June 23, 2025 • 42 mins
Coach Scotti Sentes shares his journey from wrestling in diapers at age two to transforming Campbell University's wrestling program and his upcoming transition to the Wrestlers in Business Network. His story reveals how wrestling shapes character, develops work ethic, and creates lifelong connections while highlighting the importance of making the sport fun alongside pursuing excellence.
• Started wrestling at two years old in Florida with his entire family involved in the sport
• Father was a former high school wrestler who recognized wrestling's value in getting his own life on track
• Majored in English and Poetry at Central Michigan University while balancing Division I wrestling
• Had his first child during junior year of college, forcing quick maturation and exceptional time management
• Transitioned directly into coaching at Cal Poly after graduation
• Transformed Campbell's program from a struggling team to conference champions
• Led the program through COVID challenges during his first year as head coach
• Recently raised $100,000 for Campbell Wrestling before announcing his departure
• Joining Wrestlers in Business Network to help connect wrestlers with career opportunities after college
I'm excited about being able to help wrestling at all levels through this new position. There's never a good time to leave coaching, but this opportunity will allow me to make a wider impact while still maintaining the connections I've built.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
and cut.
That's what I'll do for themusic now.
Cut it short.
So, uh, everybody, thanks forjoining us.
Typically, we're live.
Uh, we've changed things up alittle bit.
Uh, we are just going back torecorded.
It's a lot easier, it's alittle more flexible for the
guys we talk to, because theseguys have busy lives.
Um, this is a an episode of thevision quest podcast.
You guys are listening to it.
(00:47):
Some of you might see clipslater on when I put them out,
but we are talking to currentlycoach scotty sentez of campbell
wrestling.
Thank you for joining me, coach.
It's been a while.
We talked about this a coupletimes in the future, in the past
, and now we got it together.
So thank you for taking thetime to join me.
I appreciate it yeah, I'mexcited.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Just so you know, that intro got me fired up.
That music just gets your bloodboiling it was a local guy too.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I didn't want to use the whole vision quest theme
song because I didn't want toget, you know, sued or things
like that.
So I was like, hey, come up myown thing.
Local guy was like, hey, whatcan you come up with for me?
I said, here's what I like.
I like a little bit of crazy,you know.
Like I I'm a country guy butI'm not like tim mcgraw, right,
like I'm that weird jamiejohnson type country that
brought back old school.
(01:31):
So he kind of mixed that with alittle bit of like rock.
It's fun.
It's fun.
I'm glad it fired you up becausewe're gonna get going here.
We got some, we got sometalking to do.
So exciting year so far for you, with some changes coming up
that we'll talk about in alittle bit.
But obviously, like we alwaysdo on the show, we kind of talk
about your whole life, right.
We kind of talk about thingsleading up into wrestling and
(01:52):
we're not going to kind of diveinto, like I told you, what your
favorite cereals were.
We'll talk a little bit aboutparents Support systems are
always big for wrestlers, right,and things like that.
So where were your beginnings?
I guess wrestling wise.
I know you came from Florida,right, um, so you're, you're a
Southern boy.
Wrestling wasn't, I guess, hugethen, but I mean we still got,
(02:14):
you know, guys like uh, um, oh,I'm trying to think, a couple of
guys that came out of Floridain the past, but it just hasn't
been huge.
So what was that like for youbeing in florida and coming up
in a wrestling environment?
Was that sparse, fightingcompetition?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I mean, we went all over um.
I started wrestling when I wastwo years old.
I had diapers on.
So there's a match of mewrestling eric grahalis, you
know, with street shoes on, youknow I had, I'd tip my
rollerblades off and put mywrestling shoes on and wrestled
him.
So um wrestled my whole life.
My my dad coached.
He was the first in our, youknow, first ever as a wrestler
(02:47):
and he loved it.
He got my brother into it,who's six years older than me.
He went on to wrestle atUniversity of Michigan, okay,
and then my sister wrestled.
So my dad was one of the earlypeople putting females in
wrestling.
She's three years older than meand then I came up and you know
we were that family.
Every Saturday we were loadingin the car and driving three
(03:08):
hours north to Bradenton,florida, to wrestle the same two
people every weekend.
You know we were that family.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I love this mix of you.
Know there are a lot of guysout there that had parents that
were either high-level athletes,you know things like that, and
then you got the kids that, well, my parents never wrestled,
they didn't play any sports, sothey had no clue what was going
on with me, whereas you'reyou're kind of the middle of the
road now where your dad was.
You know he was involved insports, obviously knew about
sport, got you guys all involvedin sports, or in wrestling
(03:35):
especially.
But where was he in wrestling?
Was your dad a wrestler?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
yeah, he was a wrestler in high school.
He wasn't like a collegewrestler or anything like that,
but I think he was prettytroubled uh, troubled kid he
tells talks about his, hishistory and I think it was a
rough.
He had a rough life andwrestling kind of got him on
track and so he put us in it.
He just knew the values thatwrestling instilled and and so
it became a big part of ourfamily my mom, my dad, my
brother, my sister.
(03:59):
He coached, you know, when hegot out of coaching he still
finds way in.
I mean, he's just one of thoseguys that loves wrestling and
and and off on us a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
That's awesome and I think a lot of times too.
You know I have a.
My older, my youngest, liam, is17.
I played high level sports whenI was.
When I was younger, I playedsoccer.
That was my gig.
But knowing just you knowthings have changed, right.
So the things that you wentthrough cause watching some of
your video, like 2011, centralMichigan, stuff like that and
(04:31):
watching some of the matches youhad, um, and just the
competition that you had to gothrough was your dad, I guess,
aware of?
Uh, and obviously you hadconnections with other coaches
but was he aware of, like, allthese tournaments that were out
there?
Because you said you startedyoung you're and your siblings
were in it?
Were you going to like tulsa'sand things like that as a kid?
Like what was your dad's theoryon that?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
yeah, no, we were going all over, though.
I had a coach, uh, like anational coach.
His name was joe blasucci,phenomenal coach.
He's kind of I mean, he's oneof those razor edge coaches
where, like the what, you eitherhate him or you love him.
There's no in between.
So most of the state hates theguy, but he's awesome.
He would take all of usknuckleheads up and all around
the country doing nhca duels,which was really big, yeah, and
(05:12):
uh, you know, super 32, we didthat, I think, um, okay, on that
time it just, uh, people didn'tknow who was good and who
wasn't good.
Flow wrestling had just comeout.
Yeah, weren't all theserankings?
Um, and so I was a little bitunder the radar, you know, I had
, you know, they're evenhistorically, I'm, I'm, I've had
I'm the most super 32 medals orsomething, right, like I think
(05:34):
I have like five or somethingcrazy like that.
And uh, you know, once, and anduh, still, people didn't know
you, because at that point, whenI started at super 32, it was
in a high school gym wow, schoolgym.
We we stayed in a, uh, atrailer out back like, uh, like
an rv.
We stayed in an rv.
There was four of us.
I slept on the floor of an rvand got up and wrestled in super
(05:56):
32 and I say I say that'sawesome.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
In a sense of that must have been, you know, like
fun to you know, especiallythinking about but at the time
probably not awesome sleeping onthe floor.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
It was so he had a legendary coach and uh, he, he's
so good he passed away, um,yeah, but but he was an
incredible, he made it so fun,like right we had wrestling
class.
We played games half the time.
It was like we played footballfor practice and then the other
half was live wrestling and and,uh, he was, he's actually part
of uh, he owned a carnival, andso we'd all work in the summer
(06:32):
and that's how we paid forsummer camp, and so it was like
a carny coming up, you know, umthat sounds like.
Florida, though, that soundslike yeah, and that's what would
pay for our events and andthings like that would go and
help them work and, dude, it wasjust such great memories
traveling around and earning ourkeep, right like our parents
were paying for our camps, andhe gave us the opportunity to
earn it.
And so, uh, we were.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
We were learning how to work and earn our own money
it's like thinking about thepalmers wrestling bears at like
circuses and stuff like that,when those guys I was taking
little kids money and they tryto pop the balloon and I just
spray on it so that it wouldroll off it you know, that's
awesome.
So much fun, so much fun to behad.
(07:15):
So I mean, it's not like youwere so to me, you, you're,
you're placing at high schoolstate at eighth grade, you're
one of them, my, my, jobasuitsucci, will never let me
hear the end of it.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
He said I, I got too high, got too high, you know,
with the boots in.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
So you know, I was just watching you wrestle zach
thomas and uh from michigan andI'm pretty sure I heard the same
thing watching boots, don't gettoo high, he can feel it.
He can feel it so well.
We'll talk about that a littlebit too, because I kind of it
was fun watching you wrestle,especially against Tyler Graff,
and you had mentioned that he hebeat you up at Midlands but
(07:49):
then you'd be at NCAAs and Ithink that was the match I
watched.
But it's it's interesting tosee the, the, the contrast and
background.
So, like you said, your dad wasa high school wrestling coach
but he had a great network, itsounds like, with these other
guys that he's able to get youin touch with and have you
around and with that type ofwrestling around.
Was that what do you feel like?
(08:10):
That was really kind of thebeginning of florida, kind of
coming up in wrestling, becauseI mean, we're talking about
states like, right now, georgiaand those that that have been
coming up right.
It's been kind of a slow climbbut making their way up.
Was that kind of a starting toa starting point of florida
wrestling because I was in themiddle of it, right.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
But you had brandon florida.
That was one of the best teamsin the country, you know.
You had fozart.
You had the grahalis brothers.
You know, I mean you, you had alot of really great wrestlers
winning and competing well infargo and national event south
dade was really good at thattime.
Um, we've always had somereally good wrestlers.
Um, I think Florida's, you know, doing a lot of the right
(08:47):
things right now.
I know they got BB Train downthere.
They got a couple differentreally great clubs that are
growing and, you know, gettingmore and more wrestlers into
freestyle, which I think isreally important.
I had never wrestled freestylecoming up.
Okay, you know, that's probablywhy I became such a good top
wrestler is I never had totransition between styles and
(09:08):
but I don't know when it startedor where it's good it's always
seemed like they've had somegood wrestlers.
It's just maybe, maybe thedepth's not always there, you
know.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, For sure, and that could
speak for you know any a coupleof different States out there.
It's not just florida, but Imean it's.
It's just great to see now,especially you got mako down
there.
