Poway H.S. (Calif.) head coach John Meyers - OTM669

Joining the program today is Poway High School head wrestling coach John Meyers. Meyers took over the California powerhouse wrestling program in the spring of 2018 after the retirement of Hall of Fame coach Wayne Branstetter. Meyers was named the CIF coach of the Year in 2022. Join Kyle Klingman and Andy Hamilton as they talk about the world of wrestling on the flagship podcast of Trackwrestling.com from FloSports.

Show Segments
0:34 - Andy Hamilton isn’t like The Ramones, he doesn’t want to be sedated.
2:40 - Chuck Long was one of Andy’s early heroes.
5:00 - Back on Kyle’s “Future Olympic Champion” pet peeve.
13:00 - Looking at the U20 World Championships.
16:35 - Different styles of venues for the NCAA Championships.
21:00 - Helen Maroulis makes yet another world team.
23:15 - The Sergeant Duffel from Cliff Keen Athletic
24:15 - John Meyers Interview
1:08:00 - Cliff Keen Athletic
1:09:00 - Show Wrap

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I am Jason Bryant from the ShortTime Wrestling podcast and founder of the Matt
Talk podcast Network. Shows on thenetwork are individually owned and operated, and
those opinions presented and expressed may notreflect others, the sponsors, patrons,
or the parent network. Find moreshows about the greatest sport in the world
at the Matt Talk Podcast Network atmatt Talk online dot com. Welcome to

(00:30):
on the Matt I am Kyle Klingman, joined by Andy Narcolepsie Hamilton, and
we are sponsored by Cliff Keen Athletic. You wake over their buddy. You
had to go there, didn't you. I did, You could explain what
happened it It was a surprise.I didn't know that you had been sedated
when we were at a meeting,and I wish you would have skipped out

(00:50):
of the meeting because you were fortyfive minutes past sedation and it wasn't a
good It wasn't good optics because youwere not an awful a little bit.
I was struggling. Yeah, Ihad a medical procedure and woke up in
a hospital bed forty five minutes beforethe meeting started, and I thought,
you know, hey, there's somethingon my calendar for twelve thirty. I'm

(01:11):
gonna be there. You're a gamerman. I would have sat that way.
I should have. I should have. I was struggling. I was
fighting it throughout the whole meeting,and then at a two hour, two
and a half hour nap after that, and it's a wake for a little
bit, and then took another hourand a half nap and then slept like
ten hours last night, and soI'm starting to feel normal again. What

(01:34):
I liked is that you were pullingthe tricks that I would do even without
sedation, if I was tired.I've done that trick where you're trying to
cover your hat and get a littlenod and think no one's gonna notice.
I don't know if you realize that. Maybe you're so loopy that you didn't
realize. But I've tried those tricks, and I don't know if they work
or not. No one said anything, but I have a few tricks up

(01:55):
my sleep, especially when i'm drivingwith someone. If you're driving, I'm
like trying to act like I'm notabout to fall asleep, and then I
do. But you did. I'venever been on her anesthesia before, so
I had no idea how I wouldreact to it either. I thought like,
once you wake up, you're good, right now, it's not.
I mean, obviously, when theytell you, hey, don't drive the
rest of the day, there's it'sa reason for that. And I found

(02:19):
out what the reason was. Ilove it. Now. Do you remember
when we were at the dan Gablescelebrity golf tournament about five to seven years
ago. You were just new withtrack wresting. You came out and did
a bunch of interviews and Chuck Long, former quarterback at Iowa, walked by,
and You're like, Hey, that'sthat guy right there. He was

(02:40):
my hero growing up. You rememberthat or something along that lines, like,
I don't remember that exact instance,but I remember I do remember saying
that, Yeah, just something alongthe lines of looking and saying, that's
Chuck Long right there. I hadthe same reactions. I can't believe Chuck
Long is at the golf tournament rightnow. He was that iconic of a
name. So when we were likenine, ten years old, when he

(03:01):
was leading the Hawkeyes a Rose Bowland second in the Heisman balloting and leading
Iowa during that magical nineteen eighty fiveseason where their ranked number one in the
country for several weeks. So ChuckLong was bigger than life if you were
nine ten years old and living inIowa at that point. Yeah, I
still think it's the closest Heisman voteever with bo Jackson correct, I think

(03:24):
it's still at least it was atthe time for a while. But well,
let's look it up. All right, go ahead, and let's see
if I'm correct on that memory there. Now it's been it's been passed,
it has marketing or I'm won bytwenty eight points. What year was that?
And two thousand and nine over TobyGerhardt from Stanford. So yeah,

(03:46):
now Long and bo Jackson. BoJackson was won the Heisman over by forty
five points over Chuck Long in nineteeneighty five. Okay, and then I
think Chuck Long won the Maxwell Awardthat year if I remember right, which
is correct, another prestige dis award. But my point in that and you
hit it nine ten years old.What I want to talk about is when
I was growing up, my heroes, the people I looked up to,

(04:10):
or the upperclassmen winning state championships atCedar Falls High School, and one of
those is Greg Hawser, who Ijust found out listens to the show consistently,
which is a big deal to mebecause I still look at him and
I'm still in awe of this guywho win a state title when I was
a sophomore. He was a seniorovertime win. It was a big deal.

(04:30):
Went on to Wartburg. Now he'sin jiu jitsu, but he's helping
out with the Cedar Falls women's highschool program, running open practices so if
people want to show up, girlswant to show up, they can.
Well we're sitting there and he says, yeah, he goes, a meat
dealer is going to win the Olympicgold medal. No problem, she's gonna
win it. I was like,I said, I'm going to dispute you

(04:54):
on that, because no, she'sgonna win it. I was like,
hey, I said, we cantalk about this later, but I don't
think she's a lock. He's like, dude, he goes, I listened
to the show every time, andso it kind of blew me away when
he said that because I said,it wasn't you. He thought it was
him saying it from the week prior. It wasn't him. It was a
guy named Neil Titus it said that, So I was like, no,
it wasn't you, It was Neilthat said it. But it was cool

(05:16):
to me to find out number onethat Greg listens to the show. So
thanks for that. But then,of course who's going to call about the
meet Elore conversation that we had.Of course Scott Back, and he had
all kinds of things to say aboutit. So we get two for two.
We get Scott Back and Greg Hewserchiming in on the Meet Elore piece.
And I think that's great because it'sa I think it's a valid conversation

(05:42):
piece, especially when we're going totalk about the U twenty World Championships where
one of the people that as wereferenced the social media piece where they say
there's a future Olympic gold medalist rightthere, and people have said that consistently
about Kennedy Blades And do I thinkshe still can do it? Absolutely?
She can. She has the abilitiesand the intangibles and the technique and all

(06:06):
of that. But things can happen. I heard there was maybe an illness
that went through Team USA and somepeople got sick over there. She got
beat in the semi finals. Asof the recording of this show, she
can still come back to a bronzemedal, but to throw out winning an
Olympic gold medal so casually, Ijust think it's a mistake. And one

