Who is Neil Erisman?
If you’re the athletics director at a Division I institution and you’re looking to hire a head coach to start your team from scratch, what are some of the credentials you look for?
If you’re starting a basketball team, are you going to look at someone like a legendary coach like Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski or UConn’s Geno Auriemma? Would you go with a legendary athlete like a Michael Jordan or a LeBron James? In football, are you looking for the Joe Montana-type or are you looking for someone who’s built a career on coaching despite not having lavish athletic credentials like New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick? Are you looking for a person to groom the culture and create a community and family or are you looking for someone who wants to win at any cost. The one thing about college sports is all of those types of coaches get jobs at some point or another.
In wrestling, Division I head coaching jobs are rare. As we enter the 2019-20 college wrestling season, there are 78 Division I wrestling teams. In Division I basketball, there are 347 teams. Wrestling teams are often classified as non-revenue sports, meaning the school isn’t taking in a lot of money on gate receipts. At the Division I level, basketball and football are revenue sports, where schools sometimes rely on the attendance and success of those programs to help finance the other sports in the department. Whether or not those teams bring in positive cashflow doesn’t change their distinction. So the pressure to win and put butts in the seats isn’t as imperative on a wrestling coach, although in the competitive climate of athletics with rising costs, coaches are now being charged to make their programs more valuable in the eyes of a department. If you’re a team with low graduation rates, poor grades, disciplinary problems and a culture of trouble, you’re going to be at risk, especially if you’re a non-revenue sport.
With all that being considered, wrestling fans typically get stars in their eyes about the latest up-and-coming coach, usually someone who’s got tremendous credentials on the mat. It’s almost a let down for some fans when they hire a coach who isn’t a national champion. I don’t have anything statistically to justify this claim, but the impression I get is wrestling believes more than other sports that you have to have achieved at the highest level to be a successful coach. If it’s not a “name” hire, then the administration failed the fans and the alumni. Read and hear the rest of the story at http://rockedup.libsyn.com/who-is-neil-erisman?mc_cid=1788af9e74&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
Corey’s Stories: Odds-beating Russell has never been an average Joe
Joe Russell was 17 — an age when carefree living and the here and now are the mind’s primary tenants. He was headed to a wrestling practice on the back of a motorcycle for what was supposed to be a two-block ride from his home to his high school. He wasn’t wearing a helmet. It was a ride that changed his life forever. Russell’s brother, Dan, had been following behind in a car. He witnessed everything that August day in 1985 in Gresham, Ore. A truck pulled out in front of the motorcycle. The bike flipped and Joe went with it. Dan ran to his younger brother’s slumped body lying across the wreckage, He removed Joe’s limp, searing arm from the bike’s exhaust pipe and then cradled his younger brother’s head to keep it in one piece.
Surgeons picked shards of Joe’s shattered skull from his brain. They fused his skull back together. Now, 34 years later, Russell is a medical marvel, an odds-beater and USA Wrestling’s manager of freestyle programs. He coaches, scouts opponents and works closely with national team coach Bill Zadick on the immediate and long-term needs of the USA men’s freestyle team, which will compete later this month at the World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
Russell left the head coaching post at George Mason two years ago to take his current position. Prior to that, he was a longtime assistant coach at Minnesota and part of J Robinson’s staff for all three of the Gophers’ NCAA titles. Robinson and Russell shared a connection that went back to the Joe’s pre-accident days when he and his brother were two of the nation’s most dominant prep wrestlers. Dan went undefeated on his way to four state titles. He attended Portland State University, where he won four Division II national titles for the Vikings. Joe captured two state championships and posted a 90-1 high school record. Rest of the story at
https://www.trackwrestling.com/PortalPost.jsp?TIM=1567546405849&twSessionId=xwdtxldtzt&postId=1682295132&mc_cid=1788af9e74&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
NEPA, Wilkes show off wrestling credentials with Team USA event
WILKES-BARRE — Northeast Pennsylvania has hosted some big wrestling events in the past. For instance, in three of the last six years Wyoming Seminary has hosted Blair Academy in meetings of top-ranked high school teams in the country. Each time that dual was held in Kingston, the gym was at capacity. In two of the last three years, the Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling State Tournament was held at the Mohegan Sun Arena with wrestlers from all over the state journeying to Luzerne County. If that wasn’t enough to prove that NEPA is indeed a wrestling area, what was held on Monday put the region over the top.
