Ride Home Rants
Ride Home Rants
Late Bloomer to All-American: La'ron Park's Inspiring Tale
How does one go from a late start in wrestling to becoming an All-American athlete? La'ron Parks joins us to share his remarkable journey from Euclid, Ohio, to the national wrestling stage. Despite starting his wrestling career in his sophomore year of high school, La'rons natural athletic prowess propelled him to early success. He opens up about the challenges he faced, from the intense physical demands of the sport to the personal struggles of balancing rigorous training with the comforts of home-cooked meals. This episode is a compelling testament to the dedication and resilience required to excel in wrestling, especially when you start later than most.
Transitioning to college wrestling was no small feat for La'ron, and his story offers invaluable insights into this significant shift. Competing against more physically mature athletes at Notre Dame College, Leron had to adapt quickly. We also explore his role as a student ambassador, where he transformed from an introvert into a confident representative of his school. The episode culminates with La'ron reflects on the emotional highs and lows of being part of Notre Dame's last graduating class and his unforgettable experience at the national wrestling championship. To wrap things up on a lighter note, we discuss the cultural differences in food across the U.S., particularly how steaks are cooked, adding a fun twist to our heartfelt conversation.
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Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast. This is your special guest, host Fitty, and today I have a great guest, one of the last graduates of Notre Dame College, former All-American wrestler for them. But before we get into that and this great guest, make sure we peep all the sponsors in the pre-roll and the post-roll. These are all small business owners who are sponsors, so please make sure you shop small and support them. Also, we have two brand new sponsors and they're also former sponsors of the show, and that's sweet hand sports and buddies beard care.
Speaker 1:Sweet hand sports is brought to you by matt lando landowski, bethany college graduate, one of my former college teammates, one of the toughest football players that I ever played against or with and against. In practice, he has everything from batting gloves for people to use for softball, baseball, little league, whatever it may be, and then also came out with golf glove. So definitely check that out if you're a golfer. Buddy's Beard Care is a small business that caters to men with beards. Now, I don't use it, but Mike uses it and he claims that his beard has never grew faster and never been softer. Buddy is a small business owner who's also a former guest of the show. Make sure you check out these great sponsors. With that being said, we have a great, great guest today. He is also a former student ambassador at Notre Dame College. He's done a lot of great things. He's a City of Cleveland kid originally, so Leron Parks is joining the show. Leron, thanks for being on, man.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so, leron. You know I have known you for going on a little over three years now, but not all of our listeners know you. So we know that you grew up in Euclid, ohio. For people that don't know, Euclid is a suburb of Cleveland, pretty much the last suburb before you can go into Cleveland itself. So tell everybody you know what was it like growing up in Euclid. You know what did you do? Did you go to Euclid High School? A lot of famous athletes went to Euclid. Uh, you know what did you do. Did you go to Euclid high school? A lot of famous athletes went to Euclid high school. So kind of tell us about your high school experience, elementary experience and just growing up in the city of Euclid um, growing up in Euclid was pretty fun.
Speaker 2:I would say I loved it. Um, I actually started in Cleveland Heights for like school at elementary and everything and I moved around a lot. Um, so I went to Oxford Elementary Elementary's elementary I don't remember too much about it. Once I got to middle school is once I moved to Euclid and I actually loved it there, Met a lot of my friends now down in Euclid and I actually that's where I got introduced to sports. For the most part I didn't start wrestling until 10th grade of high school and took it from there.
Speaker 1:So that's interesting because we just had on, um, you know, coach jordan, the former head coach at notre dame college, your former head coach there and, I believe, for a short period of time, maybe your teammate um.
Speaker 2:No, he was the ga okay, okay year before I came in.
Speaker 1:Okay, gotcha you know, and it's funny, coach Jordan was talking to Mike and he said he didn't get into wrestling until like his freshman year. He grew up as a baseball player, so you're not a second guess that didn't get into wrestling a little bit until a little bit later in their life. Now wrestling, for everybody that knows, is a sport. Normally people start at like three or four years old, so for you, not starting to your sophomore year, what was that like? Trial by fire, like you're, you know you're not doing as a freshman going into your sophomore year at a very big high school, you know, and and what was it like going up against, you know, guys that have wrestled for, you know, 10 or 11 years at that point.
