HANCOCK Tracy Gangelo

General
LIFE-CHANGING ENCOUNTER
His full name is Tracy G'Angelo Hancock but his first coach, Thomas Curtis 'TC' Dantzler, suggested he go by his middle name, G'Angelo, as it sounded tougher. Hancock was 16 when he met Dantzler and was ready to give up wrestling until Dantzler convinced him to try the Greco-Roman discipline. Dantzler had first seen Hancock when his Pine Creek High School team were wrestling against Hancock's school, Fountain-Fort Carson. "I could tell he [Hancock] was a leader because his team kept looking to him in matches, not to the coach. I just saw a leadership quality, so I asked my kids. They said, 'Oh, that's Tracy Hancock. The kid is good, man, but he doesn't have his stuff together'. He didn't have positive male figures around him. He didn't have anybody around him telling him he could achieve. I saw a really, really tough kid that liked to compete and he didn't know how to wrestle. It was like, 'He doesn't even know how to wrestle, but he's tough, he's athletic, he likes to fight, but he likes to do it with a smile. He's having fun.' It just resembled me so much, and it resembled other people who have had success." Hancock says Dantzler taught him more than just wrestling. "He's taught me how to be a respectful man. That's probably one of the things I'm most grateful for. He taught me how to carry myself and how to be an adult. I used to have childish fidgets. I would stand and rock my body side to side. He would say, 'Stand tall, stand firm and be confident as a man when you stand'. He completely changed my life." (trackwrestling.com, 21 Jul 2017)

COACHING
He offers private Greco-Roman wrestling lessons to anybody interested in trying the sport. (Instagram profile, 08 Feb 2021)