#TeamUSATuesday: Greco-Roman National Team member Sammy Jones

Sammy Jones is currently the No. 3 wrestler at 63 kg/139 lbs. for Team USA’s Greco-Roman National Team. This is his first year as a National Team member. He recently took some time to answer a couple questions for us.

What is your favorite movie?

Good Will Hunting

Who is your favorite musical artist?

Josh Garrels

What is your favorite food?

Chips and salsa. I like spicy mango and peach salsas but really all salsas. I’m going to plug Mama Lu’s in Traverse City, Michigan. They have the best salsa; it’s the bomb.

What is your favorite sport to watch other than wrestling?

I like watching the X-Games and extreme sports in general. I like watching street skating and surfing as well.

Did you play any other sports growing up?

I played soccer until I was around 13, and I swam competitively until eighth grade.

Who is your favorite wrestler to watch either past or present?

I watch a lot of Russians wrestle. I wouldn’t say Sergey Emelin is my favorite, but I do watch him a lot because he’s in my weight class. Kyle Dake is my favorite U.S. wrestler to watch.

What are some of your other hobbies off of the mat?

I picked up surfing when I moved to Michigan. I started surfing on the Great Lakes, but I’ve taken several surf trips to the ocean. I’m taking a surf trip to Hawaii after the Open. My wife surfs too, so we like to go together as much as we possibly can. I also snowboard and play guitar.

What is your biggest fear?

Allowing myself to stay comfortable.

Do you have any plans once your wrestling career is over?

I’m going to travel and build community with my family. My wife and I have a couple really close friends, and we all really have the desire to move around to different parts of the country. When I say “build community”, we’re a group of Christians, and we’d like to have an impact on whatever city or town we move into. Building community would be stepping into those places and having deep relationships with people and doing life intentionally with them.

How did you first get involved in wrestling?

My dad had a friend whose son wrestled, and he told us about it when I was 8. I went to a wrestling practice, and I loved it. A story that I always tell is that as a kid I would always “play fight’, and I would always end up hurting someone. My parents decided that I needed a positive outlet for all of my energy.

You’re from Louisiana, which isn’t known as a hotbed for wrestling. Could you talk about your journey to National Team athlete?

The big difference between my career and most Louisiana wrestlers, is that I was a homeschool athlete. This afforded me the opportunity to travel to the best coaches in the state and also travel around the country and get out of Louisiana to compete at national and regional tournaments.

When I was in 8th grade I met Coach Jonathan Orillion, and he coached me through high school. We traveled all across the country going to Fargo and other regional tournaments. That’s what kind of elevated my career. The traditional Louisiana trajectory is that you wrestle in Louisiana, and you win states two, three or four times, then you go to LSU and don’t wrestle in college.

The reason I started wrestling Greco was because at the time that I was in high school, I was not able to compete in folkstyle high school tournaments due to being homeschooled. I had a dream to go to the Olympics and medal at the Olympics when I was a little boy. I told my coach that, and he basically said why are you wasting your time with folkstyle? You can’t wrestle folkstyle in high school anyways, let’s just skip it and focus on freestyle and Greco. From my freshman year to my senior year of high school I only trained freestyle and Greco.

I had known Rob Hermann, the previous coach at Northern Michigan’s Training Center. He would come in and do some of our Fargo camps and that sort of thing. I built a relationship with him, and he recruited me to come to Northern Michigan. I actually took my first year off from wrestling and went to school in Louisiana for college. I went through a kind of finding myself sort of thing and figuring out what I was about. I was distracted and not passionate about wrestling, so I took a year off.

In that year my faith become a real relationship for me, and I started to miss wrestling a lot. Once my life started to get back on track again, I realized how much wrestling was a part of my life and how much I loved it. I called Rob, and he said come on up, and I haven’t left Marquette since.

What was the best advice you’ve received in your career?

My dad would always tell me to believe in myself, and he would always tell me he believed in me. Hearing that all the time, my dad would just tell me “you’re the best”, and eventually I started to believe in myself. So, believe in yourself enough to pursue your dream with all your heart. 

What advice would you give to a younger wrestler?

Do everything you can to love the sport every day, and be humble.

Do you have any pre-match rituals?

I pray before every match that I compete to the best of my ability, and that God will keep me healthy and safe and He will keep my opponent healthy and safe.

What motivates you during training?

I tell myself I love this sport, this is worship for me. I am thankful to be here, and I deserve to be here. I kind of repeat that to myself over and over again.

What is your best wrestling memory to date?

Winning states when I was 11 years old.

The Jones file
Birthday: November 11, 1993
Hometown: Folsom, LA
High school: Homeschool
College: Northern Michigan University
Residence: Marquette, Mich.
Club: New York AC/NMUOTS
Twitter: @Saminthecircle
Instagram: @Saminthecircle
• 2019 Dave Schultz Memorial International champion
• 2016 and 2017 Dave Schultz Memorial International runner-up
• 2018 and 2019 U.S. Open runner-up
• 2016 Pan American Championships bronze
• 2014 World University Championships bronze
• 2015 University Nationals champion