You're like you're talkingabout, you got you got lugo, who
just moved his his stuff downthere, so it's definitely not
just sitting around waitinganymore.
They're definitely doing stuffdown there.
So it's it's good to see.
As you were kind of growing upas a kid, where you was that was
(09:42):
wrestling, something like itwere.
Were you trying other sports,was wrestling.
Only the thing Was that it yourdad only had you on the one
track, or was he kind of likeyou guys got to try other stuff?
You?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
were that guy I was.
I was the dude.
When I hit eighth grade, theyhelped me back a year because I
wasn't big enough to wrestle inhigh school.
I was that.
I'm just your typical wrestlingguy.
Yeah.
Okay, I didn't have such goodgrades.
The only way they could hold meback was put me in a private
school.
So they had to shift me over toa private Christian school just
in order to hold me backbecause my grades were so good.
(10:10):
They said they were going tohold me back.
I said, okay, good luck, I'mgoing to get straight.
A's right.
Yeah, so we were that family.
We were a little bit of thecrazy wrestling family.
It ended up working out, Ithink, a lot of big, big doors
open for me because I was ableto mature a little bit and and
grow a little bit and andobviously I got a little more
opportunity because of that.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
so it was a smart move, but at the time you don't
want to do it yeah well, yeahsure, well, it wasn't like it
was any like cattle prods, likecarrie colat and things like
that.
Right, like you know like thatso it's, yeah, it worked out.
it worked out for what you guysare doing and the way you guys
are going about it.
And there's no shame in a lotof that when I, when I hear
about guys you know justdifferent ways that they come up
there's always something youcan take away from something,
(10:51):
right?
I mean, are there things nowthat you do in your coaching
that kind of goes along withwhat you kind of learned coming
up?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Yeah, I'd say the biggest thing over time is is
have fun, have the kids have fun.
You know, I learned a lot ofthat from chris hayward who was
my high school coach, and Ithink my dad was real serious
with my older brother and he wasa little less successful and
with me he sort of took a stepback from being a coach and just
was a dad with me and it madeit I had a lot more success.
So I always try to, you know,kind of meet the kid where he's
(11:20):
at, try to try to make it fun.
I think that's really importantfor our sport.
I think, um, you know it'salready hard enough as it is.
You don't need to run, runsomebody in the ground that's
trying their best, right that'strue, very true, and I run into
that.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
I mean god still, and I'm not even the coach anymore
with my son as a parent, youknow, trying to not hammer home
too much, but I've alwaysexpected 110 percent.
That, like I'm not a tech, Idon know a technique like these
guys do anymore.
It's different, right, Iwrestled until my junior year
and I was horrible.
So I kind of reserve a lot ofthat stuff for the coaches and
I'm just the guy that expects,you know, just give me the
(11:54):
energy.
I just need the energy.
As long as I see it, the restwill come with it, right?
So where were you in the eyesof trying to, you know, just
having having such, you know, agood background, as far as just
a solid background in wrestlingcoming up, what was, what were
your thoughts towards collegeand wrestling?
Where were you?
Were you thinking about alreadyas a freshman in high school,
(12:16):
like, hey, I can't wait tillyour phone calls, like what were
your thoughts towards it?
Just kind of going into theprocess, especially with the
people you have around you?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
I was clueless as the college wrestling right.
Yeah, um, I went to themichigan camp every year but I
was the guy that my brotherwould get mad at me because I
wouldn't do the intensive camp,I just wanted to the technique
camp.
It's summertime, I'm not tryingto run and do push-ups, brother
, you know.
Um, look at the end of the campwhen they do the, the
tournament day, I'll beat thecrap out of all your other, your
buddy, buddy's friends andright Like um.
(12:44):
So I just was a little bitclueless.
I just really liked wrestling.
I had a little bit of an edgeto me, a little bit of a out of
high school, probably a wildside, and at that time I knew I
was going to college, but itwasn't anything I thought of.
I went and visited centralMichigan.
I had a bunch of visits linedup and, uh, I'm sort of a you
know, pull the trigger kind ofguy.
(13:05):
I loved it, canceled all myvisits, yeah, right.
And he went to talk to me aboutwhat the scholarship was
looking like.
I said, talk to my parentsabout that, like I'm coming here
.
Yeah, I didn't.
It just, uh, I knew what Iwanted to do.
I was laser focused.
I went there, I saw what tomwas doing.
I could tell, yeah, he wasgoing to hold me accountable and
I knew at least I was matureenough to know I needed that.
(13:28):
And uh, and like I said I, thatguy definitely changed my life
because I think, uh, I don'tknow if I would have made it in
a lot of other programs, but uh,he, he got me right.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
And he got me right really fast I've heard some
really good things about coach.
Barely in as far as and I'venever met the guy.
I've only watched duels, thingslike that and seen a couple
interviews.
But I've heard a lot of goodthings about him in general,
especially once the retirementcame around, and people kind of
asking questions about him.
They're like man, he's helpedso many kids.
It definitely sounds likethat's the kind of guy he was.
(13:58):
I would take it that youprobably learned a lot from
Coach Borealy when it comes tothe coaching aspect of it, along
with your dad, you know.
I mean, your dad's still a partof that group.
But where, where were your?
What were your intentions whenyou went into college wrestling
because a lot of kids obviouslyare going to go in for their
four years, maybe they're doneright were you, because you
talked about getting intofreestyle late?
(14:19):
Did you find yourself likingfreestyle at all?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
were you like no, I didn't like freestyle until I
got to to campbell and workedunder carrie and then I was
exposed to it because tom tomdidn't really do me.
We would have the rtc freestylebut we just were doing folk
style, right.
And then he might send us to anevent and I I wouldn't know the
rules.
I'd pick somebody up in adouble leg and walk out of
bounds with them and give them apoint, like I had no idea what
(14:41):
was going on and um, and so Ididn't get into freestyle until
later.
Like I said, I was justwrestling because it was fun, I
loved winning, I enjoyed winning, I knew it just kind of kept me
on the straight and narrow.
That was the reason why I gotgood grades at the time was
because of wrestling and itwasn't until, you know, I met my
(15:03):
now wife and we had a kid thatI had.
I grew up really quick, right,I was in college.
So that's when I started tofigure out okay, what am I doing
the rest of my life, right,what do I want to do for a
career?
And kind of had to snap into itpretty quick.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
So you went to, you got an English major at Central
Michigan, right.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
English and poetry.
It only takes a couple extraclasses to get that.
Throw that in there, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Okay, it only takes a couple extra classes to get
that.
Throw that in there, you know,okay.
So the arts so we have the artsunder control where?
So because of that, okay,because that's I mean, that's
still not in like a totally easyunless you're good at it, right
, you have to dedicate a certainamount of time to that, right?
So how?
And you got good grades, so howdo?
That's a big thing that we tryto talk about on here is like
the the work slash life balancewhen it comes to school.
I, that's a big thing that wetry to talk about on here is
like the the work slash lifebalance when it comes to school.
I mean, that's not an easydegree, as much as people want
(15:52):
to say.
Oh, it's an English degree,it's not easy.
I wanted to go to school forthat and I was like, oh no, I'm
not doing that.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
It's hard.
There's a lot of books I wasgoing learn how to talk to
people, how to communicate withpeople, how to write emails, how
to get my ideas across, and Ithought coaching you know
English would help with thatright Learning how to structure
an argument, learning how tocommunicate, and so I did it.
(16:18):
when I got to the later levels.
I just, I mean, I was in thatclassroom raising my hand.
I was talking to people.
I had a guy named, you know,pete Puckett, who's now a
professor.
I swear he would spoon feed itto me like I was a baby.
He would say read thisparagraph.
I would read it and he'd saywhat does that mean?
I'd say I have no clue, andhe'd walk me through the whole
thing.
Right, and I would just bringhim a pizza.
(16:40):
You know he was like you know,second string guy on the team
and just super smart and I'dbring him a pizza and just have
him baby it to me until Ifigured it out.
What took him?
Probably 10 minutes, took me anhour, but I would.
I would grind at it and figureit out, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
But you had that dude that gave you the angle right.
He gave you that angle tofigure it out, which is key.
I mean, a lot of guys thinkthat going to college is like oh
yeah, it's just.
No, it's not like high schoolat all.
When it comes to education,anything, it's all different.
It's all, yeah, you go into aclassroom, things like that, but
the focus is different.
Now you have.
I tried to explain this to Liam.
I said you're getting paid tobe here.
This is now kind of a job, soyou have to learn that balance
(17:18):
of what you're doing.
The thing that I have aquestion on, though, is that you
started early.
Your your Cal Poly collegecoaching career started right
after college, wasn't it?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yep Fresh out of college.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Went right to work with Brennan Buckley at Cal
Pauly.
How does how?
Okay, because I know there aregoing to be some kids and
parents with questions like this, because there are kids that
want to stick in wrestling right, this is their goal is when
they're done.
You know.
Well, I really want to be inwrestling, but I don't know what
I have to do to stay in it.
What?
What does it take?
If that's your goal, what doesit take to jump into a career
like that and that quickly?
Was it just someone needing ahand and reaching out, or did
(17:54):
they reach out to you?
How does that networking workout like that?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Oh, I don't remember exactly how that one worked,
obviously in division one.
You know college wrestling.
I think having success givesyou a little bit of a leg up.
You know they're looking forworkout partners, um, but
there's a lot more that goesbehind the scenes in coaching.
You know they're.
They're looking for people tohelp them with their budget,
help them with, you know,recruiting and fundraising.
They're looking for people, uh,to help them with their budget
(18:22):
sheets, to to do the paperwork.
I mean, there's a lot more toit that people don't don't see.
And so, um, being able to go andactually talk to people and and
and meet people, and and, uh,having a good reputation from
your coach, that you're going towork hard and that you're going
to, you're going to learn andthat you're going to do what's
needed to be done.
That's the best thing about um,you know, being a wrestler is
(18:43):
you have a coach.
That's that's going to tell thetruth about you, and that's why
every employer is going to beable to reach out to a coach and
say what do you know about this?
Because I'm telling you, tomBorelli knows how I act when I'm
tired.
He knows what I'm going to dowhen things get hard and you
really have four or five yearsin college to make a really
great reputation for yourselfand I tried really hard to make
(19:05):
sure I had a good reputationwith Tom Borelli and my
teammates.
