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NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPSMarch 22, 2014J'Den CoxOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA 197 POUNDS Q. Tell me about the spelling of your name, how it happened, in general. J'DEN COX: My mom thought of the name. She watched some show. I can't recall what it is. And she decided to call me that. It's actually spelled how it is in French. So it's supposed to be pronounced as J'Den Cox instead of J'Den Cox, but just my mom came up with the spelling. And I like it because nobody else does it. Q. You've said all along you wanted to walk away with the Gold. Now that you have, it how does that feel? J'DEN COX: It feels amazing. It feels great. I've worked so hard. I was telling all these guys, losing here means I've gotta push the restart button again. I didn't feel like doing that at all in this tournament, and came through all the training. Everything I've gone through this summer, morning practices, two‑a‑days, everything, it's come down to this, winning the gold. I'm very proud. So it's amazing. So even now I still have more work to do. Q. A year ago, right now, you were in high school. I mean, at that time even though you were having a great season and you knew you were a top high school wrestler, did you imagine that you would be sitting right here right now as national champ as a true freshman? J'DEN COX: I didn't just imagine it. I dreamed it. This is a dream of mine. It's something I put all of my heart and work to and I always tell people there's no point‑‑ I see it this way: There's no point to do something if you're not going to push yourself to try to do it to the best of your ability. Even if you do something for the love it or just because you like to do it, it's even better to push yourself to try to be the best at it, and I've dreamed of this since I was a little kid. Q. True freshman winning a national championship is usually not at an upper weight class. How did you handle being able to go against full‑grown men coming right out of high school and feeling like you could compete against these bigger guys? J'DEN COX: Honestly, I didn't think about it. And nobody around me made a big deal about it. The big thing is everyone around me had faith in me, which also helped me have faith in myself. We knew how hard we worked. We knew how hard we were going to work and we knew no matter who was in front of us we were going to do everything to come out on top and pursue a dream and everything we wanted out of the season and everyone played a part and just believed in each other, having faith and me having faith in the system, my coaching and my teammates. Q. Can you take us through the final seconds. Got pretty tight there at the end. J'DEN COX: Like Coach said, I shouldn't have been there. I should have been more comfortable. I got caught in the opposition. I didn't move. Honestly, I thought I was all right, because I was trying to kind of swinging out of bounds, but it didn't happen, and I'm going to put this on‑‑ thank God to the clock was close to being out because it was going to be a close one. But it was a scary thought. But in the end, came out all right. Q. At the end, the smoke comes up or the air, whatever we're calling that, and you get your hand raised, what did that feel like? J'DEN COX: It felt like a big weight lifted off my chest. I've told people in interviews about my goal. My goal is to be a four‑time national champion. This is the beginning. And I think this was probably going to be one of the hardest ones just because it was trying to get the train started, trying to get the motion going towards that. I was talking to Marable before my match, and he was like, man, what are you so nervous about? I'm like, man, I've got something to do here. I got something to prove not to someone else but to myself. I put that goal for myself because I believe in myself to do it. And that's why before the match I was kind of nervous. I was like this is something big to me. It means a lot to me and I have something to prove to myself. And I think that was the most meaning of it. I proved something to myself today. And I'm very proud of myself. Q. Nobody goes into a Final thinking they're going to have a real close, low‑scoring match. How did you manage not to make mistakes and keep within yourself knowing that one little thing could make a difference in whether or not you're a national champion? J'DEN COX: I would say, one, just focus on wrestling. Just focus on wrestling. I'm a wrestler, you're supposed to wrestle. Don't worry about the score or the time. Just do what you do. Two, coaching is a big part. My warm‑up, we went over things. We just said play your game plan, do what you do. Basically that's what I've been told all this year. You think about it, it really means a lot, do what I do. Focus on me. That's a big motto for me and also our team. Just focus on us. And I think that's what I had to do out there. Don't worry about the score, just focus on you, do what you do. Still time on the clock. You still have seven minutes to wrestle. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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