Dylan Palacio is one of the most interesting characters to step on a mat. The sophomore returning NCAA qualifier has an interesting outlook on just about everything.

Already in his short career with the Big Red, Palacio has faced plenty of ups and down. During my approximately 40 minute talk with him, he opened up about relationships with his teammates, why he played soccer, where he thought he would be after high school and what he sees in the future.

Below the academic All-American, who majors in Developmental Sociology with a double minor in Business and Psychology, gives us the truth about some of the most looming questions.


RH: So how was practice today?

DP: Practice was good. We had a solid day. Me and Realbuto were scrapping earlier in the day so it was a good day getting down to weight.


RH: You and Brian Realbuto were considered to be rivals in high school with you beating him in the finals of Eastern States. How was going from being rivals to teammates?

DP: That’s a great question. We might not be the best of friends but I just feel like we get each other. And I respect the hell out of him. Me and Brian are on the same page with things and that’s scary to me because ever since then my wrestling has just been getting better because he’s a real student of he game. And to be honest, that’s something that I’m really not.


RH: So you’ve been learning a lot from him and feeding off of what he has to offer you?

DP: It’s amazing to me because he will break down a move in ways that I can’t even see. Like I said, he’s really honestly a student of the game. And for the longest time I just looked at all his flaws, and there very few, but I would just fixate on it because me and him didn’t get along. I would completely block out everything that he did that was good, but at the end of the day I learned that we change people and we change situations through conversation, not through censorship.

Once everything was all out in the open the only thing to do was deal with it. And that’s exactly what we did. But we kind of got set up like it was a blind date. Neither one of us had an individual partner, and they told us to come to the wrestling center, but when we got there to get a workout in, it was just me and him. And we just looked at each other like this is about to be real. But it was honestly the best go I had all year. Me and him just learning and scrambling.

And no one was there. We’ve seen so many things get out of hand. I’m not trying to put us on a pedestal, but I feel like what happen between Biggie and 2Pac for example, it wouldn’t have gotten to that point if no one was around amping it up; hyping it up and that made them lose connection. It’s the same for us, when no one was around we got along like we were best friends. And through everything I realize how much I do want to be like Brian. He has a lot of good morals that I can learn from and he makes me want to be a better person. He’s honestly a role model to me and it took me a long time to realize it. Now that everything is gone and cleared up, I think it was one of the first step to us becoming a great team, not a good team, a great team and that showed at Lehigh.


RH: The beginning of the season, Gabe (Dean) had two losses in Vegas and Nahshon (Garrett) had his weight issues, but now all that is in the past and you guys are coming together. What would you say has been changing for everyone after going through some individual adversity?

DP: I felt bad watching from the sidelines because it’s so hard. You saw Gabe and Nahshon literally for the first half of the season wrestling with the weight of the world on their shoulders. And I couldn’t oblige them, I couldn’t lift it, I couldn’t help them. And it was sad. Brian was hurt and I was hurt too, but for me it was more like I needed to find myself and I wasn’t ready to wrestle.

But watching what happen was tough. I had talks with Gabe Dean and he’s one of the toughest guys that I know and he was a little bummed out about what was happening. And we had a talk. It was a real special night. I told him a story about a psychology professor. I told him that he put rocks in a bowl and he asked “is the bowl full?” and everyone said “yeah, the bowl is full.”

Then he puts pebbles in with the big rocks so the pebbles fill up the cracks and asked again “is it full?” and everyone said “yeah.” And he said “no, it’s not full.” So he poured sand in and everyone said, “ok, now it’s full.” But then he filled it with water. And the moral of the story was, the way I explained it to Gabe, was that the rocks are the big things represent what’s important. That’s life, that’s family, that’s love. And it trickles down to the water.

Those are all the things that we put on ourselves like stress, pressure and all that stuff that’s irrelevant; the little things. And if you put the water in first and you let those little things get inside you then you have no room for anything else and you become consumed by the negative. And something about that made him click and he’s been on a run ever since. He’s getting it together and we are all getting it together.

