Latest / Where We Rise / 30 | "The Natural Progression" | From the Mat to the Classroom

Transcript

30 | "The Natural Progression" | From the Mat to the Classroom · Where We Rise

• 0:00
  Khalila McCoy: Hey, I'm Calila McCoy, and here we learn from the highs, the lows, and everything in between.
• 0:09
  Khalila McCoy: This is where we rise.
• 0:12
  Khalila McCoy: Hey there, welcome to the show, you guys.
• 0:17
  Khalila McCoy: It is our final week of our back to school series.
• 0:21
  Khalila McCoy: During this series, we have been exploring how others learn, both literally and figuratively, and see how they see the world so we can learn a little bit more ourselves.
• 0:32
  Khalila McCoy: Today, our guest is Family, a cousin on my husband's side, and her story has been so wonderful to hear.
• 0:40
  Khalila McCoy: Sakara Montgomery is a fellow educator, and when we met and talked about education for the first time, I didn't want our conversation to end.
• 0:48
  Khalila McCoy: There was something about the way she spoke about her students.
• 0:52
  Khalila McCoy: Her passion just shined through, and it made me want to meet each and every one of those kiddos and then come to her school and co-teach with her.
• 1:01
  Khalila McCoy: My initial thought was to have her come on the show and simply share a little bit about her experience as a classroom teacher.
• 1:09
  Khalila McCoy: As I prepared for this conversation, what I didn't realize was how many twists and turns and extraordinary moments shaped the woman that she is today.
• 1:19
  Khalila McCoy: As we started talking, I realized her path has stretched far beyond the classroom into places most people never imagined themselves going.
• 1:29
  Khalila McCoy: The way she carries those experiences, quietly, gracefully, without ever leading with a spotlight is part of what makes her story so compelling.
• 1:40
  Khalila McCoy: In this conversation, Takara opens up about moments that built her, the challenges that refined her, and the unexpected chapters that ultimately led her to education.
• 1:51
  Khalila McCoy: Her story reminds us of the power of showing up, staying open, and continuing to grow.
• 1:58
  Khalila McCoy: Because the work you're doing today is shaping the impact you'll make tomorrow.
• 2:03
  Khalila McCoy: Let's jump in and hear this incredible journey.
• 2:07
  Khalila McCoy: Hi Takara, how are you today?
• 2:11
  Khalila McCoy: I'm doing fine.
• 2:12
  Khalila McCoy: How are you?
• 2:13
  Khalila McCoy: I'm really good.
• 2:15
  Khalila McCoy: I'm so excited to have you on the show today and be talking to you.
• 2:18
  Khalila McCoy: I can't wait to hear all the things you have to share with us.
• 2:21
  Khalila McCoy: Um, you and I have only met in person once, right?
• 2:23
  Khalila McCoy: That's correct.
• 2:24
  Toccara Montgomery: Yes.
• 2:25
  Khalila McCoy: Yeah, you came to our house and we talked and we talked about education because we're both teachers, and that was a really good conversation.
• 2:30
  Khalila McCoy: So that was a big part of why I wanted you to come on today.
• 2:34
  Khalila McCoy: And I also know DJ always tells me that, you know, you were this great wrestler and that you were in the Olympics and things like that.
• 2:40
  Khalila McCoy: And I was like, oh, okay, that's that's cool.
• 2:42
  Khalila McCoy: But I didn't realize, I guess, because I don't follow sports that much, right?
• 2:47
  Khalila McCoy: So I don't know much about wrestling.
• 2:49
  Khalila McCoy: And I unfortunately I don't know if this is I don't know, wrong or not, but I don't pay attention a lot to the Olympics as far as like the people themselves.
• 2:57
  Khalila McCoy: Like I don't follow the people, you know what you mean?
• 2:59
  Khalila McCoy: So I decided I was like, okay, well, let me look her up before I talk to her.
• 3:04
  Khalila McCoy: And I was playing with an AI tool, and I was like, yeah, who's Takara Montgomery uh Montgomery?
• 3:09
  Khalila McCoy: And here's the first sentence that came up.
• 3:11
  Khalila McCoy: I'm gonna read it.
• 3:12
  Khalila McCoy: It says, Takara Montgomery is widely recognized as one of the most dominant female wrestlers in US history with a career that broke barriers, set records, and reshaped women's wrestling.
• 3:24
  Toccara Montgomery: So I was like, wow, I am really out of it.
• 3:29
  Toccara Montgomery: I mean, it's a pretty cool intro.
• 3:31
  Toccara Montgomery: I mean, I I can't complain about that.
• 3:33
  Toccara Montgomery: I don't know who wrote that, but I'm not gonna complain about it.
• 3:36
  Khalila McCoy: Yeah, right.
• 3:36
  Khalila McCoy: I can I tell you, I looked myself up.
• 3:40
  Toccara Montgomery: And it was like, Cleela McCoy, we cannot tell you any personal information about her.
• 3:44
  Toccara Montgomery: I was like, oh, well, clearly, I'm not as exciting.
• 3:50
  Khalila McCoy: But yeah, so let's just start with, you know, world-dominating sport of wrestling.
• 3:58
  Khalila McCoy: Tell us a little about about, tell us a little bit about you as an athlete.
• 4:03
  Toccara Montgomery: So I think um just growing up, I you could probably consider me a tomboy, much to the dismay of my mother.
• 4:09
  Toccara Montgomery: My dad was all for it.
• 4:10
  Toccara Montgomery: Um I just enjoy sports.
• 4:13
  Toccara Montgomery: I love being competitive, um, highly competitive individual in all aspects of life.
• 4:18
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, so I tried to play as many sports as I could possibly like get into.
• 4:24
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, it started with, you know, just running around, playing with cousins, you know, doing race foot races in the street, those type of things.
• 4:30
  Toccara Montgomery: But I'll be the first to like put it out there.
• 4:32
  Toccara Montgomery: I do not enjoy running.
• 4:33
  Toccara Montgomery: I knew track was not going to be a thing at all.
• 4:36
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, so I think in middle school, we didn't have too many sports offered to us.
• 4:41
  Toccara Montgomery: So I started off with just basketball, play basketball um with my middle school team at Garrett Morgan.
• 4:48
  Toccara Montgomery: And then uh when I went to high school, went to East Tech, it was just really trying to find my niche of like what it is that I wanted to do.
• 4:56
  Toccara Montgomery: I didn't have like anything like set on my my like goals of like, oh, I want to be like a world-class athlete or anything like that.
• 5:03
  Toccara Montgomery: It was like, oh, you know, what sports are gonna pique my interest that's gonna hold my um, that I can like showcase my talents.
• 5:10
  Toccara Montgomery: So um, you know, obviously I did basketball because I was used to that.
• 5:14
  Toccara Montgomery: I was comfortable.
• 5:16
  Toccara Montgomery: And then um I wanted to do volleyball, but I found out that I missed tryouts because they're um before school starts.
• 5:23
  Toccara Montgomery: So then I just kind of just started bouncing around.
• 5:25
  Toccara Montgomery: So just everything that they had to offer.
• 5:27
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, freshman year was just basketball and softball.
• 5:31
  Toccara Montgomery: And then sophomore year, like if they offered it, I was like, I'm going to do this.
• 5:34
  Toccara Montgomery: And then it just so happened that that was the year that um wrestling came to East Tech.
• 5:40
  Toccara Montgomery: The coach came, made an announcement like, hey, any boys or girls who wanted to come out and join the team, like um come down at this time after school, we'll go over it.
• 5:49
  Toccara Montgomery: And I was like, I didn't know girls wrestle.
• 5:51
  Toccara Montgomery: So like I gathered like myself and probably seven other of like my close female friends, and like we went out listened to what the coach had to say, and we're like, oh, we can do this.
• 6:00
  Toccara Montgomery: And so um, you know, we're all excited and everything like that.
• 6:03
  Toccara Montgomery: Did not run this past my mother.
• 6:05
  Toccara Montgomery: So she was not, I wouldn't say on board initially, because I was like, hey, by the way, I'm going to wrestling practice.
• 6:12
  Toccara Montgomery: And like, same thing.
• 6:13
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, she didn't know anything about the sport itself, so she was like, I don't know about this.
• 6:17
  Toccara Montgomery: And then she was, you know, always encouraging.
• 6:19
  Toccara Montgomery: But it was the part where I was like, Oh, yeah, and by the way, we're gonna wrestle boys, tried to sneak that in there real quiet.
• 6:24
  Toccara Montgomery: And she was like, Absolutely not, this is not happening.
• 6:29
  Toccara Montgomery: You can do something else.
• 6:30
  Toccara Montgomery: This is like when you wanted to play football because she was not going to allow football at all.
• 6:34
  Toccara Montgomery: Like that was like not a good sale.
• 6:37
  Toccara Montgomery: But I was able to, like, no, I have some friends who are gonna come out and they're gonna like we're all gonna do it.
• 6:41
  Toccara Montgomery: So it's gonna be like, you know, like almost like a co-ed team, and you know, just trying to like sugarcoat everything so she can kind of like give me the go-ahead to at least try it out and see how it went.
• 6:50
  Toccara Montgomery: But I mean, you know, like that was the the beginning stages of something like really amazing.
• 6:55
  Toccara Montgomery: Like I could not have predicted from that announcement, uh, you know, a school announcement over the PA that it would take me on the travels and the journeys that I've been able to participate with um throughout the sport of wrestling.
• 7:08
  Toccara Montgomery: Because I mean, I've been basically all over the world.
• 7:11
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and I didn't have to pay like a dime out of my pocket.
• 7:15
  Toccara Montgomery: I was able to represent USA wrestling on different levels, junior, senior, Olympic levels.
• 7:19
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and again, like all of that came out of an announcement of curiosity.
• 7:23
  Toccara Montgomery: So very, very grateful for all that the sport has given to me and then um also what I'm able to give back to the sport as well.
• 7:32
  Khalila McCoy: Right.
• 7:32
  Khalila McCoy: Yeah, that's really neat.
• 7:33
  Khalila McCoy: So that's surprising to hear you didn't start until your sophomore year, because usually you hear people say, like, oh, they've been doing this since they were a little kid.
