In the House: Olympic medalist Carr, World medalist Bisek, and many more top college coaches
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by Gary Abbott, USA Wrestling
Two-time Greco-Roman World bronze medalist Andy Bisek, assistant coach at NMU-OTS, was here in Fargo for the Greco-Roman events that start tomorrow. Photo by Jim Thrall, Matfocus.com
It is not hard to notice 1988 Olympic bronze medalist and three-time NCAA champion Nate Carr when he is in Fargo. Nate has a great personality and lots of people seem always around him. Carr is now coaching elite freestylers with the Cyclone RTC at Iowa State, after coaching in high school in Ohio for a few years.
With Greco-Roman action starting in the morning, 2016 U.S. Greco-Roman Olympian and two-time World bronze medalist Andy Bisek, stache and all, was in Fargo during the men’s and women’s freestyle session. Bisek is the assistant Greco-Roman coach at the U.S. Olympic Training Site at Northern Michigan, and Fargo is the right place to recruit wrestlers for that program.
Bisek joins the list of Cary Kolat, Jenny Wong, Shawn Sheldon, Brandon Paulson and Leigh Jaynes as past World medalists at Fargo. He is also among a group of Olympians here, including Daniel Dennis, Doug Schwab, Ike Anderson, Rob Eiter and Ben Askren in the house.
We didn’t see any other Olympic champions to join John Smith and Kyle Snyder yet today, nor did we find another World champion to add to the list of John Smith, Kristie Davis, Sammie Henson and Kyle Snyder.
We continue seeing more NCAA Div. I coaches, as Kevin Dresser of Iowa State, Tony Robie of Virginia Tech, Roger Reina of Pennsylvania, Mark Branch of Wyoming, Brandon Eggum of Minnesota and Damion Hahn of South Dakota State were spotted on the Fargodome floor.
They join our other NCAA Div. I head coaches on the list: John Smith of Oklahoma State, Troy Nickerson of Northern Colorado, Zeke Jones of Arizona State, Doug Schwab of Northern Iowa, Troy Steiner of Fresno State, Zach Tanelli of Columbia, Jeremy Spates of SIU-Edwardsville, Roger Kish of host North Dakota State, Chris Ayres of Princeton, Sean Bormet of Michigan, Kevin Ward of Army, Steve Martin of Old Dominion, Matt Storniolo of Northwestern, Neil Erisman of Little Rock and Tony Ersland of Purdue.
We added a head college coach from the other divisions with Link Davis of Emmanuel. He joins Mike Denny of Maryville, Levi Calhoun of Concordia (Neb), Tom Carr of Central Christian, Danny Song of Case Western and Jeff Breese of Lake Erie, Tom Erikson of Lyon and Steve Marianetti of Elmhurst.
The Div. I assistant coach list expanded today with Harvard assistant coach Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov, Bryce Hasseman of North Carolina, Chris Heilman of Air Force, Adam Hall of NC State, Chris Choinuma of Cal Poly and Josh Churella of Michigan. Assistant coaches from other college levels included Andrew Sorenson of Nebraska-Kearney and Tony Valek of Augsburg.
They join their peers Jon Reader of Wisconsin, Israel Silva of Fresno State, Randy Pugh of Northern Iowa, Bart Horton of Air Force, Lee Pritz of Arizona State, Kellen Russell of Michigan, Chris Williams of Michigan State, Joe Johnston of Missouri, Dominic Moyer of Northern Illinois, Matt McDonough of Wisconsin, Jarrod Garnett of North Dakota State, Joey Dance of Davidson and Isaac Jordan of Indiana, Zach Esposito of Oklahoma State, Mike Dixon of Indiana, Nate Engel of Stanford, Ryan Morningstar of Iowa and Drew Headlee of Pittsburgh, Joe Dubuque of Princeton and Jon Reader of Wisconsin.
The Junior and Cadet Nationals, which has both boys and girls divisions, attracts college wrestling leaders who work with both men and women wrestlers.
Jason Moorman of King University made his name in the college coaching business as the head coach of the women’s team there, building it into a national champion team for a number of years. Because of his success with the women, King also put him in charge of their NCAA Div. II men’s wrestling team, which he is also working to rise.
