Gabe Dean Almost Quit Wrestling
Gabe Dean Almost Quit Wrestling
The very next season Gabe went on to hand Ed Ruth his only defeat in three years at the Southern Scuffle and finished third at the NCAA Championships.
Two and barbecue.
It's the popular term used to describe when a wrestler fails to win a match and goes 0-2 at a tournament. When someone goes 0-2 they are already upset enough, they don't want to hear about how they went two and barbecue.
But that's exactly what happened to Gabe Dean after going 0-2 at his first college tournament.
Listening to Gabe Dean tell the story of losing and then wanting to quit was very interesting to me. When I think of Gabe Dean I think of this beast of a wrestler who is having an amazing college career. To think he wanted to give it up took me by surprise.
I know there were times that I struggled during my college career and quitting certainly crossed my mind more than once. To know that Dean struggled with some of the same issues makes me feel a little better about it.
Before he competed for Cornell Gabe Dean took a grey shirt while enrolled at Thompkins Community College and wrestled with the Finger Lakes Wrestling Club. NCAA Champion Cam Simaz was the coach and Dean's main workout partner.
"Pretty much everyday we wrestled. I’ve never taken the beatings from anybody on this earth that I have from Cam Simaz. It was so inspiring even when I was getting my butt whooped, my face pushed into the mat and thrown into bleachers."
The first open tournament Dean went to he lost the only two matches he wrestled. Then came this humiliation:
"After the open Cam takes me to this wing place and I’m about to order my food and he goes, ‘No I’m ordering for him. He’s getting barbecue, 0-2 barbecue. That’s what you get when you go 0-2’, and I wanted to kill him because I don’t like to lose so I was already super pissed about that. He was like rubbing it in with ordering barbecue wings”
When you are used to having lots of success in high school it can be tough to make that transition into college where you are back to being a small fish. Gabe has a strong relationship with his father who was an NCAA finalist at Minnesota and looked to him in his time of struggle.
"I called my dad and was like ‘dad this isn’t for me, this sport is not for me. I’m working my tail off but I’m not seeing any results.'”
His dad told him, "you wrestle another week, you see how it goes and we’ll talk if you still hate it after your next tournament”
Figuring he was one week from a way out of this sport Gabe tought to himself, "I’m gonna hate it this whole week and call my dad again." His plan was to switch over and play football at Cornell.
When the next week rolled around Dean recalled, "(I) was still getting the crap kicked out of me but I was so angry and I didn’t want to give Cam, or anyone the satisfaction of breaking me. It actually started to become enjoyable. I went to the open next week and placed and got my first couple college victories under my belt."
"Then I just kind of smelled blood. I don’t care if I win or lose anymore matches; I just want to fist fight pretty much with everyone I wrestle. And it became fun."
The next week Gabe's dad called and asked how things were going. Gabe said, "I hate to admit but I’m definitely sticking with it."
The very next season Gabe went on to hand Ed Ruth his only defeat in three years at the Southern Scuffle and finished third at the NCAA Championships. He followed that up with an NCAA title last spring.
Be sure to check out the FloFilms feature on Gabe Dean.
WATCH- Cornell: Being A Giant Killer Wasn't Enough
Learn about the roller coaster his teammate Nahshon Garrett has been through.
WATCH- Cornell: The Life Of Nahshon Garrett
So true.....only if you have the right attitude though pic.twitter.com/15rDlI4xlF
— Gabe Dean (@DabeGean) August 2, 2014