By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Tanner Hall's two-year LDS mission in Uganda was a trade-off that he believes will eventually work in his favor.
On the one hand, Hall had to abandon his beloved sport of wrestling, losing whatever edge he earned by working with ASU All-American and 1988 NCAA Championship team member Mike Davies for 18 months at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs before Hall enrolled in college. On the other hand, the emotional maturity and expanded world-view he gained are assets he believes will last a lifetime.
"It definitely gave me an appreciation for what we have here," Hall said. "We have cell phones, cars, good roads, good food that is easily available, good housing, good sewage…
"At the same time, I came back with a love or the people. They have so little yet they are have so generous and so friendly. People would cook me dinner in their homes that I know cost more than they could afford but they never thought twice about it. It makes you think about who you are as a person. I'm definitely a lot more mature because of that experience and I think my wrestling benefitted from it."
While in Uganda, Hall was stationed in the capital city of Kampala for 18 months and spent the other six months in various rural areas.
"I had traveled a lot with wrestling before my mission so I really wanted to go overseas and when I found out I was going to Africa I was super excited because it was a new experience," said Hall, who had already visited Cuba, Germany, Thailand, Nicaragua, Bulgaria and Romania. "I definitely did not realize what awaited me.
"When you land, the first thing you can smell can is sewage," he said. "I don't mean to make it sound really bad because the experience was incredible, but it's the first impression and you think, 'Whoa!' You start driving around and fearing for your life when you see how insane the drivers are. You walk dusty roads, eat foreign foods and the size of the insects is insane.
"One time we were walking through the forest at night and we walked though a trail of safari ants. They are super vicious. They were crawling up our legs and biting us and they drew blood."
Hall was up at 6:30 AM every to exercise, study scripture and plan his day. From 9 AM to 9 PM he walked the streets, meeting and serving people.
"You want to find any way to engage somebody in conversation, whether it's about religion or life," he said. "Mostly, you're just there to help people; that's the underlying mission."
Hall lost a fair amount of weight in Uganda due to an altered diet and strength training limited to push-ups, sit-ups and other forms of aerobic exercise. Toward the end of his mission, he would wake up at 4 AM and take a cab to a local gym that sported makeshift free weights of gearshifts placed on iron rods.
Hall originally turned down a scholarship offer from Arizona State, but when Zeke Jones was named the new coach in 2014, he changed his mind. Hall had worked with Jones at the Olympic Training center while Jones was coaching the U.S. Olympic freestyle team that competed in London in 2012.
"Tanner made two junior world teams for 20-and-unders and qualified for the Olympic Trials while he was still in high school so I knew what kind of potential he had," said Jones, who also got a strong recommendation on Hall from Davies. "He wasn't skinny when he got back but he didn't have much muscle mass because he hadn't been training his muscles so the first thing we did was just work on his fitness."
"The great thing about Tanner is his competitive drive is off the charts. He just hadn't been under the stress of competition so it was about getting his bearings back."
Hall posted a host of promising accomplishments in his freshman season last year. He finished as the 125 kg runner-up at the 2016 University Freestyle Nationals in Akron, Ohio, he was the heavyweight runner-up at the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships after posting a quarterfinal upset of Oregon State's Amarveer Dhesi, and he placed fourth at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invite. He was named to the Amateur Wrestling News (AWN) All-Rookie Team, Open Mat's All-Freshman Team and he Competed at NCAA Nationals at Madison Square Garden.
That was the set-up for what Hall and Jones hope are much bigger things this season as a sophomore.
"He certainly started a lot farther ahead than he did at this time last year," Jones said. "It's just that sometimes, improvement is harder to gauge when you get to that elite level. I liken it to an 85 golfer getting to 75. To go from 75 to 72 is much harder, but he's a plus-2 golfer on way to being a scratch golfer."
Hall entered the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invite ranked No. 4 in the nation in the heavyweight class and fell to No. 3 Ty Walz, a senior from Virginia Tech, 3-2 in the semifinals on Saturday. That match and a 20-8 major decision loss on Nov. 19 in Tempe to Kyle Snyder, the Ohio State junior who won the 97 kg Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro by beating Khetag Gazyumov of Azerbaijan, were measuring sticks for Hall.
"He's a great opponent and I had wrestled him before so we had a little bit of history, but it there's that old saying that you learn more from your losses than you do from your wins," Hall said of Snyder. "It helped illuminate to me that I still have a long way to go and it reminded me that there's never a time you can sit back and relax because there's always somebody out there studying you and wanting to beat you.
"I've obviously had some success going into this year, but I would like to be a more dominant wrestler than I am right now."
Jones believes Hall is on the right path to achieving that goal.
"He's putting some moves together; offensive and defensive schemes," Jones said. "Once those things get added, he becomes one of the top few in world and he'll not that far off."
