UNIVERSITY PARK — With top-40 music playing from the speakers and clocks counting down from 48 minutes, the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex brims with activity nearly two months after Penn State finished its official season.
Teyon Ware practices a take down at the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex on Thursday, May 13, 2010. CDT/Christopher Weddle Aaron Anspach works out on a climbing machine in the weight room of the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex on Thursday, May 13, 2010. CDT/Christopher Weddle
In one corner, an Olympic gold medalist and emerging heavyweight struggle moving each other. In an adjacent circle, a two-time NCAA champion pushes around a sophomore hoping to reach similar heights.
On the other side of the complex, another former NCAA champ trains with a teenager whose life revolves around wrestling. Behind the glass walls separating the wrestling mats and weight room, a man with big hopes for the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club’s newest endeavor and freestyle wrestling at Penn State watches a rehabbing heavyweight.
This mid-May afternoon provides a glimpse into a joke that started last fall when a competitor spotted heavyweight Les Sigman wearing NLWC gear at a major freestyle tournament. The competitor asked Sigman what the letters meant.
“It’s the future of wrestling,” Sigman responded.
Bold words, indeed. But it’s difficult convincing the men involved in last month’s practice and those overseeing the development of the NLWC’s senior-level resident program otherwise.
Cael Sanderson’s arrival as Penn State’s head coach last spring is producing major changes to freestyle wrestling in Centre County. The NLWC has expanded to include five senior athletes: Sigman, Jake Varner, Aaron Anspach, Teyon Ware and Nick Fanthorpe. USA Wrestling recently designated State College as one of its regional Olympic training centers.
The NLWC is different than other major freestyle clubs such as Sunkist, New York Athletic or Gator because its senior athletes live and train at the club’s epicenter. Anspach also coaches the NLWC’s youth club. Sigman, Varner, Ware and Fanthorpe, who all attended Midwestern colleges, receive stipends to live and train here. The five wrestlers are 2012 Olympic hopefuls.
Sanderson and NLWC supporters want to create a “One Stop Shop” for aspiring Olympians. They envision State College becoming a place where athletes train with the dedicated partners, compete for national-championship caliber teams, earn degrees and pursue Olympic and world titles.
“This is a very crucial and complementary piece to our wrestling program,” says Penn State director of wrestling operations Matt Dernlan, who guides the NLWC’s fundraising efforts and resident athlete program. “We not only want to have the most dominant collegiate wrestling program in the country, we also want to be known as the most dominant senior-level program in the country as well.”
Sanderson, a 2004 Olympic gold medalist, says Penn State and State College can develop into a freestyle haven.
“It was something we were trying to do where I was at,” says Sanderson, Iowa State’s head coach from 2006-09. “We didn’t necessarily have the potential to do what we can here. We really want to have an impact on USA Wrestling, help USA Wrestling, help wrestling in the United States and at the same time, build a program that’s bringing NCAA championships to the East.”
Expanding the program
Sanderson isn’t the first Penn State coach to view freestyle as a way to bolster Penn State’s folkstyle program.
A magazine article published in the late-1970s profiling brothers Ed and Lou Banach placed ideas into former coach Rich Lorenzo’s head. The Banachs combined to win five NCAA titles at Iowa before earning gold medals at the 1984 Olympics. Their story still resonates with Lorenzo.
“The article said if you went to a university that didn’t have a freestyle and Greco program you were committing suicide,” Lorenzo says.
When Lorenzo replaced Bill Koll as head coach in 1978, he requested to hire an assistant with freestyle and Greco-Roman experience. He received his wish in 1983 when Hachiro Oishi joined the Nittany Lion staff.
Oishi spent 16 seasons at Penn State, helping the Nittany Lions produce 10 NCAA champions and 70 All-Americans. Ken Cher-tow, Sanshiro Abe and Kerry McCoy, Penn State wrestlers from 1985-97, made Olympic teams.
Most of Penn State’s recent freestyle successes have come at the junior levels, with Bubba Jenkins capturing a junior world title in 2007. Heavyweight Kerry McCoy is the program’s only two-time Olympian, making the United States freestyle teams in 2000 and ‘04.
Dernlan says the implementation of a senior-level program represents the biggest shift in Penn State’s freestyle philosophy.
“We feel that’s one of the last pieces — or the key piece — to the puzzle,” says Dernlan, who worked for USA Wrestling from 1998-99.
Sigman and Varner are legitimate candidates to make the 2012 United States freestyle team. But neither wrestler has a Penn State affiliation. Sigman won four NCAA Division II titles at Nebraska-Omaha while Varner captured two Division I titles at Iowa State.
The duo has personal relationships with Sanderson. Sigman met Sanderson through Penn State assistant coach Casey Cunningham. Varner wrestled for Sanderson at Iowa State. Fanthorpe also wrestled at Iowa State. Ware won a NCAA title at Oklahoma.
Lorenzo, the NLWC’s executive director, says the long-term plan involves former Penn State wrestlers occupying resident spots.
“That’s what Cael wants to do,” he says. “That’s his first preference. But he wants people he knows, trusts and respects. That’s why you’re seeing the Iowa State influence with Varner and Fanthorpe. It’s really exciting to see what the plan is and how he’s going to pursue it.”
An ideal situation
Sigman faced a major personal decision last spring: Stay in the Midwest or uproot his life and move to State College.
Approaching 30 and with one last serious chance to make the Olympic team, the NLWC’s offer proved too appealing to resist. The club covers living expenses and offers health insurance, which Sigman calls “huge.”
