Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 12 No. 3 | January 2020

inside.hokiesports.com 39 Before the game or after , Preston’s Restaurant is a delicious place for a new game-day tradition. Start with our fresh breakfast buffet. Order lunch or dinner from our mouth-watering a la carte menu of seasonal cuisine. And don’t forget the Valley’s best brunch, every Sunday at Preston’s. Make Preston’s Restaurant your game-day tradition. @PrestonsRestaurant @PrestonsIVTSCC 540.231.0120 | www.InnatVirginiaTech.com 901 Prices Fork Rd, Blacksburg, VA 24061 (inside The Inn at Virginia Tech) Reservations recommended. A delicious game-day tradition. GETTING TO KNOW … DAVID MCFADDEN Q: What is your dream vacation? DM: It’d be somewhere down South with crystal blue waters, like the Bahamas or something. I’ve honestly been on a few vacations, like a 3-4 day vacation, so I’ve been to the nicest places. It’s got to have an ocean, got to have a beach, crystal blue water, and I’ve got to have a fishing rod in my hand. I could probably live there for the rest of my life if all three of those things are intact. Q: If you could trade places with someone for a day, who would it be? DM: It’d probably be a movie star or big-time actor. Probably Will Ferrell. He’s probably one of my favorite actors. I’d like to see what he goes through in a day and see what comes out of his mouth. Q: Who is your celebrity crush? DM: You know who I really like? I really like Rachel McAdams [most notably from The Wedding Crashers]. I think she’d be a girl that I’d tie the knot with. She’s a good-looking girl, and she seems super sweet. Q: What is the one talent that you don’t have and would like to have? DM: Sing. I’d give up any athletic ability to sing like J-Beebs [Justin Bieber]. I’d be living pretty, you know. Q: What’s your favorite thing about being a Virginia Tech athlete? DM: Probably my favorite thing about it is the community, how tight the athletic community is. We all kind of share this big castle, so to say, and we’re just real familiar, real friendly with each other. We see each other walking around. It’s always a little head nod, like, ‘What’s up?’ You recognize each other. Obviously, the fans here are psychotic, and I love it. They’re a good psycho, though. They’re loud and rowdy, and they care about their sports. It’s also one of the things I love about Virginia Tech. For Hokie Nation, this is their pro sports …We are what they come to see. If you go to school in New York or California, you have like eight pro sports teams, or stuff like that. I think that’s probably my favorite part. Just feeling like you’re a mini celebrity down here. People recognize you, and people are real generous and real caring to you. I love the community down here. That’s probably why I’d love to be around here for a while afterward.” now I’m trying to add another one, and we’re trying to add more and more every year … We’re trying to build a dynasty down here. It’s going to be exciting.” Basically, all that remains for McFadden to do at Virginia Tech is to win his own national title. He hopes that comes in March, and a drop back to 165 pounds—Lewis is taking an Olympic redshirt season to attempt to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team—figures to be beneficial. He saw Lewis’ Olympic plans taking shape after last season, so McFadden started becoming more disciplined with his training and eating habits to get his weight down. McFadden feels as strong as ever. He feels in the best shape of his life. He wants to win a third ACC title, become an All-American for the fourth time, and of course, take the crown jewel for every wrestler—a national title. But he continues to take a mature approach, focusing on each individual day and not looking ahead. “I’m doing everything to put me in that position to do it,” McFadden said. “It’s one of those things that I don’t want to look at it as a life or death decision if I win a national title. I don’t want it to be like that because that just adds pressure. I want to be able to look back on my college career where, if you win a national title, hey, you did everything right. You did this, you did this, you deserve it, or if it goes the other way, I can look back and be at ease with myself and say, ‘I did everything I could. I did the little things right. I didn’t accomplish it, but I left it all on the table.’” Regardless of what happens, wrestling is not over for him. He graduates in May with a degree in human development, and then he wants to see where postgraduate wrestling takes him. Once he hangs up his shoes, he plans to get into coaching. Rest assured that whatever he does, he’ll do it with the utmost of seriousness—and knowing him, he’ll have a little fun in the process, too.