Stanford head wrestling coach Chris Ayres - OTM672

After 17 years bringing Princeton from the bottom of the Division I ranks to a bonafide place where All-Americans can develop and thrive, Chris Ayres is off to a new adventure. Ayres was announced as Stanford’s next wrestling coach last month. A Lehigh alum and 1999 Division I All-American, Ayres’ drive is both common within the coaching ranks, but his approach is unique at the same time. in 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
0:35 - Andy’s big on flash mobs, but Kyle goes on a rant right away about schedules.
3:42 - The smaller divisions have better names than Division I.
7:25 - The Monday after your career ends in college, you lose relevance.
13:55 - Team USA, men’s freestyle world champions again.
16:20 - Kyle’s quibble with freestyle scoring.
19:45 - The new king of 97kg.
21:52 - The U.S. women were second, with a mixed bag of results.
23:12 - Cliff Keen Athletic
23:51 - Chris Ayres Interview
1:11:20 - Cliff Keen headgear
1:12:15 - Wrapping up the show and digesting the interview
.
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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi. I'm Jason Bryant from theShort Time Wrestling podcast and founder of the
matt Talk podcast Network. Shows onthe network are individually owned and operated,
and those opinions presented and expressed maynot reflect others, the sponsors, patrons,
or the parent network. Find moreshows about the greatest sport in the
world at the Matt Talk Podcast Networkat mattalk online dot com. Welcome to

(00:29):
on the Mat sponsored by Cliff Keen, athletic Kyle Klingman, joined by Andy
Flashmob Hamilton, and I'm going tostart this off with another rant that I
think you will agree with. Whatis the deal with the schedules coming out
so late across the board? Howdo we promote this, promote wrestling if

(00:51):
we have schedules a month before theseason, start preaching to the choir pal,
Well, it's my I mean,we've started practice and we don't even
have schedules from some school schedules.Yeah, And can you imagine if that
happened in other sports? Can youimagine if like we no who where teams
will play during the season, orwe would like started training camp for college

(01:11):
football and didn't know what the schedulewas, come on and I'm particularly disappointed
with the schedule not being released here. We're trying to promote this, we're
trying to advance women's wrestling, andwe find out a month before we're recording

(01:32):
this on October twelfth, find outa month before just one date of the
home dus don't know the full slateof the Iowa women's wrestling duels for the
entirety of the season. Now.I think a lot of this has to
do with Big Ten network and televisionrights, and I don't know that it's
necessarily in the control of the programs, so it's not any of the schools

(01:55):
because I think it is out oftheir hands. But my goodness, we're
trying to advance this, are tryingto really have people embrace, especially for
me, because I love women's wrestling. It's what I cover, it's what
I am day. To not knowthe schedule, and then I think even
Iowa Men's schedule is kind of incomplete. You know that who they're wrestling,

(02:20):
and maybe some of the dates possiblyI don't even know if the dates,
but it's not just Iowa Wrestling,it's across every single program. They're just
coming out so late. I don'tknow what the fix is. But I'm
frustrated it's getting later and later andlater every year. Oh absolutely, And
it used to be like by Juneone, you'd have a pretty good idea,
who like what a team going forthe next year? And now here

(02:44):
we are into October and they're stillsome mony answered questions. But am I
wrong on this? Even next year'sIowa football schedule is said, isn't it?
Or for like the next four years? And so we're down to a
month. You would think, Ithink people need to make some sort of
plans or think this through a littlebit. I know people kind of fly

(03:06):
by the seat of their pants,but I think they want to know in
advance and get excited about and buildmomentum. And that's the date I want
to go to. There's Penn State, Iowa. It's my rant. I
just I'm super frustrated by that.It's you can't promote a product if you
don't know the product is there,or how to get to the product or
where to go? So who wantwhen? Where? And why? Just

(03:30):
now? Another topic that relates toyou is i'd say you and David Bray,
who both worked for Flow Wrestling orFlow Sports, you guys are enamored
by the names of wrestlers, andthere's some odds of wrestlers out there.
I sent you one on Slack.I don't know that you got it.

