ABBOTT BLOG: On a training tour to Iowa with the Women’s National Team

The U.S. women’s wrestling delegation poses together at Mellow Mushroom restaurant, in front of one of its statues, in a mall in Coralville, Iowa during their training tour to Iowa.


I spent my Sunday on a bus ride from Colorado Springs to Iowa City, Iowa, along with a number of members of the U.S. Women’s National Team and coaching staff. The women’s program is having its January training camp in Iowa City, Iowa, as guests of the University of Iowa, the Hawkeye Wrestling Club and the citizens of Iowa City.


This is the second time I have done this. Back in 2012 during another Olympic year, Women’s Coach Terry Steiner returned to his alma mater with the women’s team, giving them a taste of the wrestling culture in Iowa and helping the prepare for the the Olympic Trials which were set for Iowa City. With the 2016 Olympic Trials returning to Carver-Hawkeye Arena again this year, Coach Steiner is making a return trip for this opportunity.


Sunday was a long day. The group met at 7:15 a.m. at the Athlete Center at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, and we did not arrive at the Comfort Suites in Coralville, Iowa until after 10:00 p.m. Sunday night. The 15-hour journey brought us from Colorado, through Nebraska, and across much of Iowa. There was snow coming down during parts of the journey and it was a dreary day the entire way.


There is a lot for me to do on this trip. With the Olympic Trials coming up in less than three months, the women’s visit to Iowa gives us an opportunity to get some media coverage for the team in a major wrestling hotbed, while also promoting the Trials event. We had a sellout at the Olympic Trials four years ago, and it is important to do as much as we can to make the Trials even bigger and better than last time around. Add in an opportunity to interview athletes and coaches from the No. 2 Iowa Hawkeyes, as well as the Hawkeye Wrestling Club athletes. Purdue comes to town on Friday night for a Big Ten dual. I will also be doing some planning for the press operations at the Olympic Trials with our partners here.


We have a Special Wrestle-off for four spots on the Pan American Olympic Qualifier team, which is a very important event for our program. Eight of the athletes coming to Iowa this week are getting ready to compete, with the four winners heading to Frisco, Texas to go out and qualify our nation for the Rio Olympics at their weight classes.


The bus ride itself was mostly uneventful. People were mostly quiet, sleeping or using their various electronic equipment to listen to music, watch videos or communicate with others. I wrote a press release on the U.S. performance at the Guelph Open in Canada, put together some articles for the February issue of USA Wrestler and did some other work. There was big interest in the Denver Broncos vs. Pittsburgh Steelers NFL playoff game, which people were following on their cell phones. One thing was apparent when we took breaks from the ride. It was getting increasingly colder as we got closer to Iowa City.


Sunday night, after we arrived at the hotel owned by Olympic medalist and Hawkeye wrestling legend Lincoln McIlravy, the team went right to sleep. Monday morning, when the rest of the nation was sleeping in or easing into the Martin Luther King federal holiday, more than 30 women wrestlers were meeting in the hotel lobby at 6:45 a.m. for the first workout of camp. The town was mostly asleep when the bus reached Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and it took awhile to get into the building before Hawkeye Wrestling Club women’s wrestler Lauren Loiuve let the team into the empty facility.


Coach Steiner switched some things up, getting the women on the mats for drilling and live situations in the Dan Gable Wrestling Center, then taking them into Carver-Hawkeye Arena to do sprints in the big circle at the upper level of Carver-Hawkeye Arena. After a short break, the team went out for lunch together.


Iowa is like wrestling heaven, a place where the common citizen knows about the sport and cares about its athletes. One of the pleasures of coming here is the community support. It seems people all over town have a connection to wrestling, or at least has a healthy respect for it. Josh Schamberger, the talented leader of the Iowa City/Coralville Convention and Visitors Bureau, and his staff have lined up restaurants all over town which are providing meals for the entire USA women’s delegation. These business leaders sincerely want to help out and are very welcoming. Lunch was at Mosley’s, a great barbeque place downtown. The food was good, and it was a relaxing break in a busy training schedule.


The afternoon started with the team watching the Iowa Hawkeye practice. Coach Steiner likes to expose the young women to the intensity and professional approach of high-level Div. I wrestling. As the team walked into the wrestling room. Tom Brands was giving an inspiring speech to his troops, getting them ready for practice and the competition week ahead. His intensity, and his unique way of communicating what he wants done, had everybody in rapt attention. The Hawkeyes had a short but spirited practice, going hard and showing their grit and their skills.


When the Hawkeye men left the mats, the U.S. women’s team went out for a hard workout of their own. Instead of going back into his office or doing other things, Tom Brands stayed out on the mat, doing high-fives with the women as they jogged around the mats in their warmup and encouraging them individually. The entire Hawkeye team, from coaches to staff to athletes, are very welcoming and respectful of the women here. You can sense their commitment to the Olympic effort. Trust me, Iowa wrestling has enough going on and don’t have to do this for us. They choose to help, something that I know is really appreciated up and down the women’s delegation.


It was a difficult workout, with the women breaking into groups of three for shark-bait. Each athlete was in the middle for six one-minute goes, with the opponents rotating in. If you didn’t win three of the periods, you had to do two additional one-minute periods. There was high tempo and the wrestling was scrappy.


After practice, the women had some time to clean up, and it was off to dinner, which was being hosted at the Mellow Mushroom restaurant in the big mall not far from the hotel. The place had some excellent pizza, subs and other American fare, and the team sat around on three big tables and were able to break bread, relax and visit with each other. Once again, the staff at the restaurant was excited to have us there, and it was a team activity, something that Coach Steiner strives to develop in the women’s program.


It’s early Tuesday, and today is a busy day. There are a few more workouts for the women, plus a joint media opportunity for the women along with the Iowa wrestling team. More athletes and coaches are arriving as the group gets larger and camp gets more intense. Coach Steiner has a number of things he wants to achieve with the trip, and you can see things falling in place. It is 2016, and the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at Carver-Hawkeye is less than three months away, and you can see things picking up. It is going to be a great year.