October 23, 2024 • 34 mins
It’s time for the annual KCAC women’s Wrestling Media Day, where the eight teams in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference will give their previews of the upcoming women’s wrestling season as well as hear questions from the media and fans who were watching live via the conference’s Facebook page. Nate Naasz of the NWCA serves as your moderator for media day.
Timestamps
0:10 - Greetings and Salutations - and some housekeeping
KCAC Media Day
2:30 - Introduction
3:20 - IMA’s Josh Miller
5:00 - Avila head coach Sara Hilliard
10:00 - Friends head coach Boo Dryden
12:30 - Ottawa (Kan.) head coach Dalton Weidl
18:20 - Jamestown head coach Amy Golding
22:50 - Saint Mary (Kan.) head coach Chuck Kearney
31:10 - York (Neb.) head coach Jeff Albers
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Links to Follow
Join the Discord: https://www.mattalkonline.com/discord
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Contribute: https://www.mattalkonline.com/contribute
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Quick Subscribe: https://www.Podfollow.com/shorttime
Short Time Wrestling Podcast: Episode 758 – Recorded October 23, 2024
Timestamps
0:10 - Greetings and Salutations - and some housekeeping
KCAC Media Day
2:30 - Introduction
3:20 - IMA’s Josh Miller
5:00 - Avila head coach Sara Hilliard
10:00 - Friends head coach Boo Dryden
12:30 - Ottawa (Kan.) head coach Dalton Weidl
18:20 - Jamestown head coach Amy Golding
22:50 - Saint Mary (Kan.) head coach Chuck Kearney
31:10 - York (Neb.) head coach Jeff Albers
Want an ad-free version of the show? Hit up the Patreon link at patreon.com/mattalkonline to contribute and get your own ad-free RSS feed for (most of) the shows on the Mat Talk Podcast Network.
Links to Follow
Join the Discord: https://www.mattalkonline.com/discord
Daily Wrestling Newsletter: https://www.mattalkonline.com/news
Contribute: https://www.mattalkonline.com/contribute
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mattalkonline
The Short Time Time Wrestling Podcast is proudly supported by Compound Sportswear: https://www.mattalkonline.com/compound
Quick Subscribe: https://www.Podfollow.com/shorttime
Short Time Wrestling Podcast: Episode 758 – Recorded October 23, 2024
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Whoa and welcome back again wrestling fans. It's the Short
Time Wrestling Podcast. I'm your host, Hall of Fame wrestling writer,
broadcaster and announcer Jason Bryant. Today, continuing it's day two
(00:24):
of KCAC Media Day today women's wrestling. We will talk
to the six coaches in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference
about their upcoming seasons. A couple questions for myself again.
Nate Niles from the NWCA will moderate and again. Yesterday,
in case you missed, it was KCAC Media Day for
men's wrestling. You can go back in the feed at
the Matt Talk podcast network at the Short Time Wrestling Podcast.
(00:47):
That's where you can find it. So a good discussion
today about that, including some new coaches making their debuts
with their new programs. Sarah Sarah Hilliard at Avalon and
Boot Dryden named some of you D one wrestling fans
might wrect recognized from his time at Minnesota and Nebraska.
He is the head women's coach at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas.
So some familiar names you may or may not remember.
(01:09):
It's just's how you get educated if you don't know
them you're about to know him now. So that's what
we've got on the KCAC Women's Media Day. Case you
missed it again, the Daily Wrestling newsletter presented by Rezlite
has shifted to Substack. Information on that mattalkonline dot com
slash news, you can subscribe for free. You're going to
get free daily newsletters a couple times a week starting
(01:32):
next week. Then we'll go to more of a premium
feature where there'll be a couple of them free for
a week, and then every single day or every day
that I put something out that will include brain dumps
kind of things where I'll do more feature writing kind
of things. For those subscribers, you can do that again
at mattalk online dot com slash news. It'll take you
right to substack. Those of you who are familiar with substack, hey, yeah,
(01:54):
it's pretty cool. I've got a bunch of other newsletters
that I subscribe to and I read through the app.
You get delivered the email at six in the morning
Central time each day that it's put out, and it's
in there with all your other newsletters too. And if
you are not into the app type of stuff, guess what,
no problems. It still delivers the same way as the
old way would via the mail chip system, which I
(02:16):
ran for nine years, So if you're into that kind
of thing, mattalkonline, dot Com, slash news. That's all I've
really got for housekeeping today, so we'll get right to it.
Joining Nate Nas once again from KCAC Women's Wrestling Media
Day here on the Short Time Wrestling Podcast because as always,
I'd like to thank you for spending your time with me,
because you've always got time for Short Time.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
WHOA good morning. I'm Nate Nas with the National Wrestling
Coaching Association and it's an honor to be here with
you this morning as we preview the KCAC Women's Wrestling
season with each program's head coach. This is a very
exciting time of years. Practices are underway and many of
these teams will kick off their competition schedule next Friday,
November first at the Falcon Invite. We would like to
(02:59):
thank our viewers and coaches for joining us this morning.
Do you have any questions for the coaches, please drop
them in the comments on Facebook. This morning, we are
joined by Josh Miller of IMA Financial Group, the official
sponsor of the KCAC Virtual Media Days. Welcome to the show, Josh,
and take it.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Away, never slowing, never stopping, pushing forward every hour, every day,
every quarter, every year. You don't do it for yourself.
You do it for your company, your employees, your community, for.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
All of us.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
That is why IMA is proud to help ensure the
companies that form the backbone of America. Together, we are better. Together,
we make a difference.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
Thank you, Nate, appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (03:53):
Excited to be here, I guess I just want to
first take this opportunity to say thank you to Ted
Mark and the entire KCAC team for all the work
you guys do on behalf of the conference for these
media days. I also like to say thank you to
all the coaches, athletic trainers and sids for your dedication
to your respective schools and most importantly, to all of
your student athletes. IMA is grateful to been angled to
(04:15):
partner with the KCAC for well over a decade now
sponsoring not only these media days, but the annual Champions
of Character Awards. Currently, I am A partners with eleven
of the KCAC Conference schools in one or all of
the following three areas. Athletic and student health insurance, employee
benefits and Property and Casualty insurance. Donald and Wichita. IMA
(04:35):
is now the third largest private insurance brokerage firm in
the country, with over twenty four hundred employees and serving
over two hundred educational institutions across the US. IMA continues
our commitment and investment in NAI schools. Again, thank you
for the opportunity to partner with the KCAC and we
wish every team and coach success in the upcoming season.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Thank you, Josh. Now we have our first Coach the year,
Sarah Hilliard from Avali University who is in her second
year at AVLA and our first year leading the program. Coach.
Now that the buck stops with you, what have you
been doing this preseason to implement your systems and can
you speak to the upcoming season?
Speaker 7 (05:17):
Absolutely, and good morning everybody, and thanks for having me. First,
I'd like to take thank a few people before I
get started discussing our upcoming season. I'd like to have
a special thanks to Mark and Ted for hosting this
great event. It's always great when you get more eyes
on women's wrestling. I'd also like to thank our president,
doctor Burkie, our VP, Doctor Adams, and our athletic director
(05:38):
Sean Sumi. So, like it was mentioned, this is my
first year as head coach at APLAF. They're serving as
a volunteer system last year, and I could not be
more excited. I'm really excited about the roster that we have.