Speaker 2:Luckily I'm a natural athlete so I had a pretty good start. I would say the toss-up matches were I typically got, but when I went against like the top people in the state and stuff, it was bad. That's where the wrestling like really showed like there's levels to wrestling. I would say like my, my freshman year it wasn't horrible. I think I was like 20 and 12, something like that. I I lost in the blood rounds at districts, so at least I qualified for a first year. Um, it's pretty fun, I loved it. The hardest part to me, especially my first year, was cutting weight. So I just didn't understand it at all. You know I walk home and get back home my mom's offering me chicken and pizza all the time and I gotta make weight on friday, but you know I'm not gonna miss a meal, so I don't know.
Speaker 1:It was kind of cool yeah, so let's, let's talk about that for a minute for people that don't, that don't realize about wrestling and making weight, it's, it's a lot like the other combat sports, right, it's like boxing, it's like mma but can you kind of talk about what weights you wrestled at over the years and what it's actually like leading up to those way and like what you have to do to actually cut weight? Can you kind of talk about that?
Speaker 2:um, so in high school I wrestled 220 each week. I would start the week around like or the start of the season. I would be about 245, 250, cutting down to 220. So my first like three cuts of the season were pretty rough. Uh, a lot of milk and magnesia and a lot of running and sauna suits and extra workouts and stuff like that. Towards the end I was still losing about 13 a week, I would say. But it just gets, cutting weight eventually just gets part of the routine and it's just like you just fall in love with it because it makes you feel like a better competitor, like you're more locked in, because you know about the work you did leading up to the tournament or matches and stuff like that. High school, I mean college. Luckily, I became a heavyweight and I haven't cut weight in a couple of years. So just stay in shape, stay maintained and about 265. That's about it.
Speaker 1:Sure, so it's. It's funny. I am a big boxing fan and I know it's a little bit different than wrestling. But I know, typically at weigh-ins, when boxers get weighed, it's usually 24 hours before9, I come in at 160, exactly. But those boxers will basically gorge themselves in food after the weigh-in. A lot of them will eat a lot of fruit, especially oranges, because it's so hydrating watermelon. They'll eat a lot of soup, broth, steak, and their weight will balloon like seven, eight, nine pounds by the fight. Is that something that happens in wrestling too? I'm not really familiar with that, or is that just more of a boxing?
Speaker 2:thing definitely more boxing, mma. Uh, wrestlers. We typically have a college. We have a two-hour turnover. I want to say in high school it's like an hour and a half so you weigh in.
Speaker 2:Say to say, tournament starts at 9 am, we'll go away in about seven and you got from seven to really eight to hydrate, eat, everything like that, and then by nine we're wrestling, eight we're warming up.
Speaker 2:But I would say so to start the day, say, if I was 220, but by the end of the tournament and everything especially, I hated two, two, two day tournaments because we had to remake weight and they only gave us one pound. But it was into some tournaments where I would be leaving at 228 after weighing in at 220 in the morning and then I have to recut the whole night and probably sleep two hours and right back on a bus to go to the tournament again. So I'm saying you see it definitely, but just not as depending on the tournament. If it's only a one-day tournament, yeah, a lot of people are getting really heavy. But if it's a two day, that's where you catch, like the people that are around, weight still, or you can run into those guys that's really good at cutting weight. So they still they're heavy, and then they just know how to cut it the next day I got you interesting on that.
Speaker 1:So, besides, when you were growing up you know you went to euclid high school. Um, besides wrestling, did you do any other sports track, football, baseball, anything else?
