|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPSMarch 22, 2014Cael SandersonDavid TaylorOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA DAVID TAYLOR: Yeah, that's just stuff I dreamt about when I was a kid. And kind of sums it up tonight. Just having that opportunity to go out there and wrestle and wrestle for the best fans in the country and have the best coaches in my corner. It's just‑‑ I don't know, it's hard to say. You know, right now I'm pretty happy. And I don't know that the happiness will go away for at least a couple of days or a couple of weeks. Q. I'd also like to ask you about Ed Ruth. With the two of them together, everything, the accomplishments, it's always been a little bit of an odd couple, the way you guys are bringing them together. Could you talk about how different those two guys are? COACH SANDERSON: Well, yeah. I think they're different in a lot of ways. They have a lot of similarities. They both love to compete and the bigger the match, the better they wrestle. Those are the big things. They're both very consistent in the way that they train and they work out every day. They train at the speed that they compete at, and that's pretty much‑‑ is everybody on our team, probably everybody in the country. But so they don't just show up and become the magic man. You become the magic man every day of your life. Q. What about personalities? COACH SANDERSON: Well, that's a tougher question. I'm just kidding. Well, they are a lot different. Ed's just real low key. You know, he's‑‑ where David's the high energy, and they're just different. But they both, big hearts, love the team. I mean Ed came back and said‑‑ after he won and we thought there's a good chance we were going to win, we hadn't won yet, but he said, you know, thinking or knowing we're going to win as a team feels better than me winning my third national championship. That's just Ed Ruth. He's pretty special. I know David has put this team on his shoulders several times, and that's all I asked them to do is one more time. That's asking a lot, but obviously did it. Q. David, the NCAA for the second year in a row put you in a place of honor the last match of the night, the showcase match. Some people would look at it as added pressure. And tonight it wasn't so much winning the individual title but the team title didn't rest on it. Did it feel like more pressure to you, or do you like that spot? DAVID TAYLOR: I think there's pressure‑‑ you know, Coach always talks about pressure and people thinking really two ways. And if you look at the opportunity, and the whole time I was thinking‑‑ I watched all the matches. I was here every session. Watched the match, watched ours guys and the other teams. And I was paying pretty close attention to the score because I wanted to go out on top with a fourth team title this year pretty badly. And just kind of planted it in my head, and I was thinking it's a good possibility it'd come down to my match. And that's just something that, like I said earlier, it's something you dream about. I dreamt about that forever. I think I've had dreams about that a hundred times, getting my hand raised. It was pretty special. I appreciate really the opportunity to be that last guy because that means people thought I was going to go out and wrestle and put some points on the board. And they picked that match, and I think they picked it because they thought maybe it would come down to the team championship as well. And it's just pretty awesome. I really can't say much more than that. Q. David, were you watching 57 and were you hoping that it would come down to you to clinch a title like Clinton had an opportunity to do last year? DAVID TAYLOR: I think last year I made the mistake of watching too many matches, and I started thinking a little bit too much about my Finals match. And mentally, my mind was going a million miles an hour. Obviously, this year, I had the experience of wrestling the last match last year. So I watched the beginning matches and watched the heavyweight match. And when Gwiazdowski beat Nelson, I realized it was going to come down to my match. After that I just put on my shoes and went in and got a little warm‑up, broke a sweat, some shots, relaxed, turned the TVs off, and just got ready for my match. I really didn't know what was going on in those other matches. And 57, when Minnesota lost, it just came down to just going out and getting my hand raised. Q. And I heard that you had a run‑in with a railing earlier. What happened there and can you kind of‑‑ COACH SANDERSON: It was a gorilla that escaped from the zoo, is what he told us. DAVID TAYLOR: Just continues. No. It's actually, I was jumping up in the bleachers, and the railing came out of the ground and hit me in the face. Cut me up a little bit. Bunch of people told me I was bleeding. And had to go and run down. And hopefully no one saw. Too many people didn't see it. It was kind of embarrassing, but it was kind of funny. Q. David, you're one of the rare people that had a four‑time NCAA Final. And as a senior, how much of a better and different wrestler are you now than the first time you stepped up on the big stage? DAVID TAYLOR: I think as a