• 7:40
  Khalila McCoy: When you started, were you automatically like really good at it?
• 7:45
  Khalila McCoy: Was it just a natural talent?
• 7:47
  Khalila McCoy: Okay.
• 7:47
  Khalila McCoy: That laugh tells me no.
• 7:50
  Toccara Montgomery: Not at all.
• 7:51
  Toccara Montgomery: So what's funny is um, so East Tech is known for having like, you know, pretty much like an elite level basketball program, always has, um, especially for the women.
• 8:01
  Toccara Montgomery: And so playing basketball, you know, like um I came from that culture of like winning and, you know, just very dominant performances, those type of things.
• 8:12
  Toccara Montgomery: And then I went into wrestling, having no idea how demanding the skill set for wrestling is.
• 8:18
  Toccara Montgomery: And so, you know, I went into a very happy and um long story short, I was not good at it at first.
• 8:24
  Toccara Montgomery: I think I spent quite a amount of time my first year getting pinned, um, which is like something you just don't want to do in the sport of wrestling at all.
• 8:33
  Toccara Montgomery: There are different ways to lose, but you just don't want to be pinned.
• 8:35
  Toccara Montgomery: So um, and like I we mentioned earlier, like I'm very competitive.
• 8:40
  Toccara Montgomery: So like that just didn't sit well with me.
• 8:43
  Toccara Montgomery: So um luckily I had like a very intense coach who like saw potential, but he was like, hey, you're gonna have to push it.
• 8:49
  Toccara Montgomery: So one of the things um that was, you know, a little bit challenging is um I went out for wrestling towards like the middle of the year, like towards the end, I want to say it was like November or something along those lines.
• 9:02
  Toccara Montgomery: But that wrestling and basketball, they overlap.
• 9:06
  Toccara Montgomery: Okay.
• 9:07
  Toccara Montgomery: So I was going to basketball practice um for pretty much like it's a two-hour practice.
• 9:12
  Toccara Montgomery: So I would go for like an hour and 45 minutes, and then I would hightail it to the basement to go down for wrestling practice.
• 9:19
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and then I would go through like a two-hour practice with wrestling practice.
• 9:22
  Toccara Montgomery: So it was it was a lot to do with time management and then just kind of pushing myself as an athlete.
• 9:26
  Toccara Montgomery: I felt like I was pretty athletic and um pretty in shape as like um a multi-sport athlete up to that point, and then wrestling into the chat, and it was like you have no idea what it means to work hard.
• 9:39
  Toccara Montgomery: I recall going to like my first scrimmage, which is basically like a practice, but with other teams, and you just kind of go and like fill it out and you know, get to wrestle some different opponents in a practice setting.
• 9:50
  Toccara Montgomery: The next day I was so incredibly sore, like my legs were like trembling just from the exertion that it took to like keep up because I like never wanted to be the girl in the room, like, oh, go easy on her, or you know, so like I was always pushing myself.
• 10:06
  Toccara Montgomery: And I just remember like, oh, I need an elevator, like pass so I can like not have to walk up these stairs throughout the day.
• 10:13
  Toccara Montgomery: And it didn't happen, but it was just wrestling opened up a lot about myself that I didn't know.
• 10:20
  Toccara Montgomery: Like I really thought that I was like this amazing athletic, you know, girl.
• 10:24
  Toccara Montgomery: And then it turns out like there was so much more that I was able to give and to develop as this athlete.
• 10:31
  Khalila McCoy: So you said you're competitive.
• 10:32
  Khalila McCoy: So it is it almost like you started competing against yourself?
• 10:35
  Khalila McCoy: Like I have to get to this next level and almost prove to yourself that you could stay with it.
• 10:41
  Toccara Montgomery: Absolutely.
• 10:42
  Toccara Montgomery: It definitely started off like you think it would be more competitive against others.
• 10:46
  Toccara Montgomery: But like I said, I got pinned a lot.
• 10:48
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, I did not enjoy that that first year.
• 10:51
  Toccara Montgomery: And so um, I'm like, what can I do to get better?
• 10:53
  Toccara Montgomery: So, you know, I'm talking to my coach and he's like, you gotta start running.
• 10:56
  Toccara Montgomery: Like you got to be able to do so many miles.
• 10:58
  Toccara Montgomery: And I'm like, miles, you know, like we never really thought about it in miles.
• 11:01
  Toccara Montgomery: Like coaches say, like, you know, hit like for basketball, like, you know, do five laps or something like that, get warmed up.
• 11:07
  Toccara Montgomery: But like wrestling was like, oh no, you have to run, you have to condition, you have to make sure your nutrition, like all these elements that I don't think like a sophomore or high school sophomore thinks about, like you really have to become in tune with.
• 11:21
  Toccara Montgomery: So when I um I knew that it was pushing myself beyond what I had been accustomed to.
• 11:28
  Toccara Montgomery: So, yes, in a sense, it was like being competitive with myself.
• 11:31
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, when I started wrestling and all so those many years ago, there weren't a ton of girls wrestling.
• 11:37
  Toccara Montgomery: Like I said, I did have like some um teammates who went out with me.
• 11:41
  Toccara Montgomery: Very few stayed uh until we graduated.
• 11:44
  Toccara Montgomery: I had my one teammate, Wendy.
• 11:47
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, she actually we went to the same college for wrestling on wrestling scholarships.
• 11:51
  Toccara Montgomery: She got hurt pretty early on.
• 11:53
  Toccara Montgomery: So she uh didn't necessarily finish up her collegiate career, but we did like start it at East Tech and then finish at the University of the Cumberlands.
• 12:01
  Toccara Montgomery: And so, like a lot of times I would be, especially in the high school world, I would be the only female in the room.
• 12:07
  Toccara Montgomery: So it was really like just constantly proving myself because at that time, and it may still be, but I think it's a little bit different.
• 12:13
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, nobody wanted a girl in the wrestling room.
• 12:16
  Toccara Montgomery: Nobody wanted to deal with whatever came along um with having a girl in there.
• 12:20
  Toccara Montgomery: Nobody, no boy wanted to wrestle a girl.
• 12:23
  Toccara Montgomery: You know, you don't want to lose to a girl.
• 12:25
  Toccara Montgomery: You want to be seen as the guy who beat a girl.
• 12:28
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and then, you know, like people always tried to make it seem like, oh, what if something inappropriate happened?
• 12:33
  Toccara Montgomery: But nothing like that ever happened.
• 12:35
  Toccara Montgomery: Um I think because people are athletes, like we were generally all out there to prove ourselves to be the best athlete, the best wrestler on the mat.
• 12:43
  Toccara Montgomery: So just inappropriateness that people perceive that would happen along those lines, like nothing like that ever happened.
• 12:49
  Toccara Montgomery: Now, did I get tossed on a couple hardwood floors or into a wall from time to time?
• 12:52
  Toccara Montgomery: Absolutely.
• 12:54
  Toccara Montgomery: But I mean, I've seen guys the same thing happen to guys.
• 12:57
  Toccara Montgomery: And I think that um in the world of wrestling, that's kind of character building.
• 13:01
  Khalila McCoy: Mm-hmm.
• 13:01
  Khalila McCoy: When you mentioned like being the only girl out there, so would you always wrestle with a boy, or is it like if there was a girl on that team, you you would only wrestle with that other female?
• 13:14
  Toccara Montgomery: So um, as I stated, like finding another girl, especially in the state of Ohio, was so few and far between, especially in those early stages.
• 13:22
  Toccara Montgomery: And that's wonderful to see that like it's sanctioned now.
• 13:25
  Toccara Montgomery: But um I would say in high school, I wrestled, uh, I'd say I wrestled boys 95% of the time.
• 13:34
  Toccara Montgomery: Okay now, towards the end of my high school career, um, you know, more women were starting to come out and wrestle, but not necessarily like in the state of Ohio.
• 13:45
  Toccara Montgomery: So a lot of times I had to go and travel to like Michigan, where there used to be this really prominent um tournament, the USGWA national tournament, which was like girls from almost all 50 states would show up and we would go into these massive brackets with like, you know, 40, 50, 60 girls in your bracket and you would wrestle.
• 14:02
  Toccara Montgomery: But that that would happen like once a year.
• 14:05
  Toccara Montgomery: So the majority of high school was wrestling the boys.
• 14:08
  Toccara Montgomery: Occasionally you might run into another girl on another team if we had like traveled down to Columbus or something along those lines.
• 14:14
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, the likelihood of us being in the same weight class was pretty slim.
• 14:18
  Khalila McCoy: Right.
• 14:19
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, it was very common, I think, at that time when girls did want to wrestle for them to be like a little smaller in stature.
• 14:25
  Toccara Montgomery: So, you know, like around 100 pounds, 110 pounds.
• 14:28
  Toccara Montgomery: And I was wrestling anywhere between like 140 to 152, like in that range.
• 14:32
  Toccara Montgomery: So a little bit bigger in the sport of like women's wrestling at that time.
• 14:36
  Toccara Montgomery: So obviously I'm not gonna wrestle a girl that's a hundred pounds.
• 14:39
  Toccara Montgomery: Yeah.
• 14:40
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, although I do feel like in some instances that was kind of the expectation, and luckily, um more level-headed minds prevailed and was like, uh guys, this isn't gonna work just because they're they're both females.
• 14:52
  Toccara Montgomery: Uh we still have to adhere to the weight classes.
• 14:54
  Toccara Montgomery: So um, yeah, it was pretty much boys the the entire time.
• 14:59
  Toccara Montgomery: Like I think I went from not winning a match at all that first year that I started wrestling to um again having a very level-headed coach who was like, hey, you know, the the future of you in this sport is not you trying to win a state title at the boys' state tournament.
• 15:14
  Toccara Montgomery: It's more so finding these tournaments and going to like opens and everything.
• 15:18
  Toccara Montgomery: So I think I wrestled maybe 12 or 15 times my senior year against boys, like on the the high school team.
• 15:25
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, but I went undefeated against boys that year.
• 15:27
  Toccara Montgomery: So it was like I think I was 12 and oh that year.
• 15:30
  Khalila McCoy: Yeah.