Speaker 2:So I played my freshman year of high school. I played football and baseball and I played basketball too. And then sophomore year and junior year, I only wrestled. And then senior year, I played football, I wrestled, and then I was going to play baseball, but it was COVID, of course.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, there was no sports going on in that time. Um, so you know Euclid High School has has the great Robert Smith uh, for people that don't know, played for the Minnesota Vikings. Um, was a was a very, very awesome running back there in the 90s for you know, for them. So can you kind of talk about like what your experience was like playing football at such a high level though at Euclid, with such a historic football program and a packed crowd on Friday nights? What was that atmosphere like?
Speaker 2:Playing football was great. I loved it. It's no better team atmosphere than like playing with your guys that you know you guys put in the work and everything with and stuff like that. Our coach was Jeff Roski. He's down at VASJ now. He's really tough on us. He always taught us GFGF, god, family Grades, football. Being there was great. We had a great year. We ended up losing to St Ed's in the playoffs. First half was amazing. It was only like a three-point game and then second half it was terrible. But playing at that level and seeing like those big guys like I played against guys that are in the NFL right now and it's kind of crazy. I actually loved it. Miss it a little bit sometimes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think people realize, like, how exciting Friday night football is, even for small schools. But when you get the massive, massive level high schools, like in the state of Ohio or Pennsylvania or whatever, I mean you're talking thousands and thousands of people there and alumni who played major division one football and in the NFL and things like that. So it's really cool that you were a part of a historic program like that. So so you know COVID hits right, you can't play baseball. You know you finish up, it's 2020 and then you decide to go to college and you come to Notre Dame College um a year before, a year before I get there, and Notre Dame College, sadly, has now closed. Um, but you were there for your duration of four years and you know I was there for three. So you choose Notre Dame, which is in South Euclid, right down the road from Euclid High School. What made you choose NDC, you know, and what was that recruiting process like for you really going through COVID, you know, and not being able to see any schools?
Speaker 2:So recruiting was? It was okay. I started most of the recruiting in the end of my junior year, so that's when I started getting looked at the most. I did a couple of football, a couple of wrestling visits and then after that's when I started getting looked at the most, I did a couple of football, a couple of wrestling visits and then after that. So I actually had no intentions of going to Notre Dame at all. I randomly get like a DM and like towards the end of my senior year and they just asked me to check it out. It was only 15 minutes up the road so I was like, oh, why not? And then I actually that's the first time I met Jordan I met him. I met him.
Speaker 2:The match I went to in my recruiting visit day was his senior night. That duel was electric. It was packed. They had six pins. They only lost one match. I want to say it was like 40 something to three. It was nice. I love the atmosphere. Smaller school I knew I wouldn't succeed in a big school. I know that's not me. I don't pay attention enough in the classroom. I would say I get, I get distracted. Um, I loved it. Everyone. There was nice welcoming stuff like that. But I actually still wanted to go to Gannon but due to COVID I end up staying closer at home and actually I don't regret it at all. I love it awesome.
Speaker 1:So it's actually funny too, because coach Jordan's show. He said that his senior year six of those guys all qualified for nationals in South Dakota and you know it gets shut down 24 hours before they can wrestle and they just can't. They can't wrestle and I think from hearing that conversation and you know things from the past of the conversations while I worked there that could have been another national championship, potentially in ndc's books and for people that don't know.
Speaker 1:Ndc was probably one of the most historic, if not most historic, division two wrestling program with multiple I mean multiple, multiple tens of multiple national champions in individual wrestling, multiple team and dual national championships I believe five in like a 12-year span before they closed and had the historic one of only three undefeated four-time national champion wrestlers in Joey Davis, so Leron. With that being said, what was it like then being at NDC a part of such a historic wrestling program?
Speaker 2:Being at NDC gave me a wake-up call. My bad, sorry about that.
Speaker 1:That's okay.
Speaker 2:I've never been in a room like that with wrestlers that were at that level. Especially my first year. We had some returning All-Americans coming back and stuff like that. And you know, I went from a little room in Euclid where it was me, my friend Freddy, his dad and my coach and we would just wrestle with each other all the time. So I'd go to a place where I got six other guys that want to beat my head up because it's one starting spot and then I'm always got to.
