Tuesday Q&A: Tossin’ 10 at Zeke Jones, Arizona State head coach
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by Gary Abbott, USA Wrestling
Each Tuesday, TheMat.com will be tossing 10 questions at a college wrestling coach. This week, we visit with Arizona States’s head coach Zeke Jones. Now in his second full season with the Sun Devils, Jones is looking to lead his alma mater back to the top level of Div. I wrestling.
Question 1: How do you feel the progress is going in building the Arizona State program, and what still needs to be done for the Sun Devils to compete at the highest level in Div. I wrestling?
Jones: The progress at Arizona State reminds me of the progress we made at USA Wrestling, which in the first two years it was building the culture, building the infrastructure of the program, rallying the community. Although I would say recruiting, it wasn’t recruiting with the National Team, it was organizing the talent, the athletes. Same thing with Arizona State, except for it was recruiting. It’s very similar the first two years were the building blocks to improvement. Now in the third year, which will be essentially next year, although we are not writing off this year, we start to get the kids in the program that we recruited two years ago. With the national team, the first two years were below average from American expectation, but the third year we were third in the world in Turkey, our breakout year in the cycle. I think it will be very similar for us, not that we will be third in the NCAAs, but we will be contending for a top spot.
Question 2: Blake Stauffer was fourth at the NCAAs last year. How is his progress this season, and what must he do to reach the top of the podium in Madison Square Garden?
Jones: Blake is a pro. He understands the process. He knows how to prepare himself throughout the season, and ultimately get to the place to compete for a championship. Last year was different that it will be this year. He was a wildcard to the NCAA Tournament two years ago. Last year, he expected to win it in his mind. Now there is no doubt he knows he can. Blake needs to get healthy. He got a little dinged up in Vegas. He will be back in action coming off the break. It’s just getting healthy and getting ready to wrestle. What does he have to do? He is going to have to have good game plans. He is a top four guy. For him to win it, he is going to have to have a good game plan for every guy that he wrestles when he gets into the final group of guys. If he has a good game plan and executes it, he will get on the top of the podium. If he can’t, he won’t. He is a smart wrestler, a high IQ, and with a good game plan he can get on top.
Question 3: Back when you were competing, Tempe was a major training location for top Olympic hopefuls with the Sunkist Kids. You have Jordan Oliver, Ed Ruth, Tyrell Fortune, Kelsey Campbell and others training there now. What makes this a top location now for those with high Olympic goals?
Jones: The very best programs have a Regional Training Center connected to their university. Those that want to be the best in the country and the best in the world have to be in a place that essentially has the ingredients: world-class training partners, top-notch coaching, a national-caliber club that has won medals at the World and Olympic Games and a community, a university that supports that mission. When you have that, it becomes a top destination for the very best wrestlers in the U.S. There are about five, maybe six or seven, schools that are doing that, which are really committed to that top level, that’s being the best in the world. Right now, the program here has those ingredients. That is why it is attracting top-level wrestlers who want to be the best in the world and they need those things.
Question 4: Among your big recruits coming in this year are the Valencia brothers from California. Anthony is on an Olympic redshirt, and you are also holding out Zahid this season. What kind of athletes and young men are they and now that you have worked with them, what does their future hold?
Jones: Zahid and Anthony are great kids. They are extreme competitors. They want to be the best in the world. They have high goals and they want to achieve in the classroom and on the wrestling mat. They are still young. Sometimes, when we go to the U.S. Open, the expectations are so high. Granted, we want to keep them high for them. But, they are 19 years old. They are just starting their Senior level careers. They are starting it early because they are on the cusp of being ready early. Working with them is a lot like working with a National Team athlete, where you are laying out a training and competition plan for them, then working on the specific details of making each individually better. They have different wrestling styles, different techniques and strategies that they employ. How do we make them better? It’s the same thing with Varner and Burroughs, you take what they have and try to make it better. We are doing the same thing here at Arizona State. We are taking each guy and their individual talents and making that better. With Anthony and Zahid, that recruiting class, we are redshirting all of them except for one, Tanner Hall, because he is a 23 year old freshman and needs to wrestle. He hasn’t wrestled in a long time. We are redshirting seven scholarships, even more, out of 9.9. Those kids are the future of the Sun Devils.
Question 5: What roles do your assistant coaches Chris Pendleton, Lee Pritz and Jordan Oliver have with your program, and how much to they mean to the success of the Sun Devil program?
