Former South Carolina wideout Matrick Belton marked a major milestone in his professional wrestling career with the WWE on Tuesday. Belton, wrestling as “Trick Williams,” became NXT champion on Tuesday evening.
NXT is the developmental brand for WWE, in effect a minor league of sorts. And the stakes in the championship match for Belton AKA Williams were high.
Had he lost, he would’ve had to leave NXT, but he instead defeated Ilja Dragunov to secure his first reign as and an NXT championship.
As a college football player, Belton began his career at Hampton before transferring to South Carolina. He caught 11 passes for 121 yards, all in 2015. He was undrafted in 2017 and briefly went into coaching at the prep level in South Carolina.
Dawn Staley paid a visit to South Carolina spring practice
South Carolina‘s women’s basketball team is fresh off of its third national championship victory while their football team just completed their third season under head coach Shane Beamer.
Dawn Staley has been at the helm of the basketball program for all of their national title success, and as Beamer tries to lead his team to similar success in Columbia, he had Staley visit the team during spring practice to share some words of wisdom.
“It is the process, it is every day you have to be great at the little things,” Staley told the football team. “They’re boring, they’re boring as hell, they’re boring. To do something over, and over, and over, and perfect it. You need to do that until it’s habit so in the game when it’s time to make a great play, you’re going to be able to make a great play.”
There’s no doubt that Staley’s team made their fair share of great plays this past season, completing a perfect 38-0 season after defeating Iowa 87-75 in the national championship game. With Staley becoming just the ninth head coach in men’s or women’s history to lead their team to an undefeated season capped off with a national title win. Continuing to explain the difference between good and great to the Gamecocks.
“Because the great plays are here and here,” Staley said spreading her arms apart in opposite directions. “The meat and potatoes is what happens in between the great plays. And when you’re good at the in between, you know you’ll be a great team.”
Staley also spoke about Beamer’s support for her team during his previous stint with the Gamecocks, long before she led South Carolina to any national championships. After eight seasons she led the women’s team to the mountaintop with their first national title in program history, and has since led the program to three total national championship wins and eight SEC regular season and tournament titles.
South Carolina’s football team is yet to win a national championship with just one conference title to their name in program history. But building a championship culture takes time, and there’s no doubt that the Gamecocks surely have a champion in their corner with Staley.
“So I’m looking forward to it, this is the best place to be on Saturdays, best place. And if it’s not here, I’m in front of my television watching you guys, pouring into y’all, all the positive Gamecock vibes to you all. I know you’ve got a tough schedule, so what? So what, so what?” Staley asked firing up the team. Somebody’s gotta play it.”
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