Yourself and you know I I triedreally hard to make sure I had
a good reputation with with withtom borelli and my teammates
because, um, I knew, I knewpeople would ask questions down
the road about me good to know,good to know, keep your nose
clean, do the right thing andand and honestly, most of the
guys that want to stay withinthe sport typically, you know,
are all right.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
You know for the most part, but things happen and
just, I think the big thing tome, because that's what liam
wants to stick with it.
You know he wants to.
I want to coach and things likethat.
It's like kind of I say youcan't just walk into an rtc job,
man like you, you have to.
You know there's, there's workthat still goes into it and it's
, like you said, reputation,guys knowing that you're willing
to work and things like that,whereas if people start hearing
(19:44):
that you're just dropping theball and stuff constantly,
they're not going to want youaround.
So, and that's any employer,right, that's any employer.
Any employer finds that outabout you.
That's what they're going tosay.
So, with with kind of, withyour transition from sports into
coaching, how were, how wereyour because I mean, you were
already talking about, you know,being married and stuff too
right, being in college, right?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
yeah, I didn't.
Well, I had my son.
Um, yeah, he's.
He's going into high schoolnext year.
I had him when I was a juniorin college okay, okay get
married until a little bit laterum yep but had to grow up
really quick.
Had to work through college.
You know um had to figure out.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah that's another interesting thing, because how
do you have time for a job whenyou're practicing as much and
then you're also, uh, you knowyou're practicing as much and
then you're also, uh, you knowyou studying and things like
that, like we're time managementLike, you do what you need to
do and you do as hard as you cando it.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
And uh, you know every wrestler does that, right,
I mean sure you know somesleepless nights.
I got to get up, throw theweight around.
You got to put your head in thebooks, you got to do what you
need to do and perform at thesame level, if not better, than
your classmates, even thoughthey went to bed at four o'clock
.
You were up working out ordoing what you needed to do.
You still got to get up andoutperform those guys in the
(20:59):
classroom.
And you know you just developand try to develop an elite
level mindset is what you try todo and you just do what needs
to get done.
It's as simple as that.
Do what needs to get done.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
So you're, you're, you're a grinder, you're a guy
that it doesn't matter what's infront of you to get it done.
I mean I and I, I don't do this.
I always tell everybody this, Idon't do digging Like.
I watched some of your matches,right, I didn't look to see who
you dealt with in the past andI'm listening to you.
It's like holy cow, like you,you're working, you had kids,
(21:32):
you had, you know, you had arelationship, you had sports and
then you had school and youdealt with all of that and still
graduated with a major and aminor and you still were able to
get into coaching ASAP.
So that says a lot, right.
I mean there's a lot ofcharacter there.
And we also talk about you knowthe, the the time that you
spend, you know, doing thosethings, the more that you
realize the hard work pays off,kind of thing, and you know
(21:52):
instant gratification.
Were you ever at a point whereyou wanted to quit wrestling?
Speaker 3 (21:57):
If, if, if you've ever wrestled, come on, you've
been to that point.
You know like it's like thequote you got to do what you
hate, to do Like you love it.
Sometimes I would say I was, Iloved it a lot more than I ever
hated it.
And and I, when I got tocollege, I loved it.
I love, I loved the grind, youknow.
But there were times in middleschool or you know, um that,
(22:19):
that you get bored with it oryeah, things were really easy at
the time, but when it gotharder and it was challenging, I
enjoyed it.
I'm one of those guys guys thatlove winning more than I hate
losing.
Like a loss.
I can get over pretty quick andthat's probably.
I wasn't as good of a wrestleras some, but I always thought I
was going to win.
I loved winning.
I liked the trash talk evenmore than winning.
(22:42):
Okay, it gave me an edge.
It's like I could bounce backquick from somebody taking me
down early or losing atournament, I mean, where most
guys they, they can't dustthemselves off it.
I naturally I didn't matter tome.
I was already past it.
I wanted to win the next one,right, okay okay, man, they get
it, we get a.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
We have to get like your genetics.
Put it in a bottle, you know,like, and then we need to save
that because that needs to likego through generations.
In my opinion it's it's To meit's what's missing in a lot of
stuff, right?
I don't think it's necessarilymissing the kids.
It's missing in parenting, likejust trying to push your kids
to that point, whether they'rein sports or not.
Sometimes you got to do whateveryou got to do to make something
happen right, and I've failed.
(23:21):
You know I've done plenty inthe past that I've just failed
on it.
I just failed on it.
I didn't do what I had to do.
But there are a lot ofsituations as you have kids.
I had same thing with me withmy oldest son, like I didn't
want to have kids but I had toall of a sudden become mentally
and financially prepared for achild.
Just got to do it.
You know you just got to do it.
So, as you get into thiscoaching position at Cal Poly, I
always think it's interestingfor you're on.
(23:44):
You're on one area of thecountry and you went over to the
next area of the country.
What was that like for yougoing there, especially having
family and things like that.
How was that transition for youguys?
Speaker 3 (23:55):
It was tough.
I mean I think I went up forthe first couple of months by
myself.
I had to leave my wife and sonbecause I had to find a place to
live.
I had to earn enough money towhere I could bring her here.
We went there with nothing andCal Poly was so expensive Uh, I
(24:17):
was losing money every month.
So we were broke.
But we loved coaching we.
The areas is phenomenal.
I mean the education you getthere is phenomenal.
I mean it's uh.
If you've never looked into CalPoly, it's, it's uh.
There's.
There's very few places in theworld like Cal Poly.
And so we had a lot of fun andand and met a lot of really cool
people there and and uh.
But, like I said, it was itwasn't a place at that time.
(24:38):
The support that that we weregetting, I mean as an assistant
coach, we were, we were losingmoney, right, we were, we were
paying to be there and coach anduh.
So so eventually had to move onand, yeah, you know, move took,
took the job at campbell acouple years down the road yeah,
it was.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
It was like two or three years or something like
that and you wound up there andthen what was the?
What was the draw?
Was it because you didn't evenknow about campbell?
You had no idea campbellexisted until carrie called you.
But he called you and that itwas just a proposal like hey,
we'd really like to come kind ofcome up with a more
professional in the beginning ofjust.
We really want you to join theteam, come check it out, kind of
(25:14):
thing.
How did that go for you?
Speaker 3 (25:17):
And so I had to leave .
You know, cal Poly, my job atthe time, brendan Buckley.
He's the head coach, and anytime a head coach leaves, if
you're an assistant, you'rescratching your head trying to
figure out what you're going todo.
So he took the executivedirector job at Beat the Streets
, has done a phenomenal jobthere, and he was moving to New
York.
So you know, I don't know whatI'm going to do.
(25:38):
And I had a couple of schoolsreach out, some some really good
ones, and there were actuallysome other opportunities that I
really wanted to do.
But my wife they were, theywere where it's cold, right, and
she's like we're not doing itRight, um, at that she had just
gotten used to California.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
She wasn't ready to make that, that move and um, and
so I listened to to.
Carrie came down and kind ofsaw what he was he was trying to
do here at the time.
They were really bad.
I mean, they were almost notallowed to compete in the NCAA
tournament because their gradeswere so poor.
I think they were like youmight have to look it up four
and 11 or two and 11.
They were really really bad.
I came there, andrew Morganfollowed me.
(26:16):
It was basically Cal Poly'sbest wrestler and it was turned
around in a year.
We were able to pull together areally good recruiting class
and we went from 11 or whateverthe record was, to winning the
conference, later having ourfirst All-American in Nathan
Kreiser and they startedinvesting a lot at that time
built a new wrestling room, dida lot of really cool things for
(26:40):
the for the program and it wasfun.
It was really fun to be a partof part of that growth and just
how fast the game was prettyamazing so in, and then you get
there in time for who was it?
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I don't know how soon after covet hit, but we always
we're going to have the c wordaround for a little bit and
discussions as far as wrestlinggoes.
But the?
Uh, covet hit and what?
What was it like at number oneat campbell for covet?
Um, because it's a smallerprogram, right, and, and you
know, small things get impactedby large things differently.
(27:13):
So how was that?
Was there an air of like kindof caution of what could happen
around there after co?
You know, when covet was goingon like this could end the
program.
Possibly Was there any kind oftalk like that at all at the
time?
Speaker 3 (27:25):
No, not at the time.
So so here's what happened.
So, right before COVID came,canceled the NCAA tournament.
That was Kerry's last year,right.
So after it was canceled,colette left, the athletic
director left.
There was some leadership thatleft.
There was a lot of really bigchanges in that time, and so it
was my first year ever being ahead coach.
(27:45):
It was my athletic director'sfirst year.
Omar Banks, we've gone throughtwo athletic directors.
Now we're on the second.
It was both our first timesbeing a leader, right, and I
think that first year, rightafter Colat left, we lost 17
guys just because they had comethere for carry, and you know,
17 guys left, and so we had tobasically rebuild it all, and so
(28:09):
to be able to bounce back andwin the conference tournament
after losing 17 guys was prettysurprising and it was really
hard, because you know we haveDuke right up the road and we do
have medical school uh, doschool and so we were very, very
cautious, um, with everythingwith COVID, and we had such a
large roster that we would haveto split our practices into two,
(28:33):
and, uh, we'd have all thesecleaning things we had to do in
between practices, and then ifanyone got COVID.
It was on the coaches to to takecare of them, to deliver food.
So we were there from 6 AM to 7PM as coaches, monday through
Friday.
And and just because we we, youknow, we all wanted to be at
(28:54):
both practices, we have to makesure they get food, which we try
to rotate.
You're waiting for these kidsto come out, cause you're not
allowed to give it to them,you're not allowed to go to
their door, so you had to like.
It was like wow, it was theweirdest thing.
And, um, thank goodness I haveI've gotten really lucky with
the coaches that I've been ableto hire um, and and they've made
all these things a lot easierthan than they probably could
(29:16):
have been.
Um, but it was, it was a reallytough.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
It was a really tough time to lead, for sure yeah,
yeah, especially when it's, Imean, your first time around,
right like now you have.
You have enough red tape as itis.
Now you add 5 000 more stripsof red tape in front of you to
get I remember.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
I remember one rule.
It was uh, this is ridiculous.
We could run in a circle towarm up in one direction but if
one person faced the otherdirection, everyone's contact
traced.
