class, my first national title, was one of the bigger thrills of my career. I thought I was at that level. The year before, I made the Junior World Team and got to wrestle that summer at the Junior Worlds. That got me over the hump the next year. It was the training I had in the summer and wrestling the freestyle season that put me in position for that first NCAA title.
USA Wrestler: You made a run at the making the Olympics in freestyle after college. How do you assess your freestyle career and how did that experience help you later as a coach? Zalesky: My senior year, I had shoulder surgery, so I missed a year and a half and trained after that. Overseas, I wrestled pretty good. I wrestled four or five Russian dual meets and lost only one of them. The challenge was just making the team. At that time, you had Dave Schultz, Kenny Monday and Nate Carr there. In 1988, Nate cut down, but before that, it was us four try- ing to make that team. It is kind of like now, when you have Burroughs, Taylor, Dake and Howe. That is what it was like for me. The biggest challenge was making that team.
USA Wrestler: You began your college coaching career as an assistant at Minnesota under J Robinson. How did that help you in your development as a coach? Zalesky: Coaching is something I realized I wanted to do
after I graduated. I fell in love with it. Going up to Minnesota, you go from a program that was on top for seven or eight years, then you go to a program that was really down, in the lower part of the Big Ten. They competed within the Big Ten but had not done much nationally. You go from the mentality of trying to win the national title to trying to convince kids that you can win a national title. Under J, I got the experience of going out to recruit, which helped me later on. Learning the recruiting ropes, sometimes you stumble along the way. Learning it early is good. You also work with kids, trying to put the belief in them. It helped me as a coach later on.
USA Wrestler: What brought you back to Iowa as an assis-
tant coach, and what roles did you play on the staff alongside Gable that made the Iowa team so successful? Zalesky: I came back and was the head recruiter. I did a lot of the individual work with the guys in the morning. When I came back, they hadn’t won for three or four years. In 1991, we won again, and we developed that mentality there again, and we went from there.
USA Wrestler: When Dan Gable retired after the most suc- cessful coaching career in college sports history, why did you take on the challenge of following a legend into your first head coaching assignment? Zalesky: I think the biggest thing was that I was there
already. It would have been much different if I had come from the outside. I was there and I had recruited a lot of the guys and had worked with them. For me, it made the transition easy. Being around the guys, knowing the guys personally, made the transition smooth.
USA Wrestler: You had immediate success as the Iowa coach, winning three straight NCAA team titles.What was the biggest challenge keeping the Hawkeyes at the top of college wrestling, and what differed about your teams than Gables? Zalesky: It is always a challenge, year by year. We had the guys who were there, and we brought in some guys who could compete right away. We had people like T.J. Williams, and a transfer like Jody Strittmatter who could help us stay up there. I won three in a row. When we lost that first year in 2001, we had
a hell of a tournament, but Minnesota had 10 All-Americans which never happened before. A lot of programs stepped up to challenge us. Minnesota was close for a long time, and they finally got over that hump. Our program did not drop that first year we didn’t win. Minnesota had a heck of a tournament.
USA Wrestler: Iowa draws the largest wrestling crowds and has amazing fan support. Explain the special advantages of coaching Iowa wrestling, as well as the unique pressures in that job?
Zalesky: Having that fan base really helps. That is what every coach tries to do at their school, create that active fan base. When you win, you have very knowledgeable fans. They expect to win. The challenge is that they want to win, and when you are not winning, then any fan group is not happy. It is great to have the fan base, but if things are not going well, you are going to hear about it.
USA Wrestler: During your years coaching in Iowa, who was the most talented wrestler you coached, and who made the most of their talents to excel beyond expectations? Zalesky: As far as talent, two brothers and one other guy. Joe
and T.J. Williams were among the most talented guys I had and the other guy was Lincoln McIlravy. Those guys were ready. They could wrestle right away. There are not a lot of guys like that. When they came in the room, they held their own. They didn’t get beat up by the older guys. That’s what made them special. A guy like Darryl Weber came in and exceeded expec- tations based on where his talent level was. He ended up being a three-time All-American and a national champion his senior year. He was one of those guys who got beat up in the room. But year by year, he kept getting better, kept working at it, and became national champion.
USA Wrestler: After nine years as head coach, Iowa let you go and went another direction. How hard was that for you after all of the years you were with the Hawkeyes as an athlete and coach?
Zalesky: It was tough. At that time, I felt we had the program back up to where I wanted it. I liked the guys in the room. I liked the guys we had recruited. I felt we had the right attitude to get back to where we had been in the old Iowa days. You get let go, and that is one of those things that happen. You have to move on. It was great to be there, to be the coach, great to wrestle there, but once I got let go, I looked for another challenge.
USA Wrestler: How did you end up coming to Oregon State
as its head coach, and why was it the right program for you to take over? Zalesky: I knew Oregon State had a good history. I remem- ber Dale Thomas. He’s from Iowa. He wrestled for that Cornell national champion team way back when. I knew him and that he had a good tradition here. I knew they had a good alumni base. I have always liked the state of Oregon. My high school coach, after I graduated, moved out to Oregon and I was always out here doing camps and clinics for him. I felt it was the right fit for me.
USA Wrestler: What was different about coaching in the Pac 12 and working with athletes from the West from all those years you spent in the Big Ten? Zalesky: Sometimes the styles are different. The mat wrestling wasn’t as much enforced as it was on the East Coast and the Midwest. When it came down to winning really tough
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