Speaker 2:I'm the freshman out of everybody, so I always got to make sure I do everything right and stuff like that. I actually loved it. That first year made me realize the levels like the main levels to wrestling. It made me want to get better and realize that I just didn't want to be a backup my whole college career and stuff like that. So being there and then always being in the practice room and every time you look up, like you said, there's multiple national champions on the wall. It's five team time uh, five team shoot. National five. Five time yeah, five times you go.
Speaker 2:I don't know man so every time you look at that, we go to the back lounge. We got an all-american board, um, with what it was 88. Well, it's 87 names on there, but I would have been 88 all-american but um, so I don't know. Being that room always just motivated you and wanted you. It made you want to be better because you want to be a part of that legacy. So I loved it there. I wouldn't change anything for the world.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. For people that don't know you, you know you went from 220 and then you wrestled in heavyweight. You know 265, 270. And you're a big dude, right? You know? I've known you for a long time. You're a big dude. And you're a big dude, right? You know, I've known you for a long time, you're a big dude. What was that like, though, coming in that big at, you know, 18 years old, but then seeing, like, the difference of what your size was at 18 compared to like a heavyweight that was 22 or 23 years old, was that pretty eye-opening too, especially?
Speaker 1:at that high, you know heavyweight wrestler level.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a big difference. So like heavyweight wrestler level, yeah, it's a big difference. So like, right after so my state tournament actually got canceled the same day, jordan's national tournament did so. I was about 219, uh, making weight, getting ready to make weight. The next day and, I kid you, by april 1st I was already up to 250 and then so, but like I can't like you, I came in about 265, 270, but my 265 at 18 years old was still baby fat, like nothing like a grown man at 265 with all muscle and everything and just like. You don't really notice how much like a body develops until you wrestle older people or do stuff with older people and you realize like there's levels to all types of strength, endurance, everything, everything, because the body's just so much more mature and everything like that. And then in college you're running the kids that are 285, but they're 285s, all muscle, versus in high school you see a 285 kid, he's all sloppy and everything like that right so it's just such a different, higher level and everything.
Speaker 1:It's kind of cool yeah, and it you know. It's funny. We've had these conversations and like when you see these wrestlers and you know the 285 guys but you get down to that 220, those guys in 190, in the 170, those guys are shredded upon shredded with muscle upon muscle.
Speaker 2:I mean like bulging traps and it was a guy with forearms and like crazy we've seen in nationals. He was running up the bleachers with his shirt off and his back was literally rippling with his muscles and we were like wow, like it's crazy how like shredded some people are yeah, it's just, and they're like flexibility at those sizes.
Speaker 1:It's just. It's crazy for people that have never really watched high-level high school wrestling, college wrestling. You can find Joey Davis' clips on YouTube NDC Alumni. Look up the Sanderson brothers. Cal Sanderson and his brother Look up people think of him from the WWE or WWF but Kurt Angle Look up those guys as wrestlers. Those guys were flexible and huge and they're bending in all types of crazy directions.
Speaker 1:It's, it's very, it's very eye opening about how athletic you know wrestlers are. And it's funny too, because you play football and you did wrestling. I had a former when I was in college. A former high school coach that was very successful came and talked to us in an intro to coaching class and he said if you want to build a great football team, he goes. It ain't just about playing football, he goes. You need to have all your big guys and your smaller guys especially your bigger guys and your smaller guys wrestle to make them physically tough for hand-to-hand combat and also to stay light on their feet in the secondary. And then you make everybody run track, no matter what weight they are, because it increases all their speed and their quick twitch muscles. So it's funny you say that, though, but the guys you wrestled against or maybe even your teammates, did they come from pretty athletic backgrounds, or were they pretty much wrestlers the whole time?
