#111 Damion Hahn - 2x Champ, Head Coach at SDSU, NJ Legend

Wrestling Changed My Life (Wrestling Podcast)

Wrestling Changed My Life

Sports

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 March 2020

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Damion Hahn is the head coach of the South Dakota State Wrestling Program. Back in high school, Damion was touted as the best high school wrestler of his time, winning 3 NJ state titles and 3 Fargo titles. He was a 2x NCAA champ at Minnesota. The Gophers also won two team titles during that time. After college, Damion coached at Cornell for 12 years. This guys has seen it all and worked with the likes of J Robinson, Rob Koll, Marty Morgan, just to name a few. In this interview we talk about *The impact of his father on his early wrestling days *Being recruited by virtually every college program in the country *Setting the goal to be a 4x NJ state champ *Winning a team title in 2001 *The lateral drop that won Damian a national title in 2003 *What he learned from Rob Koll *Why SDSU *How wrestling is a foundation for life SPONSOR This episode is brought to you by the Wrestling Changed My Life Online store, where you can find podcast T’s, hoodies, stickers, coffee mugs and more. To support the show please visit Store.WrestlingChangedMyLife.com, or text “Merchandise” to 555-888.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the show folks. This is wrestling changed my life. Here we go.
0:03.6	My 2001 team championship. It'll be one of the greatest moments that I will ever have in this sport.
0:16.4	We can endure anything and adapt and pivot and change.
0:21.9	Wrestling gave us that ability.
0:23.4	I would say nothing in life has impacted me more than the things wrestling has taught me in terms
0:28.6	of self-reflection, resilience.
0:31.6	Toughness. Some guys have it, some guys don't.
0:34.0	Adversity, 100% how to pick myself up and be a man after I failed.
0:39.0	And everything that has shaped my life and where I'm at today would not be there without the values and basically the lessons I've learned through the sport of wrestling.
0:50.0	For me, wrestling saved my life because it allowed me to focus and channel my energy.
0:57.0	We're fortunate if you wrestle because if you wrestle, natural talent helps, but it's 5% of the ingredient. It pales in comparison to heart and technique and effort.
1:11.0	It humbled me, taught me humility. Nothing can humble you more than wrestling.
1:17.2	I think it's the learning to adapt, right? You learn, you learn how to adapt, you learn how to
1:22.0	solve problems.
1:23.0	You know, if I look back at my time, I've been wrestling.
1:25.8	If it gave me the one thing more than anything else, it's a mental toughness.
1:28.8	Ladies and gents, welcome back to the show.
1:32.3	My guest today is Damien Hahn, the head coach at South Dakota State, and before that he spent 12 years
1:38.6	helping build a dynasty at Cornell.
1:40.7	And I got to say folks, Damian Han back in the early 2000s was touted
1:45.0	as the greatest high school wrestler of old time.
1:48.0	I know I say that a lot, but his credentials certainly back it up.
	...

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