An interview with First-Year wrestler Sam Campbell

Sam Campbell comes from New Trier High School in Chicago, IL, where he was a 3 time state qualifier and holds the all-time wins, takedowns, and points records along with the single season takedown record.

Q: How has your overall W&L experience been as a first year student athlete?

My overall W&L experience has been tremendous, with the added caveat of “student-athlete” only serving to enhance my fall term. My professors have been nothing but understanding, often changing their office hours so a meeting accommodates my athletic obligations. The wrestling team also helped my non-academic transition from high school to college. All the returning wrestlers went out of their way to “show me the ropes” of W&L, recommending restaurants, study locations, classes to take, and social events to attend or forgo.

Q: You have the highest GPA on the team with a 4.083. Has it been a challenge to maintain your schoolwork, wrestling, and other aspects of student life at W&L? Has one area negatively or positively affected the other?

College life affords first year students a tremendous amount of freedom, but to invoke an old cliché, students must meet this freedom with an equally tremendous commitment to personal responsibility. The first week of classes, I checked out a study desk in the library and committed to visiting it daily. Wrestling only helped me stick to this routine. The preseason lifts, runs, and open mats served, along with my classes, as the building blocks of a successful routine for balancing academics and athletics. Socially, I couldn’t be happier. I have joined a fraternity, go out with my friends at night, and am involved in other campus activities. Obviously, there have been times when I would have liked to go out with friends but was unable to because of my coursework or athletic responsibilities. However, if I really want to attend some social event, wrestling or academics have rarely, if ever, prevented me from doing so.

Q: You had a lot of interest from other Colleges coming out of high school, what made you choose W&L?

W&L has managed to strike a perfect balance between athletics, academics, and social life. Athletic teams take their sport seriously and commit to team and personal excellence, yet W&L intercollegiate athletes are truly students first. Coaches are very conscious of academics and adjust the practice and competition schedules around the team’s academic needs. Beyond the athletics, W&L offers a wealth of other opportunities. The spring term and study abroad programs that accompany it, the wonderful weather, the tradition, and the sense of community combine here in a way that no of the other colleges which recruited me managed to.

Q: You are leading the team in takedowns at a very tough weight class. Any thoughts on your first season of college wrestling? What’s been the biggest challenge for you this season comparing it to your high school career?

Mat wrestling has proved to be the area in which I need the most work. College wrestlers are absolutely brutal on top, and with the riding time rule, getting out on bottom is even more important than in high school. Luckily, my primary practice partners, Ben Ersing and Sammy Brusca, are both excellent top wrestlers who have helped me make the adjustment to college mat wrestling. Also, college wrestlers are so much stronger than their high school counterparts, but the W&L wrestling program is working to help me improve my strength. Coach Bennett creates personalized lifting routines to meet the needs of each wrestler, and in the offseason I am looking forward to hitting the weight in the Warner Center to prepare for my sophomore season.

Q: What’s your favorite thing about W&L, the University?

Non incautus futuri, meaning not unconscious of the future, is W&L’s motto. While this motto is embodied by W&L’s commitment to academic excellence, community service, and our graduates success in their lives after W&L, there is also very much a sense that life is for living at W&L. Students realize that while academics are the priority, they also understand the importance of relaxing and enjoying themselves. This dichotomy between future-oriented perspective and a commitment to fun are what make Washington and Lee University so awesome.

Q: What’s your favorite thing about the wrestling team/program?

The sense of community among our wrestling program is without a doubt my favorite thing about the W&L wrestling program. The team is so tight-knit, and the program is really a family. Wrestling alumni, both recent and not-so-recent graduates, return to campus regularly to support the team. Every year after the W&L Invitational, Coach Franke opens the doors of his home for a barbeque to everyone related to W&L wrestling: alumni, parents, team managers, athletic training staff, and other friends of the program. The wrestlers are supportive of one another. When former wrestlers come to campus, they stay with current members of the team. When current team members visit Washington D.C., New York, or other major cities they can always count on a W&L wrestling alumni to provide a couch to sleep on. The sense of family among the W&L wrestling community is by far my favorite aspect of the program.