Welcome to the show folks. This is wrestling changed my life. Here we go.

I knew what I wanted to do. I knew I knew what my goals were going into high school and it

never changed. I always wanted to be a state champ.

We can endure anything and adapt and pivot and change. Wrestling gave us that ability. I would say nothing in life has impacted me or the things wrestling has taught me in terms of

self-reflection resilience. Some guys have it some guys don't.

Adversity, 100% how to pick myself up and be a man after I failed.

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.

For me, wrestling saved my life because it allowed me to focus and channel my energy.

We're fortunate if you rustled, because if you rustled,

natural talent helps,

but it's 5% of the ingredient. It pales in comparison to heart and technique and effort.

It humbled me. Thought me humility. Nothing can humble you more than wrestling.

I think it's the learning to adapt, right?

You learn, you learn how to adapt, you learn how to solve problems.

You know, if I look back at my time, I spent wrestling, if they gave me one thing more than anything else it's in the toughness

Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the wrestling change my life podcast. This is your host Ryan Ryan Warner my guest today is Donnie

Pritzloff a true New Jersey legend folks he was a two-time national

champ for Wisconsin before earning a bronze medal at the 2006 world championships.

He'd go on to coach at Wisko, he'd coach at Big Blue, Michigan for a while,

and now he's the associate head coach at Rutgers,

building one of the top programs in the country

...