August 1, 2025 • 8 mins
Twenty years ago, Jim Beichner served as the host for the 2005 NWCA Convention in Buffalo, New York. The then-UB head coach helped coordinate the event and oversaw numerous logistical things with the annual NWCA gathering.Following his run as the head coach at Buffalo,
Beichner went to work in the racing world. He’s recently returned to the sport as the Director of Coaching Development for the NWCA. Hear what’s up with the past two-time All-American from Clarion.
Beichner went to work in the racing world. He’s recently returned to the sport as the Director of Coaching Development for the NWCA. Hear what’s up with the past two-time All-American from Clarion.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here at the NWCA convention Pantrevida, Florida with Jim Beetner.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Based from the past for many of.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
You, but he's back as the director of coaching Development
at the NBCA first fall. Jim, we spoke a little
bit back at the Division II Championships.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Welcome back, Thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
So after your your coaching run on Buffalo, you did
something interesting you got involved in in Drive Fast Turn Left.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Talk a little bit about your your NASCAR experience.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Well, the NASCAR experience was quite impressive and fun and
interesting and challenging and stressful.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It was everything.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
But I was hired by Roger Pesky b their director
of athletics, so I oversaw the department that had everything
to do with pit stops. So you're talking about Indy,
talking about sports cars, talking about NASCAR Cup whatever. Every
pit stop was part of my department. So it was
a big department.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
And when some its sports people like well with pit cruse,
what wrestlers are very popular athletes to have on pit cruse,
and you had a little bit of a little bit
of involvement.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
In I did, and some of the other teams love
to recruit wrestlers. It's a great opportunity. You know, when
you're done wrestling and you don't have that next step,
you're not sure what it is. But you have a
drive to be part of a team, you have a
drive to be you know, and make good money. All
those kind of things add up very nicely for a
NASCAR career. Every single person on the NASCAR side is
(01:23):
a former athlete. It's a little bit different from NASCAR
to Indy, let's say, because Indy, you know quite a
few of those guys are future engineers, and you know
they have a different task and a different role, and
they pit a car. But on the NASCAR side, that's
all they do is they pit a car. You know,
they come in three four days a week and train,
they make good money, they pit the car on Sundays,
(01:45):
they go home after the race, and again the money
is very good. It's really set up very well for
wrestlers to succeed in.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
That the callback to wrestling. We always joke that wrestling
coaches never stay retired. They never stayed that far away
from wrestle and you never you didn't stray that far away.
But now you're backing at full time. So explain what
the role is now with the NWCA and what you're
you're looking forward to achieve.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Well, first and foremost, Mike, Mike Morier never lets you
stray too far from wrestling. He's the only guy I
know that probably touches every single wrestling coach in the
country in some shape or form. I've never seen anybody
work harder than Mike Moyer in any sport for.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Any you know. It's the guy is just amazing.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
So he has kept me involved and in touch with
wrestling all these years. He's never stopped and in some
ways you never stopped believing in me, you know, as
a former president of the NWCA and so on.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
So it's been great.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
I'm Director of Coaching Development, and I really am organizing
and running scholastic leadership academies around the country, the collegian
leadership academies.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Here thus far.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Really, I'm just making small changes because the system already exists,
you know, the people at the NWCA have already created these.
So I'm just coming here and I'm trying to run
them and run them a little bit better, a little
bit more efficient, and maybe make it, like I said,
slight changes as we go, hopefully positive changes to go.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Back in time.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
So I was hired by the NWCA full time in
two thousand and five. My first week moving to Pennsylvania,
we got in a van and we.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Drove to Buffalo and you were hosting the convention.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
I remember the first time we actually we had interacted
at championships, but you are trying to navigate your wrestlers
to move a big chunk of red light up some stairs. Yes,
and the technique session. So you've run a couple of
these in your day. So what do you think about
the convention now? From looking back twenty years ago when
you hosted it up at Buffalo.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
I think the convention has been great. It was great then,
it's great now. I have to work harder and we
have to work harder to get more coaches here, more
scholastic coaches, more college coaches, the coaches at the.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Top top level as well.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
But as far as content and things like that, this
is a great place to be. It's a fantastic convention.
