Tim Flynn GARY ABBOTT’S MATSIDE CHAT WITH...


Tim Flynn is head coach at Edinboro, which had its best per- formance ever at the 2015 NCAA Championships in St. Louis. The Fighting Scots, led by four All-Americans, placed third in


the team standings. Flynn was an All-American for Penn State, and started his coaching career there as a graduate assistant. After a short time working in business, Flynn returned to coaching as an assistant coach at Edinboro, working with head coach Bruce Baumgartner. He has been there ever since, taking over as head coach for the 1997-98 season. Edinboro has placed in the top 10 at the nationals five of the


last 10 years. During his 18 years, his 37 All-Americans have included


NCAA champions Josh Koscheck, Gregor Gillespie and Jarrod King.


This year’s NCAA third-place team featured runners-up Mitchell Port and Dave Habat, and third-place finishers A.J Schopp and Vic Avery.


USA Wrestler: How did you get involved with wrestling, and


what about the sport made you want to be involved? Flynn: My dad brought home a Navy Junior Wrestling flier,


and I got involved in fourth grade. The first year I actually kind of redshirted; I played around. The next year, I really kicked it in. It was run by Navy coaches Ed Peery and Reg Wicks. I really liked the physical nature. I’m sure the story is pretty similar to most kids. You like to have your hands on people, and you are pretty active. I enjoyed the physical nature of it.


USA Wrestler: What individuals played a big influence in


your early years, and how did they help you grow in the sport? Flynn: My father’s work ethic was just tremendous. He was in


the military, a Marine Corps Colonel. Those Navy coaches were pretty inspirational. You looked up to those guys. Wow, I want to be a wrestler. Coach Peery was a three-time national champion, head coach at the Naval Academy. He looked the part. I said, man, that guy is cool.


USA Wrestler: What were the highlights of your high school


career, which included time in California and Maryland? Flynn: I went three years in high school in California. I did


OK. I placed fourth in the California states my junior year and then my dad got stationed back in Maryland again. At Annapolis High School, I was runner-up in the state. I wanted to keep wrestling. At the time, we didn’t have these crazy clubs like everyone has now, run by all these great wrestlers. There was not a lot of spring wrestling. There were open tournaments, but not like now. It wasn’t like I was running around that I wanted to be an NCAA champion. I wanted to wrestle and certainly felt I could do better than I did in high school.


USA Wrestler: Why did you choose Penn State for your col-


lege, and when you were there, why was it a good fit for you? Flynn: A lot of it is your visit and when I got out of the car, I


said that this was awesome. It was a beautiful day. Campus was pretty. I wanted to be an engineer. Then I met Coach (Rich)


24 USA Wrestler


Lorenzo and spent a day with him. It immediately felt right. You have to remember, back then you didn’t have computers and weren’t on the internet. I didn’t know who was good in college wrestling. They never said you have Scott Lynch and Carl DeStefanis and all these people. That wasn’t the selling point for me. When you get there, you see all these people and they are so good. Two years after I was there, Carl and Scotty won national championships. Those were my workout partners. It was kinda rough when I first got there.


USA Wrestler: Talk about Coach Rich Lorenzo and the PSU


staff, and how they made a difference in your career? Flynn: Coach Lorenzo was perfect for me. I was young, not


very mature. He’s a father figure, very honest, very hard work- ing, a lot like my father. I needed that. I didn’t need a young, cool, hip technician. I needed a leader, and he was the ultimate leader. We had a great staff. John Fritz was the energizer bunny. He’d drill all day, work out with you, he was so enthusi- astic. That guy was awesome. You have Hachiro (Oishi), a tech- nical guy, a hard core guy who doesn’t put up with anything and makes you do crazy workouts. I thought we had the ideal situa- tion.


USA Wrestler: What was the key to your senior year, when


you were an All-American and Penn State was third at the NCAAs?


Edinboro coach Tim Flynn led his team to a third-place finish at the NCAA Championships. Tony Rotundo photo.


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