Speaker 2:Did they come from pretty athletic backgrounds or were they pretty much wrestlers the whole time? It's a mixture. I would say Something like especially in college, you got some people where their life's wrestling in and out, and some you got some where we wrestled as our part-time and we just happened to be somewhat decent at it and then, but you're just an athlete, you played all different types of sports. It's always fun, especially like when everybody pulls up their high school highlights of like them doing other sports other than wrestling and stuff like that. You're like dang, this dude used to be that guy and it's like pretty cool and stuff like that. So it's a mixture of everything and I think it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Um yeah, very cool on that. So your time at ndc was not just being a student, you also were a student ambassador, when I was working in the admissions office and stuff, and you did that for your time there. So what was that like being a student ambassador, giving tours and meeting with people and these prospective students and families?
Speaker 1:Because I know what it was like as an employee, but what was it like as a student, you know, for you, um, you know, connecting with all these people and working all these events. You know what? What are your thoughts now being done with it?
Speaker 2:as a student. I loved it. Um, I started off college as a heavy introvert. Uh, that job actually helped me become like an extrovert and like it helped me feel more connected to the college because I knew almost everyone that was coming in the following year and feeling more involved just helps you love where you're at and what you're doing and stuff like that. That experience is eye-opening. You meet so many new people from different backgrounds that you would never even talk to if you'd just seen them on the street or anything like that. So it's definitely cool from that aspect. You learn so many new skills and stuff with the computers booking tours, um, how you learn how to talk to people because you know you learn, like different ways to talk to people because you're around so many other people, so you learn to see how people react to certain things and stuff like that yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Well, I always appreciate everything you did, lauren, you were uh you were a rock star, you know with us there, and you just did a great job. More importantly, though, besides being a student ambassador, besides being an athlete, you were a student, yes, so can you talk about you know what. I know what your major was, but what your major was, you know why you pick that. And then what was that like, being a student and balancing being a student with an athlete, with a worker on campus?
Speaker 2:OK. So I started off as a nursing major. I eventually switched to health care administration and finance, which was more my lane. I like business, I like numbers and stuff like that, but I still also like the thought of helping people and everything. I still also like the thought of helping people and everything, the balancing. It was pretty tough to begin with, if that's a word for it. It was pretty rough but eventually, like once I got on my routine you know you start meeting new faculty and teachers and everything like that it became way easier to balance once you have your schedule with your workouts, your classes, your practices, when you're going to work and everything like that. Once you get your routine and learn how to balance, it's overall very easy. I would say it actually helped me with school, honestly, because if I knew if I wasn't on schedule I'd be lacking somewhere else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no for sure. So people may not know kind of what that like health care administration degree may be. It was pretty unique, you know, to us in that realm. So can you kind of talk about maybe just some of the classes you took and just a little bit more about the academic background so people may be interested in just knowing about that. Major may want to do it. Can you just kind? Of talk about what it involved.
Speaker 2:It kind of involved. Like how, say, it can be a front desk rep, it can be people doing paperwork, stuff like that um it really focuses on. One of my favorite topics were, like disaster planning and management, making sure everything's right when it comes to that type of stuff. Um, learning how to work at like a long-term care facility and learning how to run it, being an administrator and things of that sort I love it. I actually did a couple internships. I interned at the clinic and then I worked at a place this summer which I would say I like the clinic more than long-term care facilities.
Speaker 1:What did you intern doing exactly at the at the cleveland clinic?
Speaker 2:um, I actually just looked over finances there. Um, it was pretty cool. We actually did some meetings where it would determine like different surgeries and stuff for patients and stuff like that. So it's cool working with like different insurance companies and everything.
Speaker 1:Very cool. So kind of going off of that too for people that don't know. When students enrolled in the fall of 2020 in the middle of COVID and they were an athlete, no matter what level. Fcs, FBS, Division 1, 2, 3, doesn't matter, Everybody got a COVID extra year of eligibility. So you have your four years at NDC. You graduate in May. Ultimately, the school closes, but we're going to go back to that. You graduate, but you finish with your bachelor's degree and now you're actually going on for your master's degree, correct?
Speaker 2:Yes, I started classes on Sunday actually.
Speaker 1:Okay, so yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm taking master classes right now.
Speaker 1:So what program are you going into and are you going and will you be wrestling?