(06:29):
thing that I was glad I wason this conversation. Piece of course,
Scott Beck's daughter as Mikaela Beck,She's been over to Ukraine a bunch of
times. She says that to evenbring up that you're thinking about the Olympic
vision, if you're not an Olympicwait, and you don't have some sort
of a world level experience, theykind of laugh at you about it.
Hey, you have no business talkingabout it because you haven't even been close

(06:51):
to it. So I'm of thatphilosophy, get close, kind of be
in the ballpark before you start talkingabout winning an Olympic or world championship at
the senior level. Any thoughts fromyou, Well, I mean, here
we are a year out from theOlympic Games, and if you were to

(07:13):
go back to this time middle ofAugust twenty eleven, how many people would
have like said, Jordan Burrows isgonna be an Olympic champion in a year
and a You know, yeah,I guess what eleven months later he didn't
won a world title yet. Ididn't want a senior world title. He's
just making his first team, right, yea, So it can be done
well. But I think you're right. I think probably the pathway is like

(07:36):
put yourself in the conversation, right, like move on up the move up
the ladder within striking distance. ButI think we've seen time and again sometimes
your best opportunity to win on thesenior level as your first time out,
for sure. And what I wouldsay in the case of Jordan Burrows is
you can start talking about it oncehe made the world team. And I

(07:58):
think that now that you've the worldteam, you're in the ballgame, you're
in the mix. Now let's starttalking about it, and that you have
that potential. But I just thinkespecially at the seventy six kilogram weight class,
where it's so deep, where we'vetalked about it, you have Kylie
Welker, you have Kennedy Blade,you have Elana mccoyd, you have Diamond
Gilford and of course Adeline Gray who'sa six time world champion already and we

(08:20):
saw how mentally tough she is.It's just hard to break through and so
if you don't make it this year, you haven't to wait another four years,
and you don't know what's going tohappen during that time. You don't
know what things could transpire, youdon't know if you're healthy. There's just
so many factors. There could beanother two quality girls at seventy six kilos

(08:41):
that hop into the mix that youhave to think about. So how many
times have we even seen that atthe college level where you think, man,
this this guy's going to run thetable. And then there's a high
school kid that comes up and asa true freshman, and let's just look
at the U twenty worlds that whatjust happened. Meyers Pyro is unbelievable,

(09:01):
Mitchell Messenbrink is unbelievable. They bothwon you twenty World championships. They're gonna
be in the mix come the collegeseason regardless of who is there, and
they could win it as freshman.So I just think there's so many things
at play here that you just haveto be careful about just getting excited about
someone's upside, which is there withall of the people we mentioned, But

(09:24):
take a deep breath. It's ait's an insanely hard process. To get
there, and not many people reachthat level. That's why it's such an
elite level. But it's uh,I just think it's great to dream big.
I know that the Brands boys gotin a fight I think in high
school when they said we're going tobe Olympic gold grade. Yeah, fifth

(09:46):
grade makes it even better that they'regoing to be Olympic gold medalist. But
now somebody laughed at him. That'swhat that's a story, right, Like
Tom said he was gonna be Olympicgold medalist, somebody laughed at him and
Tom got into fight. Exactly whatit was now what we know of Tom,
there's a guy that I believe whenwhen Tom gets something into his psyche
and believes it, I a prettygood track record of following through and making

(10:09):
those things happen. So but again, it's it's easy to say it's it's
a whole different thing to execute it. And you just see a lot of
people just want to throw that aroundloosely, and when you're saying that maybe
you got fourth at Junior Nationals,maybe it's still there, but but hold
off on the Olympic gold medal talkuntil you really see what that path takes

(10:33):
and how difficult it is. Youknow, it's funny you bring this up
because this morning when you watch KennedyBlades lose by Tech, right, yep,
that was the first thing that cameto mind, was this conversation about
future Olympic gold medal, like yourrant that you went on last show,
because like, that's not that's avariable we didn't even talk about, like

(10:54):
all the things that go into internationaltravel and how you're more susceptible probably to
illness going overseas, right and thestress you put your body under in the
food that you're eating overseas, andall the things that go into just competing
over there that are away from themad itself, you know. And so

(11:15):
it's exhibit A right there, rightexactly. And her upside and her ability
is huge, but that that's oneof the people that you see people talking
about, that future Olympic gold medalist, and she has everything right there to
still make it happen. There's nodoubt that it's still on the horizon.

(11:35):
But there's just so many things thathave to fall into place in order for
that to happen. And as wetalk about a medial er, Scott Beck
brought this up She's had an incredibleinternational career, but her best win domestically
is against Skylar Groat. Now,let's see what happens once she goes down
to sixty eight kilos, and Iwould guess it's going to be m up

(12:00):
until for a small and area,you're gonna have some other people in the
mix domestically. Do I still thinkshe's the front runner? I do.
I think she's that good, butwe haven't seen what happens when someone has
to move down a weight class,maybe move up a weight class, just
those variables. You're talking about fourkilograms, so you're gonna have to I'm
assuming she's gonna go downce you're talkingclose to ten pounds that someone's gonna have

(12:24):
to drop. And you haven't hada full season on that. And we
have the US Nationalists coming up inDecember, so we're in August right now.
That's a pretty tight turnaround. Sowe're about a year out from the
Olympic Games right now. So there'sjust a lot of things that factor in.
And when you have those opportunities infront of you, you have to

(12:46):
take advantage because they might not comearound again. And there's just a lot
of things that factor in that Ithink people need to consider. I agree,
Kyle. We can end there onthat. Let's talk about the U
twenty World Championships. What we sawon the men's side, what a what
a quality team. We sent eightmedals, We had two gold medals,
and liked what we saw out ofa lot of the athletes there, even

(13:09):
the ones that didn't win gold.I thought there were some good bronze medal
matches and maybe just your overall thoughtsand what we have coming up, I
think we can feel good on thatperformance. On what's on the horizon.
I think one thing that I thinka lot about is how are Jordan Burroughs,
Kyle Dake, David Taylor, KyleSnyder, Jaden Cox. You go

(13:33):
down the line, how will theybe replaced at some point? And I
feel like there's a good crop ofathletes that can come through and we're going
to be pretty decent in the yearsto come based on this performance. Tremendous
performance by the United States, asyou mentioned, eight medals, some fantastic
individual performances, and yet still notenough to win the team title, which

(13:54):
speaks to maybe a separation of thepack from the upper echelon teams, you
know, on the upper echelon programs, getting further and further out in front
of everybody else. I think alsomezzon Brinks title at seventy four kilos.
Now you go back to twenty sixteen, Mark Hall gold seventy four kilos,

(14:18):
twenty seventeen, Mark Hall gold seventyfour kilos, twenty eighteen, Makai Lewis
gold at seventy four kilos twenty nineteen, David Carr gold seventy four kilos,
twenty twenty, No Tournament twenty twentyone, Keekin o'tool gold is seventy four
kilos, twenty twenty three, MitchellMezzenbrink gold is seventy four kilos. So

(14:39):
only one year in there where theJunior World Championships was held did the United
States not win gold is seventy fourkilos. It's a great stat I hadn't
thought about that. I appreciate youbringing that up. And when I watched
Mitchell Messenbrink wrestle at the U twentyWorlds, the first person that came to
mind was Aaron Brooks. And whatyou told me when you watched him,
and you said, Kyle, yougot to come in and watch this kid