• 15:30
  Khalila McCoy: Do you feel like that gave you kind of an edge that you had to wrestle with the boys?
• 15:34
  Khalila McCoy: Or since it's weight classes, does that matter as much?
• 15:38
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, in a sense, yes.
• 15:40
  Toccara Montgomery: So funny story.
• 15:41
  Toccara Montgomery: I think I got caught up in the hype, like, oh, girls wrestling, you know, in a sense, like because I was constantly wrestling boys.
• 15:47
  Toccara Montgomery: So I think um, I don't know if it was my junior year or my senior year.
• 15:52
  Toccara Montgomery: It was those last couple years in high school where um they had like an unofficial girls state tournament.
• 15:59
  Toccara Montgomery: And and by this, this was like a the USGWA put together um a series of these tournaments in different states to like get girls wrestling before we went to like the national um championship that was in Michigan.
• 16:13
  Toccara Montgomery: So um I went down to Columbus and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna enter an all an all-girls tournament.
• 16:18
  Toccara Montgomery: And I don't think I had done that previously.
• 16:20
  Toccara Montgomery: So in my head, I was like, oh, I'm just gonna go in here and I'm just gonna wreck shop.
• 16:23
  Toccara Montgomery: Wrong.
• 16:24
  Toccara Montgomery: Um I ran into another girl who had been wrestling significantly longer than I had.
• 16:30
  Toccara Montgomery: Um and I go out and I'm wrestling, and I'm I'm thinking that I'm really gonna go in this match and dominate and did not.
• 16:38
  Toccara Montgomery: So um she, long story short, she won.
• 16:41
  Toccara Montgomery: Uh again, having that crazy coach, he was like, run it back.
• 16:43
  Toccara Montgomery: And so um, we wrestled again, and I think it was a little bit closer match, but I'm pretty sure she won again.
• 16:50
  Toccara Montgomery: So um that was very humbling, and I think it came at the right time.
• 16:54
  Toccara Montgomery: Like it was, it changed the trajectory of my mindset about what I had been conditioned to know about women's wrestling.
• 17:01
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, you know, I picked up on a lot of bad habits and just like um thoughts and perceptions because that's what I was ingrained in.
• 17:08
  Toccara Montgomery: That's what I was engrossed in or in these male-dominant rooms.
• 17:12
  Toccara Montgomery: And so like that gave me a little bit more insight of what the world of women's wrestling could be.
• 17:17
  Toccara Montgomery: And so um, with my coach thinking, like, hey, you know, you're net like it's never gonna be any great opportunity to do anything on like the boys' high school circuit.
• 17:29
  Toccara Montgomery: But now they have the US Open and they have these junior tournaments, like these are some things that we can get you involved in and they can really help to prevail you in this career.
• 17:37
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and so that became like our focus as I grew um throughout high school about what it was that I really wanted to do in the sport of wrestling.
• 17:48
  Toccara Montgomery: So um we did start to travel a lot more.
• 17:50
  Toccara Montgomery: We would go to Canada like almost every weekend, I would say.
• 17:54
  Toccara Montgomery: My coach Kip Flanick would take us, yeah, would take myself and my uh teammate Wendy, we would go up to Canada and Russell because in Canada um they had something very similar to Title IX when it came to sports.
• 18:07
  Toccara Montgomery: We know here in the US, um, with Title IX when it first was implemented, um, when universities, colleges, high schools said, hey, for every men's team, you need to have like a winner, a women's counterpart.
• 18:20
  Toccara Montgomery: The US said, you know what, we'll just get rid of some men's programs.
• 18:23
  Toccara Montgomery: And wrestling was one of those sports that kind of took um the blunt from that.
• 18:27
  Toccara Montgomery: But in Canada, they did the opposite.
• 18:29
  Toccara Montgomery: They were like, um, hey, you have to have a counterpart to keep women's sports engaged.
• 18:34
  Toccara Montgomery: And Canada was like, okay, we'll just add women to, and so it allowed um for women's wrestling to kind of develop um a little faster in Canada than it did in the US.
• 18:45
  Toccara Montgomery: And then being in Cleveland, we were able to go um up there pretty frequently and find some pretty good competition and talented wrestlers that were females that we could wrestle and just kind of develop and build our skill sets around as well.
• 18:57
  Khalila McCoy: Yeah.
• 18:58
  Khalila McCoy: I mean that's neat.
• 18:59
  Khalila McCoy: Now, as you're doing this, do you real did you realize that, okay, I'm getting really good?
• 19:05
  Khalila McCoy: I'm, you know, I can do this in college, I can make something, like make a name of myself from this.
• 19:11
  Khalila McCoy: And like, did you were you like the Olympics was a goal, or did it just kind of I don't want to say accidentally happened, but did were you mindful of that while you were doing all of this?
• 19:21
  Toccara Montgomery: Not at all.
• 19:22
  Toccara Montgomery: Okay.
• 19:22
  Toccara Montgomery: So I I didn't see beyond what was directly in front of me.
• 19:27
  Toccara Montgomery: So that meant like, hey, if we're going to- that makes sense.
• 19:30
  Khalila McCoy: Right.
• 19:31
  Toccara Montgomery: Like if we're going to this tournament, um, this high school tournament, like the goal was to win the high school tournament.
• 19:37
  Toccara Montgomery: Like we're going up to Canada um to wrestle in this open tournament, the goal was to win the open tournament.
• 19:42
  Toccara Montgomery: So when I first started wrestling, uh, women's wrestling was not an Olympic sport.
• 19:47
  Toccara Montgomery: I think they made the decision, the IOC made the decision to um add women's wrestling.
• 19:54
  Toccara Montgomery: I want to say it was the end of 2002, or it may have been like the early 2003, for it to be implemented into the 2004 Olympics.
• 20:03
  Khalila McCoy: So you're in the very first round of this.
• 20:05
  Khalila McCoy: Yes.
• 20:05
  Khalila McCoy: Wow.
• 20:06
  Khalila McCoy: Okay.
• 20:07
  Toccara Montgomery: And so I think people throw around the word trailblazer a lot.
• 20:13
  Toccara Montgomery: I've never seen myself as a trailblazer.
• 20:15
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, I was just in the moment doing something that I enjoyed.
• 20:18
  Toccara Montgomery: Right.
• 20:18
  Toccara Montgomery: So um during that, yeah, during that time period, like it was just like wrestling, it's fun.
• 20:23
  Toccara Montgomery: I want to be the best at it right now.
• 20:25
  Toccara Montgomery: I want to be the best in the room.
• 20:26
  Toccara Montgomery: I want to be the best at the weight class.
• 20:28
  Toccara Montgomery: So until like different levels started to like open up for me, I didn't realize what was out there.
• 20:34
  Toccara Montgomery: But as I started to like develop and see, like, oh, okay, um, you know, we started here in the city of Cleveland, and then we would go down to Columbus.
• 20:43
  Toccara Montgomery: And then, okay, maybe we'll go over to um Pennsylvania and wrestle there.
• 20:48
  Toccara Montgomery: Or maybe so we started to travel and that started to open things up.
• 20:51
  Toccara Montgomery: And then, like I said, we started to go to Canada quite frequently.
• 20:54
  Toccara Montgomery: And then, like, there'll be um a time where you learned about like a state that sanctioned women's wrestling like pretty early.
• 21:01
  Toccara Montgomery: So, pretty early on, California and Texas and Hawaii, I think were the first three states to sanction women's wrestling.
• 21:09
  Toccara Montgomery: So they had dedicated women's teams very early on.
• 21:14
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, when I was out here wrestling with the boys, California and Texas specifically, um, they had started their own sanctioned women's wrestling on the high school level.
• 21:23
  Toccara Montgomery: So then again, having a very dedicated or crazy coach, depending on how you look at it, um, would be like, hey, we need to go out west to get you some more Matt time against some of um, you know, some of these tougher women's uh women in these other states.
• 21:36
  Toccara Montgomery: So um went to uh California a couple times and competed out there, went to Texas and competed out there a few times.
• 21:44
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and just to see like how developed and to see like, you know, full pledged like women's programs with 15, 14 girls on the roster was really impressive.
• 21:54
  Toccara Montgomery: And to see, you know, like that they actually have this ingrained into their high school culture as opposed to having to like go.
• 21:59
  Toccara Montgomery: Down to Cleveland State to get additional practices and changing in the bathroom because no one thought to open like the women's bathroom for that.
• 22:08
  Toccara Montgomery: But then like I would go to like California or Texas and then, like, I mean, they're used to this.
• 22:13
  Toccara Montgomery: This has been the program.
• 22:14
  Toccara Montgomery: So, like, of course the locker rooms are open.
• 22:16
  Toccara Montgomery: Of course, you have this access.
• 22:17
  Toccara Montgomery: You know, so um it was it was nice to start to see the growth and the expansion of women's wrestling, not knowing that those opportunities were out there in the West.
• 22:27
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and then just learning more and more.
• 22:30
  Toccara Montgomery: And then um, so in high school, we wrestled was called folk style.
• 22:34
  Toccara Montgomery: And folk style wrestling is completely different than the Olympic style of wrestling, which is um freestyle.
• 22:39
  Toccara Montgomery: There's two.
• 22:40
  Toccara Montgomery: There's freestyle, and that's what um the women wrestle.
• 22:44
  Toccara Montgomery: If you're gonna go on an Olympic team, you'll be wrestling freestyle.
• 22:46
  Toccara Montgomery: So then just kind of learning and developing um the differences because there are some nuances and um differences as far as points and scoring that are different from the the different styles of wrestling.
• 22:58
  Toccara Montgomery: So, like learning and adapting like my skill set to now be able to wrestle that style of wrestling also was very helpful.
• 23:06
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and I think like because people ask, like, oh, is it is it different wrestling like boys and girls?
• 23:12
  Toccara Montgomery: Like it there is.
• 23:13
  Toccara Montgomery: Like a lot of times you're wrestling um boys and they're strong.
• 23:17
  Toccara Montgomery: Like they are gonna come in, they're gonna push you around, they're gonna bully you and everything.
• 23:20
  Toccara Montgomery: So you really have to focus on like, you know, like good management, good placement, making sure you're setting yourself up to stay away from their strengths.
