Those who have paid even a modicum of attention to United States Greco-Roman wrestling over the past two Olympic cycles might, and should, be familiar with Riley Briggs (77 kg, NMU/NTS). He has competed in the majority of domestic events available to him, though he has missed some, and has trained and battled it out against tough foreigners overseas.
And those who have watched Briggs, those with a decent sense of recall, likely noticed that — simply put — he is excellent at what he does. Fast. Athletic. Strong. Sharp. Instinctual. Briggs on a mat has demonstrated a total capability which rivals the top names in the country. The problem is that his results have not correlated with his skill-set.
This is not an uncommon occurrence. Plenty of wrestlers have expressed flashes of brilliance without achieving a laundry list of milestones. Is what it is — a cruel sport. Wrestling, in particular Greco-Roman wrestling in America, promises little other than a journey through pain, disappointment, frustration, and confoundment. This is equally true for Senior-level World champs and grammar schoolers alike. No one is crying tears for Briggs, least of all himself. Each and every negative emotion is an assumed part of the package. If anything, it is actually one of the things we all love the most about wrestling, as weird as it sounds. Because, one of the most valuable byproducts of the entire endeavor is compartmentalizing and overcoming all of that and then witnessing the very positive effects doing so has on a person’s character.
Yet wrestling is certainly a results-oriented business, especially on the Senior level where Briggs operates. And he is still on this ride for the results. But given the litany of top-tier attributes he brings to bear, one might be wondering ‘What exactly has held him back?’
From a distance it would appear to be duality.
Northern Michigan University hosts a comprehensive nursing program that has attracted interest from several of the school’s Greco-Roman student-athletes over the years — including the likes of Briggs, decorated lightweight David Stepanyan (67 kg, NYAC/NTS), ’22 US Open runner-up Aidan Nutter, and Brody Olson, among others. Thus, a challenging academic pursuit which requires essentially the same level of commitment as does international competition therefore has no choice but to impart quite the conflicting schedule. Again, none of this over-the-top unusual. From John Wechter and Eric Twohey (both former upper-weights for the Minnesota Storm) to NMU alumni Jake Fisher and Brandon Marshall (97 kg, Big Game WC, who himself took big strides in ’24 by impressively qualifying for the Olympic Trials), wrestlers venturing into serious career paths involving healthcare is not groundbreaking. But it is, even now, still unique, and definitely presents a variety of difficulties due to the intensive demands placed on an otherwise motivated athlete’s time to train, develop, and prosper.
Hence the question, and subsequently (as in the title of this piece) the case, for Briggs is simple: how does he perceive the challenges his work-life balance presents? Moreover, how does he make the most of his time in order to be most effective at both endeavors?
What seem like tough questions were easy for Briggs to answer. That is because he began asking himself the same things as soon as he made nursing his career choice. Briggs knew what he was getting himself into. None of it came as a surprise. He saw teammates take a similar course and learned from them but, as he points out, he also “customized” how he approached time management pertaining to academic objectives and preparation for wrestling competition.
Such an approach has not changed. Briggs has to maximize his opportunities to train. In his world, he cannot afford to take his foot off the pedal when inside of the practice room, can’t afford to take for granted tried-and-true modalities such as drilling and live go’s. Not a minute can be wasted. One wonders if this is the secret fuel which continues to power his desire. There are times when Briggs walks into the wrestling room on weekday mornings fitfully exhausted from having just worked a 12-hour shift in the ER; but because this is exactly the sort of situation for which he had already prepared, and because it is the path he has indeed chosen, Briggs does whatever he can to gain the most out of every breath he takes on the wrestling mat. In a sense, it is as though Briggs has the one item surrounding wrestling figured out that few athletes ever comprehend in real-time — he is always grateful just to be doing the thing, which compels him to optimize his participation rather than resent it.
