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Terry Brands named 2014 Terry McCann Award winner as USA Wrestling Freestyle Coach of the Year

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by Gary Abbott, USA Wrestling

Terry Brands prepares to throw protest brick while coaching at the 2014 World Championships in Uzbekistan. Larry Slater photo.


Terry Brands (Iowa City, Iowa/Hawkeye WC) has been named 2014 Freestyle Coach of the Year by USA Wrestling. It is the first time that Terry Brands has won this prestigious award. His twin brother Tom Brands was Freestyle Coach of the Year twice, in 2002 and 2003.


This award is named after the late wrestling legend Terry McCann, a 1960 Olympic champion wrestler. McCann was a long-time coach with the successful Mayor Daley Youth Foundation club, which won numerous national titles in freestyle and Greco-Roman and produced champion athletes for the United States. McCann also served as USA Wrestling President and a FILA Bureau member.


Brands is a coach with the Hawkeye WC, but also coaches numerous individuals who compete for other top U.S. club programs. He was a personal coach for two members of the 2014 U.S. World Team, Tony Ramos at 57 kg and Brent Metcalf at 65 kg.


Brands serves as the Associate Head Coach at the University of Iowa. He works with his twin brother and head coach Tom Brands to coach the powerful Hawkeye program. Brands has 17 years of coaching experience with the program, including two different stints with the program. During the last seven seasons, Brands has helped coach Iowa to two NCAA team titles and three Big Ten titles.


Brands served as the USA Wrestling National Freestyle Resident Coach and Assistant National Freestyle Coach from 2005-2008.


He coached the resident freestyle athletes at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, including 2006 World Champion Bill Zadick and 2008 Olympic Champion Henry Cejudo. Brands has served on the coaching staff for the U.S. teams that competed at three World Championships (2005-07) as well as the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. The United States won eight World and Olympic medals during those years.


Brands has extensive college coaching experience. He was the head coach at the Univ. of Tennessee-Chattanooga for three years prior to joining the USA Wrestling staff. At Chattanooga, Brands led the Mocs to the 2005 Southern Conference title, while crowning three conference champions and two all-Americans. Previously, he also served in assistant coaching posts at Montana-State Northern, the Univ. of Nebraska and the Univ. of Iowa.


As an athlete, Brands was one of the nation's greatest freestyle wrestlers, winning World gold medals in 1993 in Toronto, Canada and in 1995 in Atlanta, Ga. at 57 kg/125.5 pounds. As a member of the 1993 and 1995 U.S. World Teams, he was on the only two U.S. teams to win World Team Titles in freestyle.


In 1993, he won his World title alongside his twin brother Tom, who was the World champion at 62 kg/136.5 lbs. Alongside his brother Tom, he was named 1993 USA Wrestling Athlete of the Year, 1993 John Smith Freestyle Wrestler of the Year and 1993 Amateur Wrestling News Man of the Year. The Brands brothers became the first U.S. brothers to win a World title during the same year.


Brands qualified for the 1997 and 1999 U.S. World Teams, but did not compete due to injury. In 2000, he made a comeback and won the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Dallas, Texas at 58 kg/127.75 lbs. He earned a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.


He was a two-time World Cup champion (1994, 1995) and won a gold medal at the 1995 Pan American Games. He was twice a silver medalist at the respected Yarygin Tournament in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Brands won three U.S. Nationals titles, and was runner-up three times.


Brands was a two-time NCAA Div. I champion for the Univ. of Iowa (1990, 1992) and a NCAA runner-up in 1991 competing for the legendary coach Dan Gable. He won three Big Ten titles, as well. Brands ended his career at Iowa with a 137-7 record. Brands is a graduate of the Univ. of Iowa with a degree in Human Development and Sport.


He was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2006. Terry and Tom, who was inducted in 2001, were the first set of twins to earn Wrestling Hall of Fame induction.

PAST TERRY McCANN AWARD WINNERS AS FREESTYLE COACH OF THE YEAR

2014 – Terry Brands, Iowa City, Iowa, Hawkeye WC

2013 - Lou Rosselli, Columbus, Ohio, New York AC

2012 – Cael Sanderson, State College, Pa., Nittany Lion WC

2011 – Mark Manning, Lincoln, Neb., Sunkist Kids

2010 - Sean Bormet, Naperville, Ill., New York AC

2009 – John Smith, Stillwater, Okla., Gator WC

2008 - Sean Bormet, Naperville, Ill., New York AC

2007 - Lou Rosselli, Columbus, Ohio, New York AC

2006 - Sean Bormet, Naperville, Ill., New York AC

2005 - Mike Duroe, Iowa City, Iowa, Hawkeye TC

2004 - Bobby Douglas, Ames, Iowa, Sunkist Kids

2003 - Tom Brands, Iowa City, Iowa, Hawkeye WC

2002 - Tom Brands, Iowa City, Iowa, Hawkeye WC

2001 - Zeke Jones, Morgantown, W.Va., Sunkist Kids

2000 - John Smith, Stillwater, Okla., Sunkist Kids

1999 - Greg Strobel, Bethlehem, Pa., New York Athletic Club

1998 - John Smith, Stillwater, Okla., Sunkist Kids

1997 - Greg Strobel, Bethlehem, Pa., New York Athletic Club

1996 - Bruce Burnett, Colorado Springs, Colo., National Freestyle Coach

1995 - Bruce Burnett, Colorado Springs, Colo., National Freestyle Coach

1994 - Gene Davis, Colorado Springs, Colo., Athletes In Action

1993 - Joe Seay, Oklahoma City, Okla., Sunkist Kids

1992 - Bobby Douglas, Ames, Iowa, Sunkist Kids

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