• 23:28
  Toccara Montgomery: But then wrestling with a lot of females, um, they're very flexible and you have to make sure that you're executing your technique in a way that is always going to be able to like maneuver around their strengths.
• 23:41
  Toccara Montgomery: So um I am thankful that I had the opportunity to wrestle against boys at one point in my career.
• 23:47
  Toccara Montgomery: I am more than thankful that I was able to branch out and only wrestle women towards the end of my career as well.
• 23:53
  Toccara Montgomery: With the exception of practice, I had some really great um drill partners and coaches that I wrestle frequently that were male, um, that also just continue to help me stay in shape and then just kind of fine-tune my skills.
• 24:05
  Khalila McCoy: Yeah.
• 24:06
  Khalila McCoy: So tell us about when you did learn that you were going to the Olympics.
• 24:12
  Toccara Montgomery: So I think like I have to kind of rewind.
• 24:14
  Toccara Montgomery: They they told us, um, I want to say we were at the world championships, and they're like, hey, the ILC has finally voted.
• 24:21
  Toccara Montgomery: They're going to add women's wrestling to the Olympics.
• 24:24
  Toccara Montgomery: And we're like, oh, that's great.
• 24:25
  Toccara Montgomery: That's wonderful.
• 24:26
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, everyone's excited.
• 24:27
  Toccara Montgomery: So of course we're all like, yes, this is what we're gonna do.
• 24:29
  Toccara Montgomery: Everybody wants to make an Olympic team.
• 24:31
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, so at that time, you had to, uh we had seven weight classes for women um on the world team.
• 24:38
  Toccara Montgomery: And I was considered a heavyweight, the heaviest weight, um, a hundred, which was like 158.6 pounds or like 72 kilos, um, which is crazy to think that we're calling women heavyweight at 158.6, but that's a whole nother uh thing too.
• 24:55
  Toccara Montgomery: But um, so we're like, okay, cool.
• 25:01
  Toccara Montgomery: But they're like, but, and we're like, what's the but?
• 25:04
  Toccara Montgomery: And the but was um instead of having the seven weight classes that you all have been wrestling for the last, you know, several years, they're only going to allow four weight classes.
• 25:14
  Toccara Montgomery: And we're like, what?
• 25:16
  Toccara Montgomery: And it just so happened I was wrestling at a weight that was not um one of the weights that was selected for the Olympics.
• 25:24
  Toccara Montgomery: I was right between two weight classes.
• 25:26
  Toccara Montgomery: So it's like either 163 um was a weight class or 158 was a weight class for the Olympics.
• 25:33
  Toccara Montgomery: And at that time I was wrestling 147.
• 25:36
  Toccara Montgomery: So I had to then make the decision like, hey, if I'm going to make an Olympic run, do I drop down in weight from 147 down to 136?
• 25:45
  Toccara Montgomery: Or do I try to gain the weight and go up to 158?
• 25:49
  Toccara Montgomery: So um tried going down, and I was like, um, this may be more than um I think that I can do in a way and still do it where I'm healthy and I feel strong enough to compete.
• 26:02
  Khalila McCoy: How long did you have to prepare?
• 26:03
  Khalila McCoy: Like how quickly were you trying to gain or lose this weight?
• 26:06
  Toccara Montgomery: So I had I had a couple years.
• 26:08
  Toccara Montgomery: I'd say a year and a half to two years that I had.
• 26:10
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, so I had an opportunity to kind of play around with it.
• 26:13
  Toccara Montgomery: So in the world of wrestling, I think a lot of people, especially at that time, it has changed.
• 26:17
  Toccara Montgomery: I would say the culture has changed, but it was always like smaller is better.
• 26:21
  Toccara Montgomery: If you can lose more weight, um, you'll be stronger than everyone else.
• 26:25
  Toccara Montgomery: You'll be faster, those type of things.
• 26:27
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and so like the initial goal was to go down.
• 26:30
  Toccara Montgomery: And I did go down and I just didn't feel like spectacular.
• 26:33
  Toccara Montgomery: I didn't feel like myself.
• 26:34
  Toccara Montgomery: So then the thought was to go up, and everyone's like, oh, you're just gonna be too small to go up.
• 26:38
  Toccara Montgomery: You're not, you know, those girls are gonna be so much bigger, they're gonna be stronger.
• 26:42
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, it's just not going to work.
• 26:44
  Toccara Montgomery: And I'm like, well, you know, like let me see, let me try.
• 26:47
  Toccara Montgomery: So I go up and um didn't have like a terrible time.
• 26:52
  Toccara Montgomery: So I knew that again, those adjustments needed to be made.
• 26:55
  Toccara Montgomery: I needed to to fine-tune some things and then wrestle.
• 26:58
  Toccara Montgomery: But I think back to like how I had to adapt when I'm wrestling like bigger, stronger guys.
• 27:03
  Toccara Montgomery: And so um, similar situation when I made the this my decision to make an Olympic run was going to be at the heavier weight class.
• 27:10
  Toccara Montgomery: So um I spent a couple years, you know, like wrestling at the heavier weight, um, getting some competition internationally, just trying to trying to see where the competition was gonna fall because many other athletes were going through the same thing.
• 27:23
  Toccara Montgomery: They had to decide if they were gonna go up or down.
• 27:26
  Toccara Montgomery: So some people went up, some people went down.
• 27:28
  Toccara Montgomery: And it was just um a matter of seeing where everyone was gonna fall when the Olympics actually rolled around.
• 27:34
  Toccara Montgomery: So we fast forward and we go to um Olympic trials because there's a process to make an Olympic team.
• 27:40
  Toccara Montgomery: You don't just be like, oh, I'm on the team.
• 27:42
  Toccara Montgomery: So it starts off where you have to one, qualify your weight internationally.
• 27:47
  Toccara Montgomery: So um you can make an Olympic team in the US, and if you didn't, if the weight didn't get qualified internationally, you don't go.
• 27:54
  Toccara Montgomery: There's no there's nowhere for you to wrestle.
• 27:57
  Toccara Montgomery: So we had to qualify the weight internationally, um, which I was able to do by um I played second in the world championships the year before.
• 28:05
  Toccara Montgomery: And so that qualified my weight.
• 28:07
  Toccara Montgomery: But just because I qualified the weight did not mean that I then was the Olympian for that team.
• 28:13
  Toccara Montgomery: Only the weight was qualified, not me.
• 28:15
  Toccara Montgomery: So then there's a series and a process that you have to go to.
• 28:19
  Toccara Montgomery: You have to go to the U.S.
• 28:20
  Toccara Montgomery: Open.
• 28:21
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, ideally in the US Open, you want to win it because if you win the U.S.
• 28:25
  Toccara Montgomery: Open, it gives you like a leg up and you get to sit out what's called um the mini tournament.
• 28:31
  Toccara Montgomery: And then basically what happens is the other girls, um, so the top eight from the US Open qualify for Olympic team trials.
• 28:40
  Toccara Montgomery: So those seven girls, and there may be a couple others where they can get in from other qualifications, um, tournaments throughout.
• 28:48
  Toccara Montgomery: So you're thinking you're looking at anywhere what I would say between seven to twelve girls who enter a bracket, then they all wrestle um to get to the point where they wrestle the person who won the US Open.
• 29:00
  Toccara Montgomery: That year it happened to have been me.
• 29:02
  Toccara Montgomery: Um and what happens is you have to do the best of three series.
• 29:07
  Toccara Montgomery: So um someone has to win two out of three.
• 29:09
  Toccara Montgomery: And so um I had I won against um someone that I had wrestled quite a bit.
• 29:17
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, it was when we got to trials, it was a little interesting because of the simple fact that um she had originally chose to go down um when everybody was trying to decide what are you going up or down, what are we gonna do?
• 29:31
  Toccara Montgomery: She decided to go down, I went up.
• 29:32
  Toccara Montgomery: So we hadn't wrestled each other in um at least over a year, and she missed weight.
• 29:38
  Toccara Montgomery: So when you miss weight, um you have to go to the next weight class.
• 29:43
  Toccara Montgomery: So I had not anticipated wrestling this particular individual at all um because we hadn't been in the same weight class for over a year.
• 29:51
  Toccara Montgomery: So although like we plan and we train and we try to figure out what it is that um we want to do, you know, like when you're you're scouting opponents and everything like that, I hadn't planned um for this opponent at all because she was at a different weight class.
• 30:05
  Toccara Montgomery: So we get to um the tournament and um she's the one who comes through.
• 30:12
  Toccara Montgomery: She wrestles, she's very very decorated wrestler, one of the the best in the country.
• 30:17
  Toccara Montgomery: And um I find out it's gonna be me and her that we wrestle this best of two series.
• 30:23
  Toccara Montgomery: So the first match we wrestle.
• 30:25
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, it was very close and uh closer than I wanted it to be.
• 30:29
  Toccara Montgomery: We wrestle overtime, and um, it was one of those kind of like a sudden death um overtime.
• 30:36
  Toccara Montgomery: So uh we get into this match, we're wrestling, and in my head, I'm like, I am not going a full another three minutes or whatever the period was.
• 30:44
  Toccara Montgomery: I went out to score pretty early and I was able to secure a takedown.
• 30:48
  Toccara Montgomery: So that meant um if I won the next round, I would be on the Olympic team.
• 30:54
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and so like I knew she was gonna come out significantly more aggressive and want to because she knows like she has to win this match to keep her hopes alive as far as making this first team as well.
• 31:04
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, so we wrestled um this match was a little bit more um one-sided on my behalf.
• 31:11
  Toccara Montgomery: So I was able to win the first two matches, and we didn't have to go to a third match.
• 31:15
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and I was able to make that first team.
• 31:18
  Toccara Montgomery: And I think like when it happened, it was kind of surreal.
• 31:22
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, you know, I was in the moment, like, yay, I'm happy I made it.
• 31:25
  Toccara Montgomery: Like I like the full like gravity of the moment hit me until like a couple days later, like, I'm going to the Olympics.
• 31:32
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, you know, I remember watching the Olympics on like PBIS or uh PBS once, and um, I think it was the Sydney Olympics, and I was watching it one day and I was like thinking to myself, like, man, I want to go to that.