Speaker 2:Yes, I'll be wrestling. I'm doing an MBA program with a concentration in finance and I'll be at St Cloud State out of Minnesota.
Speaker 1:Okay, so is that a division, one, two or three school?
Speaker 2:Division two school Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, so for kind of going back here. Okay, so for kind of going back here. So a lot of students, when people talked about, like in sports, the transfer portal and people going into the portal and things like that, it was really, really ballooned and bred from that COVID year. Now this, like being the last fall of truly the COVID year, we're kind of balanced back out here. But with graduating and having this one year left in these programs, you know what was it that you were looking for when you're going on for this master's degree? Was it so much wrestling? Was it that? Was it an mba? Was it? Was it just a time frame of school? What kind of? What kind of drew, uh, drove you in that way?
Speaker 2:definitely school first, because you get to the point to where wrestling I only got one more guaranteed year, this last, coming up. That's the way I look at it. It's one last guarantee I would say school, and then also how long I'll be in school. So I decided to do an accelerated NBA. So, since I have one year of wrestling, I was like why not just finish school in a year, because I know as long as I'm wrestling I'll be paying attention to school because I've got to be eligible. So that's the kind of way I looked at it, because I can always switch to, or I can start accelerated and right when season ends I can switch to just a normal pace. So it's up to me and how I feel.
Speaker 2:But my biggest thing was I wanted to complete my MBA by the time I was done and but I also didn't want to be miserable. So I won't want to go to a better school, um, wrestling wise, and it's actually a bigger campus, so it'd be pretty cool. Um, I think it has around 12 000 people, so it's a big upgrade. I'm going from seeing about 800, I would say, to 12 000, so pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure it's. It's definitely definitely different so um how fast. Does the accelerated program go for you?
Speaker 2:um, it's a year long, it's two, I told. I told him I wanted to start off slow, so this first, like well, last summer term, I'm taking one class and then it'll be two classes every seven weeks.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it goes like goes like that, okay. So yeah, I know some sometimes programs are like that, or they're the full 15 week horses, so that's, that's really cool. So are you gonna be wrestling at heavyweight then, or are you?
Speaker 2:gonna go back down. Okay, I don't think I'll ever see under 220 again, if you want me to be honest.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. Do they have any other heavyweight wrestlers on their team?
Speaker 2:Yes, I want to say there's six including me. It's a huge team. I think the roster size is about 60, 65.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow, that is very, very.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have six returning all americans.
Speaker 1:Uh, I want to say eight returning qualifiers, so it'll be nice yeah, for sure, a good mix of, like, young and old and experience and everything in there. So I want to kind of circle back to this. So you know, we've had some people on indies from ndc since the closure was announced. You know, closure was announced at the end of February. You know, for you as a student right, you were in your last semester and you were getting ready to, you know, finish up and graduate but can you kind of talk us through like the emotions of of you as a, as a student, with that? You know someone who, who is local to the community and you know what was Um, you know what was that like. You know, cause I know what it was like as an employee, um, what was it like as a, you know as a student, kind of going through that.
Speaker 2:Um, it definitely hurt, I would say. Cause I? Because I wanted to take my MBA at Notre Dame, so I was kind of already planning on being right back and then that happens. And then it also happened the week of regionals, so it was kind of depressing me for wrestling too. So it's sad. I love Notre Dame. I love it way more than I ever would have thought, because it's funny, because it went from being like not even an option until COVID and then I was like I'll try it out, maybe I'll like it, and then I end up loving it the way I do. And then it's closed now and I still go back once a week and go look at the campus.
Speaker 1:So is it? Is it different going back and not seeing anybody there?
Speaker 2:and you know, yeah, because you know I'm used to being there during the summertime we're still working in office and everything like that so I actually sometimes run into people that also went to notre dame in the parking lot and we talked for a little while and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So it's pretty funny yeah, I know it was. It was quite emotional when you know it was announced and stuff and you know the. The school really did try to help the students. I think a lot with the transfer, the transfer um criteria the teach outs and everything. Yeah and the transfer fair and all that. So were you looking at any of those schools or you know, was it really just like St Cloud, or was it schools outside of that bunch?