(03:50):
It was yeah, you remember Idid. We didn't get a response from
you. An absolutely fantastic name.I love it. My comment on this,
by finding and just looking at Dthree D two NAI brackets is that
those divisions have better names than Done. And I don't know what it

(04:14):
is. There's just so many goodnames and some of those NAI E two.
I was going through a bracket theother day and I thought, there
are some freaking awesome names in thisD two bracket right now, and I
just feel like they find their wayto those divisions for whatever reasons. I
know you like what sheets is aname that I know you like? Oh,

(04:36):
I mean Oklahoma. They're just it'sa buffet of fantastic names. Absolutely
it is. It's there's just beenso many. What's do you have a
come to mind? I like,uh, Lecho wildcat. Oh, you
can get like animal names involved rowdyDuck, Oh awesome. He's not from

(05:00):
Rowdy Duck's not from from Oklahoma,but but he did Wrestle preseason Nashville,
Rowdy neighbor, Rowdy Neighbor. There'sanother one. Yeah, there's so many
awesome names out the vs. Fantasticname. Keep those name names coming.
Speedy Walden, oh Man, chalkTaw, Oklahoma. We highlighted here a

(05:24):
few years back that really appreciated.And there was one back in the day.
I loved the name Matt Dragon.You remember him, Matt Dragon,
Matt Burns, Matt King, MattKing is fantastic, Matt Fury. So
there's just so many. I lovea good wrestling name, and I would
say you and David Bray are onthe hunt for those all the time,

(05:46):
to find those those great wrestling names. I like the name Brandon Slay Mark
Ironside. There's just so many greatnames that just tongue. So it's always
been my dream to have a listof the one hundred greatest wrestling names.
Stud Morris, Central Oklahoma. Ohmy gosh, another Oklahoma. Yeah,
they they come through in the clutch, they come. That's Doubler. That's

(06:12):
up there for a fantastic wrestling name. Any others you want to add before
we just I know that we'll haveto revisit this the months ahead, because
there there are some that I'm sureI'm forgetting right now. Are first Ball
in Hall of Famers, Yeah,Turk Lords, I love that was a
great name. So there's just somesome fantastic ones out there now as we

(06:36):
we talk about just wanting the schedulesand and panther you could go on and
on here Teagan panther Man, there'sany any name. And there was actually
a guy with the name Tony Champion. I think he was a D two
champ, so to have that name, and I think there was a guy

(06:57):
with it Champion, So I justsee your wheels churning in your head.
I don't want to stop you ifyou have more names coming here, No,
I'm sorry, curry on, okay, But to that, we're talking
about promoting the sport and being relevant. And one of the things that I
always think about is it almost seemslike when a wrestler's career in college is

(07:21):
over that night after the NCAA championshipparty. If you have one that Sunday,
you might because you're still buzzing,but that Monday, it really does
feel like you fall out of relevancethat quickly that it's on to the next.
We're always excited about the next.Wait, we've talked about this,

(07:42):
but there's names that we talked aboutwith regularity, and I have a few
here that electrified us at someone likeDylan Ness was maybe the most electric entertaining
wrestler when he was there for theUniversity of minnesot wouldn't you say, just
you what was coming with him?And he could pin someone, he was

(08:07):
gonna pull something out of his hat. I think James Green that's his worst
nightmare because I think he couldn't getpast James Green, or James Green couldn't
get past him in college and hitcrazy man. What was the thing Jim
Gibbons said all the time, Sohandle with care, you know when you're
when you're wrestling him, He hada saying every time that he would he

(08:31):
would wrestle but relevant. And yougo through your entire career, you're you're
in it. You go through youthwrestling and this is your life. You're
going to tournaments, you're going tojunior nationals, You're you're relevant, you're
getting on social media, you're thrillingthe crowd, and then it's over a
day after the nca Championships, andso I don't know what you do with

(08:56):
that. I think it's something thatmaybe there's not enough awareness about what happens
when your career is over and youcan't wrestle. Jesse Delgado, we have
ruled because of the way that hewrestled in college. Our college product is
partially because of the way he wrestledand would flounder around on his back.
They made the neutral danger zone becauseof those things. Dean Heile was someone

(09:18):
that we talked about, a twotime NCA champion. I think he tried
the file. I don't know reallywhat any of those three are doing right
now, do you, Dean Hile, Jesse Delgado. I think Dylan ness
is maybe working with Nike for asa rep. But other than that,
I'm not quite sure some of theseprominent for a while what they're doing.

