go down and after the, after the last run of preseason, I'll be back walking around around 85. Just how my body works. I lose weight like this. I go, I go and practice right now Heck, I'm going to walk out of the practice losing 10 pounds.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you guys do some pretty decent practices yeah.
Speaker 3:My body just fires. Once I get going, body gets fired, metabolism starts rolling, sweat starts coming off, weight starts dropping Just how it goes. At this point in time, I got it down to a science of where I need to have my weight at to be efficient and not feel like absolute dog piss.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that's important, yeah, it's huge man.
Speaker 3:It's huge at this level. You know, even with the two-hour weigh-in man, you cut your nuts off trying to get down to weight. Oh dude, you're going to feel absolutely terrible. There's just, there's no way around it. There's no way around it. And everyone thinks it's two hour range. It's, it's great, don't get me wrong. It's way better than one hour, right, but it still sucks, yeah, it doesn't make getting on the weight any more fun?
Speaker 3:um, not at all. It's still a struggle. It's still a challenge. You know what I mean. And it's just. But it's, it's definitely nice, it's definitely a change, but, um, you know, if you don't do it the right way, you're gonna hate your life. Um, so yeah, so you had a.
Speaker 2:You had a great season your senior year. I think it's pretty evident. I think a lot of people know that. I think what I want to know, but I watched a couple interviews with you. It was, uh, I think one when you were still at iowa city, um, and they kind of asked also on media day once you guys were at at the university, what was your well, I guess, what was your mind frame going from? Now you're a senior and then you jump into the hawkeye wrestling room. I'm imagining just throwing it out there. You probably had a couple practices already in the hawkeye wrestling room to kind of see what it was like and kind of get the feel for it, because you're right in town, right? So was that transition for you? Because you were right there, was that transition in just a little easier? Because you saw the things that you needed to do and probably put into place by the time you got there absolutely, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:My senior year I was. I was there every day. Don't know if I broke any rules there, but hell, why wouldn't you be? You can't. You can't put me in trouble for things that have already happened, right yeah, right no no no, you can't get me in trouble, you can't get me in trouble, oh, but anyways, I was in there by myself, on my own accord nice, okay, yeah, nice, yeah, yeah, yeah, anyone anyways so yeah, man, but it definitely made the transition a lot easier.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. I'm already here, I already know what to expect out of the coaches. I know who my teammates are. I know everything about these guys, you know, because I'm here with them. I see the work that they put in. They see the work that I put in. You know it's not. It's for a multitude of different reasons it makes sense to be there early. You know, it's like taking a gap year.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. It's like you got kids who graduate high school and then they go to the OTC. You know it's the same thing. It's basically the same thing. Only difference is I'm still wrestling in high school. You know what I mean. I basically just took a gap year. That's all I did. I wrestled in Iowa City, I wrestled in Iowa, the state of Iowa, but you know, that wasn't necessarily what I was worried about. I was here so I could get used to being here, you know, and Iowa City is unique because it's a college town, you know.
Speaker 3:So, basically all the time. You know I was downtown hanging out with friends or I was going to eat downtown or doing stuff downtown. You know I was downtown hanging out with friends or I was going to eat downtown or doing stuff downtown, you know. So I'm emerged in that culture. I I know what to expect. I know I knew how tough it was going to be to park for classes before I was even there. You know what I mean. So I knew the struggles that were going to be faced, you know. So it's yeah, it's definitely that's.
Speaker 3:I would say he's definitely unique when it comes to that because of how rich and immersive of a college town it is. You know what I mean. So it was definitely huge for me to be here early. I know the traffic of downtown Iowa City. I know how to get from. I know how quick it's going to take me to get from point A to point B. I know how quick it's going to take me to get from Pomerantz all the way over to freaking, where we have to meet with Doug and all that stuff that I forget the name of it because I haven't been in school in so long. Yeah, but you know, I know these things you know, and being there, being here a year early, made that transition that much easier.
Speaker 3:So I would definitely say for kids that are, you know who are going, who are you already have your school to set it. You know where you're going to be. This is going to be the place I think it's. I mean, hell, try to get your parents to move with you if you can.