Jones: Chris, Lee and Jordan all play specific roles in its operations. We are juggling a lot. Not only do we run a full-time Div. I wrestling program at the collegiate level, but we are running a full-time RTC at the freestyle domestic and international level, at the Senior level and the Junior level too. At the RTC, Junior athletes from across the state come in and train with us. We all help with the college program, we all help with the RTC program. Chris and I focus mostly on the RTC side, Lee functions on the college side. We are focused that all things are getting covered. Jordan is our third coach and is mostly an athlete. He is in the room every day, raising the intensity level of the wrestling room which shows those younger kids what it takes to be a national champion. Chris won some national titles and was on four national championship teams. They guy has been there and done that, where the other guys are trying to go. Lee brings 20 years of college coaching experience. He knows the game real well, has a lot of wisdom and experience on what it’s like to be a student-athlete, the whole package. I think that combination works real well. They are always getting calls from universities about both assistant and head coaching jobs because they are very good at what they do. It is not uncommon for them to work 14 hour days together because they are committed to the program and the kids’ success. They are extremely valuable.
Question 6: During your years as National Coach, you worked with Jordan Burroughs and the rest of the top American freestyle stars. How did your time coaching our elite wrestlers help you as a coach, now that you are back coaching at the college level?
Jones: The function as the National Team Coach, you learn a lot. I can’t tell you the growth I had in those six-plus years. You learn what the best countries in the world are doing, the best wrestlers in the world. You get a much more global view for what it takes to be successful. As you know, sometimes we think the NCAA Tournament is the end-all tournament. We know there are 170 countries that wrestle. If there is one Brent Metcalf here, there is 10 of them over there. It teaches us that we must keep our eyes and ears open to learning. The same thing in building the U.S. program, where you are basically tweaking it, restructuring it, it is the same thing at the collegiate level. It is very similar, rallying people to be successful, getting the talent in the room and developing in. On the national level, you are polishing it, at the collegiate level there is a much more teaching component to it, and an educational opponent as well. They are very parallel in what it takes to manage a program. When you walk into a home of a Lance Benick or Tanner Hall, and say ‘I know you have high goals, to be the best in the country and best in the world; we can help you get there.’ The athletes, they know you have been there and done that, both as an athlete and a coach, and it gives them a tremendous amount of confidence and assurance that you can develop a plan for them. That is one of the unique advantages of being National Coach, you do all the things to help a National Program to compete globally. It gives you experience to know what it takes to get a guy on the top of the podium. That is what we intend to do at Arizona State.
Question 7: How important is successful college wrestling in the West to the sport of wrestling, and do you see the Pac 12 and the other Western schools getting stronger in the future?
Jones: I do. I see it getting stronger in the future in the West. I think it is essential that we continue to grow the West. Arizona State made a statement, our athletic director and our president Ray Anderson and Dr. Crow, that they wanted Arizona State to compete nationally again. The president has a global vision for the university. You look at Fresno State now, we are there reinstating the program. You look at Stanford, who have two wrestlers in their lineup who were Junior World Team members last year. Arizona State had two Junior World Team members. More than half the Junior World Team came out of the Pac-12 last year. You have an Olympic silver medalist coach over there at Stanford. You can see the strengthening of the West. By no means is it the Big Ten yet, and may never will be with its quantity. Certainly in its quality, it can be very similar. That is vital to the sport. My competitors, head coaches around the country, who obviously want to beat us, are in support of us. The Caels and the Toms say congratulations, great job in recruiting. They see the West getting stronger. That’s a good sign that even your competitors are excited about the development of the West. We will continue to work hard at it. California has done a tremendous job at the grassroots level producing a fantastic product. You see the strength, and right now in the West it is in an upswing. We have to continue to improve it.
Question 8: You wrestled on the Arizona State team which won the NCAA team title, and now are responsible for trying to do that again as the coach there. What was special about that Sun Devil team, and how did that experience prepare you for your role in making it happen again?
