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from them. I may have focused too much on myself, and been too selfish at times. Looking back, I wish I could have been a lit- tle more open to that. It was a great experience. I would never take it away. I met a lot of people, travelled around the world. There is no doubt that it helped me tremendously.
USA Wrestler: In addition to coaching in Iowa, you have
been on coaching staffs at Minnesota, Wisconsin and Oregon State. Talk about your mentors, and how they have helped you become a better coach? Steiner: I have been very fortunate in my career to be around
some of the better coaches and leaders in the sport. Starting out in Bismarck, N.D. with Milo Trusty, who I had as a club coach, and our high school coach, Bill McCollum, they were so benefi- cial to us. We wouldn’t be where we are today because of them, because they were leaders in different ways. We always tried to be like a sponge around them. We went down to Iowa, and were around Dan Gable and Jim Zalesky and Mark Johnson. They are guys I still go to today when I have questions. I have been with Jim for 19 years. He’s family to me. Gable had a huge impact on our lives. Mark Johnson, he’s a guy when I look back, who I talked to a lot when I made decisions. From there, I tried to figure it out with Joe Wells. He was unbelievable in our transition when we left Iowa. Leaving Iowa, you always think, was it because of me or was it because of the program that I had the success I had? Joe is the one who pointed out that it was what you were doing day-in and day-out that got you where you are at, not necessarily that program. You can create the same situation you had there. You are the leader and you know it. You have to go out there and bring people around you. I had a year in Minnesota with J Robinson, and everyone knows what J has done in the sport, how he has run his program. I wish I would have stayed at Minnesota a little bit longer. He has taught me so much and is a guy I have close contact with. I ask him a lot of questions, and J is not afraid to tell you either. And I was with Jim for 12 years as a coach, 19 as an athlete and coach. I have learned an awful lot from Jim. I have always been sur- rounded by great people in this sport. Without their guidance and mentorship, I wouldn’t be where I am at.
USA Wrestler: You have been a champion and coached
many champions. Talk about the qualities of a champion, and what ingredients are important for getting an edge in such a competitive environment? Steiner: You focus on day to day. You focus on what you can
do that day. Don’t cut corners, put the work in. There is no secret. You have to put the work in. Take each step and learn from each situation. You are going to fail some, you just pick yourself up and go back at it again. You learn from each situa- tion, keep moving forward, and take a positive out of every day and know you have gotten better every day. That is the chal- lenge of our sport and in life, really. You are going to have ups and downs. You have to learn to enjoy that process.
USA Wrestler: You have been a World Team coach for our women’s program, helping your brother Terry develop our elite athletes at the Olympic level. What have you learned in the process of coaching those athletes and that program? Steiner: It’s a funny thing. People look at us coaches, that we
know all this stuff, that we know everything. I learn as much when I am in those roles as a coach from those athletes as they learn from me, or maybe more. It re-emphasizes the amount of work you have to put in, the amount of focus you have to have. I get in those roles to help those people achieve their goals.
26 USA Wrestler
They help me twice as much and they don’t even know it. It is a great thing. I will always be involved with that because when you can see those athletes at the highest level train and com- pete, it is very special. If you can give them one little piece of advice that will help them, I will do that.
USA Wrestler: You and Terry are twins, but you are different
people who have taken different journeys within wrestling, espe- cially since leaving college. If you had to explain how you guys are different, what would you tell people? Steiner: We lived with each other for about 32 years and
went through the same experiences for the most part. We are very similar. There is no doubt about it. There are probably some differences. I don’t know what those are necessarily. You guys could probably pick them out easier than I could. We approach things in a lot of the same ways. We are people-ori- ented, relationship-oriented. That’s how we work. Nothing more important than the people around us, our family and our friends. Family remains the No. 1 thing. That’s for you guys to decide, not me. Terry probably dresses a little nicer than me. That’s probably the influence of his wife.
USA Wrestler: Arizona State is the only program from the
West to win a Div. I national team title in wrestling. Can a Western school win again, and is that something that could hap- pen sometime soon? Steiner: I think so. I really do. It will be someone who comes
in and sets the structure the right way. There are plenty of kids here. If you get the kids that buy into your philosophy and what you are trying to do, why not? It comes down to each individual believing that they can do it. It’s just like Terry and I coming out of North Dakota. Who would have thought that we would have won? You are not champions from where you are born or made in a zip code. You do it because of what you do day-in and day- out, month-in and month-out throughout the course of the year. You have to focus on the process. I felt a few times (at Oregon State) that we were a Top 5 program. And if you are in the Top 5, you are in the hunt. Then you have to win the little things, the little matches, the little battles. At Oregon State, a couple years we had a Top 5 team. We didn’t finish there, we were eighth and 10th. I felt we had that team.
USA Wrestler: You are a mat rat, working with athletes on a
daily basis for decades. You won’t have a full room of wrestlers for many months. What will you do to be around that environ- ment as you put together the Bulldog program? Steiner: I will be out in a lot of rooms, a lot of clubs, a lot of
high schools. I will keep very close to the fire. I’ll go to the top college tournaments, observing and watching. It will be a differ- ent year, no doubt about it, but I have a lot of work to do, and it will go quick. I hope to have a Regional Training Center set up here shortly, hope to get some post-grads in here who can train, so I can focus on them and help them reach their goals to punch onto a U.S. National Team and hopefully make a World Team. That will help me stay close to the fire, as well. I will help USA Wrestling any way I can this year, because I will have the luxury to do that. I hope to be part of the staff with the women and men. I will help with both. The other thing, my son is in wrestling. He is in eighth grade. It will allow me a little time to help him, and to help my daughter in her athletics as well, more than I have in the past few years. Once we get going, my time will be stretched a little bit more. It will be a neat year to help them and to get entrenched into this community. There are posi- tives as well. It will be a different year in regards to my competi- tive standpoint as a coach.
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