Having just arrived into his mid-20’s, Briggs has yet to reach his athletic prime. He still has runway remaining to accomplish the most celebrated of wrestling goals. There are some who had pegged Briggs as a potential World medal contender, and even more who have observed in him the ability to indeed achieve such a thing. Somewhere inside, Briggs sees these qualities in himself, as well. He doesn’t come out and declare it plainly, but it is easy to detect that he is aware of the immense capabilities which reside within his bones. Plus, if he believed differently, then why would he be willing to sacrifice so much of his precious time?
No one at his level — and most assuredly no one with his weekly schedule — embark on a journey like this one as a hobby. Nor does Briggs. He is still pumping his legs in earnest trying to climb the highest mountain. It just so happens that his route to the top avails a different path. Briggs’ steps are driven by highly-disciplined work ethic, require a touch of creativity in how he trains, and in between he has to stay razor-focused whether in a wrestling room, or in an emergency room. And again, maybe this is the secret only him and a select few others truly understand, that value is best realized in scarcity.
And how a commitment to one uncommon career can make you better at the other.
5PM Interview with Riley Briggs
5PM: How did you become introduced to Greco-Roman wrestling?
Riley Briggs: I would say that a lot of it started with CYC. I seriously started wrestling in high school, and started in club wrestling. My first club was Delta Wrestling. That was also David Calkins’ club, it is where we all started. I was introduced to freestyle and Greco at Delta. We learned the basic freestyle and Greco moves. I had a teammate who was two years older than me in high school, and he was miles ahead of me at that point. His name is Jordan Jimenez. He kind of took me under his wing and is a coach in Idaho now. Jordan was a big part of starting my Greco career. He began going to CYC before me and vouched for me to go there so that I could get my Greco game up-to-par. He vouched for me to Halvorson to let me on the team and train with them. This was I think during my sophomore or junior year of high school.
Let me tell you, this was a lot of me playing catch-up both technique and skill-wise going between the two different clubs just because CYC Greco is a different animal compared to anything else out there. So, I would credit my old teammate Jordan. He is the one who brought me into the CYC room and vouched for me to Halvorson to let me in there. And once I was in there, it was an uphill battle. I was basically getting my butt kicked everyday until I didn’t. Then the rest is history.
5PM: How did you fare in competition switching between regular high school folkstyle and Greco?
RB: I like folkstyle, I always looked forward to the season, but my high school wasn’t that great. It was a new high school at the time, Heritage High School. We weren’t that great. We were still building a team because we were a newer school. I did the best I could but never qualified for state in high school, although I was favored to do so one year. I just didn’t make it happen.
I didn’t really see myself pursuing a full-time career. At the same time, I was training in Greco and that was more enjoyable, it was different, and I felt like I was a legitimate threat doing that. Plus, I was getting top-tier training almost from the start. I mean, I liked folkstyle. I was okay at it. I never really accomplished too much in it, but it did help nudge me along to start my Greco career.
5PM: What was the room like as far as partners and teammates for you when you started at CYC?
RB: Let’s just say that I had to mentally prepare myself everyday for practice. It was something that I had never experienced before. Everything was organized to a T. Halvorson had screens up in the room showing Excel spreadsheets with everything that we had to do in practice. It was all time-synced. We could see what we were doing through the whole practice. It was really well-organized and well-ran. Everything was thought out and it was something that I had never really experienced before as a high school athlete. Halvorson and Stevie (Gee) were really thorough throughout the entire training process – and it was like that the whole time I was there. My practice partners? Like I said, I got my butt kicked until I didn’t. Those guys had been wrestling together since middle school, so they had the chemistry. It was most Del La Salle (athletes), but there were a few outsiders from different schools and I was one of them, as was my teammate Jordan. I kind of just got hammered for a while. I was learning technique that I had not learned before. I was learning techniques that I was scared to start using. I had just started Greco and they wanted you to do back-arches and bodylocks, so it was a little bit intimidating. But I always had good partners. Everyone was always willing to help me along. It was just a really tough room to be in, but it really boosted my technique. It was like a video game when you get double XP. That’s what it did for me. It caught me up to everyone else pretty quickly. It was exactly what I needed and it got me pretty well-ready for the NMU room. I was ready to go by the time I got there.