Speaker 2:I looked at a decent amount of schools. It was schools mainly outside. I would say. The two teach-out schools were Cleveland State and Lake Erie. I looked at Ashland a little bit but mainly my top schools were Lake Erie, st Cloud University of Central Oklahoma and McKendree. I really want, if I, if I, would have got into McKendree, I would have probably been at McKendree.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, Gotcha. So what was it like, you know, being that last graduating class, like being on that, you know, in that auditorium getting that diploma, like knowing that this was no longer here. Was it like a surreal feeling?
Speaker 2:yeah, definitely. It didn't hit me until after, though, um, be honest, I didn't think about it in the moment. You know, it was just, uh, we're with all our people that we've seen throughout college and everything, everybody's all happy, and then say, probably a week or two later it hit me like wow, it won't be open anymore. And then I actually get asked that pretty often. So it kind of hits home every time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no for sure it's still a surreal feeling, but you actually had a great finish though to your senior year, even in the midst of trying to transfer, graduate, the school closing. I believe you took fourth, was it fourth? Okay, fourth at nationals at 285. Can you kind of talk about being one of the last people left, like on the wrestling team on this now soon to be closed wrestling team and and competing for a national championship? I mean taking fourth in the country at 285. Can you kind of talk about what what that was like during that run to the national championship?
Speaker 2:um regional started off pretty shaky. I won my first match and then I think I let the the moment that that could be my last regional tournament like get to me a little bit much and I end up dropping my semis to automatically qualify. So I had to go to the backside and I won two matches. I went to semi-con season in third and fourth place because you have to take third to make it out. So I actually won a pair On the backside. I got two pins. I felt bad because the last guy I pinned I thought he would have qualified if it wasn't for me losing.
Speaker 2:But at National I just honestly, was just enjoying the last team trip with my guys. Honestly, we loved it. We had a 13-hour drive down there. We were just all chilling, having fun. We ate some Outback. Where we're at I want to say we're in Missouri. They cook steak a little different out there, I would say. But really just trying to be all smiles, don't think about it too much, just leave it all out there as long as you got no regrets. Not that whatever happens happens. That's the way I look at it and it happened to work out for the best.
Speaker 1:For sure. And yes, they do cook steak a little different. I went to um omaha, nebraska, a couple years ago and they definitely cook steak a little bit different uh, in omaha compared to like ohio, that's for sure it was sweet.
Speaker 2:I don't. I don't know. I'm used to like saltier steaks and there's like sweet. It wasn't bad. But you know, when something's new you like taste the difference, I don't know. The meat tastes a little higher quality though out there, but yeah, I think it's.
Speaker 1:I think it's really based off like where you're at and how the animals are raised and you know what the farmers are doing with them. Even when I've been other parts of the country or the world with like food, everything has a very different taste. I think we get so used to like pennsylvania and ohio food tasting pretty much the same. You know. Maybe you know even a little bit of west virginia michigan in there. But when you get to like tennessee kentucky, you know missouri.
Speaker 2:Hawaii stuff is definitely, definitely tastes a little different. I ordered a a medium steak, thinking that it would come out, you know, medium rare. We're down south. Our no, it came out completely rare, it. It was just hot, that's it, that's the only thing. It was maybe cooked 15 seconds. It's funny because I I asked them, can they cook it a little bit longer to make it medium brought me out the same identical looking steak and then, once I asked the well done, it was medium though, but it was pretty funny I thought.
Speaker 1:Interesting, that's. That's definitely interesting. But I'm sure you you ate it. I'm sure wrestlers would just pound raw steak.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it was pretty good, it was still, I'm not saying it wasn't good, but once I got to like the fattier parts of it is when I really started to taste that yeah, this thing's rare, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no for sure. And I understand what you mean about like enjoying the moment. You know, I think when you finish up your college career and you know I did track and football and those last moments you're just appreciating it. And then, yes, it does hit you Like, yes, your school closed, yes, you're done, yes, you're not running track again, and you're like in this surreal, like sad but elated experience that it's, you know, over, but you have one more year to go, so it's not quite over yet for you. You know, we definitely wish you the very, very best of luck, and I'm going to be cheering for you, and, you know, following you You're definitely.