Jones: Winning a national championship as an athlete, it validates that the path. You’ve done it as an athlete, now can you do it as a coach? The path is the same, but you are doing it from a different role. It’s important that you have walked those steps, what it takes. The path isn’t different. It’s recruiting, getting the talent and developing that talent, staying on track, getting better, bringing in the right kids into the wrestling family here at Arizona State, which is what we are starting to do. Luck is a factor in there too. The wrestling landscape, there is more depth and diversity now. There was always the Iowas and Oklahomas, but now there’s the Ohio States and Penn States are making a push, and the strength of the overall Big Ten. Instead of two schools, there are six schools that are banging heads at the top. That will make it more challenging, but nothing changes for Arizona State. In the West, its convincing families in the Midwest and the East to come to Arizona. In their minds, they think it’s far. In my mind, a four-hour flight here is not like a 38-hour flight to Russia. That’s what I share with the families. If your goal is to be the best in the world, a flight to Phoenix is nothing, with what your son will be doing with his international career. With technology and the internet now there’s more information. Our pool is getting better faster, because we are putting our best Cadets and Juniors in the pipeline earlier and getting them more resources at the OTC. It’s a valuable resource to our country. Like anything else, the product of hard work is what gets you the results you want.
Question 9: Quick thoughts on two people, Art Martori and Bobby Douglas.
Jones: Art Martori. Visionary, leader, probably the most influential man in the sport of wrestling that hasn’t put on a singlet or coached in the last 30 years. There’s leadership, high wrestling IQ, just really a great human being. No nonsense, very focused, driven. He is a successful businessman for a reason. You do your job. If you don’t do your job, you are out and next guy in. America wouldn’t be in this position without him. He’s great, he’s the reason we win a lot of medals for this country. He understands how to build a national program to win globally. He likes to win national championships, but that’s not what motivates him. What motivates him is putting Americans on top of the podium at the World and Olympic Games, and he knows how to do it. Thank God he lives in Phoenix. Bobby Douglas, obviously a wrestling legend. One of the brightest wrestling man I’ve seen on a wrestling mat. He has the IQ to understand intricacies of winning wrestling matches, the technical and the tactical. He’s a visionary, he keeps five steps ahead in the wrestling arena. He knows how to develop talent from scratch. A good man, good character, a good leader. People believe in him. He can be hard and tough. Like Art, he can be cruel to some extent. It is just honesty, and that’s key. You have to be honest with your people, so they know where they are at and can get to where they want to go. He’s driven, a 24-hour a day wrestling guy. From the morning to the time he goes to bed, he is always thinking about how to improve his team and the sport. I am very blessed to have both those guys help me. I wouldn’t be where I am as an athlete, coach and a program leader without them. They are the best.
Question 10: You wrestled on the only two U.S. World Teams which won World Team titles in 1993 and 1995, and you coached our National Team as well. What do you believe will be the key to getting our American Team back on top in freestyle, and do you think it can happen soon?
Jones: We are making progress towards that goal. We are getting the program in a position where we are a stable Top 5. Like anything with changes and transitions, it takes time to put a plan in place, a minimum two years where you can get something so big to move in a direction. It’s a big boat to move in the direction you want it to move. Are we capable? There is no doubt. Cuba has a thousand wrestlers on its island. They can produce Top 3, Top 5 teams pretty consistently. To say America can’t do it, with hundreds of thousands of wrestlers is wrong. The pipeline is wide. It needs to be organized and communicated to effectively. We always have the folkstyle/freestyle thing. But every country has its challenge. Cuba has no money. We are far away from Europe. The Russians have a good system in place, but they stretch 13 time zones. They have other factors that can get in their way. Every country has its strengths and weaknesses. When I got there in ’09 with the National Team, I said ‘we were top 2 in the world consistently through the 80’s and 90s and we won two World Championships.’ I started to think it’s just excuses we are making why we can’t win anymore. When I got to USA Wrestling, I thought ‘I don’t buy it. They are just excuses. You have to work with what you have.’ We were able to do it before, why can’t we do it now? We started on that path. I thought we had some stability with the generation of second-cycle guys, the Burroughs, the Varners, the Dlagnevs, the Herberts. With the new cycle guys coming through, the Ruths and the Ramoses, the next group, I thought, we are in position. You have got to work the talent, get them in the right place, get the expectation high, get them the resources they need. I think we can get it done. It will take a well thought-out plan, and us working together as a country, particularly the college coaches and the athletes to believe. I really believe in the National Coach role, having done it, that it’s essential to success of the national program. Every top 10 country in the wrestling world has a national program that is organized by a national coach. They work together to from different regions in a country. They all come together to strengthen the country. Better together than apart. Arizona State, Iowa, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, it’s important that we work together to be the best in the world. If we do that, that’s the hard part. We could all be comfortable, staying home and not leaving our houses. We gotta get out of our houses, get to Colorado Springs, work together and follow the vision of the National Team Coach, Bruce Burnett now and of course the new National Coach. That hire is critical. It is critical that the person can do the job effectively, and the coaches and athletes believe in the direction the National Coach is taking them. If we do that, we can get back on top again.