(15:00):
wrestle. He's got technique and he'sgot a motor. And that's what I
think of with Mitchell Messingbrink. He'sshooting off the whistle, getting to that
high crotch, doesn't care if hegives up a few points, but he
just wants to keep that pace high. And not only does he keep it
high, but he's an entertaining wrestler. And I think big things to come
for that kid at the college level. Of course, he was at cal

(15:22):
Baptist for a few weeks and nowhe's going to be at Penn State.
But huge upside there for Mitchell Messingbring yeah, absolutely absolutely in and same
with you, mate, Myers Piroalong the same lines, right for sure
he is and he's going to Cornell. Another guy where you say, you
look at the quality of the techniqueand what he's able to do is just

(15:43):
high level execution. And again,I think he's one of those guys that
when he gets called to the mat, you're gonna move to that mat or
your eyes are going to glance overat that mat and want to watch.
So just feel really good about theperformance by Tamosa. But there's still room

(16:03):
to improve. Like you said,we didn't win the team title, but
there's a lot of room for improvement. I want to get an update from
you. You wrote an article aboutpossible venues for the nca Championships, and
I'm intrigued. We've talked about someout of the box thinking. It sounds
like that's on the horizon. Idon't know what that's going to mean,
but it sounds like everything's on thetable for venue for the NCAD won Championships.

(16:27):
Well, we've had Anthony Hollman onthe NCAA on this show a couple
of times, and he said itbefore in the past. That seems like,
you know, I think kind oftheir approach is once every bid cycle,
they're going to do something a littleoutside the box, right. I
mean, you look back twenty sixteenMadison Square Garden and what they got out
of that was I think at twentytwo I'm just reciting this number off the

(16:48):
top of my head, but Ithink it's twenty two percent first time attendee
rate. So typically, what youknow, we've heard, remember to Anthony
and others talk about our fan basethe National Tournament being a pretty consistent bunch
that goes year after year after year. Well, the problem with that is
is like, when you're not bringingnew fans into the fold, how are

(17:10):
you growing? Right, You're justkind of maintaining. And so Madison Square
Garden with a twenty two percent firsttime attendee rate was tremendous for the sport.
Fast forward to twenty twenty, theoutside the box idea was taken it
to a stadium and I think thatthey had the perfect setup for that with

(17:30):
it being in Minneapolis. You hadyou had an Iowa team with a tremendous
following, a huge fan following thatwas in the mix for a title that
year. You had Minnesota with GableSteveson in his hometown. You had obviously
Penn State coming off its run andthey travel great. You have Iowa State

(17:52):
getting back in the mix a littlebit with David Carr coming off a junior
world title. You have a lotof elements in play where you could put
forty thousand plus in the stands andthere was I think the attendance figure what
they were, what they had soldwas upwards of forty three thousand tickets.
So everything was in place. Wedidn't get to see it to the finish.
Line, and and that's a shamethat we didn't get to see what

(18:15):
that would look like. And Ithink after the pandemic for the next bid
cycle, I think they were ormaybe a little more risk averse coming off
of that. And so we're inmore traditional cities, traditional venues for this
cycle that we're in with Tulsa,Kansas City, Philadelphia, Cleveland. But
once we get to twenty seven,twenty eight, twenty nine, and twenty

(18:37):
thirty, I think that they're goingto be looking to take a big swing
at things again and so what doesthat look like. One of the things
that Anthony talked about down at theconvention was how Brian Smith, who is
from Fort Lauderdale, how he waslooking at you know, he'd gone to
a Marlins game at Lone Depot Parkand that kind of planned a seat in

(18:59):
his head, Hey, maybe thisis somewhere where we can have the tournament
one day. I know other peoplehave mentioned Tampa. I know Nashville has
gotten brought up, something that Ihad talked with Kyle Rochelle about out at
the when I was out at theNCAA headquarters back in April for the rules
committee meeting and Championship Committee meeting,I thought, like, you know,

(19:22):
Nashville's a place where I think wrestlingfans would love as you know, when
we said that when we're out theretoo, right, like when we're on
Broadway Street, when we went fromthe Southern Scuffle up to NBC and National
Duels, we thought like, hey, Bridge Stone MNA twenty thousand plus in
the stands here, so many thingsfor wrestling fans to do after the session
each night, that there would bea place of people would love to come

(19:45):
to and also a destination as wellas coming to see the tournament. And
so I think we're going to seesomething that is certainly outside the box.
You know, what does that looklike? I think? You know?
Anthony told me yeah. I askedhim point blank, sometime in the next
ten years, do you think we'llsee the tournament in a stadium setting?

(20:06):
And he said, yeah, Ibelieve we will. So I think that's
coming. I think at some pointthey're going to go to a warmer locale,
whether that's somewhere in South Florida,you know, whether it be Miami,
Tampa, Charlotte, Atlanta, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Las Vegas,
somewhere like that. I would.I would expect that we see the tournament

(20:30):
goes to a city like that,and then potentially a stadium as well.
Where would your number one location beif you could pick it and Andy Hamilton
gets full jurisdiction on where this tournamentgets to go for one year, where
would it be Nashville? That showwould be your number one choice? Okay,
yeah, absolutely, I think itwould be great there. I think
it would be really popular. It'sa fairly central location. It's easy for

(20:52):
a lot of programs to get to. One of the things that you know,
I didn't know how I would likeNew York City, but I loved
it. And one of the reasonswhy is you know, we're typically the
last ones to leave the arena atnight, and you know, you can
speak to our struggles in Detroit ofjust finding food right at eleven thirty midnight,

(21:17):
twelve thirty. You know, wedrove around for what like an hour
trying to find something, Yeah,at least, and we settled on Del
Taco. That was a bad,bad idea, bad idea, and we
still laugh about it. But I'mexcited about that in the future of the
NCA Championships, I also want tomention that we have our women's world teams

(21:37):
solidified. On the senior level,Helen Marulis won the best of three series
that was postponed due to illness injury. Not quite sure what happened there with
Helen. She kind of just saidshe felt ill ten days before and then
she was right in that window ofwhen she could postpone. But she won
by tech and by fault. AndI will say this that you are on

(22:00):
the back your picture, the pictureI like where it shows your teeth from.
I think it's the Des Moines Register. You're in the back of a
board game, one of a kindboard game called Name the Wrestler. So
talking as someone made me Kelly toshutter, I'll show it to your Kelly
to shutter. Another one of ourgreat fans of this podcast. When I

(22:22):
was at the Gable Museum, sheand her boyfriend stopped by the museum.
She is maybe the biggest wrestling fanI've ever been around in my life.
Just massive wrestling fan. Listens toall the podcast. She made a a
one of a kind wrestling game andhas twenty four wrestlers that she asked me
who my favorite wrestlers were, andI just gave a list and she put

(22:47):
my picture on the back and yours. She had to put you on the
female off to show it to you, but it has the picture I like
of your teeth. So you areon a board game. So congratulations on
that. Congratulations to you too,Kyle. Well, thank you so much.
And we have John Myers Poway HighSchool. He's going to be our
guest today. I love what he'sdoing that program out in California. Before

