Quentin Wright | Episode 8

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability.

Shane Sparks

And once again, welcome to Stories from the Resilite. It is already episode number eight. I am having an absolute blast with this podcast, and super excited, as I always am with this podcast. For the next guest, he was a four-time All-American, three-time national finalist, two-time national champ, two-time Big Ten champion. He is the OG from the Cael Sanderson head coaching era at Penn State's Quentin Wright. Quentin, it is awesome to see you. It's been a minute. How are you?

Quentin Wright

I am doing fantastic.

Shane Sparks

Looking forward to diving into your wrestling career, but I want to know what's going on. You turn 37 years old, June. What is going on in your life? You're married, you have kids. What are you doing for work? Tell us what's going on with Quentin.

Quentin Wright

So, currently, like I said, I just turned 37 years old. I'm still kicking butt. I'm coaching high school wrestling at Tyrone Area High School in Pennsylvania, just 20 minutes down the road from State College, so I'm still active in the scene. I actually, one of my wrestlers, his name is Kyle Scott, he's going to Virginia Tech now. He initially went to Pitt, but then now he's going to Virginia Tech. He's following the Bassetts down there, and they're going to be a pretty strong program. So I had him as a three-time state medalist, and he just lost to Faith Christian Academy’s four-time state champion Adam Waters in the finals, and we held him to the closest state title match in his history. So I'm coaching high school, and then I also helped coach a local club up here called 4M Wrestling, and we were always down to Virginia Beach Duals, and we go to different duals as well, but the goal is really just to give back to the community, and so we do that a nine months out, or 10 months out of the year, from September through May, as well. Run that twice a week, and during the day, normal hours, like right now, that when we're doing this podcast, I do work at a local social service company, very unique organization, company called CenClear, cenclear.org If you want to look it up, you'll see a pretty picture of me in there when you go to meet the leaders section. But we do early childhood education, which is preschool classrooms, and we also do mental health and substance use disorder. Just think of it as overall social work. We're here to help people, and in my position within organizations, I'm human resources, so I do all the fun parts of hiring, firing, policies, procedure, you know, all the stuff that wrestling teaches you how to be tough and be compassionate, and to really give it, give it everything you got, and to understand where one thing might work, one situation ain't work in the next situation, so that's what I'm currently doing for a job, and then I also have a wife and two boys. I’ve got a 13-year-old, and a six-year-old, he'll be turning seven years old here in September, so I'm just living the dream, really,

Shane Sparks

You just talked about compassion and toughness, and when I think about you, Quentin, and again, it's been a minute, but you were so goddamn tough, so talented, but always pretty calm, cool, collected. I never really saw you get, I mean, you just had really good control over your emotions. What was the key to having that balance,

Quentin Wright

You know, it's really, and I think about that too, whenever I'm trying to figure out who's going to do well at NCAA, is because every year I'm a fan now, and I'll tell you what, being a fan is way worse than being an athlete. I mean, like, the stress, my blood pressure's up, I'm doing sweats, I'm wrestling in the wrestling room, it's a, it's really funny that you know, as a fan, you're completely, you have no control, so you feel all the emotions and all the pressure. So I'm a lot more active now, I would say, than when I was wrestling, but when I was wrestling, it comes down to focus. I was able to really focus in on the mission or the goal, what I was doing, what I needed to accomplish, what I needed to win, and that's how I kind of looked at it, where it was just a challenge, that's all it is. Said, "This is the challenge. It's like playing a game, as Coach Cael would say. It's just like playing a game out there, and you just… there's rules to every game. You just got to find a way to win, and so you really focus on that challenge. And you know, sometimes you're able to do it, and sometimes you're not. But if you go out and you… and you try different things, and you put yourself out there more often than not. Eventually, you're going to learn what works over time, or what works consistently, and what worked consistently every year is different. What I did this year isn't going to work next year, and that's where, like, as a fan, you see a lot of guys, well, they did great this year, but then not next year. You have to adapt, and you have to adjust, because every year is different, and just because they were great this year doesn't mean that they're going to have a great next year, because your opponents, they are adjusting to you, and you need to adjust to your competition as well.

Shane Sparks

When did you learn how to do that? How did you learn how to do that? That's a process I.

Quentin Wright

Yeah, I just… I think I've always had that ever since I started wrestling. I think some people were really born with it, and I was one of the people's kind of born with that attitude, that mentality. But then I really got honed in whenever I… and I've had great coaches over the careers. I mean, some legendary sports and wrestling guys, like Ken Chertow, oh, when I was little, and he brought up, like me and Zain Retherford, we're kind of the biggest names, came out of there. There was a kid named Nathan Galloway's three times state champ, but then you know there's guys that are great in high school and then don't do much in college, but there's so many, you know, good kids. He taught us the dedication, the hard work, and going towards your dreams. Then you got a guy named Neil Turner, he taught me the faith side of it, and he was a local legend, and he coached at Lock Haven a little bit, he coached at guys like Carl Poff, just legendary coaches in this area, so you learn a little bit from each one of them, and I grew up around Penn State University, and I was talking to all those college guys as well, but when it comes to what makes Penn State really so special right now, I think Coach Cael, Casey Cunningham, and Cody Sanderson, and then you also got, like, Jake Warner, some of the other guys, Adam Lynch, but really, Casey, Cody, and Cael, they have it figured out how to, they kind of teach that skill to you, it's a learned skill, and it's not like you sit down in a class and you put it on a PowerPoint or a whiteboard or a Prezi, or it's not like that, it's just something that you have to learn through experience, and they kind of every practice they kind of teach you that how to be focused or how to have little games within practice, how to get after it, and how to take risks. And then you got in a competition, you actually have to do it, and just in that ability to take risks, and what worked and what didn't work, they talk with you through it, so I think that it's one some people inherently have it, a lot of call it being a gamer, all this person's really a gamer, but the other side of it is, I think, like Penn State has done a good job, and now we got David Taylor over Oklahoma State, he's going to be able to teach those guys, it's exciting that it's just they have David Taylor has seen what coaches have done in the Coach Cael and company, and so I think he's going to be able to teach those guys how to have that focus and learn how to win, and that's, and that's what's made wrestling really exciting.

Shane Sparks

What was your introduction to the sport?

Quentin Wright

So, my introduction to sport was very, it was interesting. So, I grew up on an 87-acre farm, and so every day we go out in the field, and we had cows, and we had some pigs, and the main thing in the summertime, we go out there and pick rocks, we pick rocks physically by hand out of the field, throw it onto an old army cart, take it to the woods, and then throw it off the cart, and we do that for eight or nine hours a day, we didn't really bale hay, or we did some of that stuff, but we didn't have the equipment, so we go to other places and do that, but my big thing was picking rocks, and the only place, the only way I could get off that farm was school, church, and then my brother brought home a form and said, "Hey, Dad, I want to wrestle, and my dad's like, "Listen, I did enough wrestling, he wrestled for two years in high school, I did enough wrestling for all of us, says, "You don't need to do that. Well, my brother, and he's a year and a half older than me. He begged my dad for three weeks to go wrestling, and I, and finally my dad said, "Okay, well, if you're going to go wrestling and we're going to go until you get burned out and you're done, because when you don't do any more, then we're just done. We'll come back here and we'll work on the farm. Well, picking rocks, that ain't that ain't fun. So, my ticket to get off that farm to get out and about in the world was go to wrestling practice, and that's kind of like it's funny, because I look back going to my first wrestling practice, and I think I was about third, second, or third grade at the time, and I think I remember thinking that I was going to be able to wrestle like 10 guys, and I was going to whoop them all, and just be the man, and I get there, and quite frankly, I got beat by a girl, there was there was a girl there that was just whooping up on me, and a lot of kids didn't want to go with her, but I didn't care. I was one of the kids that was able to go with her, and so she was, she was beating me up pretty good, and but I just kept coming back to practice, because, like, my dad said, "Hey, we're going to go until you want to quit, and so that's kind of, that's kind of what happened, and we just kept coming back, and we kept doing it, because, like, with me, my brother, this is great. We get to go, we get to wrestle with people, and we're getting off of the farm from having to pick rocks and dig holes.

Shane Sparks

Do you remember that girl's name?

Quentin Wright

No, actually, quite frankly, I don't know her first name, but I ended up so in 2012 when I lost the NCAA finals to Steve Bosak. It was his older sister, because it was at State College area high school, where he ended up going to high school. It was actually his older sister, is who was there at the elementary practice for State College area at the time, and that's who it was. But I forget her first name, but yeah, it was Bosak.

Shane Sparks

You had a phenomenal high school career at Bald Eagle. One thing that is so fun is to look at Pennsylvania state championships, because it's amazing the talent that comes out of that state, and some of the state finals matchups. So you were a three-time finalist, two-time champion. Who did you wrestle in those finals?