Then there is Melissa Simmons, who was a WCWA national champion in college for Oklahoma City and a Women’s Team USA member. She has stayed involved in wrestling at the highest level, working with both men and women. Simmons worked for a while at the USA Wrestling national office. She was an assistant women’s coach at Oklahoma City. She is now the Director of Operations for the NCAA Div. I men’s powerhouse at North Carolina State, and also volunteers to help the women’s program with North Carolina USA Wrestling.
Respected women’s coach Kevin Black, who is with the Sunkist Kids, coaches both boys and girls back in River Falls, Wis. An All-American at Wisconsin, Black has coached numerous Senior and age-group World teams with USA Wrestling. Many top high school girls, some from other states, have come together to train with Kevin Black in freestyle and are making huge strides.
There are some people on hand who have had a big impact in growing the sport for young women.
Erin Vandiver, coaching with Pennsylvania team, was a World Team member in women’s freestyle and a long-time Assistant National freestyle coach with USA Wrestling. This year, she took the head women’s coach position at Wyoming Seminary, which is recruiting talented young women across the nation to go to this prestigious prep school and train and compete in women’s freestyle wrestling. She is not the only family member coaching here, as her brother Tom Tomeo, also a past USA Wrestling staffer, is helping coach the Pennsylvania delegation.
Melinda Ripley of California made big news at the first Junior Nationals for women in 2002, when she beat highly regarded Mary Kelly of Illinois in the 110 pound finals and was named the first Outstanding Wrestler in the division. Ripley reached the Senior Women’s National team later in her career. For many years, she has been one of the lead women’s wrestling coaches for Team California, the state which has dominated the Junior and Cadet Nationals on the women’s level.
You need to count in Jacque Davis, the former Menlo wrestler who has coached women’s wrestlers with Beat the Streets in New York City, and coaches Team New York women here in Fargo.
We found a few more WCWA college assistant coaches in the house with Randy Hinderliter of Ottawa University, who is also a major leader at Kansas USA Wrestling, plus Brieana Delgado of Oklahoma City.
Don’t forget the Veterans World medalists for the United States who are working with America’s youth as coaches. Today we identified Steve Horton, Kevin Pine, Steve Barkman, Rudy James and James Medeiros. We noted Chris Brown the other day as well.
We will see who shows up for Greco the final few days of the week.
It is not hard to notice 1988 Olympic bronze medalist and three-time NCAA champion Nate Carr when he is in Fargo. Nate has a great personality and lots of people seem always around him. Carr is now coaching elite freestylers with the Cyclone RTC at Iowa State, after coaching in high school in Ohio for a few years.
With Greco-Roman action starting in the morning, 2016 U.S. Greco-Roman Olympian and two-time World bronze medalist Andy Bisek, stache and all, was in Fargo during the men’s and women’s freestyle session. Bisek is the assistant Greco-Roman coach at the U.S. Olympic Training Site at Northern Michigan, and Fargo is the right place to recruit wrestlers for that program.
Bisek joins the list of Cary Kolat, Jenny Wong, Shawn Sheldon, Brandon Paulson and Leigh Jaynes as past World medalists at Fargo. He is also among a group of Olympians here, including Daniel Dennis, Doug Schwab, Ike Anderson, Rob Eiter and Ben Askren in the house.
We didn’t see any other Olympic champions to join John Smith and Kyle Snyder yet today, nor did we find another World champion to add to the list of John Smith, Kristie Davis, Sammie Henson and Kyle Snyder.
We continue seeing more NCAA Div. I coaches, as Kevin Dresser of Iowa State, Tony Robie of Virginia Tech, Roger Reina of Pennsylvania, Mark Branch of Wyoming, Brandon Eggum of Minnesota and Damion Hahn of South Dakota State were spotted on the Fargodome floor.
They join our other NCAA Div. I head coaches on the list: John Smith of Oklahoma State, Troy Nickerson of Northern Colorado, Zeke Jones of Arizona State, Doug Schwab of Northern Iowa, Troy Steiner of Fresno State, Zach Tanelli of Columbia, Jeremy Spates of SIU-Edwardsville, Roger Kish of host North Dakota State, Chris Ayres of Princeton, Sean Bormet of Michigan, Kevin Ward of Army, Steve Martin of Old Dominion, Matt Storniolo of Northwestern, Neil Erisman of Little Rock and Tony Ersland of Purdue.