So one person would stop andturn around and tie their shoe
and they were like contact traceand they're writing it down and
I'm like this is crazy andthere was just they wear masks,
(29:55):
but go ahead and sweat on eachother.
There were rules that, and atthe time I mean honestly I
didn't know any better, I was-.
Oh, schools that, that, uh, andat the time I mean honestly I
didn't know any better, I was ohyeah, yeah, any better either.
I was doing whatever I neededto do.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
I'm not a doctor I just uh, I thought it was just
because we were going throughthe same stuff here I mean even
with just little kids, stuff inmiddle school but it just threw
me that we're having kidswearing masks while they're
grabbing each other and sweatingon each other like I remember
being asked is there any way youcan do wrestling without
contact?
Speaker 3 (30:22):
and I was like there's no chance, you gotta be
kidding me.
We're only gonna teach superducks, that's it.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
That's all we're teaching, and then, as soon as
you're down, I'm just like thisyou're out, okay, we're good.
That's crazy.
So you, you were thrown into achallenging time.
You made success out of it.
So I and that's kind of whatI've too, reading through some
of your background is that youstarted coaching early but
you've been doing a fuckingphenomenal job, dude, like, even
(30:49):
as an assistant coach.
You're building, you know allAmericans and now you're coming
into a small school in NorthCarolina and you're building a
championship-type team.
You know, like.
So that sticks out in my head isjust the knowledge of, of like,
okay, what does this guy do?
Is this a money ball thing forhim?
Can you see things in guys thatsome coaches don't?
You know, right, and I'm not,don't get me wrong.
(31:10):
I'm not saying that you knowit's the end of the world kind
of thing, like people shouldstop and study it, but it just
it.
It sticks out in my brainseeing a young guy like that
being able to come up and havethat success.
So you know what you're doing.
What are your goals now?
Because we talked a little bitabout you going from coaching
now into the business world,which is going to help
everything.
You know, like you said a widevariety of things for wrestlers
(31:31):
in the wrestling community.
What, what did you find as, uh,the most challenging thing in
coaching that you think willhelp into the new business world
here?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Okay, yeah, I mean first of all, thank you for the
things you said.
That's really nice of you.
You know kind of two part.
To answer the part of this.
I mean I've just beensurrounded by some really good
people.
I've gotten lucky with somesome hires and and I've leaned a
lot on on on the group aroundme and so it's not like a
one-man thing, it's a.
(32:04):
You get a little bit luckysometimes with the hires you
make and I've made some somereally good hires each year.
I mean, I mean I've beensurrounded by some really good
people, um, just in terms ofcoaching staff and things like
that.
Um, you know, going into thisnext role, um, one thing I've
always preached and I'vebelieved in is setting guys up
for the rest of their lives.
I really care about wrestling.
(32:25):
Wrestling is very important inmy family.
My dad's part of the FloridaWrestling Coaches Hall of Fame.
My brother's a wrestling coach.
He actually was an AD.
He wanted to touch more kids'lives and be closer to the
action.
He left his AD job to go backto coaching.
Our whole family has as sort ofum, we're about changing
(32:45):
people's lives.
You know, um, I I that's moreimportant to me than the wins
and the losses and and whenwrestlers and business network
reached out.
I knew about the nwca, um, Iknow about mike moyer, I know
that you know he.
He genuinely cares aboutwrestling on the high school and
the college level more than anyother organization I've ever
(33:06):
seen, and I can speak that tofact.
I've seen the values, theirmission statement and they would
amaze you if you were to readthese things and they're written
in a way that I mean, one ofthe things is integrity, right,
it's, it's he's genuinelylooking out for the betterment
of every college program, everyhigh school program, and and
that that impressed me.
(33:26):
And and, uh, you know, to be apart of something I think can,
can help protect wrestling longterm, the wrestlers and business
network.
I think that's.
That's exciting.
You know I, like I said, I canonly reach so many people as a
college coach and I get a chanceto really help wrestling on all
levels and I'm really excitedabout it.
(33:48):
I mean, I still have a lot tolearn.
I'm not there yet.
I've just been studying.
I understand what the missionis now.
I've read into a lot of thestrategies, some of these.
I'm not allowed to talk aboutthem yet.
Sure, yeah, I'm very impressedwith, with the integrity of, of
the organization, like to readbehind the scenes and see it.
(34:09):
You don't know what, what, whatpeople are thinking.
It's a.
It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
It's good, well, and I think, uh, I think, just with
the brain power that you'veshown and things like that it's,
I think obviously it's it'sgoing to be a good step.
I can see the things thatyou're talking about and kind of
envision what you're trying toput together and it does work.
I mean we talked about itearlier how many of these kids
that are going into college whenthey're, you know, they're so,
they're so sports driven thatthat that piece outside of that
(34:37):
just is not clicking right.
They just don't think about itquite yet.
But to be able to have serviceslike yours and and community
leaders around that they haveconnections with, and things
like that, if they have guyslike you around, they could put
it in place with them.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
It only helps, right, I mean there's nobody more
prepared prepared for theworkforce than wrestlers.
There's nobody more preparedand, uh, it's just giving them
the opportunities.
I think that we're so focusedand so driven while we're in
college on focusing on theschoolwork, focusing on the
wrestling, focus on performing,adapting, that sometimes we miss
(35:12):
out on planning for the future,and that's kind of where we
come in is to make it easy onthem.
Just fill this thing out, openthe doors, let them decide,
because they are like, I've beenthere as a, as a head coach,
and I've had WIBN, reach out anduh, and, and you know it's
important, but you're just sodriven on what's in front of you
as, as as a competitor, whetherit be as a coach or, uh, an
(35:34):
athlete, um, that I think anorganization like this is
extremely important for oursport.
Right on that.
I think an organization likethis is extremely important for
our sport.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Right on.
You know you mentioned a coupleof things as far as missions
and things like that.
You've been on a mission.
So the question I have now isthat a hundred thousand dollars
in a couple of weeks, right Likeyou killed it in fundraising is
now I the only thing that I?
I it's not a question in a badway, but I ask is were you able
(36:04):
and wanted because a lot oftimes coaches kind of you know
they're like, well, I'm donehere.
You know it's kind of like notthat they give up, they're just
kind of like relinquishing whatthey need to do, kind of thing
but you kept going and you yougot that amount.
I feel like it's is it anindicator of who might be
staying is?
Did they announce a head coachat all at Campbell?
Speaker 3 (36:23):
No, they're talking to people.
They're talking to peoplein-house.
They're talking to people outof house.
They talked to the team.
They told the team hey, we'rein communication with hiring new
coaches.
I'm there if they want to useme or have questions.
I know they're reaching out.
They're talking to othercoaches and asking about other
coaches, and and so they're.
They're doing their work to tryto find the the right person
(36:45):
okay you know, a lot of respectyou for doing that.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
But I mean because, I mean again, a lot of coaches
are like I'm, you know, I'm, I'mdone with the I'm done coaching
of the program.
It's not that they didn't likeit or anything, they're just
kind of done.
So they stopped doing it.
You're still working.
So it kind of the conspiracytheory in my brain says that you
kind of know who is taking overand it's someone that's there.
You don't want to leave themwith something that's not, you
know, not good.
But obviously that's just mebeing a conspiracy theorist, so
(37:10):
I tried to get that out of there.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
But now here's the honest truth.
Like the alumni and the formercoaches, I'm like they're
genuine close friends of mine.
That'll like they're genuineclose friends of mine that'll be
friends of mine for the rest ofmy life, like really close with
you know, I just went to churchtoday with with coach jerry
hartman, who coached in the 80s,right, yeah, yeah and so um
it's awesome sort of theconnections that I've made here
(37:32):
and the friendships that I made.
I you know you have aresponsibility to do a really
good job and uh you know Iwasn't thinking about leaving.
I, I was thinking about leavingwhen I was fundraising, but it
wasn't decided.
Sure, sure, yeah, once we kindof hit that, hit, hit it.
Um, you know, I felt a littlebetter about about, uh, you know
, moving on and it being in agood place for somebody else to
(37:53):
come in, and that you knowthey'll have some, some
resources to work with, and, uh,there's never a good time to
leave.
There's always kids that youfeel bad, bad leaving behind,
and you know friends andconnections, and and there's
there's never a good time and itjust seemed like the best, the
best time I was going to get,and this was a great opportunity
(38:13):
where I'll still be able tohelp those guys and still be
able to have those relationships.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Well, congrats to you on that jump.
You know it's going to be.
It's going to be.
It's going to be fun to watchyou from there?
Speaker 3 (38:25):
are you going to have to relocate?
Do you move or do you get tostay where you're at?
Yeah, so I'll work remotely forjuly and then august I'll move
up to pennsylvania all right,all right.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Well, dude, I it's been fun watching you coach.
It's been fun watching you andjust watching some of the
matches I've been able to seeand and seeing you coach the
years Cause I tell you we'vebeen going to super 32 since, I
think since Carrie started thereand then when you kind of
started, like Liam was still hewas young little kid, right and
I didn't I had no idea Campbellexisted, just like you guys.
(38:52):
And we're just driving aroundNorth Carolina after super 32.
I'm like that's there'sCampbell university, campbell
University right there.
We just wound up driving pastit.
Lee was like it's kind of acool campus.
So you guys kind of sparkedthat thing in an eight-year-old
brain already, just seeingcampus and being able to see a
college.
But I'm excited for the nextsteps you're taking.
Again, we're excited to seewhat you do.
(39:12):
It's a great thing that you didfor the university and the
program itself, because again, alot of guys just kind of walk
away.
They're like, oh, this is whatyou got, kind of thing.
You at least had thewherewithal to think of a
program and say I want to leaveit.
Better, you know, maybe, thanwhat I, than what I came into or
you know whatever it is, sothat that's awesome.
Um, you have something to get toto take care of the rest of the
(39:35):
day.
Here today you have.
You have kids that have stuffgoing on, so we want to get out
of your hair.
We appreciate you joining us.
Um, you ever want to hop on andtalk about stuff with wibn,
feel free to hit us up.
I'm sure you guys have your ownnetwork of where we get in
touch with two of that stuff,but we're willing to have you on
.
But it was great being able totalk to you, coach, and, uh,
good luck in the future.
(39:55):
You got any shout outs you wantto give here?
