University of Minnesota Athletics
Meet Newcomer Steve Bleise
10/17/2017 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
2017-18 Single Match Tickets // 2017-18 Wrestling Schedule
As the Gopher Wrestling season nears, gophersports.com will bring in 2017 newcomers and get to know them as they begin their wrestling careers at the University of Minnesota.
This week we meet with Steve Bleise, a redshirt junior from Chelsea, Mich. who was an All-State wrestler in high school. He won the Michigan state chmapionship his senior year, and took top five all four years of high school. He was a two time NCAA qualifer at Northern Illinois, and was a Midlands finalist once.
Gophersports.com: How did you get here to Minnesota?
Steve Bleise: "I transferred here this summer, took classes this summer, trained this summer, I'd say it was a pretty smooth transition. I got out of my last school in May and I started classes here on June 12th. It happened pretty quickly but it was easy to adjust to everything and keeping myself busy really helped. Just having structure this summer and getting to know the guys on the team, and Coach hooked me up with living with some guys on the team over on 14th so that was nice. Right away I had six guys around all the time which made it easier to make friends opposed to if I lived by myself, it would have been tougher."
GS: Tell me about your decision to come here and to transfer here.
SB: "Basically, I just felt that at my last school, I wasn't meeting the most of my potential. I just felt that I didn't have the opportunities and tools that I needed to be the most successful person I could be. Whereas here, with the great coaches and a better team environment where everyone is training to be a national champ, I felt like that was going to be the best opportunity for me, to make the most out of my potential and meet my goals."
GS: How did you start wrestling?
SB: "At first, I played a lot of other sports. I played football and baseball but I was always kind of small. One day, my brother came home and his friend was involved in wrestling and my brother said, "Yeah I want to go to wrestling practice!" At first I was skeptical, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go but eventually, my dad took me and when I got there I thought it was a lot of fun. I fell in love with it the first day. And ever since then, my dad took us to tournaments every weekend because it was something he liked to do too. He grew up wrestling so he was super psyched as we started getting into it. So pretty much, as soon as I got on the mat, I just loved it."
GS: Tell me about your brand of wrestling.
SB: "I like to hand fight, I like a lot of upper body ties, I like to control the match, keep it at my tempo, I don't like to deviate from my plan. I like a few big moves, the moves that give the crowd the ooh's and the ah's. I'd say I'm pretty solid with a few flashy things here and there."
GS: What are some of your favorite wrestling memories?
SB: "Just some of my favorite wrestling memories, obviously when I won state as a senior, that was awesome. You train all throughout high school and you just want to go to states, to be a state champ. For me, I placed every single year but to finally have an undefeated season and to cap it off the right way as a senior, that was awesome. In college, I'd just say a lot of my favorite memories are just when you have big wins, like winning a dual match for your team, or winning tournaments was pretty fun for me. I can't put my finger on a specific one but just like any win I had against a good opponent, it made me think, wow, I am progressively getting better, training's working, I'm gradually taking steps in the right direction."
GS: When did you realize that you could be a legitimate, good, top-tier wrestler?
SB: "I would say going into my freshman year of high school I knew. Because I placed in youth states after only wrestling for a year. So, after I placed in states I thought, "I'm actually getting pretty good at this pretty quick." So, going into my freshman year, I knew that I could definitely place at the state tournament especially if I was at 103 which is a freshman dominated weight class. I was competing against younger kids or kids the same age as me so I knew that I had a shot that year. As I grew more and more, I got a little more physical, a little stronger, a little faster, and the older I got, I felt like I got better and better. Starting in seventh grade was late, most people start in grade school, five to nine is probably when most people start. Since I really liked it, I learned quicker than some of the others who didn't like it. When you really like something, you learn a lot better and you have a way more fun time going to practice. I never felt like I was forced to be there, I always wanted to go. Since I was hungry to learn and I had a lot of support from my family and coaches, it was honestly easy to learn."
GS: What are some of your goals this season?
SB: "My goal is to be an All-American. I was in a round of 12 last year and lost and was really upset about it. I was in the blood round and I really wanted to be on the stand and so since I didn't get the job done, I'm kind of hungry to get back on the mat this year and get that one step further. I want to be an All-American and the sky is the limit. Why train just to be All-American when you can be a national champ. Especially here with all the guys you got on the team, great coaches, I'm going to get a lot better than what I am. I think for me, being an older guy coming in, I know the mentality that you have to have, I know how hard you have to work, and what is necessary to achieve success at this level and with this added boost of training, I'm only going to get better."
GS: How is getting into the Big Ten and the mindset different than where you were at before?
SB: "Where I was at before, it was a smaller school, we didn't compete against high profile teams, but in the Big Ten, pretty much every guy you wrestle, every week, he's going to be a ranked guy. There's not a lot of easy weeks where you can think, "Oh, I'm going to crush this guy." You have to train hard all the time, you have to be ready to go, your body has to be healthy. I would say from a mentality standpoint, here, these guys aren't satisfied with being a top ten team, they want to be the best team in the country. So, the expectation for the whole team, it is totally different. We're not just aiming to be the top team in the conference, we're aiming to be the top team out of all conferences, we're aiming to be national champs."
GS: What is your mental approach to wrestling?
SB: "Everyone gets nervous but my mentality is that as soon as that whistle blows, all that nervousness is going to be gone and at that point, your instincts and your training kick in. You just do what you do every single day. I have a plan and I stick to it, and I don't really deviate from that plan. For me, mindset-wise, I'm just going to do what I want to do and I don't care what this guy is doing. I'm only going to focus on what I have to do and I'm not going to overthink it. The more time you spend thinking, it can talk you out of a lot of things versus just pulling the trigger and letting it fly. I just like to go out there and score."
GS: Outside of wrestling, what are some of your interests?
SB: "I like being outdoors, I like hanging at the lake, I like going wakeboarding and tubing, I like fishing a lot. I like hanging out with my friends. I wouldn't say anything super special, it's not like I have any crazy hidden talents. I like to just do some normal stuff outside of the daily workout, lift, it's kind of nice to break that cycle and have a day where you just relax and don't have to worry about anything."
GS: What are your long-term goals here at Minnesota?
SB: "I want to be on the podium for the next two years. I want to be a national champ. I'm not here just to settle, I want to be the best. You train hard, you work hard every single day, why would I not train to be the best? I've put way too much into this to expect anything less. So, I want to make the most of this opportunity that I can."
Players Mentioned
