My athletic career began early in the then-somewhat small town of Chico, California, and amateur wrestling was nowhere to be found. My mom and dad both ran a PAL (Police Athletic League to the layperson) boxing gym, and being the pre-ADHD epidemic hyperactive kid I was, I spent all of my time there trying to be 1) a boxer and 2) cool. By age 3, I had to that point been unsuccessful at both. I apparently was so intent on the boxing component that I begged my ma and pa to let me put on the gloves. It was either that or my dad was the psychological twin to the dad of the "Pocket Hercules" that I have seen on TV. Anyway, my parents said that I needed to be in shape to box, apparently as to not take too much punishment, and of course I remained un-phased. This served as the impetus to my running career (actually my earliest memories are of me playing this really complicated game that I don't have time to explain here called "Kick the Rock" with my mom).

After a couple of months of rigorous training, I made that mile and began my boxing career. A couple of brain rattling years later, the Nevada Boxing Commission (we fought in the Biggest Little City in the World) banned boxing for kids under the age of 10. So I hung up my gloves and took up the second most violent sport that my dad and I could think up: Wraslin'

Clint, center (#422), running as a youth with good friend Joey Creighton.

For awhile I split time between cross country running and amateur wrestling. I was reasonably successful in both at the youth levels. I got 7th at the TAC (Junior Olympic) national race when I was 10 years old and did some other impressive things in my running career. Included among these are becoming friends with one Joseph Ryder Creighton (also known as JRC or Jay Are Sea), qualifying for the California State Cross Country Championships four times (in four tries), and single-handedly beating up the entire Las Plumas Cross Country team one day when I was 15.

A few years earlier though, around age 11-12, I decided that amateur wrestling was my true calling. I began focusing on it for the entire 9 months that I wasn't running and made it my life. Really, it was my LIFE. Joey will be the first to tell you that I didn't have a life when he met me and that he didn't like me at all. But really, wrestling was my life and Joey probably secretly loved me in a very non-hetero way. I wore a wrestling t-shirt every day of the week and probably didn't have many social skills. It still amazes me that I had become the coolest and most popular kid in school by the time senior year rolled around, which made me two for two on my childhood goals. My HS wrestling career was pretty good, but unfulfilling. I set all of the records at Pleasant Valley High School and the Northern Section, but left Cali without a state title or HS All-American status. I think that this both helped fuel and hinder me in my quest to become a Division I NCAA Champion.

At Cornell University I utilized my work ethic and became a smart collegiate wrestler. I learned to train smart and be analytical in my approach to improving myself by fixing the things that really needed to be addressed. Nine months of sitting on the bench/sideline instead of finishing my second year brought this on (my sophomore season saw me tear the meniscus in my knee. Oh yeah, and my ACL, LCL, and PCL). Being injured and having to watch my teammates successes and failures really helped me to assess my own wrestling. I used this to become a 2x All-American at Cornell of which I am very proud. I also was able to be a 3x Cornell Captain which led me from being "Captain Clint" to my current status as "Coach Clint." Anyway, the pressure that I put on myself to reach the top eventually hurt me during my last tournament when I forced myself to wrestle too much and it cost me a title. I think that was the combination of urgency and desperation on my part because I had never really won anything of real importance before. It continues to this day.

The need to be at the top of the podium at a National and subsequently World level meet is what drives me to do what I do. Which is...train pretty much year round to reach my modest goal of making a US World Freestyle Wrestling team.