Takedown Report

The Pat Popolizio Coaching Tree

On Monday afternoon, news broke out of Fargo, North Dakota that newly promoted North Dakota State head wrestling coach, Obe Blanc, had hired Hayden Hidlay as his assistant coach. In 2022, Hidlay finished up a decorated career at NC State that saw him leave Raleigh as one of the all-time greats in NC State wrestling, becoming the first four-time (and five-time) All-American in school history and second in career win-loss percentage.

Hidlay and Blanc’s paths crossed at NC State as Blanc was an assistant coach early in Hidlay’s career, before leaving for NDSU. The common ground for both was wrestling or coaching under Wolfpack head coach Pat Popolizio.

When it comes to college coaching trees, no one is larger or more famous than Dan Gable’s when he was the head coach at the University of Iowa. John Smith’s is quite impressive himself as he is now responsible for coaching ten current DI head coaches, which is the most of any coach or school.

What you may not realize is that Popolizio has an impressive list of DI coaches that have either coached alongside him or wrestled under him (or both). With Hidlay’s hiring, that number grows by one. Before the 2021-22 season, InterMat traveled to Raleigh and spoke with Popolizio about this exact topic. When asked about the number of his pupils in the coaching ranks he responded, “To me, you never want to have a kid come here and resent the sport of wrestling. We want it to be a positive experience.”

Some head coaches may view assistants leaving as more work for them in the short-term and a difficult situation in replacing a valued member of their staff. Popolizio isn’t one of them. “I feel confident about the guys on our staff. At some point, they’ll get the call to be a head coach and they’ll be ready because of the day-to-day tasks that are thrown at them. They’re learning the ins and outs of everything I do as a head coach. I already know in our room right now, we have several guys who are going to be great college coaches.”

So who’s next from the Pat Popolizio coaching tree? “Adam Hall, he’s a rock star. … rest of story at Intermatwrestle.com/articles/26746

June 7, 2023 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized