Weekly Weigh-Ins: Scott Winston
Oct 22 | Wrestling
ScarletKnights.com is pleased to announce a new weekly column dedicated to the wrestling program called Weekly Weigh-Ins. Each week leading up to the Scarlet vs. Black intersquad dual (Tuesday, Nov. 2), ScarletKnights.com will sit down with coaches and student-athletes for exclusive features and Q&A's. Additionally, Weekly Weigh-Ins will post exclusive video content to the RU wrestling social media pages of Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=117162087457) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/ruwrestling).
For this week's Weekly Weigh-In, ScarletKnights.com sat down with the RU 165-pound redshirt sophomore Scott Winston to discuss getting the season underway, his redshirt year and having the NCAA's in Philadelphia.
ScarletKinghts.com:
Scott, the season is just a couple of weeks away. How excited are you?
Scott Winston:
We're all really excited. You can feel the intensity coming up in the room. Every day the competition is more intense, getting thicker. There is more sweat on the ground. Everyone is going hard, hard, hard. Not that we haven't been going hard from the beginning of the year, but people are getting antsy in there. They want to start competing and making that step towards national titles.
ScarletKnights.com:
Last season you took a redshirt. How does having to sit out that year motivate you for this season?
Scott Winston:
It makes me 10-times more motivated. I think I went six or seven months without competing. That was the first time in my life that I've been away that long. I hadn't done that since I put on my shoes when I was four years old. I'm more motivated than ever. I've got a whole new hunger inside of me that wants to go out there and win every time, dominate and completely buy into what the coaches say.
ScarletKnights.com:
Talking about the redshirt, what are a couple of things you learned during your redshirt season?
Scott Winston:
To be honest with you, the most important thing I took from my redshirt season is that I grew up as a person. I came into college as a young man and some of the things that came along with being a young man hurt me my freshman year. I've worked a lot on doing the little things right in every aspect of my life and really taking that into account, especially lately. I'm hoping that those things will translate onto the mat because I feel like I have the wrestling part. I feel like I can wrestle with anybody, but sometimes I'd fail the little things. Now I'm focused on doing the little things not just on the mat, but in the classroom and in everyday life. Those are the things that I've really focused on especially in the past two or three months. I'm extremely focused on them and I feel that they are going to pay off most for me, individually, in March.
ScarletKnights.com:
You're a Jersey guy. How excited are you that the NCAA's are in Philly this year?
Scott Winston:
I'm probably one of the most excited people in the world, I bet you. Jersey is my place to be, I love Jersey. I've been to other states. I've wrestled in other states, vacationed in other states, but there's no place better than Jersey in my opinion. That's why I stayed home. I love the people of Jersey. I love the wrestling community in Jersey. I love everything about New Jersey. I just hope that we can continue to train hard and give New Jersey what they want so someday those little kids who are wrestling want to come to Rutgers, put the Scarlet Knight singlet on and wrestle in the national championships. So Philly is very, very important for myself, as well as this program in making steps towards where this program wants to be.
Visit RU wrestling on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ruwrestling) for the extended interview where Winston discusses being ranked in preseason polls and how having nine guys with NCAA experience on the roster motivates him and the team.
