Washington's Derek Garcia thriving in Fargo after training full-time at U.S. Olympic Training Center

Washington's Derek Garcia competes in the Junior Nationals on Thursday. Photo by David Jedlicka.

FARGO, N.D. - Spend a few minutes around Washington's Derek Garcia and you quickly realize his coaches know what they are talking about.

"Great kid, great student, great wrestler," said USA Wrestling Assistant Coach Bill Zadick. "I love everything about this kid."

What's not to like?

Garcia still has one year of high school eligibility left, but he already has his high school diploma and is taking college courses online.

An all-conference quarterback who won his third Washington state high school title earlier this year, Garcia decided to move to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in March to train full-time as a resident athlete.

He's in Fargo this week, taking aim at winning the Junior Nationals freestyle title at 152 pounds. He won his first four bouts, two by fall and two by technical fall, Thursday at the FargoDome.

Garcia's main workout partner while preparing for this event? It was Zadick, who won a World freestyle title in 2006.

"It's been awesome training with Bill," Garcia said. "He's a World champion, and it's great being around somebody like him. It's been pretty intense wrestling him. He really pushes me."

Garcia won Cadet Nationals in Greco-Roman in 2007. He beat Pennsylvania's Dylan Alton, a Penn State recruit, in the finals. He placed third that year in Cadets in freestyle.

Last year, Garcia fell short of placing in both styles in Juniors while being hampered by a shoulder injury.

Garcia plans to move back home to Washington next week and prepare for his senior season in football for Sedro-Woolley High School. He then will try to become just the sixth Washington wrestler to win four state titles.

After that, Garcia said he plans to move back to the Olympic Training Center and wrestle freestyle full-time.

So how good is this kid?

"Derek definitely has a lot of physical gifts with regard to wrestling," Zadick said. "He's very strong and athletic. He's very tough and very tenacious. He has a ferocious competitive spirit and an unbelievable work ethic."

As you might expect, Garcia is drawing plenty of attention from Division I college recruiters. He listed Iowa, Iowa State, Boise State and Cornell among the schools that have shown interest in him.

"I'm planning on staying at the Olympic Training Center for at least one year after I finish wrestling in high school," Garcia said. "I will see how I like it and I'm pretty sure I will like it."

Passing up college to wrestle freestyle full-time is what Henry Cejudo did en route to winning an Olympic gold medal as a 21-year-old in 2008.

"I love everything the Olympic Training Center has to offer," Garcia said. "They have great coaches out there and you can't beat that. They gave me the opportunity to come out there and I've tried to take advantage of that."

Zadick was a resident alongside Cejudo the past few years at the OTC.

"With Henry's success, it has created a new model that we would like to emulate," Zadick said. "If we can get more young guys to have success like that, we can obviously be more dominant as a country. Obviously, every individual is different. Henry's success has proven to us that given the right environment and right individual the sky is the limit for what you can accomplish."

Zadick loves what kind of upside the 17-year-old Garcia has.

"In my opinion, I want what's best for Derek and I want him to be happy," Zadick said. "I know he's drawing a lot of interest from college coaches. He obviously has a lot of options. He can come and wrestle at the Olympic Training Center or he can go and wrestle in college. He's a very bright young man who loves a challenge.

"I know he will be successful no matter what he decides to do. He's a very impressive kid. I can't say enough good things about him.