|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPSMarch 17, 2012Frank MolinaroST. LOUIS, MISSOURI 149-lb. Champion THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Has it sunk in yet? What does it feel like? FRANK MOLINARO: It hasn't really sunk in yet, just because I didn't picture the match going like that. Ended up in a dogfight, felt a lot stronger the second time, the fourth time I've wrestled him. I put my heart and soul in this for fiveyears. I didn't get care how I got it. 6‑5 win, second round, not my best match out there, but standing at the top of that podium five years later, thanks to all my coaches, my fans, my family, it's the best. Everyone. High school coaches, club coaches. I wouldn't have did this without all of them. They're even here supporting me right now. Q.  Just talk about the opposite reaction from last year to this year. FRANK MOLINARO: Last year I got killed and went back and trained as hard as I could for a year straight. Took a lot of heat, a lot of criticism from that match, but all it did was motivate me. Really proud of myself. And I don't really like to gloat or nothing, but I had a lot of shutouts this year. I dominated people. And I had a blast doing it. And I got so much love for these coaches. Two best brothers in the world coaching me in my corner, and nothing feels better than that. Q. Describe the energy level going into the match, the nervous level, just what you were thinking walking on to that mat? FRANK MOLINARO: It's really hard to even answer that question. Because one second I'm so hyped I'm jumping in place for 30seconds. The next second I'm trying to calm myself down. And I'm hugging everyone. So so many different emotions and you work so hard for something, and when you get that close and you don't compete at your best or you go out there and you get ridden for the whole match, those things hurt because you train all year for that one match. Just happy I got it done there. Not my best match. But I'm just very excited to be a part of such an elite company. Q. He flipped you on your head there early. What was going through your mind? Take us through that sequence of events. FRANK MOLINARO: Well, I wrestled Andrew Alden all the time, and he always tries that move on me. And I thought, hey, this kid can't be showing anything on Andrew, so I'll just cut across here. And I cut across and he hit the gator roll on me, and I was on my back for a second, and I started going over, and I said, you know, I'll never let myself live this down. Q. You guys have the team title locked up before you even had to take the mat tonight. Did you envision that happening this weekend? FRANK MOLINARO: Yeah, I did. I don't know. It seems special. Can't even put my finger on it. Every single guy on this team is special, not only the ten starters. We've got 35 guys on our team and we've got 35 guys in St. Louis right now. They drove 780miles, some of them, to get here. So this team is real special. And I knew the potential we had all season. You don't know what could happen at this tournament, but, I mean, as of right now, I'd say this is definitely almost max potential where we're at right now with a few matches left. Q. I don't mean to refocus the attention. But Niko had a tough match in his final. Did you get a chance to watch that at all, and what are your thoughts after that and what are you going to tell Niko after that loss? FRANK MOLINARO: We haven't had a chance to talk too much, just because we've both been so focused and we don't want to look ahead or nothing. I texted him last night because I was ‑‑ you know, I was thinking about it all night how special it was what Niko did. When we first got here, I didn't know what to think about that kid, to be honest with you. And right now I love him. I want to stay with Penn State so I can watch Niko and ride his success with him. That kid works harder than anybody. He asked me to drill every day after practice. Anything that kid wants, he'll get it. Q. Frank, you came into this tournament without any kind of knee wrap, pretty healthy. There was a point in the earlier rounds you tweaked something. Cael said you were fine. I know you would say that. Now that this is over, would you care to elaborate on that and what changes you had to make to your game to kind of deal with what happened? FRANK MOLINARO: The end of my second match, I got real tired, and it was a dogfight. And that kid was a young buzzsaw. And there was ten seconds left, and I turned my knee down and kick away hundreds of times. For some reason, when I did it that time, the inside of my knee, my whole knee popped out and it kind of popped back in. I didn't know what to expect. And I just lost it. I ran off the mat. I just thought it was all being taken away from me right there. Everyone was trying to calm me down. I was freaking out. I finally sat down with our doctor. He told me my whole knee popped out but it popped back in. It hurt this whole tournament, to be honest with you. I couldn't really even warm up. I'd drill a little bit and just couldn't wrestle. It was hard to lose my weight. But I got real down on myself before that quarterfinals match and I remember, to be honest with you, I almost broke down started crying, I went into the locker room, sat down, and Cael saw me in there and he kind of gave me one heck of a pep talk. And after I got done talking with Cael, I just went out there and killed it my quarterfinal match. It's when you hear something from Cael Sanderson, you can't challenge that. You gotta believe anything he tells you, because Cael knows more than anybody. Q. (No microphone)? FRANK MOLINARO: Yeah. You know, me being a wimp, it was just kind of I'm feeling fortunate. I work so hard all year and this is going to happen to me. And I just got in the pity mode and my teammates are tough as nails and nobody would give me any pity or sorrow. They told me I was fine and just be a leader. Q. Any thought about continuing wrestling in freestyle with Nittany Lion or is this truly your last match? FRANK MOLINARO: It's been something I've been thinking about for a while. I haven't done much freestyle, but I love it. I just really hope opportunity opens up for me to compete in freestyle. And this is great, and I'm going to enjoy this. But I know how competitive I am. And this eventually will wear off and I'll set the bar higher. I love wrestling. And any way I can contribute back to the sport, coaching, competing, any way to help my friends, I'll be wrestling the rest of my life. Q. Could you care to elaborate on what Cael said to you in that pep talk, any specific examples? FRANK MOLINARO: There was two things he said to me that really stuck out. The first thing was get your headgear, put your sneakers on, we're going to go exit you out of this tournament right now. If you're quitting right now, we'll just exit you out of the tournament. And the second thing that was awesome was it's like they don't make movies about guys who have perfect seasons and win the nationals and everything is happy‑go‑lucky; it's adversity and the test. And for some reason when he said that I started thinking I would be on the Jersey Shore cast or something. I don't know why. It popped into my head and I started laughing to myself and I said all right, let's get this. Q. When's the last time you remember not hitting a left knee high crotch and have to go to straight singles? We never see that. That's your go‑to shot? FRANK MOLINARO: I think I've taken down‑‑ not to sound cocky‑‑ but everybody I've ever wrestled with a high crotch, from‑‑ this summer I took down some heavyweights with it. Took down some 97‑pounders this summer. And even‑‑ I told my dad‑‑ he's always, Shoot the double, shoot the single. I'm like, Dad, no kid gets out of my high crotch, I'll never have to shoot anything else. And I got out there, three, four times I missed the high crotch. He was ready for it. I know I have a good single. I'm just so stubborn, I gotta get the high crotch. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|