Speaker 3 (39:58):
no, I don't man, but I I appreciate it.
Like I said, we'll stay intouch.
Man, I love what I love yourguys's twitter account and stuff
, so, um, yeah man once I getsituated, maybe I'll reach back
out.
We'll talk some more about whatI'm doing there all right, man.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Um, I'm gonna hit some music here quick.
I just want to talk to you oncefor once.
I hit end, uh and uh, we'lltalk for a minute.
We'll be done.
But everybody, this has beenanother episode of the vision
quest podcast with coach scottysent us.
Appreciate it, man.
and cut.
That's what I'll do for themusic now.
Cut it short.
So, uh, everybody, thanks forjoining us.
Typically, we're live.
Uh, we've changed things up alittle bit.
Uh, we are just going back torecorded.
It's a lot easier, it's alittle more flexible for the
guys we talk to, because theseguys have busy lives.
Um, this is a an episode of thevision quest podcast.
You guys are listening to it.
(00:47):
Some of you might see clipslater on when I put them out,
but we are talking to currentlycoach scotty sentez of campbell
wrestling.
Thank you for joining me, coach.
It's been a while.
We talked about this a coupletimes in the future, in the past
, and now we got it together.
So thank you for taking thetime to join me.
I appreciate it yeah, I'mexcited.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Just so you know, that intro got me fired up.
That music just gets your bloodboiling it was a local guy too.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I didn't want to use the whole vision quest theme
song because I didn't want toget, you know, sued or things
like that.
So I was like, hey, come up myown thing.
Local guy was like, hey, whatcan you come up with for me?
I said, here's what I like.
I like a little bit of crazy,you know.
Like I I'm a country guy butI'm not like tim mcgraw, right,
like I'm that weird jamiejohnson type country that
brought back old school.
(01:31):
So he kind of mixed that with alittle bit of like rock.
It's fun.
It's fun.
I'm glad it fired you up becausewe're gonna get going here.
We got some, we got sometalking to do.
So exciting year so far for you, with some changes coming up
that we'll talk about in alittle bit.
But obviously, like we alwaysdo on the show, we kind of talk
about your whole life, right.
We kind of talk about thingsleading up into wrestling and
(01:52):
we're not going to kind of diveinto, like I told you, what your
favorite cereals were.
We'll talk a little bit aboutparents Support systems are
always big for wrestlers, right,and things like that.
So where were your beginnings?
I guess wrestling wise.
I know you came from Florida,right, um, so you're, you're a
Southern boy.
Wrestling wasn't, I guess, hugethen, but I mean we still got,
(02:14):
you know, guys like uh, um, oh,I'm trying to think, a couple of
guys that came out of Floridain the past, but it just hasn't
been huge.
So what was that like for youbeing in florida and coming up
in a wrestling environment?
Was that sparse, fightingcompetition?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I mean, we went all over um.
I started wrestling when I wastwo years old.
I had diapers on.
So there's a match of mewrestling eric grahalis, you
know, with street shoes on, youknow I had, I'd tip my
rollerblades off and put mywrestling shoes on and wrestled
him.
So um wrestled my whole life.
My my dad coached.
He was the first in our, youknow, first ever as a wrestler
(02:47):
and he loved it.
He got my brother into it,who's six years older than me.
He went on to wrestle atUniversity of Michigan, okay,
and then my sister wrestled.
So my dad was one of the earlypeople putting females in
wrestling.
She's three years older than meand then I came up and you know
we were that family.
Every Saturday we were loadingin the car and driving three
(03:08):
hours north to Bradenton,florida, to wrestle the same two
people every weekend.
You know we were that family.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I love this mix of you.
Know there are a lot of guysout there that had parents that
were either high-level athletes,you know things like that, and
then you got the kids that, well, my parents never wrestled,
they didn't play any sports, sothey had no clue what was going
on with me, whereas you'reyou're kind of the middle of the
road now where your dad was.
You know he was involved insports, obviously knew about
sport, got you guys all involvedin sports, or in wrestling
(03:35):
especially.
But where was he in wrestling?
Was your dad a wrestler?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
yeah, he was a wrestler in high school.
He wasn't like a collegewrestler or anything like that,
but I think he was prettytroubled uh, troubled kid he
tells talks about his, hishistory and I think it was a
rough.
He had a rough life andwrestling kind of got him on
track and so he put us in it.
He just knew the values thatwrestling instilled and and so
it became a big part of ourfamily my mom, my dad, my
brother, my sister.
(03:59):
He coached, you know, when hegot out of coaching he still
finds way in.
I mean, he's just one of thoseguys that loves wrestling and
and and off on us a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
That's awesome and I think a lot of times too.
You know I have a.
My older, my youngest, liam, is17.
I played high level sports whenI was.
When I was younger, I playedsoccer.
That was my gig.
But knowing just you knowthings have changed, right.
So the things that you wentthrough cause watching some of
your video, like 2011, centralMichigan, stuff like that and
(04:31):
watching some of the matches youhad, um, and just the
competition that you had to gothrough was your dad, I guess,
aware of?
Uh, and obviously you hadconnections with other coaches
but was he aware of, like, allthese tournaments that were out
there?
Because you said you startedyoung you're and your siblings
were in it?
Were you going to like tulsa'sand things like that as a kid?
Like what was your dad's theoryon that?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
yeah, no, we were going all over, though.
I had a coach, uh, like anational coach.
His name was joe blasucci,phenomenal coach.
He's kind of I mean, he's oneof those razor edge coaches
where, like the what, you eitherhate him or you love him.
There's no in between.
So most of the state hates theguy, but he's awesome.
He would take all of usknuckleheads up and all around
the country doing nhca duels,which was really big, yeah, and
(05:12):
uh, you know, super 32, we didthat, I think, um, okay, on that
time it just, uh, people didn'tknow who was good and who
wasn't good.
Flow wrestling had just comeout.
Yeah, weren't all theserankings?
Um, and so I was a little bitunder the radar, you know, I had
, you know, they're evenhistorically, I'm, I'm, I've had
I'm the most super 32 medals orsomething, right, like I think
(05:34):
I have like five or somethingcrazy like that.
And uh, you know, once, and anduh, still, people didn't know
you, because at that point, whenI started at super 32, it was
in a high school gym wow, schoolgym.
We we stayed in a, uh, atrailer out back like, uh, like
an rv.
We stayed in an rv.
There was four of us.
I slept on the floor of an rvand got up and wrestled in super
(05:56):
32 and I say I say that'sawesome.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
In a sense of that must have been, you know, like
fun to you know, especiallythinking about but at the time
probably not awesome sleeping onthe floor.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
It was so he had a legendary coach and uh, he, he's
so good he passed away, um,yeah, but but he was an
incredible, he made it so fun,like right we had wrestling
class.
We played games half the time.
It was like we played footballfor practice and then the other
half was live wrestling and and,uh, he was, he's actually part
of uh, he owned a carnival, andso we'd all work in the summer
(06:32):
and that's how we paid forsummer camp, and so it was like
a carny coming up, you know, umthat sounds like.
Florida, though, that soundslike yeah, and that's what would
pay for our events and andthings like that would go and
help them work and, dude, it wasjust such great memories
traveling around and earning ourkeep, right like our parents
were paying for our camps, andhe gave us the opportunity to
earn it.
And so, uh, we were.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
We were learning how to work and earn our own money
it's like thinking about thepalmers wrestling bears at like
circuses and stuff like that,when those guys I was taking
little kids money and they tryto pop the balloon and I just
spray on it so that it wouldroll off it you know, that's
awesome.
So much fun, so much fun to behad.
(07:15):
So I mean, it's not like youwere so to me, you, you're,
you're placing at high schoolstate at eighth grade, you're
one of them, my, my, jobasuitsucci, will never let me
hear the end of it.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
He said I, I got too high, got too high, you know,
with the boots in.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
So you know, I was just watching you wrestle zach
thomas and uh from michigan andI'm pretty sure I heard the same
thing watching boots, don't gettoo high, he can feel it.
He can feel it so well.
We'll talk about that a littlebit too, because I kind of it
was fun watching you wrestle,especially against Tyler Graff,
and you had mentioned that he hebeat you up at Midlands but
(07:49):
then you'd be at NCAAs and Ithink that was the match I
watched.
But it's it's interesting tosee the, the, the contrast and
background.
So, like you said, your dad wasa high school wrestling coach
but he had a great network, itsounds like, with these other
guys that he's able to get youin touch with and have you
around and with that type ofwrestling around.
Was that what do you feel like?
(08:10):
That was really kind of thebeginning of florida, kind of
coming up in wrestling, becauseI mean, we're talking about
states like, right now, georgiaand those that that have been
coming up right.
It's been kind of a slow climbbut making their way up.
Was that kind of a starting toa starting point of florida
wrestling because I was in themiddle of it, right.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
But you had brandon florida.
That was one of the best teamsin the country, you know.
You had fozart.
You had the grahalis brothers.
You know, I mean you, you had alot of really great wrestlers
winning and competing well infargo and national event south
dade was really good at thattime.
Um, we've always had somereally good wrestlers.
Um, I think Florida's, you know, doing a lot of the right
(08:47):
things right now.
I know they got BB Train downthere.
They got a couple differentreally great clubs that are
growing and, you know, gettingmore and more wrestlers into
freestyle, which I think isreally important.
I had never wrestled freestylecoming up.
Okay, you know, that's probablywhy I became such a good top
wrestler is I never had totransition between styles and
(09:08):
but I don't know when it startedor where it's good it's always
seemed like they've had somegood wrestlers.
It's just maybe, maybe thedepth's not always there, you
know.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, For sure, and that could
speak for you know any a coupleof different States out there.
It's not just florida, but Imean it's.
It's just great to see now,especially you got mako down
there.
You're like you're talkingabout, you got you got lugo, who
just moved his his stuff downthere, so it's definitely not
just sitting around waitinganymore.
They're definitely doing stuffdown there.
So it's it's good to see.
As you were kind of growing upas a kid, where you was that was
(09:42):
wrestling, something like itwere.
Were you trying other sports,was wrestling.
Only the thing Was that it yourdad only had you on the one
track, or was he kind of likeyou guys got to try other stuff?
You?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
were that guy I was.
I was the dude.
When I hit eighth grade, theyhelped me back a year because I
wasn't big enough to wrestle inhigh school.
