Gary Abbott, USA Wrestling

Dennis Hall of Stevens Points, Wis. has been named the head coach for USA Wrestling’s Greco-Roman program at the U.S. Olympic Education Center at Northern Michigan University.

Hall was one of the greatest Greco-Roman wrestlers in U.S. history, with three career Olympic and World medals. He was a 1995 World champion, only the second American at that time to win a Greco-Roman World title. Hall captured a silver medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., and won a World bronze medal in 1994.

“Dennis Hall brought to the mat a fierce competitive spirit,” said USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender. “We are confident he will bring that same spirit to our program at Northern Michigan University, as we strive to continue as one of the most powerful Greco-Roman programs in the world.”

Hall competed on three U.S. Olympic teams in Greco-Roman. In addition to the silver medal he won in 1996, Hall was eighth in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain and also competed in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.  Read more... (717 words, estimated 2:52 mins reading time)

Andy Hamilton – Iowa City Press-Citizen

Danny Song wasn’t certain what he was getting into three years ago when his search for a place to continue his wrestling career led him from New York to Iowa.

He had just finished his senior season at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy where he became a Division III All-American under coach Tim Alger, a former Hawkeye.

A phone call from Alger to Iowa coach Tom Brands helped get Song’s foot in the door of the Dan Gable Wrestling Complex in 2006. Ultimately, it helped Brands find the newest member of his coaching staff.

Brands said Monday that Song will be the strength and conditioning coach for the Hawkeyes. The 25-year-old replaces Jared Frayer, who left Iowa after one season for an assistant position at Wisconsin.

“I consider myself a product of this program,” Song said. “I feel like the philosophy, the lifestyle, the culture, it’s what I was looking for, even not knowing it. But getting out here and getting a feel for it, it’s exactly where I want to be.”  Read more... (387 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

More than two years after their last matches at Iowa State, twins Trent and Travis Paulson remain inseparable.

They live together, they train together and now they’re back at ISU together to continue their quest to become world and Olympic freestyle wrestling champions.

“We’ve always wanted to stay together, just because we feed off each other. We always have,” Travis said Tuesday. “We know what we’re capable of and we push each other to the limit.”

Their return figures to be a two-way deal in the Cyclone wrestling room.

The Paulsons say they’ll benefit from training under Iowa State Coach Kevin Jackson, an Olympic gold medalist and former national team coach. Jackson’s ISU wrestlers will benefit from having the Paulsons as workout partners.

“Our mentality is we want to work harder in practice than we do in a match,” Jackson said. “A match should be easier than practice, so with these guys in our room, it kind of plays into that. We’re actually wrestling at a higher level than we’ll face in competition. There are no collegians as good as these guys right now.”  Read more... (614 words, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Tar Heels Add Chinn To Wrestling Staff

Three-time NCAA qualifier will work with middle weights, Carolina Wrestling Club.

Aug. 18, 2009

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Trevor Chinn, a three-time NCAA qualifier at Lehigh University, has been named an assistant wrestling coach at the University of North Carolina, head coach C.D. Mock announced Tuesday. Chinn will work with the Tar Heels’ middle weight groups and will serve as head coach of the Carolina Wrestling Club.

A December 2008 graduate of Lehigh with a degree in physics, Chinn posted a 91-30 record over four seasons at 149 pounds. He qualified for nationals in 2006, 2008 and 2009 and won 29 and 30 matches, respectively, in his junior and senior seasons.

Chinn is also a two-time winner at the USA Wrestling Beach National Championships, claiming his most recent title in July in his native New York. Prior to enrolling at Lehigh, Chinn was a two-time New York state champion at Canandaigua High School. He went 42-0 as a senior and was a four-time state finalist

Kurt Angle arrested on PFA violation, possession of HGH
By Jim McKinnon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pro wrestler Kurt Angle is free on bond following his arrest today on charges that he violated a protection of abuse order obtained by his girlfriend earlier in the morning.

Mr. Angle, 40, of Moon, was arrested by township police around 7:50 a.m. in the parking lot of a Giant Eagle Supermarket where his girlfriend, Trenesh Biggers, had taken refuge, according to a police affidavit that supports his arrest.

She told police Mr. Angle, who already had abused her physically, had been stalking her from outside a Starbucks where she was using a computer to send e-mails.

She said she was afraid to use her home computer because Mr. Angle lives there, the affidavit said.

She called police after she again saw him circling the supermarket parking lot.

In addition to the PFA violation, Mr. Angle also was arraigned on charges of harassment, possession of the human growth hormone Hygetropin, and possession of a syringe to use the controlled substance, police said.

