Death Clutch - Brock Lesnar [5]
Amateur wrestling is not just a sport, it’s a lifestyle. You breathe it, like air. The lifestyle consumes you. As soon as you get up, your first thought is about the fuel you will put in your body. Then you hit the road and do some roadwork, because you want that blood flowing, you want to get that cardio where it needs to be. Always one more mile, one more step. You attack the weights like you’re a man dying of thirst, and you’re thinking that it will always take one more rep to bring some water up from the well. Then you go to bed, exhausted, and get some needed rest so you can get up and do it again, day after day.
Today’s athlete is bigger, stronger, and faster than ever before. They train harder, and they train smarter. No longer can a guy rise to the top of any sport on talent alone. The winners are the ones who train right and are willing to sacrifice the most. The good news is that I had the passion, I was willing to listen to my coaches, and I was always willing to work harder and longer than anyone who wants to take me on.
My work that summer paid off. I went from 226 pounds to 258 pounds. I was flexible, and I was fast. I put on muscle because I had great genetics—my dad and brothers are all big guys—and I ate a lot of beef, drank milk by the gallon, ate bananas by the bundle, and worked my ass off in the gym.
All the time I was training I kept thinking about the discipline I had learned on the farm, and how important it was to follow through on my plans. I knew I could do it, and I did. As a matter of fact, before I went back to school, I believed that I could do anything I wanted in life.
In my sophomore year at Bismarck State, I wrestled in the Daktronics Open at South Dakota State, and I beat the defending two-time national NCAA Division II champion, Ryan Reisal. Next, I went to the Bison Open at North Dakota State University, and I steamrolled through the heavyweight tournament. That’s where University of Minnesota head coach J Robinson, and his assistant coach Marty Morgan, first saw me.
The Bison was the first big tourney of the year, and a lot of the guys who went there had to work some of the rust off, because they’d been out in their nice little cars and enjoying themselves all summer. Not me. I had been in the weight room and in the gym all summer, so I had no rust. I came in looking to hammer anyone that stepped on the mat with me.
One of the star athletes for the U of M was a heavyweight named Shelton Benjamin. A two-time All-American for Minnesota, Shelton was no joke, and J wanted to build on Shelton’s success and create a great heavyweight team. I was part of that plan.
Next thing I knew, I was on a plane headed to Minneapolis on a recruiting trip. I remember my junior college coach, Robert Finneseth, telling me not to sign anything, but when I got to Minneapolis it just felt like home. The U of M didn’t waste any time, and I signed with them that day.
I still had a full season of junior college wrestling ahead of me, but I knew what I wanted for myself and I could see it happening. I went 36–0 that season and won the National Junior College Athletic Association Championship.
Here’s a bit of trivia for you. I was the last guy to ever wrestle for Bismarck State College. They shut down the wrestling program after my last year there.
My sophomore year was over, I was the NJCAA Champion, and I was headed for the big time to wrestle for the Gophers. Or so I thought.
A DETOUR ON MY ROAD TO THE NCAA HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
The U of M coaches, Marty and J, wanted me to move to Minneapolis right away when I finished junior college so I could start working out with their heavyweights, like Billy Pierce and Shelton Benjamin. But, as always, I didn’t have any money, and I couldn’t afford a place in Minneapolis.
That’s where Alan Rice came in. He was a former Olympian, and he was a huge Minnesota Gophers booster. He also happened