COACHES CORNER
Earn your college degree while excelling in Greco
By Steve Fraser, U.S. National Greco-Roman Coach As most everyone in the United States knows, freestyle is more popular in our country, largely due to our high school and college programs competing in folkstyle. We seem to have a pretty good freestyle development system in place today. We are pretty successful in freestyle at all age group levels, espe- cially at our Senior level.
So why not just focus on freestyle? It would be a heck of a lot easier for us, as an organization, to
do this. As long as the two styles of wrestling are contested at the Olympic Games it is our American duty to try and become the best in both freestyle and Greco-Roman. We are Americans! We cannot and will not ever settle to be anything else than the best in whatever we do. Wrestling is wrestling! We are viewed by the rest of the world at how well we do in both styles. It was extremely embarrassing - years ago - for foreigners to think that the United States was good in freestyle but terrible in Greco. That hurt. There is no reason for the United States to not dominate in both styles. It is a matter of U.S. pride that we are the best! And in 2007, we did the unthinkable - we won the World Championship Team Title in Greco-Roman wrestling! Proof posi- tive that we CAN win in Greco! We have the athletes to be the best in both freestyle and
Greco. American wrestlers are the toughest wrestlers in the entire world. We just need to fine tune our developmental sys- tems to maximize our efforts at exposing and educating young wrestlers and coaches in Greco. We need to keep some of our top NCAA superstars in Greco. Today, we have a fabulous opportunity for young Greco- Roman wrestlers to focus on their Greco skills, working toward becoming the world’s best while at the same time studying to get their college degree. On Feb. 9, 1985, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) designated Northern Michigan University the site of the nation's third United States Olympic Training Center, joining Lake Placid, N.Y. and Colorado Springs, Colo. In February 1989, the USOC redesignated NMU the nation's
only United States Olympic Education Center (USOEC). The USOEC's main focus is the resi- dent athlete training program, where athletes train for the Olympic Games while also taking classes at NMU. Athletes participating in the USOEC program in Greco-Roman must be approved by USA Wrestling. Most USOEC resident athletes receive free and reduced room and board, free use of athlet- ic training facilities and free sports medicine services. Initiated in August 1999 with eight wrestlers, the program has since developed into one of the finest Greco-Roman wrestling training centers in the U.S., hosting around 35 athletes -- all full- time students at Northern Michigan University. The program’s current coach, Rob Hermann, a two-time Olympic coach, leads this program. Under Hermann and his assistant coach Aghasi Manukyan, a World champion, the pro- gram is flourishing, increasing in size and producing top nation- al and international results. Harry Lester (two-time World bronze medalist), Adam Wheeler (Olympic bronze medalist) and Spenser Mango (University World gold medalist) are among the graduates of this program.
Fraser
With this USOEC program in place, our college age Greco- Roman wrestlers can now focus on developing their Greco- Roman skills while attaining a college education on a very valu- able scholarship.
The future is looking bright for our Greco-Roman wrestling program. Any interested wrestlers or coaches can get more information on the USOEC’s Greco-Roman resident program by contacting Coach Rob Hermann at
rhermann@nmu.edu. Or you can go to the website at
www.nmu.edu/sportsusoec. Expect to win!
USA WRESTLING NATIONAL EVENTS SCHEDULE June 5-9
June 11-15 June 13-15 June 16-22 June 21-22 June 23
June 24-26 June 25-29 July 12-20
Schooboy National Duals Cadet National Duals
Northern Plains Kids and Cadet Regionals Cliff Keen West Kids and Cadet Regionals U.S. World Team Trials
FILA Junior World Team Trials
ASICS Kids National Championships Junior National Duals
ASICS Cadet and Junior Nationals
SB Indianapolis C
Daytona Beach, Fla.
C/K Waterloo, Iowa C/SB/K Pocatello, Idaho S/W Stillwater, Okla. FJ
Stillwater, Okla.
SB/K Orem, Utah J
C/J
Oklahoma City, Okla. Fargo, N.D.
Louis Rosbottom 812-284-1652 Stuart Mahler Steve Knipp Ned Zollinger Pete Isais Pete Isais Cole Kelley
V = Veterans; S = Senior; W = Senior Women; U = University; FJ = FILA Junior; J = Junior, FC = FILA Cadet; C = Cadet MS = Middle School; HS = High School; SB = Schoolboy; K = Kids. For more information, visit
themat.com
34 USA Wrestler
319-415-4091 208-356-9309 719-598-8181 719-598-8181 801-830-4191
Archie Randall 405-834-2976 Pete Isais
719-598-8181
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