Past Tossin’ 10 interviews
December 15 – Rutgers head coach Scott Goodale
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
Question 1: How do you feel the progress is going in building the Arizona State program, and what still needs to be done for the Sun Devils to compete at the highest level in Div. I wrestling?
Jones: The progress at Arizona State reminds me of the progress we made at USA Wrestling, which in the first two years it was building the culture, building the infrastructure of the program, rallying the community. Although I would say recruiting, it wasn’t recruiting with the National Team, it was organizing the talent, the athletes. Same thing with Arizona State, except for it was recruiting. It’s very similar the first two years were the building blocks to improvement. Now in the third year, which will be essentially next year, although we are not writing off this year, we start to get the kids in the program that we recruited two years ago. With the national team, the first two years were below average from American expectation, but the third year we were third in the world in Turkey, our breakout year in the cycle. I think it will be very similar for us, not that we will be third in the NCAAs, but we will be contending for a top spot.
Question 2: Blake Stauffer was fourth at the NCAAs last year. How is his progress this season, and what must he do to reach the top of the podium in Madison Square Garden?
Jones: Blake is a pro. He understands the process. He knows how to prepare himself throughout the season, and ultimately get to the place to compete for a championship. Last year was different that it will be this year. He was a wildcard to the NCAA Tournament two years ago. Last year, he expected to win it in his mind. Now there is no doubt he knows he can. Blake needs to get healthy. He got a little dinged up in Vegas. He will be back in action coming off the break. It’s just getting healthy and getting ready to wrestle. What does he have to do? He is going to have to have good game plans. He is a top four guy. For him to win it, he is going to have to have a good game plan for every guy that he wrestles when he gets into the final group of guys. If he has a good game plan and executes it, he will get on the top of the podium. If he can’t, he won’t. He is a smart wrestler, a high IQ, and with a good game plan he can get on top.
Question 3: Back when you were competing, Tempe was a major training location for top Olympic hopefuls with the Sunkist Kids. You have Jordan Oliver, Ed Ruth, Tyrell Fortune, Kelsey Campbell and others training there now. What makes this a top location now for those with high Olympic goals?
Jones: The very best programs have a Regional Training Center connected to their university. Those that want to be the best in the country and the best in the world have to be in a place that essentially has the ingredients: world-class training partners, top-notch coaching, a national-caliber club that has won medals at the World and Olympic Games and a community, a university that supports that mission. When you have that, it becomes a top destination for the very best wrestlers in the U.S. There are about five, maybe six or seven, schools that are doing that, which are really committed to that top level, that’s being the best in the world. Right now, the program here has those ingredients. That is why it is attracting top-level wrestlers who want to be the best in the world and they need those things.
Question 4: Among your big recruits coming in this year are the Valencia brothers from California. Anthony is on an Olympic redshirt, and you are also holding out Zahid this season. What kind of athletes and young men are they and now that you have worked with them, what does their future hold?
Jones: Zahid and Anthony are great kids. They are extreme competitors. They want to be the best in the world. They have high goals and they want to achieve in the classroom and on the wrestling mat. They are still young. Sometimes, when we go to the U.S. Open, the expectations are so high. Granted, we want to keep them high for them. But, they are 19 years old. They are just starting their Senior level careers. They are starting it early because they are on the cusp of being ready early. Working with them is a lot like working with a National Team athlete, where you are laying out a training and competition plan for them, then working on the specific details of making each individually better. They have different wrestling styles, different techniques and strategies that they employ. How do we make them better? It’s the same thing with Varner and Burroughs, you take what they have and try to make it better. We are doing the same thing here at Arizona State. We are taking each guy and their individual talents and making that better. With Anthony and Zahid, that recruiting class, we are redshirting all of them except for one, Tanner Hall, because he is a 23 year old freshman and needs to wrestle. He hasn’t wrestled in a long time. We are redshirting seven scholarships, even more, out of 9.9. Those kids are the future of the Sun Devils.
Question 5: What roles do your assistant coaches Chris Pendleton, Lee Pritz and Jordan Oliver have with your program, and how much to they mean to the success of the Sun Devil program?
