On episode #40 of Hustle and Pro, we sit down with Reedy High School’s Jackson Bourne. He started wrestling at the age of four, and was serious about the sport by middle school.
Between the year-round schedule – not to mention the incredibly specific dietary regimen – wrestlers like Jackson have to be fully committed and confident to be successful. The list of Jackson’s injuries is long and painful, but the dedication, focus, and patience to stick with it, ultimately prevailed.
Learn a bit about the basics of wrestling and Jackson’s goals for not only a championship but to reach 100 career wins this season.
Show Notes
- [:33] Quick hits with Jackson Bourne
- [2:05] Jackson’s story getting into wrestling
- [4:53] Schedules and Structure of weight classes
- [9:00] The basics: scoring and rounds
- [12:40] Diet and injuries
- [16:00] Olympic Training facility
- [18:12] Wrestling in college
- [20:04] Goals
Resources within this episode:
- Frisco ISD Athletics: Website
- Reedy High School: Website
- Jackson Bourne: Instagram @jacksonbourne
- Frisco Bombers Wrestling Club: Facebook
Connect with Lifestyle Frisco:
Transcript: (machine-generated)
This is Hustle and Pro with Kelly Walker. Join Kelly as she talks sports with players, coaches, organizers and entrepreneurs from Peewee League to Pro. Now here’s your host, Kelly Walker
00:13 Welcome to Hustle and Pro. On today’s episode we’re talking to Jackson Bourne. Jackson wrestles for the Reedy High School wrestling team. Welcome Jackson. Hi. How are you today? I’m good, how are you? I’m good. So let’s jump in to a couple of quick hits to get to know you and some things about you a little bit better. So who would you say is your favorite athlete of all time? Of all time I’d probably say Jordan Burroughs. He’s a Olympic gold medalist and Olympic bronze medalist for wrestling. I don’t know him. That’s a first so far. I haven’t had anybody say that before, so that’s good. So is wrestling your favorite sport to watch? Yes, it is. And is it your favorite thing to do as far as sports go? Um, my favorite sport, probably player, just like mess around doing is probably like football or something, but I didn’t really get like big enough to play football until like this year. Like all my other years. I was like, I think I broke five foot freshman year, so I just didn’t play football after that. But you like to play just for fun? Yeah. So we might get into this in a minute, but I always like to know what’s the farthest distance that you’ve traveled to either like wrestle yourself or to watch some, some other sport. So I think I know your answer from something you just got to do recently. Yeah, I went to the Olympic training center. So where’s that? Colorado Springs. Okay. Is that the farthest distance you think you think you’ve gone for wrestling or have you traveled farther? I have been in Dakota and I’ve been to New York. Oh! So one other thing. Do you have any superstitions that you have to do on match day or whatever you call it in wrestling? Uh, no, not really, but I always wear like Nike socks. Oh, gotta have the Nike socks. Okay, fair enough.
02:05 All right, so I want to learn about your story. I don’t know much about wrestling yet. Um, you’re my first wrestler I’ve had on here, but I want to know how you got into it since it’s not like one of the most common sports of people I talk to. How’d you find it? How old were you? Tell me about it. Well, I was four years old when I started wrestling and I, I got into it cause my dad wrestled in middle school, but when he moved like his eighth grade year and his high school didn’t have wrestling so he didn’t wrestle in high school. So I just picked it up when I was four and I’ve been doing it ever since. So did he stop? So if he didn’t have it in his high school, he just didn’t have any way to do it anymore, so he was done? Yes ma’am. Okay. So then does he help you out knowing the sport? Yes sometimes he does. Do you like that he knows the sport? Uh, sometimes. Sometimes I don’t. So you started when you were four. So where do you wrestle as a four year old? Well I’ve been part of the Frisco Bombers Wrestling Club since then. I still am. And at that time it was run out of Centennial with uh, Mikey and Darren Snyder and Darren Snyder now is my assistant wrestling coach at Reedy. Wow.
03:23 So you’ve known these guys your whole lives wrestling with them. So you started at four and then so, how do you start getting competitive? I mean, I assume it’s kind of like when kids take Karate or TaeKwonDo or something and they’re just learning it, right as a sport. But then at what age do you start competing in wrestling? I think I competed that year probably. That little, Oh wow. They have like youth divisions and stuff, but I didn’t really start taking it seriously until probably like seventh or eighth grade. Okay. What other sports did you play then I guess in middle school? Sounds like you focused on wrestling mostly, but you mentioned football and, but not playing like in high school. Did you play other sports when you were younger? Uh, when I was like three, four or five, I played soccer, but I didn’t play after that and I played football from first grade to eighth grade I think. Yeah. No track or running sports or conditioning type of off-season sports, because I’m guessing, right. I don’t know a lot about wrestling yet, but you’re very fit, right? You have to be, I mean you have to be strong and fit, but I would assume you also have to do a lot of conditioning. So I’d think there’d be some sports in other seasons that condition you or no? Well wrestling is pretty much like year long so you don’t really have to worry about getting into anything else to stay in shape. You work out all year? Uh huh.
