Wrestling mats and snowy Minneapolis suburbs might seem worlds apart, but for Precious, they're the stages of a life marked by resilience and conquest. Our latest Vision Quest episode commemorates the 39th anniversary of the film that inspired a generation of dreamers, and we're diving deep into Wieser's compelling narrative, from the challenging streets of Watts to her transformative success as a wrestling champion. Her journey is a powerful testament to the role of sports in shaping lives, the relentless pursuit of dreams, and the indomitable human spirit.
Celebrating women's wrestling's legacy through Wieser's eyes, our conversation is a tapestry woven with threads of hardship, rebellion, and ultimate redemption. She lays bare the emotional landscape of her youth, marked by the instability of foster care and the search for identity. Wrestling emerges not just as a sport but as salvation, offering discipline, a support system, and, most importantly, a sense of purpose. Wieser's story is not simply one of personal triumph; it's an ode to the mentors and coaches who guided her, the teammates who bolstered her, and the gritty determination that led to collegiate wrestling success and beyond.
As Wieser reflects on her coaching role today, she brings to life the lessons learned from global wrestling experiences and the importance of creating a supportive community. Her narrative honors the pioneers who paved the way for women in the sport and kindles hope for its future. Through the highs and lows, the sweat and tears, this episode isn't just a celebration of a sport—it's a rallying cry for anyone chasing their vision, a reminder that with tenacity and heart, every quest is within reach.
Appleton Tattoo Links
https://www.facebook.com/appletontattoo
https://www.instagram.com/mark_appletontattoo/
920 Hat Co. Links
https://920hatco.com/
https://www.instagram.com/920hatco/
https://www.facebook.com/920HatCo
Wrestling mats and snowy Minneapolis suburbs might seem worlds apart, but for Precious, they're the stages of a life marked by resilience and conquest. Our latest Vision Quest episode commemorates the 39th anniversary of the film that inspired a generation of dreamers, and we're diving deep into Wieser's compelling narrative, from the challenging streets of Watts to her transformative success as a wrestling champion. Her journey is a powerful testament to the role of sports in shaping lives, the relentless pursuit of dreams, and the indomitable human spirit.
Celebrating women's wrestling's legacy through Wieser's eyes, our conversation is a tapestry woven with threads of hardship, rebellion, and ultimate redemption. She lays bare the emotional landscape of her youth, marked by the instability of foster care and the search for identity. Wrestling emerges not just as a sport but as salvation, offering discipline, a support system, and, most importantly, a sense of purpose. Wieser's story is not simply one of personal triumph; it's an ode to the mentors and coaches who guided her, the teammates who bolstered her, and the gritty determination that led to collegiate wrestling success and beyond.
As Wieser reflects on her coaching role today, she brings to life the lessons learned from global wrestling experiences and the importance of creating a supportive community. Her narrative honors the pioneers who paved the way for women in the sport and kindles hope for its future. Through the highs and lows, the sweat and tears, this episode isn't just a celebration of a sport—it's a rallying cry for anyone chasing their vision, a reminder that with tenacity and heart, every quest is within reach.
Appleton Tattoo Links
https://www.facebook.com/appletontattoo
https://www.instagram.com/mark_appletontattoo/
920 Hat Co. Links
https://920hatco.com/
https://www.instagram.com/920hatco/
https://www.facebook.com/920HatCo
breakdown.
Speaker 2:And we're live. We are live. So we are back with another episode of the Vision Quest podcast. It's special day today it's the 39th anniversary of the movie the Vision Quest, so that's why I got my map monster shirt on here from Frank Jasper. So big shout out to Frank if I had him on a couple of times. One more quick announcement we have a new sponsor, anabolic Army, great pre-workout stuff I've actually used a couple of times. It's definitely good for pre-workout. Definitely gives an old guy like me a little boost when it comes to lift-in. So check out Anabolic Army. They are on Instagram, facebook. They have a website. Go check them out. They're a great pre-workout. You'll see some more about them as we go through the months here and we'll get them up on our page too. So but anyways, we are here. We are joined by a special guest, precious. I'm going to say that I don't know. I've only known you from Bell. So when I saw the new the not necessarily new but when I saw it's Weezer, correct.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Okay, when I saw Weezer show up I was like wait a minute, what's going on here? What's going on here? So I appreciate you joining me, I appreciate you taking some time out of your evening here to kind of sit down with us and tell your story, your sports-slash-wrestling story. Tell us, like I always tell everybody, we're going to start from the beginning. We're going to go back to when you were. Just remember sports, the first sport you played, all the way up to now, whatever you got going on. But we definitely want to kind of dive into a little bit of the ins and outs of what kind of made you get to where you are now. So let's start out with where are you at right now? Are you in California?
Speaker 3:No, you're not no, okay. I saw snow. I saw snow. Yeah, where are you?
Speaker 2:at.
Speaker 3:I'm in Minneapolis, minnesota. I have a house right above St Paul, minneapolis area. Nice Small city called Maplewood. It's like the suburbs of the cities.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, I saw you were enjoying yourself in the California weather outside removing snow. That must have been a good time. Did you guys get hit pretty hard? Because we only got a dusting here. We got like maybe a half inch or so.
Speaker 3:We got hit pretty hard. We got a good I want to say like five inches, but I want to say that it was at a good time. It didn't start pouring down into like five and then stopped at 1 am. Oh really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I decided to because yesterday was Valentine's Day but I was like super busy, didn't have time to really hang out with my husband or anything. So I was like what is the best way to show him that I love him? I was like it's going to mean a lot when a California girl is outside snowboarding the driveway and I still can't feel my hands and I have practice and everything. Today I will not be doing that again. He doesn't want me to do it again.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Yeah, it's not fun. It's not fun. We got that. Were you around with the because we had a huge what was it? A month or month and a half ago we had like 12 inches and about four hours show up and swept right through our area. I mean, I've seen some snow, but I haven't seen that much in a while.
Speaker 3:That's insane. I don't think Soda got it at all. This is the first time that we actually got like some snow, snow.
Speaker 2:Oh really.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, anyways, hopefully it's almost over with soon. It sounds like that Rodent saw his shadow or something, so whatever he does, but okay, so let's talk about where you're from. Where are you born?
Speaker 3:I was born in Watts, California. It's like in South Central of Los Angeles.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, no, I'm aware, I'm aware of Watts. Actually, we have family that live in Hollywood and we kind of you know roundabout ways gone through areas, but yeah, so, okay. So let's talk about that a little bit Now. Wrestling not as prevalent there, I would assume, but what was your first sport that you remember growing up that you played?
Speaker 3:Running Track, yeah, track cross country.
Speaker 2:Okay, what was your? What got you going? Was it you just kind of going to gym class? Got into it, what was it?
Speaker 3:It was because I was tall and I sucked at basketball. Right to wrestling so it's all terrible at basketball if you wrestle.
Speaker 2:So was it something that you tried out for basketball or just as a kid? You're like I had this sucks. I don't like, I'm not good at it, I don't want to do it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I actually always tell this story, so my life is a little complicated. My upbringing was very hard. So as we go on and we talk about it, it's going to be like a lot of just like vagueness and you can ask for clarification if you want. It's just it's hard to like kind of necessarily plan out like how I went through everything.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 3:So my now adopt, like dad that I consider my dad. He was my cross country track and coach, but he was a PE teacher. He served 20 years in the military. Okay, Great guy, scary guy. Like we all used to be terrified of him when he would come back from his jobs because he did our new reserves.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:He was a basketball coach and I tried out and he was like you're terrible, I'm just like. He didn't say I was terrible, but he didn't pick me and I was upset and at that time he wasn't like my dad but he was an important melt figure in my life and he was always just showing me in ways that he was proud of me being there for me, encouraging me, because I was actually really good at running, okay, and it came natural because of my long legs and that's how I felt. That's how I first fell in love with sports. And it's kind of weird because where I'm from, if you're not good in school, it's labeled on you that you might not be good at school and you won't be able to afford college.
Speaker 3:So, like most kids like me, we go straight into sports. We had to find the sport that we like. That's my reality. Like I had to find a sport that I was good at. I knew, with my genetics and just how I am, that any sport that I applied myself to that my body naturally has talent for that. I would be on on the top of that.
