2018 Cadet Worlds U.S. coaching staff announced

The U.S. Cadet World Teams will compete in the Cadet World Championships next week, July 2-8, in Zagreb, Croatia, and will be led by a group of talented and experienced coaches.

Men’s freestyle

The head of the men’s freestyle squad is one of the greatest American wrestlers in history and the National Freestyle Developmental Coach Kevin Jackson.

Jackson has garnered countless achievements as an athlete and coach. Most notably, during his athletic career, Jackson was the 1992 Olympic champion and a two-time World champion, winning gold in 1991 and 1995.

As a coach, Jackson has held three positions with USA Wrestling. He was the National Freestyle Coach from 2000-2008, the National Freestyle Resident Coach from 1998-2000, and in 2017, he was hired as the Freestyle Developmental Coach.

Within that time, Jackson coached Henry Cejudo and Cael Sanderson to Olympic titles as well as helping the U.S. to 17 Senior World medals.

Last summer was a successful season for Jackson as he coached at the Cadet, Junior and Senior World Championships. He helped the Junior and Senior teams to World Championship finishes and the Cadet team to a second-place team finish.

The final medal count for the men’s freestyle teams Jackson helped coached last summer was 19. Below is the breakdown:

• Cadet – 4 gold, 2 bronze
• Junior – 3 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze
• Senior – 2 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze

Jackson also spent eight years as Iowa State’s head coach, producing four NCAA champions and 14 All-Americans.

Assisting him are a pair of NCAA Division I assistant coaches: Lee Pritts and Kellen Russell.

This is Pritts’ second year as part of the Cadet World Team coaching staff. Last summer, he helped produce four World champions—Kurt McHenry, Will Lewan, Aaron Brooks and Daniel Kerkvliet—and two bronze medalists—Jacori Teemer and Gavin Hoffman.

In 2009, he also helped lead Dom Bradley to a Junior World Championship in 2009.

Pritts was hired as the assistant coach at Arizona State University in 2012 and has helped turn it into a program on the rise.

This year, the Sun Devils had their first NCAA champion since Pritts started with the team with Zahid Valencia, a past Junior World silver medalist, winning the 174-pound bracket. ASU also qualified eight for NCAAs and picked up another All-American in addition to Valencia.

Over the years, Pritts has been a part of several college programs, including Old Dominion, Missouri, NC State and now ASU.  In all, he’s worked with 68 NCAA qualifiers, 22 All-Americans and three NCAA champions.

Russell, the assistant coach at Michigan, has some quality coaching and successful athletic experiences.

He was a two-time NCAA champion at 141 pounds and picked up four Big Ten titles while wrestling at Michigan. After wrapping up his collegiate career, Russell took on the role of volunteer assistant for the Wolverines and pursued a freestyle wrestling career, making the 2013 National Team.

Russell recently transitioned into a full-time position at U of M. During his coaching career there, he has helped coach 22 All-Americans and led the squad to three top-10 finishes.

The Cadet men’s freestyle team will kick off the tournament, competing July 2-4.

Women’s freestyle

The women’s freestyle team is headed up by U.S. National Women’s Freestyle Assistant Coach Emma Randall, who has been on staff with USA Wrestling since 2012.

Randall is making her third-consecutive trip to Cadet Worlds as a coach.

She has been on several World Team staffs, including the 2017 Cadet, U23 and Senior World Teams. In last year’s run, she saw the U.S. women win seven World medals.

• Cadet – 2 silver
• Junior – 1 gold, 1 bronze
• Senior – 1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze

Randall was also a part of the 2016 Olympic coaching staff and helped Helen Maroulis to an Olympic championship, becoming the first female wrestler from the U.S. to win Olympic gold.

Additionally, Randall coached Senior Worlds in 2013, 2014 and 2015, as well as at the Junior and U23 level.

In 2016, Randall became the first female coach to receive gold certification within USA Wrestling’s National Coaches Education Program, which is the highest level of achievement in the program.

As an athlete, Randall competed for Lock Haven University as the only female on the team. On the national scene, she was a 2010 World Team Trials qualifier and earned All-American honors at the 2010 U.S. Open.

Randall is assisted by legendary coach and athlete John Smith and highly successful McKendree coach Sam Schmitz.

This summer marks the second year that five-time NCAA championship coach John Smith has taken on a coaching role in women’s freestyle.