We have a strong group of returning wrestlers, it's some
really solid newcomers that we have really high hopes for.
Our preseason went really great, and especially with us being
(06:01):
a newer program only in our fourth year and then
me also taking over the rains of the program only
pretty recently, we've been really focused on, you know, continuing
to build our women's wrestling program and figuring out what
are this new direction for US is going to be.
So during pre season, our athletes were able to really
build up their their fitness levels, but then also mental toughness,
(06:22):
you know, their mental preparation was a big part of
how we prepare for the season, and then also which
really has laid a great foundation for this focused technique
work that we're going to be doing in our official season.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Coach, I've got a question for you here from Jason
Bryant from Matt Talk online coach. You've been long associated
with women's collegiate wrestling, going back to the years even
pre dating the WCWA. Given your time in the sport
where you've seen the collegiate and high school participation level skyrocket,
(06:56):
what things are you going to implement and running this
program as your own.
Speaker 7 (07:01):
That's a great question. So I am as I like
to joke, a pretty old in the early generations, from
the early generations of women's wrestling, before we were saying
shouled by the NAI. So I have been really lucky
to come up with this incredible generation of women from
(07:22):
that class from the early two thousands who are now
head coaches of a lot of other major programs, including
you know, coach Golding at at University of Jamestown. So
it's been really exciting for me after starting volunteering with
AVLA last year to run into so many of my
old teammates and colleagues and to be able to talk
(07:43):
about the growth of the sport over the last twenty
years at the college level and to see just how
far we have come. So one of the things that
we really like to try to do is really taking
it a scientific based approach to weight management, you know, uh,
training mobility, so we can prevent injuries before become become
(08:04):
an issue. So that's really the perspective of In addition
to I have a lot of mental health training background,
so we really talk a lot about being mentally prepared
and mental toughness and being resilient and the whole business
that that's going to carry us us through a season
through our having a really successful season.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Oh and he's got to follow up to that. How
important is getting your athletes to understand the history of
women's wrestling and the opportunities they now have that were
sparse when you started competing.
Speaker 7 (08:36):
So I've been coaching, you know, at prior to starting
a travel I was coaching at the high school level
for about the last twelve years. And I will tell
you that my girls have gone so tired of hearing
back in my day so and talking about you know,
you know, I grew up only wrestling boys. I didn't
have the opportunity really to wrestle against women until I
(08:56):
until I got to college, and there were only five schools.
There were only five options for collegiate competition. So wrestling
a lot of senior level competitions and I really my
my athletes have heard many stories about, you know, the
experience of wrestling college athletes and then you know, the
next matches versus a returning your world champion. So while
(09:19):
there is some of that you know, still in the
field right now, it's there's a lot more collegiate level
competition that is now available. And so my girls, they
hear a lot about the foundation and the history of
women's wrestling, just so they have a full understanding and
a full appreciation of how far we have come, and
a really solid understanding of why I am so enthusiastic
(09:43):
every time I get giddy walking into a tournament and
seeing just Matt's full of young women who are as
passionate excited about wrestling as I am.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
That's fantastic. Thank you for joining us this morning, coach,
and we wish you a safe and successful season. Thank you.
Joining us now is bood Riding Friends University, who from
Friends University who has recently named the head coach for
the Falcons. Coach, can you let us know how things
are going in your first preseason and share your thoughts
(10:12):
regarding this year's squad.
Speaker 8 (10:14):
Yeah, guys, thanks for having me here. Obviously, like you said,
my name is Boos Ryden. Here at my first season
at Friends, you know, I would say that things are
going great. I got a late start obviously, took the
job probably three months ago. Now, kind of getting the
(10:36):
pieces in place now and making sure that you know,
we have a standard and a culture and environment here
that girls want to come to and get better and
help the girls who have been here continue to get
better and grow as student and athletes and human beings.
So we've been off to a good start, kind of
just hit the ground running and we're in full stride now,
(10:56):
so looking forward to getting getting after it this season.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Which I have a question for you, hear from Jason Bryant,
coach Dryden. Your career has led you to some of
the top programs in the country, both in the junior
college and Division one levels. How do you plan to
implement the winning traditions those programs had into your role
at Friends? And what's it like to be a college
coach in your home state?
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (11:23):
So obviously, me being from Wichata, Kansas, I couldn't imagine
a better opportunity for me.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Obviously, I love it that it's local.
Speaker 8 (11:34):
Get to obviously see some local talent and then just
to kind of go off of my junior college and
Division one experiences, you know, just really implementing the things
that were kind of taught to me, the things that
helped me grow, whether it's mindset, whether it's wrestling, whether
it's being a good student athlete, and being there. Obviously
(11:55):
with me being freshly removed from college, I feel like
I do have a great relatability factor there with a
lot of my student athletes. So I kind of understand
what they're going through a lot of the times, and
I don't have maybe every answer to every question, but
for a majority of the time, I can point them
in the right direction and give them the advice that
(12:17):
is needed for the situations that they do endure.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Well, coach, if you don't have anything else, I'd like
to thank you for spending some of your time with
us this morning, and I wish you good luck this season.
Speaker 8 (12:29):
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate all the other coaches too,
and good luck to you guys as well.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
And up now, this coach Dalton White l Vadaway University
now in his fourth season leading the women Braves coach.
The school recently reorganized the wrestling programs with you now
running the men's program on top of your duties with
the women. Can you speak a little about that transition
and preview this year's season.
Speaker 9 (12:54):
Yeah, thanks for having me. I love to talk about
just kind of how we got going and everything. So
took over both positions in July. I was able to
bring on a killer got a really good coaching staff
with me. All three of them are alumni from Autowa University,
you know, so that really helps us relate kind of
all got on the same page early. Shout out to
(13:14):
my athletic director Jenny and Smith and Ty Sharply.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
They're both new, but you know, they believed in us.
Speaker 9 (13:19):
I believe that we had the capability to you know,
kind of run things and make it happen. So I
really appreciate them. And then Katie Tooley and Michael Douglas
our sids. They always do a great help with you know,
making sure we have everything we need, so I really
appreciate them as well.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
But yeah, uh, last year was a fun year for US.
Speaker 9 (13:36):
It took seven in nationals and the only one who
we lost was coach Schoon, who is now coaching with us.
You know, so she's she's back. We're returning the other six,
and so you know, five of them being true fresh
And I talk all the time about, you know, first
year in our program kind of as you're learning, you're
learning a whole new language, right and in that second
(13:56):
year back you understand their language and you really kind
of develop and start to put things together and piece
things are together. So I do believe the way we
do things, the way we develop our athletes is kind
of a process. But our athletes buy into that and
usually we see a huge jumps second year. So, you know,
having five true freshmen's qualifiers last year, we expect big
things out of them.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
You know.
Speaker 9 (14:14):
Immature Rex is one from Oregon that we you know,
we have high hopes for who didn't making the nationals
last year, but she has some pretty high goals this year.
Abigail Sebastia had a shortened season last year, but she's
a terror on the mat from Houston, Texas. We got
to transfer in from Southwest Org soelth lest in Oregon.