5PM: How long into becoming comfortable with Greco did you start to develop, use, and feel confident in your natural wrestling athleticism?
RB: First of all, it’s a pleasure to hear that, but I would say going from my senior year of high school to my freshman year at Northern was when I started using my athleticism. I remember Halvorson making a comment about my par terre top game, how my feet were pretty quick and how I could switch sides really easily on top. I just took that and ran with it, and started using my athleticism. I began to feel confident doing that around this time-frame. So, it did take me a little bit, but there are some things that you just have to send, and that is what I started doing.
5PM: What was the process like, what were the conversations like, when you decided to go to Northern Michigan?
Riley Briggs: That actually all started with a separate coach named Nicholas Saldovar. He coached in the Stockton area, and I had met my former teammate Eric Spence through someone else. We trained together in high school. I would go to Stockton to train with them almost every Sunday during the season to get folkstyle work in. Nick Saldovar would private lesson us and we would work out. After that, we would jump right into Greco. I was doing Greco at CYC and then I would go out to Stockton every other Sunday or so to train Greco with Eric Spence and Coach Nick Saldovar. He was the one who put me onto NMU initially. When I was a senior in high school, Nick put Eric and I in as extras on the Sweden trip that NMU used to go on with the Klippan Cup and Malar Cupen. I went on that trip with Eric when we were in high school with the NMU team. That is how I met Rob (Hermann), Britton (Holmes), and I think Dom Damon was on that trip, as well. There were a lot of guys who were future teammates.
We went to the tournament and did pretty well, and Rob took me aside afterwards to talk to me about going to NMU. That’s how it all began. It was Coach Nick who jump-started the idea of NMU in my head, and I’m sure Halvorson had that option in mind, too. We also had some other guys from CYC who came with me to NMU. Mason Hartshorn came with me, Patrick Ramirez, and Adrian Gomez followed shortly after. We all had that in our heads at that time. That is how NMU started becoming an option. Plus, I wasn’t interested in folkstyle. NMU was the only college that I wanted to consider. It was either that or nothing else. And, coincidentally, NMU has a great nursing program and I had wanted to become a nurse ever since high school. So, a great place to be. Two birds, one stone.
5PM: I remember Rob telling me how he used those Sweden trips as a recruiting tool.
RB: It worked on me (laughs). Funny story, but I remember when I was a freshman in high school how we used to go to folkstyle camps. I went to one in Los Galgos with a bunch of guys from my area. Kyle Dake was there as a clinician. So was Ryan Mango, and he was showing folkstyle techniques. And Rob Hermann was there to show the Greco portion, though I didn’t know who he was. He showed us this technique for how to be faster with your lock on top. This was back when par terre bottom was table-top. He made some comment like, “I’m faster now than I was 20 or 30 years ago. Try to drop flat before I get my lock.” And he’d catch whoever was down every time.
I didn’t know who Rob was at the time. All I heard was “Michigan” and “Greco” because I was still clueless. Fast-forward to a few years later when I am actually in the room at NMU as a college student, we’re going over par terre and Rob uses that exact same phrase about him being faster compared to 20 or 30 years ago. That’s when it clicked for me how he was the one from that camp when I was a freshman in high school. It was, Oh, wow, that was him. I thought that was super-funny. Full circle.
5PM: When you got to Northern, the timing coincided with a group of really impactful guys who were also going to the school, some of who really developed as Seniors. What was it like getting acquainted with that kind of shark tank right out of the gate?
RB: Back when I was a freshman at NMU, you really had to show that you could keep up with them and that you belonged in the room. It wasn’t about proving yourself so much as it was showing that you were there for the same reasons as they were. You had to show that you wanted it just as badly as they did and that you could keep up with them, and that you belonged there. It was just a matter of duking it out, grinding, and banging with the team. It was about staying accountable and showing up to practice. We were really strict about practice attendance. If you didn’t show up, you could get a bucket of cold water dumped on you while you were still sleeping in bed as people came back from practice. There was a lot of team accountability.