Speaker 1:You know, you definitely left a lasting, great impact on my life. I'm always going to keep in touch with you. Laron, I will too. Well, I appreciate that. So, as we round out the episode here, though, we do a fun segment we started a couple years ago. It's called the Fast 55. It's five random questions that I come up with every single episode for all of our individual guests, and, if you're ready to do them, they have nothing really to do with what we talked about, but they're pretty fun. You can elaborate if you want, or you can give a quick answer. It's up to you if we're wrong. If you're ready, though, we can go with it I'm ready?
Speaker 1:okay, question number one. What's the better color? Purple or yellow purple? Okay, question number two. What's the better? Doritos, the original, flavored or cool ranch original? Okay, wait, I gotta know why did you pick original?
Speaker 2:I love cool ranch I feel you can eat more of. Hold on. Original. Is the red bag right yeah, yeah okay, I feel you can eat more of the red bag than the blue bag. The blue bag eventually leaves a taste on my tongue versus the red is just cheese.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's fair. That's fair, I'll give you that All right. I know you used to go there and shop when you were in Euclid and I know you used to go when you were at NDC. So if you were going to the Beachwood Mall, what is your favorite best store? That you're going to go to S mall, what is your favorite best store that you're going to go to saxbeth? Okay, number four if you're going to the movies, what are you ordering?
Speaker 1:from the concession stand nachos, and it's just nachos no popcorn, nachos and a slushy what type?
Speaker 2:what, what, what flavor slushy? I get it mixed red and blue really, how's that taste? I love it. I eat a lot of ice season slushies. I'm gonna be honest.
Speaker 1:After every practice I used to almost get one every time we go to the movies I always get like a red slushy and a large bag of popcorn.
Speaker 2:I walk in like I'm like five years old I used to love popcorn, but I don't know, I feel like they don't make it the same.
Speaker 1:I would say that okay, now the fifth question. It's a big one. It kind of relates to wrestling. But hear me out on this. You, right now, at 22 years old, would you rather wrestle prime olympic champion kurt angle or box prime world champion Muhammad Ali?
Speaker 2:I'd rather wrestle.
Speaker 1:You would take on Olympic champion Kurt Angle.
Speaker 2:Yes, I don't want to get beat up. If you lose a wrestling match, you lose a wrestling match. If I'm just getting knocked out, that's embarrassing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but think about it like this Either way, someone's going to probably knock you out. I'm sure Kurt Angle's going to throw you over his head if I let him throw me over my head.
Speaker 2:I don't deserve to wrestle, but see, um, if we're talking about fighting his, muhammad ali's hands and reach are just so much more superior than me. I at least know I can do something.
Speaker 1:I better be able to do something with kurt angle, but, muhammad ali, I have no no reason to be in there and for people that don't know, kurt angle we went back to this a little bit earlier, but if you don't know, kurt angle actually won an olympic gold medal with a fractured neck. So if people want to talk about like the toughest human being ever, the dude won the heavyweight gold at the olympics and with a broken neck, and won two um, college all-american titles, um back in the 90s for clarion university. So I know kurt angles will well, uh, known in the wrestling circles. Yeah so. But, lauren, this was a lot of fun catching up with you, man. I'm so glad we got a chance to talk and do a Fast 55 with you on here. That was very, very random this time around, but you know, we thank you so much for being on.
Speaker 1:To all of our new listeners please tune in next week, as we have another great guest. And to all of our returning listeners please keep tuning in. You guys are our favorites. So we appreciate you, laron. We'll be cheering for you from afar and we'll definitely keep in touch, as always. If you enjoyed the show, be a friend and tell a friend, and if you didn't like it, tell them anyways, because I bet they like it just because you didn't. This is Fitty signing off, and we'll see you next week.
