{"id":13024,"date":"2025-02-17T11:18:41","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T16:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=13024"},"modified":"2025-02-17T13:35:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T18:35:16","slug":"how-i-got-here-nick-sacco-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=13024","title":{"rendered":"How I Got Here Nick Sacco \u201925"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wrestling is not just a sport; it\u2019s a lifestyle. For me, it\u2019s eating well, getting enough sleep, being on top of my grades. It\u2019s discipline, and I believe wrestling embodies the idea of becoming a better human overall.<\/span><\/p>\n

A big part of it is making sure my relationships with my family, my girlfriend, and my friends are in line. I don\u2019t want outside stress factors when I\u2019m going into a competition. There\u2019s a balance between managing relationships and getting the support you need from the people who love you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Being a wrestler is a tradition in my family. My dad wrestled. So did my uncles and cousins. And my brother, Matt Sacco \u201923, was a TCNJ wrestler, too. Seeing him with the team made it an easy decision for me to come here.<\/span><\/p>\n

I love TCNJ and the wrestling program. I\u2019ve had a great time. As a sophomore, I placed fourth at the Division III national tournament for the 165-pounds weight class. And last year, I was a national champion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Wrestler
Photo credit: Michelle Gustafson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Something I do really well is when I am on top of my opponent, I don\u2019t let them escape or reverse me. It\u2019s a big mental wear-down on my opponent. You can tell when the other guy just doesn\u2019t want to wrestle you anymore because they\u2019re mentally or physically broken. And when you get them to that negative state of mind, I find that it\u2019s easier to score points and win matches.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 2024 National Championship was in Wisconsin, and my family was there. For the finals, there was just one mat in the center of the arena, so they all sat just below the stage. It was really cool walking off the mat and immediately hugging my family. It\u2019s something I\u2019ll never forget.<\/span><\/p>\n

People have asked if I feel a lot of pressure to win another national championship. <\/span>The goal is to win. But for me, there is no pressure. I feel like it\u2019s more freedom to achieve my goal again.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am captain of the team, and I try to be there for every one of my teammates. I think the guys look up to me, or at least I hope they do. I want to build those young guys to be great young men of their own as they proceed through our program.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wrestling has taught me to prioritize, and that\u2019s a skill that has helped me in the working world, too. As a finance major, I interned last summer at RSM, an accounting firm. I was offered a consultant job there after graduation.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have heard people say, \u201cOnce you wrestle, everything else in life is easy.\u201d I believe that.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wrestling is life, says reigning national champ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":13068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lions-roar","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/298"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13024"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13109,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13024\/revisions\/13109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}