And there were some hammers on the team. Coming in as a freshman who was pretty well-equipped for the room already, I felt confident being in there. I did what I was supposed to do. I grinded with them, banged with them, and we got pretty close pretty quickly. It was just a good room to be in. The team chemistry was there. It was a lot of tough love. None of it was in a bad way. It wasn’t taxing on anyone. Everyone was on the same page. It was really solid and an awesome room to be in. But you had to show that you weren’t soft.
5PM: Were there any athletes in particular who you looked up to?
RB: (Alex) Sancho was there. I looked up to him a little bit. I tried to wrestle him often. Anthonie Linares, as well. They were both the same weight as me then, 67 kilos. I would wrestle him and he was really tough. Barrett Stanghill was another guy I looked up to. He always worked super-hard and was just a hammer in practice. He also had a good head on his shoulders, as did Parker (Betts). I looked up to him, as well. Parker was on the team when I first got there, but only briefly. Then he took a break and came back to coach.
I’m sure there are a bunch more, but those are the guys off the top of my head from when I first got there. I wanted to be on their level, I wanted to wrestle with them, train with them, and get perspectives on what they thought. Also, Dalton Roberts. He was one of them, too.
5PM: Right, he’s a good one. He is cited often as a good example.
RB: Yeah. A great person to have on your team.
5PM: What was it like getting used to the higher competition level? Because even as a freshman at Northern, that means you are entering Senior events and not just age-group tournaments.
Riley Briggs: There was definitely a drastic change between my age group, which we’ll call Junior (U20) and U23, and Seniors. I probably competed in every age group when I was still a Junior. The best way that I can put it is that you can get away with more as a Junior or at U23 than you can at Senior, and you can get away with more domestically than you can internationally, though you can still get away with some stuff. With Seniors, there is no room for error at all. You have to change your training style, or at least I had to. I did some overseas tournaments at Senior while still a Junior and it was a different ballgame. You have to change the way you think, the way you wrestle. I did, at least, but I could be speaking for other people, too. It’s a whole different level. It was just different.
I didn’t really have any problem going outside of my comfort to compete internationally when I was still in a younger age group. I just thought that it was really cool to have the opportunity to do that. That was kind of a stepping stone, becoming comfortable with international competition at all age levels. But it is definitely something different and some people have a hard time adjusting to different age groups, while others just go right into it and kill it at every age group. It depends on what kind of wrestler you are. I would say that I had a harder time adjusting to the Senior level internationally and domestically. It took more work on my end. I’m still working hard and doing the best I can, but it’s a work in progress. It is different for everyone. But it’s not a walk in the park and it’s not glorious work, either.
5PM: How did you adapt your own understanding and application of wrestling to moving up in level of competition?
RB: One of them was keeping a solid head during a wrestling match. Sometimes when the score might be a certain way, you can get caught up playing mind games with yourself. That goes hand-in-hand with me. There are times when I’m hesitant, or more hesitant than I would like to be. I’m sure that every wrestler has this problem with psyching themselves out a little bit, or they are hesitant. I’ve been told that I just need to pull the trigger a little bit more, that I just need to “send it” and keep a level head. Because, I am confident in my athletic ability, and my teammates and coaches see that, too. There is a term that we like to use sometimes – “practice hero”. It is when you are great in the room, but at an actual competition you become a completely different wrestler. So, we like to emphasize keeping the same energy when you are at a tournament. If you want to be a practice hero, you want to be that same person when you are on the mat at competitions. I learned that I need to work on my hesitancy and to just start “sending it”, to wrestle how I actually want to wrestle.