04:53 So explain to me then how it works. Like you wrestled for your high school but then you also wrestle in a club as well still. So explain to me like the seasonality, like what are you doing year round or you know, who are you wrestling for and what does that look like? Well, like today my schedule, like I have practice at school from 2:40 to 5:30 and then I go home and I eat and drink a little, and then I go to club practice from 7:30 to 9:00. Oh wow, so you are actively wrestling for two different things at the same time. What’s the competition schedule look like for high school? Like what’s your, you know, what’s your season for high school wrestling? Off season and we lift five times a week and run twice a week. And during season we lift three times a week and we don’t really run much because wrestling practice is pretty much cardio the whole time. Explain to me, for somebody like me who doesn’t really know how it all is structured and set up, so there’s like weight classes, right? Yes. And I mean I know you have to, well I know how often you have to like weigh in to get, determine what weight class you’re going to wrestle in for what competition or whatever. So just kind of explain how that works and how they’re set. Like how many are there and what are they? Uh, there’s 14 weight classes and I guess I’ll just list them out. It’s 106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152, 160, 170, 182, 195, 220 and heavyweight which is 285 and under.
06:30 Oh my gosh, that’s really like a small margin of difference between each one. So are you committed to one weight class for one competition, one match, one season? Like how often do you get moved up or down from a weight class? Uh, usually you pick your weight class at the beginning of the season and you stick to it the whole time. Oh, okay. So if you commit to one, I don’t know, one of the ones you just said. So what happens if you have, I mean, how do you control, you have to control staying in that? I mean is that like a seven pound swing? Like what, like how much room do you have? Yeah, it’s about like seven, eight pounds. Once you get heavier, it’s like closer to 10. And then you saw the two 220 to 285. Okay. Okay. So when you’ve picked your weight class, how do you stay in it? Like, I mean I’m sure it’s very strategic, right? Uh huh, we have like very strict meal plans to stay on, like, like pretty much you just don’t. My team, we all pretty much do the same meal plan, which is just like eggs and rice for breakfast and then chicken and broccoli for dinner and lunch. You’ve been doing it for so long, you’re probably really used to it by now, right? Yes ma’am. Does your family eat as healthy as you do? No. No? You do your own thing and they eat their own meals. Do you go out, do you eat it when you go out to restaurants? Yes, but I usually get like fajitas and then just eat the fajita meat or whatever.
08:05 Wow. So what happens in during a season if you move up or down in a weight class? You get weighed in before a competition or something, right? What happens if you’re out of that range? You don’t wrestle. You just sit out? Uh huh. Oh. Does that happen a lot? Uh, not really. It’s like if it happens, everyone’s talking about it. Like it’s, it’s a problem. Yeah, it’s a big deal. And then your coaches are upset with you because you didn’t watch all your, your food and all that good stuff. So I would think that would be one of the harder, that would be obviously for me like the hardest thing to watch that carefully and I can’t even imagine like constantly having to think about staying in a five pound range of my, for my weight. So what would you say is like the biggest obstacles that you overcome as a high school student athlete who’s obviously got school and it’s your senior year and you’re wrestling for club and all the things you have going on. What’s the hardest part? Uh, the hardest part is definitely what you just said. Just staying on top of the diet and everything like that. Just keeping drinking a gallon a day and making sure your meals are on point. A gallon a day? Yes ma’am. Wow.
09:19 Okay. So explain to me how like teammates work in a sport like wrestling. I feel like it’s, it’s a solo sport. Right? How many guys at your high school wrestle or people, females also wrestle, right? So how many, what’s on your wrestling team? We actually have like one of the smaller teams in the district. I think we have like 30 kids, but schools like Centennial and Liberty, they have like 50, 60, 70 kids. Wrestlers? Really? Yes ma’am. I had no idea. That’s a lot. That’s a big group. Okay. So do you guys, when you’re wrestling as a team, is it truly individual or does everybody’s points accumulate as a team and get you guys qualified for different things as a team? Um, it’s kind of both. Like there’s a, well, when one team goes against another team, we call it a duel and we have, I want to say like 12 duels a year against pretty much all the Frisco teams and a couple other teams outside the district. And pretty much if you like take them down to their back and you hold them there, it’s six points. And then like if you like, I guess you could call it like a run rule in baseball, but with points in wrestling. If you’re up by 15, it’s the match. And that’s, and then just winning is gets you like three points and all that. What do you normally, what’s a normal match point? What do you play to or what do you go to point wise? Uh, you wrestle for six minutes. Oh, so it’s not points at all. It’s just time. Oh, I think I knew that. Sorry, I need to come to a wrestling match clearly because I don’t know what it looks like. I don’t know how it works. So it’s six minutes. So it’s whoever has the most points at the end of the six minutes. Is it six minutes straight or is it like a minute and pause? Two minutes, like rounds? Three, two minute rounds. Three, two minute rounds. Okay. And you said six points for something, like how do you, what are all the ways to score a point?