I was that.
I'm just your typical wrestlingguy.
Yeah.
Okay, I didn't have such goodgrades.
The only way they could hold meback was put me in a private
school.
So they had to shift me over toa private Christian school just
in order to hold me backbecause my grades were so good.
(10:10):
They said they were going tohold me back.
I said, okay, good luck, I'mgoing to get straight.
A's right.
Yeah, so we were that family.
We were a little bit of thecrazy wrestling family.
It ended up working out, Ithink, a lot of big, big doors
open for me because I was ableto mature a little bit and and
grow a little bit and andobviously I got a little more
opportunity because of that.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
so it was a smart move, but at the time you don't
want to do it yeah well, yeahsure, well, it wasn't like it
was any like cattle prods, likecarrie colat and things like
that.
Right, like you know like thatso it's, yeah, it worked out.
it worked out for what you guysare doing and the way you guys
are going about it.
And there's no shame in a lotof that when I, when I hear
about guys you know justdifferent ways that they come up
there's always something youcan take away from something,
(10:51):
right?
I mean, are there things nowthat you do in your coaching
that kind of goes along withwhat you kind of learned coming
up?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Yeah, I'd say the biggest thing over time is is
have fun, have the kids have fun.
You know, I learned a lot ofthat from chris hayward who was
my high school coach, and Ithink my dad was real serious
with my older brother and he wasa little less successful and
with me he sort of took a stepback from being a coach and just
was a dad with me and it madeit I had a lot more success.
So I always try to, you know,kind of meet the kid where he's
(11:20):
at, try to try to make it fun.
I think that's really importantfor our sport.
I think, um, you know it'salready hard enough as it is.
You don't need to run, runsomebody in the ground that's
trying their best, right that'strue, very true, and I run into
that.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
I mean god still, and I'm not even the coach anymore
with my son as a parent, youknow, trying to not hammer home
too much, but I've alwaysexpected 110 percent.
That, like I'm not a tech, Idon know a technique like these
guys do anymore.
It's different, right, Iwrestled until my junior year
and I was horrible.
So I kind of reserve a lot ofthat stuff for the coaches and
I'm just the guy that expects,you know, just give me the
(11:54):
energy.
I just need the energy.
As long as I see it, the restwill come with it, right?
So where were you in the eyesof trying to, you know, just
having having such, you know, agood background, as far as just
a solid background in wrestlingcoming up, what was, what were
your thoughts towards collegeand wrestling?
Where were you?
Were you thinking about alreadyas a freshman in high school,
(12:16):
like, hey, I can't wait tillyour phone calls, like what were
your thoughts towards it?
Just kind of going into theprocess, especially with the
people you have around you?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
I was clueless as the college wrestling right.
Yeah, um, I went to themichigan camp every year but I
was the guy that my brotherwould get mad at me because I
wouldn't do the intensive camp,I just wanted to the technique
camp.
It's summertime, I'm not tryingto run and do push-ups, brother
, you know.
Um, look at the end of the campwhen they do the, the
tournament day, I'll beat thecrap out of all your other, your
buddy, buddy's friends andright Like um.
(12:44):
So I just was a little bitclueless.
I just really liked wrestling.
I had a little bit of an edgeto me, a little bit of a out of
high school, probably a wildside, and at that time I knew I
was going to college, but itwasn't anything I thought of.
I went and visited centralMichigan.
I had a bunch of visits linedup and, uh, I'm sort of a you
know, pull the trigger kind ofguy.
(13:05):
I loved it, canceled all myvisits, yeah, right.
And he went to talk to me aboutwhat the scholarship was
looking like.
I said, talk to my parentsabout that, like I'm coming here
.
Yeah, I didn't.
It just, uh, I knew what Iwanted to do.
I was laser focused.
I went there, I saw what tomwas doing.
I could tell, yeah, he wasgoing to hold me accountable and
I knew at least I was matureenough to know I needed that.
(13:28):
And uh, and like I said I, thatguy definitely changed my life
because I think, uh, I don'tknow if I would have made it in
a lot of other programs, but uh,he, he got me right.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
And he got me right really fast I've heard some
really good things about coach.
Barely in as far as and I'venever met the guy.
I've only watched duels, thingslike that and seen a couple
interviews.
But I've heard a lot of goodthings about him in general,
especially once the retirementcame around, and people kind of
asking questions about him.
They're like man, he's helpedso many kids.
It definitely sounds likethat's the kind of guy he was.
(13:58):
I would take it that youprobably learned a lot from
Coach Borealy when it comes tothe coaching aspect of it, along
with your dad, you know.
I mean, your dad's still a partof that group.
But where, where were your?
What were your intentions whenyou went into college wrestling
because a lot of kids obviouslyare going to go in for their
four years, maybe they're doneright were you, because you
talked about getting intofreestyle late?
(14:19):
Did you find yourself likingfreestyle at all?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
were you like no, I didn't like freestyle until I
got to to campbell and workedunder carrie and then I was
exposed to it because tom tomdidn't really do me.
We would have the rtc freestylebut we just were doing folk
style, right.
And then he might send us to anevent and I I wouldn't know the
rules.
I'd pick somebody up in adouble leg and walk out of
bounds with them and give them apoint, like I had no idea what
(14:41):
was going on and um, and so Ididn't get into freestyle until
later.
Like I said, I was justwrestling because it was fun, I
loved winning, I enjoyed winning, I knew it just kind of kept me
on the straight and narrow.
That was the reason why I gotgood grades at the time was
because of wrestling and itwasn't until, you know, I met my
(15:03):
now wife and we had a kid thatI had.
I grew up really quick, right,I was in college.
So that's when I started tofigure out okay, what am I doing
the rest of my life, right,what do I want to do for a
career?
And kind of had to snap into itpretty quick.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
So you went to, you got an English major at Central
Michigan, right.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
English and poetry.
It only takes a couple extraclasses to get that.
Throw that in there, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Okay, it only takes a couple extra classes to get
that.
Throw that in there, you know,okay.
So the arts so we have the artsunder control where?
So because of that, okay,because that's I mean, that's
still not in like a totally easyunless you're good at it, right
, you have to dedicate a certainamount of time to that, right?
So how?
And you got good grades, so howdo?
That's a big thing that we tryto talk about on here is like
the the work slash life balancewhen it comes to school.
I, that's a big thing that wetry to talk about on here is
like the the work slash lifebalance when it comes to school.
I mean, that's not an easydegree, as much as people want
(15:52):
to say.
Oh, it's an English degree,it's not easy.
I wanted to go to school forthat and I was like, oh no, I'm
not doing that.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
It's hard.
There's a lot of books I wasgoing learn how to talk to
people, how to communicate withpeople, how to write emails, how
to get my ideas across, and Ithought coaching you know
English would help with thatright Learning how to structure
an argument, learning how tocommunicate, and so I did it.
(16:18):
when I got to the later levels.
I just, I mean, I was in thatclassroom raising my hand.
I was talking to people.
I had a guy named, you know,pete Puckett, who's now a
professor.
I swear he would spoon feed itto me like I was a baby.
He would say read thisparagraph.
I would read it and he'd saywhat does that mean?
I'd say I have no clue, andhe'd walk me through the whole
thing.
Right, and I would just bringhim a pizza.
(16:40):
You know he was like you know,second string guy on the team
and just super smart and I'dbring him a pizza and just have
him baby it to me until Ifigured it out.
What took him?
Probably 10 minutes, took me anhour, but I would.
I would grind at it and figureit out, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
But you had that dude that gave you the angle right.
He gave you that angle tofigure it out, which is key.
I mean, a lot of guys thinkthat going to college is like oh
yeah, it's just.
No, it's not like high schoolat all.
When it comes to education,anything, it's all different.
It's all, yeah, you go into aclassroom, things like that, but
the focus is different.
Now you have.
I tried to explain this to Liam.
I said you're getting paid tobe here.
This is now kind of a job, soyou have to learn that balance
(17:18):
of what you're doing.
The thing that I have aquestion on, though, is that you
started early.
Your your Cal Poly collegecoaching career started right
after college, wasn't it?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yep Fresh out of college.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Went right to work with Brennan Buckley at Cal
Pauly.
How does how?
Okay, because I know there aregoing to be some kids and
parents with questions like this, because there are kids that
want to stick in wrestling right, this is their goal is when
they're done.
You know.
Well, I really want to be inwrestling, but I don't know what
I have to do to stay in it.
What?
What does it take?
If that's your goal, what doesit take to jump into a career
like that and that quickly?
Was it just someone needing ahand and reaching out, or did
(17:54):
they reach out to you?
How does that networking workout like that?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Oh, I don't remember exactly how that one worked,
obviously in division one.
You know college wrestling.
I think having success givesyou a little bit of a leg up.
You know they're looking forworkout partners, um, but
there's a lot more that goesbehind the scenes in coaching.
You know they're.
They're looking for people tohelp them with their budget,
help them with, you know,recruiting and fundraising.
They're looking for people, uh,to help them with their budget
(18:22):
sheets, to to do the paperwork.
I mean, there's a lot more toit that people don't don't see.
And so, um, being able to go andactually talk to people and and
and meet people, and and, uh,having a good reputation from
your coach, that you're going towork hard and that you're going
to, you're going to learn andthat you're going to do what's
needed to be done.
That's the best thing about um,you know, being a wrestler is
(18:43):
you have a coach.
That's that's going to tell thetruth about you, and that's why
every employer is going to beable to reach out to a coach and
say what do you know about this?
Because I'm telling you, tomBorelli knows how I act when I'm
tired.
He knows what I'm going to dowhen things get hard and you
really have four or five yearsin college to make a really
great reputation for yourselfand I tried really hard to make
(19:05):
sure I had a good reputationwith Tom Borelli and my
teammates.
Yourself and you know I I triedreally hard to make sure I had
a good reputation with with withtom borelli and my teammates
because, um, I knew, I knewpeople would ask questions down
the road about me good to know,good to know, keep your nose
clean, do the right thing andand and honestly, most of the
guys that want to stay withinthe sport typically, you know,
are all right.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
You know for the most part, but things happen and
just, I think the big thing tome, because that's what liam
wants to stick with it.
You know he wants to.
I want to coach and things likethat.
It's like kind of I say youcan't just walk into an rtc job,
man like you, you have to.
