Jon Reader: Battered, Bloodied and always Dedicated (Part 1) - Ep. 25

Shane Sparks needs little reason to get fired up when talking wrestling, but when he's talking with Jon Reader, the fire just burns a bit brighter. Join Sparks on Episode 25 of the Go Earn It Podcast as he talks with the current Wisconsin assistant and 2011 NCAA Division I champion. 

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Welcome to the Go Earn It Podcast, where we bring you stories each week
of people who have battled through adversity, overcame the obstacles, and earned their
dream. You were born for greatness, and our mission is to bring you
the stories that will inspire you todream big and go earn it. You

(00:30):
better be fired up today. Itis the Go Earn It Podcast. I'm
Shane Sparks. This is episode numbertwenty five, Part one with John Reeder
from Davison, Michigan, three timeMichigan State champion. One on Nohui was
state of course. He was phenomenalin that cyclone single. It's three time
All American, won that twenty elevennational title. John, you and I

(00:52):
got a pretty good lathering already talkingabout ten minutes before we came on,
some really good stuff. And Itold you what your first question was going
to be. Because this is likea wrestling match. I'm all over the
place. I know what, JohnReider. My hand fight better be good.
I know what, John Reider.I better not compromise position. I
know what John Reider. I betterhave a lot of pace and I know
what John Reider. Before I toethe line, I better have a lot

(01:15):
of positive thoughts in my mind becauseI'm willing to go to hell at bat
John two or three times over thenext seven minute match to beat you.
But I'm going to reverse course rightaway. We'll get to that plan.
First question in a little bit.I want to talk about twenty eleven out
of the Gate because when I goto twenty eleven, that was the first
final I was able to call thenon live Sports radio. But that iconic

(01:40):
picture of you and the head rap. When I think at head wraps,
I'm thinking about Dan Gable in nineteenseventy two. I'm thinking about Jordan Burrows
when he won that world title.I believe that was twenty seventeen. I
could be wrong, but he hadthat head wrap. But I think maybe
number one twenty eleven, John Reider. Where's the head rap? Whatever happened

(02:00):
that ramp man? The head wentflying off the mat after I was done
wrestling. But first and foremost,Shane, I'm so grateful to be here
with the voice of wrestling. Likeyou said, the first ten minutes before
this, we were fired up,and I wish we would have got those
ten minutes on camera. But yeah, twenty eleven, man, just a
representation that that emotion that erupted outof me after I was done with that

(02:23):
match was in the epitome of everythingthat was coming out at the moment.
You know, from a very youngage, I wanted to be a national
champion and I had worked my wholecareer for that moment and in that couple
of seconds when I flexed and theblood was growing and the rap was there,
you know, it's a really coolI'm grateful to have that picture now

(02:44):
to be able to reflect on andshow my kids, and it was just
a representation of who I am andjust wearing my emotions on my sleep.
I wasn't that celebration kind of guy, but in that moment, I let
it fly, and you know,I'm grateful that they were able to capture
that. Where do you have thatpicture? Where does it hang? You
know what, I've got it downin the basement now, you know,

(03:04):
I used to have it up inthe house, but it's down in the
basement, collected dust and but butman, I'm just grateful to have it,
very very grateful to have it.It was definitely the pinnacle of my
career and and to be honest withyou, Shamee walking out. Now picture
this, You're in the tunnel.You're about to walk out in front of
forty thousand people in the biggest matchof your entire career. Right it was

(03:25):
my last college match, and youknow, you would think they have nerves,
you know. And I was themost confident I had ever been in
my entire career. Believe it ornot. I knew that I was willing
to die. I was willing todo whatever it took to get my hand
raised in that match. And itreally when the when the whistle was blue
and everything was settled and my handgot raised, that was the emotion that

(03:47):
came out of me. I wasI was not going to be denied.
I was very well prepared with coachKevin Jackson, and I it the dream
of from a young boy. Iremember when I had my AHA moment of
being wanting to be a national champion, and from that moment until when it
happened, that emotion was bottled upand when it came out, it freaking

(04:08):
bursts. And when for you,I remember it was nineteen ninety seven.
I was watching the YANC tournament withmy father on TV and seeing that moment
and he looked at me and said, I told my dad. I was
like, I want to do thatsomeday. I saw the raw emotion of
those wrestlers, the Doug Schwabs andChris Bonos, the Joe hes Gets to