Sigman, 28, previously trained in Nebraska, splitting his time between Omaha and Lincoln. Multiple injuries, including a knee surgery and staph infection, interrupted his training.
“I didn’t have great medical coverage and I kind of paid for it,” he says. “Now, I hope I don’t have to use it. But it’s nice to have.”
Sigman, a South Dakota native, is a rising freestyle star. He won the 120 kilogram (264.5 pounds) title during April’s U.S. Open in Cleveland. The victory gives him a bye into the finals of next weekend’s World Team Trials in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Sigman’s life revolves around wrestling. He lifts at 8 a.m., grabs brunch and returns to the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex for afternoon practices.
The move included some adjustments. He spent four months living in Cunningham’s basement. But Sigman moved here to wrestle, and he says his recent results are a product of training with Sanderson, Varner and Anspach.
“I don’t think I can find any better situation to be in,” he says.
Some of Sigman’s toughest competition next weekend might come from Anspach. The 2007 NCAA finalist finished fifth at the U.S. Open, and he has made a similar commitment to freestyle despite his responsibilities with the youth club.
“It’s an all or nothing process,” Anspach says. “At this level, no one is here training because they think it’s fun to do. At this level, you have to make it your lifestyle. Nobody has a job outside of here. If you are serious about it, you can’t have a job outside of here.”
A big sell
Varner didn’t delay entering the work force.
After stepping off Iowa State’s graduation podium during a Friday evening last month, he packed his car and ventured East, leaving Ames, Iowa, on a Saturday and arriving in State College on a Sunday.
By Monday, he was practicing with Penn State sophomore upperweight Quentin Wright, another wrestler with huge freestyle potential. By Tuesday, Varner’s shirt was covered with sweat and his contacts fell out multiple times as he wrestled Sanderson.
Varner’s wrestling desires and allegiance to Sanderson outweigh any social or post-wrestling desires he harbors.
“Coming out here, it’s going to be a little tough at first,” says Varner, a Bakersfield, Calif., native who made the U.S. world team last year. “I will fit in. I will make it work. My goal coming here is to wrestle and that’s what I’m worried about.”
Varner visited State College twice last summer to train with Sanderson. He decided last spring he would spend his immediate post-college years in unfamiliar surroundings.
“I knew when he took the job he was going to make this a powerhouse, not only on the college level, but on the freestyle level as well,” Varner says. “My whole plan coming into college was being with Cael. Obviously, my last year at Iowa State I wasn’t, which was fine. I was OK with it. But to win my Olympic gold medal, I need to be with Cael and that has never changed.”
Funding Olympic dreams come at a price. Neither Sanderson nor Dernlan would reveal the monetary stipends athletes are receiving. Dernlan says the NLWC has created an incentive-based package, which rewards athletes for making national and world teams.
The NLWC also funds athletes’ traveling expenses. Sigman has traveled to Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and Canada since joining the club.
“It’s a pretty expensive ordeal,” says Sanderson, who trained for the 2004 Olympics while working as a special assistant to Iowa State’s athletic director. “But we feel it’s more than worthwhile. It’s what our focus is on now with our next step with the program.”
The NLWC operates separately from Penn State, with the only shared resources the wrestling facility and coaches. The club functions through donations and fundraisers.
Freestyle and folkstyle are held at different times during the NCAA season. Anspach is the only senior athlete permitted to participate in official Penn State workouts, although current Nittany Lions can work out with Sigman, Varner, Ware and Fanthorpe on their own. A strong freestyle program is viewed as an attractive recruiting tool.
“One of the big recruiting things is that we have this guy at this weight class you can train with,” says four-time Ohio state champion David Taylor, who initially committed to Iowa State before following Sanderson to Penn State last June. “Obviously, the coaching staff already draws so many people here. But freestyle is as big of a recruiting thing as anything else. Having a strong freestyle program helps recruiting even more.”
Just like football
One of Penn State’s rivals also sees the future.
The Columbus, Ohio-based Buckeye Wrestling Club became the Ohio Regional Training Center two years ago. The center uses Ohio State’s wrestling facilities and is coached by freestyle ace Lou Rosselli, the Buckeyes’ associate head coach.
The club hired Ohio State graduate and 2004 NCAA champion Tommy Rowlands as director and its resident athletes include former Ohio State stars J Jaggers and J.D. Bergman, NCAA finalist Shawn Bunch and heavyweight Tervel Dlagnev.
The Ohio center holds regular fundraisers and solicits donor support. Rowlands says the Ohio club has increased its fundraising total from $100,000 to $250,000 per year since its inception in 2006.
The presence of a strong freestyle program helped Ohio State finish second at the 2008 and ‘09 NCAA Championships. The Buckeyes are poised to make similar title runs because of recent recruiting triumphs.
“It’s no different than college football,” Rowlands says. “Every recruit that goes to Penn State or Ohio State wants to go the NFL, win the Lombardi Trophy, win the Heisman and everything in between. Football sends its good kids to the NFL. It’s the same in wrestling except we want to send kids to the Olympics.”
Like a successful football program, Sanderson wants the NLWC to feature athletes at every position. The NLWC currently has four of seven freestyle weights covered by senior athletes: Fanthorpe at 60 kilograms (132 pounds), Ware at 66kg (145.5), Varner at 96kg (211.5) and Sigman and Anspach at 120kg.
If the plan succeeds, wrestlers such as Taylor and Wright could fill future spots.
“We know there are going to be Olympians and it’s only going to get better as we go around,” Sanderson says. “It won’t be too long until the majority of our guys are graduating from Penn State.”
Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/2010/06/06/2019346/overseeing-the-future.html#ixzz0qC2u8pHf