(09:41):
And I think you brought it upwhen I mentioned this to you. I
think you said this happens in allsports, major League baseball. Maybe once
you retire, you're no longer relevantanymore. Although I think and you're part
of that team fabric, I thinkthat you can stay relevant. But I
don't know if you remember this.Coleman Scott said that about Jake Roschel,

(10:03):
who was a three time national champion. He said that guy was great,
and he said he was an NFCchampionship was and he said he felt terrible
about it. But I think inorder to stay relevant, especially in this
spart as, you have to stayin the sport at some level. You
have to be a coach, youhave to continue as an athlete. Jordan
Burrows is going on and on andon. He's in his mid thirty elevant,

(10:26):
unbelievably gables and aberration. He stayedrelevant and he's seventy five years old.
But to stay relevant and rest andwhen you've done it your whole life,
I don't know if people are preparedfor what life is like after you're
done being on the circuit for along time. I don't think it's just
a wrestling thing, as you kindof touched upon there. But I mean,
shoot, when I covered college football, like you see the people that

(10:52):
are super in the weeds on collegefootball recruiting and they're obsessed with following the
class up until signing day and thenit's onto the next class that's coming,
and it's almost like they're more checkedin with the guys who are on their

(11:13):
way before they're on you know,before they get to campus, and then
once they get to campus, likethey they aren't is checked in on them
once they're actually in uniform as theywere when they're following them with their high
school teams and which is you know, that's why recruiting the industry and it
you know, it has h explodedinto where we've got I don't know,

(11:37):
several networks that just focus on collegerecruiting because they're always trying to feed that
thirst for information with with that typeof crowd. Yeah, and it's it's
constantly there. If you're not doingsomething that is relevant, then in today's

(11:58):
age with story and you have twentyfour hours and move on to the next
pretty quick. And I just don'tknow if you get prepared for that,
because that's what happens with these elitekids is you start when you're five,
six seven, and that's your lifefor the next potentially fifty is you go
to these tournaments. You're putting infifty to one hundred matches per year.

(12:22):
You go to high school and you'rethe big thing, and you're the big
dog and you're going to Super thirtytwo and Junior nationals and people are watching
you and you're on social media,and then you go to college and you
do your it's just once that's overand you don't have that wrestling outlet anymore,
it's I would think it's a verytough transition to make, very tough

(12:45):
because, like I said, Iliked watching all the Kyle Jesse Delgado,
Dylan Ness. They were fun towatch. I don't necessarily know what they're
doing now, and they electrified usfor that period of time. But once
you're out of that wrestling circle,maybe that's just what happens. But the

(13:05):
way we could embrace them a littlebit more than what we do, just
stay checked in on what they're doing, because that high has to be like
no other when you're Dylan Ness,and he did. He absolutely electrified those
Minnesota crowds, and he's other opposingteams crowds with his style, and I

(13:26):
would say conservatively he's one of thetop ten most exciting wrestlers I can remember
watching in the last ten years.I was just so fun to wat.
I just wish we could do alittle bit better job of keeping them relevant
now. We haven't done a showsince the Senior World Championships. We don't

(13:48):
need to break it down too muchbecause there's been a lot that happened there
in USA World champions Again. Igot up in the middle of the of
the night, as you did,and watch this team perform. Probably the
first thing that comes to mind forme is David Taylor is absolutely on his
own planner right now. Oh hedoes it because Hasania's Donnie from Iron is

(14:13):
great. He is great, Olympicchampion, World champion, seeing him do
some incredible things, and David Taylorwent out there and imposed eventually got a
fall in that match. David Taylorabsolutely the po pound best restler in the
world. And that's just the startof the things that we saw there.

