Dresser already working on new task to take Cyclones to the top

Earlier this week, Iowa State announced Kevin Dresser would return to his home state to take over the Cyclone wrestling program.

Dresser, a native of Humboldt, Iowa, spent the last 11 years as the head coach for Virginia Tech, bringing the program from irrelevant to a national threat with top-10 finishes at the NCAA tournament the last four years.

After a program-best fourth-place finish in 2016, Dresser was named Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches’ Association.

Under his leadership, the Hokies won three ACC dual championships and two conference tournament titles. Additionally, while at the helm of the program, he coached 13 wrestlers to All-America honors, including three-time All-Americans Nick Brascetta (2013, 15, 16) and Devin Carter (2012, 14, 15).

Dresser, a former two-time All-American for the Iowa Hawkeyes, now looks to lead Iowa State back to an elite level and bring competitiveness back to the rivalry between the Cyclones and Hawkeyes in the CyHawks Series.  

“We have to compete for titles. Period. We need to try to get national championship trophies back in Ames. That’s what the long-term goal is,” Dresser said.

Dresser will assume all head-coach duties at the end of the NCAA season. Until then, he has committed to doing behind-the-scenes work, including recruiting and working with Iowa State’s most recent recruiting class.

“For me, I will be in Ames the rest of the week and then I’ll go back to Virginia for a short bit and then get on the road to do some recruiting,” Dresser said. “I’ll, of course, be at the NCAA tournament and then after that, I’ll be back and forth to Ames a lot. We’ve got a couple of guys that want releases that were in this recruiting class when all the fireworks started in the last 30 days, so I’m going to talk to some of those kids. I’m just trying to keep as many of those guys excited about Iowa State as possible. I think once they see and hear what things are going to happen in Ames, they’re going to be excited.”

The 2016 recruiting class included 2015 Cadet World champion Jarod Verkleeren of Pennsylvania, 2016 Freestyle Junior National champion Austin Gomez of Illinois, and Maryland state champion Ethan Smith.

Dresser said he’s excited about the team that will be waiting for him.

“My early read is that this team is very young,” he said. “It looks like they’ve got some talent, but they’re very young. That’s exciting. When you’re young, you have to learn a few lessons, so we might have to learn a few lessons the hard way next year. That’s the one thing I haven’t been able to do, which is evaluate the young guys from a wrestling standpoint. That’s what the spring will be about, getting around them a little bit and getting them in the room for some Regional Training Center workouts and see how they handle things.”

As far as his coaching staff goes, Dresser said he has a list of individuals he’s interested in but will not pursue them until the conclusion of the NCAA Championships in late-March.

Getting everybody onboard and into a championship mindset is what Dresser believes will make a difference in resurrecting Iowa State’s traditional wrestling prowess.

“We’ve got to go to work collectively as a Cyclone Nation and as a fan base,” Dresser said. “This is going to take everybody. Saying you want to win a national championship trophy is really, really hard work, so it takes a lot of people pulling together.”