And you know, again, we have to make sure that
we try to get more people here to attend and
experience this.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
What are the reasons a high school coach should attend.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
What other what reasons should they attend. Well, there's there's
content for every level of coach here. That's what you
want to rub elbows with. The collegiate coaches. Collegiate coaches
want to rub elbows with, you know, some of the
high school coaches.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
There's sessions on tough calls for high school.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
There's sessions on tough calls UH for UH for the
collegiate side. NIL affects everybody right now, right, So there's
sessions on an l al NIL. There's actually like three
sessions there. So if you look at the agenda, you
can clearly see there's a lot of information being dispersed
to the coaches and there's a lot of opportunity to
(04:43):
learn and grow in the sport of wrestling by coming
to the convention. So that's that's the way I look
at it. I think there's something for everybody here.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
What did you get out of it when you were coaching?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
I got what I got out of it really was
when I was dealing with other coaches and getting no
other coaches. That's meant to were in mentorship.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Right.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
When you get to know other coaches personally, you take
the competition side out of it because a lot of
times if you are just competing against that other coach
you're yelling, you know, on the other side of the mat,
and it's kind of confrontational, right, So you don't really
get to know a coach when you're competing against them,
But when you are working together at a convention or
in something like this, you are getting to know them
(05:23):
at a personal level, and you tend to end up
liking them, you know, and respecting them more. And I
think it goes the same way in both sides, right,
So that's what I got out of it. I got
a lot of friendships. I got a lot of people
that I could call if I needed something. Over the years,
I've made many many phone calls, Hey how would you
handle this?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
How would you handle that?
Speaker 4 (05:42):
And it all started with some things like this, like
this convention and getting to know other coaches.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
So that really is what I think.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
The first thing that pops into my head is the
relationships I built over the years.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, it's a lot easier to get to know somebody
over a coffee or a beverage than at weigh ins
or you know, the blood round.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yes, you don't get to know coach.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
The only time you get to know coach is when
you're competing in some like I said, it's adversarial. Year
after you know, you want your guys to win, they
want their guys to win, and you're focused on that,
and it's just, you know, this is there is no
competition here. It's just you know, it's kind of brothers
meeting other brothers and friends meeting friends, and coaches meeting coaches.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
So again, I think that's a big part of this.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It's also a dead period, and it's.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
A dead period.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
We created a dead period years ago so there wouldn't
be any interference with coaches and not wanting them to
come to here, to coming to the convention. So I
think it's helped, but we're still falling short in my
opinion on the numbers, and I think that people should
be clamoring to come to this convention year after year,
and I hope we can make headway in that area.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Well.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
The growth points has been obviously the growth of women's wrestling,
but the growth of small college wrestling.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
These small enrollment driven schools that are.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Like using athletics as a way to get students in
who they would not otherwise consider. Small liberal arts college
in the middle of Miswestern State named, but the Leadership Academy,
the implementation of that to train coaches and have them
ready versus just taking a kid who's one year out.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Of college, stayed on because the.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Part time, full time head coach meeting another assistant. Next
thing you know, they leave and you've got a twenty
three year old head coach.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Yeah, and those twenty three year head coaches they need
mentors and they need somebody to look up to, somebody
and talk to. Sometimes they don't know it even. You know,
sometimes when you're twenty three, you think you know everything,
but you really have to step outside of your shoes,
get out of your shoes, and you have to say
to yourself, I don't know everything, and I need mentorship
(07:37):
and I need to talk to somebody. Occasionally. Quick decisions
sometimes are bad decisions. You pick up the phone, you
call somebody that you met at the NWCA convention, somebody
you respects, and you know they help you make decisions
in life and in your job and your career. So yeah,
I get it. These twenty three year olds, they need training,
they need help. And ironically I hear this. You know,
(08:00):
Coach Smith said it three times yesterday I had him.
