The Q&A: Outtakes

Enjoy.

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Jason Neville, Edmond resident and member of the U.S. World Championship taekwondo team

Jenni Carlson: You had long fought at 170 pounds, but you made the world championship team at heavyweight. Bet people were surprised when you showed up at world team trials as a heavyweight.

Jason Neville: Some in the division were trying to get me out of it. They didn’t think it was legal that I had moved into it and didn’t like the idea of a lighter, faster guy sneaking into this division, but didn’t break any rules, didn’t do anything wrong. It ended up working out well for me.

JC: Pretty amazing since you competed for the first time as a heavyweight in a pretty high-stakes tournament.

JN: I wasn’t so much nervous. I had convinced myself that as long as I get into this weight class, I was going to be faster, more agile, about the same height. In essence, there was really no reason I shouldn’t be able to succeed. I’d kind of built up the confidence in the game plan. We got into the first fight, ended up feeling good … so at that point, my coach looked at me and was like, “I’m not worried.” I was feeling like everything was still in my control.

JC: So, even from that first match you felt like you’d made a good decision?

JN: Oh, yeah. The first fight went well, and the second one was one of the ones I was really looking forward to. That was the fighter and his father/coach that were trying to remove me from that division. If I was going to hype myself up for a match, that was the one I was really ready for. That one ended perfectly. It was a point gap, where it’s almost like the mercy rule. Overall, success and satisfaction.

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Don Porter, International Softball Federation president

Jenni Carlson: You were the longtime head of the Amateur Softball Association here in Oklahoma City, and you still have a house here. You also have one in Florida. Most people buy the house in Florida as a vacation home, but your Oklahoma home is probably more of a vacation home.

Don Porter: It really is. Most of our family’s here. Some of our kids. A lot of our grandkids. We didn’t know what the future holds, the next six months or the next year, and so we felt we need to keep the house here. My wife can come back here at times that I’m gone. She was just here for about a month, caught up with everything, friends, church. But having the home down there in Plant City is convenient because of what we’re doing.