Quentin Wright

Oh, my, ah. Yeah, Joey, so my senior year was 2008 was Joe Loffredo. I wrestled him, and then I think my well, yeah, so two times a tampon high school, my senior year Joe Loffredo, when I repeat him, and my junior year, so I'm going backwards, junior year it was a kid named Matt Ryan. He ended up wrestling for West Virginia, I believe. Yeah, Matt Ryan was his name. And then my sophomore year I made it to the state finals, and his kid named Tim Darling, who ended up being a three-time state champ for Nazareth High School, or not University, Nazareth High School in Pennsylvania. So pretty three solid wrestlers, but say Joe Loffredo of my senior year, that was a fun match, just because when we, he's from Jersey Shore, and we did a dual meet, and my senior year I was on a win streak, have it lost in a long time, and I'm thinking they're not going to wrestle their best guy against me, just because the people been running from me all year, and we were in a dual meet in high school, and he actually wrestled me to a 3-2 match. It was, it was a tough, hard fight. I mean, everything I could, nothing was working during that match, and it was a guy on the radio, he's like, "Oh, he might lose at Quentin, right? He might lose this match. So then, by the time I hit him in the state finals, when I wrestled them again in the state finals, I kind of knew I was ready for it, and then I switched things up, and I was able to, I was able to end up getting a pin, so I ended my college career with a pen in the state finals, but more important than that, I will say, I gotta throw this out here, we're talking about high school, you know, the name Ed Ruth,

Shane Sparks

Yes, ended up being my

Quentin Wright

Team, yeah, only reason he's not a Pennsylvania State champion is because I had to wrestle him my junior and senior year in the semifinals of the PIAAA state tournament. They didn't do the seeding, they won't do the seeding, and so me and Ed Ruth, we ended up, and he was a sophomore and junior the years, and then he and Blair Academy his senior year, and I was like, oh, thank God, he's coming to Penn State, but he decided to come to Penn State because he's one of those guys that you'd never want to wrestle. He's just on, like, you can't predict him. Yeah, you can't predict him, but yeah, so I'd say other than being a two-time state champ, three-time finals, like I tell people that I beat Ed Ruth twice in the semifinals of the state tournament. The first time I had a good game plan, I was able to catch him on his back. He went for his famous cradle, and I was able to… I kind of knew he's gonna do it. I pulled out my hand, and I kind of caught him on his back, ended up winning the match 7-5. And the second time I realized that this kid has a Ed Ruth, he has an… and he was from Susquehanna Valley. I said, see, is an unbelievable gas tank, he just turns it on at the end, so I said my game plan was to go out there and score as many points as I could that first period. I mean, I went over the edge knowing that I couldn't stop him in a second or third, I just needed, I needed to run out of time. So when June and Ed Ruth, he was a junior and I was a senior in the state semifinals, so I think I went out there and I was up, I might have been eight or nine, eight or 10 points, I think I was up like 10-0 at the end of the first period, and it was ended up winning the match like 12-11, or like 10-9, because he just came storming back, and I just couldn't, I couldn't stop it, because he was just too slick after that first period.

Shane Sparks

That is great stuff. You go to Penn State. Troy Sunderland is the head coach at that time. He recruits you. Was it always Penn State? Did you go on recruiting visits? If it wasn't Penn State, where would it have been? Talk about your recruiting process.

Quentin Wright

Well, truly, the recruiting process was kind of interesting. We didn't have the social media, we didn't have the tech, as much of, you know, filming as we do now, so like you gotta remember back in 2005 to 2008 you know, Facebook was just now starting to take off, but people weren't using it like they are now posting matches, you know, file sharing wasn't as big thing, we had CDs that you'd have to mail out, and so I think I got a questionnaire, Cael Sanderson and the coaches at Iowa State, they sent me a questionnaire to fill out, type of thing, and they were aware of me, but really the big coaches was Rob Koll at Cornell, he was recruiting me hard, and Mark Manning at Nebraska, he was recruiting me hard too, and I really, I really, I loved Manning as well, he was a great guy, great coach, so if it wasn't Penn State, I probably… I don't know. It was between Cornell and Nebraska, but then I was also looking at it, said North Carolina, I think. Mock was the coach at the time, he was… he was talking to me a little bit at that time, but I would say really between been a little bit… Lehigh was in there too, but I would say Cornell and Nebraska were kind of the two outside of Penn State, but the coaches' choice, suddenly at the time, the coaches at Penn State. I grew up going to Penn State wrestling in the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club, whenever they had a Penn State guys run it, and I just knew the passion of the fans in the area, being a local kid, I knew how passionate they were, and I knew the alumni had. Into the backing of they really wanted to do something special. Also, whenever the alumni, they invested, you know, multi million dollars to create the wrestling, the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex at the time. So I think they did that and finished it in like 2005 or six, whenever they rebuilt that. So I knew the alumni, they, they said we're going to give you the facilities, but then the rumor we on the street was you gotta produce results, so he had so much, I think, Coach Sunderland, he was there for about 10 years, but he had 10 years to really being like the top three twice, or like win the national title, something like that, so he was kind of at the tail end of that, and I said to my, and I said to myself, I'm like, I know, well, actually, no, it was a big thing too, was Phil Davis. Phil Davis was a kid from Harrisburg, and he had just won the national title, and I believe in 2007 And I said to myself, I said, if Phil Davis can win the national title at Penn State with the current coaching status, you know, so can I. And my goal is just to be a national champ, and he, that was, and really, truly, that's inspiring when you have somebody that is successful at our program that you know doesn't have the best coaches or doesn't have the best, it's really inspiring. That kind of sold me that I'm, and knowing everything around with the alumni putting the money in the program, I'm like, well, if I go there, I'll probably have this coach for one or two years, then they're going to bring in somebody really good. So I kind of went into thinking that I'll probably have a coaching change, and they're probably gonna bring in somebody really good that's going to take me to that next level, and I didn't, wasn't expecting after my first year on campus, wrestled now, became an All-American under Troy Sunderland with him, and like I said, he's good coach, great guy, but there's just a just different level of technique and training when you get to those lead coaches, there's… it's a different type of training. How they do it, when they do it, how they teach moves, how they want you to learn moves… it's just a slightly different level. And that slight difference is the difference between being good and being great, and that's just… that's what the difference was, is whenever they. They'd let Troy Sunderland go, and I lucked out to Tom, too, because I had Mark Perry - he was coaching, he coached for one year with Troy Sunderland, they brought him in, and Mark Perry kind of took me under swings, and he really helped me become an All-American that first year. I'll never forget, he says his Mark Perry's, and he wrestled at Iowa. He was two-time national champion at Iowa, and truly he was. It was pretty inspiring too, because he was never like, and he was injury prone. He was never perfect, but he found a way to win. That's the main thing. Just, you find a way to win. And one something Mark Perry would say, he says, "Quentin, you got to give them a reason to quit, give them that reason, so they can give up. Everybody wants to give up this time of the year, and you be that reason, give them that reason, and that always stuck with me was that when you're at the end of the season, at that time, you know, some people just want to, oh crap, he got the takedown, and then, oh, you know, they lose the match, you give them a reason to lose the match, and so that was pretty inspiring, and then after that season we had rumors and stuff coming around town, and then finally it was kind of like three days before it was announced that we heard that Cael Sanderson was on campus, and it was just, you know, it changed the whole game. He was interested, and he brought us guys, and then I met Coach Cael when he came on campus, and just really hit it off from there. It was, and haven't, having Coach Cael, like you said, it's just one of the greatest wrestlers in the sport, and it's pretty inspiring whenever somebody like that takes up the program. Now, did I think Cael Sanderson was going to take over the program when I came to Penn State? No, I mean, I didn't think they would get that level of guy, but I would just, I'd say really unbelievably lucky to be in that position to be part of that and learn and learn from that and also I gotta give credit to Penn State and Penn State was going through a lot well before Coach Cael came we had the President University and our athletic director at Tom, they really were listening to the alumni and they're really willing to invest so they did. They, they did what it took to get Coach Cael and his team here at Penn State University. You know, they did their jobs, and without them, we probably wouldn't have Coach, Coach Cael. The passion of the alumni, you got to give a lot of credit to the alumni of the program, who really invested and told the university we were that dis wrestling program that's important to us. And then also the community too. The community really showed up and stepped up back before Cael and the coaches came. There was 2,500 people showing up to matches. These are the dedicated people, and you know, these are the same dedicated 2,000 that have tickets today. They, and everybody else is on a wait list, so we have such a passionate fan base that showed up, and they were always here, passionate, but we used to be able to walk into the dual meets put, no, not now, like I gotta make special phone calls just to get tickets, because or know somebody who knows somebody, but even the people in this area, like the families that are canning it down and constantly get every year, it's it's been so much fun to watch. Shot.

Shane Sparks

When did you realize, Quentin, that Coach Sanderson was different

Quentin Wright

First week? Because I think, like, I tell people, is that he's just he's addicted to wrestling. So, remember whenever he came on campus, I think he was like 32 or 30 or 30 or 32 at the time, he might have been either 30, he might have been 30, as young as 30, and we go in the wrestling room, and this dude would wrestle live non stop for an hour. I wanted to quit after 10 minutes, and so actually that's kind of what happened. That first summary came in. We do practice twice a week, to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, we do some practices, and Coach Cael would be like, “All right, hey, let’s go together”, and we would, we would literally wrestle for 30 minutes non stop. Now, the difference is Coach Cael would hold me on my back for 10 or 15 minutes at a time, wouldn't let me off, just he'd hold you down on your back, and he just hold you there, and he would make you fight off your back, and the one thing I remember, he told my dad one time, he told my dad, "Hey, that kid's gonna be a national champ. I was like, "A kid don't give up, and that's what Coach Cael was testing: when will this person quit, when will I give up, when will he stop trying, when will he break, and that was just… and that's what I realized was that he was, he really is testing people out to see, are one, are they coachable, and two, will they never give up. He's like, and I think Casey one time told me that, he says, like, listen, we can, we can teach people technique, but we can't necessarily teach that killer instinct, you gotta already have that, you gotta have that before you come here, because it's very few people who can learn that the killer instinct that go after that never give up. It says it's it, and it's why Coach Cael, and then they all constantly preach it gratitude, and it's your choice. You choose to keep going, you know. It's not a feeling, it's you have choose to keep going to never give up. You choose to keep trying, you choose to do this, and it kind of sticks with you, but I see that's when I realized he was different, was that this, he would just wrestle for an hour nonstop, like when everybody else was ready, they leave the room, go get a shower, come back, he's still wrestling with one of the guys in the room, just and then, and then he'd wrestle Coach Casey, now it's always great, you could ask any of the Penn State guys, I mean, just those two, they would, they go, they'll wrestle for five minutes, and then argue for 10 minutes about who got the takedown, whether it was the takedown or not. It's just, it was just great camaraderie, just to watch that, and your coaches being like that, and never giving up, and just the competitive attitude, and it was always within fun, never with malice. It was, that's that's when I really do that, that's when I knew that this guy was different, you know. There's something different about him, and even the coaching staff was too. I tell people that what makes Cael special, I'm like, it’s Cael and company, because you got Cael Sanderson, Casey Cunningham, and Cody Sanderson, and it takes all three of them. They all have their own little niche, but you put them together and it makes it makes such a powerhouse?