Speaker 3:If you can't figure out a way to get there early by yourself, you know, find someone to stay with or something, because I think I really think it made it made my wrestling jump levels. I was. I was so much happier. My, my, my mental was just like dude, I was glowing being here. I love it. I love it. Man, I was fricking. I love Iowa city. I love everything about this place and the school that I was at city high was amazing. It was what I needed. It was exactly what I needed and it was like that it was. My senior year was just such a breath of fresh air. Man, to be honest, like did it? Suck that.
Speaker 3:Making that pro team, yeah, but it was just dude like I. I had no worries. It was all I had to do was focus on school and wrestling. I had my parents here, man. It was great. Good it was. It was. It was awesome, man, and I had a. I had a great team at the time. I love City High. I will forever be indebted to that place.
Speaker 3:Coach Connell was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. I needed another coach like that, like the way he was with me and he was awesome. He still is awesome. Another one of those guys I built a great relationship with and I still keep in contact with to this day because he was. He was just that amazing for me, man, and it was God. It was what I needed and he did so much. He probably doesn't even know how much he did for me, but he, he did so much for me that he will probably never know. Maybe if he watches in there at this interview he'll he'll, he'll know. But he did he a lot. He didn't want this for me and you know I just my senior year was awesome, man. It was, like I said, a breath of fresh air and that's the best way to put it so you roll up.
Speaker 2:Now you're an iowa hawkeye, right, you? You made the decision, you're there. Uh, you know you're going to school. I remember in an interview you talked about time management. You kind of talking about it already as far as trying to figure out where to, how to get to where and doing what. So you're, you're starting to figure this stuff out. That a parent hopes that their kid figures out, right, you know, just because, holy crap, if he doesn't figure out how to get to class in time, we're screwed and we're gonna be paying more money than we want to from school. When you finally get to that point where you've been training and then all of a sudden, they're like, hey, we need you to suit up tonight.
Speaker 2:What was that like in carver hawkeye, putting that singlet on and coming out with the flames going and you know the the? The whole selling point of of iowa is just that environment. Yeah, what was that like for you growing into that? I already saw what happened, obviously, with the state finals that you had. I mean, iowa loves wrestling, I no one's dummy to that. But now you're in. Now you're in carver hawkeye. What was that like for you that first time you put that singlet on a walkout?
Speaker 3:I've always been a fan of the big lights. Um, I love wrestling and it just being me and me. You know what I mean and that's how I view it. Um, I love the fans of car. I love the fans of iowa. I love, I love that. It's just, it's just something about it that just freaking puts a big old shitting grin on my face. You know what I mean. I love it and I show up for it every time. I love the atmosphere, I love being emerged in that. It's what I love. It's what I live for. Man, I absolutely love it. I love that feeling.
Speaker 3:I was definitely nervous my first time coming out and this it's a lot, you know, but the second I step on that mat and I thank the lord for putting me in the position that I'm in. You know, I know it's gonna time, you know, and I get out there and I I do what I gotta do and you know, hopefully I come away with the win almost every time. You know that's the plan, that's what we'd like to do, obviously, but you know it's yeah, it was, it was, it was amazing. There's just no other way to put it. It was just. I never really had the, the feeling of like, like ben, for instance.
Speaker 3:Ben had that, that feeling of growing up being a hawk fan, you know and all he could think about when he started wrestling was walking out in those warm-ups in that thing, like being that guy. You know I I never had that, you know. But I can imagine what it was like to have that dream and you know I've, I've lived that, you know. So, yeah, that in and of itself is a blessing to be able to do that. Not many people can say they've done that, not many people at all. There's a very small percentage of people that can say they ran out of that tunnel with that singlet on and went to fricking war and carve a hot iron. You know, you know, and I I'm glad I get to be a part of that small percentage. Um, but it was, it was amazing man and I I loved it, I lived for it and I cannot wait to see what the season brings, but I'm excited, I'm excited I know we're excited to watch.