Speaker 2:You had to fight your way out. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think for me that was track like immediately I was fast, I can hold strides, I can get tired, but my mental was just a little wired a little different where, because of the stuff I went through when I was young, I had a pain, a high pain, tolerance and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:So it was just my way of you don't have to think. When you run, you're just focused on your pace, you're focused on your breathing, you're focusing on like. Running is my favorite. I will always be a runner at heart. It's the art of controlling and speaking to your body, but in a whole different way. Like your legs will stop working, your lungs will start going, your feet will give out all those things, and it's like getting your body mind open, matter to, you know, continue to push. And I absolutely fell in love with it when I was in middle school.
Speaker 2:I have to take some balls, you know, to be able to go through that.
Speaker 2:I mean I remember just to, I mean just track, the track competitions we had for like middle school and stuff from here.
Speaker 2:I mean I was athletic, I mean I played soccer, things like that, but like a straight run, like I'm a sprinter, so to try and run a distance, like running four laps around a high school track, like you crazy, what do I need to do that for no use, for that whatsoever, you know. So just listening to the things that you're saying, like you have to learn how to talk to your body differently. Like, yeah, your feet are going to give out, like my brain gives out when I get so far into a run, like I don't even I can't think you know, but that doesn't help the rest of my body. So that's, that's, that's quite a it's quite a feat to overcome. So you kind of fell in love with it in middle school. Where was there something at a young age that did you win a tournament or like a race, a special race, or anything like that? When you're a little, that kind of sticks out in your mind at all.
Speaker 3:Um, not really. That's one thing you, I guess you get to learn about me. Yeah, if it's not like I, since I was a little girl, everyone in class would be like I'm going to be actor, I'm going to be a doctor, I'm going to be this. And I was like I'm going to be a Olympian, I'm going to have a gold medal. So it didn't matter. I didn't know for what sport, I just knew that my goal and my dream to strive was going to be a Olympian and to go for the highest thing that I can get, which is a Olympic gold medal. Yeah.
Speaker 3:At that time. If I win anything, I'm not celebrating for a long time and I don't keep it because it's not that metal. So the more you hear me, I'd be like yeah.
Speaker 2:I did all the acts.
Speaker 3:Living in that moment is just this episode where I needed to be but memory for me. I remember it wasn't actually a race, it was a they do those PE testers, yeah, and I remember it's the paster and they were basically like we have this record going this long and it was a bunch of guys and I remember I was always competitive, especially with guys Like I just love to think that like my body had no bounds and one thing about me going through the stuff that I did go through as a child the notoriety in being valued in sports was what I thrived through. I have some sense of just sense of worth and, you know, feel like I belong. So I remember I was racing this kid in the paster. I went to cold middle school in Lancaster, california and I remember just going faster and faster and faster and like I watched him break, like I watched him break and then I continued to more on top of that.
Speaker 2:And then I Wow, holy cow.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay. So that definitely, I mean that'll boost you, that'll give you a lift, especially when it comes to knowing what you want to do or the direction you kind of want to go with something. So, as you're getting into middle school, when did competition? I think as a kid, obviously you don't want to, it's a win-loss thing when you're young, but did you kind of you had that reality of this is what I want to get to succeed. This is exactly what. This is the path I have. This is the path I want to take.
Speaker 2:In middle school, did you already have your eyes and sights on like I'm getting ready for not even Olympics yet, but like I'm getting ready for high school because I want to race in this tournament or this state tournament or things like that? What were your thoughts as a middle school kid? You know you say it was a little bit of a different upbringing, but as a middle school kid and you're trying to compete, trying to push yourself to that limit, what was that like as far as you know what you really had your sights on at that time?
Speaker 3:School was a break from what I was going through at home. So for me my goal was, you know, always being like watching, analyzing and doing who I want to be as a person. So I remember watching you say more and I had this like he was the fastest in the world. That was like his prime when I was a kid and I remember watching him and I was like watching the way he carried himself. I watched him when he warmed up, I watched the way he ran, I watched his dance. Like that was my thing, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And for me, I just knew that as long as I put my best foot forward and everything that I did, that no one can deny me, like when I think I still have. I think when someone asks you what is something super unique about yourself is me. When I walk in a room, I feel like people can feel who I am and they know I'm there, like I am an unknowable, you know present in the room, that you can't, you know, ignore. You can try, but I know you can feel me. Right.
Speaker 3:Right. I stand out. You know, and I, you know, channeled that since I was a kid, Like when I got ready to lace my I couldn't afford cleats back then, so I would literally beat people in just like either pass down shoes or like shoes that you can think of running in. I would have to ask my dad again or see if I had a picture. I'll send you a picture, but it's like like yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, wow, and I that was my motivation. Like, look, I don't have a lot, I don't have the fancy stuff, but I'm still going to dust you, you know, I'm still going to put my best foot forward. So, like when I got on there, I can feel like I want everyone to feel my presence, like feel me there, like I'm there, whether I won or lost, like that's the thing about me is whether I win or lose. I just want to know that I had been there part of that history. Like you're not going to be able to think of women's wrestling in college wrestling or, you know, see a national team with 76 without, you know, having my name pop up.
Speaker 2:For sure. So you speak about presence. How tall are you? I'm six foot. You're six foot, yeah. So now how tall were you in middle school?
Speaker 3:I was tall you were tall. I don't remember but I know. But I was five, eight or in the size nine and a half tin shoe when I was. Wow, yeah, I always been a top girl Okay.
Speaker 2:So it's like you had like two inches left after that. That was kind of it's kind of paused, so that gave to me. Now I'm not a runner, so I don't know everything. To me you already have an advantage out the gate right, you're five, eight. You're not wearing a size 10, whatever, eight, 10. So your, your, your, your size tells me that you should be able to school kids. Now I know there's technique to running, so it's not just going out there and just sprinting as fast as you can. You guys obviously put some work and were you practicing a lot because, again, talking about how your upbringing was where you practice and school was important but were you also at school and extra four hours so you could practice and really hammer things home? Cause I can only imagine you, if you're putting that much work into it, you're destroying kids, you know so no, actually I, I wasn't, that's why I was so say hi, scotty.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, perfect, perfect timing.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:It's good, it's good.
Speaker 3:This is my hairless cat. He's attached to me, whatever.
Speaker 2:You can be part of the story.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so basically, just, my home life wasn't so good and it was at times and I couldn't, you know, have more freedom to do things, so I didn't have those opportunities to basically, you know, get that extra practice. And that's what video was for me, like watching paintball, doing those things, talking about it, like I always been someone that like believe that if you talk about it and you say it, my mind believes it, my body believes it, my spirit believes it, and all I need is for my spirit to believe it and then my body will do the work.
Speaker 2:I was going to say. So you I mean you putting the homework in and, like you said, watching video and kind of. You know, obviously you want to gravitate. I mean I gravitated towards paylay and like Diego Maradona and things like that, cause those guys are my idols, so that's. I did the same thing, I went out and I would. I was the same old story. I only had a curb and a garage door in a Yorkshire Territory to chase me around for defense. But at the same point though, too, when you're, when you're watching video and things like that, you're really kind of living off the visualization of it, which you know, speaking and then believing in, in what you're doing, that kind of kind of rolls into a little bit more of the wrestling life too, as far as what you have to do and and get to that point. But where do you? Where do you start to go? As you're getting into middle school and high school, what are you still in track? How long do you stick with track?
Speaker 3:So this is where I guess part of my testimony comes out about the person that I am and a lot of stuff that I went through. The transition from middle school to high school was a very hard time in my life. I grew up in foster care, in and out of foster care, so I grew up with my family but then got taken away and went back and taken away again. So I went back and forth between those and after middle school I graduated and I was going for college. Because you know in summer you go to those, you get ready to go to the basically introduction of what you want to do. You go to your classes.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And all of that summer stuff so like orientation orientation.