Shane Sparks

What about Coach Cunningham and Coach Casey impressed you most during your time at Penn State?

Quentin Wright

Alright, so Coach Cunningham and Coach Cody, so Cody is the more of the outgoing guy, Cody Sanderson, he was, he's, he's more of the outgoing, he bumped around with you, he's good to talk with you, and he is very good at getting off the bottom. I would say Cody Sanderson was, he was awesome at, he was awesome at getting off a bottom, and he would really teach us that, and he's just, he's a little guy, so he has a, I call it the little guy attitude, where listen, nobody's too big for me to beat up, and he would just come in, and he would challenge everybody, and he'd mess around with everybody, and then Coach Casey, or yeah, Casey Cunningham, man, that dude's just, he's just tough as nails, like I think in my six years, seven years that I was around the program, because I did the five years of college, and I did two years with the NLWC, and I think I might have, I don't know if I ever scored on him. I don't think I've ever scored on him. I've gotten close, but that I say that dude's stingy. He would never let you score on him. What I mean, like to score on him, you really, you really had to earn it. And so with Casey, it was just a toughness. And then his area was really strength training. He understood strength training, you know, being his wife's Olympic champion in weightlifting, you know, he knew the strength training, and then he's also really good on top, so he really made the difference on the top wrestling as well for us, and I believe it, I believe too, the other thing too, I keep forgetting about him, but Matt Dernlan was my coach when I first got there, and I think he stuck around for a year as well under the new coaches, and then Troy Letters - he was around as well, Troy Letters, and he was a, I think, two time, or he was the national champ for Lehigh, Troy Letters was, and he was really good on bottom, so they kind of transferred some of their stuff to Coach Cael and casing them, so we really had such a good rounding of. Of wrestling technique. Here's how you wrestle. Here's what you want to do, and really supplement our own wrestling styles.

Shane Sparks

What's the most impactful conversation you recall with Coach Cael?

Quentin Wright

Oh, I mean, this is so many of them. He was… he… he's… it's funny because people don't understand, or they don't see him. He's very stoic when he's out in the community, but with if yes, guys in the room, Coach Caels, just he's kind of like a big goofball. He's always joking around, he's playing some sort of game, like with wrestling, he'll tell you the takedown he's going to get, then he gets the takedown, or he'll let you get 90% of a takedown, they snatches it away from you, just messing with you, holding it down for 15, and all the coaches do that, but the most impactful conversation, and he always does like an inspiring speech before practice, and tells different stories, and they always would stick with you, but I remember the one situation where I was my senior year, 2013 and I'm wrestling the NCAA Tournament, and I'm sitting before, I believe it was before the finals, my finals match, and I just, in the semifinals, I wrestled with Kid Matt Wilps, hopes just a stud from Pittsburgh, and it went to like triple overtime, and I beat him on three seconds of riding time, and the match before that was like a 3-0 match. The match before that was at, I think, was 4-0 or 5-0, whenever I just pounded the guy three weeks before on our last dual meet, and I said to Coach Cael, I'm like, I'm sitting there, I'm like, he's like, "Hey, what's up? And I'm like, you know, I'm just like, I don't understand what's wrong with me, there's something wrong with me. It goes, there's there's something wrong with me here, because I'm not, I just can't beat these guys, like, like I want to, like it's just nothing's working. He says he sits there for a clip, and he goes, I'm not worried, like you're not worried, he goes, you'll figure it out, that's all it took, and that's all it took, and then once he said, you'll figure it out, it's kind of like it was just a little thing, but it gave me the confidence that it's like, yeah, you're right, I will, I'll figure it out, you know. And sometimes it's okay, it's okay to win these close matches, because that's all the guy has given to you. And I was just, you know, it's just like a little conversations like that, where you know, he really helps you believe in yourself, gives you the ability to believe in yourself, and just ask little comments like that really make a big difference. Is

Shane Sparks

There a story before practice that stands out?

Quentin Wright

Oh yeah, I mean the biggest one he talks about was it this? He changes the characters on it, but it's either the snake or the cobra, where there was like a chicken or whatever animal that needs to get across the river and snake says, "Oh, I'll go ahead and take it, or the cobra, or it was a what's that called, a

Shane Sparks

Scorpion, right,

Quentin Wright

Scorpion, scorpion, that's it, scorpion, oh yeah, I'll take you across the, I'll take you across the river, and then, and then finally the animal jumps on the back and half across the river, and then a scorpion or the snake ends up biting the animal, and this and the pig or the chicken, or says, What did you do that for? Now we're both gonna die, and he goes, Well, because I'm a scorpion, that's what I do, you know, just I mean stories like that, because in the way he translated that for us was, and that led into Bo Nickal, whenever he won the national title, he's coming off the mat, and he says, "How did you win that match? and Bo Nickal's like, "That's what we do, because Coach Cael is ingrained in your brain, but you know you're here, you win big matches, and that's who you are, that's what you do, that's and it just that constant reminding us to do that, it's a, you know, we talk about those stories, and then I remember one time other stuff that works, but like we had a lot of crap going on campus with 2011 we had the whole the Sandusky Penn State scandal thing coming in, and like what we did is we watched The Lion King, the first 30 minutes of The Lion King, and we'd shoot bubblegum, just something different. It was, it was just something different to relax, and just… and then we had practice, and we beat each other up, but it was just… it was just something different. We do things different, different things too, like we… he'd have us like tap on our shoulders, like this, opening up your fascia ways, or just some of that deep science stuff, where you know your energy field type thing, so and it's just like it's weird, but whatever, it's cool, it's not, it's not bad.

Shane Sparks

What do you think? Quentin is the most under appreciated thing with Cael Sanderson.

Quentin Wright

Oh, um I don't… I don't know. He was actually here. I know exactly what it is. How unbelievably good he is. I think people don't, because he kind of… he stopped, and like, we don't have like the money that we have now within the sport of wrestling, which I think is. A great thing, overall, you know, it's a great thing. People, the careers are going much longer, but I remember being whenever, and you're gonna ask him, like Kyle Snyder, when after he won the Olympics, and you got Jake Varner, in 2012 he won the Olympics, and you know, Kyle Snyder came on in 2015 but I bet you right now that if you did a match like Cael would still beat everybody, like you, no one's, no one can beat him. Um, he's, he has been so good for so long that if he chose to, he probably could be a world champ every single year, like 2011 When he went to the Worlds, he ended up taking fifth, just because he did a freestyle pull down and ref score, didn't score it, or they scored it a certain way, like at the World Championship, like, and he was about 10 pounds lower than he needed to be, but you let Cael wrestle at his, at his weight, 200 pounds, like a solid good weight, like there's nobody, I don't think there's anybody who beats him, like he, he was so good through that whole time, like people would come in the room and they try to wrestle him and nobody, there's absolutely no play that can beat him. I would even claim now, still him being 47 years old, I don't think anybody on the circuit right now could beat him if Coach Cael goes out there and wrestles, and it's just because the way he wrestles is it's not something that he can teach it to you or you can show it, you can see it on film, but until you actually feel it multiple times, and to understand where the pressures are, how he's doing it, and then he'll point it out to you. Well, I'm, you think I'm just doing this with your hands or with your shoulders, but really I'm putting the weight on your foot, so when I go from ankle pick, you can't move it, and it's those little tiny things that make such a big difference when it comes to wrestling, that his technique and how he wrestles, and plus he's gifted too, like he has an unbelievably strong core. That was the one thing about Coach Cael, like his, his core, and I don't know why, but I think it's just genetics, because he doesn't like, do much lifting weights or anything, but his core is so unbelievably strong, where he gets in these weird positions and he wins, just because he could just do like a V up with his stomach and he can, you know, he can get out of these positions, but that's really what it is. I think that's the most underappreciated thing was I'd say the first thing is how good he really was, and he never really gave a chance to kind of show it either. But the second thing too, I would say, what's… I don't know if it's underappreciated, but that dude is super, it's super humble, I would say. Where he's not, you know, he doesn't live cocky, he doesn't live extravagantly. He's pretty, he is, he's, he's really humble, I would say, in his stuff. And just something as simple as, you know, Coach Cael would never turn a signature away. Every time that wants to be safe to remember, he would sit there for an hour, an hour and a half up signing signatures, once you get them, you know, he might try to avoid it beforehand, but once you capture him, he's their son, he won't turn anybody away, and just that, that humbleness and teaching that to us as really good athletes, I think it's something that we gotta continue forward, and even guys that have money now, the All Stars, the NIL deals, like this, even if we get that, you got to understand that we still need to be humble, and we got to be gracious with the fans, and that's the way Coach Cael has really showed it to us on the team, and hopefully our guys continue to see that and continue to do that, to understand that you're in such a great position, but continue to be humble in your approach to dealing with fans and dealing with the sport, gotta understand people are always gonna not like you, they never, everyone wants to see the winners fall, and I said that to a kid one time, like, listen, they're not booing against you, people aren't booing against because they dislike you, they're booing against you because they just want to see the winner lose, and it's okay, it's just that it's human nature, but you'll be, you'll be good next week, said that to him, I don't know if he got that, but at least I said it. So,