You know there's, there's workthat still goes into it and it's
, like you said, reputation,guys knowing that you're willing
to work and things like that,whereas if people start hearing
(19:44):
that you're just dropping theball and stuff constantly,
they're not going to want youaround.
So, and that's any employer,right, that's any employer.
Any employer finds that outabout you.
That's what they're going tosay.
So, with with kind of, withyour transition from sports into
coaching, how were, how wereyour because I mean, you were
already talking about, you know,being married and stuff too
right, being in college, right?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
yeah, I didn't.
Well, I had my son.
Um, yeah, he's.
He's going into high schoolnext year.
I had him when I was a juniorin college okay, okay get
married until a little bit laterum yep but had to grow up
really quick.
Had to work through college.
You know um had to figure out.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah that's another interesting thing, because how
do you have time for a job whenyou're practicing as much and
then you're also, uh, you knowyou're practicing as much and
then you're also, uh, you knowyou studying and things like
that, like we're time managementLike, you do what you need to
do and you do as hard as you cando it.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
And uh, you know every wrestler does that, right,
I mean sure you know somesleepless nights.
I got to get up, throw theweight around.
You got to put your head in thebooks, you got to do what you
need to do and perform at thesame level, if not better, than
your classmates, even thoughthey went to bed at four o'clock
.
You were up working out ordoing what you needed to do.
You still got to get up andoutperform those guys in the
(20:59):
classroom.
And you know you just developand try to develop an elite
level mindset is what you try todo and you just do what needs
to get done.
It's as simple as that.
Do what needs to get done.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
So you're, you're, you're a grinder, you're a guy
that it doesn't matter what's infront of you to get it done.
I mean I and I, I don't do this.
I always tell everybody this, Idon't do digging Like.
I watched some of your matches,right, I didn't look to see who
you dealt with in the past andI'm listening to you.
It's like holy cow, like you,you're working, you had kids,
(21:32):
you had, you know, you had arelationship, you had sports and
then you had school and youdealt with all of that and still
graduated with a major and aminor and you still were able to
get into coaching ASAP.
So that says a lot, right.
I mean there's a lot ofcharacter there.
And we also talk about you knowthe, the the time that you
spend, you know, doing thosethings, the more that you
realize the hard work pays off,kind of thing, and you know
(21:52):
instant gratification.
Were you ever at a point whereyou wanted to quit wrestling?
Speaker 3 (21:57):
If, if, if you've ever wrestled, come on, you've
been to that point.
You know like it's like thequote you got to do what you
hate, to do Like you love it.
Sometimes I would say I was, Iloved it a lot more than I ever
hated it.
And and I, when I got tocollege, I loved it.
I love, I loved the grind, youknow.
But there were times in middleschool or you know, um that,
(22:19):
that you get bored with it oryeah, things were really easy at
the time, but when it gotharder and it was challenging, I
enjoyed it.
I'm one of those guys guys thatlove winning more than I hate
losing.
Like a loss.
I can get over pretty quick andthat's probably.
I wasn't as good of a wrestleras some, but I always thought I
was going to win.
I loved winning.
I liked the trash talk evenmore than winning.
(22:42):
Okay, it gave me an edge.
It's like I could bounce backquick from somebody taking me
down early or losing atournament, I mean, where most
guys they, they can't dustthemselves off it.
I naturally I didn't matter tome.
I was already past it.
I wanted to win the next one,right, okay okay, man, they get
it, we get a.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
We have to get like your genetics.
Put it in a bottle, you know,like, and then we need to save
that because that needs to likego through generations.
In my opinion it's it's To meit's what's missing in a lot of
stuff, right?
I don't think it's necessarilymissing the kids.
It's missing in parenting, likejust trying to push your kids
to that point, whether they'rein sports or not.
Sometimes you got to do whateveryou got to do to make something
happen right, and I've failed.
(23:21):
You know I've done plenty inthe past that I've just failed
on it.
I just failed on it.
I didn't do what I had to do.
But there are a lot ofsituations as you have kids.
I had same thing with me withmy oldest son, like I didn't
want to have kids but I had toall of a sudden become mentally
and financially prepared for achild.
Just got to do it.
You know you just got to do it.
So, as you get into thiscoaching position at Cal Poly, I
always think it's interestingfor you're on.
(23:44):
You're on one area of thecountry and you went over to the
next area of the country.
What was that like for yougoing there, especially having
family and things like that.
How was that transition for youguys?
Speaker 3 (23:55):
It was tough.
I mean I think I went up forthe first couple of months by
myself.
I had to leave my wife and sonbecause I had to find a place to
live.
I had to earn enough money towhere I could bring her here.
We went there with nothing andCal Poly was so expensive Uh, I
(24:17):
was losing money every month.
So we were broke.
But we loved coaching we.
The areas is phenomenal.
I mean the education you getthere is phenomenal.
I mean it's uh.
If you've never looked into CalPoly, it's, it's uh.
There's.
There's very few places in theworld like Cal Poly.
And so we had a lot of fun andand and met a lot of really cool
people there and and uh.
But, like I said, it was itwasn't a place at that time.
(24:38):
The support that that we weregetting, I mean as an assistant
coach, we were, we were losingmoney, right, we were, we were
paying to be there and coach anduh.
So so eventually had to move onand, yeah, you know, move took,
took the job at campbell acouple years down the road yeah,
it was.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
It was like two or three years or something like
that and you wound up there andthen what was the?
What was the draw?
Was it because you didn't evenknow about campbell?
You had no idea campbellexisted until carrie called you.
But he called you and that itwas just a proposal like hey,
we'd really like to come kind ofcome up with a more
professional in the beginning ofjust.
We really want you to join theteam, come check it out, kind of
(25:14):
thing.
How did that go for you?
Speaker 3 (25:17):
And so I had to leave .
You know, cal Poly, my job atthe time, brendan Buckley.
He's the head coach, and anytime a head coach leaves, if
you're an assistant, you'rescratching your head trying to
figure out what you're going todo.
So he took the executivedirector job at Beat the Streets
, has done a phenomenal jobthere, and he was moving to New
York.
So you know, I don't know whatI'm going to do.
(25:38):
And I had a couple of schoolsreach out, some some really good
ones, and there were actuallysome other opportunities that I
really wanted to do.
But my wife they were, theywere where it's cold, right, and
she's like we're not doing itRight, um, at that she had just
gotten used to California.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
She wasn't ready to make that, that move and um, and
so I listened to to.
Carrie came down and kind ofsaw what he was he was trying to
do here at the time.
They were really bad.
I mean, they were almost notallowed to compete in the NCAA
tournament because their gradeswere so poor.
I think they were like youmight have to look it up four
and 11 or two and 11.
They were really really bad.
I came there, andrew Morganfollowed me.
(26:16):
It was basically Cal Poly'sbest wrestler and it was turned
around in a year.
We were able to pull together areally good recruiting class
and we went from 11 or whateverthe record was, to winning the
conference, later having ourfirst All-American in Nathan
Kreiser and they startedinvesting a lot at that time
built a new wrestling room, dida lot of really cool things for
(26:40):
the for the program and it wasfun.
It was really fun to be a partof part of that growth and just
how fast the game was prettyamazing so in, and then you get
there in time for who was it?
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I don't know how soon after covet hit, but we always
we're going to have the c wordaround for a little bit and
discussions as far as wrestlinggoes.
But the?
Uh, covet hit and what?
What was it like at number oneat campbell for covet?
Um, because it's a smallerprogram, right, and, and you
know, small things get impactedby large things differently.
(27:13):
So how was that?
Was there an air of like kindof caution of what could happen
around there after co?
You know, when covet was goingon like this could end the
program.
Possibly Was there any kind oftalk like that at all at the
time?
Speaker 3 (27:25):
No, not at the time.
So so here's what happened.
So, right before COVID came,canceled the NCAA tournament.
That was Kerry's last year,right.
So after it was canceled,colette left, the athletic
director left.
There was some leadership thatleft.
There was a lot of really bigchanges in that time, and so it
was my first year ever being ahead coach.
(27:45):
It was my athletic director'sfirst year.
Omar Banks, we've gone throughtwo athletic directors.
Now we're on the second.
It was both our first timesbeing a leader, right, and I
think that first year, rightafter Colat left, we lost 17
guys just because they had comethere for carry, and you know,
17 guys left, and so we had tobasically rebuild it all, and so
(28:09):
to be able to bounce back andwin the conference tournament
after losing 17 guys was prettysurprising and it was really
hard, because you know we haveDuke right up the road and we do
have medical school uh, doschool and so we were very, very
cautious, um, with everythingwith COVID, and we had such a
large roster that we would haveto split our practices into two,
(28:33):
and, uh, we'd have all thesecleaning things we had to do in
between practices, and then ifanyone got COVID.
It was on the coaches to to takecare of them, to deliver food.
So we were there from 6 AM to 7PM as coaches, monday through
Friday.
And and just because we we, youknow, we all wanted to be at
(28:54):
both practices, we have to makesure they get food, which we try
to rotate.
You're waiting for these kidsto come out, cause you're not
allowed to give it to them,you're not allowed to go to
their door, so you had to like.
It was like wow, it was theweirdest thing.
And, um, thank goodness I haveI've gotten really lucky with
the coaches that I've been ableto hire um, and and they've made
all these things a lot easierthan than they probably could
(29:16):
have been.
Um, but it was, it was a reallytough.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
It was a really tough time to lead, for sure yeah,
yeah, especially when it's, Imean, your first time around,
right like now you have.
You have enough red tape as itis.
Now you add 5 000 more stripsof red tape in front of you to
get I remember.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
I remember one rule.
It was uh, this is ridiculous.
We could run in a circle towarm up in one direction but if
one person faced the otherdirection, everyone's contact
traced.
So one person would stop andturn around and tie their shoe
and they were like contact traceand they're writing it down and
I'm like this is crazy andthere was just they wear masks,
(29:55):
but go ahead and sweat on eachother.
There were rules that, and atthe time I mean honestly I
didn't know any better, I was-.
Oh, schools that, that, uh, andat the time I mean honestly I
didn't know any better, I was ohyeah, yeah, any better either.
