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The All-American's familyDate: 25.12.2006
Posted by: Anabolic Info Team United States
Of wrestler dad, powerlifter mom, a star LB is born
COLUMBUS - Imagine being the wife of a pro wrestling legend and the mother of a football legend-in-waiting at Ohio State.
Welcome to Julie Laurinaitis' world.
Her husband, Joe, is better known to WWE fans as the "Animal" of Road Warriors/Legion of Doom tag-team fame. Her son, James, is a first-team All-America linebacker for the top-ranked Buckeyes, winner as a sophomore of the Bronco Nagurski Award as the nation's top defensive player.
Imagine being surrounded by all that testosterone.
"This football season has been crazier because we kept wrestling separate from our family life. That's why we stayed in Minnesota," said Julie from her home in the Minneapolis suburb of Hamel. "We didn't live around the other wrestlers.
"But football is different. It's been crazy ... not in a bad way, but it's just been nuts, everywhere we go. I walked into a Finish Line with James (before Christmas) and neither one of us had on anything Ohio State. The guy in the store said, 'We put away everything with Michigan on it for you.' I looked at James like, 'What the heck. Where did that come from?' "
Because he has muscles on top of muscles and has bear-hugged more than one running back to the ground, fans just naturally figure James got most of his athletic genes from his dad. But Julie was an accomplished hurdler and swimmer in high school and went on to become a record-setting powerlifter - deadlifting 305 pounds in the 123-pound weight class - and competitive bodybuilder.
"When I started bodybuilding, I couldn't figure out why I was retaining water," she said. "I had always been lean. I had a fast metabolism. I came to find out I was pregnant with James."
He almost never fails to mention his mom during interviews, talking about how she's his toughest critic and the reason he's such a perfectionist.
"My mom's intense," said James. "She's a sweetheart, but she gets fired up at the games. My dad realizes I can't hear him at games. But my mom hasn't gotten to that point yet ... she'll still yell."
Julie Laurinaitis laughs when she hears how she's depicted.
"I probably am pretty bad," she said. "You've got to keep them humble, but I don't think the humble part will be too tough on him. He has a good head on his shoulders."
That would explain James' second-team honors on the Academic All-American team and the ease with which he took over at middle linebacker in fall camp. With that job came the added responsibility of calling the defensive signals.
Many sophomores with only one previous game of starting experience would have been overwhelmed by the challenge. Laurinaitis embraced it.
"When I was younger, I was quarterback and linebacker, which is a weird combination, but I was used to making all the calls," he said. "I want to put that responsibility on myself."
Co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Luke Fickell says having a celebrity for a dad made it natural for Laurinatis to gravitate toward the spotlight.
"Growing up in the atmosphere his father was in, I'm sure there's not a lot that fazes him," Fickell said.
Laurinaitis figured he'd spend last season with the Buckeyes as a redshirt. Instead he ended up on the two-deep because of an injury to Marcus Freeman and was thrust into the Michigan game on the opening series when Bobby Carpenter broke his leg. The Buckeyes rallied for a 25-21 win and headed for the Fiesta Bowl, where Laurinaitis made his first start in a 34-20 drubbing of Notre Dame.
Laurinaitis' older teammates try to avoid comparisons to two-time All-American A.J. Hawk, but they end up drifting in that direction, anyway.
"If you watch him in the weight room or in drills, he's always busting his butt; he's always putting in extra time watching film and doing all those things that make a player good," Patterson said. "In his work ethic and things like that, he's very similar to A.J. Him getting a chance to be under A.J. and Bobby last year and see how they do things, he's taken that on and it's worked for him."
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