Shane Sparks

You had a great career. You found a way to win big time matches. True freshman, you're an 11 seed. You take sixth place as an All-American. Then you red shirt in 2010 In 2011 Quentin, I don't know if I've ever told you this story, I don't make predictions, because what do I know? I have no idea what the circumstances of the day are for both guys. How do they feel? How was the weight cut? Have they slept well? What are their relationships like? There's so many different factors that go into the circumstances of the day, but I will tell you this. 2011 I was at the Big Ten Championships doing a broadcast for UW badgers. com for Wisconsin Badger fans, and I remember being on the bus heading down to Northwestern, and we learned Travis Ruttt was the one seed and you were the eighth seed, and I remember thinking to myself, this is not good for Travis Ruttt, like Quentin Wright is the eighth seed, that is not what you want, and if I remember right, Quinn, I could be wrong on this, if I remember right, he didn't. Not have you had a match before you wrestle them, and he didn't, and I thought I didn't like that either, from a Badger stand. I don't, I mean, I want to wrestle out of the gate. I want to have a match that's just me. I would imagine that would be a warm-up

Quentin Wright

Match. I call exactly a nice warm-up match,

Shane Sparks

But you find a way to get it done, and then you go to win your first Big Ten title, then you go to Philadelphia. You are the nine seed. You beat, uh, had it written down here. You be Chris, number one seed of Edinboro in the, in the quarters.

Quentin Wright

Yeah, so it went that for that, for that, that run. I was, uh, Jonathan Fausey, who was a one or two time Pennsylvania State champ out of Virginia, stud. Then I had Kevin Steinhaus from Study, Minnesota. I just, I just barely beat him in the finals of the Big Tens. Then I had Chris Honeycutt right there in the quarters, and then Assembly is whoever, and I think it ended up being Grant Gambrall, who had beat me almost majored me in the dual meet, and then whoever showed up in the finals, which Ham ended being Hamlin, and he had beaten you earlier

Shane Sparks

That year in a duel, me correct, Hamlin. Yeah,

Quentin Wright

Yeah, he beat me earlier and dual meet, so every single one of those guys had beat me earlier in a year, except for Fausey, he was the only one who had it, well, or Honeycutt too, but he was the number one seed, because I didn't wrestle him, but Steinhaus had beaten me, and I barely beat him, and Gambrall just, he made me look bad in a dual meet, home dual meet, so it was a little bit of a redemption door, but I remember I was looking at, so going into that season, and a lot of people don't realize that what happened was I ended up busting my shoulder that year, that was the big story, I busted my shoulder earlier in December, and I don't know if you can see it here, but like it's still busted today,

Shane Sparks

Gnarly, like, yeah, oh yeah,

Quentin Wright

I mean, that's for life, right there. Caught my horn, I gave people a little jab, but, uh, yeah, and so I busted my AC joint, all three ligaments, pretty much busted, and at the time they sent me on Tylenol, I'm like, I will see you Monday, it's like, oh my god, worst pain, did you ever have an AC joint? So I did that in December, but Coach Cael, he needs me back in the lineup, but we got to get me back line, but I think I come back late six weeks later, and I think I had a match, and I think I barely won, but then I had wrestled, I wanted to lose that, and I kind of started like, but anyway, on that year going into that Big Ten tournament, I was 12 and six, I was 12 and six going season, and my last three matches were dual meets Big Ten opponents, just crazy tough, and actually my last point was Travis Rutt, it was in our home dual meet, it was the dual meet at home, and he pinned me, so I had three losses going in, Travis Rutt, he penny, I think he stacked me on my shoulders in the dual meet, and yeah, so he pinned me, so I get him first round, lie tenant thing. Oh my god, I get the number one guy, but really I just had such a trend, and that was such a special year. I call it that. I won the national title with one arm, only to be outdone by the guy who won it with one leg that year, Anthony Robles. He had a true, yeah, he had a true issue, but, like, mine, like, I still kind of had my arm, and it's a big thing where I learned that you don't have to be perfect when you're growing up. They said, 'Oh, you got to have the perfect nutrition, you got a perfect sleep, you have perfect this. And one thing that stuck with me back in the day, I had compliance into Tuesday, 11 was a special year, he ended up beat my teammate, it was in a Bubba Jenkins, he won the national title that year, too. But Bubba Jenkins was at Penn State before, before he had gone to Arizona, and I was on the team with Troy Sunderland, and Bubba Jenkins would say, 'We go out on the street. I remember one night, he goes, 'Quit, you got Penn State wrestling shirt, you got Penn State wrestling short, Penn State wrestling shoes, man, you can't do nothing wrong tonight. He says they're going to pick you out, but one thing he would say was, "Do you do you warm up for a street fight? No, he's like, "Okay. And that was another thing that Bubba Jenkins, he is stuck with me, just a quote like that, that you know, you just got to go out there and perform, so you got somebody like Bubba, who, you know, some of people look at background story, I would say maybe not the most perfect when it comes to wrestling training individual, you know, he did a lot of things, extracurricular activities and stuff, and he ended up winning the national title, but I realized that year that you don't have to be perfect, you just gotta win, you just gotta find a figure out a way to win, who wins the match, the guy that has a point ahead at the end of the match, that's all it matters. And that's what kind of started that season. After I bust my shoulder, I did a lot of self-reflecting, and I was, and I'm in a Christian, believe Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, and I was reflecting, and I asked God, my God, like I'm losing these matches during the dual meet, just lost three in a row, or before that, and like I'm not doing very good, and he says, "Well, Quentin, what are you trying to do? Well, at the time, Coach Kel Sanderson, your coach, how do you want to win? You beat just like Coach. So I try and do ankle picks, I'm doing everything, I'm trying to be like many Cael Sanderson, and I was just miserable. I hated wrestling, I hated practice, and conversation with God, and I said, "What's wrong with me? He says. Is I didn't create you to be kale, I created you to be you, and so what do you, and I'm like, what's that mean? He's like, what do you like to do? I said I like to pick people up, throw them, and slam them, headlocks and body arches, and he's like, okay, go do that. So I love blast double legs and throwing people, and so when I focused on my blast double leg and under hook and throwing people and doing that, just I started enjoying practice, and I started scoring points, and then if you notice throughout that run I had from the Big Ten, and actually the other thing to it, that's when I learned that, well, how do you win? It's just it's a game, a one point ahead, so every match I made it a point in practice at one, nobody could take me down, and I get to get off bottom. If nobody can take me down, and I get off a bottom, I'll figure out how to get a takedown. I'll figure out how to get one takedown. I'm gonna win every single match, 3-2. I don't care, I get one takedown, they're gonna, at the time, it was two point takedown, they gonna escape, and then if I can get off a bottom, I let them off bottom, and they can't take me down. I'm winning every single match, 3-2, and that's kind of that was my goal, just win every match, 3-2, and then when it came to, like, a Russell Travis rut that second round of Big Tens, like I barely, I honestly, I did barely win that match, because he was taking me down initially, and I hit a switch, which, depending on the rules over the years, one year it might be a takedown, now other years it's not, reaction time, things like that, but the time is no takedown, I hit it fast enough that you know they didn't give him the takedown, and I was able to get a takedown off of it, you know, just so many little things like that happen, and I tried to get my under hook, I tried to throw people, I tried my blast double leg, and I tried to win every match 3-2, that whole that whole way through. Oh, I wrestled the Gumby from Illinois, gosh, I forget his name now, but he was just Dallago, Dallago, De

Shane Sparks

Lago, yeah, yep,

Quentin Wright

Yeah, Dallago, he was just, oh my god, that was, that was another reason I lost, too, like sometimes pride kills you, and so I wrestled Dallago in, in the semis, the Big Tens, and I was actually looking forward to that, because when we were in the dual meet, I took him down like four or five times, I just crushed him on his feet, and four or five times he reversed me and got the reversal on me. So we're, I think I was 1.0 yeah, I was, I was one point ahead. There was 30 seconds left on the clock in the dual meet in rec hall. This was one of my three losses in that 2011 season, and in this kid, he's younger than me, I'm thinking he's a young pup, I should be able to beat him up, and you know, I'm starting to figure things out a little bit with my hurt shoulder and everything. Well, in that last 30 years second, I said, I'm the man, I'm gonna hold this guy down, mind you, he'd reverse me four times already in the match, and so I held down for 29 seconds, and he reversed me with one second left, he wins match by a point, and it was at that moment that I realized you got to admit somebody's better than you, don't wrestle them in that position, wrestle sometimes people are just better than you in that position, so don't try to force it, and I learned that lesson that match, and so I ended wrestling semifinals, Big Tens, I beat him pretty good, like 11 nine to seven, I kind of stayed away from the top wrestling, but and then I wrestled Kevin Steinhaus, who I, so I had a teammate, Frank Molinaro, that 2011 he ended up getting held down by Kyle Dake for like six minutes and like 10 seconds, I said, don't worry, buddy, Kevin Steinhaus from Minnesota, that this, this freak, if you, if you go back and look at records, he held me down for six in a seven minute match, six minutes and 52 seconds.