Speaker 2:I mean, no one's dumb enough to think that I'm not an iowa fan. I have been since I was five years old wrestling so that's just where I stand and when you mentioned. It was funny when you mentioned, uh, wearing the headgear with the miss Missouri stickers on it and stuff like that. Like I think it was Liam's freshman year. We're like, hey, maybe not wear so much Iowa stuff. I mean we don't want to paint a picture quite yet about what you know because he goes through your options open.
Speaker 2:It was nice going down to that camp because you had guys like DeSanto and you and Drake and all those guys telling me I'm like hey, just still keep your mind open. You know you'd still, you still got to figure out you like it's, you have your dreams, you have your aspirations, but you still got to figure out you. So it was good to hear that from those guys down there, because I could sit there and be like man. I want my kid to be a hockey man, but I wanted to go.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna be a fan of wherever he goes um, I'm still gonna be turning on float or espn or whatever, to watch the iowa hawk when they had season tickets for like two years down that.
Speaker 2:So we're always gonna be fans of that, but we're gonna be a fan of no matter where he goes. When you started, kind of you got into the groove. You started wrestling. We saw you at some events, saw you at some duels. You're wrestling, uh, trying to get on world teams. Things like that are you. Are you finding yourself that, that decision, and you said it, you love it there and it's the place where you're you're growing. Have you decided that maybe this is someplace I stay to coach? Is that something that's on your brain? As far as uh, getting getting towards the and you still got four years left, I don't want you to think of the end of your career yet, but when? When it comes down to it, what are your aspirations once you're done with college, once you're done being in school? What do you want to do?
Speaker 3:My plan is to play with venomous snakes for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2:Damn you and Max Mirren huh.
Speaker 3:Well, max is coaching and I. Ms Hiss was just a. I think he just cared for her in the best way he could. He loved having her yeah. But I plan on taking this reptile thing all the way. I my my main goal is to have a reptile zoo where I milk venomous snakes. And you know, that's my, that's my dream.
Speaker 2:What the hell are you talking about?
Speaker 3:Okay, mean like so yeah, so like there's, like obviously, when you get bit by a venomous snake, um, like there's, there's anti-venom, right well anti-venom to be made.
Speaker 3:Same thing with antibiotics. You got to have venom, right, yeah? So you extract said snake venom and you ship it off to these people and they inject. Inject it in the cattle, which creates the antibodies. They pull it out of said cattle, put it into a little capsule, spin it around super fast and then. So by the time you get it, you'll get it in a powder form, but it doesn't turn into a liquid until it's mixed in with the IV fluid.
Speaker 2:You're a biomedical genius at this point, Holy cow man.
Speaker 3:This has been my dream since I've been a kid man. I love snakes. I has been my dream since I've been a kid man. I love snakes. I've loved reptiles since I was young man. I have six snakes. I got one in my room right now. My other five are at my parents' place right down the street. So I absolutely live for this stuff. I love it and that's what I plan on doing.
Speaker 3:I want to play with venomous snakes and things that are probably going to kill me. Once this is all said and done, the coaches won't let me do it now.
Speaker 2:Of course not.
Speaker 3:They need me for at least four more years.
Speaker 2:Well, you were surrounded by water moccasins and stuff like that Me and my brother.
Speaker 3:me and my brother grew up catching those things all the time. We grew up catching rattlesnakes and copperheads and water moccasins and freaking garter snakes dude, you name it I. So I grew up around those things. I know how to catch them. I've headed venomous snakes plenty of times in my life. I'll do it again. It's it's, it's nothing. It's nothing. It's nothing new to me. I I love it. I love it so much. And it's like a lot of people get their thrill and adrenaline from being on heights. I am honestly not a big fan of heights and I know a lot of people are their thrill and adrenaline from being on heights. I am honestly not a big fan of heights and I know a lot of people are afraid of snakes, so my poison is snakes. I choose snakes and I love playing with them, and particularly I love playing with venomous ones.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 3:That's my thing and that's what I love. Those things, man, they're awesome. Someone's got to do it, man, someone's got to do it, it and unfortunately it just happens to be me.
Speaker 2:so so we know, we know your, we know your plans. So, okay, you, what you're gonna, you're gonna doesn't mean I'm out of what I'm done.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it doesn't mean once I'm done competing, I'll be away from it forever, but yeah, I've been thinking about this since I was a kid man and I would be stupid not to live out that dream that I've wanted to do you know what I mean I talk.