(04:29):
Cale Sanderson's, all of those guysthat I was watching and idolizing growing up.
I loo turned to my dad,I said, I want to do
that someday, and he said,listen, you can do anything you ever
want to dream of. It's goingto take a lot of hard work,
but I will give you every opportunityto get there one day. And I'm
telling you it gives me goosebumps sayingthat right now, But it came to
fruition and no matter what, theolder I get and I look back on

(04:55):
on that on my career, damnright. I am so grateful for the
opportunities I but it would not havehappened without my mom and dad and the
support of my parents. And thatis just who my parents were. They
were literally they would do anything fortheir kids to have the opportunities to like
I had. You know, Iwas. They were very very unselfish,

(05:15):
right, and everything that they didto give us the opportunities to get where
we wanted to go growing up Johnfrom Davison, Michigan. Of course that's
a powerhouse. I mean, wrestlingis in the fabric of that community,
of course, with legendary coach Hall. When you look back at your parents,
because it starts at home, andnow you're an adult, you have

(05:35):
kids of your own, you haveyour own family, what are a couple
of things that they did because,in my opinion, John, unfortunately,
I think youth sports is a littlebit broken. So when you look back
on your childhood, what is athing or two that your parents did for
you that now that you're old andyou're going, Wow, that was really

(05:55):
critical. I'm telling you. Theysacrificed their own life lives, in their
own personal lives on weekends to takeus across the country to get in front
of better coaches, to get intothe best competitions. Literally every Saturday and
Sunday that I can remember from youth, I was all over the country getting
access to different training and partners.And we are a very very blue collar

(06:18):
family and they had to, youknow, they had to find ends meet
to make those opportunities happen. Youknow, very easily, could they could
have said, you know what,we're just we're gonna stay here local.
And but it was whatever it tookto give us a better opportunity that they
had as kids. And I'm forevergrateful from from what my parents did,
because I wouldn't be the man Iam today had it not been for the

(06:41):
tireless just work ethic and what theydid for for me and my siblings.
On percent, it's all, youknow, everything I have in my life
was I was given to it frommy parents. Man, right from day
one. During your career and inyour adult life and your entire life for
that matter, what's the conversation thatwas most impactful that you had with your

(07:04):
dad? I think just you knowwhat I think far you know, even
outside of wrestling, I just knewthat my parents loved me, and they
believed in me, and they wereproud of me. No matter what it
wasn't I wasn't coming off the mat. And trust me, this sport.
The thing I love about this sportwin or lose, Man, it's it's
a one on one sport, rightand I understood that that's what drew me

(07:28):
to this sport. My dad wasa Vision one football player at Indiana State.
He was at Indiana State with BruceBomgardner when he was on the wrestling
team, Larry Bird was on thebasketball team. My mom played softball,
so they were both visual and athletes. They understood the demand that you were
going to have to to what ittook to be at the next level.
So I understood that from a veryyoung age that if I wanted to take

(07:49):
this to the next level, itwould take a massive amount of work and
understanding that nothing was given, everythingwas earned. And I just think that
my parents understood that, and theywere they were giving me and my brother
that's older and my sister that wasyounger than me, every opportunity to be
exposed to the best, the bestand the and the best of the best

(08:11):
opportunities, whether it competition or coaching. Twenty eleven, You're in that tunnel
getting ready to wrestle Niki mucha staggy. He was a hammer from Stanford,
I mean here was he was astud. When you were sitting in that
tunnel getting ready to make that rundownthe carpet, what music play did you
get the select your song back intime? I'm actually kind of ticked off

(08:33):
about that because I never got anoption to play a song. It probably
would have been something really heavy metalor something to get me fired up.
That's kind of who I am.I'm a high sprung, high intense guy.
But I never got that option.I don't even know. And to
be honest with you, when Iget in the zone, man, I
don't hear anything. I am onetrack I am. I am on a
mission to go, so I don'teven know if I would have heard anything.