(23:10):
we get to him, let's hearfrom Cliff Keen Athletic and then we'll be
back after this. Sir, Yes, sir, new from cliff Keen comes
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(23:33):
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(23:56):
gets you twenty percent off. Justgo to www dot Cliff Keen dot com
and click Accessories under the shop Wrestlingtab. Our guest is from Poway,
California, via Columbus, Ohio.That's where he is right now for the
interview. It's John Myers. He'sthe head high school wrestling coach in Paway,

(24:17):
California, which is near San Diego, which is southern California near the
Mexican border. John, how areyou doing. I'm doing great. How
are you guys doing? We're doinggreat. We appreciate this time. And
the inevitable question is how do yougo from Connecticut all the way up to
Paway, California. Oh? Well, uh yeah, I went from Connecticut

(24:40):
wrestling at the University of Minnesota,went back to Connecticut. I was actually
a college coach and I was doingsome some Jay Robinson wrestling camps. I
had a couple of my coaches andactually Bo Bartlett's dad was with me,
rustling form me up suthing to anduh we did some camps there in California,

(25:04):
and then I had nothing better todo at during the summer, and
Andre, I'm sorry. Andrew Bartlettinvited me to hang out Motionside, where
he was from, and I gota little place in southern California beach life.
And I went back to southern Connecticutwhere I was coaching, and I

(25:25):
told the athletic director, I'm notsure when that I'm moving to southern California.
And you were at Minnesota during theeighties, correct, Yeah, eighty
eight to ninety three, Okay,so that was that was early Jay Robinson
as a head coach. So yougot to tell us about early Jay Robin
and what that was like having thatexperience with an iconic coach, three time

(25:49):
national championship coach, one of thoseguys groff in the military. But just
like Andy said, when he doesan interview, he writes the story for
you. What was it like inthe eighties and nineties with him? Yeah,
you know, when I reflect backnow, you know, I appreciate
him a lot more than I thinkI did when I was a young kid.
I didn't quite get him. Iguess, you know some of the

(26:14):
stories that he told and and uh, I look back now and I even
find myself saying some of the sameUH stories and and and you know saying
that that that he said, AndI don't think I appreciated him in love
when I was wrestling for him.We had a fantastic UH coaching staff there

(26:36):
at the time though, the KevinDarkas silver medallist in the world, like
Greg Randall from Iowa, Johnny Johnsonfrom Oklahoma, Melvin Douglas was there with
Marty Morgan. I mean, justfantastic coaching staff. So it was it
was a good time there. Takewhat you said there when in the moment

(27:00):
you said you didn't appreciate it,but now you reflect on it. So
reflecting on that further, is thata good job of coaching If maybe you
didn't appreciate it at the moment,but you appreciate it later, Is that
an effective coaching style? That's that'sthe tough one. It definitely had an

(27:22):
effect on me, and Uh,well, I wouldn't give it back my
years there for the world and allthe trials and tribulations, the good times
and the bad times. It wasa fantastic experience and I'm definitely a better
person for it, and I amwhere I am partly because of that.
That journey there in Minnesota. Takeus through a typical Yeah, what was

(27:45):
a practice like when you're at Minnesotaduring that era? A lot of them
were run by Jimmy Celesti. ActuallyI forgot to mention him from from Iowa.
Uh, you know a lot ofearly mornings practices definitely quote unquote the
Iowa style. You know, Jaywanted to make sure that he would tell

(28:06):
us that that he knew exactly whatthey were doing and then we were going
to do a little bit more thanthem. So definel grueling definitely a test
of rolls and you know, fantasticgrowing experience for me. Jay has a
unique path where he was at OklahomaState and then he was an assistant coach
at Iowa under Dan Gable, andthen he went to Minnesota. I tried

(28:30):
to get Jay on the spot toadmit this. His athletes will admit it
for him. But did you geta feel that he wanted to beat Iowa
while you were there? Oh?That that was no secret. He told
us every day. Uh, youknow, he told us about Iowa and
what they were doing on that particularday and how we were going to do

(28:51):
one more practice than them each day. And he definitely had it in him.
He had a burning fire to itto beat them, for sure.
He and he did it. Hedefinitely did it. When you graduate Minnesota,
did you know that wrestling and coachingwrestling was going to be a path
that you were going to take?You know? While I was at Minnesota,

(29:15):
I kind of fought the the actually, at least the teaching part of
it. I come from. Mymom and my dad were both and I
have two brothers that are teachers andcoaches as well, and my dad was
a wrestling coach, and I foughtthat for a while. And uh yeah,
when I got done there at Minnesota, I went to Southern Connecticut and
I started grad work and humor performancemy masters, and I thought I get

(29:40):
into something, you know, someresearch or something like that, and I
just wasn't right for me. AndI definitely knew though that I wanted to
coach, and I kind of sawthe writing on the wall that it would
be very, very difficult to makea good living in college wrestling. And

(30:06):
when I got out to San Diego, I did my first substitute teaching and
I loved it right away. Iwas hooked, and I knew that's what
I wanted to do so start ofmy teaching credential the first year I got
out there. What's unique about thehigh school wrestling lane versus junior high international
college wrestling. Those three to fouryears are so fundamental in a person's life,

(30:29):
regardless of the sport. What makesthat lane unique? You know that
they're they're all unique in their ownway. I worked as our our kids
club coach as well, probably elitefor I don't know, ten years maybe,
and you know, seven eight yearolds all the way up to thirteen,

(30:52):
and that is is just as unique, maybe in a little different way.
High school is that that transition.You know, they're they're still young
kids, but they're they're on theirway to becoming adults. They're kind of
stuck in between there and they're they'restarting to gain or at least desire their

(31:15):
their independence from their parents more.And so you know, coaches are very
valuable at that moment in their lives. I think they have a big a
very big or can't have a verybig impact on those kids' lives. Part
of what fascinates me about what you'vedone is that I've seen it firsthand.

(31:38):
So you were hired at PAWE intwenty eighteen, and you've built something special
here in bringing different people in differentskill sets in your program to try to
move your program forward. Explain whatyou've done and why you felt this was
the right path to paway wrestling.It seems like common sense to me.

(32:04):
H. You know, you gotthe best people involved in a program and
as many as them as as possibleour our program, I don't I don't
think we have any real big egosin the program, so we kind of
feed off of each other. Wehave you know the likes of Uh,

(32:29):
Steven Neil and Alexander Kikmo, guymonZack Shannonman that wrestled at ten coached at
Colombia at All univers Illinois, fantasticcoach. We have a coach from Buck
Melvils at wrestled at a Power Way. We have Mike Melanconico. Now we

(32:52):
probably have about twelve or thirteen coachesin our high school room. We also
have we convinced mindset Mikes and Rustand long set Uh. These are mindset
coaches that works with us barely andweekly. He moved out from Texas.