• 31:45
  Toccara Montgomery: And in my head, like it wasn't gonna be wrestling because I wasn't wrestling at that point, I don't think.
• 31:50
  Toccara Montgomery: And so um just thinking about those moments where they just kind of lined up perfectly, yeah, is is like a real it's still very surreal to me.
• 32:01
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, I think about making that team.
• 32:03
  Toccara Montgomery: Um when I like won that second match, my coach was like, hey, you know, look excited, throw your hands up.
• 32:09
  Toccara Montgomery: And I'm like, oh yeah, like yay.
• 32:11
  Toccara Montgomery: And so how old were you when this when you did this?
• 32:15
  Toccara Montgomery: Uh let's see 20.
• 32:19
  Khalila McCoy: Okay.
• 32:20
  Khalila McCoy: Uh-huh.
• 32:20
  Khalila McCoy: Yeah, that's still that's a lot to deal with the practice and the mental, like all of it coming in on you.
• 32:27
  Khalila McCoy: I think at any age, honestly, it would be, but still, you're still really young.
• 32:32
  Toccara Montgomery: And so just thinking about that, um, I was saying, I know you said at the beginning, she was, you know, you still were supportive, but still, what was her reaction?
• 32:42
  Toccara Montgomery: I think like at that point, she was so used to like just the the whirlwind that wrestling had brought into our lives that she like in her mind, she's like, Oh, I knew you were going to.
• 32:53
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, you know, like she just felt very confident.
• 32:56
  Toccara Montgomery: She was like, Of course, like you've wrestled that girl before, you'll be fine.
• 32:59
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, yeah, that type of thing.
• 33:00
  Toccara Montgomery: And then it was like, okay, now, now what do we do to try to get there to support you?
• 33:04
  Toccara Montgomery: So like they kind of shift into into that mode.
• 33:07
  Toccara Montgomery: Like the family's like, okay, let's do some fundraisers, let's do some different things so we can get over there to to watch as well, and just be like, you know, my mom has always been like my my number one supporter.
• 33:17
  Toccara Montgomery: So having her um over there was gonna be monumental as well.
• 33:21
  Toccara Montgomery: Um and so it's just one of those things where like as we progress, like through training and preparing and like going through the different stages and like, you know, like meeting with the ILC and just talking and being the first team for women's wrestling, um, then it really started to build up like, whoa, what is going on?
• 33:41
  Toccara Montgomery: Like this is really happening.
• 33:42
  Toccara Montgomery: Like this is this is crazy because I think back to opening ceremony, and that is something that I don't think I could ever put into words.
• 33:52
  Toccara Montgomery: Yeah.
• 33:52
  Toccara Montgomery: We go into this huge arena with all the other countries that are represented in the Olympics, and we're we're staging, and you see all these people, and everyone's running around trying to get pictures with other athletes that they know, and it's just um like almost surreal in a sense that you're there, you see this, and like LeBron was on the team, and Tin Duncan and Challenge, like all these athletes that you saw on TV, and you're like, oh my God, then like you're you're starstruck.
• 34:21
  Toccara Montgomery: Starstruck, right?
• 34:22
  Toccara Montgomery: And then you're thinking, like, wait, I'm here with them.
• 34:24
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, so you're like, but I'm still gonna get a picture.
• 34:26
  Toccara Montgomery: So absolutely.
• 34:29
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, so just like living in the moment, but also like taking like a couple of like deep breaths and like just really soaking it in was really, really, really something that stuck with me.
• 34:41
  Toccara Montgomery: And then we we that was staging, and then we go and we go to the actual opening ceremonies and we go in and we walk, and it's just an explosion of like camera flashes and cheers, and just all these thousands of thousands of people who are there and cheering everyone on.
• 34:58
  Toccara Montgomery: And this is just to open it up.
• 35:00
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, we're not even close to competing yet.
• 35:02
  Toccara Montgomery: But like that part of it, I don't think you you see it on TV and you you you think about it, but until like you're there and you're standing in the midst of it, it's just not something you can really conceptualize until you're right there.
• 35:16
  Toccara Montgomery: And so um, that moment is something that I think will always live with me.
• 35:20
  Khalila McCoy: Yeah, rightfully so.
• 35:22
  Khalila McCoy: That sounds amazing.
• 35:23
  Khalila McCoy: When you were there competing, how did that go?
• 35:29
  Toccara Montgomery: So I took seventh um in the Olympics, and this is something that is very difficult, or it was.
• 35:34
  Toccara Montgomery: I am in a a much better space um than I was when it happened.
• 35:39
  Toccara Montgomery: So I was leading up to the Olympics, I would say the two to three years leading up to the Olympics, um, I was either one or two in the world at that point.
• 35:48
  Toccara Montgomery: So um going back and forth with some of the top competitors in the world, I always bounced around in that in that range.
• 35:55
  Toccara Montgomery: And then we also did something that was called like a test tournament, which was basically the Olympics, like they wanted to have a tournament in each one of the venues and do like a trial run of kind of how it would go.
• 36:06
  Toccara Montgomery: And I took um third in that tournament.
• 36:09
  Toccara Montgomery: I was like, oh, I'm not happy with that performance.
• 36:11
  Toccara Montgomery: Like that's terrible.
• 36:12
  Toccara Montgomery: And so in my head, I was like, I'm going, I'm going to win this.
• 36:16
  Toccara Montgomery: I'm going to do this.
• 36:16
  Toccara Montgomery: And I was trying to, I felt very confident leading up into it.
• 36:20
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and so to fall short and to take seventh was was very, very difficult for me.
• 36:26
  Toccara Montgomery: Very difficult.
• 36:27
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, no one prepares to lose.
• 36:29
  Toccara Montgomery: So, you know, um, to to have such grandiose ideas about what you were gonna do, what your performance was gonna look like, and to fall short of that is tough.
• 36:40
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and it's also one of those things that like you don't know like who to like lean on, who to rely on.
• 36:48
  Toccara Montgomery: You have all these people who also are like very supportive and wanted to see you do well.
• 36:52
  Toccara Montgomery: And so now, like in the back of your head, like at least for me, I'm like, I let all these people down.
• 36:56
  Toccara Montgomery: I remember like coming back on um the plane, and I was like, I don't even know how to look people in the eyes.
• 37:02
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, I don't even know where to go because I was in college still.
• 37:07
  Toccara Montgomery: So um I actually left the Olympics early.
• 37:10
  Toccara Montgomery: I didn't even go to um closing ceremonies, and this was planned before I had wrestled, so it had nothing to do with losing.
• 37:15
  Toccara Montgomery: But in my head, because I was like, oh, I gotta get back to um to school because I didn't want to fall behind.
• 37:20
  Toccara Montgomery: Like I didn't want to like use the Olympics as an excuse.
• 37:23
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, oh, I mean, if you're gonna use an excuse now, I think that one would be justified.
• 37:30
  Toccara Montgomery: So I actually left early to get back to school.
• 37:32
  Toccara Montgomery: And in my hair, like on the plane, I was like, how do I look at my team?
• 37:36
  Toccara Montgomery: You know, like how do I look at my coaches?
• 37:38
  Toccara Montgomery: How do I look at like professors, you know?
• 37:40
  Toccara Montgomery: And then that that's it was tough.
• 37:42
  Toccara Montgomery: It was a really tough time.
• 37:44
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and in my head, again, like being the competitive person that I am, I was like, um, you know, I gotta come back stronger.
• 37:51
  Toccara Montgomery: I gotta, I gotta start training, I gotta do this, I gotta do that.
• 37:54
  Toccara Montgomery: And um I had intended on in my my mind, I thought I was gonna retire after that Olympics.
• 38:01
  Toccara Montgomery: I thought that would be it.
• 38:02
  Toccara Montgomery: Okay.
• 38:03
  Toccara Montgomery: And then nobody wants to go out on a law.
• 38:05
  Toccara Montgomery: So I was like, I guess I got another four years, like here we go.
• 38:08
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and then shortly after, I think we got back at the end of August, um, and I tore my ACL, I blew up my knee in November.
• 38:20
  Toccara Montgomery: And um, long story short, it just it didn't heal right.
• 38:23
  Toccara Montgomery: The surgery didn't go well, and so I was never able to get back to the level that I was when I I became an Olympian.
• 38:29
  Toccara Montgomery: So I was not able to make um another run.
• 38:33
  Toccara Montgomery: Okay.
• 38:33
  Toccara Montgomery: And so, like, I mean, that was also disheartening.
• 38:36
  Toccara Montgomery: So I had a low time um developing and figuring out who I was after that.
• 38:43
  Toccara Montgomery: So much of my identity was tied into wrestling and not just wrestling, but like an elite wrestler and being at the top to now like being able to walk without limping and to to strengthen up my quad muscles and you know, like just to lose what felt like everything that I had worked towards in such a short time and like trying to build that back up and falling short, you know, not being able to get back to that level.
• 39:06
  Toccara Montgomery: It was tough.
• 39:07
  Toccara Montgomery: It was, it was really, really um a dark time for me.
• 39:11
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, I don't think I realized how dark it was.
• 39:13
  Toccara Montgomery: Like they we had a sports psychologist who's like, hey, you know, just journal your time leading up to the Olympics and this and that.
• 39:20
  Toccara Montgomery: And I did.
• 39:20
  Toccara Montgomery: And what's interesting is I didn't even remember that I did this.
• 39:24
  Toccara Montgomery: And I found this journal, and I was just reading some of the entries like leading up, and then after, and it was like I almost felt like a different person, like reading some of the things that I was writing because like I was lost in a sense.
• 39:34
  Toccara Montgomery: Like I didn't yeah, I didn't know who I was outside of wrestling, and I think it took a while to to find out who I am.
• 39:44
  Toccara Montgomery: Like I am more than just a wrestler, I am more than just an athlete.
• 39:47
  Toccara Montgomery: I have so much more value, but at the time, like I said, nobody trains to lose, nobody prepares, like, oh, what happens if I don't win?
• 39:54
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, that's just not something that um was ever on the radar.
• 39:59
  Toccara Montgomery: And so um kind of traversing through that and and building myself back up um was an interesting process.
