2023 NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP

March 18, 2023

Aaron Brooks

BOK Center

Finals Media Conference

184 pounds

Q. Aaron Brooks, three-time national champion. Thoughts and emotions on hearing that?

AARON BROOKS: Just blessed and grateful. Everything I have is from God. He gives me the ability to wrestle. When I go out there, if it's anything, it's to preach about him. I'm blessed and grateful he's using me. We all give him the glory, but he chose me for this. So I'm blessed.

Q. Fourth time in college (indiscernible) wrestled. You wrestled him in high school for world teams. How do you stay fresh and motivated against a guy like Parker Keckeisen?

AARON BROOKS: He's my brother in Christ. Iron sharpens iron. And every time I have him, I've got to bring it. Him and his coaching staff, very blessed as well. I know I'm wrestling Parker, it's going to be a good match.

Q. Year after year, how do you maintain your edge? You're the guy on top, you're the guy people are gunning for. How do you stay sharp, stay focused and improve year after year?

AARON BROOKS: It's all from the glory of God. Back when I just worshipped wrestling, I burned out. Now I'm doing it for him. I don't do it to win a trophy in these things. It's to preach to people. That's what motivates me.

That's what's on my mind all the time because everything else comes and goes. People are winning and losing; it's all vanity. Once this is over, they're talking about what's going on next year. That's how the world works. When I'm out there, what lives can I change with the holy spirit in me because that goes for eternity.

Q. (Off microphone).

AARON BROOKS: I'm just blessed. Like I said yesterday, I'm very blessed to be where I'm at. Where God put me, people he's placed in my life, I'm grateful for him, everyone in the room, everyone in the program I'm blessed to have.

And we're all special in our own ways and God put us all together and it brings out the best of each other.

Q. From day one, the program, winning titles, what's it been like, the intangibles, so to speak, behind the success?

AARON BROOKS: Like I said, just gratitude. Even Coach Cael says it. If you're grateful for what you have it could be very little. If you're grateful for what God gave you, you'll use it to the best of your ability.

I'm grateful for everything. I'm grateful for my wins, my losses, the hard days the good days because they all mold me to who I am. Same thing with the program. If we accept it we're grateful we're here, we competed. How can we win and grow. So what's God trying to tell us? So attitude is everything. Grateful for what God has given us.

Q. Saw you shaking hands with some little ones after the match. What's it like knowing that you're inspiring the next generation of wrestlers and you're inspiring our young people? How does that feel to know that you've got young guys making a positive effect on them?

AARON BROOKS: It's everything. They should be me. And I remember some guys would say to me older guys. I remember one time I was at an all star classic, and I shook Logan Stieber's hand. And I was like, that was Logan Stieber.

So putting myself in their shoes. (Indiscernible). God has given me this platform, I can impact them tremendously, just one encounter. So I always try my best to take that time to everyone in the crowd, acknowledge them.

Q. How did you feel about not getting the No. 1 seed?

AARON BROOKS: Not really anything. I didn't even know who I was wrestling until an hour before my match. Even when I was 1 seed the previous year I didn't look at it. I was 2 seed last year. It's just a seed.

Q. Talk about your relationship with Coach Cael (inaudible) obviously you're in his weight range. What's that relationship like?

AARON BROOKS: I'm super blessed to have Coach Cael. Like I said, this has been a big part of my calling. This is all God. No one in my family ever wrestled. It was just me and my brother at the time. We just live with my dad.

He got this new GMC, a car with a movie thing in the back. He brought home this DVD. He was, like, this is the greatest wrestler of all time. He didn't know anything about wrestling. And it was Coach Cael. And I was like 7 years old. (Indiscernible).

I was like, I want to be like that dude. That's where I learned my ankle pick and all these things. Next thing you know I'm wrestling for him. This is all God, everything. Not just what happened tonight, but my life whole. It's been his hand on me the whole time.

Q. Reflect back to when you were in the EAP and Kevin Jackson took you to Midland, you were at 174 and you got beat by, maybe, a 24-year-old guy from Army. Reflect on that experience and now you're a three-timer.

AARON BROOKS: I said, hey, I'm grateful for that, even those things. That's part of my life, just learning, learning every day. So going through that. That was a darker place for me in my life. But I suffered and I got stronger. And it brought me closer to God. That was me, that brand after that season in my life. Grateful for all of it.