Tuesday Q&A: Tossin’ 10 at Scott Goodale, Rutgers head coach

Scott Goodale makes a point during a Rutgers match at the Grapple at the Garden in Madison Square Garden in New York City in November. Justin Hoch photo.


Each Tuesday, TheMat.com will be tossing 10 questions at a college wrestling coach. This week, we visit with Rutgers’ head coach Scott Goodale. The Scarlet Knights beat No. 4 Nebraska this week at home, and had a big win over Cornell during the Grapple at the Garden in Madison Square Garden in New York City in November.


Question 1: What do you believe was the key to the exciting win this weekend over No. 4 Nebraska on your home mats at the RAC?
Goodale: It was being ready to respond from a tough match at Iowa and coming home. That was the key if our guys were going to be ready to go. And they were. And once one or two guys start wrestling really, really hard, it was a trickle-down effect and everybody got after it. Ashnault’s match was huge, because he had never beaten Abidin. It snowballed down. The big win was obviously Nick Gravina, winning at 184 was really huge for us.

Question 2: What did the victory over Cornell, a team that dominated the EIWA when you were in that conference, mean to this team and the development of your athletes?
Goodale: It was huge because they put some beatings on us for a long, long time. They dominated that conference, and we were part of that. We were on the other end of some of those lopsided victories. That one was circled on our calendar for sure. It was one we really wanted and our guys were fired up for it. That was the match that these guys took upon themselves that would change our program. I don’t know if it is or it isn’t, but that’s the way our guys took it. They wanted to make a statement, not only to the East Coast but to the rest of the country that we are a program for real. Hopefully, the momentum continues, but it is because of that match.

Question 3: You mentioned that tough match at Iowa, where you won two matches and earlier this year you dropped a dual to Oklahoma. How do those matches make the team better going into the second half of the season?
Goodale: We loaded up our out-of-conference schedule this year. We wanted to wrestle these nationally-ranked programs. It’s important to us. We like dual meets. It’s exciting. People can relate to it. The fans in Jersey can relate to them. We wanted to do that and we put together a heck of a schedule with some tough road trips. It’s exciting and it keeps our guys’ feet to the fire, so to speak, and keeps them hungry. Every weekend is a big weekend. What does that mean to the end of the year? It means we will be prepared for big moments, big spots in big situations. You hope it carries over in those big matches in March.

Question 4: What was the most difficult thing for Rutgers as it transitioned from an EIWA program into the Big Ten, which has earned its position as the toughest conference in the nation?
Goodale: Night in and night out, you have to be ready. It doesn’t matter who you are wrestling, what their records are. It is the highest level, and every single kid on those rosters are extremely talented. Don’t take anything away from the EIWA. It’s a tough wrestling conference with an unbelievable tradition. The biggest difference is the night-in and night-out. We get nine dual meets a year that are scheduled for you. You have to wrestle those nine dual meets and every team is talented. Even if the team isn’t great, there are a couple of individuals that are really, really good. That was the biggest adjustment, dealing with it night-in and night-out. If you get your butt kicked one night, you have to come back two days later and do it all again. You need to be ready every single night.

Question 5: Do you feel that Rutgers has been able to keep the best New Jersey talent at home, and how supportive has the New Jersey wrestling community been as the team has been built?
Goodale: I like to believe we have a lot of support. You are always going to get your nay-sayers and people who maybe don’t believe in it for whatever reasons. That’s fine. There are expectations here, for sure, not only from our staff and the guys on our team, but the New Jersey wrestling community. There are high expectations. They want a winner, somebody who can compete at the national level. That has been difficult. There has been some tough times, no doubt. We fought hard. I have a really good staff that puts its whole life into this program and that has made it easier. Guys like Donnie (Pritzlaff) and John (Leonardis) and Joe Pollard. These guys have put their life into this program and they have done a lot for it. I would like to think the New Jersey wrestling community appreciates that, but at the end of the day, there will always be some nay-sayers. That’s part of it, it’s all good. There are expectations and we look forward to that every day.