Shane Sparks

No,

Quentin Wright

Yeah, in our dual meet at Minnesota. If you go, and I think it's pretty, pretty close to 50, because the first 10 seconds out there, remember I said conversation, God, what do you like to like throw people? Okay, so I got that first period, and I hit a headlock. I completely missed it. So Kevin Steinhaus, he kept rolling me through on the cross for his tilts, and I think he almost - he either majored me or almost majored me that match, because kept using my bad arm cross first tilts, and he kept rolling me through. So I wrestled Kevin Steinhaus in the finals of Big Tens, and then unbelievable. Oh my god, this is great. Penn State wins their first Big Ten title ever, such a Latin ecstatic at the time. And then, whenever the brackets come out for the NCAA Tournament, it was funny because it was when the bracket came out and I saw where I was seated, that ninth seed and my pathway. I said, God, you want me to win this tournament, don't you? He's like, "Yep. And I kind of knew at that moment I was kind of like almost like destined to win, because I said you couldn't have picked a harder spot through this bracket, like I had to wrestle every hard good, the best kid in the whole bracket. It was on my path, the one didn't say tournament, and I think that's it's an honestly, I think there's there's some inherent, I don't know, spiritual, whatever, there's storylines in the universe, and I think every year at the NCAA Tournament, it's it's sweet because you can kind of like you kind of see these storylines from the beginning, like if this person wrestles through, like they have to, they have to beat every good guy, and next thing you know, they win one, and then they win second, like, oh crap. They can do it. They're gonna be able to do it, and I think it was just that, you know, whatever, the university or something like it was just… it was just such a special year. I learned I started win every Mastery Two, and then I got the NCAA Tournament, and I wrestled all those tough guys, and I was able to find a way to win. And I beat Robert Hamlin in the finals, who was my first loss of the season. So it was just a bookend book ending, and Penn State wins their first national title of ever since 1958 Coach Cael's first national title as a team, and just everybody's great, and which comes to the last record book, the last record that I hold. I used to have a lot of the records of Penn State, you know, most pins text things like that, but you got like David Taylor, then you got, you know, Ed Ruth, then you got guys like Vincenzo Joseph, and all the greats, Bo Nickalle, and, and all Jason Nolf the greats have come through, they crushed every record, it's like, ah, son of a gun, but the only record I have left is on Coach Cael's first national champion at Penn State University,

Shane Sparks

Yup,

Quentin Wright

And I tell people the only reason is because the other two lost, which was David Taylor to Kyle Dake and Frank Molinaro, Frank Molinaro and Kyle Dake and David Taylor to Bubba Jenkins, but they were two wrestling before me, so therefore because they lost and I was the only guy that won, we had three in finals out here on Coach Caels' first national title, and that's the only record that can never be taken away,

Shane Sparks

And that is that is a really cool record for sure. I want to ask you real quick, because I forgot, yeah, you and Bubba Jenkins would have been teammates, and obviously you would, David Taylor were teammates. What was it like watching that match, having relationships with both of those guys?

Quentin Wright

Well, actually, it was I, and that was one thing I learned too, is that part of my wrestling is that I don't watch, I don't watch my teammates at tournaments, because I found out, and this is this is inside secret for anybody watching. Honestly, if you learn this, you're going to be so much feather ahead. I found out that when you watch wrestling, and as a fan, why is it so stressful? Because you are, your mind's physically wrestling, your body doesn't realize it's not wrestling, so when your mind is wrestling, you're in the match, you're moving, and that's one thing I learned, is that you go, that's why you see guys that just lose gas the second, third period, why can you go all practice and you're great and you have endless energy, and you go there matching, like, second period, your legs go rubber, it's because your body has adrenaline, and when you're, whenever you're watching a match, you're in that match, you're moving with that match, and I learned that's why I struggled on dual meets as opposed to tournaments, because tournaments I wasn't watching my teammates, I wasn't watching them do that, and luckily I wasn't watching that match when it happened, I had to watch it afterwards, although I knew something didn't go well for David Taylor, whenever he came back in the locker room and was he said a few words, and he made some loud noises in the bathroom. He was hitting things. I knew something didn't go out, and Coach Casey's like, "Hey, how about let's just go over here, let's go over to this area over here. So I knew something bad didn't happen. Then I watched it later, and I was like, "Oh man, that's rough. But you know those things, those things happen, and so afterwards it's tough, because at the time we're all like mad at Bubba, and it was like the antagonist, I would say, and he was just being Bubba, being himself, great promoter, and doing all that stuff, but yeah, it was, I would say, I would say at the time, salty, we're all kind of like salty, over, like, oh, David, who won, if he would have done this, but hey, that's how wrestling goes, you know. That's how that's how it happins sometimes.

Shane Sparks

You bring up a good point. My broadcast partner on the Big Ten Network is the most brilliant wrestling mind I've ever encountered in Jim Gibbons, and he would tell me he's got so many great stories, but one of those, piggybacking off of your point, was that when he would take his cyclones to Carver Hawkeye, and there's 15,000 people, and those fans are right on top. He would keep, if you wrestled in that second half, he'd keep you out of the arena, because to your point, he said those guys, they, if they were out by the time they wrestled, pure exhaustion, just from dealing with the crowd, dealing with the anxiety, and feeling that energy, so that's a, that's a, that's a cool little tip.

Quentin Wright

There's a lot of truth to that. I don't think people really understand that, and as, as much as if I'm out there and I'm really struggling in a match, and those fans are just going nuts, you get, you literally will get energy off of that. Now, I've never had, like, energy get pulled away from me, I would say, from the negative energy, but I'm telling you that positive energy that the fans give you whenever in those moments of need, like there's something to that, and that's what I learned for that first national title, was that, and actually I tell other guys that, and I think honestly I think that's why Dave Taylor lost to Kyle Dake his junior year and college senior year was because David was sitting there watching everybody wrestle the whole time, and then he did great. First period, then the second period, he just likes looked like rubber, and it looked like he was out of shape. He was out of shape, he just… I just think from watching everybody else, he just emotional energy, I call emotional energy. He just ran out of emotional energy, and the adrenaline your body has legs go like rubber, and nothing works.

Shane Sparks

What is the match? Quentin, that taught you the most. If you had to pick a match in your career, is there one that taught you the most?

Quentin Wright

I would mean there's, there's so many, so many of I come up with, but I would really say that the one that sticks out, because always hurts the most, is whenever I took second to Steve Bosak at Cornell in 2012 I was in the finals, and I had beaten him earlier in the year at the Southern scuffle, and I almost majored him, I think it was like seven oh or something. I beat him pretty good, so I was pretty confident going into that match, like, oh, this is gonna be good, I got this, and when I lost in overtime, and I remember to this day, and I teach others, is that, and he did a great job. He switched up his strategy, he quit attacking, because there's one strategy where you're better than a guy, so you just put it on him, but the other strategy is I can't beat this guy, so I hope he loses to me, which is a defensive attitude, and it will catch a lot of people, and that was his strategy in that match was that he's like, because he didn't take a single shot the whole match, he kind of backed up, I shot him out of bounds five or six times within that NCAA finals, and I kind of walked in that way, I lost as I walked into him thinking, oh, this guy's not going to shoot, well, he shoots, he gets the low single, we get into a scramble, well, Coach Cael teaches the defense that when somebody shoots a head inside the low single like that, or the head gets inside below your knee, you fall over that shoulder, you come out to the side, and you kind of kick out, and you know, I'm a national champion, before I know what I'm doing, I'm great, I hadn't been practicing that defense, I didn't practice that defense at all, and so that match taught me that you have to practice everything, because had I been practicing, I would have reacted correctly. I would have won the match, three time national champ, but because I didn't, I fell over the other side. It turns into a scramble. Now it's a 50-50 shot that you know he ended up getting. I had, you know, wizard stuff, but the ref called the takedown and overtime kind of like that before they could review, like they do now. Sorry, PJ Duke, but you know that. But that was kind of like how you know that was it. That was over. It was done with. So, had I reacted correctly the way I know, the correct way, had I been practicing it and reacting correctly, I'd won the match. But because I didn't, I gave the guy a chance to win, and that was probably one of the most impactful things, too, because, like, I thought I was going to win that match, but it's just he stayed away. He was really smart, and he just, he did such a great job of not allowing, or not coming after me to allow him to open up and open him up and get, get a bunch of takedowns and points.

Shane Sparks

He beat you for two in the sudden victory.

Quentin Wright

Yep,

Shane Sparks

And you guys were friends, correct?

Quentin Wright

Yeah, I mean, I just like I'm really sad for myself, but I'm really happy for him, because I'd watch him lose two Pennsylvania State titles. We would train every weekend to Nittany Lion Wrestling Club. He was from State College, I was from Bald Eagle Area, so we trained every weekend together, and we're kind of good, I'd say wrestling buddies at the time, we were good wrestling buddies throughout high school, and so we're kind of rooting for each other, and then Rob Koll, when he didn't, you know, I stayed at Penn State, he got Bosak, Steve Bosak, and he took him to Cornell, and he went up there, and he's wrestling, he was always a hard worker, you know, great kid, awesome kid, and just never was able to get that success, and I don't know what it was about that year, but that year he, he was able to put it together, and then in the finals, like, said I wasn't trying to lose, but I joke around today, I tell people, like, yeah, I'll just listen, I can't get greedy, I can't have more than one national title, I figured I'd give one away, but no, I really do want to win that match, and like I said, that was just something that I learned. He had a great year, and he found, like I said, he found a way to win, and that's all that matters. He found a way to win, because the other thing, too, I keep thinking back, too. We talked about storylines where I barely beat Robert Hamlin in the semis that year, in 2012 and that was the only guy that Bosak couldn't beat that year. I think he lost him twice, Hamlin, so, and he was on the other side of the bracket, so I beat the guy he can't beat. I get in the finals, and then he found a way to barely, barely beat me, because I kind of, like, I overlooked it. I wasn't as prepared, and I wasn't as, I wasn't as ready, and that, that, that's what really stuck with me, is that you can never, you can, you can never be confident in yourself. You always have to do the little things to continue success.

Shane Sparks

How did you deal with setbacks?