(33:12):
He now lives in Power as well. The latest thing that you brought in
is the training lab. It's workingwith Penn State for many years on their
fitness and their metabolic training, theirrecovery, their nutrition, and uh we
just started working with them. Theyjust started testing our kids on our team

(33:36):
taking hair samples and we're starting withtheir metabolic training testing. So I want
the best for the kids that thatattend Powell and and in San Diego.
And I have I have so manyideas going on in my heart about how
we can make things better for kids, not not only wrestling wise, but

(33:57):
academically and and uh uh psychologically withthe with the mindset training. And I
just have all these ideas that I'vehad them for a long time in my
head. And you know, Ihave to give a lot of credit to
our Power Wrestling Foundation president when whenI became the head coach in twenty and
eighteen, the first thing that Idid was I brought him on. He

(34:19):
was a former power wrestler, MickLewis and the heels of Scaffolds and Company
now and he's the president of ourfoundation. And I told him, I
said, hey, I have thiswish list. I was a little embarrassed
and I said, don't don't laugh. You know, some of these are
pretty far setched, and and uh, I'm behave him this list of about

(34:39):
thirty things, and I was expectinghim to laugh at me or you know,
tell me I'm crazy, but allhe went to the list and he
said, yeah, those are alldoables. You know, these are vid
the ways that you have to dothem. And he proceeded to, you
know, go down the list ofyou know, business wise, what we
would have to do and the moneywe would have to raise and to make

(35:00):
those things happen. And that's whatwe've done. We've we've made an unstoppable
combination uh making myself and you know, there's there's there's way more in store.
We have had a lot of uhhave a lot more ideas for our
program in store and for some ofthe ogles to California and for wrestling as

(35:21):
a whole. John, When youhave that many coaches, how do you
make sure that you don't have toomany cooks in the kitchen that you know
that everybody's working in a harmony andthere's not mixed messages, mixed messages going
out to the kids. Yeah,yeah, it's it's a real trick.
And uh, you know, I'malways learning myself. I'm not an expert
in in any means, uh,in in the sport, the wrestling,

(35:45):
or or coaching. But I'm alwayslearning, and I'm always tweaking things,
uh every year and and uh it'sdefinitely a trick, and I think we
do a good job with it.I make sure, you know, we
have a new coach, and Imake sure that he gets in there,
he's showing moves, and he feelscomfortable with the kids, and the kids
feel comfortable with him. I haveno uh, you know, no ego

(36:09):
where I have to show all themovies. I have to run all the
practices. That's one thing I makeclear is that if I don't know how
to do something, or if Ithink somebody can do it better, then
then you're gonna be in the funnela lit doing it. And we have
I have other coaches that are behindthe scenes that that that are you know,

(36:29):
world champions and what they do,you know, running this program.
So it's not just those you know, the world champs and and and those
uh, you know college coaches thathave flopped the power. It's it's uh,
those those other guys that have brustedfor power and know that it's a
good Our program is a really goodthing and want to be involved in it.
They have a huge part and uhmaking this thing run. But yeah,

(36:52):
I think we do a pretty goodjob of getting all those kids,
all those coaches in there and gettingkids familiar with them and comfortable with as
well. But John, it seemslike that each piece feeds each other.
So Mike Melanconacho oversees the kids clubportion of it. How do you make
sure that feeds into the high schoolprogram and that they all work symbiotically?

(37:19):
I think I think it takes youknow, one kind of a ceo standing
up above looking at all the otherprograms and all the workings of the program.
You know, we have we haveone kids program that's a traveling program
and about fifty kids in it polyElite, and then the one you don't

(37:39):
hear about is we have poly Slammers, which is for beginner wrestlers that I
was about fifty to sixty kids init with other coaches, three or four
other coaches. So you know,it takes one person kind of looking at
all those programs. But then ittakes very very important pieces, Like you

(38:00):
said, you know, we havea guy named Sake Knowles that's working with
our kids program. Mike mal workswith our kids program. We have two
Slammers coaches that are unbelievable. Oneof them is a Navy seal and the
other one wrestling for Pala is adoctor actually and has a couple of sons
in it, but just just reallygood at what they do as well as

(38:22):
great men for kids to be aroundas well. So yeah, it takes
a lot of hard work and alot of hours for sure. Take Mike
Melanconiko, who Andy and I bothknow we worked with him at Flow Wrestling.
What did you see in Mike initially? And then how do you make
the pitch to get Mike to movefrom Texas to California. Mike, we

(38:46):
met him probably five years ago maybe, and you know, just just talking
with him and sharing with him ourbo about our program and where it was
going and the ideas that we had. And you know, he has a

(39:07):
son and a daughter also, hisson Wressells, and both of them are
freshman now Power High School. Ithink you saw the value of living in
power the power and adding his sonWressell and attended Power High School as well

(39:28):
as for his family that that's onepiece of it. And then I think
he saw the advantage of helping tobuild something that's going to be great.
So yeah, we started talking fiveyears ago and then the time was kind
of right year a year or twoto strike, and we pitched to him

(39:50):
a plan and then he and hisfamily have been out here for a little
over a year now. You mentionedStephen Neil one of my all time favorites.
He has credentials that are off thecharts. Two time NCAA champion for
cal State Bakersfield, nineteen ninety nine, world champion, three time super Bowl
champion with the New England Patriots,ten year career with the Pros, but

(40:12):
you would never guess that out ofhim. And you mentioned he's part of
your program. I believe his sonwrestles for Pawey High School, explains Stephen
Neil and what he means to theprogram. Oh, I can't even begin
to explain it to people, thevalue he adds to our program and just

(40:36):
outside of our program, just theperson that he is. We are kind
of a running joke with our coaches, you know, we say it all
the time and say, what didwe do to deserve this guy? You
know, he's he's such a fantasticperson. Anybody that needs him realize that.
He just adds in so many differentways. And though his expertise,

(41:00):
first of all, in the restof the room, he sees things that
a lot of people can't see.As far as wrestling. You know,
the type of wrestler I'm learning thathe he was, you know, he
was not if you know his story, he was not a great high school
wrestler. You know, his fourthin the state of California and uh got

(41:20):
his got his butt kicked. Ithink his first year of college a little
bit. And uh, you know, he didn't know a lot about wrestling
when he when he first started atBakersfield, but he learned. He uh,
he gained the knowledge himself. Hehad a desire to get so good
and he's you know, if youif you know his football story, it's
the same thing. He didn't knowhow to play football, but he learned

(41:43):
and focused on that learning and anduh and achieved the highest level of both
sports that you that you can achieve. It's amazing. So he has that
that part of his personality that hecan relay to kids. And you know,
we can say the kids I don'tI don't care where you are right

(42:04):
now as a freshman. You know, you may be just starting out and
Stephen, here's uh, here's proof, you know. And he talks to
them about that and how good youcan be. And of course we always
uh when laid everything into life,you know, uh, it goes to
say, it's the same thing forschool. We're starting at school a new
school week, school year this thisweek, and you know, we tell

(42:25):
the kids, you know, ifyou didn't do well last year, it's
time to fill over the new week. And you can. You can get
better at academics, you can getbetter in relationships and in wrestling and whatever
it is if you choose to ifyou if you choose that path. And
yeah, he's just amazing and youwould never, like you said, you

(42:47):
would never imagine that he's this threetimes super Bowl champion, World champion.
He's just so modest and so givingand understanding. He's firm. You know.
He gave me a call today whileI'm out here. We're having an
issue with the kid, and he's, uh, he's on it. You
know. He all stood up totalk to the kid and the parents and

