Arizona State coach Zeke Jones answered the phone Tuesday while shuffling papers, returning text messages, planning practices and reviewing movies. 

Wait…what?

Wrestlers and wrestling fans worldwide know Anthony Robles as the Arizona State wrestler who was born with one leg and still won a 125-pound NCAA title in 2011. He wrote a book in 2012 titled “From Underdog to Undefeated: How I Became a Champion.” From that book, the movie “Unstoppable” will be released in theaters and on Amazon Prime in mid-January.

The advanced movie screening will be shown Thursday night in Mesa, Arizona, as part of a red-carpet, fund-raising reception and Jones is nothing short of thrilled. 

“That movie is going to do more for wrestling than probably any wrestler is going to do for wrestling this year,” Jones said. “We are going to go worldwide, in every country in the world, and share the message of wrestling — that anyone can wrestle, that anyone can do it … that life is a struggle, but wrestling teaches us how to manage the life struggles and how to become all the things we want to be in life.”

Proceeds from the event will benefit ASU’s NIL Collective and the Robles Unstoppable Foundation, which is dedicated to assisting high school student-athletes who need guidance and financial support to pursue higher education.

The official movie trailer can be found on YouTube.com and there are four A-list actors, including Jennifer Lopez, who plays Robles’ mother, Judy. 

“This movie is going to change how people look at wrestling,” Jones said. “It’s an incredible opportunity for wrestling.”

Informed that FloWrestling debuted its “Chance” film about 2023 World Team member Chance Marsteller on Nov. 15 in State College, Pennsylvania, Jones equated both films to real life. 

“You know there’s real life going on, right,” he said. “Real life is going on while we get to do this really wonderful, fun sport and activity; what a blessing that we get to do this while we’re going through the struggles and the triumphs of life.”

A Look at the Lineup

With injuries to Richie Figueroa (125) and highly touted redshirt freshman Kaleb Larkin (149) and the departures of Kyle Parco and Jacori Teemer to Iowa’s roster via the transfer portal, the #20 Sun Devils’ lineup won’t be at nearly full strength this Sunday against #4 Oklahoma State in Stillwater (after a Friday night home tri-meet with Embry-Riddle and Arizona Christian).

Jones pulled Figueroa out of his initial bout in last weekend’s Daktronics Invitational at South Dakota State. 

“I think he's gonna be OK; he just dinged his hip, and I don't think it's anything serious and it was just precautionary that we took him out. It's kind of similar to last year when he got a little dinged up; we just had to patch him together and get him ready for the rest of the season,” Jones said about Figueroa, last season’s NCAA champion at 125.

The veteran coach saw improvement between a dual-meet loss to Illinois to the Daktronics event. 

“I think we're actually on track where we should be … pretty similar to last year,” he said. “We just have to get competition ready. It’s one thing to train and wrestle hard in practice, it's another thing to try to win. Those (Daktronics) matches were good. This weekend was much, much better because I think we're just coming into competition form.”

The Sun Devils’ #21 Julian Chlebove didn’t wrestle at 133 in the SDSU tournament; he dropped a 4-0 decision to #3 Lucas Byrd of Illinois at the Journeymen Classic. Other lineup possibilities for the weekend include Emilio Ysaguirre at 141, #16 Jesse Vasquez at 149, Michael Kilic at 157, #15 Nicco Ruiz at 165, Chance McClane at 174, Aziz Fayzullaev or Cael Valencia at 184, Jacob Meissner or Damian Schunke at 197 and #4 Cohlton Schultz at 285.

“We tend to not have the team sorted out by this part of the season,” Jones said, adding that the team’s bullseye is to have a lineup established by the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, not including Larkin. “That's kind of like a pre-national tournament and simulates what we want to accomplish in March.”

Best Laid Plans

A perfect end to this week, Jones said, would have been the movie premiere on Thursday, the tri-meet on Friday, Arizona State’s huge football game against BYU on Saturday and hosting Oklahoma State wrestling on Sunday. The original agreement between the two programs was for the Cowboys to visit Tempe but that ended up being altered for various reasons.

“We're going to travel there this weekend, and we need that competition to be ready to battle a good team,” Jones said. “We love all challenges. We don't get hung up on the winning and the losing, we enjoy the process and getting better at wrestling.”

Big 12 Newcomers

ASU is a full-fledged Big 12 member this season and Jones called it a “great, great conference.” 

“We have a ton of qualifiers, a ton of really good kids,” Jones said. “We started voting on the Big 12 wrestler of the week last week and it wasn't like the Pac-12 wrestler of the week. I was like ‘Whoa, what is this process?’ They (coaches) do a nice job on why they nominated a wrestler from their team to be the wrestler of the week. 

“Everybody's knocking off people, every team is getting an upset win. So I was like, ‘This is really good; this is a conference that you want to be in and compete.’ And I just think it's great.”

A New-Look Cohlton?

All-America heavyweight Cohlton Schultz, an established Greco-Roman wrestler, is back for his final season and Jones believes this is the best version he’s seen of Schultz, his 280-pound heavyweight.

“It’s just Cohlton the person. He’s really grounded himself in Christ and his faith; I just think he really seems happy and at peace,” Jones said. “Like all great wrestlers, they all want to be very good and successful and want to win at the highest level. And that pressure to succeed sometimes can be overwhelming. 

“However, I think for Cohlton, he's realizing that there's more to it than just winning. He's just a happier person. And this is the first time he's focused on folkstyle exclusively. I've seen him do things I haven't seen him do since his freshman year, so I'm really excited to see the folkstyle Cohlton. Right now, he's totally focused on one goal, and that's winning the NCAA tournament.”