(14:35):
Crazy World Championship. Anytime something's onthe line like this, crazy things happen.
I felt like things happened this yearat the World Championships. Yeah,
I mean, what is Donnie?I think somewhere in the range of like
seven eight career losses, five ofthem to Taylor, And I don't know,
like when's the last time was itwas it twenty sixteen Olympic, fifteen

(15:00):
World Championships that he lost to somebodyother than other than Taylor. It could
be. It's completely possible. Itmight be. I'm looking up here.
Yeah, twenty sixteen medved Wikipedia,he lost to sibalav in the finals.
Now, I think that's the lasttime he's lost to anybody, but David

(15:20):
Taylor. That's seven years ago.Yeah, and more than something like coming
up on eight years. Yeah,it's David Taylor phenomenal. Just impressed with
what he was able to do,and just and I'm happy for Mason Parris
getting a bronze there, and justsome of our guys that got world titles

(15:41):
that have been staying with at ZaneRedford getting a world goal that he was
able to accomplish, that veto gettinga gold medal at sixty one kilograms.
Just a top notch performance for theUnited States. Back to back world champions
and I don't think there's any questionthe United States this year. You could
say last year Russia wasn't there noquestion about the United States is the best

(16:06):
wrestling team in the world right nowfor freestyle men's freestyle. Yeah, absolutely
incredible performance and just super proud ofwhat they're able to accomplish. Not a
great but just a freestyle as itcompares to the folk style And the only
reason I think this way is becauseI'm able to compare it to the folk
style system. Is in freestyle,you can get this dominant position seemingly dominant,

(16:30):
where you can control it. He'sthrow someone to his or her back,
hold that wrestler there for multiple seconds, and you come out of it
with a mere two points. Andyet you can have the slightest stake and

(16:51):
you just tilt someone and get andbreak an angle, and you can get
the same amount of points that youwould for dominating someone in a position.
And you're only going to get twopoints. That's just maybe a little bit
of a quirk that I don't necessarilywell. And then, of course the
this happens more in greco, justwhen it ends one to one and it's

(17:11):
all in an activity clock violation andit just happened to be the last person
that scored it. Just that alwaysleaves me. Yeah, it leaves me
empty. I just wish, andI don't know what you do about it.
With the with the control, Iliked it back in the day when
you got a point for holding someoneon his or her back for a five

(17:33):
seconds. I wish we could goback to that, just to give an.
But if if that's all I haveto gripe about, that's that's not
bad. But I just wish dominationwould be rewarded a little bit more in
freestyle. Well, like think aboutI mean one that comes to mind right
away. If you know when Sagelaiand Snyder wrestled in twenty eighteen the World

(17:56):
finals, when Sagelife put him onhis back and held him there eventually pinned
him in that position, if ifKyle could have fought that off, it
would have been two nothing going tothe second period. Yeah, right,
like if he if he could astay in the period, Whereas like if
a similar situation happens in folk style, now with a three point takedown,

(18:17):
Uh, you're looking at seven tozero plus writing time. Yeah, hey,
it's wild to think about a seven. You do that now, feet
to back, seven to zero,You're now a point away from a major
decision and eight points away from atech fall. That's that's pretty incredible.

