North Iowa Sports Story<\/p>\n
Wrestling: Sanderson enjoying time as assistant coach <\/p>\n
By KIRK HARDCASTLE, Of The Globe Gazette <\/p>\n
CHARLES CITY ” One by one the Charles City high school students asked for an autograph or a picture.<\/p>\n
And one by one, Olympic wrestling champion Cael Sanderson signed and offered a smile and a handshake.<\/p>\n
Friday afternoon after an assembly in the Comet gym, Sanderson signed everything from the back of a cell phone to wrestling shoes to a Wheaties box he graced the cover of when he was a four-time NCAA champion at Iowa State.<\/p>\n
Sanderson is enjoying life as an Olympic champion.<\/p>\n
Everybody wanted a piece of what some call the greatest amateur wrestler of all time.<\/p>\n
“Oh, he enjoys it, “Iowa State coach Bobby Douglas said. “Look at him. I think he’s having fun.”<\/p>\n
And everybody wanted to know what’s in store for the wrestler that went 159-0 in college and won the gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Right now, Sanderson is happy being a full-time assistant coach under Douglas at Iowa State.<\/p>\n
“I’m definitely content on being a coach right now, “said Sanderson, who helped conduct a wrestling clinic Friday afternoon. “It’s a job where you can do so much. I’m definitely content as a coach right now.”<\/p>\n
And Douglas, who was an assistant coach on the 2004 United States Olympic team, said his new assistant is doing just fine.<\/p>\n
Before winning the gold medal in Athens, Sanderson spent two years as an administrative assistant to Iowa State athletic director Bruce Van De Velde.<\/p>\n
“He has a passion for coaching, “Douglas said. “The kids obviously respond real well to him.<\/p>\n
“He motivates with just his presence. I think he has a great career ahead of him.”<\/p>\n
And that career might be as a collegiate head coach.<\/p>\n
“I’m trying to learn how to be a head coach, “he said. “There’s no better place to learn than from Coach Douglas.”<\/p>\n
Sanderson, who pinned 23 of his 40 opponents during his senior year at Iowa State in 2002, said he had to get used to a few things during the 2004-2005 wrestling season.<\/p>\n
Normally on meet days, he’d get to Hilton Coliseum early and start preparing to wrestle.<\/p>\n
“I’m used to getting ready to go, “he said. “So it’s a little different feeling. I feel myself naturally kind of getting ready for a match.”<\/p>\n
And it was also different for Sanderson once the dual meet or tournament started.<\/p>\n
Sanderson was no longer in control like he was in his 159 collegiate matches.<\/p>\n
“You’re very limited in the control you have over your athletes, “he said. “Once they get out there, they’re on their own and sometimes you want to jump in there.”<\/p>\n
Even though Sanderson is content on being an assistant coach, he hasn’t ruled out a return to international competition.<\/p>\n
He did say, however, that he would have to return to competition next year if he’s going to make a run at the 2008 Olympics.<\/p>\n
“The more time you take the harder that it will be to come back, “he said. “You definitely need a couple of years before the Olympics to get back into the swing of things. I still have some time.”<\/p>\n
But for now, Sanderson is enjoying being an Olympic champion and an assistant wrestling coach.<\/p>\n
Reach Kirk Hardcastle at 421-0540 or kirk.hardcastle@globegazette.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
North Iowa Sports Story Wrestling: Sanderson enjoying time as assistant coach By KIRK HARDCASTLE, Of The Globe Gazette CHARLES CITY ” One by one the Charles City high school students asked for an autograph or a picture. And one by one, Olympic wrestling champion Cael Sanderson signed and offered a smile and a handshake. Friday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2B7Di-d1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}