(08:56):
But to be honest with you,I'm telling you, I can remember,
I can and I'll see I visuallycould see that moment over in my
head like it was yesterday. Becauseif I go back in time, I
spent and I could preface this fora long ways. But I had three
different head coaches in college, rightA lot of student athletes don't have that
experience. Over five years, Ihad three different head coaches and along with

(09:18):
their stats. But fast forward whencoach Jackson came in at my junior year.
One thing that he implemented with me, and it's something that I truly
needed at the right time, andI think there's a lot of power behind
it is the power of visualization andsomething that he did every single day,
whether it was laid down on themat and he would walk me through a

(09:39):
match, or whether it was abike sprint, or whether whatever it was.
He was constantly surrounding me with visualization, and I was constantly being put
in a situation where I was visualizingmyself walk out onto the NCAA Finals mat,
where I would see myself executing offense, where I would see myself overcoming
adversity, where I would see myselfgetting my hand rids. He had me

(10:01):
even walking around the restrooms visualizing mycelebration after I was done. So Shane,
So you fast forward twelve months laterand I'm in that situation. I
truly believe the confidence that I hadin me walking out and now reflecting,
and honestly, I can say thatwas the most confident I've ever been.
It all came from the work Iput in twelve months before right here,

(10:24):
and when I stepped out onto thatmatt, it was I'm telling you,
I had already been there a milliontimes. I had already beat him a
million times. I had already gottenmy hand raised a million times. So
that's something that I now take intomy own coaching career and really emphasize to
our student athletes about the power ofyour mind and just how powerful it truly

(10:45):
can be. I mean the oldsaying, right, the old quote is
whether you think you can or youcan't. You know, if you think
you can you can't. That wasgonna be my first question, of course,
talked about that before we started tohit record. You're a guy on
Twitter. I love to follow youon Twitter because it just puts me in
a It puts me in a goodmood because mindset is everything. I mean,

(11:07):
rain wash yourself, whatever it is. Who cares how you get there?
But but but get there. AndI love your quotes. You have
so many great quotes. I wantto know your top top two or three.
Man, I'll give you my one. And that's really the emphasis and
foundation of everything I attack every singleday with. And it's very simple.
It's win the day, but everythingthat comes with that, that's that's how

(11:28):
I treat people. That's the typeof coworker, or how I treat my
spouse. It's Shane. I'm tryingto impact every single person that I come
in contact with, whether it's verysubtle, whether it's in passing. I'm
trying to make an impact in apositive way on everybody that I come in
contact with, that's just who Iam. I'm I'm drawn to that,

(11:50):
and I really believe that. Youknow, think about thinking about the power
if twenty of us all had thatkind of mindset, how powerful that can
be, and how it is especiallyin the world that we're in with the
the you know, the things thatkids go through nowadays, and it's you
know, you never know people thatyou come in contact with or in passing,

(12:11):
what they're going for, what they'regoing through, what season of life
they're going through. And if Ican make one small impact on somebody and
let them know that I believe inthem, that I'm proud of them,
that Hey, what's going on,how's your day going? Let me hold
the doel for you, man.That's what I'm here for. I'm here
as a coach at the University ofWisconsin to make young men better young men
and for them to accomplish their goalsand to win at the highest level and

(12:31):
have and do it with a tonof integrity. When the day, where
did that come from? I thinkthat's you know, I don't know,
I don't know. I just Ikind of just start running with it and
it became like, you know,a breakdown in the after practice and then
all of a sudden, you know, I've got a group of you know,

(12:52):
you talk about impacting people. Youknow, I've been here now for
this somebody my six year at theUniversity Wisconsin. Every Wednesday, I have
a group of fifty to sixty athleticdepartment people that I run the stadium with.
And I put that together because Iwant to impact people far beyond wrestling.
I want to impact people that arepart of this athletic department. Where
I can just come here and goto work and just do wrestling and that

(13:13):
be it. That's not who Iam though. I want that impact to
be on another level. So youknow, I give them the win the
day, and it's trying to it'sjust trying to uplift people. Man,
in a world that wants to breakyou down, I'm here to I'm here
to build you up. What coachwithin the athletic department is the best at

(13:33):
the stadium stairs Luke Fickel, headcoach. He's an absolute workhorse, is
a He's an animal, and it'ssome under that that you know, cut
from the same kind of cloth.Very very positive, impactful and wants to
motivate you to be a better versionof yourself. And that's why, you
know, I was like as soonas he got on staff, it was

(13:54):
you know, we're like two p'sin a pod. Now that is that
is awesome. Eleven. When youwin it, you're on top that podium
holding the chart. You hear mighthave been Sandy Stevens. Perhaps at that
time there was you know, you'renational champion at one hundred and seventy four
pounds from Iowa State University. JohnReider, do you remember those moments?