Speaker 3:Yes, I started color guard, I started all those things and then I ended up running away from home and like getting ready to go to high school. I just couldn't take the all respect to my mom she was young, you know all that but I couldn't take the abuse I was going through anymore. I was abused a lot when I was a kid and I think it's hard for me to say it, not because it hurts me, but because I just don't, like you know, putting that bad light on my mom, but she was going through and that also just puts my siblings and a weird font, you know. But to be true to my story, yes, I was abused and it was really bad and I was tired of getting beat down, like I and my household. It was kind of like, since I was the eldest girl, I had to do most of all the work. My mom would do the cooking, the cleaning. It became my responsibility and she was a single mom, so she was doing the responsibilities that and then she was doing you know. So I think she was a little hard on me because she was very Stress and going through all of those things is not an excuse for what she put me through.
Speaker 3:There's levels to things. She did a level, but you, I can understand why she did it, because at sometimes, when you just going through a lot, you can break it and even disconnect the know who you are in that moment. Yeah, so I don't blame her for anything. I wouldn't be a strong woman without her. But, yes, I ran away from home and that was my final time taken away for a lot of things, and I was a sexual abuse survivor too. So I think when I was by the time I was what.
Speaker 3:I graduated middle school in 2012. So I was 15 by 15. I went through so much, I had so much weight on my shoulders and I was just really done with that and being at home, it was kind of like you didn't do this, you didn't do that, like you're not going to be sports, like the way of punishing me was taking opportunities away from me. That I believe that would mean, yeah, super successful in the future, and I understand if it was something I was doing bad, but it was just like you didn't do the dishes and she was frustrated.
Speaker 3:Yeah you don't get to go to this or do this and you can't be doing like. In my opinion, you can't be doing that to kids. You can't doing that at all, like you can't punish your kids for for having responsibilities that's honestly supposed to be yours and I'm not saying just chores. I don't need to go into details, but do right right things that was there.
Speaker 3:People that know me know what I went through. But I lost all of her running. I stopped to be, was depressed. I went to foster home. To a foster home. I started smoking weed. I started getting into drugs. I started to be very promiscuous. It happens when you're 15 and you go home to home, and when you're in those homes is kind of like where you are is not really your home. You're a visitor. So holidays don't feel the same. You deal with the hurt that your family is going through and you, you go through. I went through just so much and I lost myself. I blame myself for most things, even though it wasn't my fault. I had identity crisis because of things that I knew just wasn't there. And then I went from being like strict, you know, you did this, you did this, or you get asked me. It was like you're not going to do what you want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of like bed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, this I'm going to try that. I'm going to try this.
Speaker 2:For sure, that's that. I mean that's the name of the game when you're at that age. For sure, yeah?
Speaker 3:So I was like just doing all of that stuff and I'm not proud of it, but it did make me wiser. When I got to college I didn't have the problems that the girls had in college. I knew how to hold my own. I didn't care for partying as much. I did party, but it wasn't like something that affected my training because I got to do that so young.
Speaker 3:But the point of that was I went to foster homes, foster homes, foster homes went through. Things was fighting. I went to four high schools in a year. Four. I went to East side but then I ran away. So then I went to Palmdale, then I went to P ninth and from P ninth I went back to Palmdale, back to East side. Yeah, and now my credits are messed up, my grades are messed up. I think I had to look at 0.5. It was bad, I was just a mess. I got put in a level 12 group home, which means that you live in a house with six other girls that pretty much went through the same thing as you are worse, and you share room with one and we're confined in the house. You have staff that come in and out of the house and have shifts. You have chores. So, like the basic things that you think people get like when you're that age in high school, you get a phone. You know cause you need to communicate. You get clothes no, those things were earned. You get allowance If you own.
Speaker 3:It's from the money that you saved from your allowance from the state.
Speaker 2:How old were you when you were?
Speaker 3:there. I was 16 when I was there, okay, okay. And I basically like, if you want, to phone your Patreon phone bell like you had at least as a adult young. So I started taking care of myself at 15.
Speaker 2:Well, you had to grow up pretty quick, man. I mean that's just aside from what you were already going through. But then having to, I mean you're earning, you know they're trying to teach you something at the same time, but at the same, the thoughts of a we talk about just when kids are talking about going to college. They're 17, 18, they're going to make a five year decision. You're here, 15, 16, and you're faced with the reality already of you know I got to. If I want this, I have to get it, and I don't know what kind of guiding hands are at that place, but it doesn't sound like it's. You know the most you know fun situation to be in, especially at 15, 16. And so we was it. I were the people you were with that were your age, where we were able to connect with someone and kind of, you know, be able to have some type of a connection with anybody going through that.
Speaker 3:I feel like when you're going through so much pain, the connection is through the indulgence of you know things that we're using to feel or avoid, and sometimes I fucking hate each other. You live in the house with these girls and we weren't allowed to go outside. If you wanted to go outside, it was in your backyard and our backyard wasn't that big. And if you wanted to go out with friends, your friends parents had to come, show their ID, sign a paper to sign you out and you had two hours. So we had to find in that house.
Speaker 3:I was lucky because I was at a really good group home, even those with those strict rules Like once I got into sports and I'll go into that. Back to sports they bought me a treadmill so I can get my anger out because I was fighting. A lot Like my way of communication was the way that I was treated when it was communicating, which was you know violence.
Speaker 3:So all I knew is, when you made me angry, I'm a punty in the face and at first that's like a tough thing, you know, people get scared of you, but after a while it just shows how weak you actually are, like the way that I have to, that I feel that I can resolve my problems and I need to punch someone. I can't use words, you know. So as much as I felt strong in that moment, I was a very weak person and was just going through a ton of stuff. The staff at my group home I feel like again the whole presence thing I think they knew my heart, they knew who I was, even if I was saying the opposite of what I meant. They knew just what I was struggling with, what I was battling with. And I still have contact with them now and I appreciate everything that they have done for me because that helped me fall in love with wrestling and I said wrestling when I was in my group home.
Speaker 2:It's hard to forget that presence though, too. You know when the situations you kind of touched on that that make things that hard in life, and then you have people that I mean. Sure there were moments of tough love kind of situations, but more of a lesson learned type thing instead of a fear type situation. Were you able to? It sounds like you were able to learn a lot, at least, from that, and then it sounds like it's going to maybe carry you through wrestling and get you into wrestling, and how did that pop up while you're going through this?
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh God. So the whole thing was you can't have a cell phone unless you basically buy it. I was tired of using the house line. That's when the house line was big. You know, like everyone was like give me your number, I'll use the house phone when we have to share. And I'm tired of sharing, I want to text. I like to text day at a time, and I just wanted to like be in contact with my friends and Palmdale more than you know, not having any internet and have to borrow one of my roommates phone and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:So I saved up my allowance. I was good, I bit my tongue, which was hard for me, so I started fighting. I just walked away and scone and I saved up enough money for two months of the phone bill. But then also I had saved up for the phone. And that's what? Is that Not cricket? I forgot what the other boost.
Speaker 2:No, I don't know. There's a couple of them. It's hard to remember that yeah it is.
Speaker 3:I'll probably remember later. Yeah, I set my money on the table when we got here.
Speaker 3:She was like we're going to have an outing, we're going to finish, gracious Connie, we're going to go basically to the store, no-transcript. So I put my money on the freaking table for one second to go potty, and it came back and it was gone. No one knew. And again, we don't have privacy in this group home. We have cameras in the living room, but we just don't have cameras in our bedrooms or bathroom. So, but where I put the money like idiot is where you can't see it in the camera.
Speaker 2:No, oh no.
Speaker 3:Who stole it, so it's bummed. I was like somebody stole it. I just stopped talking to everyone.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was like now I don't have a freaking phone and I found out one of the girls all son, she just got all the snacks, all the stuff and I'm like when she in this money from? Yeah right, but she was the same one. That was Um, she was basically the same one that was helping me look for it. So it was like it's no way that she's the one that did it, because she was helping me look for it. I was like this HEPA, like it's no way she did it. It's a good way to hide it. She did it, she. But the way she told me was she told me when we're in the car on the way to school, and Then I think she spit on me too and I fucking lost it. I lost it. Oh, oh yeah. I kicked out the car and I just remembered it banging, like just trying to get into the car. The security guard was there. I was like I don't need to get in trouble, so I just went to class. And then that same day I was like I just need something to get energy out and need to get energy out and need to get energy out, needs to Get energy out. So I was like sitting in the homeroom of Spitz. I was crying. I was like I just freaking hate this, I'm marring, but like I don't know what else to do.
