COACHES CORNER
New challenge awaits after ‘wonderful’ run
By Steve Fraser, U.S. National Greco-Roman coach Over the past holiday season, I watched the classic Christmas movie starring Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey in, "It's a Wonderful Life." This wonderful movie reminded me of all the great memories
I have gathered, which include all the great friends, coaches and athletes that have touched my life during my almost 19- year tenure as Greco-Roman National Coach for USA Wrestling. Like the movie showed, life has its ups and downs. It's not
always paved with sweetness and easy traveling. Life seems to come with lots of peaks and valleys to negotiate. Our Greco program over the last four quads experienced just
that, lots of ups and downs. However, the highs were very high. Our dedicated volunteer U.S. Greco coaches along with my
Greco staff led USA Wrestling to its only Greco-Roman team title in World Championships history when the Americans cap- tured the title in 2007 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Brad Vering (silver), Harry Lester (bronze) and Dremiel Byers (bronze) each won medals as the U.S. edged Russia by one point for the team title. Rulon Gardner shocked the World by knocking off three-time Olympic champion Alexander Karelin of Russia in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. Karelin was unbeaten in international competition before suffering a loss to Gardner in the Olympic finals. It was considered one of the greatest upsets in Olympic histo-
ry in any sport. The United States won eight Olympic medals. Included was
the gold medal from Gardner (2000), silver medals from Brandon Paulson (1996), Dennis Hall (1996), Matt Ghaffari (1996) and Matt Lindland (2000), and bronze medals from Garrett Lowney (2000), Gardner (2004) and Adam Wheeler (2008). In the four consecutive Olympic Games (Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, and Beijing) the U.S. Greco-Roman Team had the sec- ond-most Olympic Greco-Roman medals with eight. Only Russia captured more Greco-Roman Olympic medals
than the United States team did during those four Olympic Games. The U.S. had four individual World champions: Dennis Hall
(1995), Gardner (2001), Dremiel Byers (2002) and Joe Warren (2006). During my tenure, I was fortunate to see the U.S. win 15
World championship medals. In addition to the World Team title in Baku, Azerbaijan in
2007, the United States won two other World Championships trophies during this time. At the 2001 World Championships in Patras, Greece, the USA won the third-place trophy, led by champion Gardner and silver medalists Paulson and Lindland. It was the first Greco-Roman team trophy ever won by the United
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States. Also, at the 2006 World Championships in Guangzhou, China, the USA also won the third- place trophy, led by champion Warren and bronze medalists Lindsey Durlacher and Lester. In the movie, George Bailey had
worked very hard throughout his life, always giving and sacrificing for the many people in his life. And in a very difficult time he decided that maybe it was all too much for him to live on. Of course, if you know the
Fraser
movie you know this is where Clarence, the angel, yet to earn his wings, comes down from above to help save George. And in doing so Clarence shows George what life would have been like if George had never been born. This is where George sees and then realizes what true
friends he'd actually had during his life. He sees all the lives he'd actually touched with such a positive impact and all the people that had touched his life. It finally hits him... he realizes how much of a wonderful life he'd actually had. The movie makes me realize how many friends I've had throughout my life both on and off the mat. It reminds me of how many people have touched my life in such a positive way. After almost 19 years at the position of Greco-Roman National Coach, I have decided to move on to another chal- lenge at USA Wrestling. Rich Bender, Executive Director of USA Wrestling, has estab-
lished the new position of 'Chief of Donor and Alumni Relations'. My new focus will involve helping all three styles of wrestling with resource development. USA Wrestling is in the process of hiring my replacement as National Coach. Establishing a new, fresh direction and new energy will be great and will move the Greco program forward in a very positive way. With the strong U.S. athletes currently in the mix, Greco-
Roman wrestling in this country is on the verge of making huge international breakthroughs. I am totally confident that our Greco athletes will see huge international success soon. Thanks to everyone for all the tremendous support throughout
my time. We know we could have done better, no doubt. But our many successes speak volumes as to what's possible in our interna- tional Greco-Roman program's future. Like George Bailey found out in this classic movie... It has truly been a "Wonderful Life!"
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