11:33 Uh, take down like where you, I guess where you just put them on their butt or you get behind them is two points and if you hold them on their back for five seconds, it’s three points. But if you can only hold them for two seconds, it’s two points. And if you get out from underneath somebody, it’s one point. Oh, okay. So can you take somebody down and get the points for that and hold them down this time and get the like it piles up? Yes. Oh, what’s the norm? What like when you are on your top of your game and the six minutes is up, what’s like a really good point total to have for that match? Um, I mean usually anywhere from above 10 is a good amount of points scored. Okay. So if you get into the double digits you’re doing good. What’s your highest? Do you know your highest you’ve ever gotten? No, I have no clue. Well, like, I mean you ever gotten like 30 points or is that not even a thing that’s possible? I’ve never gotten 30 points. Nothing goes that high. Has anybody ever gotten 30 points on you? No. Okay. That’s good. What about injuries? I’m assuming this sport is rough on your body? Uh, yes. Statistics, it’s really like the lowest, like average injuries per year, but I’ve had a lot of injuries. What have you come across? Uh, I didn’t really get injured until my freshman year. I broke my growth plate in my wrist and then I don’t even know if I can name them all. My sophomore year I dislocated my shoulder like five or six times. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And I had like four MRIs and then the last one showed that I had like a small tear in my labrum. Did you have to get that repaired or just wait it out and rehab it on your own? I just waited it out and rehabbed it. Did that put you out for a while? Uh, yes. I actually won districts my sophomore year and then the Tuesday after that is when my last shoulder dislocation happened and that’s when they found the labrum tear and I didn’t wrestle like the rest of that year.
13:56 Okay. Oh, after districts. But you could have like you, you, you qualified to do that and then you had to stop. Yes ma’am. When you were wrestling, when you won districts, were you in pain? Like did you know something was wrong? Yeah, it had been like a, a problem since like Christmas break. Gosh. So are there any other injuries or is that your biggest? Well last year, my junior year I tore my meniscus also over Christmas break and I just decided that I was going to wait it out until like districts to see how I was feeling and everything. And then once districts came around, I wrestled districts, I got second at districts and then the regionals came and I was winning in the state or in the regionals semifinals against the, the kid who ends up winning state the next weekend and he does something funky and my knee, like hyper extends and like it just hurts much more. I mean I finished the match but he ends up beating me and it ends up I had to forfeit all my other matches. I ended up like placing sixth at regional, so I don’t qualify for state. And then I think two days after the state tournament happened, I had knee surgery to get it repaired. So when was that? Last February. So your junior year? Oh wow. But it was near the end, almost the end of it. So you got most of your actual wrestling time in that year? Well not really. I, I think I was, I rotated my sacrum. I don’t know what it’s called. It’s like your tailbone. And that was very painful and I was out for like two weeks there. Man. Yeah, that is a lot, a lot of injuries you’ve had to be patient and work through. Right. Definitely.
15:58 So tell me more about going to the Olympic training facility. What’s the story like? How did you get to even go do that and what was the experience like? I feel like I have in my head what I think. You’re walking in this, this grand awesome facility, but um, so tell me the story behind you getting to do that. Yeah, it was pretty cool. But the guy wrestler I mentioned earlier, Mike, he coached me when I was four and now coaches at Lucas Lovejoy. He’s the head wrestling coach there and their wrestling team is going up there over a weekend and they had a couple open spots and he asked me if I wanted to go and I said, yeah, sure, definitely. Were you guys just going, or did you get to work out there? So is this a facility that’s just like for wrestling or is this the same facility that other sports use? This is the same facility that every sport uses. I think this is the main training center for the Olympians. That’s what I’m picturing in my head, like the big open, I don’t know, I even have a pool in my head and everything. Was all of that there? Yes ma’am. Did you see anybody cool when you were there?