(18:37):
So it's uh, I think thatyou're seeing the gap. There really is
a one of the big differences betweenfolk style and freestyle. And people want
to say wrestling is wrestling, itis different because the way you score points
the way you're you navigate the mat, at the edge of the mat,
where you are positioning. It isdifferent because but we've seen it enough times

(19:00):
where someone doesn't necessarily adapt their folkstyle skills to freestyle and vice versa.
We've seen these freestyle artists not beable to make that adjustment win nca championships.
And it happened right now, he'sa world champion and outstanding wrestler,
moved up to forty one, didn'tplace, had a solid career, I

(19:21):
think three time All American at onethirty three place and three times but never
got the NCAA Championship. But nowhe's a world champion in the world right
now and going to qualify for theOlympics for Serbia. Fun. Yeah,
tremendous run too through the bracket there, I mean Beta, who's who of
guys of fifty seven? Yeah,and what'd you think there at ninety seven

(19:44):
kilos with a new Snyder and saidJuly of going down, I didn't see
it coming. But that was againwhen we're talking about shocking moments of the
tournament, that certainly stands out.Yeah, yeah, absolutely, no doubt.
I mean, going to tournament andbeat either one of Snyder and said
Julia, right, is quite afeat. And then to beat him back

(20:08):
to back and both handedly. Imean, holy smokes, you know,
Tazadenov, hats off to him andhis performance. That's certainly going to be
one of the big storylines going intointo twenty twenty four in Paris is can
he do that again? And lookingforward to seeing how Sadgiula bounces back.

(20:30):
I mean to go from the highsof that for such a sustained period.
Basically, you know, we're talkingearlier about Yazdani not losing for anybody there
than Taylor for you know what,coming up on eight years Sad Julia,
but he since Snyder in twenty seventeenand we saw a better version of him

(20:56):
come back after that and nobody reallytouched him. And you know, now,
what what do we do we getin? Uh, do an improved
bounce back Sad julya or or havewe seen the best days of said July
of in the rear view now,he didn't look in shape. Certainly when

(21:17):
you see him there, he didnot look like the said July of that
that we you're just trying to togo on a few reps there and was
out of the twenty twenty two WorldChampionships, and it's you can get still
quick is you got to stay sharpand you got to be on top of
things, and clearly that situation.Women free women's freestyle American side got second

(21:42):
to the mighty Japanese team. Somegood performances there. Mixed bag though.
I meet Elora looked fantastic and she'sgoing to be at the U twenty three
World Championships. It's for triple goldagain this season. And she's still not
twenty years old, she's still ateenager, so she's doing some phenomenal things.

(22:03):
Adeline Gray gets a bronze medal.Sarah Hildebrant bronze medal, so glasses
on the bookends qualified for the Olympics. Our country for the Olympics, so
happy about that. Helen gets abronze medal, so she's qualified that weight
class for the Olympic Game. SoUS women right there, they're just not

(22:25):
quite the pan, but nobody ison the women's side, But feel good
about where the women's American women's wrestlingprogram is going. Final thoughts for we
get to Chris Ayres Princeton, formercoach now at Stanford. We're going to
talk to him about that move andwhy he made the move. Excited to
talk to talk to him. Anyparting thoughts from Andrew No, just looking

(22:45):
forward to the interview with Chris.Always one of my favorite guys to talk
to in the college wrestling world.Guy that always seems to be in a
good mood and handid and answers yourquestions and it's it's we talk about the
best interviews not being interviews or conversations, and Chris Airs is always a conversation.

(23:08):
Let's hear from Cliff Keen Athletic,then let's hear from Chris Airs.
Fall is in the air. Thatmeans folk style and club wrestling seasons are
coming fast. Cliff Keen has everythingyou need to hit the mats, from
headgear and kneepads to singlets and workoutgear. As a bonus on the mats

(23:30):
big at Cliff Keen dot com.Go to Cliff Keen dot com and use
coupon code on the mat one wordat checkout and take twenty percent off your
order. You heard correctly. Couponcode on the mat gets you twenty percent
off. Just go to ww quendot com and click shop wrestling and choose
from the products you need the most. We are back on the mat with

(23:53):
new Stanford head wrestling coach Chris Ayres. It's hard to say that because I'm
so used to Princeton and and theBlack and Chris as we have you on,
Is it hard for you to getused to wearing the Cardinal? Uh?
A little bit. I mean Ispent a lot of most of my

(24:14):
adult life at Princeton, and youknow, I grew up there, so
Princeton definitely holds a place in myheart. Uh, But I was really
ready for a new, a newadventure, I guess you could say,
so the Cardinal. It feels goodon me when the news that Rob Cole
is going to North Carolina and youknow, the Stanford job is open.