• 40:07
  Toccara Montgomery: But I'm I'm I'm a better person for it.
• 40:10
  Khalila McCoy: Yeah.
• 40:10
  Khalila McCoy: And that's something, even though you know, most of us are not at that level that you were as far as athletics and stuff like that.
• 40:18
  Khalila McCoy: We've all faced disappointments, right?
• 40:20
  Khalila McCoy: Or things where we felt like life would turn out differently.
• 40:24
  Khalila McCoy: So if you could just like you don't have to share exactly what you did to get you through that, but what would you encourage somebody who was going through something like that to keep in their mind or to do to help them move forward?
• 40:38
  Toccara Montgomery: I wish I knew exactly what it was.
• 40:41
  Toccara Montgomery: I do think it some of it was maturity, just kind of processing the journey.
• 40:46
  Toccara Montgomery: You know, there's not a ton of people in this world that can say, hey, I'm an Olympian.
• 40:50
  Toccara Montgomery: I went to the Olympics, I trained hard enough to get there.
• 40:53
  Toccara Montgomery: So part of it was like, although I fell short of my overall goal, I still accomplished something that many cannot say that they did, and that was still that was still a feat that I didn't need to take away from myself because I didn't get to the gold medal match, you know.
• 41:10
  Toccara Montgomery: So being able to internalize that and using some maturity to understand the process.
• 41:15
  Toccara Montgomery: Like you, I've put a lot into this over the last decade or so um of time, and that's still something that needs to be um respected.
• 41:25
  Toccara Montgomery: That's still something that needs to be celebrated.
• 41:27
  Toccara Montgomery: And I think that that was part of it.
• 41:30
  Toccara Montgomery: I think the next part of it was being able to share my knowledge with others, being able to instill in others like some of the pride that I have for myself being an athlete, some of the skills that I learned um along the way, and like being able to share that with the next generation of women wrestlers.
• 41:50
  Toccara Montgomery: And I think being able to pour into others was able to help me lift myself out of that dark space.
• 41:58
  Khalila McCoy: Yeah, that's nice.
• 41:59
  Khalila McCoy: So I do know you went into coach.
• 42:01
  Khalila McCoy: Are you are you still coaching, right?
• 42:04
  Toccara Montgomery: No.
• 42:04
  Khalila McCoy: Okay.
• 42:05
  Toccara Montgomery: Once I became a principal, all extra things are off the table.
• 42:10
  Khalila McCoy: I get that.
• 42:10
  Khalila McCoy: So how many years did you coach?
• 42:13
  Toccara Montgomery: So right after um, so 2004 was the Olympics that I went to, um, tried to make a comeback, so 2005, um, during the Hilling process and all that.
• 42:23
  Toccara Montgomery: So I will say somewhere around 2006 is when I became a graduate assistant um for the University of the Cumberlands, stayed there and coached um, I want to say five years, and then um went on to Lindenwood.
• 42:40
  Toccara Montgomery: This is what brought me to St.
• 42:41
  Toccara Montgomery: Louis.
• 42:42
  Toccara Montgomery: I taught uh not taught, I coached at Lindenwood um as one of the first ever female coaches um for women's wrestling.
• 42:50
  Toccara Montgomery: And then I coached there for um was it seven years, eight years, somewhere in that time frame.
• 42:58
  Toccara Montgomery: And then in my head, I was like, oh, I can coach and teach at the same time.
• 43:02
  Toccara Montgomery: Um I did, but would I recommend it?
• 43:09
  Toccara Montgomery: No.
• 43:09
  Toccara Montgomery: No, it was just a lot because I was putting in crazy hours between like a full-time teaching job, teaching kindergarten, to like sprinting back to the other side of town to like then go run like this so successful women's program, to then like putting in like these crazy, like because tournaments for wrestling are ridiculously long.
• 43:30
  Toccara Montgomery: So then like putting in probably like 30 hours just on the weekend at tournaments with you know, like making sure girls are on weight, getting them to and from tournaments, eating, and then the actual tournaments in themselves.
• 43:40
  Toccara Montgomery: So we're putting in like a crazy amount of hours.
• 43:44
  Toccara Montgomery: Um so like coaching, I was like, oh, you know what?
• 43:48
  Toccara Montgomery: Um and then I think it just got to a point where I was like, What do I do next?
• 43:54
  Toccara Montgomery: You know, like and so wrestling had taken up such a huge chunk of my life.
• 43:59
  Toccara Montgomery: Um I did get a degree in um education.
• 44:05
  Toccara Montgomery: So I was like, maybe it's now time to take that path.
• 44:09
  Toccara Montgomery: Let's see what that brings me.
• 44:11
  Toccara Montgomery: So I taught kindergarten for a few years, and then I was like, I'm missing wrestling.
• 44:15
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, what do I do?
• 44:16
  Toccara Montgomery: So I started to like volunteer with um a couple of high school programs, started working with them, and then I coached like a couple of youth programs.
• 44:26
  Toccara Montgomery: I was just doing all the coaching.
• 44:27
  Toccara Montgomery: And again, like back into that realm, like I am doing too much.
• 44:31
  Toccara Montgomery: It is time to like, you gotta, I'm at like a crossroads, which way am I gonna go?
• 44:37
  Toccara Montgomery: And so I thought to myself, like, you know, I gave wrestling a good go.
• 44:41
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, got so much out of it, so grateful, so thankful for all the people, the journeys, the lessons, the skills that I got I received from it.
• 44:49
  Toccara Montgomery: But now it's time to give this other world um a go.
• 44:53
  Toccara Montgomery: And so that's when I was like, all right, I guess it's it's full throttle with education right now.
• 44:58
  Toccara Montgomery: And then that's when I made the switch.
• 45:01
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and I predominantly taught kindergarten, and everyone was like, How do you go from wrestling to kindergarten?
• 45:07
  Toccara Montgomery: This sounds insane.
• 45:09
  Toccara Montgomery: Like it doesn't seem like it makes any sense at all.
• 45:12
  Toccara Montgomery: And um, I love kids.
• 45:14
  Toccara Montgomery: Like I absolutely love children.
• 45:16
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, um, always have.
• 45:18
  Toccara Montgomery: I was always like the one, like, oh, I'll be I'll volunteer to babysit.
• 45:21
  Toccara Montgomery: I'm always holding like the babies and the family and things like that.
• 45:24
  Toccara Montgomery: So for me, it was just like a natural progression.
• 45:26
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, this is something that I knew that I always wanted to do.
• 45:30
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, I had an amazing third grade teacher that I still talk to to this day, um, that kind of inspired me as well.
• 45:37
  Toccara Montgomery: So, like, I think with um everything that I got from that third grade teacher, Miss Ryle, to um my love for children and like just a natural progression.
• 45:48
  Toccara Montgomery: So I taught kindergarten for I think it was eight years, and then I taught fourth grade for a year.
• 45:54
  Toccara Montgomery: I became a reading coach for a while, and then I've been in administration for the last three years.
• 46:00
  Khalila McCoy: Okay.
• 46:01
  Khalila McCoy: Wow.
• 46:02
  Khalila McCoy: That's pretty cool.
• 46:03
  Khalila McCoy: I didn't know.
• 46:04
  Khalila McCoy: I didn't I think I knew you were a reading coach.
• 46:06
  Khalila McCoy: I knew about kindergarten for the eight years, but okay.
• 46:10
  Khalila McCoy: So, what do you feel like?
• 46:12
  Khalila McCoy: Do you take some of the lessons from wrestling into the educational world with you?
• 46:18
  Toccara Montgomery: Absolutely.
• 46:19
  Toccara Montgomery: So I think wrestling teaches a lot of really strong skills that you need for life, like perseverance, goal setting, determination, like all of these like um tough things that you need to have.
• 46:35
  Toccara Montgomery: Um it the character development that wrestling gives you just propels you into the world so ready for life that um we have this saying in wrestling, like once you've wrestled, everything in life, everything else in life is easy.
• 46:50
  Toccara Montgomery: And I wholeheartedly believe that.
• 46:52
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, and anytime like I talk to my girls, like I still talk to many of the athletes that I coach, um, mentor other people.
• 46:58
  Toccara Montgomery: And I'm like, hey, at least it's not wrestling.
• 47:00
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, you know, like we just kind of go and things like that.
• 47:03
  Toccara Montgomery: I'm like, this is way easier than waking up at 6 a.m.
• 47:05
  Toccara Montgomery: and going on a five-mile jog or something like that.
• 47:08
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and even like I said, that initial year I coached and um I coached and I taught kindergarten.
• 47:19
  Toccara Montgomery: And so like I had those two worlds kind of like intermingle with each other.
• 47:23
  Toccara Montgomery: So like my my college girls, I would have them come up and read to my kindergarten babies.
• 47:27
  Toccara Montgomery: And like we would do Secret Santa.
• 47:30
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and they loved it.
• 47:31
  Toccara Montgomery: They're like, oh and I was like, no, there's a $20 limit.
• 47:34
  Toccara Montgomery: No, you cannot buy them a bike.
• 47:35
  Toccara Montgomery: Like they're they're five year olds.
• 47:37
  Toccara Montgomery: They're like, oh no.
• 47:38
  Toccara Montgomery: I'm like, no, you can't.
• 47:39
  Toccara Montgomery: It's a $20 limit.
• 47:40
  Toccara Montgomery: So just to like just see those, those two worlds like just kind of mesh for a while was like a beautiful interaction for me.
• 47:47
  Toccara Montgomery: Um that I just really enjoyed seeing.
• 47:51
  Toccara Montgomery: And then just blossoming myself as an educator again, very competitive.
• 47:55
  Toccara Montgomery: So in my head, I was like, I really I want to be the best educator.
• 47:59
  Toccara Montgomery: I want to make sure I wanted, I knew for a fact that I wanted to go back into a world um that was similar to myself, like education-wise.
• 48:08
  Toccara Montgomery: So, you know, I I came through the Cleveland public school system.
• 48:12
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, I know it's had a couple name changes, but it'll always be Cleveland Public to me.
• 48:16
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and I knew that that was, I wanted that same type of, I wanted to give back.