I was doing whatever I neededto do.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
I'm not a doctor I just uh, I thought it was just
because we were going throughthe same stuff here I mean even
with just little kids, stuff inmiddle school but it just threw
me that we're having kidswearing masks while they're
grabbing each other and sweatingon each other like I remember
being asked is there any way youcan do wrestling without
contact?
Speaker 3 (30:22):
and I was like there's no chance, you gotta be
kidding me.
We're only gonna teach superducks, that's it.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
That's all we're teaching, and then, as soon as
you're down, I'm just like thisyou're out, okay, we're good.
That's crazy.
So you, you were thrown into achallenging time.
You made success out of it.
So I and that's kind of whatI've too, reading through some
of your background is that youstarted coaching early but
you've been doing a fuckingphenomenal job, dude, like, even
(30:49):
as an assistant coach.
You're building, you know allAmericans and now you're coming
into a small school in NorthCarolina and you're building a
championship-type team.
You know, like.
So that sticks out in my head isjust the knowledge of, of like,
okay, what does this guy do?
Is this a money ball thing forhim?
Can you see things in guys thatsome coaches don't?
You know, right, and I'm not,don't get me wrong.
(31:10):
I'm not saying that you knowit's the end of the world kind
of thing, like people shouldstop and study it, but it just
it.
It sticks out in my brainseeing a young guy like that
being able to come up and havethat success.
So you know what you're doing.
What are your goals now?
Because we talked a little bitabout you going from coaching
now into the business world,which is going to help
everything.
You know, like you said a widevariety of things for wrestlers
(31:31):
in the wrestling community.
What, what did you find as, uh,the most challenging thing in
coaching that you think willhelp into the new business world
here?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Okay, yeah, I mean first of all, thank you for the
things you said.
That's really nice of you.
You know kind of two part.
To answer the part of this.
I mean I've just beensurrounded by some really good
people.
I've gotten lucky with somesome hires and and I've leaned a
lot on on on the group aroundme and so it's not like a
one-man thing, it's a.
(32:04):
You get a little bit luckysometimes with the hires you
make and I've made some somereally good hires each year.
I mean, I mean I've beensurrounded by some really good
people, um, just in terms ofcoaching staff and things like
that.
Um, you know, going into thisnext role, um, one thing I've
always preached and I'vebelieved in is setting guys up
for the rest of their lives.
I really care about wrestling.
(32:25):
Wrestling is very important inmy family.
My dad's part of the FloridaWrestling Coaches Hall of Fame.
My brother's a wrestling coach.
He actually was an AD.
He wanted to touch more kids'lives and be closer to the
action.
He left his AD job to go backto coaching.
Our whole family has as sort ofum, we're about changing
(32:45):
people's lives.
You know, um, I I that's moreimportant to me than the wins
and the losses and and whenwrestlers and business network
reached out.
I knew about the nwca, um, Iknow about mike moyer, I know
that you know he.
He genuinely cares aboutwrestling on the high school and
the college level more than anyother organization I've ever
(33:06):
seen, and I can speak that tofact.
I've seen the values, theirmission statement and they would
amaze you if you were to readthese things and they're written
in a way that I mean, one ofthe things is integrity, right,
it's, it's he's genuinelylooking out for the betterment
of every college program, everyhigh school program, and and
that that impressed me.
(33:26):
And and, uh, you know, to be apart of something I think can,
can help protect wrestling longterm, the wrestlers and business
network.
I think that's.
That's exciting.
You know I, like I said, I canonly reach so many people as a
college coach and I get a chanceto really help wrestling on all
levels and I'm really excitedabout it.
(33:48):
I mean, I still have a lot tolearn.
I'm not there yet.
I've just been studying.
I understand what the missionis now.
I've read into a lot of thestrategies, some of these.
I'm not allowed to talk aboutthem yet.
Sure, yeah, I'm very impressedwith, with the integrity of, of
the organization, like to readbehind the scenes and see it.
(34:09):
You don't know what, what, whatpeople are thinking.
It's a.
It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
It's good, well, and I think, uh, I think, just with
the brain power that you'veshown and things like that it's,
I think obviously it's it'sgoing to be a good step.
I can see the things thatyou're talking about and kind of
envision what you're trying toput together and it does work.
I mean we talked about itearlier how many of these kids
that are going into college whenthey're, you know, they're so,
they're so sports driven thatthat that piece outside of that
(34:37):
just is not clicking right.
They just don't think about itquite yet.
But to be able to have serviceslike yours and and community
leaders around that they haveconnections with, and things
like that, if they have guyslike you around, they could put
it in place with them.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
It only helps, right, I mean there's nobody more
prepared prepared for theworkforce than wrestlers.
There's nobody more preparedand, uh, it's just giving them
the opportunities.
I think that we're so focusedand so driven while we're in
college on focusing on theschoolwork, focusing on the
wrestling, focus on performing,adapting, that sometimes we miss
(35:12):
out on planning for the future,and that's kind of where we
come in is to make it easy onthem.
Just fill this thing out, openthe doors, let them decide,
because they are like, I've beenthere as a, as a head coach,
and I've had WIBN, reach out anduh, and, and you know it's
important, but you're just sodriven on what's in front of you
as, as as a competitor, whetherit be as a coach or, uh, an
(35:34):
athlete, um, that I think anorganization like this is
extremely important for oursport.
Right on that.
I think an organization likethis is extremely important for
our sport.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Right on.
You know you mentioned a coupleof things as far as missions
and things like that.
You've been on a mission.
So the question I have now isthat a hundred thousand dollars
in a couple of weeks, right Likeyou killed it in fundraising is
now I the only thing that I?
I it's not a question in a badway, but I ask is were you able
(36:04):
and wanted because a lot oftimes coaches kind of you know
they're like, well, I'm donehere.
You know it's kind of like notthat they give up, they're just
kind of like relinquishing whatthey need to do, kind of thing
but you kept going and you yougot that amount.
I feel like it's is it anindicator of who might be
staying is?
Did they announce a head coachat all at Campbell?
Speaker 3 (36:23):
No, they're talking to people.
They're talking to peoplein-house.
They're talking to people outof house.
They talked to the team.
They told the team hey, we'rein communication with hiring new
coaches.
I'm there if they want to useme or have questions.
I know they're reaching out.
They're talking to othercoaches and asking about other
coaches, and and so they're.
They're doing their work to tryto find the the right person
(36:45):
okay you know, a lot of respectyou for doing that.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
But I mean because, I mean again, a lot of coaches
are like I'm, you know, I'm, I'mdone with the I'm done coaching
of the program.
It's not that they didn't likeit or anything, they're just
kind of done.
So they stopped doing it.
You're still working.
So it kind of the conspiracytheory in my brain says that you
kind of know who is taking overand it's someone that's there.
You don't want to leave themwith something that's not, you
know, not good.
But obviously that's just mebeing a conspiracy theorist, so
(37:10):
I tried to get that out of there.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
But now here's the honest truth.
Like the alumni and the formercoaches, I'm like they're
genuine close friends of mine.
That'll like they're genuineclose friends of mine that'll be
friends of mine for the rest ofmy life, like really close with
you know, I just went to churchtoday with with coach jerry
hartman, who coached in the 80s,right, yeah, yeah and so um
it's awesome sort of theconnections that I've made here
(37:32):
and the friendships that I made.
I you know you have aresponsibility to do a really
good job and uh you know Iwasn't thinking about leaving.
I, I was thinking about leavingwhen I was fundraising, but it
wasn't decided.
Sure, sure, yeah, once we kindof hit that, hit, hit it.
Um, you know, I felt a littlebetter about about, uh, you know
, moving on and it being in agood place for somebody else to
(37:53):
come in, and that you knowthey'll have some, some
resources to work with, and, uh,there's never a good time to
leave.
There's always kids that youfeel bad, bad leaving behind,
and you know friends andconnections, and and there's
there's never a good time and itjust seemed like the best, the
best time I was going to get,and this was a great opportunity
(38:13):
where I'll still be able tohelp those guys and still be
able to have those relationships.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Well, congrats to you on that jump.
You know it's going to be.
It's going to be.
It's going to be fun to watchyou from there?
Speaker 3 (38:25):
are you going to have to relocate?
Do you move or do you get tostay where you're at?
Yeah, so I'll work remotely forjuly and then august I'll move
up to pennsylvania all right,all right.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Well, dude, I it's been fun watching you coach.
It's been fun watching you andjust watching some of the
matches I've been able to seeand and seeing you coach the
years Cause I tell you we'vebeen going to super 32 since, I
think since Carrie started thereand then when you kind of
started, like Liam was still hewas young little kid, right and
I didn't I had no idea Campbellexisted, just like you guys.
(38:52):
And we're just driving aroundNorth Carolina after super 32.
I'm like that's there'sCampbell university, campbell
University right there.
We just wound up driving pastit.
Lee was like it's kind of acool campus.
So you guys kind of sparkedthat thing in an eight-year-old
brain already, just seeingcampus and being able to see a
college.
But I'm excited for the nextsteps you're taking.
Again, we're excited to seewhat you do.
(39:12):
It's a great thing that you didfor the university and the
program itself, because again, alot of guys just kind of walk
away.
They're like, oh, this is whatyou got, kind of thing.
You at least had thewherewithal to think of a
program and say I want to leaveit.
Better, you know, maybe, thanwhat I, than what I came into or
you know whatever it is, sothat that's awesome.
Um, you have something to get toto take care of the rest of the
(39:35):
day.
Here today you have.
You have kids that have stuffgoing on, so we want to get out
of your hair.
We appreciate you joining us.
Um, you ever want to hop on andtalk about stuff with wibn,
feel free to hit us up.
I'm sure you guys have your ownnetwork of where we get in
touch with two of that stuff,but we're willing to have you on
.
But it was great being able totalk to you, coach, and, uh,
good luck in the future.
(39:55):
You got any shout outs you wantto give here?
Speaker 3 (39:58):
no, I don't man, but I I appreciate it.
Like I said, we'll stay intouch.
Man, I love what I love yourguys's twitter account and stuff
, so, um, yeah man once I getsituated, maybe I'll reach back
out.
We'll talk some more about whatI'm doing there all right, man.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Um, I'm gonna hit some music here quick.
I just want to talk to you oncefor once.
I hit end, uh and uh, we'lltalk for a minute.
We'll be done.
But everybody, this has beenanother episode of the vision
quest podcast with coach scottysent us.
Appreciate it, man.
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