Quentin Wright

Oh yeah, like when I busted my shoulder, it's tough. You got to rely on your coaches, you got to rely on your and your teammates too. And really, I did, and some of you guys have parents and stuff too, or just anybody that's willing to invest with you, just the positivity, I would say. So, whenever I was, especially 2011 whenever I had that setback of busting my shoulder and I was coming back, I had a great buddy in the room too, Joe Bastardi. He still hangs around a great meteorologist, and he hangs in, he lives in the Boysburg, he has his own company, the. But be willing to listen to people that want to be a positive influencer in life, because they might say something that gives you a whole different perspective, and one thing he would say that stuck with me during that time is that you know, sometimes you've got to push yourself until you got to push yourself to the point till God is carrying you, and so that kind of really stuck with me, because he helped train me a little bit during that time, but it's really relying on those around you, and if they're not a positive influencing, you know you're an okay person, but I can't be around you at this point in time if they, if they don't want to be positive or help you get to your goals. So that's what I say, is that really with those types of setbacks in life, you got to find the people that want to have this help you get to your dream or get to your end goal, and sometimes it is dealing with the hard truths. You have to be willing to listen to those people around you who you know that have a good intent, so when they say something to you that's a hard truth that you have to swallow, or a hard pill you have to swallow, you have to be willing to take that and adjust that, and then determine, is that going to be me, or is it not going to be me, and that's, and that's one of the things where, whenever I busted my shoulder, the first thing that happened, Coach Cael, he got psychologist, sports psychologist, her name is Bonnie Epstein, and actually I would talk to her on the phone, and that's one of the things she helped guide me through was letting go of the past, what people have said, what people put into you that aren't you. An example would be like whenever I was growing up, my dad said, "You gotta train perfect, you gotta eat perfect, you gotta be perfect, so you can have success. Well, that becomes the record in your brain, and so whenever I busted my shoulder and now I have a busses shoulder and I just feel like I'm not perfect, I can't be perfect, I'll never be perfect, there's no way I could ever win, and she really helped me reframe that to saying taking those negative, those thoughts, like I said, good intentions are a good idea, but take those thoughts, and my dad was a great football player, he played under below Bo Schembechler when he first came to University of Michigan back in the day, and then he transferred to Penn State, had neck issue, and ended up having to lead the team, but it was pretty good track star. But since he was a football player, she helped me say, "Hey, take all those thoughts that you're not perfect, that you can't win, put it in that football, and throw it back to him. Be like, hey, thank you, but here, take this back. That's not me, that's not who I am. Who am I? I'm a winner. I'll find a way to win. I'm going to win by one point, whatever it takes. And so that's kind of like there's a little bit of that psychology. Got to be willing to trust people and be able to swallow those hard truths whenever they tell you something that's not going to help you, help you get to your end goal.

Shane Sparks

What was one of those hard truths at some point in your career? You remember a time when somebody had to really just tell you the way it was, it was uncomfortable, unpleasant, but necessary, and to your credit, you were able to use it to your benefit.

Quentin Wright

Now I put me on the spot. I'd really have to think about that. I said I've been pretty, for the most part, I've been pretty good, but some of that stuff still, still, I would say really still holds true. It's just like, although I say winners find a way to win, and that's true, but what helps you do that, not staying out past 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock at night, you still gotta keep your body, put your body in the right spot. So this is, I would say, the really hard truth is, even though a winner will find a way to win, to put yourself in that best spot, you still have to do the correct thing. So you gotta eat healthy, make sure you're eating to take care of yourself. Another example is like, I'd go home, and we had a coal, we had a wood fire furnace at home. Well, every Monday I'd come in, and I'd be out of gas, and I could hardly breathe. Well, it's because I'd have asthma from those coals, so I wasn't… I couldn't go home in season, because just the wood ash would cause me, for two or three days, I was had a hard time training, just, and really, the hard truth was a lot of it was coming from my dad growing up, where, like, you can't be out till one in the morning, you can't think that you can do whatever you want on the weekend, go out with your friends or your buddies till one or two in the morning and not do anything bad, just hanging out, and then expect to be able to train at your capacity on Monday, and even Coach Caels and Casey, they all agree with that too. You know, there's that's why Penn State, we don't have like no drinking during season, like you can't do that and be as highly successful as you want to be, because it does wear down your body, and so I know it's boring, but it's still true. It might be, it's not like a life-changing heart troop, but these little things, they still are true.

Shane Sparks

We have the podcast Stories from the Resilite pins, I like to refer to them as a slap of the Resilite. What is the most memorable pin in your wrestling career?

Quentin Wright

Oh my god, that's easy. See, so I up for about 10 years after 2013 through about 220 23 Every single year at the NCAA Tournament, I would get a text from Coach Cody Sanderson, and he said, "Hey, your semifinals twins was the greatest match I ever watched. And so, and people don't know that the semifinals in 2011 addressing a kid, Gambrall, he is tough as nails. He beat me in high school at the, I think, the All-Star USA versus Iowa at the time. I was on that team, he beat me there, and then he beat me the dual meet during the season, while I'm wrestling, and he was having a really good year. He ended up taking third NCAAs, I believe that year in 2011 Well, I'm wrestling in semi-finals, and it's a close match, close match. Well, somehow at the end of the first, I end up getting over on the position, and this is where, like, I like to pick people up and throw them. I lock my hands and I just launch them, and it was funny because it showed up in the rules, I'd say, committee the next year that, hey, refs, you're not allowed to start counting back points until the guy actually hits the mat, because if you watch it in slow motion, the ref actually starts counting back points as he's falling to the mat. It's hilarious, but so I do that, and I get him on his back. I'm a 5-0, and so now Gambrall has to, he has to attack me, and his strategy was like, stay away, make guys forced onto you, and then he run around behind. Well, once he attacked me, and I stopped in a front headlock, and I came around. We call it a badger trap at Penn State. You come around, get the leg, get the head. Well, he started to stand up. Well, his head came down to his leg. I locked my hands same way that Mekhi Lewis beat Vincenzo Joseph. You put your head close to your head, you lock up your hands. Well, he stood straight up, and then I hooked his leg, and I take him down to the back, and I pin him in a cradle. And it was… it's great, because I still have a picture on my phone, it's one of the greatest pictures, where Coach Cael Sanderson is down on the mat like this, slapping the mat for that pin, and Coach Casey, he's going like this, and Coach Cael, he's slapping the mat, which he probably should have lost the team point for that, but you can't do that, but it was, it was such a great, that's probably the greatest pin, I would say, I had so many really good pins, but that was probably the most epic, I would say, because that put Penn State, and pretty much like we had to, everybody had to lose every single match after that in order for Penn State to lose the team title, that solidified us as a team winner over Cornell in 2011 and it was us, and it was crazy how it happened, it was just so crazy. Well, from the throw, and then 30 seconds later I get them in a cradle, and it's like a falling cradle, standing cradle, falling down to the mat, and I get that pin. It was, it was pretty wild

Shane Sparks

That final season, you and Dustin Kilgore, now you're up to 197 you know, began your career at 174 is no American, it's a true freshman, you win a national title at 184 now you're up to 197 Dustin Kilgore, Kent State national champ. What do you remember from that match? What was key?

Quentin Wright

Well, really, I locked out. I locked out in the fact that he thought he could beat me, which was a good thing, because, like I said, going into that match, I was winning every match, it was like 3-0, it was 3-0 that whole tournament. I just won the semifinals against Matt Wilps in a double, triple overtime match. These guys were not wrestling me, they weren't opening up everything, and I'm an average or small size, 97 pounder, so I couldn't force anything, like 84 I could force things, but I said I couldn't force things, I could only take what these guys were giving me from a technique standpoint, because I couldn't force anything. It was too strong, too big, too strong. And, but Kilgore he actually came after me. He tried wrestling, and that's whenever I could just slick things, and that's what ended up happening. I was able to under hook, I'd slick it. Where I often think to this day, had he not done that, we could have had a completely different match. Had he had a strategy like Bosak did the year before, you say back, forced it, make the guy force it on you, it could have been a completely different match, but that was, and like I said, that's what I was nervous going into, come thinking, oh my god, if he does this, I don't know how this guy's like I call him Kilgore a dragon slayer, because he is just massive and he's big, and he hadn't won a match, he hadn't lost a match in two years, he's undefeated. Just like I watched him win his national title in 2011 as well. I think, yeah, 2011 I believe it was 12. Yeah, because then he took the Olympic red shirt year, and then he came back, and he was just… he was such a great wrestler. So I was worried he wasn't wrestling me, but then when we got out there, we started wrestling. It worked out in my favor, because he actually tried, and I was able to outslick him and open things up, which made the match quite a bit easier. So that's where that's what I was thinking. That match, I was so nervous, because if he wrestles played back like the other guys were, I don't know if I was gonna win. But then that's when Coach Cael said, he just said, "Hey, I am worried about you, you'll figure it out. And just for that confidence, you're right, I did. In the first three seconds, I figured out where this match is going, and I was, I was able to pick it apart

Shane Sparks

Earlier that year. You won your second Big Ten title. What do you recall from that title run?

Quentin Wright

I'm trying to think… I can't remember who I wrestled in my second in the finals of the second Big Ten title.

Shane Sparks

Oh, these are the things, Corn. I gotta interrupt you on this. These are the things that just blow my mind when you are so good, when you are so good that you were in a Big Ten title and don't remember who you beat. Like, that just blows my mind. Like, I mean, I can tell you who I beat to win, like, a second great tournament, because that was a big deal. I mean, it just puts it gives a level set as to how good, and I mean this respectfully, of course, how good you must have been. It's like, yeah, I won my second big title, but I just really don't remember who I beat.

