MATSIDE CHAT: Continued from page 25
on the podium. That was the start of the culture change. From that, you get a guy like Devin Carter. He was the first true blue- chip guy we got. Now we are signing more of those guys, and that’s why we are getting better.
USA Wrestler: How has the ACC developed and changed in the years you have been coaching, and how do you feel the conference stacks up on the national level? Dresser: From 2006, when I started, to 2015, everybody would agree that it is the most improved conference. That’s exciting, a tribute to the institutions putting in the resources needed to get the kind of coaches we need and the kind of budgets we need. We have great coaches. In Flo’s rankings, we are ranked fifth, NC State is ninth, UNC is 11th, and Pitt and UVA have had some great squads in recent years. Duke is probably the most improved team in the nation. It’s good. We need those tough dual meets. Even though it’s a one-day tour- nament, we need some tough looks before we go to the nation- als. I am really impressed with the direction of the conference.
USA Wrestler: What kind of wrestler do you recruit, and rate the quality of high school wrestling on the East Coast? Dresser: The depth in the United States is in the northeast,
let’s face it. From Ohio to New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, that is where the depth is. Anybody who disagrees with that, I can show them the facts. Does that not mean there are good kids in Iowa, Oklahoma, California? No, there are good kids everywhere. If you want the most bang for buck, and drive your car to a central location, park it in the northeast. Maybe its population, maybe it’s coaching, but it is what it is. You have to
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recruit kids who still really like wrestling. This is hard stuff. To train like you have to train to be a top 10 program or top 10 guy is hard. You can be super talented, but if you are not willing to get tired a lot, you won’t win. You have to recruit the kid’s men- tality. You also have to recruit the kid’s track record. Some kids are just winners more than others. Usually the kids who like wrestling will put themselves in the big events. They must like wrestling or they wouldn’t be going. Most of those kids are pret- ty tough. You can’t be afraid to train.
USA Wrestler: With the Hokies, who was the most talented wrestler, who was your best leader and who improved the most to reach the national podium? Dresser: A lot of guys win a lot of different ways. Devin Carter is the most accomplished wrestler in Virginia Tech history, pri- marily because Devin was so tough. He wasn’t the best wrestler. His last two years, Pete Yates might have been the best wrestler we’ve had. Devin’s the toughest we’ve had. We have had great leaders, Jesse Dong and David Marone as I said. We have some young guys in the room who are going to challenge all of the above. Our most improved guy was a kid we recruited out of Virginia who never made a Virginia finals named Chris Penny from Cox High School. We signed him on a small scholarship. He got sixth in the nation. Two years ago he beat Morgan McIntosh in the second round and Nathan Burak in the quarters. That’s a great rags to riches story. His record fresh- man year was like 3-19. His career record was like 57-57 and he was an All-American, a great story.
USA Wrestler: How was Devin Carter able to overcome his torn hamstring injury, and get back in time to win the conference and make the NCAA finals? Dresser: Devin is a freak in terms of his body. He’s such a strong kid. He wasn’t the most technical, but his toughness and his pace, he had such a big tank. They wrote him off. Luckily he had a progressive surgeon that stuck with Devin and spent a lot of time with him. He felt like he could do it, that he couldn’t hurt it worse and all the tests he took, he could do this. He wrestled one time in about three months before the ACCs, one live go. He wins the ACCs, and 12 days later, he wins in the NCAA semifinals. The stars were aligned for him. When we came back from Vegas, he tore his hamstring completely off the bone. When he gets the MRI, we get the news he’s done. They had to reattach it, a major surgery. That was our guy, who we felt could make the finals. From early December to late February, we were all devastated. All of sudden we get the good news, and for everything to progress as fast as it did, it was a made-for-TV movie kind of thing.
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USA Wrestler: What will it take to get a Virginia Tech team to win an NCAA team trophy, and can a Hokie team put together a season that could win the national title? Dresser: I go to work every day to make that happen. That’s the goal. When I got hired, I said in the press conference that I didn’t take this job to place second. My first two years, we fin- ished 81st out of 81 and 77th out of 77 at the nationals. I’m sure some people said that was a crazy statement. That’s the goal. That’s why Mike Zadick, Derek St. John, Tony Robie and David Hoffman are here. That’s what we wake up to do, to win the nationals. We do it because it’s fun. And to win the nationals would be fun. My job is real easy because we try to do that. We need to have the right guys, we need to be good, we need to be healthy and we need to have a little luck. If we can put those four things together, we have a shot. I think we have a shot much sooner than later.
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