Speaker 3:I'm pretty sure I was depressed for a very long time. And I heard wrestling and I was like Hmm, hmm. I was like no females are gonna be in wrestling. So I'm like I think that's where I need to be and I tried. I went to tryouts that same day. I, you know, I went to the office, called the group home, ask them if I can get clearance to go to wrestling practice. They just check to make sure that it was actual wrestling practice that day and then I got clearance to go. I got my. Oh, I got. I got.
Speaker 3:Remember they're like how much you weigh. I was like one one fifty two and I'm six foot one fifty two. I'm a very lean girl and I just remember going against a 150 one, I think that way class like 150 forward in high school and I just Remember just getting messed up. I For some reason, like I was outside and my body was steaming and I felt like this fire and I just Cried and I couldn't go how much I was crying. But I wasn't crying because I Basically got my butt kicked and release yeah, it was a release like I had no clue was doing. My stance is ugly, everything was ugly. I'm like 17 years old learning a new sport. I have no clue what I'm doing. I'm like actually kind of embarrassed my butt's way out and I'm like this, I'm so tall, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:I got out and I just remember, after that moment I cried. I went home. I love burgers and that's what all I would eat every day at my group home. Yeah, so I made a burger at showered and I'm not. That was like I think the first time in years I slept like when I mean slept like, slept like Knowing that I have peace, like he's wholeheartedly now out, mouth open drew and I had peace in my life. Um, and I just remember going back, going back, going back, going back to the point that, like I blinked my eyes and I'm at See if for California, which is sectionals, and I I got.
Speaker 3:This is embarrassing in the newspaper, but I got second. Three, two and a half months of wrestling, I got second. I see a, but I got. I was winning but got disqualified for choking around, so you got finished. I got and they're, and the way they put it in there, I wonder if I can find it. They're like For a legal chokehold or something.
Speaker 2:Oh, I was like just lay down yeah you didn't have the arm, just go to sleep.
Speaker 3:So yeah, and I, just from there, my career took off like they were, like this girl only wrestled for two months, barely knows how to shoot um.
Speaker 2:Stance is horrible. Dance is horrible falls over skis for feet, you know. Like, I have small feet, so yeah, yeah, I have small feet, so anybody standing next to me has big feet, but so that's that. So that's interesting that you know, especially you mentioning that you slept well. You felt, I, I would say, exhausted. You still ate, I mean so where you saw the next day. How did that feel, though you saw oh, I was so sorry. You're sorry.
Speaker 3:The first time actually worked out because I would run in the treadmill, but Running, yeah, from wrestling way different I was born with a six pack. I have never, you know, had to like work on core, so my second everyone saw was a front that student.
Speaker 3:So I actually got the core for the first time. I know my back was like I was going through it, but I loved it. It was a. It gave like wrestling gave me a sense of purpose and it like Saved my life like I. I love it when I hear wrestling say that because I'm like, I feel it, I know it because it saved my life too. It it's, it literally saved me. If I didn't go to practice that day I would have definitely fell into the statistics. Um of you know girls and foster care like I probably would have got pregnant and, you know, been working no offense to people working at my donald's. You know I love McDonald's but I would have a fast food job.
Speaker 2:You know it's not your ideal place, though it's yeah.
Speaker 3:No you want dreaming as a little kid at being an olympian to you know being so. You know, broken inside, that you don't even think you deserve to even have a chance to Accidentally going into something that gives you that that chance again.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm glad the wrestling that caught you, because it's it's, it's fun watching your wrestling. It's kind of funny that you talked about how two months after you're already in, like the, you know a big stage in california, because that's one state, one state, tournament there's, you know, there's no division two, three, you're wrestling everybody. So, as you kind of it was at your freshman year was when you first you first found it.
Speaker 3:What year was that? June?
Speaker 2:17. Okay, wow, so what? What? What type of? Because you were exposed so late. What type of Outs did you wind up ever getting outside of california for wrestling ever before?
Speaker 3:you got out of high school, couldn't afford it Um. Right, I didn't know it was my sophomore year.
Speaker 3:And I so I basically wrestled Two months soft from a year sophomore year, two months, just two months of wrestling, and then Three months junior year and then a month my senior year and then went to state. So before I went to college, I only had about Not even close to half of year, maybe a half year of experience under my belt. I was able to go to one tournament, I mean like one camp nvd. Uh, marcy, which is, you know, my sponsor with tide mercury. I love her, yep, yep, uh, basically because I got lucky. But that was it.
Speaker 3:Like I couldn't afford fargo, um, okay, I didn't afford all of those things because that came out of my pocket, like that Right stuff that you know I had to, like, find extra resources for it. So I didn't have parents, you know, um, and it just the support system. So, like my dad that I talked about, like through all of that stuff I went through yeah, yeah, he was constantly like, hey, you want to have dinner here, you want to have dinner? No, no, no, no, I want to have anyone, no, no. And he stayed In my life since I was Fifth, like since. Well, he's known me since I was 12, but he knew I was being abused. Because he would be like why are you running with a sweater on? You know, I was running with sweater on set, these big welts on, either hiding stuff? Yeah, hiding stuff. So it's like um, you know, I knew he would have to report and that wouldn't help because when social workers come and if they don't take you away and it comes up the excuse just get, be down even more.
Speaker 3:So it's just like not I'm good, I'm called you know, 101 degree while they're running on the sweater.
Speaker 2:Oh my god.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was so. He just he knew what was going on. He was a stupid, but he just he stayed in my life, um, and I finally let him in. Around that time I found wrestling, and I'm so glad I did, because he's my biggest cheerleader. That's cool.
Speaker 3:He's such a great person. Um, I feel like, uh, I was just meant to be his daughter because of the way he is with me, um, and everything. He's Funny because he'll call me the homeless, like it taking the homeless, but that was, that's his way of saying like you're my daughter, you know? Yeah, yeah, I'm doing things.
Speaker 3:Um, I don't think you can be soft and be in the military, so probably not he served like 20 years, like not in these days, but like right and these, like I don't think you can be very yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know too many and he doesn't. I don't doesn't matter what gender it is. I don't know too many soft people from the military at all. It does. They're all pretty grizzled and and been turned by. You know the military itself, but so I. It's an interesting dynamic that you have, then, because You're you're athletic obviously, I mean from running and then being, you know, being able to do what you were doing in wrestling already when did? How did how did college happen? Like, where Was it? Just because of california, I mean, because I'm from wisconsin, so it's not like we had when I was I graduated in 1997, so it's not like we had a ton of Scott soccer people running around and scouting. You guys said you had social media and things out there. Did that? Was that a big help worth like? How did you kind of get contacted by schools to get interested in and being able to compete in college?
Speaker 3:I think, uh, for women's wrestling. And shout out to all those coaches back in the day that you know, did that hard recruiting. It's not how it is now. You can slide in the DMs and do all of that. Yep, it was more like you had to show up at the state tournament. So, like at that time, I had offers from McKinsey, when sam was the code um being Menlo, which I ended up going to, and then a couple others that I can't remember, but I know mckinsey king and menlo were my top three because they both Well, menlo wasn't good thing, but it was in california.
Speaker 3:Yeah and then king was known for being good, because that's when forest went there, that's when alley rigging was there, that was when serah hill de brandt, I think, was also there. Like that's where all like the elite people you hear about now are. You know were we're at king. And then Um McKinsey was the same thing. You had like the best, the best there and sam was a good coach. So it was kind of just like I was. They, you know, showed up at the state tournaments and they saw how raw I was and then it was always tough. They were like again that sense of presence. They were like that girl only been wrestling like a couple months and she's doing that. It was like just the top and I'm here to myself and then for me it would kind of make me nervous but then kind of like Um, feel me more of like I need to prove I belong here, kind of thing. Um sure, sure.
Speaker 3:And you know that got their attention and I'm really blessing grateful for that. I ended up picking minnow because uh, one, the assistant coach there, marcus randoff, is amazing. He would go over and beyond when he recruited. I love the soak out.