(14:18):
Yeah, and you know what youwould think about. I remember it like
it was yesterday. It can itcan. It kind of gives me,
you know, like I'm about toIt cuts you home. Man, it
makes you almost want to go intears. I remember that moment like I
was so proud. And if youremember, if you have ever been to
an nca tournament and you're actually thereto see the awards ceremony, they have

(14:39):
you face the middle or the centerof the arena and you're you're on the
podium and then when they turn youaround, man, it gives me goosebumps.
My parents are right there, andthat was the first thing I wanted
to do is get off that poniumand give them a hug because I owed
everything. I owe everything to them. It's it's honestly, I'm I'm thirty

(15:03):
six years old now. I've beenwrestling since I was six years old,
and these thirty thirty years of wrestlinghave been the best experience I possibly have.
But I would never have been exposedto sport had it not been for
my parents. And I'm just trulygrateful. And you would think that in
that moment you would want to doso many other things, but I couldn't
wait to get off that podium andhug my parents and just to let them

(15:24):
know how grateful I am that foreverything, every sacrifice that they ever had.
My parents never missed one wrestling matchin college. And you you know
the logistics of college wrestling when you'reon one coast to the other coast to
the other here and my parents workfull time jobs, and it's it's it
was a It was also having otherkids to make sure that they're managing as

(15:48):
well, and my parents never missedone match. You know, they wanted
to be a part of the experience, and they didn't sacrifice. They did
they wouldn't sacrifice not missing it.They were there everything. I know you've
been asked this question a lot,but Davison Michigan. I mean, so
many Hammers have come out to DavisonMichigan. Tell me something about that program

(16:10):
that you haven't talked about before.I think there's so much to talk about.
I think that people don't understand howlucky we really were. And I
think that looking back now when Isee Brent, I saw brand at the
US Open in Vegas and just talkingand reminiscing about our times at Davison and
just how lucky we are. Andnow it's being coaches and having to obviously

(16:32):
recruit countrywide and see the opportunities thatsome have and some don't have. Man,
it really makes you look back onwhat we had as high school kids
and be like, holy cow,man, what we had. We had
two Division one college athletes that wereour coaches, like there were former Division
one athletes that literally they got usup before school started. We were running,

(16:55):
we were lifting, and when schoolwas done, we had college level
practices or college level structured practices wherewe were held accountable and we were competing
across the country against the best competition. I'm telling you, Shane, what
we had from high school. Itwas a seamless transition for me, and
it prepared me at a high levelto walk from high school into college.

(17:17):
I was ready the second I steppedon campus. Now the level of competition
gets much much higher. But whatI was chasing, the what I was
looking for in college, it wasall seamless because I had in high school.
It was like walking into another program, just led by different coaches.
And you won three state titles,correct, correct, three state titles.

(17:38):
Yep, what year did you notwin? I did not win as a
freshman, so you can imagine me. My dad six y six, he's
a big guy. My mom hasplayed softball in college, so she's a
little shorter. But I hit abig gross spur at my freshman year.
I was one hundred and twelve poundsas a freshman, and I didn't weigh
one hundred and twelve pounds. Iwas wrestling up because we had a really
good Paul Donohoy, as you probablyknow, was a national cham up at

(18:00):
Nebraska. He was our one othree pounder, so I was going one
twelve. I was a freshman,he was a junior. I was just
a baby. I was one hundredand ten pounds, soaking wet. But
when I started to get towards theend of the season, I started hitting
the Grosbert and it was it wasa struggle to get to one twelve.
And what made it happen. Iended up Thursday as a freshman and then
ended up winning sophomore, Junior,senior, so taking third as a freshman.

(18:23):
I John love third place, andI want to start this and I
really do. At the national tournaments, the champions get the picture together,
and that's great. I want toget a picture with the guys to take
thirty because I just think there isso much honor regardless of in this case
you being in high school, especiallywhen I think about those college kids,

(18:44):
maybe that number one seed that getsbeat in the semi finals, to get
it together. I have no idea. I'm just trying to comprehend in my
mind how hard it must be.Described to me, John, the honor
of getting the next best thing andfinding a way to finish third absolutely and
and and I think you hit iton the nail. I think that's a
great idea. I think we shouldget a picture of all the third placers.