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Tanner Hall's two-year LDS mission in Uganda was a trade-off that he believes will eventually work in his favor.
On the one hand, Hall had to abandon his beloved sport of wrestling, losing whatever edge he earned by working with ASU All-American and 1988 NCAA Championship team member Mike Davies for 18 months at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs before Hall enrolled in college. On the other hand, the emotional maturity and expanded world-view he gained are assets he believes will last a lifetime.
"It definitely gave me an appreciation for what we have here," Hall said. "We have cell phones, cars, good roads, good food that is easily available, good housing, good sewage…
"At the same time, I came back with a love or the people. They have so little yet they are have so generous and so friendly. People would cook me dinner in their homes that I know cost more than they could afford but they never thought twice about it. It makes you think about who you are as a person. I'm definitely a lot more mature because of that experience and I think my wrestling benefitted from it."
While in Uganda, Hall was stationed in the capital city of Kampala for 18 months and spent the other six months in various rural areas.
"I had traveled a lot with wrestling before my mission so I really wanted to go overseas and when I found out I was going to Africa I was super excited because it was a new experience," said Hall, who had already visited Cuba, Germany, Thailand, Nicaragua, Bulgaria and Romania. "I definitely did not realize what awaited me.
"When you land, the first thing you can smell can is sewage," he said. "I don't mean to make it sound really bad because the experience was incredible, but it's the first impression and you think, 'Whoa!' You start driving around and fearing for your life when you see how insane the drivers are. You walk dusty roads, eat foreign foods and the size of the insects is insane.
"One time we were walking through the forest at night and we walked though a trail of safari ants. They are super vicious. They were crawling up our legs and biting us and they drew blood."
Hall was up at 6:30 AM every to exercise, study scripture and plan his day. From 9 AM to 9 PM he walked the streets, meeting and serving people.
"You want to find any way to engage somebody in conversation, whether it's about religion or life," he said. "Mostly, you're just there to help people; that's the underlying mission."
Hall lost a fair amount of weight in Uganda due to an altered diet and strength training limited to push-ups, sit-ups and other forms of aerobic exercise. Toward the end of his mission, he would wake up at 4 AM and take a cab to a local gym that sported makeshift free weights of gearshifts placed on iron rods.
Hall originally turned down a scholarship offer from Arizona State, but when Zeke Jones was named the new coach in 2014, he changed his mind. Hall had worked with Jones at the Olympic Training center while Jones was coaching the U.S. Olympic freestyle team that competed in London in 2012.
"Tanner made two junior world teams for 20-and-unders and qualified for the Olympic Trials while he was still in high school so I knew what kind of potential he had," said Jones, who also got a strong recommendation on Hall from Davies. "He wasn't skinny when he got back but he didn't have much muscle mass because he hadn't been training his muscles so the first thing we did was just work on his fitness."
"The great thing about Tanner is his competitive drive is off the charts. He just hadn't been under the stress of competition so it was about getting his bearings back."
Hall posted a host of promising accomplishments in his freshman season last year. He finished as the 125 kg runner-up at the 2016 University Freestyle Nationals in Akron, Ohio, he was the heavyweight runner-up at the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships after posting a quarterfinal upset of Oregon State's Amarveer Dhesi, and he placed fourth at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invite. He was named to the Amateur Wrestling News (AWN) All-Rookie Team, Open Mat's All-Freshman Team and he Competed at NCAA Nationals at Madison Square Garden.
That was the set-up for what Hall and Jones hope are much bigger things this season as a sophomore.
"He certainly started a lot farther ahead than he did at this time last year," Jones said. "It's just that sometimes, improvement is harder to gauge when you get to that elite level. I liken it to an 85 golfer getting to 75. To go from 75 to 72 is much harder, but he's a plus-2 golfer on way to being a scratch golfer."
Hall entered the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invite ranked No. 4 in the nation in the heavyweight class and fell to No. 3 Ty Walz, a senior from Virginia Tech, 3-2 in the semifinals on Saturday. That match and a 20-8 major decision loss on Nov. 19 in Tempe to Kyle Snyder, the Ohio State junior who won the 97 kg Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro by beating Khetag Gazyumov of Azerbaijan, were measuring sticks for Hall.
"He's a great opponent and I had wrestled him before so we had a little bit of history, but it there's that old saying that you learn more from your losses than you do from your wins," Hall said of Snyder. "It helped illuminate to me that I still have a long way to go and it reminded me that there's never a time you can sit back and relax because there's always somebody out there studying you and wanting to beat you.
"I've obviously had some success going into this year, but I would like to be a more dominant wrestler than I am right now."
Jones believes Hall is on the right path to achieving that goal.
"He's putting some moves together; offensive and defensive schemes," Jones said. "Once those things get added, he becomes one of the top few in world and he'll not that far off."