Jones: Chris, Lee and Jordan all play specific roles in its operations. We are juggling a lot. Not only do we run a full-time Div. I wrestling program at the collegiate level, but we are running a full-time RTC at the freestyle domestic and international level, at the Senior level and the Junior level too. At the RTC, Junior athletes from across the state come in and train with us. We all help with the college program, we all help with the RTC program. Chris and I focus mostly on the RTC side, Lee functions on the college side. We are focused that all things are getting covered. Jordan is our third coach and is mostly an athlete. He is in the room every day, raising the intensity level of the wrestling room which shows those younger kids what it takes to be a national champion. Chris won some national titles and was on four national championship teams. They guy has been there and done that, where the other guys are trying to go. Lee brings 20 years of college coaching experience. He knows the game real well, has a lot of wisdom and experience on what it’s like to be a student-athlete, the whole package. I think that combination works real well. They are always getting calls from universities about both assistant and head coaching jobs because they are very good at what they do. It is not uncommon for them to work 14 hour days together because they are committed to the program and the kids’ success. They are extremely valuable.
Question 6: During your years as National Coach, you worked with Jordan Burroughs and the rest of the top American freestyle stars. How did your time coaching our elite wrestlers help you as a coach, now that you are back coaching at the college level?
Jones: The function as the National Team Coach, you learn a lot. I can’t tell you the growth I had in those six-plus years. You learn what the best countries in the world are doing, the best wrestlers in the world. You get a much more global view for what it takes to be successful. As you know, sometimes we think the NCAA Tournament is the end-all tournament. We know there are 170 countries that wrestle. If there is one Brent Metcalf here, there is 10 of them over there. It teaches us that we must keep our eyes and ears open to learning. The same thing in building the U.S. program, where you are basically tweaking it, restructuring it, it is the same thing at the collegiate level. It is very similar, rallying people to be successful, getting the talent in the room and developing in. On the national level, you are polishing it, at the collegiate level there is a much more teaching component to it, and an educational opponent as well. They are very parallel in what it takes to manage a program. When you walk into a home of a Lance Benick or Tanner Hall, and say ‘I know you have high goals, to be the best in the country and best in the world; we can help you get there.’ The athletes, they know you have been there and done that, both as an athlete and a coach, and it gives them a tremendous amount of confidence and assurance that you can develop a plan for them. That is one of the unique advantages of being National Coach, you do all the things to help a National Program to compete globally. It gives you experience to know what it takes to get a guy on the top of the podium. That is what we intend to do at Arizona State.
Question 7: How important is successful college wrestling in the West to the sport of wrestling, and do you see the Pac 12 and the other Western schools getting stronger in the future?
Jones: I do. I see it getting stronger in the future in the West. I think it is essential that we continue to grow the West. Arizona State made a statement, our athletic director and our president Ray Anderson and Dr. Crow, that they wanted Arizona State to compete nationally again. The president has a global vision for the university. You look at Fresno State now, we are there reinstating the program. You look at Stanford, who have two wrestlers in their lineup who were Junior World Team members last year. Arizona State had two Junior World Team members. More than half the Junior World Team came out of the Pac-12 last year. You have an Olympic silver medalist coach over there at Stanford. You can see the strengthening of the West. By no means is it the Big Ten yet, and may never will be with its quantity. Certainly in its quality, it can be very similar. That is vital to the sport. My competitors, head coaches around the country, who obviously want to beat us, are in support of us. The Caels and the Toms say congratulations, great job in recruiting. They see the West getting stronger. That’s a good sign that even your competitors are excited about the development of the West. We will continue to work hard at it. California has done a tremendous job at the grassroots level producing a fantastic product. You see the strength, and right now in the West it is in an upswing. We have to continue to improve it.
Question 8: You wrestled on the Arizona State team which won the NCAA team title, and now are responsible for trying to do that again as the coach there. What was special about that Sun Devil team, and how did that experience prepare you for your role in making it happen again?
Jones: Winning a national championship as an athlete, it validates that the path. You’ve done it as an athlete, now can you do it as a coach? The path is the same, but you are doing it from a different role. It’s important that you have walked those steps, what it takes. The path isn’t different. It’s recruiting, getting the talent and developing that talent, staying on track, getting better, bringing in the right kids into the wrestling family here at Arizona State, which is what we are starting to do. Luck is a factor in there too. The wrestling landscape, there is more depth and diversity now. There was always the Iowas and Oklahomas, but now there’s the Ohio States and Penn States are making a push, and the strength of the overall Big Ten. Instead of two schools, there are six schools that are banging heads at the top. That will make it more challenging, but nothing changes for Arizona State. In the West, its convincing families in the Midwest and the East to come to Arizona. In their minds, they think it’s far. In my mind, a four-hour flight here is not like a 38-hour flight to Russia. That’s what I share with the families. If your goal is to be the best in the world, a flight to Phoenix is nothing, with what your son will be doing with his international career. With technology and the internet now there’s more information. Our pool is getting better faster, because we are putting our best Cadets and Juniors in the pipeline earlier and getting them more resources at the OTC. It’s a valuable resource to our country. Like anything else, the product of hard work is what gets you the results you want.
