From the University of Iowa Department of Athletics

Dan Gable wouldn’t commit last spring to how long his stint as an Iowa assistant wrestling coach would last.

He said he might be around for a few months or maybe a few years, but it certainly wasn’t a long-term deal.

“It’s not like I’m going to be on the staff for 14 years or something,” Gable said last April on the night before he officially became the top assistant for new coach Tom Brands. “If I’m effective and doing what he needs me to do, I think I’ll be on there. As soon as it’s better for somebody else, then they can move to get somebody else. It’s kind of a win-win situation.”

Gable’s tenure as an assistant coach to Brands came to a close Friday when Iowa officials released a statement saying the coaching legend was going through a title change.

“I was more in an advisory role and there were a lot of duties as an assistant coach that probably didn’t get done,” Gable said Friday. “We think this will have the same value and some of those duties that need to get done will get done now.”

University of Minnesota Sports Information

The 2007 National Champion University of Minnesota wrestling team will visit Washington, D.C. on Friday, Sept. 21 to commemorate their third NCAA title in the past six years. Head coach J Robinson, University athletic director Joel Maturi, Minnesota’s championship squad and several team staff and administration members will be making stops at the Capital, Pentagon and the White House, where they will meet President George W. Bush.

Friday morning, the team will enjoy tours at both the Capitol and Pentagon buildings before their afternoon appointment at the White House with the President. In 2001, the then-national champion Gophers became the first collegiate wrestling team to ever visit the White House, spending 25 minutes with President Bush and receiving a personal tour of the Oval Office from our country’s chief executive.

During Coach Robinson’s tenure at Minnesota, the Gophers wrestling team has become one of the most successful programs in collegiate athletic history. The Gophers have captured three national championships since 2001, boast 10 NCAA individual champions since 1998, 62 All-Americans in the last decade and six Big Ten titles in nine years.

World Championship Sports Network (WCSN) will provide same-day delayed coverage of the 2007 FILA World Wrestling Championship from Baku, Azerbaijan, on September 17 - 22. Fans can log on to www.wcsn.com to watch top athletes from over 70 countries compete in wrestling’s most important competition as well as the first Olympic qualifying event of the year.

Viewers tuning in will also hear special commentary provided by 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist, Jamill Kelly.

In addition to a strong female competition, male athletes from around the world will go head-to-head in the Freestyle and Greco Roman categories. For U.S fans, the U.S championship team includes No. 1 ranked twenty-year-old Henry Cejudo, gold medalist at the recent Pan American Games in Brazil and the youngest U.S. World Team member in freestyle since 1979. Rounding out the team is Mike Zadick, 2006 World silver medalist, Daniel Cormier, 2007 Pan American bronze medalist, and Joe William, two-time World bronze medalist.

What: Same-day delay and on-demand coverage of 2007 World Wrestling Championships

Online: www.wcsn.com/wrestling

When: September 17 - 22, 2007

Schedule*:

Monday, September 17, 2007
- Men Greco- Roman 55-60-66kg, Bronze & Gold Finals
- 12 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. ET

Gable: Iowa program on its way back
By Steve Batterson

Dan Gable senses a different attitude when he walks around the Iowa wrestling room.

The longtime Hawkeyes coach and second-year assistant to coach Tom Brands believes Iowa is positioned to “make a pretty good jump’’ this year nationally.

“I’m seeing signs, all summer I’ve seen them, that things are beginning to turn,’’ Gable said Monday during an appearance at the Davenport Grid Club.

He said he didn’t see those signs much of last season.

During a season of transition after Brands’ arrival from Virginia Tech, Iowa was 14-5 overall and 5-3 in Big Ten duals last year.

The effort preceded a third-place finish in the Big Ten meet and an eighth-place showing at the NCAA Championships, where 165-pounder Mark Perry became Iowa’s first NCAA titlist since 2004.

“It took nearly the whole year for the mindset to begin to change. It took five or six months before I saw anything that even remotely resembled change, and honestly I was really concerned,’’ Gable said.

“I didn’t know if it was going to happen, but late in the season I started to see signs, and they have continued.’’

By: Paul Steinbach

It’s a homecoming that many are celebrating. On July 13, first-year athletic director Pat Kilkenny announced that Ducks baseball will return to the University of Oregon after a 26-year hiatus. But the news ruffled more than a few feathers in Eugene and beyond. That’s because Kilkenny also revealed that the upcoming wrestling season would be the school’s last. “My second-favorite sport is baseball, so I think adding baseball is a magnificent thing for the University of Oregon to do,” says former UO wrestling All-American and current head coach Chuck Kearney, who has dedicated more than two decades of his life to the program. “We’re struggling to understand why it has to come at the cost of wrestling.”

