Abbott Blog: A heartfelt tribute to my friend, the late Joe Seay
BY GARY ABBOTT, USA WRESTLING | JULY 13, 2019
It is a truly busy time at USA Wrestling, with the USMC Junior/16U Nationals beginning today, a number of foreign tours on the schedule, a magazine deadline looming, as well as preparation for the upcoming age-group and Senior World Championships. Plus a ton more things. In spite of all that, I am compelled to squeeze in a few minutes to write about my friend Joe Seay, who passed away on Thursday. On a wrestling level, Joe Seay was a giant. His gift was the ability to coach, and help develop and support great wrestlers. On a personal level, Joe was a wonderful man with a kind heart that made spending time with him a positive thing.
You can track his coaching career and understand why he is in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. He was a great high school coach, who then moved up and built the CSU-Bakersfield program into a Div. II giant, with many Div. I champions and All-Americans (back then, D-II champs could go to the D-I NCAA meet). He went on to coach two NCAA Div. I national champion teams at Oklahoma State. Later, he was a masterful freestyle coach for the Sunkist Kids, and in perhaps his biggest moments, he was volunteer head coach for many of the greatest U.S. World and Olympic teams in history. If you were a great wrestler, or was active with USA Wrestling at the national level during Joe’s prime as a coach, you knew Joe Seay and probably worked with him often. Rest of the story at
Seven Minutes with Mark Manning presented by College Wrestler Recruiting
Seven Minutes is a series of interviews with top wrestling coaches and athletes. Most of the question-and-answer sessions last roughly seven minutes. Hence the name. Mark Manning is the head wrestling coach at the University of Nebraska and was an NCAA Division II champion in 1983 and 1985 for the University of Nebraska-Omaha. You can listen to the entire interview above or read the transcript below.
If you could take what you know now and have a conversation with yourself at the age of 15, what advice would you give yourself?
Work hard and work smart. You have to be smart on your approach and keep learning from everyone. I’ve taken that motto and it’s most important to keep doing that.
Let’s go back to when you were picking a school. You went to Nebraska then you transferred to Nebraska-Omaha. What was the recruitng process like and why did you ultimately transfer to Nebraska-Omaha?
I grew up watching Iowa Public Television and I loved watching Iowa and Iowa State wrestling matches. I grew up on that. I was really close to the border of Iowa. I grew up like that. Iowa recruited me. So I guess if I was 15 I would have gone to the University of Iowa and I would have wrestled there. It’s not about the cost. It’s what you’re going to do. Money is very important but at the end of the day it’s being happy and going where you think you can reach your goals. I got a big offer at Nebraska and that’s where my parents advised me to go. Rest of the story at
TDR blog
After 20 seasons of publicizing wrestling The TakeDown Report’s (TDR) focus has changed to the collecting of college coaching records from North America since 1903. We will continue to recognize and reward successful wrestlers in eastern North Carolina (east of Raleigh & Fayetteville), assist with schools in starting or re-starting a team and this blog. Join us on our FaceBook Page – “The TakeDown Report” for photos and news. Please send results, stories, links and news to pass along. E-mail us at takedownreport@gmail.com
Martin Fleming, Editor
Takedown Report
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