• 48:22
  Toccara Montgomery: It's always like I always want to pour into others, I always want to give back.
• 48:26
  Toccara Montgomery: So um looked for very similar demographics, very similar um school settings.
• 48:32
  Toccara Montgomery: So I started off in Normandy, and Normandy is a very small district.
• 48:36
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, stayed at Normandy for a very, very long time, um, met some amazing colleagues, worked with some amazing kids.
• 48:42
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, but I knew that I wanted to do a little bit more.
• 48:47
  Toccara Montgomery: So um I am now with the St.
• 48:49
  Toccara Montgomery: Louis Public School District as well.
• 48:51
  Toccara Montgomery: And the parallels between um St.
• 48:55
  Toccara Montgomery: Louis Public to Cleveland Public are so similar that it just it was meant to be.
• 48:59
  Toccara Montgomery: Like I always I always feel like I fall into where I'm supposed to be.
• 49:05
  Toccara Montgomery: So where I am now, I think that that that is exactly where I was supposed to.
• 49:09
  Toccara Montgomery: The parallels um are like kind of mind-blowing, just thinking about the demographic.
• 49:15
  Toccara Montgomery: What are some of the parallels?
• 49:17
  Toccara Montgomery: Just the the kids.
• 49:18
  Toccara Montgomery: Like I have seen and worked with children that I was like, you know, this seems oddly familiar, and they remind me of someone that I went to school with, or like they'll do something.
• 49:27
  Toccara Montgomery: I'm like, why would you do that?
• 49:28
  Toccara Montgomery: And I'm like, oh, you know what?
• 49:29
  Toccara Montgomery: I've done some something similar to that.
• 49:31
  Toccara Montgomery: Or like one of my knucklehead cousins.
• 49:33
  Toccara Montgomery: I'm like, yeah, they've definitely done something along those lines.
• 49:36
  Toccara Montgomery: And then just kind of like, and not to take it on a sad route, but you know, inner city kids are disadvantaged.
• 49:43
  Toccara Montgomery: And so I wanted to make sure that I'm bringing my best possible self to show them that there's more than this classroom, there's more than this school, there's more than this neighborhood, and making sure that they know and they have the skills that they can use to like branch out and to see what be what is past their neighborhood, what's past those walls.
• 50:05
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and making sure that they had those opportunities was always like it's and it still is, is always very near and dear to my heart.
• 50:13
  Toccara Montgomery: Like I want black and brown children to have like the same opportunities as anyone else.
• 50:19
  Toccara Montgomery: I want them to not have to like worry about can I?
• 50:24
  Toccara Montgomery: I don't want them to have doubt.
• 50:25
  Toccara Montgomery: I want them to know that like anything is possible.
• 50:28
  Khalila McCoy: Right.
• 50:29
  Khalila McCoy: Now, thinking about that from the education standpoint, and just as a person yourself, right?
• 50:35
  Khalila McCoy: Um, because I know that you've been offered positions in other places and more affluent uh school districts as well.
• 50:43
  Khalila McCoy: But you chose, like you said, to say somewhere where those kids really needed you and you can, you know, support them in a different way.
• 50:49
  Khalila McCoy: Obviously, all kids need some type of help and some type of love.
• 50:52
  Khalila McCoy: But when you visited, you were sharing some stories of some really intense either behavior issues or lack of support from even your admin or whoever was running the district or parents.
• 51:03
  Khalila McCoy: And you hear a lot of teachers online who really complain about that, and rightfully so, that's that's a lot to deal with and a lot that you give up yourself.
• 51:13
  Khalila McCoy: How do you, knowing that, and even though you want to give to those kids, knowing that I don't have to be here, right?
• 51:22
  Khalila McCoy: You're not stuck in that situation.
• 51:24
  Khalila McCoy: How do you continue to show up on those hard days?
• 51:30
  Toccara Montgomery: Again, it's like one of those things, like you don't think about it in the moment.
• 51:33
  Toccara Montgomery: You're just like, you know, it has to be done.
• 51:35
  Toccara Montgomery: Like these kids deserve it.
• 51:37
  Toccara Montgomery: They deserve a champion, they deserve someone who is here to like elevate them.
• 51:42
  Toccara Montgomery: Um so like I just in the moment, I'm like, this is just what I'm meant to do.
• 51:47
  Toccara Montgomery: This is what they need.
• 51:49
  Toccara Montgomery: This is what they deserve.
• 51:50
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, so like I go into it with that mindset.
• 51:53
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, if I can push the next Takara through whatever it is, let me do that.
• 51:58
  Toccara Montgomery: Let me make sure that she has that opportunity, he has that opportunity.
• 52:03
  Toccara Montgomery: And the best way for me to do that is for me to be there and to be present, for me to give them those like building blocks to build something great.
• 52:11
  Toccara Montgomery: And so um, it's it's like removing yourself from the element and just thinking about these kids, thinking about what it is that they need.
• 52:22
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, and just trying to be there.
• 52:24
  Toccara Montgomery: Like, I mean, can you give 100% every day?
• 52:27
  Toccara Montgomery: No, but you can give your best every day.
• 52:30
  Toccara Montgomery: And so that looks different.
• 52:31
  Toccara Montgomery: And I want to make sure that that's something that I'm always like pushing forward.
• 52:36
  Toccara Montgomery: I have like that you oh, I'm thinking back to like a couple of those, uh a couple of those, those um scenarios.
• 52:44
  Toccara Montgomery: And I remember like, you know, like you kind of vent, you go home and you vent, and obviously you don't use names, but you're like, oh, this is what happened.
• 52:51
  Toccara Montgomery: Like this child pushed this tape, you know, like just these really strong um outbursts and these really big emotions and these little tiny beans.
• 53:00
  Toccara Montgomery: And it's tough.
• 53:02
  Toccara Montgomery: And you're like, oh my gosh, like I can't believe this kid kicked me, or you know, something along those lines.
• 53:06
  Toccara Montgomery: And then they'll come in the next day, you know, they're having a better day, and they they bring you like a weed, a dandelion that they found in the grass, and you're like, this is like you're like, okay, I get it.
• 53:20
  Toccara Montgomery: I know it's a good idea.
• 53:22
  Toccara Montgomery: And you're like, oh, they're so amazing.
• 53:26
  Toccara Montgomery: Or they'll or they'll say something, like you'll hear, like, I think one of the most funniest yet humbling things that you can you can um be exposed to is like children imitating you.
• 53:38
  Toccara Montgomery: Okay, and like listening to to how they perceive you.
• 53:42
  Toccara Montgomery: Like they're like, oh, let's play teacher.
• 53:44
  Toccara Montgomery: And then they're clearly like imitating who you you are, and you have to sit back and think, like, is that really me?
• 53:50
  Toccara Montgomery: Is that really what I sound like?
• 53:52
  Toccara Montgomery: And so just kind of hearing that, like, um, and then I think that happened one day, and it was kind of like an aha moment, like this light bulb went off.
• 54:01
  Toccara Montgomery: And I'm like, I always want to be like a person, like if they're imitating, I want to be a great person.
• 54:06
  Toccara Montgomery: I want to be a good person, I want to be a kind person.
• 54:09
  Toccara Montgomery: I don't want them to take back, like, oh, Miss Montgomery was yelling, or you know, like they didn't feel loved or safe or protected.
• 54:17
  Toccara Montgomery: So, like that moment for me, like switched a lot of my teaching methods and strategies to where I was like, they're always watching, they're sponges.
• 54:25
  Toccara Montgomery: I want to make sure that I give them the best part of me that I can to set them up for a world that always that isn't always the the kindest, but making sure that they have the skill set to push through like those those low moments, those dark moments to to reach to the other side, you know.
• 54:42
  Toccara Montgomery: So um just a really humbling life uh lesson taught by some five and six-year-olds.
• 54:48
  Khalila McCoy: Yes, I know kids are the best teachers, aren't they?
• 54:51
  Toccara Montgomery: They are, they are.
• 54:54
  Khalila McCoy: So now that you're a principal, Miss Boss Lady, what type of leader do you do you consider yourself to be?
• 55:02
  Toccara Montgomery: So I still feel like I'm a coach.
• 55:04
  Toccara Montgomery: Like I still, to me, I want to like push people by using like the skills they have and developing those skills.
• 55:13
  Toccara Montgomery: So I try to to approach like leadership in the same way.
• 55:17
  Toccara Montgomery: Like I know that this teacher is particularly strong in this area.
• 55:20
  Toccara Montgomery: How can I continue to like help them develop and really use that strength?
• 55:25
  Toccara Montgomery: But then also like looking at some areas where they have growth and being able to help them feel confident to build on that.
• 55:31
  Toccara Montgomery: And I think that that has been a successful model for me.
• 55:35
  Toccara Montgomery: Like I'm still learning like this, I'm going into year four of administration.
• 55:39
  Toccara Montgomery: Yeah.
• 55:39
  Toccara Montgomery: So um, there's still so much to learn um and reflect on.
• 55:44
  Toccara Montgomery: But I think reflection is so key, like in character development.
• 55:47
  Toccara Montgomery: Like if you want to become a better version of yourself, you have to reflect on what's there and what you can build on.
• 55:55
  Toccara Montgomery: And I think like once you start to be able to look at yourself with a very clear lens and be very transparent about who you are and what it is that you want to accomplish, it really helps you like bring that out of others as well.
• 56:10
  Toccara Montgomery: Like you can really go into, in a non-judgmental way, be able to help people build on, you know, areas of growth.
• 56:18
  Toccara Montgomery: And I think that that's very, very important.
• 56:21
  Toccara Montgomery: It's also very challenging, but being able to do it in a way that is delicate and um allows for that growth.
• 56:29
  Khalila McCoy: Yeah.
• 56:30
  Khalila McCoy: Can you tell us one thing this year you're hoping to improve on yourself?
• 56:36
  Toccara Montgomery: Myself.
• 56:37
  Toccara Montgomery: Let's see.
• 56:38
  Toccara Montgomery: I think I can be an overthinker.
• 56:40
  Toccara Montgomery: And I think that I need to be more trusting in myself.
• 56:46
  Toccara Montgomery: I think that I need to be confident in who I am and who I continue to develop in.