little 157‑pound freshman with big dreams, thinking I was going to be an undefeated four‑time national champion, nothing could go wrong. And I got some advice from Troy Letters, told me to seize the moment. And I think maybe I took it for granted a little bit, did not really understand‑‑ you think how many things can happen in the NCAA Tournament and how difficult it was to get up there. I was up there four times. I lost twice. And it's hard. Winning the national championship, you gotta have, you gotta be ready to really wrestle, and I think I just developed some skills over the last four years. You know, keep working. Had some experiences wrestling freestyle and getting some more patience with my offense and guys slowing me down. And tonight was a big night where I had to really focus on riding Caldwell and getting weight forward because he was really intent to try and get up to his feet an getting escapes. So there were some things that I had to do a little different tonight than I have in the past. So I just think I just matured a lot as a wrestler, as a person, and I just think a lot was just looking up to my coaches every day and having a guy like, obviously, Cael, who did what no one else could do. Having a guy like that keeping my mind fresh all the time. And Coach Cunningham every day, wrestling with him every day. And just I'm very lucky to be surrounded by a great supporting‑‑ real supportive people and my coaches. They're really close to me as friends, and I look up to them for a lot of reasons. And if they say do something, I try do the best I possibly can. Q. Cael, everybody likes to link wrestlers. Obviously you're up there with them. Where do you rank David? Not every moment here at NCAAs have been great. Some bitter, some happy. What unique place does he have in wrestling? COACH SANDERSON: Well, I think anytime you're talking the greats of college wrestling, his name is going to be mentioned. No question about that. I'm not a historian or anything like that, but I wouldn't take anybody else on my team in the history of college wrestling over David Taylor. It's just the passion and the love and obviously the skill and everything that comes with him. Q. Cael, we talked in the past about visualization. How did you approach last night and this morning and going into today, sort of getting your minds right? COACH SANDERSON: I don't remember. I mean, it's like a blur right now. You know? We've been visualizing‑‑ I visualize‑‑ just been planning on winning this tournament since the last year's tournament. And there were moments there where you're thinking, wow, we might not win this. You're like, nah. You know, just like this guy, they gotta think positive all the time. You have a negative thought creep in, you gotta kick it out right away. So I think it's important for us as coaches to do the same thing that we're telling our guys to do. Whatever that means. Work hard, be positive, focus on what you can control, what you can't. That's not a secret or anything, but that's the truth. One thing I didn't really‑‑ I want to talk about James English for a second. James English, I don't think people really understand kind of what he's gone through. And I know he took seventh. He didn't win the championship, but this is a guy who, he came back for his sixth year. I wasn't sure why, because he's always hurt. He comes back. He's wrestling well. Gets hurt in the inner squad match. Still wants to wrestle. We wrestle him in the first match. He gets hurt in the first match. And we bring him back a month later after he's doing better, and he gets hurt in the pit match. But this is a kid who shouldn't wrestle. He's going to have neck and back problems for the rest of his life. Probably didn't wrestle somebody live all year outside of a coach. He kept‑‑ as the season went along, I'd kind of written him off. We had Andrew Walton. We were trying to get him back from an injury, which he needed more time and needed another surgery. And we had Zach Beitz doing an awesome job. Every time James English would weigh in, he'd warm up like he was wrestling. And every time he didn't wrestle, he was really upset. And then finally, I think we were traveling to Minnesota a month or five weeks ago, and he was ready. He felt like he was healthy again. I'm like, James, we just‑‑ the Big Ten Tournament, you're going to have to win five matches. You're going to have to be able to wrestle five matches, three in a row. Nationals you got to wrestle three days in a row. He hadn't been able to wrestle more than a match two in a row without being out for a month. So I said, all right, over this open tournament, Coach Flynn‑‑ thank him‑‑ he let him in the tournament. He said, go see if you can wrestle four matches in a row. And he was able to, and so we ended up getting him a wrestle off. This is a kid, it's unbelievable. Really unbelievable. The kid looks like a two‑by‑four he's so stiff. He can't move and he just gutted out some wins. So I mean that's bigger than wrestling, obviously. That's bigger than winning championships and all that good stuff. So that's a cool story. But it's a team game, obviously. We had other kids like James Borath who was there pushing these guys all along and Zach Beitz who is ready. He was ready. He was ready to wrestle. But, yeah, I could go on and on, and James might write a book some day, but pretty special stuff. It was over and over again, I just felt like bringing him in. I don't know how many times he was in the office and very upset, and just kept wrestling with the idea, saying, hey, James, why are you paying to go to school again? He's an engineer. He graduated a long time ago. He just keeps finding new majors to pick up and paying tuition and room and board. But so it's a pretty special story. Q. David, you are coached by an Olympic champion. You were on campus when Jake Varner trained and won the Olympic Gold Medal for the United States a few years ago.            