(19:07):
I think that there's a ton there'san immense amount of grit and just
it's a reflection of life, right, it really is. When you get
knocked down, you have a choiceto stay down or keep getting back up
and keep moving forward. And Ithink those got those guys that come back
and get third what an What anaccomplishment where they could have just kept their
head down and gave in. AndI think that's a true reflection of a

(19:30):
lot of what they had within.And that's hard to teach. Brother,
that's hard to teach. You know, they're there. I'm telling you.
You can preach that for years andyears and years, but that's something that
is built within, and no doubtabout it. Those guys that come back
to third, what what an accomplishment, Especially some of those guys that you
see over the years that lose firstround of the NCAA's and they rattle off
eight nine wins to get third place. What do you remember from winning your

(19:55):
first state title? Oh? Imean it was it was a first,
right. I just remember the immenseamount of like, let's let's go.
You know this, this is thatit's time to start rolling on people.
And I was starting to get toa level where I knew that this is
what I wanted to do in college, and I started I played Pop Warner
Sports and I'm a big believer inthat, and I know some are are

(20:17):
against that, but I'm I knowwhat I do with my own kids now.
I want them exposed to every sportand that's how my parents were.
But as we got down the road, I think about my sophomore year,
I kind of identified, Hey,I'm getting pretty darn good at this and
I'm starting to really really like wherethis is going, and I'm starting to
see the attraction from coaches. I'mstarting to see kind of where my Division

(20:40):
one coaches that were my high schoolcoaches are kind of projecting and where this
can go, and they've roadmapped itall out. As a sophomore, I
was like, Hey, this iswhat I want to start doing. So
I really dialed in and went twofeet in and started wrestling full time there
because I really wasn't a full timewrestler until about my sophomore year in high
school. You know, I waswrestling, you know, to all the

(21:00):
national level tournaments, but I wasn'tI was still playing other sports. And
that's when I went two feet inand it took off. What's up?
What weights did you win him at? In high school? I went one
twelve as a press place and Iwent one thirty five, one sixty whilst
you're putting some weight on over overthere to put some weight on. Yeah,
and that actually really I was.It was my one sixty. My

(21:22):
senior year was probably the last.You know, that was what I was
cutting weight too. But it itgradually got bigger and bigger and bigger,
you know. But like I toldyou, I didn't hit my dad's grossberg.
My dad's sixty six to you know, two eighty five, three hundred
pounds, and you know, justhe was alignement in college. So I
think he wanted me at be asecretly he wanted me to be a football
player deep down. Uh, Ijust didn't didn't have it. What was

(21:44):
your most memorable high school match?M M, most memorable high school match?
Wow, I've got a lot ofgreat experiences as a team, and
one of the one of the greatestmoments that we had as a team,
so obviously Davison Powerhouse program. Werattled off eight to ten you know,
team state titles in a row,right, coach, Roy Hall is a

(22:07):
legendary coach and has done a phenomenaljob. Well, we got to my
senior year when a lot of thoseguys above me had graduated and went on
to college, with Brett Metcalfe andPaul Donaho and you know my brother and
Brent's older brother, Chase mattcalf Theyhad all gone. So we were a
very very young and rebuilding program andwe had we had a good group in

(22:27):
my class of leaders. And whatwe did was I was going one to
sixty for the individual tournament. Well, we decided before the teams tournament team
tournament that was two weeks prior tothe individuals. With the whole weight descent,
we were able to go down aweight class. So when we walked
into the team State championships, nobodyknew that our weight class, our whole

(22:48):
brad Our whole lineup had moved andshifted down a weight class and it was
going to give us a better opportunityto make a run. And we got
to the team state finals as mysenior and we all had this thing like
we are not going to be thelast that it stops on. You know,
we we were going to do anythingin our power to continue that tradition,
and we weren't going to be likeyou know in history books saying,
hey, this was the class thatthat you know dropped the ball. So

(23:11):
we got to the team state championships, we all shifted down a wake class.
We walked to the wings and Iremember like it was yesterday, all
the coaches that were in there withtheir other teams, and they all were
just mouths, had jaws had hitthe ground that all of us had bumped
down a weight class, and weall sacrificed, knewing that this was coming,
and we got it done. Man. We came to the state finals
and got it done. I thinkwe won on the last match. And