Question 9: Quick thoughts on two people, Art Martori and Bobby Douglas.
Jones: Art Martori. Visionary, leader, probably the most influential man in the sport of wrestling that hasn’t put on a singlet or coached in the last 30 years. There’s leadership, high wrestling IQ, just really a great human being. No nonsense, very focused, driven. He is a successful businessman for a reason. You do your job. If you don’t do your job, you are out and next guy in. America wouldn’t be in this position without him. He’s great, he’s the reason we win a lot of medals for this country. He understands how to build a national program to win globally. He likes to win national championships, but that’s not what motivates him. What motivates him is putting Americans on top of the podium at the World and Olympic Games, and he knows how to do it. Thank God he lives in Phoenix. Bobby Douglas, obviously a wrestling legend. One of the brightest wrestling man I’ve seen on a wrestling mat. He has the IQ to understand intricacies of winning wrestling matches, the technical and the tactical. He’s a visionary, he keeps five steps ahead in the wrestling arena. He knows how to develop talent from scratch. A good man, good character, a good leader. People believe in him. He can be hard and tough. Like Art, he can be cruel to some extent. It is just honesty, and that’s key. You have to be honest with your people, so they know where they are at and can get to where they want to go. He’s driven, a 24-hour a day wrestling guy. From the morning to the time he goes to bed, he is always thinking about how to improve his team and the sport. I am very blessed to have both those guys help me. I wouldn’t be where I am as an athlete, coach and a program leader without them. They are the best.
Question 10: You wrestled on the only two U.S. World Teams which won World Team titles in 1993 and 1995, and you coached our National Team as well. What do you believe will be the key to getting our American Team back on top in freestyle, and do you think it can happen soon?
Jones: We are making progress towards that goal. We are getting the program in a position where we are a stable Top 5. Like anything with changes and transitions, it takes time to put a plan in place, a minimum two years where you can get something so big to move in a direction. It’s a big boat to move in the direction you want it to move. Are we capable? There is no doubt. Cuba has a thousand wrestlers on its island. They can produce Top 3, Top 5 teams pretty consistently. To say America can’t do it, with hundreds of thousands of wrestlers is wrong. The pipeline is wide. It needs to be organized and communicated to effectively. We always have the folkstyle/freestyle thing. But every country has its challenge. Cuba has no money. We are far away from Europe. The Russians have a good system in place, but they stretch 13 time zones. They have other factors that can get in their way. Every country has its strengths and weaknesses. When I got there in ’09 with the National Team, I said ‘we were top 2 in the world consistently through the 80’s and 90s and we won two World Championships.’ I started to think it’s just excuses we are making why we can’t win anymore. When I got to USA Wrestling, I thought ‘I don’t buy it. They are just excuses. You have to work with what you have.’ We were able to do it before, why can’t we do it now? We started on that path. I thought we had some stability with the generation of second-cycle guys, the Burroughs, the Varners, the Dlagnevs, the Herberts. With the new cycle guys coming through, the Ruths and the Ramoses, the next group, I thought, we are in position. You have got to work the talent, get them in the right place, get the expectation high, get them the resources they need. I think we can get it done. It will take a well thought-out plan, and us working together as a country, particularly the college coaches and the athletes to believe. I really believe in the National Coach role, having done it, that it’s essential to success of the national program. Every top 10 country in the wrestling world has a national program that is organized by a national coach. They work together to from different regions in a country. They all come together to strengthen the country. Better together than apart. Arizona State, Iowa, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, it’s important that we work together to be the best in the world. If we do that, that’s the hard part. We could all be comfortable, staying home and not leaving our houses. We gotta get out of our houses, get to Colorado Springs, work together and follow the vision of the National Team Coach, Bruce Burnett now and of course the new National Coach. That hire is critical. It is critical that the person can do the job effectively, and the coaches and athletes believe in the direction the National Coach is taking them. If we do that, we can get back on top again.
Past Tossin’ 10 interviews
December 15 – Rutgers head coach Scott Goodale
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
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