Speaker 3:I was Homeless at the time. I left my foster home because of some complications and I just was done with foster home. So I was just like collect the, the paycheck from the state and try to figure out what to live. But that was hard because of all the stuff like people don't want a teenager in their house. So like I was trying to figure that out. And then I got myself in the situation where I was just like getting Kind of bullied out of money and I was like, no, forget this, I really live on the streets. Then you know, deal with this. And then my dad was fine, like when are you gonna? Just let me help you. So then I moved in with him during the summer to get ready for uh, college and um, marcus Called my social worker every week house, precious, how she's doing what she doing, how she doing how she doing. Uh, joey bring was the head coach Of millow at the time and he was the same way like how are you doing kid?
Speaker 3:Like I was already kid before they even met me. Like, like I felt like they loved me before they even knew me. Like, how are you doing kid? Like Do this and that, like she did this. And then they found out immediately, when they found out that I, you know, moved in with Before my dad, was my dad, it was just like a guardian that moved in guardian because I was homeless, literally the next a couple, a couple days, not even like more than 48 hours. They're like hey, I, um, if you're interested in going here, we got you cleared to be here during the summer for free. We'll feed you, you can help out with camps, you can get ahead of wrestling and do those things. And I was. It was just it was like crazy god's time and everything he did and it was also just like a thing of Uh going through that. It was just like the other schools, like they were like number I want to say 15, 18, they just were down and yeah the thing.
Speaker 3:And he painted this picture of like we are building a team that wants to fight their way to the top, that want to show people that you know that they can do it. My dream is to be, uh, to coach a national championship team and I want athletes that believe and that was just a different conversation than I had with the other programs like, uh, the king coach was kind of just like reached out to me that the more that you know he had the top, top athletes, so it was just another top athlete that you know would have been added. I don't even know if you would even remember.
Speaker 3:You know, no, I didn't take offense to accept that it was just that stacked, yeah right. Yeah, it's just that stack. It would just been another body and um, for McIndy Sam was awesome.
Speaker 3:He checked in on me, but it just wasn't prevalent as what min-lo was doing. So I packed my bag and like I'm going to min-lo. Sign with min-lo was like I'm going to min-lo, I know I'm going to be a national champ, I know I'm going to be the best and I'm going to go there like he, this is what you want you, you got me, yeah, yeah. And then A weekend I actually send you this too. I have a picture screenshot, so I always read it when I um, when I fell down, um Is I remember they for some reason didn't think that. They thought that had some level of wrestling knowledge. So when we got there, iman kazeem was a 155 they're all american one of the best wrestlers on the team at the time and she's a good friend of mine's now and she also was on the senior national team. He broke her leg and it was just time for her to, you know, give up wrestling. But, um, they were like you can wrestle, iman, go and just get Trashed by her. And then, like they're like, do you know how to shoot? And I was like, huh, they have you.
Speaker 3:And I'm embarrassed and I'm like okay, I don't like this. My pride's are getting away and I'm just getting taken down. I couldn't do anything. I was like why am I here? Like I'm not call, I'm in college and I don't know how to shoot. I don't know what I'm doing. Like I was like I'm packing my bags and going home. Like I was serious, I was going home, I was packing my stuff and then I get this and it's a picture of Marcus and Joey. What thumbs up. And this is my memory of the message. It'll probably be different when I show you, but it was basically saying that like I Felt that was like your family, we believe in you. Like we're gonna help you and help you accomplish your dreams. You're gonna be you know, I'll, I'm pretty cool.
Speaker 3:You're gonna do these things. And I saw that text and I just sat there and I was like what am I doing? Like I keep running away from my problems, like I did that so many times, and then I indulged in things that felt avoid momentarily and that's like the first thing I came to my head. I'm smoking weed and I grew up in Cali, so the negative, negative Concentration of weed is not what I what it is. When I came here close yeah.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, which is weird because they smoke a bunch of cigarettes here and it's all back home. We're like, oh, you're doing tobacco. That's disgusting. They're both. They both mess you up like it's super hypocritical. That's a conversation.
Speaker 2:Right, right, all the podcast.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm totally clean now and in college. The reason why I like I felt that is because that's how I suppressed my, my emotions and everything. But when I went to college, you know, we were in the drug testing pool so I couldn't do it. Oh yeah, yeah, that was sober for the first time since I was 12 years old. I was sober from the weed for like a Month because I was scared of popping and then losing the opportunity. Yeah, and that's another reason why I wrestling saved my life, because I a Supplement. We like I didn't.
Speaker 3:I don't need to read, I don't. I'm completely sober when I wrestle, like and I Couldn't have been more happier. It couldn't have put me in a better situation at that time in my youth. And, yeah, I was like, okay, I'm a show back up, like I'm tired of, okay, like, like I was tired of Basically letting everything else win and determine who I'm gonna be, and I just practice extra. So that's where the extra came in. I was in the room, I was working hard, I was, you know, every time, even though I might have lost, I was challenging for the varsity spot. Yeah, I lost the varsity spot the first time in. I was, so then I was like working out even harder, and then I was a freshman varsity after two months into season and then I started making my mark from there and climbing from there, and then it's history you were.
Speaker 2:You were pretty, pretty well versed in diversity and you know a rough situation where We'll just say that you physically grew Instantly, but you, you're meant you can tell that you had actually like growth spurts of mentality Without having to go through. You were five, eight in middle school, I mean seriously, but you're, you were able to have those leaps and bounds Mentally, and so, as you're wrestling and you had these realizations that you're like I'm, like you said, I'm running, I'm constantly running away from these things, were you finding yourself a little more, I Guess, not overwhelmed, but kind of kind of just Flushed with with everything from the past that that culminated to that moment of just a oh Stop. Did you feel like a weight off your shoulders when you realized you can do whatever you wanted to do? You just needed to put your mind to it and laser focus on it. Where did you think you're making excuses, or or what do you think you're running from? I?
Speaker 3:Was running from fear, fear of being someone, fear of you know being successful. Like it sounds weird, right, you want to be someone, you want to do something, but when it comes time to do it it's fearful. Like yeah, it was at that point that like this was gonna be a little bit harder than I thought. And like who am I? You know, a Girl from you know, born in LA, grew up in Lancaster. Lancaster, california, the desert, and what makes my life so significant, where I'm actually going to, you know, live those things. And for some reason I Took every challenge as an actual failure. Like of telling me like face, like you don't belong here and I was so used to that so you gotta think about it. Like in my household it wasn't like hubby, lovey-dovey, all that. Like mom loved us, you're her whole world, I know we are.
Speaker 3:Even if we don't talk today like we, she loves us, where we're part of her, like we're all she had. You know, she raised us seven kids on her own. Yeah, and I, I got that strength from her, that stubbornness from her, that fight from her. I just didn't know where to put it, where to Let it go. I just knew that I wanted to be better than what I was. I Wanted to be better than the person that I was and like I would like stop making excuses to myself, like yeah.
Speaker 3:I was sexually abused, so it's okay that I'm like being promiscuous with guys and getting self-value through them because it's easy. You know I was Physically abused, so it's okay I'm smoking pot when I get triggered by something or do something. Like you know, like I Was, I think, just spiritually done with making excuses for that because I was watching me give my life away. And then that moment when I got that text, I took that as a good, a good omen like.
Speaker 3:You can do this. You just got to choose to do this. And don't get me wrong, they weren't just bathing me. That text is like right there, yeah, right there. Like yeah, like you, can, you know, not do it or do it. And that's actually saved my life too. Like it's little moments in my life where it's just like boom wrestling saved my life and then it brought me to men long. Then it brought me Joey, brought me Marcus, got me Kendra and then brought my teammates and it saved me there and then yeah it.
Speaker 3:It brought me my closest friends, you know. And this force is beautiful because even when you think, you got it down.
Speaker 2:You'll get nope maxi in the face again. Literally so. So you, you, you find, you find yourself, you're, you're having a realization, I would say a growth moment in the the Smoke clears, for lack of a better term, no pun intended, but the smoke clears and you have a better visual of the direction you're going in. Now, where do where do you start? Where were the successions, I guess, on the mat for you? Then, once that happened, what did you? Did you notice the? A corner being turned?