(24:38):
What do you think in that moment, I want that job? You did,
but it opened the Yeah, definitely, so uh huh. I want
to be clear, it wasn't likeit wasn't like something as bad at Princeton
or like you know, I didn'tget along with people or anything, or

(24:59):
or I didn't think could win.It was just seventeen years. Seventeen years
is a long time when I uh, it was a. It was a
tough situation. But what happened inthose first few years is I grew a
lot as a coach, just basicallybecause it was a different situation. And
so I wouldn't say I got scale. It was just a feeling in my

(25:23):
gut like I need, I needa little bit of a change, and
so so that that's what really ledme to hear so when and there wasn't
many jobs I would consider to beperfectly honest, like it's Stanford's like Princeville,
and it just was like the perfectfit for me, and so so
yeah, when it opened, Iwas like I want, I want to

(25:45):
get that job, and and thatwas pretty much what started it. And
then I worked at getting the joband Chris, when and how do you
know that it's time for a change? That's a great question. Oh man,
that's hard. You know what,when you feel like you're not growing.

(26:07):
I think that I could have beengreat at I knew, I knew
everything about the university. Uh,there was obviously challenges that were great,
and I love challenges, but Ijust felt like stuck a little bit.
To be perfectly honest, and lookat anyone's life, it's it's usually broken

(26:29):
into like four or five year segments, and so you know, you have
elementary school, then you have middleschool, then you have high school,
then you have college, and thenyou know. I don't think we're I
don't think we're built for long periodsin one spot and so so I just
it was just a feeling like Ijust needed something new. The other thing

(26:52):
is just the opportunity here is great, and it's it's it's by far the
best in the country. They've gotthe most national titles of any university ever.
I think they're the second most Olympicmedals of any school ever. So
it was just like, hey,I can win here, I can win
here. So I think everything camecame together at the right time. I've

(27:18):
been telling people too, I thinkwith the experience at Princeton, I was
built for this and and this isjust the next, the next thing that
I want to just be connected togoing back before that. So when the
North Carolina job opens, are youthinking Rob Cole might go back to North
Carolina and coach there? Did thatthought enter your mind at all? I

(27:42):
didn't think. I didn't think muchof it, to be I was kind
of doing my own thing at Princetonand just focusing on my team. So
I don't know, I don't knowif that thought ever crossed my mind.
I knew he was looking at Oklahoma, so I'm sure I can't just remember
exactly what I was saying. Yeah, it wasn't too much of a thought.

(28:03):
But when I heard when when Iheard his name brought up. Usually
the channels of information for wrestling aresort of uh not, not the normal
channels that you get for a furthersports like ESPN or something like that,
Twitter or whatever. When the whenthe when the murmurs came up that he
was interested, Then then my thenmy month started spinning a little bit when

(28:26):
that moment happens, that it doeshappen that Stanford is open, and you
say, I want that job?How do you job? I reached out
to people. Uh So, I'vebeen in the game for a while,
especially in the academic schools. It'ssort of like it's funny in the ivys,

(28:47):
everybody kind of knows everyone in thatIt's that it's sort of in the
same academic realm, So there's sortsort of there's there's like a there's like
only a one degree of separation betweensomeone and who goes to one ivying another
one. You could pretty much connectthe dots. So that was my first

(29:07):
order of business was talking to people. Uh, that's how I that's how
I ended up at Princeton. Actually, Johnny Orr before I interviewed, he
called me. He connected me withsome alumni and that that job was hearing
from the people who cared about Princeton, and so I kind of replicated that
for myself here. And I juststarted, you know, I just started

(29:32):
asking people, you know, canI give you a call. I'd call
one person, I'd say hey,someone else that you know, you'd think
I should talk to, And they'dsay, hey, this guy has been
amazing, and and and and theorganization around Stanford Wrestling is pretty strong just
because of the Safe Stanford Wrestling movement, So they had a pretty strong people