(23:33):
you know how those duel meets inhigh school, some of those might be
determined by probably your less experienced guy. Like the way it all got shifted
out and who matched up with whoit was like a guy that was a
twenty percent winning percentage versus their twentypercent winning percentage, And it was just
the power of you know, itwas amazing. And to see both crowds
and my parents and all the parentsthat we had grown up, you know,

(23:56):
to this moment as and we wewe carried it out. We ended
up getting to see title as justone of my better moments. But it
was about the team and what weaccomplished together as a group. When we
put our heads together and we sacrificedtogether, it wasn't a selfish thing.
It was a very unselfish commitment toeach other. Like, hey, I
very easily could have just DAYD onesixties said forget it. I'm worried about

(24:17):
the individual state tournament in two weeks. But I made that decision because of
the people that were around me inthat program and how much I loved my
coaches, and I was willing todo anything for that program. You won
three individual state titles, you werepart of four team titles at Davison.
I mean you did a lot ofwinning. And I've said this John,
regardless of sport, there is adifference between a team and a program.

(24:41):
Davis and Michigan was a wrestling program. So many things have to be executed
to have that kind of success.But what are a couple of things that
maybe go under the radar that werejust so instrumental in making that program that
it was well. I think,first and foremost in any great program with

(25:03):
any great company, it starts withthe leadership. It really truly does.
Everything trickles down from the from theleaders. And it was our coaches.
They they they invested in the relationshipswith their athletes, and they truly cared
about us, and they held usaccountable, which was very important. It
was something that we all wanted,right, that willingness to lean into when
things got uncomfortable and those decisions hadto be made. We were all held

(25:26):
accountable to the standard of the programand our kind of model are saying at
Davison And something you probably saw ont shirts was never settle, break some
money. That was our That wasour model. Never settled, right,
We're never going to settle for anything. We were always going to you know,
try to out hustle, out work, you know, high effort kind
of kind of program. But wewere held to that standard from day in

(25:48):
and day out. Didn't matter whoyou were. But it didn't matter if
you were Brett Metgaf, it didn'tmatter if you were Paul Dono, it
didn't matter if you were all in. Trust me, there was twenty to
thirty other guys in that room thatwere just as good, that didn't go
on and have as good as collegecareers, but we were held to a
standard every single day, and that'ssomething that I craved. I wanted that.
That's why I was in that program. I was attracted to the structure,

(26:11):
the energy, the passion, justthe relentless pursuit of trying to be
a better version of ourselves. Andonce we got to be pretty good as
a team, we were ranked ahigh as number two or number three in
the country, you know, andour coaches just again, they they were
unselfish themselves. They were very,very committed as high school coaches that weren't

(26:33):
making probably a thousand, two hundred, you know, thousand dollars two hundred,
two thousand dollars whatever it was.You know how high school coaches are
very underpaid. These guys were.They were like they were like extensions of
my family, like truly, youknow, That's how we looked at it,
and it was very so even tofast forward when I got into college,
that's really what I wanted in aprogram. I mean, we groy

(26:55):
Hall had that Davison program feared andit was amazing to be a part of
it, right and when we wouldwalk into arenas to Kellogg Arena, and
Battle Creek, Michigan to go tothe team state championship. We were feared
when we walked in. It wasfeared. I remember, I remember how
vision this Uh Bret mackalv is moreof it. He was more of a
skater boy in high school, alittle bit right. He used to skateboard
and he used to have his boombox. You know, I was a class

(27:18):
behind him, so I was alwayslike, hey, I'm doing whatever he's
doing too. So we would walkinto the Battle Creek, you know,
Kellogg Arena to the team State championships, and we would have this boombox and
we would walk into the place andeverybody would pause. Everybody would look at
and it was like that team wasfeared. And when we walked into an
arena, it was like, hey, they're here, and they're they're they're
they're here to get after it.What's your favorites? Roy Hall story?