17:05 Well, you probably don’t know him, but he just won worlds. His name is Jaden Cox. He wrestles. I don’t know him. So what age group? Like how old is this person? Uh, I think he’s 25. But there’s people, Jordan Burroughs, the guy I mentioned earlier, he still wrestles and I think he’s like 34. I was gonna ask you at what point do wrestlers age out? I mean, is that common to have a 34 year old competitively wrestling still? I think it’s pretty old, but I don’t know if I’ve ever, it’s pretty old to be wrestling. But yeah. Yeah. I don’t really know of anybody wrestling in their forties or anything past that. Yeah, that might be a little tough, especially after all those injuries, like somebody like you has had. So how long did you get to be there and what did you do when you were there? Did you, did you guys like actually wrestle and workout? Yeah, we had like two or three workouts a day and we were just training in the mat room of the Olympic training center and it was pretty cool.
18:12 You’re about halfway through your senior year of high school, right. So what, what is the next step for you? Like are you wanting to wrestle in college and what does that look like at this point? Yes ma’am. I do want to wrestle in college and right now I’m looking at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. I’ve been accepted there. I’m just talking with the coach hoping things go well. So do you have family in Arkansas? I do. Do you know anybody at that school? It sounds like, is it a smaller school? Right? So do you know anybody at that school already? What made you pick that school? Um, I didn’t know anyone there. I’ve just been to a couple of the camps that are like, I think the first one I went to, yeah, the first one I went to, the coach said that he was interested and he said he would keep like keep following me and then last year I went to a second one and then he asked me if I wanted to come on my official visit and I said yeah. And then we had my official visit month and a half ago or so. It was pretty good. What’s next then? Do you have to just decide and see if there’s a spot for you basically? You both, you guys have to both make it work, if it matches up. So if you don’t end up there, where do you see yourself?
19:34 I don’t know, but I just know I want to wrestle in college. What are some of the schools that your teammates are going to, if they already know yet. I know it’s early, especially since your season really hasn’t happened just yet. One of my teammates, he wants to go to some D three, uh, I’m not sure what branch of the military it is, but he wants to wrestle there. I think that’s pretty cool. That is pretty cool. What are your goals for this upcoming season you’re about to enter into? Uh, my goal is to be a state champ this year and I want to get over a hundred career wins. Oh wow. What are you at now? I think I’m at like 67 or something like that. So over a hundred is attainable obviously if that’s a goal you’ve set for yourself. How many wins did you get last year? You were hurt. So yeah, last year I only had seven and the year before I only had 12, but the year before that I think I had 49 or something like that. So you’ve set these goals. Is this your own individual goal or it is like this is your school, I mean your team goal? Um, my team’s not really at the level yet to win a state championship, but I think we could win regionals and districts probably. It’s just everyone has to go out and compete. That’s all it really comes down to. But you yourself can. Awesome. What kind of, is there something, you know, like certain steps that you’re, that you have to focus on and do to get that done or certain people you have your sights set on or something like that? Uh, no, I don’t really know of many people in my weight just cause I’m just the same way I was last year and most people have moved up. What weight do you wrestle at? Uh, I’m going 138 this year.
21:30 Okay. So I’m guessing you would see the same guys, I mean, right. If you’ve been doing this this long in the same area, surely you have opponents that keep coming up, right? Yes. But like my sophomore year I wrestled 113 and last year I wrestled 138 so it was like a big jump and I never really saw the same guys that I used to see. Do you ever come up against opponents that you’re friends with, you know, that you do wrestle with otherwise, like in your club or something? I have a couple of times. Yes. That’s probably pretty interesting with such a sport. I mean, people play against their friends all the time, but in team sports and different things, it’s, I don’t know, unless you’re like exactly matched up with them, you might not even really like come up against them. But in wrestling it’s one-on-one and I mean it’s just you against them. That’s probably pretty intense, right? Yes ma’am.
22:25 So how do you, like how do you psych yourself up for such a like solo activity that you are on your own? Nobody’s out there but you right, determining win or lose. So how do you, how do you do that? I usually listen to music until I come like two matches away from being up. And then I, I put my head gear on and I just, just watch the matches that go before me and don’t really think about much. Just get in the zone. You must have a lot of self control, right? I mean you have to. Sometimes, yeah. And, but also confidence to be able to, cause if you don’t have confidence, are you going to be able to go out there and beat anybody? No ma’am. Right. So where did that come from? I think it’s, it’s really just manifested over the years cause I used to get like really nervous before my matches and that it’s not half as bad as it used to be. More comfortable? Yes ma’am. And it’s probably from being prepared, right. As long as you put in the work. It sounds like you put in the work a couple of times a day every day. You’re more confident to be, to come out there and perform. Yes ma’am. Yeah. That’s awesome.
23:39 Well, thank you for teaching me a little bit about wrestling and we’ll be watching to see how you do. So what’s your goal to get to state? So that’s like February time frame? Uh huh. Okay. We’ll be thinking about you and rooting for you. Thank you for taking time in between your workouts to come talk to us. Thank you for having me.
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