We came together as a team and it was a dark place. But in the darkest days you find yourself and I couldn’t be happier with how things have happen.


RH: What made you play soccer?

DP: I’d like to paint a picture. Dylan Palacio walked into nationals with a smile on his face ready to beat closed minds with an open heart. I was just so ready to do my thing. I went down to (Nick) Sulzer and I felt like I wrestled well but then in wrestlebacks I was thinking, I have the talent and belief and everything I need to be an All-American. And I was wrestling my ass off. I gave it to Nick Moore, I agave it to all these guys that could have been better than me but I just kept running with it. Now, when I got to that match against (Michael) Moreno all I could think about was Vegas and how I’m so far from that person and I’m going to beat this guy.

I wrestled exactly how I wanted. I scored when I wanted, I strategized and with 45 seconds left, my 15 minutes of fame turned into my 15 minutes of pain with 20,000 people feeling bad for the kid, for me. When my knee gave out and I ended up tearing three ligaments and had to go through the long process. But when my knee gave out, I can still literally feel that moment and I felt it like every night after that. Colors were a little bit duller and music didn’t have the same impact on me. I was like a different person. It’s as if my soul carved out a new depth of despair. And I’m a happy person so I didn’t know that I had that in me.

But when it was all happening and I couldn’t bend my knee, it felt so unfair, so unjust to see another guy take what was mine, what I had worked for, what I achieved. It was devastating to me. I cried for weeks after. I couldn’t step in the wrestling room without feeling this emotional wave of bitterness. And it was so real because I couldn’t just go home and refocus and then come back and have it be all good. I’m in an Ivy League school so I had to deal with it on my own. And those following months I had really convinced myself that wrestling wasn’t for me, this school wasn’t for me and it really was consuming me.

That’s where the whole soccer idea came over. I was doing the camp and I had saw the soccer players walking by. And soccer is such a pure thing to me. It’s like my mistress, you know. It’s between your wife and your mistress and you can’t decide. And as I’m walking over to the wrestling clinic I said to myself I’m walking up here to tell Coach Koll that I want a semester off. I want to leave school for a year and not wrestle. And before I get there is the Athletic Department where the Athletic Director is. And right in front of Bartels (Hall) there was a quarter on the floor. And I picked up the quarter and said to myself “heads: I’m going to coach Koll’s office and I’m taking the year off. I’m quitting wrestling and I’m refocusing. because I am really unhappy. Tails: I’m going to the Athletic Director Andy Noel and I’m saying that I want to play soccer.”

As I flipped the coin, I learned something about chance that day. When things are left up to chance like that, you learn what you secretly want. And while the coin was in the air I learned that I wanted to play soccer that I wanted to keep going and not quit or let these negative things devour me and consume me. I didn’t even look at the coin. When I flipped it into the air I knew what I wanted and I realized that identity is a prison you can never escape. But the way you redeem your past is not to run from it but to understand it and use it as a foundation to grow into something new.

So I walked in there and I told Andy Noel that my heart was in soccer and that soccer was going to save me and it did. I can’t tell you what that experience was like. I was nervous going into tryouts, I didn’t think the guys would accept me. But to be honest I learned so many things that I didn’t think I could from the soccer team. I learned respect from Atticus (DeProspo), I learned leadership from Devin Morgan, I learned passion from Conor Goepel, intelligence from Zach Zagorski and (Tyler) Conway and I learned love of the game from Peter Chodas and once that was over I was at a place in my life where I could put the past away.

If it wasn’t for soccer and being home with my friends, L40, I wouldn’t be here and I can honestly admit that. I wasn’t positive all the time and that was like one of the hardest things for me. It was like I was falling apart and my friend built me up and they saved me.


RH: Did playing soccer make the transition in wrestling any easier?

