Max Dean has become adept at tuning out the background noise.
The junior, who transferred to Penn State from Cornell after making the NCAA finals in 2019, is singularly focused on becoming the best wrestler he can with the Nittany Lions.
That began with a simple change, cutting out social media.
"A little bit over a year ago I actually decided to get rid of all my social media," Dean said when speaking with the media on Monday afternoon. "I don't know, I just felt like it was dominating too much of my time. I was a little too caught up in it.
"I didn't like the way that maybe you look at it for 10 minutes, but then you spend the next hour or two hours thinking about what you were looking at for 10 minutes. I felt like it was controlling too much of my train of thought. Maybe that's just kind of a sight of the weaknesses I have as a person. I just felt like I was too caught up in it. I didn't want to do it anymore and just wanted to focus on the people I was around and wrestling and I the other things that I enjoy."
Athletes eliminating social media to better focus on their sporting pursuits is nothing new. NBA superstar LeBron James has become notorious for his "Zero Dark Thirty-23" social media blackouts during the playoffs. While more locally, Nico Megaludis spoke about how he avoided twitter as much as possible during his run to an NCAA championship at 125 pounds 2016.
The change, in addition to the move to State College, has appeared to pay dividends for Dean, who is 13-1 on the year and was recently named the Big Ten Wrestler of the Week after a comeback win over Iowa's Jacob Warner.
But the ability to tune out the noise extends beyond just his social media abstinence. Dean's singular focus was on display during his win over Warner inside of a hostile Carver-Hawkeye Arena, where he says he wasn't aware of some of the vitriol being hurled his way when he took the mat.
"Iowa, their arena and their fan base is into it, is one way to put it," Dean said with a smile. "It was fun. I enjoyed the experience. I don't hear the specifics of what they're saying. I heard some stories later in the night from my family that was there. You know, maybe some people get a little too rowdy, or a little too fired up and say something they may regret the next day. But for us competing, it's fun. Those opportunities, especially in wrestling, are few and far between (where) you get to wrestle in front of 15,000 people. So I definitely enjoyed that."
Dean is now shifting his focus forward not only to this weekend, where he's set to take on 2021 Big Ten runner-up Eric Schultz of Nebraska on Sunday, but also too the upcoming Big Ten and NCAA Championships.
"I'm definitely thinking about being in the room with my coaches and my training and trying to work on those few things that maybe before NCAAs could be the difference," he said. "Because it is really competitive and there's a lot of good guys."
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