Coleman Ruiz

It changed my life.

So you wrestled all through high school.

No drugs.

I mean, it's New Orleans, right?

It's like one of the things that was tough.

I'm glad I got out of the city, frankly, because it was party time outside the season.

Yeah, girls, girlfriends, normal stuff in that regard.

Lots of drinking, lots of rat in the streets, you know, in those days in the 90s.

Well, we did a little bit of that, but nothing crazy in that regard.

I think I understood the consequences, and I really cared about my career.

I really wanted to wrestle in college.

My grades were excellent.

My SAT score is not so much, but...

I started winning really fast.

And my last two years in high school, I was 89 and 0, and I almost won my sophomore year.

So I was runner up in the state my sophomore year.

I always joke with the boys, all my boys are way better athletes than I ever could think about being.

Yeah, yeah.

But in eighth grade, I made varsity and it was like, was it eighth grade?

Yeah, and I lost like 75% of the matches, you know, but you just grind it out and it's how I got into the Naval Academy, which is a whole nother story, but.