More than 2,000 fans packed Wilkes University’s Marts Center for the Team USA 65kg Final X Series Wrestle-off between Zain Retherford and Yianni Diakomihalis. Yes, there were plenty of friends and family from Diakomihalis’ Cornell University and Retherford’s Penn State side. But there were much more local fans as plenty of past and present high school, collegiate and junior high coaches were on hand to see the historic event. “The passion and love for this sport in our area is immeasurable,” Wyoming Valley West coach Ryan Vassello said. “They couldn’t have picked a better place for this match having it in our backyard.” Vassello was instrumental in making the entire day an event for wrestlers in the area. Prior to the match at Wilkes, Olympian Ken Chertow made a stop by Wyoming Valley West’s Middle School in Kingston to hold a clinic where dozens of wrestlers got instruction from the former Penn State and Ohio State coach before going to watch the match. Rest of the story at
https://www.timesleader.com/sports/754570/nepa-wilkes-show-off-wrestling-credentials-with-team-usa-event?mc_cid=1788af9e74&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
Trung Duong named wrestling assistant coach
GREENWOOD – Lander head wrestling coach RC LaHaye announced the addition of Trung Duong as a full-time assistant to the wrestling staff on Tuesday. Duong, a 2017 graduate of Newberry College, was a two-time All-American for the Wolves during LaHaye’s tenure there, finishing in the top-eight of the national tournament in 2016 and 2017. Duong then served as a graduate assistant coach for Ohio Valley during the 2017-18 season.
“In my 12 years as a college coach, I’ve never coached a harder-working student-athlete than Trung,” said LaHaye. “That relentless work ethic, along with countless other qualities, will carry over into the coaching field and he will be a huge asset for our wresting program and for Lander University.” Rest of the story at https://landerbearcats.com/sports/wrest/2019-20/releases/20190902t6q1px?mc_cid=1788af9e74&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
In front of enthusiastic crowd, Zain Retherford earns trip to worlds
WILKES-BARRE – It will go down as one of the longest wrestling matches ever, one of the best atmospheres at a Luzerne County sporting event and one of the fastest events you’ll ever see. It took 85 days for the 65k Final X series between Zain Retherford and Yianni Diakomihalis to conclude its wrestle-off. But on Sunday, inside a rocking, jam-packed Marts Center in a match that lasted only about 10 minutes, Retherford secured his berth in the World Championships with a 2-1 victory.
“I’m feeling great. That was a lot of fun,” said Retherford, a three-time national champion from Penn State. In the continuation of a match originally held on June 8, all the points were scored in the first period. Diakomihalis took a 1-0 lead on a failed challenge by Retherford’s corner when he shot a low-double and Diakomilas tried to expose him with a chest wrap. Retherford’s corner thought that he either had a takedown or exposed Diakomihalis.
Retherford took a 2-1 lead shortly after when Diakomihalis took a shot, but Retherford countered and got two points for the takedown. “He’s the funkiest wrestler I ever wrestled, and there’s no way to prepare for that other than just control your ties, get to your attacks and that’s kinda what I focused on,” Retherford said. “That’s what I can control.” In the second period, the two scrambled for most of the time. Rest of the story at
https://www.timesleader.com/sports/754460/wrestling-in-front-of-enthusiastic-crowd-zain-retherford-earns-trip-to-worlds?mc_cid=a67bf910f7&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
Listen: Cara Romeike’s story, Utah’s first all-girls high school wrestling team
Tell the World!
Cara Romeike is starting Utah’s first all-girls high school wrestling team.
She’s also teaching physics. So, if you’re into science, she might have some things to share with you.
28 minutes of gold: In this episode Cara talks about how she got into wrestling, her development through college, what it’s like trying to find a job as a high school girls wrestling coach & some thoughts on sanctioning girls wrestling. Hear the rest of the story at
https://www.transitionwrestling.com/listen-cara-romeike/?mc_cid=a67bf910f7&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
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
Takedown Report 