Speaker 2:You're talking about the gay path. That's the Exactly.
Speaker 3:I told you I marched the beat of my own drum and my drum ain't for everybody. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Definitely not me, that's for sure. You want to invite us to have a look at some snakes? It's fine, but I'm going to do that whole COVID thing, that's for sure.
Speaker 3:Maybe a little bit more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe, Depending on how long the snake is for God's sake, let's talk about a couple things here is for god's sakes. So let's talk about a couple things here. I had a. I had a guy that said he wanted me to ask a couple questions. I'll ask one of them. So obviously we've gotten to see you wrestle on some of the the other levels as far as trying to make world teams, things like that. We watched a mat with you or a match with you wrestling a guy, uh, from nebraska, right, and it came to the end you were winning. You won. Uh, doing some doing some butt patting. Was that just a hey, good match, buddy, nice try, though kind of thing was that? What was that fun? Was that just kind of rising a guy up a little bit? Because?
Speaker 3:I get it one for one. He did nothing the whole match. That's for starters. Um, I didn't. I wasn't a hugest fan of that. I never am um yeah, liam's not either.
Speaker 2:He hates that yeah, for two.
Speaker 3:Um, he started to get a little chippy with me and you know if you're going to give it back to me. I wrestle in the Iowa room every day. Dude, I'm not the guy to give it to, because I promise you I will give it right back to you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so he started with me a little bit and you know I was did I smack one of his balls in Solid work? Was I smacked one of those solid work? Yeah, no, I said. I said solid work, a for effort. And, um, you know, he got up with me and he kind of shoved me and he looked at me a little bit oh dude, I'm not the one to do that and he kind of gave me a little little knife. So I shoved him back down to the mat and then he kept trying to wrestle. He grabbed my feet and I'm like I mean, dude, at that point I've smacked you on the butt, I've shoved you on your back. Why are you grabbing my feet and playing trying to bite my ankle right now, like you're making? I've already made you look really dumb at this point. So I mean, at this point we should probably just leave it alone before things really get out of hand.
Speaker 3:But it's no hard feelings, it's all in the, it's all in the thing it's scrapping man yeah no and yeah no, and people have their comments about it and wanting to call me a punk and everything else. But everyone has opinions about everything that I do, no matter which side that I'm on. It just doesn't make it. Doesn't make it any easier than I'm wearing an iowa singlet so let's, let's talk about that.
Speaker 2:How do you, how do you, how do you block the noise out, do you? I mean, at the end of the day I'm because you even told me like hey, man, I'm not on here a whole lot, you know, kind of on social media itself, right, like everybody says, oh you know, nowadays kids should be on social media more, sell themselves blah, blah. Liam's not that much, you know, like even he's not, he doesn't hear a lot of the noise that goes on. You know that kind of thing. So, as a as a high level college athlete like that, how are you able to block out the noise and still be able to be you?
Speaker 3:delete my socials. Nice, that's and that's so I I do it. I've done deleting my socials. Um, like since I was a freshman in high school. Like, leading up to big competitions, instagram, facebook, twitter goes bye-bye. All of it goes bye-bye. Um, I just okay, I don't, I just don't. It's not what I need to immerse myself in before I get ready for a big tournament. You know what I mean. And I still have TikTok. You know, I look at TikTok, I scroll through it. I'm like, oh, dude, this is awesome.
Speaker 1:I like that, you know I gotta have something to occupy me.
Speaker 3:I'm like a big iPad kid, you know I like looking at YouTube and stuff watching videos all that stuff. It's my thing, you know. Know, I like doing that, but you know I've good for you at this point. It's like, man, social media is so hit or miss nowadays. It's like I I sometimes gets. It's sometimes beneficial, most of the time it's not. Like after trials, I completely deleted all my socials and I've been off of them since um and I've stayed off of them just because it's.
