What are your favorite and least favorite subjects in school, and how do you think wrestling influences your approach to them? I think my favorite subject is math, well I’ve always been pretty good at math and my wrestling coach is my math teacher so he made it a good environment for me to understand the topic better but my least fav is English not because of the teacher, just the subject.
Have you learned any skills from wrestling, like discipline or perseverance, that have helped you academically?
In wrestling you have to learn that you never give up, I feel like there’s always something new to learn, I feel that way in school also.
How do you handle the pressure of performing well in both wrestling and academics?
In academics, it’s always a burden to have good grades so I can succeed and the pressure in wrestling is always grinding for the right thing, so I feel like when I study it’s the same gratification as it is for wrestling where I can be more successful.
How do you stay motivated and positive when facing setbacks in either wrestling or school?
Just to keep going, ignore it and go to the next thing and worry about it later; not to let it affect me and work on something else knowing I’ll do that better than the previous thing.
What advice would you give to other student-athletes who are struggling to balance their sports and studies?
To give each their own time and to separate the two and there’s a time for school so I try to keep school at school and wrestling at wrestling. It also helps your mental state to not always have the two separate and not combined.