Her name is Kendall Martin. She is an All American previously,
(14:35):
and you know, we have some high hopes for her
this year. And then returning Darby Wydell also who had
a shortened season last year. So those are some you know,
names that we're kind of the lineups last year. A
couple names that weren't in the lineups last year that
we expect big things from is Hannah Jackson. Her only
loss last year was the Bamba Rito from Indian Hills,
so she's really special.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
She's gonna do some cool things.
Speaker 9 (14:55):
And then Face Spicer, who actually took a red shirt
as a freshman, but you know, signed her out of
high school. She was umber eight in the country at
her weight, so we're kind of excited to see what
she does now, you know, at that heavyweight at two
a seven, so really excited about that. And then our
incoming classes just hit the ground run and they really
bought in early, bought into you know, what is a
true practice partner, What does the culture like? And like
(15:16):
I said, we have some really good leaders, so it's
kind of easy for that transition. But the special thing
about our incoming classes, I think like twelve of them,
twelve of like the seventeen or whatever, had like four
point oh GPAs coming out of high school. You know,
so really smart, really hard working class. There's lots of
really high care people who do good things on the
mat and off the mat. So really excited to kind
of see what this year has for us.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Got a question for you from Jason Bryant from matt
Talk Online. Coach, nothing's changed on the women's side for
you from a head coach perspective, but the coaching on
the women's side, what have you learned about coaching as
a whole over the past four years that you've maybe
changed or tweaked that unique to women wrestling.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (15:59):
So I was in a very fortunate position when I
started coaching women because the first girl I ever coached
was my sister, you know, so I was able to
kind of really make that make that connection early. And yeah,
it was super hard on her, but we had a
lot of hard conversations early about you know, brothers sister
relationship and coach athlete relationship and how to talk to
each other.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
And you know, I was kind of fresh.
Speaker 9 (16:21):
I was only the three years out of college when
I started coaching at the college level, so you know,
I still had some energy and stuff, and I really
had to learn how to change the way I approach,
you know, women, the way I approached men.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
It's definitely you got to understand your athletes and know
who they are.
Speaker 9 (16:33):
And you know, some athletes you can grab them by
the shirt collar and you know, get in their face
and tell them, call them everywhere in the book, and
they're still going to do everything you say. And some
you got a pat on the butt and just you know,
hope they kind of figure it out. And it's kind
of finding the balance of what what is your culture?
What is that expectation? And I tell my athletes all
the time, like I love you all the same, but
we ain't going to treat you all the same. You know,
everyone kind of has a different path and your journey
(16:55):
may looked different than someone else's, but we're going to
get you there. And it all kind of starts from
doing things right, you know, communicating. So I think just
really as a whole, like we're doing a lot of
good things. And I kind of just was able to
kind of learn early. I was able to have an
inside person who kind of, you know, gave me some
feedback talk to me. And then I just had like
some really good mentors, you know, Travis Stippins one who
(17:17):
I've always kind of had as a mentor, and he
kind of had some experienced coaching women he gave me
some really good pointers. So just kind of always never
stopped learning, always being coachable, always asking, you know, looking
at things different ways, and trying to figure out how
we can relate to these athletes and make sure that
they're getting everything they need to find success.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
That's great. Thank you for being with us this morning, coach,
and good luck this year.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Yeah, thank you guys.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
At this time, we would like to thank I am
A Financial Group for sponsoring this year's case AC Virtual
Media Days, and we will pause to hear from our sponsors.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Never slowing, never stopping pushing forward every hour, every day,
every quarter, every year. You don't do it for your yourself.
You do it for your company, your employees, your community,
for all of us. That is why I am A
is proud to help ensure the companies that form the
backbone of America. Together, we are better. Together, we make
(18:16):
a difference.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
The University of Jamestown remains in the KCAC this year
as an affiliate member while they transition to the NCAA.
With me now, it's coach Jamie Golding in year three
leading with the Jimmies. Coach with the first competition looming,
can you talk about how the preseason has gone, and
let us know how you feel about your squad's outlook
this season.
Speaker 10 (18:41):
First, I wanted to give a couple thank yous. Thank
you to Mark and Ted from the KCACS, our president,
doctor Poly Peterson, our athletic director, Austin Heab, Greg Yulin,
r VP of Enrollment, and Bryce and Ibo assistant ad
of Compliance and also my assistant coach zaccer Year for
(19:04):
all their help so far this year. It's definitely been
a lot of different roles and kind of figuring things out,
but we've had a lot of help. We've had, you know, meetings,
We've had so many personal conversations that I felt like
(19:25):
it's been going smoother than it should be, which is
a little bit worrying, but at the same time I'm
excited because there is so much help available. We have
Alissa Johnson returning she was our kzy AC champion last
year from Grand Forks. Jenna Barson as a girl who
(19:48):
is around one seventeen from Lisbon, also North Dakota native,
and Hannah Schustrom from Jamestown, a hometown girl. Hopefulling you know,
to see some big things from those returners. We've also
got a very deep incoming freshman you know group. We
(20:12):
have Abby Ewing from Texas, she's looking very sharp, Noura
Hoogam from More Minnesota, Celia Jeker, Leah Willard, and my men.
I can just keep going on and on. It's these
girls are so exciting. The energy in the room between
(20:35):
the returners and the incoming freshmen as well as our
two transfers has been amazing, and the captains have really
set the standards high. And I'm very excited for the wrestling.
I'm excited. You know, we just had our midterms come back.
I'm excited for that because all of our girls are doing,
(20:56):
you know, the right things, so it's it's going to
be a great season.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I've got a question for you here from Jason Bryant,
coach Golding. The school is heading into a period of
transition with its athletics. What are you doing to prepare
your athletes for their last championship year in the KCAC
and the NAI and how have you been able to
set expectations for underclassmen about what's to come the season
(21:21):
but in the years following.
Speaker 10 (21:24):
So for me just kind of growing up at the
same time as coach Hillard from Avalanche. She was talking
a lot about the differences and the generations and you
know the college programs. Obviously, when I wrestled, there were
only eight you know schools. So just making sure that
(21:45):
they stay on on task. It's definitely been a bouncing act,
it really has. But preparing them mentally again, it's wrestling
is wrestling is wrestling. I'm trying to not just get
these girls to consider themselves the best. If they win
the NAIs or they win the WCWAS, I want to
(22:07):
put them on national teams. I want to put them
on world teams. I want to put them on Olympic teams. Right,
So those are always things that I talk about because
just like there, we've been to the highest levels. So
it's not those short term goals. It's you know, yeah,
things might be changing. We might have to wear headgears.
(22:28):
Now it's okay, it's you know, these things are adaptable.
We're wrestlers when we're prepared, and that's just you know,
another thing that we have to go through.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Thank you. We really appreciate your insights and we want
to wish you a successful campaign this year.
Speaker 10 (22:46):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Now with us as coach, Chuck Kearney from the University
of Saint Mary and you're nine of leading the Spires coach.
You have now been in Levenworth for the better part
of the last decade. What does that level of consistency
mean for your program and what expectations do you have
for this year's squad?
Speaker 11 (23:04):
I mean expectation is that we show up every day
and and uh, you know, work on mastery and and
that we are intentional and in building a culture, an
attitude of belief system, a way of doing business that
that's going to lead us to where we want to be.