I wanted to be a wrestler who no one has really felt before, in a way. Some of my techniques – and I’m not trying to say that I’m different by any means – but I wanted to move differently compared to other guys. Some of the movements I do are a little irregular, so I’ve been told. I like to move a little bit differently. I like to do things my own way. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It is just kind of my own style. Everyone has their own style in the room. You can beat someone four out of five times and then go against someone who is completely different. I like to keep things customized. I like to keep things a little weird, if that makes sense. I like to do things that people aren’t expecting. I am not really the type who hammers things. I like to keep my wrestling a little weird. That is how I would describe myself.
5PM: No, I’d agree. You know when and how to engage stout, proper positioning, but you’re not rigid. You engage proper positioning, but you have a creative tinge. I’ve seen you make entries from duck-unders and pivot super-quickly, which I think part of that is probably related to your body composition. The way I’d say it is that your feet are not stuck in cement.
RB: No, I don’t like to be. I don’t like that feeling. I like to be able to move, and move a little bit differently.
5PM: It’s a hybrid approach. We don’t have too many here who can marry these together. We have some who are solid on-the-feet and have terrific leg-drive, but struggle to score; and we have some who move really well but they pick up their heels every few steps.
RB: I feel like part of that stems from when I was at CYC. I would wrestle Peyton Omania and he was really, really slick. He could score from any position. I feel like maybe I wanted to mimic that but it ended up in a different way. He wasn’t about being stiff at all. His feet were not in cement, and he was slick in every position. I tried to take some of that and use it in my own way. That is interesting for me when you say that because I can reflect back on it and that’s where it all started.
5PM: You had already said that you became interested in nursing as a career path while in high school. What about nursing ever interested you to begin with?
RB: I first thought of it as advantageous for my own well-being and health. I thought of it as a cool way to help me be healthier. I wanted to learn the ways of the body and how to prevent sickness and unhealthiness. When I was younger, it was, Wow, being a nurse will help me learn more about the body and how to be healthy. It’s going to help me live the healthiest life possible with minimal injuries. I figured that all of that hands-on training and knowledge would help me simply become a healthier person and better athlete. That was my thinking back when I first began considering it.
It’s funny because they ask everyone that question in nursing school, “Why do you want to be a nurse?” There are repetitive answers. You have people say it is because one of their parents was a nurse, or they had been through a tough time and a nurse really helped them. My answer was a little different compared to the others. I literally told the class that I wanted to be a better athlete, and I felt like nursing would help with that. Everyone would laugh, but that is pretty much the way it goes. Nursing and wrestling go hand-in-hand with me and I use them both to give me an advantage any way I can.
5PM: How familiar were you with the degree of academic commitment required for nursing?
Riley Briggs: I would say that I was your average B and C student in high school. I wasn’t that academically-sound. Like, I did what I had to do and that carried over into college. Some things were hard to learn for me, but the key for me is that I was persistent. It was a very academically-challenging degree. I was originally going to school to become an RN and there are a lot of prerequisite courses that you need to get into the program. Well, I wasn’t doing so well in my prereqs and my counselor said something along the lines that I should pick a different degree. I told him ‘no’, so I did the licensed practical nursing program instead – which was less intense but a big stepping stone for me to become an RN. It was kind of a long academic process for me and I had to make changes. But just like in wrestling, you have to adapt to the environment. I wasn’t dumb by any means, I just had to work a little bit harder. I stayed persistent and kept working hard, and eventually everything fell into place.
But it was a pretty academically-challenging adventure, and on top of that we had our twice-a-day practices. Putting those two together, I was pretty spent and didn’t have time for much else. It was tough, but I knew what I wanted and I knew that it was just a matter of time. So, I just kept working hard and everything fell right into place.
5PM: Was there ever a time during your pursuit of this degree and certifications when you thought about pivoting to something else just because of how it might have been impacting you on the mat?