• 56:51
  Toccara Montgomery: And it's always going to be like looking for the best in myself and the best in others, and not to think about the what-if.
• 56:59
  Toccara Montgomery: Like go with that that natural instinct and just just kind of just go jump, you know, have a little bit of faith, I think is what it is.
• 57:06
  Khalila McCoy: Nice.
• 57:07
  Khalila McCoy: Well, I love talking to you about your journey, like from wrestling into that education world and what you're doing now.
• 57:14
  Khalila McCoy: And like you said, you're still carrying a lot of those lessons that you've had from wrestling and sharing that with others and the kids.
• 57:20
  Khalila McCoy: I think it's very admirable.
• 57:22
  Khalila McCoy: And I also really appreciate that you shared how it was a little bit difficult that transition when you came home from the Olympics, because you know, a lot, obviously a lot of us wouldn't know that or see that.
• 57:35
  Khalila McCoy: But it just, I think it makes that connection that everybody has a thing.
• 57:39
  Khalila McCoy: Like, you know, somebody might look at you and like I was in awe when I read all the things that you were doing, but also understanding you as a human and just the natural emotions that people go through in the trials, but still seeing you rise into this great educator, this great person with this love for others and other people.
• 57:57
  Khalila McCoy: So I really appreciate you taking the time to walk us through all that today.
• 58:03
  Toccara Montgomery: Well, thank you.
• 58:03
  Toccara Montgomery: I appreciate it.
• 58:04
  Toccara Montgomery: Like you having me here.
• 58:06
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, like I'm not big on talking about myself.
• 58:11
  Toccara Montgomery: A lot of times, um, like many people that I work with for years will never know that I went to the Olympics.
• 58:17
  Toccara Montgomery: They'll never like know that part of it until like someone else will pop up like, hey, did you know?
• 58:23
  Toccara Montgomery: And they're like, Why didn't you say anything?
• 58:25
  Toccara Montgomery: Because it's it's kind of a difficult, like, I don't know, it's it's not the easiest thing.
• 58:30
  Toccara Montgomery: I've done a lot of hard things.
• 58:31
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, talking about myself is in in the top three, I would say for sure.
• 58:34
  Toccara Montgomery: Yeah.
• 58:35
  Khalila McCoy: But I think it also shows that you're very humble because I know you've gotten a lot of awards.
• 58:39
  Khalila McCoy: I know you're being nominated in a couple months, right?
• 58:42
  Khalila McCoy: Um in Cleveland, aren't you?
• 58:45
  Khalila McCoy: Yeah.
• 58:45
  Khalila McCoy: So it's still like something that you're getting awards for and accolades and things like that.
• 58:50
  Khalila McCoy: And you could still very much be like, hey, you guys listen.
• 58:53
  Khalila McCoy: I went to the Olympics, or like, do you know who I am?
• 58:56
  Khalila McCoy: Like so there are definitely people we know who do that, but you are choosing not to.
• 59:01
  Khalila McCoy: And just I think that's like I said, that's very admirable.
• 59:05
  Toccara Montgomery: Thank you.
• 59:07
  Khalila McCoy: So thinking about everything that you shared with us today, what would be your biggest takeaway that you would want our listeners to have to help them rise in their own lives?
• 59:18
  Toccara Montgomery: I think um internalization, like knowing that there are always going to be challenging times.
• 59:27
  Toccara Montgomery: There are always going to be difficult times.
• 59:29
  Toccara Montgomery: It doesn't matter how educated you are, it doesn't matter how wealthy you may be.
• 59:34
  Toccara Montgomery: Um, you have to be able to look into yourself like deep down, be uh transparent about who it is that you are and be able to pull out like the best part of the best parts of you to pull you through like those dark times to get you to those brighter days.
• 59:54
  Toccara Montgomery: And um again, knowing that it's not gonna be easy.
• 59:58
  Toccara Montgomery: It's not always gonna be like a quick fix or anything like that, but just making sure that you like you hold true to who you are and having that faith to be able to just to persevere through because times times can be difficult.
• 1:00:11
  Toccara Montgomery: But I also like I'm again like one of those people, like it's going to work out.
• 1:00:16
  Toccara Montgomery: It always does.
• 1:00:18
  Khalila McCoy: Thank you.
• 1:00:19
  Khalila McCoy: Thank you for that.
• 1:00:20
  Khalila McCoy: I really appreciate it.
• 1:00:21
  Khalila McCoy: And just know I'll be uh cheering you on from Ohio.
• 1:00:24
  Khalila McCoy: Hope you have a great school year this year.
• 1:00:28
  Khalila McCoy: And I saw you posted not too long ago.
• 1:00:29
  Khalila McCoy: You were looking for a fourth grade teacher.
• 1:00:31
  Khalila McCoy: Did you find one?
• 1:00:32
  Toccara Montgomery: No, well, I've done some shifting, so now I'm looking for a second grade teacher.
• 1:00:36
  Toccara Montgomery: Okay.
• 1:00:36
  Toccara Montgomery: So either way, I still need one more teacher.
• 1:00:39
  Toccara Montgomery: No, I have not.
• 1:00:40
  Toccara Montgomery: This is a tough time to be finding someone.
• 1:00:43
  Khalila McCoy: I was gonna say, yeah, this is a really busy time for you.
• 1:00:45
  Khalila McCoy: So again, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk with me and share your wisdom with the listeners.
• 1:00:53
  Toccara Montgomery: Thank you so much.
• 1:00:54
  Toccara Montgomery: This has been a wonderful opportunity.
• 1:00:57
  Khalila McCoy: Where do I even begin, y'all?
• 1:01:00
  Khalila McCoy: I enjoyed this conversation with Takara so much.
• 1:01:03
  Khalila McCoy: For this episode, I decided to pause and journal about the things I learned today.
• 1:01:08
  Khalila McCoy: So here are my six takeaways.
• 1:01:11
  Khalila McCoy: First, try the thing that excites you.
• 1:01:15
  Khalila McCoy: Takara heard a wrestling announcement over the school PA system and got curious.
• 1:01:21
  Khalila McCoy: There were so many reasons for her to not show up, but she followed that spark anyway.
• 1:01:27
  Khalila McCoy: Look at the path she walked because of one moment of curiosity.
• 1:01:31
  Khalila McCoy: Two, do what you do for the joy of it.
• 1:01:36
  Khalila McCoy: Takara wasn't chasing titles or even trying to become an Olympian.
• 1:01:41
  Khalila McCoy: She was simply, as she says, in the moment doing something she loved.
• 1:01:46
  Khalila McCoy: Whether it's your career or a hobby, do it because it brings you joy and because you feel yourself growing.
• 1:01:53
  Khalila McCoy: If you do that, you'll be fulfilled whether it becomes something big or says a beautiful thing that only you know about.
• 1:02:00
  Khalila McCoy: Three, believe in yourself and build your community.
• 1:02:05
  Khalila McCoy: Takara worked hard physically, mentally, emotionally.
• 1:02:09
  Khalila McCoy: She pushed herself, but she also had people in her corner.
• 1:02:12
  Khalila McCoy: What you tell yourself and who you let speak into your life really matters.
• 1:02:18
  Khalila McCoy: Four, life can knock you down.
• 1:02:23
  Khalila McCoy: I've been there.
• 1:02:24
  Khalila McCoy: I've had seasons where I thought I was gonna be on top and then I fell short.
• 1:02:28
  Khalila McCoy: I've had dreams that I've had to release, and it felt like something inside me was breaking.
• 1:02:34
  Khalila McCoy: I wondered what's next and whether anything meaningful could still ever come from me.
• 1:02:40
  Khalila McCoy: But getting back up is part of the process.
• 1:02:44
  Khalila McCoy: And we do get back up.
• 1:02:48
  Khalila McCoy: Five, someone out there needs you.
• 1:02:53
  Khalila McCoy: Someone will hear Takara's story and push themselves a little bit harder.
• 1:02:58
  Khalila McCoy: Somebody will hear about her wrestling and go hit the gym.
• 1:03:01
  Khalila McCoy: Someone will hear about her graduating college and believe they can do it too.
• 1:03:06
  Khalila McCoy: Someone will hear she coached and decide to mentor someone else.
• 1:03:10
  Khalila McCoy: The kids and the teachers she leads will look to her for a million and one things this school year.
• 1:03:15
  Khalila McCoy: By simply being herself, Takara is changing lives.
• 1:03:21
  Khalila McCoy: And so are you.
• 1:03:22
  Khalila McCoy: And lastly, you know what's my favorite thing?
• 1:03:27
  Khalila McCoy: Reflection.
• 1:03:28
  Khalila McCoy: Takara said reflection is key in character development.
• 1:03:33
  Khalila McCoy: Your character continues to develop until the story is over.
• 1:03:37
  Khalila McCoy: So ask yourself, what has been the natural progression of your story?
• 1:03:42
  Khalila McCoy: Where might you be going next?
• 1:03:44
  Khalila McCoy: Where do you want to go?
• 1:03:46
  Khalila McCoy: And who are you taking with you?
• 1:03:49
  Khalila McCoy: Today was such a privilege to spend time with Takara and with you.
• 1:03:56
  Khalila McCoy: Think of someone who would enjoy this episode and share it with them.
• 1:03:59
  Khalila McCoy: And you know I always love hearing from you, so you can connect with me on Instagram or through email, and all of that information is in the show notes.
• 1:04:09
  Khalila McCoy: Thank you so much for joining me for our back to school series.
• 1:04:13
  Khalila McCoy: I hope you learned as much as I did.
• 1:04:15
  Khalila McCoy: And a special shout out to all my fellow educators and to the students stepping into a brand new school year.
• 1:04:22
  Khalila McCoy: I am wishing you all every good thing that this season of life has to offer you.
• 1:04:28
  Khalila McCoy: And to all my wonderful listeners, as you move through the rest of your day, I hope you take a moment to listen a little louder to yourself, to the people you love, and to the things that connect us to ways we sometimes forget to notice.
• 1:04:42
  Khalila McCoy: I'll meet you back here next time.
• 1:04:44
  Khalila McCoy: See you bye.