Quentin Wright

I think I think it was minutes, I think it was Minnesota again, but different kid from a different guy from Minnesota, I'm pretty sure,

Shane Sparks

Maybe I'm guessing here, maybe Scott Schiller,

Quentin Wright

That's that's what I'm thinking, I think it was somebody like that. Okay, but yeah, I mean, you're right, because what happens, I would say the losses, your match is really tied to emotion, so unless there's an emotional part of something in that match that went crazy, but didn't go great. That's how it kind of like sticks to your memory, and so outside that torn, that whole tournament, my senior was kind of like it wasn't anything fancy, anything crazy, anything that stood out. It was just, you know, good wrestling my senior year at the Big Ten tournament. So that's, and that's kind of how it works, where the losses, all that he always hurt, and they'll stick with you forever, you know. All pretty much all those losses, that's why they're easier to recall. But yeah, my memory is not always great. There's just some people that have photographic memory and do that, but yeah, the Big Ten tournament, like, I know we need to win, but we're on a roll now. Like, we're on a roll. I believe we had Nico Megaludis, we had Zain Retherford in my senior year, he was in the lineup, so, like, we had a good group, like, we were pretty conditioned, we were starting that Penn State train going of guys winning, and it was so it was kind of just, it was pretty normal for us to just go out there and you're getting your win, and we're starting on that, as it really just saw on that winning train that we're just all really good, we're doing what we're expected to do, and we're winning matches, and that's why, and I will say this too, is that the Big Ten tournament as a team is way harder to win than NCAA Tournament, and it's just all mathematical equations, because the Big Ten tournament, you have really good people, and you have a lot smaller quantity, so every loss really makes a big difference every time somebody doesn't meet their expectations, where the NCAA Tournament, you have so many of the smaller schools, like in Cal Bakersfield, or you got like the Citadel, these guys that can have like a really good guy and they just wreck a bracket that help that helps your team, either helps your team or hurts your team, if they're knocking off your guy, so in that, you know, even like now they're a powerhouse, but North, well, North Carolina, they came back, they came back around to fuzzy hair, like three, four years ago, I forget his name, you know, he just went through and ran through the bracket, I mean, just stuff like that, so Big Ten is way harder to win as a team, so we take a lot of pride when we do, we're able to win that because it's a lot harder as a team than the NCAA Tournament, where we can score all those points, and we have a lot of help from everybody else. I would say knocking off, hopefully not our guys, the Penn State guys, but you know, eventually it'll happen. But I was just enjoying it while, while we're there.

Shane Sparks

What's something within the sport, Quentin, that you are most passionate about, whether it's a rule, a philosophy, like what's something that you, you get fired up about?

Quentin Wright

No, never give up. You never give up. Just that's the thing, is that you absolutely never give up. You can lose a match, that's okay, but you never give up, as I never quit. You never quit. Wrestling teaches you to never quit. You can always have a chance. You can always win. There's always, you know, there's always the next opponent. There's always to do something greater. But the only time that you ever truly lose in wrestling, and that's in life, is when you quit and you say, I give up, I'm done. And wrestling really teaches you to never give up like that, and to never quit, and that's the one thing I really stress with my high school guys, is just teaching, and that, because we live in a society now, that it's one of the reasons why wrestling is not such a great big sport, is because it's hard, it's tough, and it's something you kind of have to force kids, and not force them, but you kind of have to really encourage them to keep doing, because it's so easy to play the Playstations or XBoxes or the video games, and or watch, you know, stuff on TV that wrestling is it teaches you that toughness and to never give up and never quit, and it's something that's very unique. I think it's really underappreciated as a whole, that just that, and so I try to teach, I try to get everybody I know to get the kids into wrestling at least one or two years, because those are the things that really stick with people the rest of their life. And I have guys like, yeah, I wrestled in elementary, and, man, I loved it, or it was so hard, and man, I wish it was stuck with it, type of thing. So I really encourage that, that the wrestling is really touchy, never give up and. Never quit, and you always have a chance

Shane Sparks

Outside of yourself. Who is your Mount Rushmore of Penn State wrestlers?

Quentin Wright

Oh gosh, yes, that's right. Outside of myself, because I'm always going to put myself right in there. Yeah, there's too many to choose from now, but it's difficult

Shane Sparks

Now. It's tough. Well, it's tough.

Quentin Wright

We have, we have all the newer guys too, but we can't forget the past too. I can't forget some of the older guys, and guys like two-time national champ Andy Matter is another guy that was like just ridiculously good back in the day. I'd like relate him to kind of like David Taylor nowadays. There was. we had a Japanese dude way back in the day, and he was ridiculously good. We had a Japanese guy back in Penn State, so I don't want to roll those guys out, but you can pick any one of the modern guys now. But if I'd be a modern guy now, you know, I'd say David Taylor gets a lot of the hype and stuff, which is… you know, he should be up there too. I would say, but really, I think one of the recent ones is Zain Retherford, because that dude was just an animal, he's just a freak, like I don't know anybody like David or Zain Retherford, he can crush an apple with his hand, and so I think I think he deserves beyond that, just from everything he brought. And then you got always one that always shows up is Kerry McCoy, too, because he was on the Olympic team. I think he took bronze, I think a bronze or silver in the Olympics. So he's, he's one of those guys too. But if I had to pick, man, I honestly, I want to put Bo Nickal on there too. I mean, because that dude, he just did want to lose, and I just did, that dude would not lose every time you thought he was like he might lose this match, dude, that dude would find a way to win, so I would have to put Bo, Zain, like I said, David Taylor should be on there too, but two time national champ, he, so I gotta give those three time three timers on there, like Ed Ruth, like, he, I mean, he was a three time, he's, he was unbelievable, but, but I had to pick a, I say, Bo, Zain, and then I'd have to either go with, like, Kerry McCoy, or one of these older guys, like an Andy Matter, or a back, back in the day, I think this one Japanese guy was pretty, he was pretty tough. I don't think he was. He never national champ for Penn State, but I have to look into that. Well, one of those older guys was a two-time national champ, I think Prescott was another guy. He was Jeff

Shane Sparks

Prescott, yeah, Jeff Prescott was a stud at 118 in the early 90s, two-time national champ, yeah, New York native, I believe.

Quentin Wright

Yeah,

Shane Sparks

Yeah, those… it's amazing the amount of talent. Is there a guy? I mean, you look at Penn State, 174 184 I mean, those weight classes, they've been just phenomenal at… who reminds you the most of yourself with these, you know, in the, you know, recent memory?

Quentin Wright

Oh, really? Bo Nickal, easy.

Shane Sparks

Okay, except

Quentin Wright

For he's way more. He talks, he talks trash way more than he ain't fair to put it out there. But really, and so that's a funny story with Bo Nickal, and he's doing a great job with the UFC fighting in there, but he just has that same attitude, like he doesn't care who you are. He's gonna go, he's gonna, he's gonna wrestle you, and he's going to try to beat you. I said, the only difference between him, him, me is he's a little bit more outspoken than I am, a little bit more quiet and shy, but he, he's a great kid. And when coaches were, they were recruiting him, they said, "Hey, Quentin, I think it's like my sophomore year, hey, Quentin, or my junior year, we got this kid, as he's out of Texas, and you know, he wrestles exactly like you, I said, Coach Casey, ain't nobody, he wrestles exactly like me. And so then a year and a half later, Bo Nickal on campus, and we go to practice, and I'm wrestling him, and we're just like two fish out of water, flop, flop, flop, flop. We're throwing each other back and forth, and just like, if you scored a match, it's like 40 points between the two of us just flopping into the back and forth, and after that practice, I said to I went with Coach Casey, like, 'Hey, Coach, he wrestles exactly like me, and so I said, 'He's the most like me, just great kid, great, and it just, he loved to throw people like I did, and he was great in big moments.

Shane Sparks

Now you're coaching high school, want to talk about this a little bit, what you know, what's you know, what's your philosophy with high school kids? Because I always, I mean, you're one of the all-time greats, I mean, you are on the top 1% of the top 1% and I've always found it interesting when you're coaching high school, like there's not a bunch of Quentin Rice just all over the place. How do you, how do you coach high school kids? What's worked for you?

Quentin Wright

Well, truly, it's just an on my I'd say a different level, where like you got guys like Askins Academy, like Ben Askren, who's got Askren Wrestling Academy, and honestly, I'm inspired guys like he coached at Kevin Dresser, where he. Christiansburg, and he turned them into a powerhouse, Christiansburg, Virginia, at the time, and one thing to get into high school wrestling is one, there's especially in a small town like that, you don't have a, you don't have that same level of dedication unless you're, unless you turn it into a year-round thing, and I haven't quite done that yet, I'm just learning, but the my goal right now is just really to get these kids to have the wrestling experience that's going to change their life, because of wrestling I can do better, I can be better, I can have more success in my from my current situation I'm in, but because of wrestling I've learned the skills to the toughness, the tenacity, the never give up, just being in that positive environment to go on and do bigger and better things in their life, and that's really, and that's really the goal. But I'll tell you what, it's tough because the kids, they don't, they don't have that same like, want to go get, you'll get every few, every once while you get a kid, but they don't have that same like, I just want them hungry and I want to learn and non stop learning, completely different environment than what you find in college, where everybody really wants to wrestle and be successful, be great within wrestling. So, my goal as a high school coach is really to teach those kids, you know, is to teach those kids how to have those attitudes and to never give up and to fight through everything. That's hard, though. I'll tell you, what it's in today's age, it's hard because the kid has to make the choice. I tell some guys, I tell people right now, like, listen, if the kid's successful, it's all on the kid, because they have to listen, they have to do it. I'm just here to guide them, and that's what I have to do, is I just try to guide them through that process, and I said it's crazy good, but most times people don't, people don't listen, but every once while you get one or two that do, and that makes a difference as a coach, is whenever you really see those kids respond or make that flip from the personality, where they go from getting beat on to beating on people, it's that growing process is fun to watch

Shane Sparks

From a technical standpoint, Quentin, you're a great mind in this sport. From a technical standpoint, what do you think is a technique that is under appreciated and a technique that is perhaps overrated?