RB: Not really. No, because I knew that this was what I wanted to do and it was my original plan from the start. I really wanted it to work out that way – and if it was not going to work out that way, I was still going to make it work. It was just a lot of crazy time management. I was nervous going into college about my classes and going to practice. One of the counselors had told me that they have had other athletes go into nursing, but also that they couldn’t do it because nursing required so many hours, and that I would have to miss practice and so forth. But NMU wrestling didn’t care if you missed practice so long as it was because of class. As long as they knew that you were working hard, you could do any classes you wanted to do. So it wasn’t a problem at all, it was just a matter of making it work for me and my training. I never doubted myself about doing this. It was just a matter of how I was going to make this work. There were times when I thought, Man, this is going to be very difficult, but I would adjust and stick it out. Every semester was different, and every semester had different time requirements, but in the end I was going to make it work. I wasn’t going to switch up my plan just because things were difficult for me. I just stayed focused on my goal.
5PM: There were and would be other athletes from NMU who also studied nursing. How did that help you? And what would the conversation be like – let’s say between you and someone like David Stepanyan – when it came to juggling an intense course load along with training on a high level?
RB: That dynamic was actually really cool for us as athletes and for us as a team. To my knowledge, I was one of the first athletes on the team to do nursing, because I had done practical nursing before everything. And as I finished that program, Brody (Olson) and David switched their majors to nursing, and they both got accepted to the same cohort. You were with the same cohort for two-and-a-half years, one program. They both got accepted and I was super-excited for them because I knew that was the next step for me. I could see what I had to look forward to, and what I had to prepare for by asking them. I could see what they were doing, so that kind of got me ready for it. I was excited for them, and I was excited to learn how they managed their schedules because both of them were serious athletes, as well.
I was about two semesters behind them and then Aidan Nutter and I got into the program at the same time. We were in the locker room hugging each other and jumping up and down, just because it is so hard to get into that program. I had been denied twice previously, so it was a big accomplishment for me. I was also excited to have a partner doing everything with me in the program. Aidan and I lived, ate, slept, studied, and trained together for the next two-and-a-half years. We lived in the same house, he stayed across the hall from me… We did everything together, and we were always pushing each other to get through it both in terms of academics and with wrestling. Plus we had David and Brody to guide us and show us what we had to look forward to. We were all just together and we pushed each other. It was super-cool to have someone to work with. We would go to class together, we would go to practice together, and if we missed practice then we would work out by ourselves. I’m sure that David and Brody did something similar together. It was a best-case scenario for us. We actually received a compliment from one of the administrators. They told Andy (Bisek), “You have four guys who are in the nursing program, which is the most from any sport. How do you do it?” And Andy was like, I just let them do what they have to do, and then they come in and work hard when they have the time. And that is exactly what we did. It was honestly the best-case scenario for us. We worked hard and made it happen, and it all worked out for us.
5PM: What you do requires constant learning, and you also hear how nurses basically have to know more than doctors in a sense because the nurses are the ones who deal with patients the most often on a hands-on basis. What is that responsibility like day-in and day-out?
RB: For me as a newer registered nurse, I work in the emergency room. It is not in Marquette, it’s in Ishpeming. As a newer nurse, it is kind of the most intimidating because you have less experience with emergency medicine. It is kind of intimidating at first. It is a lot of on-the-job learning. You don’t necessarily have to know more than doctors, but you might have to catch certain things. You might see something that they’re not and vice-versa. You might miss something and they bring it to your attention, or you might see something and bring it to theirs. It is a lot of double, triple, and quadruple-checking each other. It is a lot of responsibility but you get used to it and you know what to look for. It is a little bit different and it is the first time I’ve experienced something like that. It is a lot of responsibility and it was intimidating at first, but I just threw myself into it. My work ethic helped me with that process and I transitioned very well. I went in there swinging pretty much.
5PM: At this stage of your career and have cleared the biggest hurdles to establish yourself, how do you manage the time regarding your work schedule and training?
RB: First of all, I know that it is very doable because David would come in after work for practice and still compete at a high level. I knew that I wasn’t alone in this and that it was very much doable. That gave me more confidence than I had before. I work the night shift, which is usually three days a week. It just depends on where they schedule me. I go into work at 7pm and get off at 7am. The physically-demanding part is working when you’re not supposed to work. My body is trying to shut down at work because you are supposed to be sleeping. It is physically and mentally-draining because my circadian rhythm is essentially switched half the week.