He did three speeches yesterday for the NWCA. Each time
I heard him talking to his group he said the
same exact thing. He said, I feel like I'm picking
up more information and getting more help from you people
than sometimes you're getting from me. So every single time
he gets up and talks, he feels like he's learning something,
(08:21):
he's picking something new up. And that's interesting because he's
one of our most ten year coaches, one of our
most successful coaches, and he's every every single time he talks,
he says he picks up something new.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Jim Bingner once again, welcome back.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Here at the NWCA convention Pantrevida, Florida with Jim Beetner.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Based from the past for many of.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
You, but he's back as the director of coaching Development
at the NBCA first fall. Jim, we spoke a little
bit back at the Division II Championships.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Welcome back, Thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
So after your your coaching run on Buffalo, you did
something interesting you got involved in in Drive Fast Turn Left.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Talk a little bit about your your NASCAR experience.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Well, the NASCAR experience was quite impressive and fun and
interesting and challenging and stressful.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It was everything.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
But I was hired by Roger Pesky b their director
of athletics, so I oversaw the department that had everything
to do with pit stops. So you're talking about Indy,
talking about sports cars, talking about NASCAR Cup whatever. Every
pit stop was part of my department. So it was
a big department.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
And when some its sports people like well with pit cruse,
what wrestlers are very popular athletes to have on pit cruse,
and you had a little bit of a little bit
of involvement.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
In I did, and some of the other teams love
to recruit wrestlers. It's a great opportunity. You know, when
you're done wrestling and you don't have that next step,
you're not sure what it is. But you have a
drive to be part of a team, you have a
drive to be you know, and make good money. All
those kind of things add up very nicely for a
NASCAR career. Every single person on the NASCAR side is
(01:23):
a former athlete. It's a little bit different from NASCAR
to Indy, let's say, because Indy, you know quite a
few of those guys are future engineers, and you know
they have a different task and a different role, and
they pit a car. But on the NASCAR side, that's
all they do is they pit a car. You know,
they come in three four days a week and train,
they make good money, they pit the car on Sundays,
(01:45):
they go home after the race, and again the money
is very good. It's really set up very well for
wrestlers to succeed in.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
That the callback to wrestling. We always joke that wrestling
coaches never stay retired. They never stayed that far away
from wrestle and you never you didn't stray that far away.
But now you're backing at full time. So explain what
the role is now with the NWCA and what you're
you're looking forward to achieve.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Well, first and foremost, Mike, Mike Morier never lets you
stray too far from wrestling. He's the only guy I
know that probably touches every single wrestling coach in the
country in some shape or form. I've never seen anybody
work harder than Mike Moyer in any sport for.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Any you know. It's the guy is just amazing.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
So he has kept me involved and in touch with
wrestling all these years. He's never stopped and in some
ways you never stopped believing in me, you know, as
a former president of the NWCA and so on.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
So it's been great.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
I'm Director of Coaching Development, and I really am organizing
and running scholastic leadership academies around the country, the collegian
leadership academies.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Here thus far.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Really, I'm just making small changes because the system already exists,
you know, the people at the NWCA have already created these.
So I'm just coming here and I'm trying to run
them and run them a little bit better, a little
bit more efficient, and maybe make it, like I said,
slight changes as we go, hopefully positive changes to go.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Back in time.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
So I was hired by the NWCA full time in
two thousand and five. My first week moving to Pennsylvania,
we got in a van and we.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Drove to Buffalo and you were hosting the convention.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
I remember the first time we actually we had interacted
at championships, but you are trying to navigate your wrestlers
to move a big chunk of red light up some stairs. Yes,
and the technique session. So you've run a couple of
these in your day. So what do you think about
the convention now? From looking back twenty years ago when
you hosted it up at Buffalo.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
I think the convention has been great. It was great then,
it's great now. I have to work harder and we
have to work harder to get more coaches here, more
scholastic coaches, more college coaches, the coaches at the.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Top top level as well.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
But as far as content and things like that, this
is a great place to be. It's a fantastic convention.