Speaker 3:Yeah, here's. Yeah, I just knew I was working hard in there. Everyone like I, everyone that was around me I don't know that's my teammates. They're competitive as me. So if they watch this podcast suit my best friend probably call me or some other friends and be like you are not working.
Speaker 3:I was working harder than everyone like I actually show them with having wrestling it would have to wrestle Marcus. So shout out to Marcus, because I would. Just my motive was to break everyone. I wrestled like break the practice room Because then I knew if I was breaking them, that was breaking myself. And then pretty soon you got pretty easy of breaking others in the practice room and then my Tolerance went up. So then wrestling with Marcus was like that way of like Keep going.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I started dominating, like I was making mistakes, like I lost. I was up for the national title and lost to diamond Because I decided to shoot and leave my arm off. Like if you watch a lot of my matches, I'm losing for dumb stuff. I'm losing because you can tell that lack of Kind of like discipline that you would get when you started early or just when things are paid more attention to and explained. I mean, your hard room is like go, go, go, go, go go.
Speaker 3:And my cook Mark, like he had us. He knew because he was a physical I think he's a physical Sorry, joey, if I messed this up Physical trainer if he's not, and in my head he's a physical trainer he did something like that and he knew the way to build athletes is muscle memory. So 45 minutes, the first conditioning Yep, I was conditioning in the same repetition moves that we, yeah, wrestling moves and we're known for offense, like men low, during when I was there from 2016 to 2019, before the COVID thing happened, you knew if you got a men low girl were shooting and why because we shot at least 250 times be in that 45 minutes, everyone over technique, like we were an offensive team and you know, and I felt that in body that I still embody that in these, those things. So, yeah, that's kind of like what it was for me when I knew I was turning that corner, because then Matches just started going and then I started to like you know, I had, he had this thing where we always have to bounce.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, you to go up, and if you weren't, then it was no, you weren't actually. Yeah, joey is the man you do. You're not there.
Speaker 3:Yeah no choice like and I think that's what made our team so special the 2016 to 2019 team, because we all had our pains that we went through like. My story is one of many other unique stories of the girls on the team and you can see the way they recruited Because three of us are on this. Your national team is still going so Marilyn Garcia, soul and piracy, minimal numb, the same the same year as me, and then me, and then not even saying even even before she turned her ACL, and Iman and Tiana and a couple others like Sounds like they were a good judge of character.
Speaker 2:You know they could tell it didn't, didn't matter, they could just see the fight in the dog. You know that's that was the. It's interesting that you had had people around you that were, that, were like that, that Were, that just stuck. You know, like it's a handful, literally, of Folks that that really kind of either they gravitated towards you for some reason. I'm more of a universe kind of guy and that's just where I roam, but it seems like it was a gravitational type of thing with you to these people.
Speaker 2:Because it seems like your track coach was kind of the same guy. You know he was there, he was really good with character. It wasn't something that he was like trying to find a Star athlete to put in his team. You saw a character and someone that was able to persevere through a lot of stuff and Kind of keep that focus. So Joey and crew seemed to have their heads on straight when it comes to knowing their shit and putting people to the test and putting them to work and and talking about a team that you named, about four individuals that that kind of had the same situation. Did you find yourself Closer, I guess, then, not just as friends but kind of connected with them a little bit more as a team and that kind of was. That would drove you guys as a Team as well.
Speaker 3:Yes, I would say the starters of the team, no the rest of team, but it was the starters that did it. Yeah, and but we couldn't have that's one thing my coach was so why? I think I'm why I approached the senior national team. He's back from eating what. I'm approaching the national team the way I do? Yeah, it's because the way she trained her brains, he basically raised me in wrestling, joey wrestling, and it was Even though it was where the starters and we got done. We kind of did it without our teammates. That was our partners. They gave us everything that they had. So, even though it's just our teams, the one that got it done, their spirits were in us. If I didn't have them to let Deal with my shit. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to break them. Like how would you feel if I'm like I'm gonna break you? Yeah, that's rude, but like that was my demeanor. But them still wanting to like push me. They believed in me too. Like he always thought as much as he was, like because this is what it's kind of hard for me now as a coach, I'm learning to be better and then, like just watching others was Joe. It was like you're gonna win, you're gonna win, you're gonna win. You can only lose by one point, you're gonna win. It was never no choice of who if I'm gonna win.
Speaker 3:Like the middle girls, the varsity team I was a part of Mm-hmm was, we all shared the same pressure of like we have no choice, like we're gonna go out there and win and that was the same thing in our brain. Like we're not gonna lose. To like, if you like people go back and watch us or just look at our stats and stuff. It's show is the reason why we won two back-to-back national championships. Right, right, we had that. And you and I want to say we got it by landslide.
Speaker 3:No, we won the WCWA one Before they did all this splitting stuff. Yeah, um, we won that by a point five, or one point, one of the two, and it took the grit out of all of us, like you got a win, you got a win, you got to get a pen, you got to get a text, you bet, not get a pen. So basically knowing that, hey, you're gonna lose, but just don't get. That's how we were raised with him and we knew what his bluntness was. He knew it was care, but at the end of the day he had dreams to. That was our dreams and his you know fuel and who he was as a competitor you know, field us as Women.
Speaker 3:And not one time Did he let us bow our head, telling us like you're gonna, like you need to win, like you have no choice, you're gonna win. And that's how we did the stats was you are capable, you're gonna do it. Keep your head high, be that person. Yeah, it's no choice. And don't get me wrong, I don't think. Actually, I don't think it was one time when he said you need to win, you need to win.
Speaker 3:That's how good our starters were that we lost. Like you know, it's like not have done that, yeah, and if it was a close match, as hard as our coach was on us, he was also the most loving with us, and so was Randolph, and so was our team mom Kendra interest in who's not life trader, just okay. We just like we were dysfunctional sisters what we loved each other because their story wasn't like mine. But they all had their pains in other different ways and we we mend it through that and we believed in each other through that and we live that and it shows, because we got those national championships brings it honestly, like Menlo now still rides off of that. They're known for being the best because of that hard work that we did, you know, and they're still doing good and you know, adding on to that. But like it feels good to be, to be basically brains prodigy kids because we are like we.
Speaker 3:Nice, you know went from the team being ranked number 20. I had to look that up. I think was we're ranked low. We're low.
Speaker 3:Oh, to three years later, two-time national champs winning it back to back. Like it shows how he recruited, how him and Randolph recruited, but it also shows how he believed in us, what he did for us. And I'm not saying he's perfect now, saying we were perfect. We were dysfunctional, but we had one rule as we loved each other, we had always had team retreats. That was our favorite time and our team was tight with the guys, like one of my best friends where it was a national champ at Menloa Anthony Oral School and Going to MMA right now. But it was just like that, and I have a bunch of brothers around the team. Like the men were close to us too, like both coaches, joey Martinez, to enough girl, I'm another hairless he, he. They made sure that we were just all together in the unit. So it was men low versus everybody. Hey, we were acorns or I think we were oak tree, not the best.
Speaker 2:Hey, you know what, honestly, if you got the team and the team makes it work, it doesn't matter what the mascot is, it just feels it feels good to have that type of because. I mean, it's not like, oh you know, for a long time you're looking for something to belong and sounds like this was that that place that really kind of brought that together for you? And did you, did you feel? Did you feel like you were kind of starting to like, maybe just starting to put some of the stuff in the past with all the things that were happening that were good. Now, I mean, you guys are winning championships. You guys are no like some of the matches you put behind you. You know where you went in a lot, where you were you getting some of the matches that you were looking for and then just Completely demolishing people. How was that going in college for you?
Speaker 3:competition wise after that first rough bump and I'm my Fresh me here. Yeah, I didn't lose. I only lost big man, the life, my story. Now I just lose big. The finals match her Okay, same eyes match the past few years is losing like I'm a three-time US Open National champ. Yes, I could have been a five-time but lost both today.
Speaker 2:So I want to ask you about that what so? What is? Do you? Do you kind of feel because I mean, I can, I can point out to Several people that we've seen this year. You know, just in our state alone, that you see them killing it, killing it, killing it Right, and like you're like, holy shit, they're really gonna, they're gonna, they're gonna explode through, but then something happens. Was it? Is it a mental thing? Well, what do you feel like is happening when some of those matches go that way?