We added a head college coach from the other divisions with Link Davis of Emmanuel. He joins Mike Denny of Maryville, Levi Calhoun of Concordia (Neb), Tom Carr of Central Christian, Danny Song of Case Western and Jeff Breese of Lake Erie, Tom Erikson of Lyon and Steve Marianetti of Elmhurst.
The Div. I assistant coach list expanded today with Harvard assistant coach Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov, Bryce Hasseman of North Carolina, Chris Heilman of Air Force, Adam Hall of NC State, Chris Choinuma of Cal Poly and Josh Churella of Michigan. Assistant coaches from other college levels included Andrew Sorenson of Nebraska-Kearney and Tony Valek of Augsburg.
They join their peers Jon Reader of Wisconsin, Israel Silva of Fresno State, Randy Pugh of Northern Iowa, Bart Horton of Air Force, Lee Pritz of Arizona State, Kellen Russell of Michigan, Chris Williams of Michigan State, Joe Johnston of Missouri, Dominic Moyer of Northern Illinois, Matt McDonough of Wisconsin, Jarrod Garnett of North Dakota State, Joey Dance of Davidson and Isaac Jordan of Indiana, Zach Esposito of Oklahoma State, Mike Dixon of Indiana, Nate Engel of Stanford, Ryan Morningstar of Iowa and Drew Headlee of Pittsburgh, Joe Dubuque of Princeton and Jon Reader of Wisconsin.
The Junior and Cadet Nationals, which has both boys and girls divisions, attracts college wrestling leaders who work with both men and women wrestlers.
Jason Moorman of King University made his name in the college coaching business as the head coach of the women’s team there, building it into a national champion team for a number of years. Because of his success with the women, King also put him in charge of their NCAA Div. II men’s wrestling team, which he is also working to rise.
Then there is Melissa Simmons, who was a WCWA national champion in college for Oklahoma City and a Women’s Team USA member. She has stayed involved in wrestling at the highest level, working with both men and women. Simmons worked for a while at the USA Wrestling national office. She was an assistant women’s coach at Oklahoma City. She is now the Director of Operations for the NCAA Div. I men’s powerhouse at North Carolina State, and also volunteers to help the women’s program with North Carolina USA Wrestling.
Respected women’s coach Kevin Black, who is with the Sunkist Kids, coaches both boys and girls back in River Falls, Wis. An All-American at Wisconsin, Black has coached numerous Senior and age-group World teams with USA Wrestling. Many top high school girls, some from other states, have come together to train with Kevin Black in freestyle and are making huge strides.
There are some people on hand who have had a big impact in growing the sport for young women.
Erin Vandiver, coaching with Pennsylvania team, was a World Team member in women’s freestyle and a long-time Assistant National freestyle coach with USA Wrestling. This year, she took the head women’s coach position at Wyoming Seminary, which is recruiting talented young women across the nation to go to this prestigious prep school and train and compete in women’s freestyle wrestling. She is not the only family member coaching here, as her brother Tom Tomeo, also a past USA Wrestling staffer, is helping coach the Pennsylvania delegation.
Melinda Ripley of California made big news at the first Junior Nationals for women in 2002, when she beat highly regarded Mary Kelly of Illinois in the 110 pound finals and was named the first Outstanding Wrestler in the division. Ripley reached the Senior Women’s National team later in her career. For many years, she has been one of the lead women’s wrestling coaches for Team California, the state which has dominated the Junior and Cadet Nationals on the women’s level.
You need to count in Jacque Davis, the former Menlo wrestler who has coached women’s wrestlers with Beat the Streets in New York City, and coaches Team New York women here in Fargo.
We found a few more WCWA college assistant coaches in the house with Randy Hinderliter of Ottawa University, who is also a major leader at Kansas USA Wrestling, plus Brieana Delgado of Oklahoma City.
Don’t forget the Veterans World medalists for the United States who are working with America’s youth as coaches. Today we identified Steve Horton, Kevin Pine, Steve Barkman, Rudy James and James Medeiros. We noted Chris Brown the other day as well.
We will see who shows up for Greco the final few days of the week.
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