(43:10):
he just helps us out in somany different ways. I can't even begin
to tell you all the ways.Isn't there a story where he was coaching
someone and a parent said all right, I got this and kind of booted
him. Didn't know who it was, and explained that you're laughing, like
you know the story. Yeah,oh, I have so many great stories

(43:31):
about him. So yeah, thiswas. This is way back when his
kido was in His son was inuh Gunner was in the Swammers, that
program for beginners that I told youabout, and I think his kid was
maybe in fifth, fifth or sixthgrade, and and uh, Stephen Steve
was in the in the chair ata local tournament I think it was even

(43:52):
at Tyway and you know, abeginner tournament, and he was sitting in
the chair coaching his son, andand another dad went over and told Steve,
hey, do you while you letme coach? Will you let me
coach yourself? I'll get this andand Steve Steve just looked at him,
said sure, okay, and lethim let him coach his kid. And

(44:15):
uh, and and the guy thatjumped in the corner is the guy that
told me the story eventually, andwhich you made it even better. And
so the the guy coaches the kid, and UH and UH coach his gunner,
and you know, after the match, gives him a couple of pointers.
And and and his dad was nota coach either, you know,

(44:37):
probably Russell in high school. AndI knew a couple moves, and and
and Patt and Steve on the onthe on the back, and Steve said
thanks to her help. And hewent off and the other dads were looking
at him, laugh and and hewent over those dads and he said,
that's so funny. And and theysaid that's Steven. The look him up

(44:57):
online and he and he looked himup and he just I will tell you
what he said. But he sawlike a jerk, that's what he felt.
Felt pretty small at that point.So yeah, it was pretty flight.
That's great stuff. And NF Iremember I didn't he help with the
program during COVID, put pitch atent in his yard and you had wrestling

(45:19):
practices there. Yeah, to tosay it was a tent is UH undershooting
it a lot. Yeah. HeDuring COVID, you know, everything got
shut down. Our great facility thatwe have you seen that that was shut
down. We couldn't get out tocampus, and you know, Steve had
told me at one point, hey, you want to flow some mats down

(45:43):
h for a couple of days.You know, I have the basketball court
on my in my backyard, andI I remembered that, and we were
in an MMA gym one of ourformer wrestlers at the time during the summer
won't won't we we didn't have accessto that mm A gym started the next

(46:04):
month. So I remember what Stevehad said, and I kind of kind
of talked to him into saying itagain. And once he set it again,
I said, let's do it.Let's let's put down some mats.
And I already talked to that.You know, our president Nick Lewis who
does the scaffolding, and he puttogether it was it was literally a facility.
It was huge scaffolding ent shrink wrappedwith windows, a door, and

(46:30):
if you know Steve, you knowhe had a whole system for parking and
where their shoes went, and littlerocker for them outside, and it was
a beautiful setup. And you know, sometimes you take things like that for
granted. But I looked back nowjust telling some of the story. I
remember, you know, our highschool kids would work out first, and

(46:52):
then the young kids would come in. Sixty or sixty of our young kids
would come into that facility in hisbackyard, and they had no exchange of
of you know, playtime or anythingwith their friends because school was shut down
and nobody was letting them held outtogether anywhere. So I would watch those
kids, you know before pravators runningaround and laughing, and uh, I

(47:14):
think we saved a lot of thosekids mindset wise. Was it was such
a treat for those kids to beable to go in there every day into
that quote unquote tent and and andbe able to run around and and wrestle
and uh and have fun during thetime. That was, you know,
very stressful and very hard on themindset for kids. John, what's the

(47:37):
key to getting kids invested in thesport When you have as many options for
things that they can do with theirtime in southern California, how do you
how do you get kids in howdo you keep them invested? Number one,
they have to have access, rightso so you I'll say, we,
uh, we have to get itout there that there is a program.

(48:00):
There are several programs. It's it'sfor kids of all ages five years
old, all the way through college. We have a place for you to
go. It's in this facility oncampus. So that's the first thing.
Because we all know that basketball,baseball, and football all great sports.
But kids have such easy access tothose sports. They know where to go

(48:22):
and they see it on TV allthe time. Wrestling is sometimes very foreign
to kids and parents. They don'tthey don't know how to get involved or
if it is a good thing.So that's the first thing to have access
and we advertise everywhere around our community. The second part of it is,
I'll say wrestling is a very goodthing at powe in the community of Powei.

(48:47):
And that was built by Wayne Branston, the former coach who's there since
nineteen seventy eight, and he hadhe had a saying and he said,
you know, if it's built onon good values, uh, it'll last
forever and people who want to bepart of it. If it's not built
on good values or good morals,then then you'll you'll be up one year

(49:12):
and you'll be down the next.You know. You see that sometimes in
programs where are you know, verygood for a few years and then they're
gone. And sometimes it's because it'sit's not built on on great values and
it's more sometimes more about the wrestlingand not the the school side of it,
at the community side of it.So we try to make it a

(49:32):
part of our community and a familya family event as well at the youth,
high school and beyond levels. Socase I portant, when I get
back on Friday. On Saturday,we have a huge beach party with all
levels of our kids will be uhyou know, over a hundred kids there

(49:52):
at this beach party at del Mar. And we've been doing that since two
thousand and eighteen, and we didit during the COVID and so we try
to bring everybody together and and I'mtrying to continue what Wayne started and just
make sure it's built on and goodvalues and people want to be a part
of it. Don't hear about it, you know. So yeah, that's

(50:15):
where we're at. And then theother part of it is you have to
do it right, you know.I listened to a lot of really smart
people, you know, Ben Askinand Tom Ryan and screat minds of wrestling,
and they talk about they know wrestlingis a sport where kids, kids

(50:36):
can be scared off very easily.And so we have to be careful with
that at a young age, andkids don't always need to compete when they're
four or five, six years oldat national tonements. You know, we
don't. We don't press that withour slammers. They hardly, they rarely
compete. So there's a lot oftricks behind that as well. So yeah,

(51:01):
and then again we're always working onit. We're always trying to make
it better. Would you also paintus a picture of Pawe. I don't
think people believe this. So thefantasy you see in the movies is Poway
High School. Like Andy grew upin small town Iowa, cold in the
winter, you have hallways. Theydon't have hallways at play High School.

(51:22):
I don't think people understand that it'sall outside. Explain the atmosphere and the
beautiful weather of Paway, California.Yeah, it's hard to describe. You
know. I came from the EastCoast and we got all indoor schools.
I mean this school, it's it'syeah, it's all outdoors. They do

(51:42):
they do there. There's only onelunch and kids are all over the campus.
There's music playing every day, there'sactivities during the lunch outside it's a
fantastic atmosphere. Our pool is outdoors, of course, and so they have
pe every day. The kids aregoing out and they're doing their swim outside.