Speaker 3:You know it's so like it's. People say words don't hurt man as an athlete. People will make sure words will hurt yeah um, yeah as they will dig it into you, and even the people that say they love you dude, you got your own, you got your own. Fan saying dude, screw this kid. I'm like god ow yeah, right you a hawk fan? I'm pretty sure I signed a picture for you and you hate me. What the hell? I'm like, dude come on you can't win for losing out here.
Speaker 3:But yeah, you know. So it's a battle and just like everything in this sport, it's a battle and finding the fine line for you is important. I know my fine line. Also. A lot of the time, what people say really does not bother me that much, because I grew up in a household of just like I grew up with an older brother, so I've taken just about everything there is to take. So, and at the end of the day, I know the type of person that I am and I I know what I stand for and the things that these people say and what they say to me about me, it it will never phase me to the thing to the point that they think they phase me because they say these things, because they think they can arise out of you and everything else and this, that and the third. And yeah, like I, like I said earlier, opinions are like assholes.
Speaker 2:We all have them, that's right, I know you're a good kid man. Obviously Liam was down there. You kind of took him under your wing a little bit and obviously we were kind of doing things a little crooked. He was trying to lose weight for the US Open when he should have been trying to grab that much weight. We actually bumped him up a weight class then to wrestle above, and that's genuinely what we've always done with him. So you took him a little on your wind cracks with him a little bit and plus, I know he got to kind of hang out with you guys a little bit too.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that was.
Speaker 2:That was nice for him to be able to witness the, the things that what you guys obviously show off the mat having fun being kids, being the guys that you are in and gelling as a team for the most part, and being able to do what you guys want to do and being able to keep that mind frames tough and have all that noise.
Speaker 3:We are one big dysfunctional family. We love each other. Death but damn.
Speaker 2:We're dysfunctional and you know it's interesting absolutely.
Speaker 3:We all have our own different personalities and things we love to do. We all march to the beat of our own drum man and it's just that's what makes.
Speaker 3:I think that's what makes our team so unique, man, and I think even with you know, we got guys who weren't starters, who were awesome to be around, and we hang out with them every day. It's not, it's not okay. This guy's here, so everyone else is down here, so we have to worship this guy. No, it's everyone together and it's just like I said it's. We're one big dysfunctional family. We fight all the dang time. We punch each other in the mouth and practice we put each other in the trash can, but the second, we, the second, we walk into that locker room or we we get in that sauna or we were in the shower together. Man, it's just one big dysfunctional family, man, and we, we love each other to death. We love each other like brothers and we'll go to war for each other every single day, every time out. You know it doesn't matter where we are or who we're with. You know what I mean. It's just how it goes, you know. So it's.
Speaker 3:I'm glad that I'm here on this team because there's no one else. I would rather do that with. You know what I mean. There's after being here for I've been here for an actual year now, you know, being around the team constantly, and it's instilled in me that I chose the right place, and there's no one that I would rather do this with, besides the coaches that I have, besides the teammates that I have. You know what I mean? It's just, it's refreshing knowing that I made the right decision, even after a year.
Speaker 2:So tell you well, dude, we've been talking for a while, man, and I really appreciate you, and what I always like to do at the end I've talking for a while, man, and I really appreciate you, and what I always like to do at the end I've been doing this recently is you got shout outs, things like that. People you want to kind of, you know, talk about, just like, hey, I have much respect to this person, feel free to let them fly. I don't even care if it's a company, I don't. This stuff doesn't bother me. So what you got shout outs you don't know, I mean I've shouted out everyone my parents, of course mom and dad, of course.
Speaker 3:All my coaches back home, terry Donovan, coach Charlie, all those guys Coaches I have here. Of course they all know who they are. Tom Tade, morningstar, telford, all those guys. Dennis Chad, beatty, the man, yeah All those guys. Absolutely, Absolutely so yeah. I'm in the best place to be the best, best person, best version I can possibly be, so I'm grateful for that. So thank you that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, we're gonna end it with that man and we're gonna I'm gonna talk to you for a second after we're done, but uh, hey, everybody, this has been gabe arnold here on the vision quest podcast. Hope you enjoyed it because, uh, it was his story. So, uh, all right, man, we'll. Uh, we'll talk to you on the side here, but to everybody else peace, thank you guys.
