New Auburn football coach Alex Golesh appreciates his Russian roots, but don't expect him to visit the land he spent the first seven years of his life.
During a Friday interview on "The Next Round," Golesh was asked about his Russian roots and shared that he was "proud" of his story, in which his parents left their good jobs as the Soviet Union was collapsing and came to the United States for a better life for their children.
Golesh revealed that although he is proud of where he comes from, he doesn't think he would ever return to his homeland, given the politics there.
"I think it's neat that my story gets to be told," he told "Next Round." "I've never been back, and politically, the way the situation is, I don't know that I'd ever be back. We've talked about it. I married a girl from a little town in Arkansas, and I've asked her if she wants to go, and it's the last thing she wants to do, so we're good right here in Auburn, Alabama."
In a feature on his life story, Golesh said in 2023 that he would love to show his two children their father's homeland, but he has "never felt safe" returning.
"I've never felt safe to go,'' Golesh said, according to USF. "There are too many stories of my mom's friends going back, people who did business in America and had some level of financial success. They go back … and it has never ended well. It has been bad. And by bad, I mean bad."
"Leaving Russia and coming to America, I'm more proud of what it has represented for my family, the ability to live the American dream. I mean, I coach American football, right? I have a great life. I make a great living and my family is secure. Like, man, what a crazy, crazy story. To me, it's more the pride in what it has become, what we worked to accomplish, more so than actually being from there," he added."
Read more on Golesh's life story here.
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