It’s the goal that every wrestler seems to have since he strapped the headgear on and stepped out onto the mat for the first time. Winning a collegiate national championship is on the minds of over 300 athletes as they head to Madison Square Garden in New York City this upcoming weekend, and the Missouri wrestlers are no exception.
For many of the eight individual wrestlers Missouri is sending to the tournament, it’s an opportunity to experience something they never have before. For some, it’s an occasion to go farther than they placed at past tournaments. And for J’Den Cox, it’s a chance to redeem himself after falling short of becoming a two time national champion last year.
Cox, Missouri’s 197 pound wrestler, won a national title two years ago as a freshman. Last year, he lost in the semi-final rounds to Kyle Snyder, a freshman from Ohio State, and eventually earned fifth. This year, Cox is ranked No. 2, behind No. 1 Mike McIntosh, a Penn State senior.
“It doesn’t even matter,” Cox said in regards to the rankings. “At this point with my mindset and how my training is going, there is no one in the country that can touch me, no one that can beat me.”
Cox believes he has been wrestling better than he has in a long time, and he credits his confidence level to it. With a 15-1 dual meet record, and that one loss coming from a disqualification, Cox is heading into the tournament as a menacing force to reckon with.
Being confident in one’s abilities is not synonymous to being cocky, as Cox points out. Confidence drives winning, and Cox is ready to win.
“I think what happened for me is I became a little too humble,” he said. “By doing that I discouraged who I was and what I could do. I was so humble that I downplayed my talent… It’s not a bad thing and I shouldn’t belittle that. I’ve been blessed with the abilities I have and I should embrace them and take advantage of them.”
Coach Brian Smith agrees with this mindset. He says the confidence Cox gives off comes from his training and it is necessary in order to achieve the goals each wrestler sets for himself.
Smith’s own confidence in the team itself helps allow each wrestler to stay calm as the tournament approaches. The belief in Cox, and the team, comes from the hard work Smith sees everyday in the wrestling room.
“If you’re training right and living right that’s where confidence comes from,” Smith said. “You second guess yourself in life, you haven’t been preparing right. The confidence I see from (Cox) doesn’t surprise me because I see it every day, the way he’s training, the way he walks off the mat after a big match.”
Expecting to win comes from Smith’s Tiger Style approach to wrestling, and each wrestler can use that as he prepares for the end of this week, as well as the rest of his life. Smith acknowledges that Tiger Style is a tough approach and that it’s not for everyone, but he knows that every day of training is worth it when his team steps out onto the mats in the middle of March.
Another part of Tiger Style is believing in oneself, and that goes back to the confidence that many of the wrestlers have heading into the biggest tournament of the season. Perhaps no one exemplifies that philosophy better than senior Le’Roy Barnes, who began the year vying for the 141 pounds spot, lost that to junior Matt Manley, adjusted to 157 pounds, and won a MAC Championship two weeks ago at that weight class; he will end his career with the Tigers at the national tournament.
“My ultimate goal was to be a Division 1 wrestler, and I wanted to come to Mizzou,” Barnes said. “So that’s what I set out to do, the many years ago I started this sport. I think believing in myself, which is a part of Tiger Style, just believing, that’s the starting point to all of it. I always believed I could be something great. So I’m just grateful for that opportunity.”
The calmness given off by the wrestlers heading to nationals implies the way each has prepared for this opportunity over the course of the year. Going onto the mat and just wrestling is what they’re waiting for, especially for sophomore Willie Miklus, Missouri’s 184-pounder.
“I’m just excited to go,” Miklus, a returning All-American, said. “It worked out last year, with the approach of ‘this is cool, this is fun.’ I showed up last year and the mats were huge and I just thought the place was awesome and I loved it there. So this year I’m just taking the exact same approach. I’m just ready to go… I’m tired of waiting.”
Smith believes that the team needs to keep the same approach as they have had all season; that is, to just go out and wrestle. He doesn’t want the team to approach the matches any differently, rather, he wants them to take it one match at a time and do what they’ve been doing all season.
Missouri is ranked sixth nationally heading into the tournament, but the rankings of the team and each wrestler don’t seem to have an effect on anyone working in the wrestling room.
“We’re going to go have fun and wrestle just like we’ve been doing all year,” Smith said. “I’m confident in this team, they’re going to take care of this. We’ve been in situations like this, with big venues, and we just have to approach it the same way. It’s a 40-some foot mat, so go wrestle.”
As for Cox, he’s tired of waiting. He wants to show everyone who has doubted him who he is and what he can do, and nothing less than a national championship title will suffice.
Cox talks of the doubt people have had with him, and he wants to erase that from people’s minds, saying when those people watch the film of him wrestling, there would be no denying what kind of wrestler Cox is.
There is no better opportunity to do that then at college wrestling’s biggest show.
“This isn’t the time to falter, this isn’t the time to be up by seven and not get the extra takedown to get the major decision, to be up 14 points and not get the tech fall. This is the time to go out there and do everything you can do for your team, everything you can for your brothers,” Cox said.“So I’ve got a chip on my shoulder for a lot of reasons, and it’s not a bad thing, it feels kind of good.”