And you know, again, we have to make sure that
we try to get more people here to attend and
experience this.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
What are the reasons a high school coach should attend.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
What other what reasons should they attend. Well, there's there's
content for every level of coach here. That's what you
want to rub elbows with. The collegiate coaches. Collegiate coaches
want to rub elbows with, you know, some of the
high school coaches.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
There's sessions on tough calls for high school.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
There's sessions on tough calls UH for UH for the
collegiate side. NIL affects everybody right now, right, So there's
sessions on an l al NIL. There's actually like three
sessions there. So if you look at the agenda, you
can clearly see there's a lot of information being dispersed
to the coaches and there's a lot of opportunity to
(04:43):
learn and grow in the sport of wrestling by coming
to the convention. So that's that's the way I look
at it. I think there's something for everybody here.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
What did you get out of it when you were coaching?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
I got what I got out of it really was
when I was dealing with other coaches and getting no
other coaches. That's meant to were in mentorship.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Right.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
When you get to know other coaches personally, you take
the competition side out of it because a lot of
times if you are just competing against that other coach
you're yelling, you know, on the other side of the mat,
and it's kind of confrontational, right, So you don't really
get to know a coach when you're competing against them,
But when you are working together at a convention or
in something like this, you are getting to know them
(05:23):
at a personal level, and you tend to end up
liking them, you know, and respecting them more. And I
think it goes the same way in both sides, right,
So that's what I got out of it. I got
a lot of friendships. I got a lot of people
that I could call if I needed something. Over the years,
I've made many many phone calls, Hey how would you
handle this?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
How would you handle that?
Speaker 4 (05:42):
And it all started with some things like this, like
this convention and getting to know other coaches.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
So that really is what I think.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
The first thing that pops into my head is the
relationships I built over the years.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, it's a lot easier to get to know somebody
over a coffee or a beverage than at weigh ins
or you know, the blood round.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yes, you don't get to know coach.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
The only time you get to know coach is when
you're competing in some like I said, it's adversarial. Year
after you know, you want your guys to win, they
want their guys to win, and you're focused on that,
and it's just, you know, this is there is no
competition here. It's just you know, it's kind of brothers
meeting other brothers and friends meeting friends, and coaches meeting coaches.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
So again, I think that's a big part of this.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It's also a dead period, and it's.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
A dead period.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
We created a dead period years ago so there wouldn't
be any interference with coaches and not wanting them to
come to here, to coming to the convention. So I
think it's helped, but we're still falling short in my
opinion on the numbers, and I think that people should
be clamoring to come to this convention year after year,
and I hope we can make headway in that area.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Well.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
The growth points has been obviously the growth of women's wrestling,
but the growth of small college wrestling.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
These small enrollment driven schools that are.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Like using athletics as a way to get students in
who they would not otherwise consider. Small liberal arts college
in the middle of Miswestern State named, but the Leadership Academy,
the implementation of that to train coaches and have them
ready versus just taking a kid who's one year out.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Of college, stayed on because the.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Part time, full time head coach meeting another assistant. Next
thing you know, they leave and you've got a twenty
three year old head coach.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Yeah, and those twenty three year head coaches they need
mentors and they need somebody to look up to, somebody
and talk to. Sometimes they don't know it even. You know,
sometimes when you're twenty three, you think you know everything,
but you really have to step outside of your shoes,
get out of your shoes, and you have to say
to yourself, I don't know everything, and I need mentorship
(07:37):
and I need to talk to somebody. Occasionally. Quick decisions
sometimes are bad decisions. You pick up the phone, you
call somebody that you met at the NWCA convention, somebody
you respects, and you know they help you make decisions
in life and in your job and your career. So yeah,
I get it. These twenty three year olds, they need training,
they need help. And ironically I hear this. You know,
(08:00):
Coach Smith said it three times yesterday I had him.
He did three speeches yesterday for the NWCA. Each time
I heard him talking to his group he said the
same exact thing. He said, I feel like I'm picking
up more information and getting more help from you people
than sometimes you're getting from me. So every single time
he gets up and talks, he feels like he's learning something,
(08:21):
he's picking something new up. And that's interesting because he's
one of our most ten year coaches, one of our
most successful coaches, and he's every every single time he talks,
he says he picks up something new.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Jim Bingner once again, welcome back.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
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