The you know, one of the things that that that
(23:27):
we talk about is is, you know, the gratitude of
being a part of a conference like the k C
a C which was the very first conference to sponsor
women's wrestling in the country, to be a part of
the n E I the very first national association to
sponsor a championship event.
Speaker 5 (23:44):
That you qualified for. And those are those are big deals,
Those are big things.
Speaker 11 (23:48):
And and you know, the sport of women's wrestling isn't
going to isn't going to get where it needs to
get until it has the same opportunities and and uh,
as the men's broke do. With that said, our men's
programs need help too. We need to continue to grow
the sport and have men's and women's wrestling work together
to do so. You know, the the women that are
(24:12):
part of our coaching here in the conference are great
examples of.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
What the sport can do for you.
Speaker 11 (24:18):
We're we're we're excited about creating that next generation of
coaches here at the University of Saint Mary and and
hopefully that we can pass on the information that we've
you know, uh, you know learned over the course of
the last forty years I've been in coaching to to
(24:40):
help with our program. With our team, we had a
very nice conference tournament a year ago. Uh, we had
a good time and in not a great conference, but
a nice conference CERNT. We had a bunch of girls
place our wrestlers what's the national tournament and we we
finished with the school high thirteenth place finished in the nation.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
We had to all Americans. It was.
Speaker 11 (25:04):
It was a good tournament, though we didn't leave Jamestown feeling.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
Super good about it. We we had a couple of
girls that that that.
Speaker 11 (25:11):
These these young ladies wanted to be national champions and
and uh, you know, Lexis uh Hakez and and Leslie Sandoval.
We're both girls that were capable of doing that and
that just came up a little bit short. The moment
got big and it was a great learning experience. You know,
we we were recruiting UH student athletes that want to
(25:34):
make world teams. We're we're recruiting you know, that's the
We want to find student athletes that wrestle for the
same reasons that I wrestled, you know, that love of
competition and work and and the challenge of it. We're
We're we're pretty excited about where we are. We've got
you know, we got a great coaching team with UH
(25:56):
Gabe Blouse kind of our point person on the women's side.
He's he's doing a fantas acting job. Riley Harmeo one
of both former wrestlers of mine here at the University
of Saint Mary that are that are connected to and
in making a huge impact. Ram Bromer our athletic trainer
who's more than an athletic trainer. She's kind of almost
(26:17):
a director of operation, and say almost. She is a
director of operations for US here at the University.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
UH.
Speaker 11 (26:25):
Doctor Michelle Metzinger is our vice pro is our provost,
and she's in our academic coach where she meets with
our student athletes that are that are falling behind and
it kind of helps motivate them. Doctor Rob Miller, which
I gave an honorary doctorate too, uh here today he
has uh uh you know, had faith in our program
and allowed us to do the things necessary to be
(26:46):
to be successful. And then finally are our president, Sister
Diane Steele, who who supports athletics and supports our program,
knows our students by name. And it's awful, awful, awful
cool when when the president at the Universe will walk
up to a recruit and talk about wrestling. Our key
returners Alexi haks was was All American Force last year.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
She spent most of the year ranked number two in
the country.
Speaker 11 (27:11):
Leslie Sandoval was ended up sixth place at semi finalist
that ended up sixth place, that has had a real
nice career, will be getting her back second semester. Raa
Bodette who was a U twenty three All American red
shirt last year. She'll be rejoining our program. Alicia van Skoye,
(27:33):
who's a three time national qualifier. Wrestled in four national
tournaments thanks to COVID, but qualified for three of them
and has got a year left. Alison King was a
freshman for spent some time in the rankings. Amelia Froenfelter
spent some time in the rankings last year at one seventy,
(27:54):
Andree Reriddiger who is a one o three pounder that
that we expect some big things out of this year.
Arianna Mercarda uh Uh, Alisa Cordova and Rebecca Coolstra are
all girls that there that are going to be contributors
to make a big difference for what we what we
do this year. Our top newcomers are Ivory Hakas, She's
(28:18):
out of Colorado, Rachel de Smukee out of Oklahoma, Alexis
Sigira out of Colorado, Madison Kamau out of Hawaii via
Southwestern Oregon Community College, Macy Pearson out of Kansas. Skyler
Lewis is a is a you sevanteen All American out
(28:39):
of Arkansas that we're super excited about.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
Taylor Naylor, a secret from Texas that.
Speaker 11 (28:43):
Has had a really nice fall and is coming around,
and then Madison Foley out of North Kansas City.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
So We've got a.
Speaker 11 (28:50):
Good group of girls that are coming to practice every
day that want to get better. They're they're putting in
the They're they're putting in the work. They're they're paying
the price, and uh, you know, we've been super intentional
in creating that culture, like I said earlier, you know,
and we're starting to see the dividends of that coat.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
You have a question here from Jason Bryant Matt Talk Online.
Just like your men's team, you had some first last
year with your first All Americans in school history and
the first year of multiple All Americans. Like you said
with your men's team, everything you do with this program
is the opportunity to be the first and something. What
first are you trying to achieve this year with that
(29:31):
women's team.
Speaker 5 (29:34):
Well, you know, you know, you don't mean the ultimate.
Speaker 11 (29:40):
You know, We've got we've got some some young ladies
that have that have you know, spent a lifetime in
this sport that that every year they look at that
last matches match that they want to win. You know,
I think we've got a couple student athletes that are
that are serious about being national champions. I think we've
got we've got a bunch for student athletes. There's serious
(30:01):
about being all Americans and and and and keeping the
short run goal obviously of showing up every day, doing
the work and getting better. You know, I it's hard,
it's it's it's hard to put it into a simple answer,
just because the fact that we can only control what
(30:22):
we can control. We I coached a team one year
that had the best term it possibly could have ever had,
and it should have been enough to win a championship,
and we end up second because another team just happened
to have a touch better day. And there was not
a match that we lost that we could have won,
and there wasn't a match we won that we that
we left on the board. So it's it's it's we
(30:43):
can control ours and and uh in our controls and
that simply is just to be in a position to
win for wrestle for championships, and so that's kind of
what we're shooting for, what we're talking about in a
daily basis.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Well, thank you, coach. We appreciate at your insights and
want to wish you a successful year.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
And rounding out this morning is coach Jeff Albers of
York University, who is entering a seventh season with Panthers
coach as another elder statesman in the casey Ac, can
you talk about how your experience has helped you you
prepare for this year and let us know a little
about this year squad.
Speaker 12 (31:25):
Hey, thanks for having us on. Yeah, I want I
want to thank Garrett Are our athletic director and Jared Stark,
our interim president. Right now, they've been great, it's great.
We just had an opening for our new wrestling room.
We had that last weekend for homecoming. It's a great addition.
(31:49):
But yeah, we've We've also got some new ladies in
the lineup, doing a little bit of rebuilding restructuring this year.
But we got a Jill High, she's out of Augusta, Kansas.
She's a couple of time state finalists. She's pretty tough,
Joy Ortiz out of Texas, a couple of times state placer,
(32:12):
Melissa Castro out of Arkansas, a couple of times state placer.
And then we got Felda Say, she's a California state
champ and she's healthy now. She tour a CEO, but
she'll be back on the match. She'll be in there
at two o seven And I know that all those
are going to make some noise, So looking forward to that.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Coach, I got a question for you here from Jason Bryant.