And so a bittersweet saga has unfolded, complete with the subplot surrounding women’s competitive cheer, which like baseball will assume varsity sport status in 2008-09. Kilkenny, a former business leader and high-ranking UO donor, says the shakeup makes sense for an athletic department that — despite its position among fewer than two dozen in the nation that sustain themselves financially — remains “fragile.”

By: Paul Steinbach

It’s a homecoming that many are celebrating. On July 13, first-year athletic director Pat Kilkenny announced that Ducks baseball will return to the University of Oregon after a 26-year hiatus. But the news ruffled more than a few feathers in Eugene and beyond. That’s because Kilkenny also revealed that the upcoming wrestling season would be the school’s last. “My second-favorite sport is baseball, so I think adding baseball is a magnificent thing for the University of Oregon to do,” says former UO wrestling All-American and current head coach Chuck Kearney, who has dedicated more than two decades of his life to the program. “We’re struggling to understand why it has to come at the cost of wrestling.”

And so a bittersweet saga has unfolded, complete with the subplot surrounding women’s competitive cheer, which like baseball will assume varsity sport status in 2008-09. Kilkenny, a former business leader and high-ranking UO donor, says the shakeup makes sense for an athletic department that — despite its position among fewer than two dozen in the nation that sustain themselves financially — remains “fragile.”

BY KARL VOGEL / Lincoln Journal Star

For most of the last four years, the Nebraska 197s have painted a small corner of Colorado Springs, Colo., their own shade of Husker red.

Two members of that club — Brad Vering and Justin Ruiz — will try to do the same thing about 10,000 miles to the east in Baku, Azerbaijan, when the World Wrestling Championships are held Sept. 17-23.

That, both said, is partially because they have another fellow Husker — B.J. Padden — training with them at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.

Those three — all former NCAA qualifiers at 197 pounds (Vering was the 1999 champion) — are major players in the upper weight classes on the national team.

“Justin and I are real good friends, have been for a long time,” Vering said in a telephone interview last week. “Now, with B.J. out here, we all are close and we push each other to do better. I think it’s paying off for all of us.”

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

The Higher Calling Wrestling Club and the Chattanooga wrestling team is pleased to announce that they will be hosting wrestling legend Dan Gable at their respective facilities on October 12-13, 2007.

The event will kick off at the Jones Wrestling Center in Cleveland, Tenn. It will start with a motivational talk from Coach Gable followed by a technique session by the new Higher Calling Wrestling Club coach and former Gable wrestler, Mike Hatcher.

The event will continue the following day at Maclellan Gym at UTC. It will begin with a technique session by Coach Gable, followed by an open UTC practice session, featuring UTC Head Coach and World Team member, Chris Bono. This will be a unique opportunity to learn, meet, and be inspired by the biggest name in wrestling history, Dan Gable.

Gable, former head coach at the University of Iowa, directed Iowa to 15 NCAA titles and 21 Big Ten Conference Championships during his career. He was responsible for 45 National Champions, 106 Big Ten Champions and 152 All-Americas. As a competitor, he was a two-time NCAA Champion and a Gold Medalist at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

Waterloo, IA
By Kyle Klingman
Dan Gable International Wrestling Institute and Museum

Young wrestlers are being invited to participate in one of the most exciting wrestling seminars ever offered. Dan Gable, considered by many to be the most successful coach in collegiate history, will be conducting a special kids clinic at the Dan Gable International Wrestling Institute and Museum.

The clinics will be held in the Dan Gable Teaching Center at the Dan Gable Wrestling Museum located at 303 Jefferson St. in downtown Waterloo.

“This in an unbelievable opportunity for wrestlers to learn from the best in a very intimate setting,” said Kyle Klingman, associate director of the Dan Gable Wrestling Museum. “It was part of our goal when setting up the museum structure to bring Dan’s coaching expertise to the Cedar Valley area. We are very excited about these clinics.”

A native of Waterloo, Dan Gable set the standard for coaching by winning 15 NCAA titles in 21 years during his tenure as the head wrestling coach at the University of Iowa. He is considered by many to be the greatest coach of all time, in any sport.

Castle alumnus Tanya Miyasaki won a bronze medal last Saturday, placing third in the women’s under 70 kg division at the Beach Wrestling World Championships at Antalya, Turkey.

Miyasaki, who also wrestled at Missouri Valley College, advanced to the semifinals before losing to eventual champion Margarita Montez of Spain 2-1.

Beach wrestling is conducted on a sand surface. The event is part of the World Wrestling Games.