(27:45):
Uh? I just I uh man, I got so many. You know.
I just am incredibly grateful for everythingthat he's ever done for me.
You know, when when when alot of people may have doubted me in
my career, he was always regardlesswhether it was my own high school career,
whether it was far beyond in mycollege career, he was always right
there to say, listen, Ibelieve in you. You can do this,

(28:08):
you can do this. But onepersonality thing that he had was he
was very forgetful. He always losehis keys, lose his phone, lose
this, lose that. So itwas always kind of running joke for him,
you know, where's my keys,where's my phone. He was just
kind of, you know, kindof all over the place, very very
high energy, very very high energy. But man, just again you look

(28:30):
back and you reflect on your career. He was definitely a pivotal moment in
my own personal career. And Iremember, again you have those aha moments
when you're coming up, like onebe in that moment where I told my
father and I looked at him inthe eye and I said I want to
do this. And then again probablythe really strong one after that was I
remember as an eighth grader, RoyHall was my middle school pe teacher,

(28:55):
and so as a middle school peteacher, you know, naturally he's obviously
my high school coacher, would begoing to be my high school coach.
He told me, as a middleschool wrestler, he's like You're going to
the high school with me right afterschool is done. I'm like, okay,
I'm going with you, and thenyou're going to sit down on the
wall and you're going to watch theseguys practice, you know. And I
was an eighth grader, right andI was here my goal. My brother

(29:18):
was already in the Davison program.But I remember watching sitting there and watching
Chase Metcalf, who was ranked numberone in the country, Brent Metcalf,
Paul Donaho who ends up going tobe a national champ, and many others
in there, and I'm like,this is amazing. I want to do
this. I want to do this. And at that time, Chase was
a little bit older than all ofus. I think he's four years older

(29:38):
than me, so he was gettingheavily recruited. At the time, he
was ranked number one in the country. He had just won senior nationals.
He beat Daryl Vasquez, who wasa four time the first four time California
state champion. So we had thenumber one guy in the country pound for
pound in our room, and Iwatched his every day, like every day
habits. I watched everything about him. I was a wrestling junkie and I

(30:00):
was watching how Chase Mattcalf carried himself. I'm like, he got a full
right scholarship to Michigan. I said, you know, I watched everything about
I said, I want to dothis. I want to do what he's
doing. I want to go toa program and I want to wrestle at
the highest level. And I'm tellingyou those experiences, a lot of kids
don't have those. A lot ofkids don't have that kind of like wow,

(30:22):
this is this is another I was. I was in a room at
another level the moment I stepped footinto that program as as a freshman.
But again, Coach Hall, hefueled that passion. He fueled that passion
and surrounded me with people that werelike minded like that. And you know
the history books you look back onit. You had three national champs all
on the same high school program atone time. It's it's just a reflection

(30:45):
to him. But I would beremiss that if I told you, you
know, it wasn't just Roy,it was also Kent Elliott, who I've
got an immense amount of respect for. And some of that really I had
a strong relationship with. He wasactual college roommates at LSU before they dropped
the program with Kevin Jackson. Soin a small world, fast forward,
you know, I'm with kJ downthe road as as his athlete at Iowa

(31:07):
State. Him and Kevin Jackson werecollege roommates at LSU and they were at
each other's wedding. So it's justa weird small world. But again a
high level guy who knew what itwas going to take at the next level
at the national tournaments. A coupleof months ago, was doing something with

(31:29):
Bill Zada, and he had agreat line and he said, you know,
nobody can drag you to the topof the podium. And then this
conversation with you, John, it'spretty evident nobody was dragging you to do
much. He loved. It's thepassion. You felt like you were built
for this. It worked hard,you had the success, Like what is

(31:51):
it about this sport that you justloved? I mean it was from there,
was from the get go. Istarted out in ke baw. I
started out in Pop Warner football.But when I got exposed to wrestling and
I first put my shoes on andI got my hands on somebody. Obviously
I was I was very unskilled,right, but it was just the the
freedom of it's me versus whoever I'mwrestling. It's it's how much time do

(32:15):
I want to invest in this?Personally? It's me. It's on me.
I have one hundred percent control overthis. It's not I'm not depending
on anybody else. And I wasreally really drawn towards that, and I
had success from from a young age, So that fueled it, right,
That fueled that, that passion,and it kind of snowball, but again
there was a lot of It tooka village to continue to pour in and

(32:37):
invest in me and give me opportunities. And you know, I'm very blessed
with that because I also see nowfar down there, far down the road
for me, I see kids thataren't fortunate with those opportunities, and and
man, it just makes me reallyvery very grateful that that I had that.
John, This has been a lotof fun. This has been part
one or coming back for part two. This is that That was quick,

(33:00):
brother, that was too quick.It was part two Stick around Part two
with John Reader