Quentin Wright

Oh, I would say underappreciated is getting off a bottom big time, learning how to get off a bottom, like I said, because that can, that can help change a match just by getting a free point, taking bottom, beyond, but it's a skill you have to develop, it, you have to learn how you, how your body wants to get off a bottom, it's, it's a skill that's hard to develop, and I was able to develop that, but it gives you an extra free point in these matches. Overrated, I would say working out or overtraining. Over training is overrated, and it goes back to my famous Bubba Jenkins quote: you warm up for a street fight, no, your body knows how to go out and do it. Your body will react automatically, and that's, and then truly that's one of the, and because remember when we had Dan Gable, the great legendary coach from Iowa, you know, you work out here, you do that. Wrestling had this mindset of you work out and you do this well, that leads into some of the, some of these injuries are related to that, but when everybody's doing that, it's no longer a differentiator in the sport. So, and I think in the early, from the 2000s that was the difference. And then, when Cael came along with Iowa State, and then Penn State, he had training where they were undertraining, our guys are undertraining, and that makes the difference at the NCAA Tournament. So, I would say overtraining, and it's, it's a balance, because you have to train enough where you're not going to get out of gas, but you can't go too much to where, when your body needs to get to 100% it's stuck at 80% because your body is in survival mode. So, I think overtraining is probably the overuse scale, but ultimately, I'd say also under appreciate, too, is really drilling. I would say getting off bottom and drilling, because it doesn't matter if you're drilling in your mind or drilling physically, just hitting that shot repetitions. Your mind doesn't care if it's physically doing it or mentally doing it. It's the same to your, it's the same to your mind. So, your body would just automatically react, and the quicker that you automatically react to situations, the more likely you're going to win. So, just drilling over and over and over. I tell kids, high school kids, that when we call me to do technique, or when I'm at camps, I said hustle equals muscle, because the more you can hustle in, the first be the first guy in, the first guy out, you can get two or three repetitions over the course of an hour. Let's say it's 10 times, that's 20 more times that your body has practiced the move than your competition. So the hustle equals muscle. Get out there, start getting to the technique, keep figuring out, and do, and repetition, repetition, repetition.

Shane Sparks

Do your kids wrestle?

Quentin Wright

Yeah, I have a 12 year old. My 12 year old wrestles now. My six year old, he's a little bit shy, he doesn't, he might get into wrestling, and he's actually probably a little bit smarter one, but my 12 year old, he, he's a spaz, I love it, where he loves to throw people, he wrestles just like me, he looks like me, but man, he's gonna throw the kitchen sink at you, everything, and I would say he, we're figuring out how to win now, but my God, it's fun to watch. We're doing a lot of losing, but it's fun to watch.

Shane Sparks

How do you parent Quintin? I mean, how much pressure do you put on him? Like, what's your philosophy when it comes to raising your son in wrestling, and when to push him, and when not to? And how do you handle that?

Quentin Wright

I mean, so to be fully honest, I have no idea what I'm doing, you know, because I'm trying to be different than the way I was, and then, you know, trying to maybe do things a little bit better. So, truly, this is trial and error. You only get, there's no, there's no rule book to parenting or to coaching. So, but what I'm trying to do is not put the pressure on, let him make the choice that he wants to be great, whether it's at six year old, seven year olds. He didn't really get into wrestling until he was, I think, eight. He wanted, then he started getting to wrestling. He'd show up at practices, but he never wanted to wrestle until he's about eight. Now he's in the wrestling, he didn't want to do extra competitions. Now he wants to do the extra competitions. I'd say just this year, as a 12 year old, he's just now saying, "I want to do the extra, I want to go to wrestling camps. Actually, I signed him up. He's going to be going to Edinboro's wrestling camp this weekend, because I missed - I missed Penn State's camp, and sign-ups were closed, and I didn't make any special phone calls, because I'm a normal guy. I didn't make that extra phone call. I know I could, but, man, I just… so… but now he wants to do the extra, and I think you gotta… you gotta tell a kid whenever, whenever they sign something, they got to finish it through. They can't quit, you can't quit halfway through. You're going to make the choice if you want to do it, and then you do it, but if you don't want to do it, you got to be honest with yourself that you don't want to do it. But I think where a lot of parents get upset, they kind of force the kids into doing so, and then the kid kind of like doesn't want to do it. Let the kid make the choice, but if the kid makes the choice, make them fall, do that choice through the end, and, like I said, I've seen it all. I'm one of the, I'd say, nine out of 10 kids don't make it from elementary to college, you know? I was the one that, through, that were the greatest world beaters, whenever they were in elementary, a lot of those kids don't make it through, and so I'd rather him figure it out, be like a Jordan Burroughs, you know, win a state title, then have a great college career, and then have great international career, as opposed to, and I'd say more like me, by time my college career was over, and we didn't have NIL deals, if I had NIL, I probably would have been continued wrestling for another seven or eight years, but I was kind of burned out at the time, because I had trained my whole life, I wanted to do something different, and so that's where, after the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club, I knew David Taylor. I kind of made a decision that David Taylor, he was wrestling 65 kilos, he really needed, or 74 kilos, 165 pounds, he was killing his body to be there. His only place to go was where me and Ed Ruth were, 185 pounds, 89 and I was ready to be done with wrestling, and so whenever I left, that gave David Taylor the ability to move up to the next weight class. He grows into the next two years, and you know, becomes an becomes a stud. But I would say you have so much of a wrestling career where you can kind of burning that candle, and if you burn as an elementary and get the awards and trophies, by the time you get to high school, kids quit, they get on drugs, they have, you know, mental problems, because they're no longer a winner, they're no good, they're not as appreciative, you know, type of thing. So I'm just trying to be more of the latter, where I let him make that choice, but then when he makes that choice, then we're going to start going, then we're gonna start moving in that direction, and now he weighs about 117 pounds, so now I'll be wrestling with him a lot more, and teaching him those fine techniques, those fine things. But it's been… It's like, as a parent, it's so much fun to watch it. It could be just be in a sport. I don't care if it was baseball or wrestling, even though he wasn't the all-star always. It wasn't really all-star pick for all-stars. It's just fun just to be a parent and watch your kid participate into something and have that success after they've been working on it, but for him, he loves to throw people, so if you see the kid breaking right in a bracket, just be, don't tie up with him, I'll tell you, because he will launch you, and it's, it's so much fun to watch.

Shane Sparks

What are you most proud of in your career, do

Quentin Wright

What am I most proud of? Really, honestly, I would say this. The people I talk to every day, the what I'm most proud of is that I was able to inspire people to, to whatever situation they're in, or I might have said something on an interview, and I think that's our people say, man, you're such, like, such a nice guy, you know? A lot of times you meet your heroes, they say, hey, don't meet your heroes, because you meet them, and it's just like they're completely off it, or they were kind of like a jerk, or they. Were bad, and that's what I like to say, but I'm most proud of is that I was able to have that high level success, but also be such a be a good person, where people want to be around, they want to hang out with you, they want to, and they say respect you in that way, but in order to have that, you got to have the success, so having success gives you that platform just to show that we're all the same and that we're all in this together. So that's what I'm really most proud of, is that the level of success, but also being humble and kind to others, and being able to use that platform and really give back to the sport that's given so much to me.

Shane Sparks

Well, this has been awesome, Quentin. It's been great to see you again. I don't know if I've ever told you this, but you are, you will always be memorable to me, because you are part of the biggest break that I ever got in my broadcasting career. So, the year was 2011 I'm doing that live sports radio broadcast in venue with Brian Hazard, and we did the broadcast, we were individual mats, and then Brian and I did the finals together, and that night I always wanted to work for the Big Ten Network, that was my goal, that was my goal, and I remember I wanted to meet Jim Gibbons in Philadelphia just to introduce myself, it was a goal I wanted to do broadcasting with him on the Big Ten Network at some point, so I went up to him and I introduced myself, and him and I are talking, and all of a sudden you come walking past us, and I just… I don't know if I congratulated you or I had a small conversation, and when that was happening, Jim Gibbons was talking to the Scove brothers, one up, believe Russell, Oklahoma State, one was at Ohio State, and they were telling Jim, like, hey, we heard this guy, you got to find him, and you and I ended the conversation, and Jim's like, hey, come on over here, and Jim just goes talk, I'm like, what do you want me to say, they're like, oh, that's him, that's him, you got to find him. But that was a pretty impactful, a couple of minutes, and you were part of it. So, I will never ever forget you, for a number of reasons, but that's that's another one. So, you know, I don't know if I've talked to you since 2011

Quentin Wright

Yeah, no, I mean, it was just like little things like that. That's what I think is, I'm most proud of is that you know, even if you're walking by, and I think something Coach Cael instilled in us, that if you say hi to somebody, you know, give them, you make that connection, and you say hello, and like I said, that could turn into something life changing for them, or sure, and so, and that's what I said, that's almost proud of, is be a person, you got to have success first, but then be have the ability to really impact others in that way by being humble and kind.

Shane Sparks

Well, these were great Stories from the Resilite, your career, your experience in this sport, and just great to catch up, Quentin. This was a lot of fun. Thank you so much. This was outstanding.

Quentin Wright

Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it, and like I said, I have other stories that down the road. If you ever want more stories from the inside of Penn State, or how things happen during the time, I can give those too.

Shane Sparks

That's fantastic. We'll talk soon. Thank you so much.

Quentin Wright

Hey, thank you. It was great talking. I appreciate it.