Talk about the progress and growth your program has made
over the last several seasons and what are some of
the goals you're going to put forth for your athletes
this season to help them break through to another level
of performance, both in the KCAC and on the national level.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 12 (32:55):
Like I said, we're restructuring right now, so we're gonna
have a little smaller team, but we're gonna have a
lot of time together to grow and just get all
everybody on the same page and just get after it.
And I'm, like I said, the group that I brought
in like, we got a good group. Super excited for them.
(33:16):
I know they're going to do really big things.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Thank you, coach, appreciate your time and we wish you
the best this year.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Thanks have a good one.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
That'll do it. For today's media days, please make sure
to mark your calendars for the following two events. The
KSEEC Championships will take place on March first in Kansas City,
while the National Championships will be hosted at the Park
City Arena March fourteenth and fifteenth. We would like to
once again think I am a financial group for the
tremendous support they have shown the conference and finally, a
(33:48):
big thanks to everyone for joining us today and we
hope to see you all throughout the season. Have a
great day.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
The Short Time Wrestling Podcast is proudly outfitted by Compound Sportswear, shirts, singlets,
custom gear orders. Everything you need call up Cliffandcrew at
cmpteamware dot com.
Whoa and welcome back again wrestling fans. It's the Short
Time Wrestling Podcast. I'm your host, Hall of Fame wrestling writer,
broadcaster and announcer Jason Bryant. Today, continuing it's day two
(00:24):
of KCAC Media Day today women's wrestling. We will talk
to the six coaches in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference
about their upcoming seasons. A couple questions for myself again.
Nate Niles from the NWCA will moderate and again. Yesterday,
in case you missed, it was KCAC Media Day for
men's wrestling. You can go back in the feed at
the Matt Talk podcast network at the Short Time Wrestling Podcast.
(00:47):
That's where you can find it. So a good discussion
today about that, including some new coaches making their debuts
with their new programs. Sarah Sarah Hilliard at Avalon and
Boot Dryden named some of you D one wrestling fans
might wrect recognized from his time at Minnesota and Nebraska.
He is the head women's coach at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas.
So some familiar names you may or may not remember.
(01:09):
It's just's how you get educated if you don't know
them you're about to know him now. So that's what
we've got on the KCAC Women's Media Day. Case you
missed it again, the Daily Wrestling newsletter presented by Rezlite
has shifted to Substack. Information on that mattalkonline dot com
slash news, you can subscribe for free. You're going to
get free daily newsletters a couple times a week starting
(01:32):
next week. Then we'll go to more of a premium
feature where there'll be a couple of them free for
a week, and then every single day or every day
that I put something out that will include brain dumps
kind of things where I'll do more feature writing kind
of things. For those subscribers, you can do that again
at mattalk online dot com slash news. It'll take you
right to substack. Those of you who are familiar with substack, hey, yeah,
(01:54):
it's pretty cool. I've got a bunch of other newsletters
that I subscribe to and I read through the app.
You get delivered the email at six in the morning
Central time each day that it's put out, and it's
in there with all your other newsletters too. And if
you are not into the app type of stuff, guess what,
no problems. It still delivers the same way as the
old way would via the mail chip system, which I
(02:16):
ran for nine years, So if you're into that kind
of thing, mattalkonline, dot Com, slash news. That's all I've
really got for housekeeping today, so we'll get right to it.
Joining Nate Nas once again from KCAC Women's Wrestling Media
Day here on the Short Time Wrestling Podcast because as always,
I'd like to thank you for spending your time with me,
because you've always got time for Short Time.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
WHOA good morning. I'm Nate Nas with the National Wrestling
Coaching Association and it's an honor to be here with
you this morning as we preview the KCAC Women's Wrestling
season with each program's head coach. This is a very
exciting time of years. Practices are underway and many of
these teams will kick off their competition schedule next Friday,
November first at the Falcon Invite. We would like to
(02:59):
thank our viewers and coaches for joining us this morning.
Do you have any questions for the coaches, please drop
them in the comments on Facebook. This morning, we are
joined by Josh Miller of IMA Financial Group, the official
sponsor of the KCAC Virtual Media Days. Welcome to the show, Josh,
and take it.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Away, never slowing, never stopping, pushing forward every hour, every day,
every quarter, every year. You don't do it for yourself.
You do it for your company, your employees, your community, for.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
All of us.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
That is why IMA is proud to help ensure the
companies that form the backbone of America. Together, we are better. Together,
we make a difference.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
Thank you, Nate, appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (03:53):
Excited to be here, I guess I just want to
first take this opportunity to say thank you to Ted
Mark and the entire KCAC team for all the work
you guys do on behalf of the conference for these
media days. I also like to say thank you to
all the coaches, athletic trainers and sids for your dedication
to your respective schools and most importantly, to all of
your student athletes. IMA is grateful to been angled to
(04:15):
partner with the KCAC for well over a decade now
sponsoring not only these media days, but the annual Champions
of Character Awards. Currently, I am A partners with eleven
of the KCAC Conference schools in one or all of
the following three areas. Athletic and student health insurance, employee
benefits and Property and Casualty insurance. Donald and Wichita. IMA
(04:35):
is now the third largest private insurance brokerage firm in
the country, with over twenty four hundred employees and serving
over two hundred educational institutions across the US. IMA continues
our commitment and investment in NAI schools. Again, thank you
for the opportunity to partner with the KCAC and we
wish every team and coach success in the upcoming season.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Thank you, Josh. Now we have our first Coach the year,
Sarah Hilliard from Avali University who is in her second
year at AVLA and our first year leading the program. Coach.
Now that the buck stops with you, what have you
been doing this preseason to implement your systems and can
you speak to the upcoming season?
Speaker 7 (05:17):
Absolutely, and good morning everybody, and thanks for having me. First,
I'd like to take thank a few people before I
get started discussing our upcoming season. I'd like to have
a special thanks to Mark and Ted for hosting this
great event. It's always great when you get more eyes
on women's wrestling. I'd also like to thank our president,
doctor Burkie, our VP, Doctor Adams, and our athletic director
(05:38):
Sean Sumi. So, like it was mentioned, this is my
first year as head coach at APLAF. They're serving as
a volunteer system last year, and I could not be
more excited. I'm really excited about the roster that we have.
We have a strong group of returning wrestlers, it's some
really solid newcomers that we have really high hopes for.
Our preseason went really great, and especially with us being
(06:01):
a newer program only in our fourth year and then
me also taking over the rains of the program only
pretty recently, we've been really focused on, you know, continuing
to build our women's wrestling program and figuring out what
are this new direction for US is going to be.
So during pre season, our athletes were able to really
build up their their fitness levels, but then also mental toughness,
(06:22):
you know, their mental preparation was a big part of
how we prepare for the season, and then also which
really has laid a great foundation for this focused technique
work that we're going to be doing in our official season.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Coach, I've got a question for you here from Jason
Bryant from Matt Talk online coach. You've been long associated
with women's collegiate wrestling, going back to the years even
pre dating the WCWA. Given your time in the sport
where you've seen the collegiate and high school participation level skyrocket,
(06:56):
what things are you going to implement and running this
program as your own.
