Q & A with Georgia Standout Amani Jones

By Sydney Jarrard

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Georgia native Amani Jones, a senior at North Central College, recently won her second national title at the folkstyle National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships. She placed second at the freestyle U.S. Marine Corps Women’s National Championship. Jones will continue her wrestling career with plans to compete for Team USA, qualify for the Olympics and coach at North Central. 

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Q: What were your key takeaways from the national tournament? Things that you did well, and things that you need to work on?

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I can start with things I need to do better on. I need to be offensive a lot more. I do think I have a very good gas tank, and I need to just take advantage of that. I’m a lot bigger than a lot of people at that weight, so I just need to put the pressure on them earlier and be offensive. I think with time, I'll still do that. I know throughout college I've gotten more offensive, so I just got to continue to do that and not be nervous. Things I did well, I guess my mindset going into the matches, I was excited to wrestle, and I feel like I dominated mostly everyone until the final. I just got to carry that mindset into the final, just knowing I'm the better wrestler, and I need to use my offense. I guess another good thing is being there for my teammates. You know, it was really cool having all my teammates there and being able to support them as well, because they're chasing their dreams as well.

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Q: And so what's the difference between the Marine Corps tournament that you just had and the NCWWC tournament?

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So this one's more based on age. I could go against someone who's been someone from D2, D3, D1, NAIA. I wrestle everybody who's my age, but for college, someone could be 27 and I wrestle them in the college finals. So people in college versus people out of college.

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Q: At college nationals, you won your second national title. What did the work up to that look like for you?

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I would say this year was a lot more relaxed than last year. I was a lot more anxious last year because I came in ranked number one, and I felt a lot of pressure on me. But this year, after winning already once, I think it definitely took the weight off of me. I didn't have to be anxious about every match. And I definitely had a lot more fun this year just wrestling, trying to compete with people. And I think it's kind of changed my mind, even, not just for that tournament, but even this past weekend. I don't want to just take the easy road and win the easier bracket. I want to go against the best people. I know that's what I'm going to have to do to make that Olympic team and make that world team. So I just get really excited to wrestle people.

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Q: What does training look like for you?

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It just depends on whatever our coaches are doing that day. We typically don't go live too close to the competition because we don't want to get injured. We'll lift twice a week, but I tend to lift a little bit more just because I need to lift more personally for my body type. We also do one-on-ones. So at least every day, especially if I need to lose weight, I'll go with someone for 30 minutes. We’ll spar for 30 minutes, and that's typically what we do. On my own, I like to watch a lot of film. I feel like, at least my team, I have a lot of people I can go with at any time, so it's really cool. For other competitions, they'll have development camps, where they'll call or email you, and then a bunch of girls just go to the OTC, the Olympic Training Center in Colorado. There will be camps there. There's a lot of stuff to help you, and you can also live there, but a lot of people go do camps there. 

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Q: You were also named an Academic All-American for this year. What does that look like to be able to do so well with wrestling, but also in school?

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I'm gonna be honest, I don't really know how I manage all of that. Definitely having a good agenda helps me a lot. I just have to plan out everything. I try to make lists, and then break down every day what I want to do for that day. Being organized definitely helps me the most. If I didn't have organization, I don't think I’d be doing anything. I don't have that much time in a day to do everything I want to do. I just have to make sure I’m organized at all times. I think coming to college after doing it in high school actually helped a lot. I would drive to school an hour away, and then I would go to high school, high school practice, wrestling practice. I wouldn't get home till 10, and then I would just have that time to do homework, tests and studying. That made college a lot easier because I don't go home at 10 o'clock so I can manage everything a lot easier. I thought it was a lot easier than high school, for sure.

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Q: How has that development of women's wrestling in recent years affected you as you've been in college?

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Yeah, I would say it's huge, especially the media portion of it. I don't remember growing up seeing a lot of girls. I think it would be Helen (Maroulis) and maybe Adeline (Gray), and that was kind of it for women’s wrestling. I think it's really cool that little girls are having options about who they want to look up to and who they want to choose from. I think that's really inspiring for them. And just seeing that it is realistic that you can actually do this as a career and be good at wrestling is cool. There's always someone who is like you, and I feel like that wasn't always the case growing up. 

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Q: A lot of people view wrestling as more of an individual sport. How has wrestling as a team sport helped you as an individual?

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I loved being on the guys team. Nothing against that, but being on an all-girls team, and being around them all the time, I do everything with these people every day. Lifting, wrestling workouts. I go to class with them. I do homework with them. It's a family that I'm really grateful to be a part of and support because we all are chasing the same goals, same dreams. I really am grateful to be around like-minded people who want to do the same thing as me. It's a huge aspect of the sport. It really keeps you going. When you're down, you have someone to motivate you. So I love being on an all-girls team.

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Q: What are you planning on doing next after college wrestling is over?

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This took me a while because I was like, I don't think about it. I don't want to do anything. I just want to know what happens already. For right now, I think I'm gonna stay in Illinois and probably just continue training for the next cycle. I’ll probably assistant coach and I'm excited to be able to travel more to the development camps. I can just focus on wrestling and don’t have to focus on school and other stuff. I'm really excited to just keep training.

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Q: What would that look like as an assistant coach at North Central?

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It's more individual-based, so I'll be going to the practices and stuff. Training with the girls and doing one-on-one stuff. I can do it on my own time, like the one-on-one stuff. I don't have to work around another schedule. I think it'll be a lot better for me because it's going to be basically summer. I think that's where I make the most jumps compared to other girls when I can have the free time to actually get better at wrestling and not get distracted by school and work and everything else. I can just focus on wrestling.

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Comments trimmed for length and clarity.

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