Question 6: You were a successful high school coach in Jersey before getting the opportunity at Rutgers. What was the biggest difference in how you coach top college athletes, in comparison to working with high school wrestlers?
Goodale: With the high school kids, you can get a kid off the football field or out of the hallway and make him really, really successful at the high school level, just be tough, know a couple moves. It is really a little bit different in college, right? Everybody is the best of the best. These guys need to be self-motivated. You can motivate them so much, but at the end of the day, it’s about them. Everybody’s good. That’s the hardest thing to get across to people. Everybody is at the same level. Who wants it more? Who is going to be more self-motivated and do things on their own? That’s the biggest difference. You can’t walk on campus, grab a kid, put him on the mat and have him be successful at this level. We had a ton of success at Jackson. We got those kids who three-sport athletes, really good athletes. This is a commitment year round at the Div. I level and they have to buy into the lifestyle.

Question 7: Who were your top mentors in the coaching business, and how did they help you develop professionally?
Goodale: I wrestled under Coach (Carl) Poff and Rocky Bonomo who I love to death and they were just great people. I learned about being a good person, dealing with people and things like that from those guys. Guys like my grandfather was a huge influence on my life, and my dad. They’ve coached. My grandfather was a coach for 35 years, a football and baseball coach at Far Rockaway. Those people were important to me and big influences on my life. I studied how Coach Poff and Rock interacted with people and how they recruited when I was at Lock Haven wrestling for them. I take a little bit from everybody, but my grandfather and my college coaches were probably the biggest influences on me.

Question 8: How important has bringing Donnie Pritzlaff back home to New Jersey been in helping the team, and how does he complement John Leonardis and the rest of the coaching staff?
Goodale: I think Donnie is one of the best coaches in the country. I really believe in that guy. He is a great person and he’s really helped this program. You surround yourself with great people. Both Donnie and John are not only great coaches and care about these guys, but they are great people. That is the first and most important thing we try to convey to all of our athletes, our alums and our donors. They are as good as it gets, from a technique standpoint, from a strategic standpoint, the way we train our guys. You take a little bit from everything. Donnie has been huge, not only from a recruiting standpoint but as one of the best coaches in the country. We work hand-in-hand. There is no ego on this staff. He is an equal to me. Of course, John has been with me from day one. What they have done from a recruiting standpoint this year has been great. We are going to have a great recruiting class. Probably what’s most important is what they have done with the guys the last two years, developing them, has been important, a huge reason for the resurgence of these guys.

Question 9: The Scarlet Knight Wrestling Club has been more active on the USA Wrestling scene in recent years. How important is the club program and the Olympic quest to building Rutgers into a consistent national power?
Goodale: It has be. We have to continue to do a better job with that. Getting guys like Tyler Graff and Josh Demas to compete for us is important. But we need more, and we are going to try to continue to get more guys. It’s not just workout partners for our guys. We need to see these guys go on and do some great things on the Senior level. We feel good about where Tyler Graff is at right now. We need more. It is a process. We don’t want to jump in with nine guys. We want to jump in with two, three, four really good ones. Tyler is certainly getting us off to a start. It gives our guys on the current roster an idea that when they are done, they have a place to train and wrestle for us. It’s important to development. We need to continue to get better at it and get more guys.

Question 10: Based upon your strong start so far this year, what goals does this team have for the rest of the season and what would be considered a strong year for the team?
Goodale: I won’t really go into all of our goals. We certainly have high expectations. I will say this. We are going to be judged by the last three days in March. So for us, it’s about the Big Tens and the national tournament. We have to put guys on that podium. We understand that. It is part of our everyday thinking. That’s really it. At the end of the day, we need national champs and All-Americans, just like every other program in the country is chasing.

Past Tossin’ 10 interviews
December 8 – Nebraska head coach Mark Manning 
December 1 – Drexel head coach Matt Azevedo
November 24 – Oklahoma head coach Mark Cody 
November 17 – Oklahoma City’s head men’s & women’s coach Archie Randall 
November 10 - Stanford head coach Jason Borrelli 
November 3 - Pennsylvania head coach Alex Tirapelle 
October 27- South Dakota State head coach Chris Bono