Mr. Angle told police the drug is prescribed to him legally, the affidavit said.  Read more... (379 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Wrestling & Christian Faith

Ask most wrestlers what makes them successful, and they’ll talk about long practice sessions, endless conditioning drills, and hours in the weight room. Some give credit to coaches, family, or a particular workout partner. Still others cite their deep religious faith as a key component of their success. Recently, InterMat’s Mark Palmer interviewed three wrestlers — Derek Garcia, Justin Kerber, and Sam Hazewinkel — who have openly expressed their Christianity in the past … with the specific purpose of learning more about their faith, and how it serves them in wrestling, and in life off the mat. Read Full Story

The Manheim Central school board approved the hiring of former Penn State coach Troy Sunderland as its head wrestling coach during a school board meeting Tuesday night.

Sunderland, who resigned from Penn State on April 4, replaces Shane Mack, who had coached the Barons since 2005.

The coaching job will be Sunderland’s first at the high school level. Sunderland served as an assistant at Penn State and Navy before replacing John Fritz as the Nittany Lions’ head coach in 1999.

Sunderland, 38, led Penn State to an 8-12-2 record and 17th-place finish at the NCAA Championships during his final season at Penn State. Sunderland went 115-90-2 and coached 27 All-Americans in 11 years at Penn State.

Sunderland becomes the 15th head coach in Manheim Central history. The Barons, who compete in District 3, have recorded more than 700 dual meet wins since the school introduced the sport in 1926. The program has produced eight state champions and 13 PIAA runner-ups since 1943. The school also conducts one of the state’s top high school tournaments — the Manheim Holiday Tournament.

Sunderland’s wife, JoAnn, was hired as Manheim Central High School’s in-school suspension monitor, according to the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era.  Read more... (226 words, estimated 54 secs reading time)

AMES, Iowa – For Iowa State’s current 141-pound wrestling standout, a former Cyclone 141-pound NCAA champion is in his corner all the way this season. Luckily for Nick Gallick, it’s his workout partner, coach and older brother, Nate Gallick.

The Gallick brothers don’t have a sibling rivalry. Nate and Nick Gallick’s relationship could be more closely described as a partnership. Their brotherly arrangement exists in the realms of both collegiate and freestyle wrestling. They want to be the best and sometimes the road to being on top is a hard path to take.

Brothers are sometimes the most hard on each other, but for the Gallick brothers; that is part of their goal.

“Having Nate back in the room with me on a daily basis will be good,” Nick Gallick said. “That is going to help me. I’m really excited he is back.”

Nick Gallick has shadowed his older brother’s career closely in his time in a Cyclone singlet. The younger Gallick is a two-time All-American heading into his senior season, like his older brother. Nate Gallick finished his senior season as the 2006 NCAA 141-pound champion and is now a volunteer coach on ISU’s wrestling coaching staff.  Read more... (952 words, 1 image, estimated 3:48 mins reading time)

By Tom Rinaldi
ESPN

“Leroy, touch your toes.”
Leroy reaches his arms out in front of him in mock effort, and says, “They’re at home.”
And then, the boys laugh.

He didn’t know they were gone.

Staring down at the sheets of his bed, the morphine starting to fade, Leroy Sutton was still numb, but he had a feeling something was wrong.

“It was when I tried to sit up,” Leroy said, remembering that day nearly eight years ago. “I pulled the covers up, and that’s when I figured everything out.”

It was Dec. 7, 2001, the day that shaped Leroy’s body, and his life.

He was 11 years old at the time, walking to school with his brother along the Wheeling and Lake Erie railroad tracks near his home in East Akron, Ohio. A freight train approached, and Leroy got too close. His backpack got caught on one of the passing cars, and he was pulled beneath the wheels.

“I didn’t even look down,” said Leroy, now 19, recalling the first moments afterward. “I was just staring at the sun the whole time. I wasn’t trying to look down because that’s when I would have panicked.”  Read more... (1619 words, estimated 6:29 mins reading time)

Rationale for wrestling weight class options from the NFHS Wrestling Rules Committee.

CURRENT:
-These current 14 weight classes have been in place since 1995.
-The 215-pound weight class was added in 2002.
-In 2006, the 275-pound weight class was increased to 285 pounds.
-These weight classes were developed from a survey that the NFHS Wrestling Rules Committee administered in 1994-95.

OPTION A:
-The weights were created from looking at the hydrated body weight at the time of assessment of 195,000 wrestlers from the NWCA Optimal performance calculator.
-Each weight class was created to have approximately 7.14% of the wrestlers.
-Equal distribution of wrestlers in each weight class.
-Eliminates one of the first three weight class. Combines 103, 112 and 119 into two weight classes.

OPTION B:
-The weights were created from looking at the minimum wrestling weight (7% weight) at the time of assessment of 195,000 wrestlers from the NWCA Optimal Performance Calculator.
-Each weight class was created to have approximately 7.14% of the wrestlers.
-Equal distribution of wrestlers in each weight class.
-Adds an ‘additional’ weight class at the top.
-Creates a weight class in the low 180-pound range.  Read more... (355 words, 1 image, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)