Speaker 7 (07:01):
That's a great question. So I am as I like
to joke, a pretty old in the early generations, from
the early generations of women's wrestling, before we were saying
shouled by the NAI. So I have been really lucky
to come up with this incredible generation of women from
(07:22):
that class from the early two thousands who are now
head coaches of a lot of other major programs, including
you know, coach Golding at at University of Jamestown. So
it's been really exciting for me after starting volunteering with
AVLA last year to run into so many of my
old teammates and colleagues and to be able to talk
(07:43):
about the growth of the sport over the last twenty
years at the college level and to see just how
far we have come. So one of the things that
we really like to try to do is really taking
it a scientific based approach to weight management, you know, uh,
training mobility, so we can prevent injuries before become become
(08:04):
an issue. So that's really the perspective of In addition
to I have a lot of mental health training background,
so we really talk a lot about being mentally prepared
and mental toughness and being resilient and the whole business
that that's going to carry us us through a season
through our having a really successful season.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Oh and he's got to follow up to that. How
important is getting your athletes to understand the history of
women's wrestling and the opportunities they now have that were
sparse when you started competing.
Speaker 7 (08:36):
So I've been coaching, you know, at prior to starting
a travel I was coaching at the high school level
for about the last twelve years. And I will tell
you that my girls have gone so tired of hearing
back in my day so and talking about you know,
you know, I grew up only wrestling boys. I didn't
have the opportunity really to wrestle against women until I
(08:56):
until I got to college, and there were only five schools.
There were only five options for collegiate competition. So wrestling
a lot of senior level competitions and I really my
my athletes have heard many stories about, you know, the
experience of wrestling college athletes and then you know, the
next matches versus a returning your world champion. So while
(09:19):
there is some of that you know, still in the
field right now, it's there's a lot more collegiate level
competition that is now available. And so my girls, they
hear a lot about the foundation and the history of
women's wrestling, just so they have a full understanding and
a full appreciation of how far we have come, and
a really solid understanding of why I am so enthusiastic
(09:43):
every time I get giddy walking into a tournament and
seeing just Matt's full of young women who are as
passionate excited about wrestling as I am.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
That's fantastic. Thank you for joining us this morning, coach,
and we wish you a safe and successful season. Thank you.
Joining us now is bood Riding Friends University, who from
Friends University who has recently named the head coach for
the Falcons. Coach, can you let us know how things
are going in your first preseason and share your thoughts
(10:12):
regarding this year's squad.
Speaker 8 (10:14):
Yeah, guys, thanks for having me here. Obviously, like you said,
my name is Boos Ryden. Here at my first season
at Friends, you know, I would say that things are
going great. I got a late start obviously, took the
job probably three months ago. Now, kind of getting the
(10:36):
pieces in place now and making sure that you know,
we have a standard and a culture and environment here
that girls want to come to and get better and
help the girls who have been here continue to get
better and grow as student and athletes and human beings.
So we've been off to a good start, kind of
just hit the ground running and we're in full stride now,
(10:56):
so looking forward to getting getting after it this season.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Which I have a question for you, hear from Jason Bryant,
coach Dryden. Your career has led you to some of
the top programs in the country, both in the junior
college and Division one levels. How do you plan to
implement the winning traditions those programs had into your role
at Friends? And what's it like to be a college
coach in your home state?
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (11:23):
So obviously, me being from Wichata, Kansas, I couldn't imagine
a better opportunity for me.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Obviously, I love it that it's local.
Speaker 8 (11:34):
Get to obviously see some local talent and then just
to kind of go off of my junior college and
Division one experiences, you know, just really implementing the things
that were kind of taught to me, the things that
helped me grow, whether it's mindset, whether it's wrestling, whether
it's being a good student athlete, and being there. Obviously
(11:55):
with me being freshly removed from college, I feel like
I do have a great relatability factor there with a
lot of my student athletes. So I kind of understand
what they're going through a lot of the times, and
I don't have maybe every answer to every question, but
for a majority of the time, I can point them
in the right direction and give them the advice that
(12:17):
is needed for the situations that they do endure.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Well, coach, if you don't have anything else, I'd like
to thank you for spending some of your time with
us this morning, and I wish you good luck this season.
Speaker 8 (12:29):
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate all the other coaches too,
and good luck to you guys as well.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
And up now, this coach Dalton White l Vadaway University
now in his fourth season leading the women Braves coach.
The school recently reorganized the wrestling programs with you now
running the men's program on top of your duties with
the women. Can you speak a little about that transition
and preview this year's season.
Speaker 9 (12:54):
Yeah, thanks for having me. I love to talk about
just kind of how we got going and everything. So
took over both positions in July. I was able to
bring on a killer got a really good coaching staff
with me. All three of them are alumni from Autowa University,
you know, so that really helps us relate kind of
all got on the same page early. Shout out to
(13:14):
my athletic director Jenny and Smith and Ty Sharply.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
They're both new, but you know, they believed in us.
Speaker 9 (13:19):
I believe that we had the capability to you know,
kind of run things and make it happen. So I
really appreciate them. And then Katie Tooley and Michael Douglas
our sids. They always do a great help with you know,
making sure we have everything we need, so I really
appreciate them as well.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
But yeah, uh, last year was a fun year for US.
Speaker 9 (13:36):
It took seven in nationals and the only one who
we lost was coach Schoon, who is now coaching with us.
You know, so she's she's back. We're returning the other six,
and so you know, five of them being true fresh
And I talk all the time about, you know, first
year in our program kind of as you're learning, you're
learning a whole new language, right and in that second
(13:56):
year back you understand their language and you really kind
of develop and start to put things together and piece
things are together. So I do believe the way we
do things, the way we develop our athletes is kind
of a process. But our athletes buy into that and
usually we see a huge jumps second year. So, you know,
having five true freshmen's qualifiers last year, we expect big
things out of them.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
You know.
Speaker 9 (14:14):
Immature Rex is one from Oregon that we you know,
we have high hopes for who didn't making the nationals
last year, but she has some pretty high goals this year.
Abigail Sebastia had a shortened season last year, but she's
a terror on the mat from Houston, Texas. We got
to transfer in from Southwest Org soelth lest in Oregon.
Her name is Kendall Martin. She is an All American previously,
(14:35):
and you know, we have some high hopes for her
this year. And then returning Darby Wydell also who had
a shortened season last year. So those are some you know,
names that we're kind of the lineups last year. A
couple names that weren't in the lineups last year that
we expect big things from is Hannah Jackson. Her only
loss last year was the Bamba Rito from Indian Hills,
so she's really special.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
She's gonna do some cool things.
Speaker 9 (14:55):
And then Face Spicer, who actually took a red shirt
as a freshman, but you know, signed her out of
high school. She was umber eight in the country at
her weight, so we're kind of excited to see what
she does now, you know, at that heavyweight at two
a seven, so really excited about that. And then our
incoming classes just hit the ground run and they really
bought in early, bought into you know, what is a
true practice partner, What does the culture like? And like
(15:16):
I said, we have some really good leaders, so it's
kind of easy for that transition. But the special thing
about our incoming classes, I think like twelve of them,
twelve of like the seventeen or whatever, had like four
point oh GPAs coming out of high school. You know,
so really smart, really hard working class. There's lots of
really high care people who do good things on the
mat and off the mat. So really excited to kind
of see what this year has for us.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Got a question for you from Jason Bryant from matt
Talk Online. Coach, nothing's changed on the women's side for
you from a head coach perspective, but the coaching on
the women's side, what have you learned about coaching as
a whole over the past four years that you've maybe
changed or tweaked that unique to women wrestling.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (15:59):
So I was in a very fortunate position when I
started coaching women because the first girl I ever coached
was my sister, you know, so I was able to
kind of really make that make that connection early. And yeah,
it was super hard on her, but we had a
lot of hard conversations early about you know, brothers sister
relationship and coach athlete relationship and how to talk to
each other.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
And you know, I was kind of fresh.
