Yo-yo was just a trend at Joey Jessen's school, but when his peers quit, Jessen continued to train and is now the state champion of Arizona.
Joey Jessen: [00:00:04] Hi I'm Joey Jessen. I'm the 2018 Arizona state yo-yo champion. I got into yo-yo because it was popular at my school and basically, it was just something fun to do and when everyone else quit I just kind of kept with it and found the community. I started doing competitions in the fall of 2014 and from there I just kind of continued on with it. When I won the 2018 Arizona state yo-yo championship, it was a surreal experience for me honestly because I worked so hard to get to where I was. Just being able to win it, it was just a good feeling and my friends hyped me up for it and just made me feel really good and it's something that didn't happen much with yo-yo competitions. I don't have a good track record. I guess it just was awesome. I ended up being interviewed by USA Today and SportsCenter. Just blew up on Twitter, became viral and was able to live out a dream of mine. For me, yo-yoing is a lot more than just a toy and it's more of community and just a good place to be honestly.
Reach the reporter at cchild1@asu.edu or follow @_cchild88 on Twitter.
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