By: J.R. Ogden – The Gazette<\/p>\n
IOWA CITY, IA – Matt Fields is a likable guy. He’s polite and friendly and generally greets
\nyou with a smile.<\/p>\n
Close the doors at the Dan Gable Wrestling Complex in Carver-Hawkeye Arena,
\nhowever, and Fields turns ornery and boisterous. And University of Iowa
\nwrestling coach Tom Brands loves it.<\/p>\n
“He is the most volatile, explosive guy in the room,” Brands said of the
\njunior heavyweight.<\/p>\n
A two-time state champion at North Cedar High School from Lowden, Fields
\nimproved to 4-1 Tuesday night with a dual-clinching, 5-0, victory over
\nNorthern Iowa’s Tyler Rhodes. His only loss this year was in the Kaufman-Brand
\nOpen final in Omaha last weekend, 3-2, to Nebraska-Kearney’s Tervel Dlagnev.<\/p>\n
“I hate losing and the past couple of years we got accustomed to it,”
\nFields said. “I don’t think it’s going to be like that anymore.”<\/p>\n
Fields and the Hawkeyes return to the mat today, opening their home dual
\nseason at 1:30 p.m. against No.23 Arizona State. The Sun Devils have three
\nheavyweights listed as Fields’ possible opponent.<\/p>\n
Fields will be ready regardless. He’s approaching his third season with a
\nfire that puts a rare smile on Brands’ face.<\/p>\n
“He says a lot of things (in the wrestling room) that he probably wishes
\nthat he wouldn’t say when it’s all said and done,” Brands said. “But I like
\nthat fire and I don’t have a problem with that … I like it.<\/p>\n
“I like guys that are very competitive and want it to go their way every
\nsingle time.”<\/p>\n
Both coach and wrestler say there are no hard feelings once practice is
\nover.<\/p>\n
“When something doesn’t go my way, it gets a little upsetting,” Fields
\nsaid with a smile. “I’m not one to sit back and tolerate it. I kind of speak
\nwhat I think at the time. (But) anything that’s said in the room stays in the
\nroom.”<\/p>\n
Fields missed the second half of last season with a knee injury. He had hip
\nsurgery during the summer of 2005.<\/p>\n
“I’m 100 percent,” he said. “I feel 100 percent. My mind is 100 percent.
\nIf my mind says I can do it, my body is going to do it.”<\/p>\n
Brands likes that attitude.<\/p>\n
“He’s got work to do, but at least he’s determined, at least he’s bought
\nin,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: J.R. Ogden – The Gazette IOWA CITY, IA – Matt Fields is a likable guy. He’s polite and friendly and generally greets you with a smile. Close the doors at the Dan Gable Wrestling Complex in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, however, and Fields turns ornery and boisterous. And University of Iowa wrestling coach Tom Brands loves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2B7Di-Cn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}