Speaker 9 (16:21):
I was only the three years out of college when
I started coaching at the college level, so you know,
I still had some energy and stuff, and I really
had to learn how to change the way I approach,
you know, women, the way I approached men.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
It's definitely you got to understand your athletes and know
who they are.
Speaker 9 (16:33):
And you know, some athletes you can grab them by
the shirt collar and you know, get in their face
and tell them, call them everywhere in the book, and
they're still going to do everything you say. And some
you got a pat on the butt and just you know,
hope they kind of figure it out. And it's kind
of finding the balance of what what is your culture?
What is that expectation? And I tell my athletes all
the time, like I love you all the same, but
we ain't going to treat you all the same. You know,
everyone kind of has a different path and your journey
(16:55):
may looked different than someone else's, but we're going to
get you there. And it all kind of starts from
doing things right, you know, communicating. So I think just
really as a whole, like we're doing a lot of
good things. And I kind of just was able to
kind of learn early. I was able to have an
inside person who kind of, you know, gave me some
feedback talk to me. And then I just had like
some really good mentors, you know, Travis Stippins one who
(17:17):
I've always kind of had as a mentor, and he
kind of had some experienced coaching women he gave me
some really good pointers. So just kind of always never
stopped learning, always being coachable, always asking, you know, looking
at things different ways, and trying to figure out how
we can relate to these athletes and make sure that
they're getting everything they need to find success.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
That's great. Thank you for being with us this morning, coach,
and good luck this year.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Yeah, thank you guys.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
At this time, we would like to thank I am
A Financial Group for sponsoring this year's case AC Virtual
Media Days, and we will pause to hear from our sponsors.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Never slowing, never stopping pushing forward every hour, every day,
every quarter, every year. You don't do it for your yourself.
You do it for your company, your employees, your community,
for all of us. That is why I am A
is proud to help ensure the companies that form the
backbone of America. Together, we are better. Together, we make
(18:16):
a difference.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
The University of Jamestown remains in the KCAC this year
as an affiliate member while they transition to the NCAA.
With me now, it's coach Jamie Golding in year three
leading with the Jimmies. Coach with the first competition looming,
can you talk about how the preseason has gone, and
let us know how you feel about your squad's outlook
this season.
Speaker 10 (18:41):
First, I wanted to give a couple thank yous. Thank
you to Mark and Ted from the KCACS, our president,
doctor Poly Peterson, our athletic director, Austin Heab, Greg Yulin,
r VP of Enrollment, and Bryce and Ibo assistant ad
of Compliance and also my assistant coach zaccer Year for
(19:04):
all their help so far this year. It's definitely been
a lot of different roles and kind of figuring things out,
but we've had a lot of help. We've had, you know, meetings,
We've had so many personal conversations that I felt like
(19:25):
it's been going smoother than it should be, which is
a little bit worrying, but at the same time I'm
excited because there is so much help available. We have
Alissa Johnson returning she was our kzy AC champion last
year from Grand Forks. Jenna Barson as a girl who
(19:48):
is around one seventeen from Lisbon, also North Dakota native,
and Hannah Schustrom from Jamestown, a hometown girl. Hopefulling you know,
to see some big things from those returners. We've also
got a very deep incoming freshman you know group. We
(20:12):
have Abby Ewing from Texas, she's looking very sharp, Noura
Hoogam from More Minnesota, Celia Jeker, Leah Willard, and my men.
I can just keep going on and on. It's these
girls are so exciting. The energy in the room between
(20:35):
the returners and the incoming freshmen as well as our
two transfers has been amazing, and the captains have really
set the standards high. And I'm very excited for the wrestling.
I'm excited. You know, we just had our midterms come back.
I'm excited for that because all of our girls are doing,
(20:56):
you know, the right things, so it's it's going to
be a great season.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I've got a question for you here from Jason Bryant,
coach Golding. The school is heading into a period of
transition with its athletics. What are you doing to prepare
your athletes for their last championship year in the KCAC
and the NAI and how have you been able to
set expectations for underclassmen about what's to come the season
(21:21):
but in the years following.
Speaker 10 (21:24):
So for me just kind of growing up at the
same time as coach Hillard from Avalanche. She was talking
a lot about the differences and the generations and you
know the college programs. Obviously, when I wrestled, there were
only eight you know schools. So just making sure that
(21:45):
they stay on on task. It's definitely been a bouncing act,
it really has. But preparing them mentally again, it's wrestling
is wrestling is wrestling. I'm trying to not just get
these girls to consider themselves the best. If they win
the NAIs or they win the WCWAS, I want to
(22:07):
put them on national teams. I want to put them
on world teams. I want to put them on Olympic teams. Right,
So those are always things that I talk about because
just like there, we've been to the highest levels. So
it's not those short term goals. It's you know, yeah,
things might be changing. We might have to wear headgears.
(22:28):
Now it's okay, it's you know, these things are adaptable.
We're wrestlers when we're prepared, and that's just you know,
another thing that we have to go through.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Thank you. We really appreciate your insights and we want
to wish you a successful campaign this year.
Speaker 10 (22:46):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Now with us as coach, Chuck Kearney from the University
of Saint Mary and you're nine of leading the Spires coach.
You have now been in Levenworth for the better part
of the last decade. What does that level of consistency
mean for your program and what expectations do you have
for this year's squad?
Speaker 11 (23:04):
I mean expectation is that we show up every day
and and uh, you know, work on mastery and and
that we are intentional and in building a culture, an
attitude of belief system, a way of doing business that
that's going to lead us to where we want to be.
The you know, one of the things that that that
(23:27):
we talk about is is, you know, the gratitude of
being a part of a conference like the k C
a C which was the very first conference to sponsor
women's wrestling in the country, to be a part of
the n E I the very first national association to
sponsor a championship event.
Speaker 5 (23:44):
That you qualified for. And those are those are big deals,
Those are big things.
Speaker 11 (23:48):
And and you know, the sport of women's wrestling isn't
going to isn't going to get where it needs to
get until it has the same opportunities and and uh,
as the men's broke do. With that said, our men's
programs need help too. We need to continue to grow
the sport and have men's and women's wrestling work together
to do so. You know, the the women that are
(24:12):
part of our coaching here in the conference are great
examples of.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
What the sport can do for you.
Speaker 11 (24:18):
We're we're we're excited about creating that next generation of
coaches here at the University of Saint Mary and and
hopefully that we can pass on the information that we've
you know, uh, you know learned over the course of
the last forty years I've been in coaching to to
(24:40):
help with our program. With our team, we had a
very nice conference tournament a year ago. Uh, we had
a good time and in not a great conference, but
a nice conference CERNT. We had a bunch of girls
place our wrestlers what's the national tournament and we we
finished with the school high thirteenth place finished in the nation.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
We had to all Americans. It was.