(52:02):
And it's on top of that,you've got probably the best weather in
the United States. It's it's rarelybelow seventy degrees midday and it's sunny almost
every day. And it's and that'swhat sold me, you know, that's
that's when I saw that, whenI when I got a taste of that,

(52:24):
that's what sold me. And it'sit's a fantastic place. And then
you you you mix that with agreat place to wrestle. It's it's it's
heavens if if people want to Russell, that's that's the place to be.
It's a it's a fantastic place toraise your family and and it's a fantastic
place to go to school academically asas well as as Russell. You can

(52:49):
have it all, you know,you don't have to you don't have to
go to the I've been through thoseMinnesota weathers. You don't have to go
through uh those winters. You can. You can have this on all year
and have a good wrestling program too, all right, John soon I was
out there. I was talking toone of the moms of the wrestler and
I told her I was from Iowa, and her response was Iowa. Where's

(53:12):
Iowa? How many people in Powaydo you think know where Iowa's located?
Most of them could probably draw acircle around the map, and you know,
probably have about five states in there, and and but but I don't
know that many actually know where itis. To tell you the truth,

(53:37):
well, yeah, you better knowwhere it is because it's just south of
Minnesota. I know it. Yeah, that's right, that's right, yep.
A lot of good Russell right aroundthere. For sure. It's it's
it's surrounded it to the Great RussellState, I know that. And it's
surrounded by similar states you know,don't know I Wisconsin and Minnesota or fantastic
for sure. When you build thisprogram, we talked about every piece you

(54:00):
have in place. What's the endgame? Is it state championships, is it
something else? Is it cultivating anenvironment that sustains them for a long time.
You've got to explain why you wantto do this in your drive to
make this happen. There's a lotof different reasons. I think one of

(54:22):
the main reasons is when when thesekids get done it at Poway, I
want them to be as well roundedas possible when they go off on their
own. The real gold medal inthis sport, I believe, is using

(54:46):
wrestling as a vehicle to whatever successthese kids might have after high school and
in college and beyond. You know, we have we have a little bit
of a little little club called thePowway Wrestling Doctors. We have twelve to

(55:07):
fifteen kids who graduated you in thelast twenty years who who are doctors and
lawyers. And you know that that'sthe real gold medal, I think is
the success that these kids have andand being good dads and moms and parents
when they get out. And Ithink, uh, I think you know,

(55:27):
little things like having a mindset coachat your at your hands on a
daily basis and can improve somebody's mentalstate and can get them through problems that
maybe the wrestling coach cannot. Improvingtheir fitness to a place called training lab,
you know, can can help themwith lifetime fitness and understanding you know,

(55:52):
the metabolic testing that they're doing andusing that later on in life after
wrestling as well. Those those arekind of the joys of what we do.
I think, and and don't getme wrong, we love winning.
We're very competitive and we want towin everything, but we keep it in

(56:16):
perspective for sure. You know,these kids going off to colleges. We
have the uh you know, RockColes coming down to our Tawai tomorrow,
and we've had college coaches in andout the summer and it's just a it's

(56:37):
a good thing to see these kids, these kids after high school, the
success that they can have. Californiaone class forty eight man brackets per weight
class. How do you break through? How do you win championships? Besides
the obvious of scoring more points inthe second place, but how do you
build a team that can win astate championship at the end? Yeah,

(57:00):
there's there's a lot of things involved. You know, a lot of people
that don't coach don't realize how difficultit is on a weekly basis. Report
fourteen really uh dedicated and talented wrestlerson the map. There's so many things

(57:21):
at the high school level that goon on a the early basis. You
know, fires that have to beput out and issues that come up,
and the injuries and you know theacademics and family issues and things like that.
You know those coaches that that arehead coaches that don't know what I'm
talking about. But that's number oneis keeping it together and understanding, you

(57:45):
know, want to let up onthe on the gas pedal and then to
the to kind of press a littleharder and uh rich kids to that mean
a little bit of a you know, a pat on the back and which
need a maybe a bear hugger,you know, be a little bit pluffle
around it. And that's uh,that's part of the game. And I'm

(58:07):
still learning about that. And that'sone of the great things about me having
these other coaches as well, youknow, a guy like Zach Shannerman and
a guy right Stephen Neal to bouncethings off is incredible and we talk about
it on a daily basis if we'renot texting on you know, and the
fifteen times a day all my coachesand you know, Steve is in my

(58:31):
office at noon and uh, youknow the other coaches. We have four
coaches on campus and we're always talkingand bouncing things off at each other.
So yeah, it's it's a it'sa good atmosphere to try to get the
most out of a team that youreally can. So I'm surrounded by really
smart people, I guess, I'llsay, and we'll continue to work on

(58:52):
with in that championship. How doyou get an individual wrestler to see and
believe something that here she doesn't knowthat exists inside. Oh, it's it's
different from each for each kid,you know. That's that's Uh, that's
the beauty of it too. That'sthe fun of it. You know,

(59:13):
every every kid is different and understandinghow to how to get into her mind
and make them believe is It's achess match for sure. And I'll never
forget, you know. I askedMark Ryland, uh from Iowa. I
asked him one time at a tournamentwhile I was wrestling to Minnesota, said

(59:34):
what what makes Gable so good?And uh? He said, you know,
he knows how to treat each kid. He knows what makes them kick?
And he said he said, somesome kids need you know, need
a pat on the butt or uhneed to hugging, he said, He
said himself, he needs he needsthat that toploggy needs to be yelled at.

(59:55):
He knows, Uh, he said, Gable knows exact Actually what each
kid needs, really gives it tothem. And uh, that's that's a
trick as well, you know,getting the most out of a kid,
making them believe that they can dothings that they don't think they can and
and and that again is the reasonwhy we have so many coaches around and

(01:00:15):
you know, you know Steve oror or you know my strength coach,
coach read they might be able toget to a kid that that I'm not
obvious sucsessed with. And we talkabout that on a daily basis. So
yeah, it's good to have alot of coaches. But but really did
smart coaches and hardy as well.How's the team looking for this upcoming season.

(01:00:40):
We're looking good. We're looking reallygood. We lost one big piece
from last year that that was newConn in our state champ but we we
burn. Uh. We have eightAll Americans coming back from UH from Fargo
and UH a lot of state placers. It will be a real fun season.

(01:01:02):
A lot of work to be done, It will be a fun season
for sure. Are you able toapply your coaching philosophy to your own life?
Yeah, yeah, I think so. I try to, you know,
I try to lead by example andI tell my kids. Uh,

(01:01:23):
you know, before I left forhire, our last practice, I told
our kids. You know, Itell them this often. I said,
well, we're all works in progress, you know, every one of us.
I see each coach, you seehere as well, you know your
grown measure. We're all working onon ourselves. And I tell them,

(01:01:44):
you know, we have to behonest with ourselves. We have to be
able to look at ourselves in themirror and say, you know, these
are the things that I'm not doingwell. These are the things I need
to get better at. These arethings that I am doing well at,
but I need to work on thesethings. And we talk about that in
our program a lot. Always improvingourselves is there's nobody on the Spurts that

(01:02:04):
doesn't need improvement. And you know, it kind of opens their eyes when
they hear that the first time,that the coaches need to work on things
as well, and let them knowthat our ego is not too good too,
to realize that we need to workon things ourselves and we're here from
now for them, and you know, we let them know we'll help them
get through whatever they need to.Your philosophy includes being community minded. When