Speaker 3:It's playing chess like at that level and I was saying, like Joey, I owe him so much. Like I remember when I won my my first US Open, I gave him the thing because it wouldn't have started without him, you know. But like, the way I look at things is like I Don't care who you are, you're not better than me as a human, like I'm a good human, you're a great human, we're equals is just that better at playing chess than me. When I'm looking at matches, close matches, like even when you watch Jordan Jordan Burroughs against Kyle Dake, it wasn't that Jordan is not the best, he's a freaking goat. Yeah right, just that he lost that chess match each time with the chess wrap from the double. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:Yep, it's like certain positions and certain things that cost you matches and that's all it is. It's nothing to do with your capabilities or who you are, yep, just chess matches and that's what I have learned, and that's what I learned from Joey is like is nothing to do with the capabilities. And just because you work hard does not mean you're gonna win. Just because you're killing it doesn't mean you're gonna win. It just means that it was your day, that day and you had a great practice very true.
Speaker 3:Just because I had a crappy practice does not mean I'm not gonna lose, just means it's not my day, you know. I lose doesn't mean that I'm not gonna be the Olympian. It just means that are you gonna beat me again. Or if I lose to you five times doesn't mean that the next time I rest you I'm gonna lose to you again. It's just that you keep beating me in that chess match because whatever it is enough, whatever it is For me in my muscle memory, I'm just getting caught in that same position over and over again and I feel like that's the same thing for people that are killing.
Speaker 3:It is we're too busy being hard on each other, ourselves, on the mental and what we're doing and feeling good that we're forgetting that like we just take the mental part out of it and we just look at our habits and where muscles are moving, like if someone color ties me, you know, gets me in. This is what me and my coach, kevin Black, is working on and my first reaction is just to grab the elbow, but I'm not doing any motion to it. Mm-hmm, that's my same motor function every time that I'm gonna get the same aspect every time. But a lot of times people focus on, like if they're pushing forward or that's there, you know moving sideways, but the whole time you're doing all of this and this is sitting here. This is the problem you know, yeah it's kind of like.
Speaker 3:That's the way I think and that's what I see a lot when I'm looking at other people that are competing At a high level as me or even my girls I coach.
Speaker 3:Now I Was working. We're looking at tape with the head coach. Alley Is like that's what I see. I'm good at breaking down tapes. I see those like motor functions of Going on and I think mental just makes it worse because then it distracts you. So I think it's mental is also a key. But mental is used the opposite way. I think most people think about it. It's using the way to distract you, to Distracting you from seeing what you should actually see. See. Your mental is like those little things for horses Yep, blinders. Yep, they don't freak out Mm-hmm. Those blinders are blocking you from actually seeing what's actually wrong.
Speaker 3:So they know yeah, so you just step in the same thing over and over so you could be on fire with someone else that, for some reason, hanging on their elbow is not a trigger to them to move it. So of course you're gonna freaking wreck them, but you might rustle the person, someone else that, like their elbow, is a setup like. Yep.
Speaker 3:You know, like that's the part where it gets tricky with Wrestling, because it's so many different styles that the thing that's probably making you lose where costs the most is Not showing up when you're freaking. You know, you know on fire with someone else. Yeah, this is my two cents in it. That's how yeah, I don't it?
Speaker 3:I Looked through it, man, I'm. I was not a national champ. This is like my life has been, but backwards. I was not a national champ in college for WCW, as I was a runner-up two times the year. I was gonna win it right the day before. Day before we're gonna compete. Thank you, covid.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 3:Took our nationals away, yeah, and then we competed the whole year. So they're like sorry, you have nothing. So, basically, I end up winning again. I do things backwards. For some reason, my life is backwards. I won the US Open as a junior in college and then won it again. I want to see your year 2019, right, was that 2019?
Speaker 2:Yeah, won it again.
Speaker 3:It was number two in the country. Yeah, but, didn't win nationals because they got taken away, but wasn't it. So it was a national champ for the United States, but not for one.
Speaker 2:Yeah for a car Dirty COVID.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dirty COVID.
Speaker 2:Dirty, dirty COVID.
Speaker 3:They didn't get a year out eligibility back for that either, so that was the.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's kind of weird how that worked out between, I want to say, almost all sports. So I'm not a big. I don't get into the stats and numbers of things as far as like, oh well, this rule consists of this, and I don't get into the finer details until it probably pisses me off when I start looking into the rule. Yeah, you know I'm that guy.
Speaker 2:But when it came down to COVID, I was still kind of in the dark with how, when it first came out, they're like well, they're going to gain a year of eligibility. I'm like, well, how is everybody getting a year of eligibility? Like what's going on with what's this? Here's free, here's another year of school, have fun, you know like what, what is going on? So I didn't really kind of jive with it. I think I was. Really.
Speaker 2:We were so engulfed in getting Liam around to tournaments at that time because we were taking them to Michigan, I mean everywhere, and it was like the last one and I was trying to get them in every tournament I could because I didn't know when they were going to not have tournaments anymore. So we were, we were all over. I didn't pay attention to what COVID was giving. But I was just like, oh sweet, so we're going to see this person wrestle again. We'll see this person wrestle again. That's all I really pay attention to. But as you started kind of navigating through your college years, obviously you're going to continue. You liked wrestling. So you just mentioned a couple of the US opens and world team trials and things you went through. Were you able to kind of have you been able to broaden your horizons a little bit and be able to get overseas and do some training?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so 2019 was just a great start for me. I was the world team member for U23s. I was ranked number two in the country then and all of that. So just in that year, I went to Japan, I went to Canada, I went to Germany, I went to Poland.
Speaker 3:Nice I went to other places and then kind of opened up. That was the first time I ever traveled out of country, yeah, and then from there when COVID hit, we had that little pause. I ended up moving here. I moved to Wisconsin first and I trained with Kevin and, yeah, victory, and I still train there. But then I just moved to Minnesota because I got married. So then once COVID's like lightened up, then I went to Ukraine and then I went to, so I've been all over Nice.
Speaker 3:I came back from Paris two, three weeks ago. Cool yeah, I've been able to travel all over the world, which is insane in the different cultures and everything that I got to yeah, that. I got to experience and have people embrace me and teach me things.
Speaker 2:Well, you're in good hands. I mean, kevin Black is a staple in Wisconsin wrestling, so it's not like we don't know who that dude is at all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, we know Kevin Black here, that's for sure. So, with some of the experiences you've had, now you're coaching, right, not done competing yet. Right, you're not done competing yet. Ok, good, I know you just got back, but I didn't know if maybe you're like I like coaching and I'm not going to say anything yet You're going to kind of tuck it under your wing and not go back into competition.
Speaker 2:I like watching you wrestle. It's fun to watch you wrestle. I mean, the highlights that I found were just a couple that I wanted to use because unfortunately I can't have a five minute reel and put it out there.
Speaker 2:But I just found the things that I liked and kind of put them out there. But when you are, obviously you've been through a lot, so the things that you bring to a coaching table I would think are a little more dynamic than most coaches. So when you are able to kind of sit down with a like right now, since you're kind of fresh, you're kind of fresh to the coaching game right, it's your first year, so have you been able to be able to sit someone down and be like, hey, it's fine. Let me tell you a story about what you can actually go through and find yourself in a hole and still find your way out. Have you been able to have conversations like that yet in just a short time?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a little different than what girls can tell you. It's a little different sometimes he is he like, seriously. But this is my second year. The first year was with Jake Short, which was awesome, and this year he heard of Ali Benard. She's an Olympian for 20, not for 20. Yeah, 2012 and 2008. And it's been a dream working under her too. She is so funny and awesome.
Speaker 3:It's just incredible. I'm excited to see, as a head coach, how she's going to like transform Augsburg. It's going to be amazing, awesome. Yeah, me and more. If you want to go get it. I kind of carry the same way I do with myself and how my coach is with me. That's how I am and I won't change and I feel like my girls respect that because it's like if they're going to whine to me about something, but I literally see how they drill and it was trash, don't talk to me about it?