Speaker 11 (25:04):
It was a good tournament, though we didn't leave Jamestown feeling.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
Super good about it. We we had a couple of
girls that that that.
Speaker 11 (25:11):
These these young ladies wanted to be national champions and
and uh, you know, Lexis uh Hakez and and Leslie Sandoval.
We're both girls that were capable of doing that and
that just came up a little bit short. The moment
got big and it was a great learning experience. You know,
we we were recruiting UH student athletes that want to
(25:34):
make world teams. We're we're recruiting you know, that's the
We want to find student athletes that wrestle for the
same reasons that I wrestled, you know, that love of
competition and work and and the challenge of it. We're
We're we're pretty excited about where we are. We've got
you know, we got a great coaching team with UH
(25:56):
Gabe Blouse kind of our point person on the women's side.
He's he's doing a fantas acting job. Riley Harmeo one
of both former wrestlers of mine here at the University
of Saint Mary that are that are connected to and
in making a huge impact. Ram Bromer our athletic trainer
who's more than an athletic trainer. She's kind of almost
(26:17):
a director of operation, and say almost. She is a
director of operations for US here at the University.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
UH.
Speaker 11 (26:25):
Doctor Michelle Metzinger is our vice pro is our provost,
and she's in our academic coach where she meets with
our student athletes that are that are falling behind and
it kind of helps motivate them. Doctor Rob Miller, which
I gave an honorary doctorate too, uh here today he
has uh uh you know, had faith in our program
and allowed us to do the things necessary to be
(26:46):
to be successful. And then finally are our president, Sister
Diane Steele, who who supports athletics and supports our program,
knows our students by name. And it's awful, awful, awful
cool when when the president at the Universe will walk
up to a recruit and talk about wrestling. Our key
returners Alexi haks was was All American Force last year.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
She spent most of the year ranked number two in
the country.
Speaker 11 (27:11):
Leslie Sandoval was ended up sixth place at semi finalist
that ended up sixth place, that has had a real
nice career, will be getting her back second semester. Raa
Bodette who was a U twenty three All American red
shirt last year. She'll be rejoining our program. Alicia van Skoye,
(27:33):
who's a three time national qualifier. Wrestled in four national
tournaments thanks to COVID, but qualified for three of them
and has got a year left. Alison King was a
freshman for spent some time in the rankings. Amelia Froenfelter
spent some time in the rankings last year at one seventy,
(27:54):
Andree Reriddiger who is a one o three pounder that
that we expect some big things out of this year.
Arianna Mercarda uh Uh, Alisa Cordova and Rebecca Coolstra are
all girls that there that are going to be contributors
to make a big difference for what we what we
do this year. Our top newcomers are Ivory Hakas, She's
(28:18):
out of Colorado, Rachel de Smukee out of Oklahoma, Alexis
Sigira out of Colorado, Madison Kamau out of Hawaii via
Southwestern Oregon Community College, Macy Pearson out of Kansas. Skyler
Lewis is a is a you sevanteen All American out
(28:39):
of Arkansas that we're super excited about.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
Taylor Naylor, a secret from Texas that.
Speaker 11 (28:43):
Has had a really nice fall and is coming around,
and then Madison Foley out of North Kansas City.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
So We've got a.
Speaker 11 (28:50):
Good group of girls that are coming to practice every
day that want to get better. They're they're putting in
the They're they're putting in the work. They're they're paying
the price, and uh, you know, we've been super intentional
in creating that culture, like I said earlier, you know,
and we're starting to see the dividends of that coat.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
You have a question here from Jason Bryant Matt Talk Online.
Just like your men's team, you had some first last
year with your first All Americans in school history and
the first year of multiple All Americans. Like you said
with your men's team, everything you do with this program
is the opportunity to be the first and something. What
first are you trying to achieve this year with that
(29:31):
women's team.
Speaker 5 (29:34):
Well, you know, you know, you don't mean the ultimate.
Speaker 11 (29:40):
You know, We've got we've got some some young ladies
that have that have you know, spent a lifetime in
this sport that that every year they look at that
last matches match that they want to win. You know,
I think we've got a couple student athletes that are
that are serious about being national champions. I think we've
got we've got a bunch for student athletes. There's serious
(30:01):
about being all Americans and and and and keeping the
short run goal obviously of showing up every day, doing
the work and getting better. You know, I it's hard,
it's it's it's hard to put it into a simple answer,
just because the fact that we can only control what
(30:22):
we can control. We I coached a team one year
that had the best term it possibly could have ever had,
and it should have been enough to win a championship,
and we end up second because another team just happened
to have a touch better day. And there was not
a match that we lost that we could have won,
and there wasn't a match we won that we that
we left on the board. So it's it's it's we
(30:43):
can control ours and and uh in our controls and
that simply is just to be in a position to
win for wrestle for championships, and so that's kind of
what we're shooting for, what we're talking about in a
daily basis.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Well, thank you, coach. We appreciate at your insights and
want to wish you a successful year.
Speaker 5 (31:03):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
And rounding out this morning is coach Jeff Albers of
York University, who is entering a seventh season with Panthers
coach as another elder statesman in the casey Ac, can
you talk about how your experience has helped you you
prepare for this year and let us know a little
about this year squad.
Speaker 12 (31:25):
Hey, thanks for having us on. Yeah, I want I
want to thank Garrett Are our athletic director and Jared Stark,
our interim president. Right now, they've been great, it's great.
We just had an opening for our new wrestling room.
We had that last weekend for homecoming. It's a great addition.
(31:49):
But yeah, we've We've also got some new ladies in
the lineup, doing a little bit of rebuilding restructuring this year.
But we got a Jill High, she's out of Augusta, Kansas.
She's a couple of time state finalists. She's pretty tough,
Joy Ortiz out of Texas, a couple of times state placer,
(32:12):
Melissa Castro out of Arkansas, a couple of times state placer.
And then we got Felda Say, she's a California state
champ and she's healthy now. She tour a CEO, but
she'll be back on the match. She'll be in there
at two o seven And I know that all those
are going to make some noise, So looking forward to that.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Coach, I got a question for you here from Jason Bryant.
Talk about the progress and growth your program has made
over the last several seasons and what are some of
the goals you're going to put forth for your athletes
this season to help them break through to another level
of performance, both in the KCAC and on the national level.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 12 (32:55):
Like I said, we're restructuring right now, so we're gonna
have a little smaller team, but we're gonna have a
lot of time together to grow and just get all
everybody on the same page and just get after it.
And I'm, like I said, the group that I brought
in like, we got a good group. Super excited for them.
(33:16):
I know they're going to do really big things.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Thank you, coach, appreciate your time and we wish you
the best this year.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Thanks have a good one.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
That'll do it. For today's media days, please make sure
to mark your calendars for the following two events. The
KSEEC Championships will take place on March first in Kansas City,
while the National Championships will be hosted at the Park
City Arena March fourteenth and fifteenth. We would like to
once again think I am a financial group for the
tremendous support they have shown the conference and finally, a
(33:48):
big thanks to everyone for joining us today and we
hope to see you all throughout the season. Have a
great day.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
The Short Time Wrestling Podcast is proudly outfitted by Compound Sportswear, shirts, singlets,
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