(01:02:29):
I was there you went to Ithink it was Feed San Diego for packaging
meals for the homeless and the hungry. Why is that important to implement that
piece into your coaching philosophy. Yeah, I came up with that idea a
while ago. Community service for allthe levels of our programs. It's mandatory,

(01:02:51):
and I will do sevel during theyear. Number one, I think
it's great for I tell poets,it's wait for uh these kids to be
involved in community service. And theninstead of me telling the kids why it's
good for them, I think it'sa great opportunity for the parents to have
a conversation with their saughter daughter andsay, you know, ask them why

(01:03:15):
do you think we do this?There is the reasons I think we do
this. You know, why dowe get back? I like it for
that reason. Number one, tohave those parent conversations. I had two.
I had two daughters that are bothin college now, and I remember
how it was. You know,it can be difficult for kids to talk
to parents and they want to puttheir ear pods in and listen to the

(01:03:37):
music or whatever. But you know, it's good to have those conversations.
And number two, again, weare a wrestling team, and we want
to win championships and we want tobe world champions, but we also want
to do great things as a teamfor our entity in our country. And

(01:04:02):
uh, you know, I thinkit's every program in the United States a
little league to popular for whatever itis. Imagine, you know, I
always say imagine as every team,every sports team, just did one great
thing as far as community service withtheir team on a better place we have
and in better conversations with good kids. You know, Mike Melanconacho makes me

(01:04:29):
smile every time I see him.You're around him all the time. How
does it make you feel when hewalks into the wrestling room. He's great.
He hadds a great piece to ourprogram. We have so many great
minds, great wrestling minds. Youknow. He takes Alexander Keeping in from
Bella Loops. I mean that guy. We go back and forth all the

(01:04:50):
time about you know, the Europeanwrestling versus United States. And we have
Stephen mill who's done it at thehighest level. We have added you know,
Jack Shannon and you know wrestled atyou Pen and coached at the highest
level and the Big Pan in theColumbia Mike adds to that community of coaches

(01:05:15):
and gives us, gives us yetanother perspective to listen to and to bounce
things off of. So uh,and you know, again, he's just
a great person and he has afantastic family. His wife, his son,
his daughter, they're all people.And yeah, they're they're they're they're

(01:05:38):
great and and and that's what wewant to do. What we want to
bring in as many people as aswe can. Like that to Poway and
I think, uh, I thinkwe're becoming a magnet to that once people
see what we have and what's instore. We have a couple of really
big things in store over the nextyear or two that are gonna that'll bowl
your mind, I think. Butyou know he's going to be a part

(01:06:01):
of that for sure. Can youshare those things? I think in a
couple of months I'll be able toshare them. Yeah, I think in
a couple of months, I'll textyou and I'll let you know we have
something something coming up next fall that'sgoing to be kind of presented in a

(01:06:23):
couple of months. Here of thelist of thirty things that you mentioned earlier,
how many of those have been accomplishedthat's a good question. I have
to look at that that list again. I'd say I'd say probably about half.
You know, one of the thingson there was becoming the first USA

(01:06:45):
Regional Training center. We will regionaltraining center. You know, there's a
lot of places that say there weretraining center and than not become in the
first high school associated with that regionaltraining center, pitle and we did that.
It took us two and two anda half years, but we did
it. And you know, ourend goal, one of the end goals

(01:07:09):
is to make wrestlings free for everybody, for all of our kids to travel
to training, everything, and sowe're working on that as well. Probably
out of half. I don't knowwhat I'll get them all done before I
retired, but we'll keep plugging away. John, this has been a lot

(01:07:29):
of fun. Thanks for sharing yourstory, Thanks for sharing your vision of
Pawey High School and telling us whereyou want to go. I think you're
gonna get all thirty done. Don'tsell yourself short. So when you get
thirty done, we're gonna have youback on the show and we're gonna maybe
close out your career. You cansay goodbye them, but you got to
get all thirty accomplished. All right, I appreciate it. Thanks Kyle.

(01:07:51):
Let's hear from Cliff Keen Athletic.We'll be back after this to wrap up
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(01:08:12):
on the mat. Subscribers can alsosave big at cliff Keen dot com.
Go to cliff Keen dot com anduse coupon code on the mat at checkout
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for on the mat listeners just goto www dot cliff Keen dot com and

(01:08:34):
click shop Wrestling Andy. That wasfun talking to John Myers and getting his
vision on what's transpiring at Padway HighSchool. And when you think about a
high school program and all the nameshe's listed, it's a who's who,
And of course Steven Neil is theone that I like. But hearing that

(01:08:55):
Steven Neil story about booting him outof the chair. That just cracks me
up every time. I love that, and he's just so humble about it.
He just rolls with it, doesn'troll his eyes. He just gets
out of the seat and moves on. And I wish I could have been
there when he opened the page I'massuming Wikipedia, and saw all that Steven
Neil accomplished. That had been agreat moment to film that. Those stories

(01:09:16):
are right up your alley, especiallywhen they involve Steven Neil. Right.
Oh, of course I love agood Steven Neil story. So need what
he's building out there, And tellyou there's very few programs that are able
to do that. Just create anentire system, an ecosystem of the youth
part, bringing a mindset coach,bringing the youth coach with Mike Melanconico have

(01:09:36):
that infrastructure around with thirteen coaches.But you're right, I see that a
lot where you think more is better. Where you have all these assistants and
to be able to keep them inline and to know where your place is,
that's a difficult thing to do.So I think a lot of times
you really do have to keep yourego in check and know that my role
here is not to be the headcoach. Someone else has that I have

(01:10:00):
a role that can be executed inthe program, and I think he's doing
that well. You know, oneof the questions now that I'm regretting that
we didn't ask, I'll take theblame for it because it's coming to my
mind right now. Just curious ifthose kids out there have any idea how
good they have it? Yeah,because you, as you say, like,
this is so rare. Yeah,right to have these kind of resources

(01:10:25):
in this kind of high powered coachingstaff. Turning to run on you,
did you know when you were thebeat writer for the University of Iowahawkeye wrestling
program, how good you had itand the access that you had in that
moment. Yeah, I mean toa certain degree because the fact that I
knew right away when when Jim Zeleskion the first day I went into that

(01:10:45):
room, when he pulled Doug Schwaband Eric Jurgen's out of warm ups and
they're returning national champions for a teamthat's going for its sixth straight national championship.
I'm like, this is not usuallike that, at least from where
I came from, which was coveringcollege football at that point, you know,
and the access was you get themonce a day and you're all pigs

(01:11:10):
in the same pen fighting for thesame slop like for that kind of access,
that individual access I thought was youknow, I thought, yeah,
I'm pretty lucky here, and that'swhy I fell in love with covering wrestling.
I think they'll know regardless, it'shard when you're in high school,
junior high to understand that when that'swhat you grow up with. But if

(01:11:30):
they go to another program, orif they end up at a D three
program or a D two, evenD one, I think you're going to
see that it's not like that everywhere, and what they've built is incredibly special.
Being out there you see it.You're just blown away at a world
class experience like that, and whathe's built so not normal. So I
hope they appreciate what they have.Great to be on the show with.

(01:11:53):
You're grate for John Meyers to beon the show, For Andrew Hamilton and
John Myers. I'm Kyle Klingman.You've been listening on the Map and a