DP: I have to paint a picture. I love painting pictures. Some people might not be able to see it but I like painting pictures. So I’m going to say it anyway. One of the most sublime moments in my life was when I made weight at Madison Square Garden and coming out for the first time against Edinboro. With all the Cornell fans watching waiting to see who was coming out at 165. Was it going to be (Jesse) Shanaman, and all respect to him he’s a great wrestler and works hard, but I knew they were looking for the kid, I knew they were looking for me.

There were a lot of people wondering, “what’s he going to do; is he coming out; he’s crazy, he’s out of his mind; he’s open, he’s wide open; he’s ready to change the game.” And everyone was kind of dull-eyed waiting for it and I just ran out. To see people’s emotions was great. And I could feel the vibes, I’m very big on vibes, I’m from a beach town, and the vibe of that atmosphere was unreal. Just being able to oblige the people and give them exactly what they wanted. You know, I don’t know a person that could cover for me. And when I was there to oblige and I got the major against Edinboro and my friends were there and I threw up L40 it was like the kid is back. Don’t call it a come back, because although I got hurt. I’m not coming back from anything.

After that I knew I was ready to chase down my goals. Obviously, I got set back at Scuffle. And at the time it was like “oh, my god, (Chance) Marsteller beats Palacio.” But like I said at Lehigh, that was cool, that was a moment to talk about for like a day or two. But when I asked you who scored the first point of the second period and you didn’t know, it proved how irrelevant all that was to me. And Scuffle was like a reality check to me. It was like “hey man, don’t forget your roots.” I’ve always been the underdog.


RH: What’s coming from Dylan Palacio in the future?

DP: That’s an amazing question. I think I’m scared of what the future holds and we all should be. It’s so uncertain and that’s what’s scary to me. Once upon a time, where I’m at, was the future; it was everything I hoped for and now I’m here. I used to dream of the day that I could wrestle with Kyle Dake and now I see him today and I said what’s up to him and we talked about shoes and I never stopped to think that this was the world to me at one point. But the most important thing about the future is that it’s all about the ride.

You set those main goals and people get so attached to those goals that they miss the ride. At the end of the day I want to make history. I want my story to be history and I’ve got the guys around me to do it. I just can’t put in to words how important this whole thing is to me. I understand true sorrow and true failure. There are literally two possibilities in life, you either make it or you don’t.

When it comes to my situation I’ve figured out what that meant to lose everything on the grandest stage and through true sadness I learned true happiness. And if I want to be superficial then I can say, “Yes, I want to be a national champ.” But I want to make a difference in the world. I want people to say that kid never cared about the trending fashions he only worried about ascending passion. I let my differences make a difference. And as long as I have the people around me with the soccer and wrestling guys and the guys back home, L40 and my family, the question about my future seems irrelevant because whether I win a national title as a person or a team it doesn’t define who I am.

But I can remember being in the back room at Ascend Wrestling and coach Koll walked right by then three months later I was one of his top 10 wrestlers. And he probably wouldn’t remember that, but that sticks with me. But when he called me I could believe that it was happening to me. Feelings like that you just never forget.


RH: Is Cornell the school you always wanted to go to?

DP: I honestly did think that I was going to go to college. To be 100 percent honest, I was very street oriented. I never played a sport to go to college. People say that they are going to play a sport because I’m going to go pro one day. But that wasn’t me. I played soccer and wrestled because it was what I did. It made me feel amazing. I never saw myself going to college with soccer and wrestling.

But I got a call from coach Koll and the conversation wasn’t that long. But I got a flight to Ithaca the next morning and through time, space and coincidence something went right for me. A million things went right for me if I’m going to be blatantly honest. A million things went right for me and nothing went wrong for me to get into this school.


Closing statement

DP: My life has two stories; the story of the hustler and the story of the dreamer and the two overlap. I was confortable with the streets for more than half my life from the time I was 13 years old. People say that I am so far away from that now and that with the school I go to I have no right to represent that anymore. But the feelings of that are burned into my life like a brand. And that’s why I’m always me. Why would I be like anyone else. Everyone else is already taken, be yourself.