So half the battle is learning how to recover the right way, which I am still learning how to do. It is kind of hard but I’ll figure it out. Getting enough rest and switching back to your regular life in order to attend practices – and be effective in practice. During an ideal training week, I’d maybe get off of work at 7am and maybe catch the tail-end of morning practice, which begins at 6:30, and stay after a little bit; or I can choose to go to practice at 3pm, that way I can get a good sleep in and a good, hard practice in before work. I can kind of pick and choose. When I try to do both practices, my recovery in between is terrible and I set myself up for failure later on. It is picking and choosing your battles in terms of resting and working out. Sometimes I feel like I’m behind because I need to go, go, go, work out, practice this, practice that. But you can only do so much when you are running on an empty tank.
There are times when I might work four, five, six days in a row and I get a few workouts in between. Maybe some cardio, maybe some technique – and then I’ll have eight days off. In which case, I use those eight days for rest, recovery, and training purposes. Sometimes it winds up like that, and sometimes it doesn’t. When I was training for the US Open in April, I would bring my gear to work because we have a small rehab and recovery gym that employees can use. So, I would go run after work, and they had some other stuff that I could do in there. I would work out at work and then go home. I’m finding any pocket that I can to work out. I just have to get creative and make it work for my schedule. It is definitely a learning curve, but it is very doable.
5PM: What happens when you have to travel with regards to your work schedule?
Riley Briggs: When I was in school, you would get excused because, obviously, it’s school and so the trips were sports-related. But I actually did work as a PRN part-time at a nursing home and doctor’s office during school and they were very accommodating. I would just tell them which days I could not work. That’s just how it was because I was part-time-contingent. Now as a full-time nurse, I have a manager and he is super-cool. He knows, and the staff knows, that I still compete at a high level, so I just have to let him know in advance. For example, when I was getting ready for Vegas (US World Team Trials), I let him know in advance and did what I had to do as far as working around those days. My co-workers have no problem picking up shifts, and that’s a two-way street. I’ve had co-workers who needed to switch shifts, and so it’s the same thing. Again, because we work in three-day shifts, I can ask to be scheduled around specific dates. ‘I’m going to be gone for ten days, so how about you have me work five or six days in a row right before I need off, and then I’ll work another five or six days in a row.’
We kind of do it in chunks. I’m not really asking for time off, I’m asking to be scheduled around specific dates. I haven’t run into any problems yet being a newbie at work and asking for time off. It’s just a matter of doing it correctly and communicating with the staff. If I give them enough lead-time, it should be no problem. Competing a few times a year, or going to a few camps a year, that shouldn’t be a problem for me. I show up, I work hard, I’m respectful, and I communicate with my staff. I’m able to actually make it work. Someone who works 9 to 5 might not have that same kind of flexibility. This is a 24/7 medical establishment, so things are a little different. So far, so good at this point. I haven’t run into any problems, so that’s good.
5PM: It has become 77 kilograms for you for a while now. Could there ever be a time when you might consider dropping back down to 72?
RB: I would say that for now I’m going to keep myself at 77. That little stunt I pulled at 72 was basically just, Let’s try to do it and see what happens. That was also when I started working full-time. I think the last time I had wrestled 72 was at the Senior Trials in 2019. I just kind of wanted to see what would happen and if I could be efficient at that weight. I knew that I could get down there, it was just a matter of performing. Weight-cutting is a part of any and every wrestler’s training process, but it is a matter of, Is this the right weight for me? Am I doing this right? I just wanted to see what would happen. A US Open is probably not the right place to see what happens with a weight cut, but it’s what I did. I was told by my teammates “Don’t do that again” (laughs). So, for now, 77 is probably where I am going to hunker down. I did try 82 one time for the non-Olympic Trials. I don’t really see myself going 82 again, but who knows? But as of right now, I’m probably just going to stay at the Olympic weight of 77 kilos and focus on being a threat there.