With you and Ed now finishing your college careers, do you guys see a future of maybe some more gold medals coming out of state college for the Olympic wrestling? DAVID TAYLOR: Absolutely. I can vividly remember telling my dad when I was eight years old I wanted to be a four‑time state champ, four‑time national champion, and Olympic champion. Fell a little bit short of the second goal, but Olympic champion is something that I'm looking forward to now. Obviously, it's a very difficult task, and just one in six people can do it every four years. But I know I have the coaches that can get me there. And right now it's time to just change my focus. Wrestling in college is a little bit different than wrestling freestyle, especially in my focus. And the freestyle is the next phase of my life, and it's time to start looking forward to those goals and trying to fulfill that aspiration I've had for a really long time. Luckily, I've got people around me that have won Olympic Gold Medals. They know what it takes. And it got me this far. Even, really, it was‑‑ I mean, I can't‑‑ it's hard to explain what they've done for me. And I know they can get me to the next step, and it's just how it is. You try and progress, keep trying to get better, and that's the next step, to try and get better. Q. David, can you talk about a support system? I looked over a couple of times today or throughout the tournament, and you were sitting with your mom and dad in the fan section. Can you talk about‑‑ you mentioned this a few times throughout your career about what they provide to your wrestling career. And on top of that, just what that fan section was like, during some of those matches. I mean, they're getting pretty hectic at times. DAVID TAYLOR: Absolutely. I think one of the things we talk about a lot at Penn State is being grateful. And when I was younger, I didn't probably really understand the sacrifices my parents were making when we were driving an hour and a half one way for practices three times a week to wrestle really one guy, Justin Chamberlain, when I used to live in Wyoming. I was playing GameBoy in the back of the car. I didn't know what was going on. I just looked at it as this is a pretty fun drive. But now, looking back and what they did for me, everything I needed, everything that I thought I could do or achieve, my parents were always there, always there, every tournament. My dad was always traveling different places, and I have a great relationship with my family. And to this day, it's just something that if people‑‑ their parents might, I don't know, I have a great relationship with‑‑ I just like to go up and during the matches and during these tournaments‑‑ I love wrestling. I'm a wrestling fan. I like to watch. I like to watch Nico Megaludis. Like to watch Zain Retherford. You know, Jimmy Gulibon, James English. I love watching those guys wrestle because I know how much effort is put into the tournaments. I don't like to sit down in the locker room. I go up and try and kick someone out of their seat for a couple seconds. Or sometimes it's my mom. But sit there and watch through 141. And I go down and get my shoes on, get ready for my match, when I'm ready, come back up, try and watch Ed Ruth match through heavyweight if I can. I just like doing that. You talk about our fan base, I remember coming here nine years ago, when I was here last time, I sat in the Penn State section. David was wrestling. And hey these fans are pretty annoying they're chanting the whole time. I'd never been around that. And now I look back and how much I appreciate how supportive they are. Doesn't matter where we are, whether we're on a road trip, sometimes on a road trip, there's not many people in the stands, half are Penn State people always cheering us, people walking down the street, give you a thumbs up or high five and it's something that's special in the wrestling community you don't get out outside of many programs. And the fact I ended up at Penn State is kind of a crazy story and it's turned out to be the best decision in my entire life and just so thankful that I was able to be here at the right time and be with guys like Ed Ruth and Frank Molinaro and Quentin Wright and contribute to something not many people say they can do be part of four national championship teams. People look back nine, seven years old, it's pretty cool. THE MODERATOR: All right. 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
|