Last year, Smith helped lead the Senior women’s freestyle team to a silver-medal finish, behind powerhouse Japan. Among those athletes were World champion Helen Maroulis, silver medalist Alli Ragan and bronze medalist Becka Leathers.

For his efforts, Smith was named USA Wrestling’s Women’s Co-Coach of the Year along with Cary Kolat.

His trip to Zagreb will mark Smith’s ninth time as a World Team coach. He’s been on staff for two Olympics and six other World Championships. Among those he’s coached are 2012 Olympic champions Jordan Burroughs and Jake Varner.

The head coach at Oklahoma State, Smith is the winningest coach in program history, claiming five NCAA titles and coaching 32 individual champions. Six Olympians have come out of his room, with 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Coleman Scott being the most recent.

Smith, a four-time World champion and two-time Olympic champion, is considered one of the greatest American wrestlers in history. He won all six of his titles in six-consecutive years.

Sam Schmitz will be making his fifth World Team trip as a coach and his second-straight year as part of the Cadet World coaching staff. In addition to Cadet Worlds last year, Schmitz also assisted at the inaugural U23 Worlds in Poland.

He’s also been on coaching staffs for the 2013 University World Games in Russia and the 2015 Junior World Championships in Brazil.

Schmitz is entering his sixth year as the women’s head coach at McKendree and has helped 30 wrestlers to All-America honors. During his time at McKendree, he’s put five wrestlers on age-group World Teams, including 2016 Junior World bronze medalist Alexis Porter, 2017 Junior and 2018 U23 World Team member Alex Glaude, 2018 U23 Teamer Korinahe Bullock and 2017 U23 Teamer Megan Black.

Bullock and Glaude also made Senior National Teams this year.

Additionally, Schmitz is the assistant coach for the McKendree men’s team, where he has led 20 All-Americans, one national champion and one other national finalist.

Women’s freestyle action will take place July 4-6.

Greco-Roman

Leading the charge for the Cadet Greco-Roman World Team is USA Wrestling Manager of Greco-Roman Programs Gary Mayabb, whose position focuses on improving USA Wrestling’s performance in Greco-Roman wrestling at all levels while growing the sport in the United States.

Mayabb coached at all four World Championships last year, coaching three athletes to World medals, including Junior World champion Kamal Bey, Junior World silver medalist Cevion Severado and Cadet World champion Cohlton Schultz.

Mayabb came to USA Wrestling last year after spending 21 years as Missouri USA Wrestling’s Greco coach.

In 2003, he was named USA Wrestling Junior Greco-Roman Coach of the Year, and in 2014, he was the Cadet Greco-Roman Coach of the Year. Mayabb is a Gold Certified coach within USA Wrestling’s National Coaches Education Program, the highest level of achievement in the program.

As an athlete, he was a 1990 U.S. Open runner-up in Greco-Roman, and qualified to compete in four U.S. Olympic Team Trials series (1980, 1984, 1988 and 1992). In college, he was a two-time captain for the wrestling team at the University of Central Missouri, where he was an NCAA qualifier and the MIAA Conference Most Outstanding Wrestler in 1983.

Mayabb will be assisted by Lucas Steldt and Mark Rial.

Making his second-consecutive appearance at the Cadet Worlds as a coach is Lucas Stedlt, who is the head coach Combat Wrestling Club in Wisconsin.

Stedlt’s club has put five wrestlers on age-group World Teams this year alone, including Cadets Cale Anderson and Hunter Lewis and Juniors Benji Peak, Alston Nutter and Tyler Dow.

Also the Wisconsin Greco National Team coach, Stedlt has coached multiple Fargo champions and All-Americans.

Rial is the newly appointed head coach at Buena Vista University and 2017 Iowa USA Person of the Year.

Before BVU, he served as the assistant coach at Iowa Central Community College from 2010 to 2017. While there, he helped coach the squad to two NJCAA team titles.

Prior to ICCC, Rial was the strength and conditioning coach at University of Northern Iowa, his alma mater from 2008 to 2010.

As an athlete at UNI, Rial was a 2011 NCAA qualifier and three-time letter winner. In his Senior career, he took sixth at the 2004 Olympic Team Trials in Greco-Roman.

The Greco-Roman portion of the tournament will take place July 6-8.

The Cadet World Championships begin on Monday, July 2, in Zagreb, Croatia, at 10:30 a.m. local time (4:30 a.m. ET). Fans can watch all the action live on Trackwrestling.com.