5PM: Currently in the US there is a lack of tournaments. We don’t have enough competition here and have become limited to just New York (Bill Farrell Memorial) and whatever happens in the spring. Last year, we didn’t have a US Open and it was just the Trials in April. Obviously this is hypothetical, but if we went back to a schedule that included more domestic tournaments, what would an ideal competitive schedule look like for you?
RB: I would like to see the Dave Schultz Memorial come back. I was looking forward to entering that tournament when I was a freshman at NMU and I got sick right before, so that was a no-go. I think that was the only chance I’ve had to do it. I would like to see that brought back into the circuit. I think that would be cool for everyone. I would also like something new, or newer. Aside from the U23 Nationals, maybe experiment with having something like a U23 tournament that is just for Greco, but isn’t the Nationals. Because, all they have in the lead-up to the Nationals is everything else. I’m not in that age-group anymore, but I’m thinking for U23 just a separate tournament. I’m not sure if anyone would agree with me on that. I just think that we need something a little bit newer other than the ones we’ve lost. We haven’t had Schultz in a while.
I had heard that there were talks of a dual tournament, and people have been talking about that for some years now, but it just never happened. Andy has brought it up to me a few times, like, Oh, they want to organize a dual tournament… An NMU team, an NYAC team… Now we have Doane University, we have dueled the Dubuque RTC a couple of times, so you can throw them in the mix. But there have been talks of a dual tournament that just never happened. At one point I was even told that there was a location for where it was going to be, but it just never happened. I think that would be really cool if we could bring that to life. It would be awesome. It could be the next best thing. I don’t think that we have ever done that before.
5PM: Tailor it just for yourself. Total it. How many events would you like for you to enter?
RB: For me, I’m not really in a place where I’m looking for more domestic tournaments. We need it as a country, but for me, I don’t have the time to go to every single tournament there is. I’m content with NYAC and would probably like one more tournament domestically. I do like going out to the Colorado Springs (Olympic and Paralympic Training Center) camps and they have them quite often. And I like that they have them quite often because it gives me wiggle room. But I would like to see one more competition on my plate besides NYAC and the US Open. As for camps, Colorado and maybe somewhere else.
5PM: What kind of advice would you have for a wrestler who, in college or even after, is pursuing an involved type of career path while also trying to reach their peak in this sport?
Riley Briggs: The biggest thing I would say is that you really need to customize it for yourself. You need to work smarter, not harder, in a way. Otherwise, you are just going to burn yourself out. That was a big concern of mine, burnout. Nursing is already a high burnout field, and wrestling itself is also susceptible to burnout. If you’re constantly getting injured, or you’re not getting the results that you want, you are susceptible to getting burnt out. That was always in the back of my head. I wanted to make it work for me so that I wasn’t burning myself on both ends. I wanted to work smarter, and a little bit harder, to make things work for me.
The other thing is that you have to keep your goals aligned. I knew from the start that this is what I wanted to do. I also knew that it was going to be a tricky and demanding path. Because I was on this path for so long, I learned how to work it into my life. You also have to associate with people who are doing similar things as you. I went through a lot of this with Aidan. Him and I stood side-by-side together for a long time and we pushed each other along. If you have someone who can hold you accountable because they are going through the same things as you, it makes it that much easier.
Keep your head straight, the crosshairs aligned, and stay focused on the goal. Try to really customize it for yourself. I do my best to follow the team’s training plan. I do my best to follow what Andy and Parker (Betts) want me to do, but sometimes I just can’t do it. It just doesn’t work for me and I have to adjust by doing supplemental workouts. I reach out to Andy and he gives me other things to do. Or I’ll ask him to send me a lift. Then it is, Okay, I can’t do it with you guys, I have to do it later this week. Or, What did you guys do for practice this morning? That way I can maybe mimic it by myself or with someone else. You really have to go out of your way to make it work for you. Just because you can’t do something with everyone else doesn’t mean that you can’t do it, period. So, make it work for you.
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