Speaker 3:What the hell? That's not my problem.
Speaker 2:Like when is there?
Speaker 3:actually work, and then we can start talking.
Speaker 2:To a good perspective.
Speaker 3:yeah, when they are working hard and they are getting themselves into situations where our girls work hard. They've been through a lot. Augsburg program been through a lot. We had some greedy people in that program that just sucked the life out of that program and then left it in a stale, trying to drag that program down. And it's hardening. But, like you said, you believe in the universe, I believe in universe and God and it's like the things you do and the energy you care around is going to come back and surround your life. So I like to keep my head held up high because it's like you can throw everything you can and keep that dark light towards us, but we can keep shining and dim out that light, but that light is going to suck up your world, you know. And be in the dark midst for yourself.
Speaker 3:Everything you do does come back to you. I believe in it. So the point of that was just like I see those girls go through so much and I see how much they struggle, so like I am invested in just picking apart video, picking apart their drilling, like, hey, you are doing this because of this and you're doing this because of this. We do that and we do that Like they'll tell you all day. That like and this is the other thing is when we do hard workouts, we have a great assistant coach, chad Barchfield, and he's from Wisconsin, I think, but he's awesome and he does everything with the girls. So, like, our room is different because you have coaches in the room. You have a head coach that's a woman that was a two-time Olympian, and then you have a assistant coach that's striving to be an Olympian and still high ranked in the country. You have a assistant coach that's a male, which you kind of don't see. Assistant coach that's a male for like a third and not the girl.
Speaker 2:It's a couple. It's a couple, but it's not common. It's not common.
Speaker 3:But love his position and never oversteps. Yeah Right, kind of treats me like a princess and like always, he goes where she goes over and beyond for us as a team and we're so blessed to have him. But the point of that is I'm able to do those things as a coach and then you have Allie who has all that wisdom and been there and done that that can uplift those girls. She's more of the like hey, I've been here, you think this is so important right now and it's not Like you have this all day and you can do this all day and you can be happy. And now she is. If you ever met her, she's just a happy like. I bet you two sentences into a conversation. You're laughing with her. That's the kind of person she is.
Speaker 2:Got to get her on the show, that's for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Definitely love to get her on. So you're sounds like you're pretty comfortable with where you're at and it sounds like it's a good environment. And as far as the upcoming season, what you're kind of, you know, I talked about it a little bit but, like, what do you guys have coming that's on the pipeline? Do you have any girls that are competing right now, that are looking to, that, are going overseas or anywhere at that point? I mean, how many kids are still competing right now?
Speaker 3:So for Augsburg we had a lot of seniors. One of our seniors that left actually went to Iowa, marlon, but she did her four years and then wanted to do her master's program there. But our last year, our last year's team, a lot of those girls on the high level Brooklyn Hayes, kay Lang, marlon, deedy Gosh I hate that I'm missing Nina Makeham, who's still at Augsburg.
Speaker 2:Who's?
Speaker 3:a freaking beast and she's went up to a class. So really, dude, some things people don't know about this girl and she's the most dedicated wrestler I have ever seen and I'm so invested in her sometimes because I see myself in her. I see myself in her so much when it comes to working hard and then something happened in falling short. If you see that girl and how she wrestles and how she carries herself and what she does everyone that meets her or wrestles her I'd come up and be like, oh my god, I need her lifting program.
Speaker 3:And it's like that's all her Awesome and she's.
Speaker 2:I've seen some highlights. She looks tough man. She definitely looks tough.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she's insane and she just got her citizenship because her family's from Cameroon. She's been here since 11, 8.
Speaker 3:But that's just a huge thing. She finally got to do those things so she can compete, because you didn't see her in the past, because she couldn't compete for the US, because of that, and she's one of her current wrestling stars at our school right now. That stayed. That you will see at U23's for a tryout for that when she qualifies for Olympic trials. She'll also be there for that with me at Olympic trials. We have some other girls that are really good and talented. They're just working on learning that, like those level jumps. And Autumn Flanagan, one of those people. She's really just positive. She was puking and smiling, she was wrestling. Imagine she was puking, but she still found a way to smile.
Speaker 2:Wrestling Gotta love wrestlers man.
Speaker 3:I'm out, bro, I'm out. That's just like two of many of the girls that we have that are just a bright light on the team, and then the ones that graduated or left because of the transition of the program. When Jake short left, it was just amazing how this program's only five years old and it already had poor national change.
Speaker 2:I follow you guys on Instagram and stuff like that, so I do get to see a lot of the progress and the things that are going on. Augsburg itself has a name, so right away you can only expect to have top-notch coaching and especially just the history that's at that school itself. I mean, I'm sure they'll get their shit together once everything gets down to normal. But the one thing that I definitely wanted to ask about is what are your plans right now for what's coming up with competitions? What do you have coming up?
Speaker 3:I am going to just be at my gym with Kevin and get ready for Olympic trials. Ok, ok, I am going to just focus on putting my best foot forward, because my other dream, other than wrestling, was to be a mom, and I'm at that point in my life where I, if I want to take a break and continue to wrestle, this year just feels like it's the year to take a break and have a baby after this Olympic run, because then I can come back in 2025 at Bill Ferrell you know, three months postpartum and you know wrestle and qualify and do those things and I'll have that two year career off, you know, whilst being able to live my dream of also being a mom.
Speaker 3:You know, I think it would help to transition out of the sport easier than you know. Retiring in 2028 with no kid and then getting pregnant, I don't think I can be.
Speaker 2:That's tough. It's tough and I'll never, I'll never try to talk anything about when it comes to being pregnant, because you guys Sorry, that's not something that I would ever want to go through. I don't care what guys say about fasting stones. That's where you guys have us is on childbirth, so that's where it is. So, but I'm really excited to see what happens with you. I know we're going to be going out to Vegas for World Team for Liam. I, he's, he's crazy. We got state going on. My voice is half gone. So, like I've said yes a couple of times, oh, yes, and we were. We just got done with it with sectionals and we've been screaming our lungs out for the past couple of days. So, but we got to see you wrestle a little bit, I think last you were out of Vegas this year, I believe, right. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but we saw I think it's a match Two of you. It was good to finally see you wrestle like in person, not on a TV screen. So I always kind of get excited about that. When I get to see so many athletes that I've gotten to see, like over the years, on TV, I'm like, yeah, we're right in front of me, this is the best you had ever. So I'm excited to see what you have in the future, whatever comes I've. You've been talking to us for quite some time and we appreciate all the time that you've taken out. I'm going to talk to you for just a second afterwards, but is anything that you want to plug at all before we end the show here?
Speaker 3:Oh, I don't know. That's not bad. I just say everyone's journey is unique, and I think something that I'm processing right now is not everyone's going to be adjourned bros, and not Everyone's going to have this crazy path of like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Yeah, that's kind of what you hear. Everyone's going to have a path, path that's different. It's just that you have to be proud of that and then you will find a piece through it.
Speaker 3:I'm excited to watch women rest, women's wrestling grow and just hope that they stay. Humble though I am been a little with all the stuff that's going on right now, but I'm pretty sure people that feel it know what I'm talking about. Right, I'm appreciative for people like Ali Bernard and Sarah McMahon and Marcy, who, you know, went through all of the things they did to make it possible for us, clarissa, for us, to be able to wrestle and then have the benefits that I had when I wrestled, and I'm glad that I was being able to be a step in stone to give those girls what they have now, and I'm hoping that they are, you know, looking to themselves to do the same thing to build for the next generation.
Speaker 2:Augberg's in good hands, that's for sure. So everybody this has been a precious weasel. Again, I appreciate your time. I'm just going to talk to you for a second once we're done here and kind of do it with everybody. But everybody, this has been another great episode of the Vision Quest podcast. Precious Weasel appreciate it. We will be talking to you soon. So, everybody, we're done. Peace, that was perfect.
Speaker 3:You said peace when I said deuce. That was so nice, that was so nice, that was so nice.
Speaker 1:That was so nice. That was so nice, that was so nice. That was so nice. That was so nice, that was so nice, that was so nice, that was so good. I don't think I'm gonna.