(29:55):
who were who were just incredibly,incredibly passionate about the program and they were
in the fight to keep the program. So so I reached out to a
lot of those people, and andand the interview. If they offered me
the job, I knew I wastaking it. So yeah, So that's
what the first order of business was, getting to know the people. If

(30:19):
you didn't get the job. Yousaid you wanted to make a change.
Would that have made you less effective? Stay? Never? Not a second.
I loved Princeton. I was happythere. It wasn't like this,
I'll say it was like it waslike it wasn't It wasn't a powerful thing

(30:40):
in me, like, hey,you got it. It was just something
that was like kind of knocking onthe door a little bit, like hey,
you've been here a while, itmight be good for a change.
It wasn't a situation where it's like, hey, you have to have a
change. So if I were ifI were to be at Princeton right now,
I would be. I would beI could for those guys. That
is the hardest thing, to behonest, Like leaving the team, that

(31:04):
was hard. Uh. Not muchelse has been as hard as that in
the process. But yeah, soif I if I would have stayed at
prince it's a great job. Likeit was. It was. It was
It's like a d one dream job, you know, not in the beginning
when I first got it, butthe point it was at where I left
it was was really good. Soyeah, I would I would have really,

(31:26):
I would have. I would havedone well. Uh, stationed with
the Princeton athletes. Wow, thatwas I just ripped the band aid off.
To be honest, I accepted thejob on a Sunday. I called
a team meeting on Monday. Thatwas at four forty. I think there
was some moments I get the jobat that point, so I think the

(31:48):
team kind of knew it was up. Plus my daughter's on the team,
so so she, uh, shemight have been uh, she might have
been hounded a little bit. Andin those conversations, he was trying to
cover up for me. But youknow, it's pretty hard when you know
it. So basically, at fourforty, I told them that I loved
them, but I needed to changefor my family and myself, and I

(32:08):
hope they respect it. And thatwas about it. And the other thing,
too, was I knew that abit of an easy decision because I
knew what I left was in goodhands I guess you could say organizationally,
So I didn't feel bad. Iknew that the guys would be a little

(32:30):
upset about it because they're young,and you know, it's the older you
get you kind of understand a littlebit more about changes like this. Uh
and and and I don't I don'tI get where they're coming from when they
were upset. So there they werea little upset, but they were very
gracious to telling the congratulations, thankyou, and then literally flight to Stanford.

(32:52):
Chris did did the Princeton folks didthey seek your input on hire and
Joel promoting Joe? I told themon the way out, I said,
you have two great candidates position,but you've got to figure it out.
Basically, I didn't want to beinvolved. Sean had been with me for

(33:12):
twelve years. Joe had been withme for eleven. What I did tell
him was like, your hire isright under your nose. If you would
be that would not be a gooddecision. So I felt like it would
be an in house decision for sure. I just didn't know who your best
teams. You have some chips lefton the table. Twenty twenty season,

(33:37):
twenty twenty Cancil because of COVID twentyeveryone was canceled twenty one Ivy League schools.
How much did that take off ofyou? How much of an exhaustion
did that have on Chris AYERRS?Wow, you on the head a little
bit. That was hard. Thosewere the hardest couple of years of my

(33:59):
life as a coach. I uh, you know, my number one job
is to create a great experience foran athlete. I tell you that my
number one role is to create anenvironment, and I don't I'm not speaking
about a physical environment as a wrestlingroom or something like that. I create

(34:20):
environment around the program. And creatinga positive, you know, vibrant environment
during those times was challenging. AndI'll tell you we did our best,
and it was it was hard,and so it wore me out a little
bit. Yeah, there was,there was some frustrations there. Anyone's fault,

(34:43):
right, So it's nothing like withathletics. Uh that that led me
to feel that way, but youknow, it just it just wears.
Yeah. And then for the kidstoo, I mean my my I you
know, my daughter is a juniorat Princeton and High School. Watching them
go through experience too was just brutlight. I don't think anyone I think
if you asked anyone that question andthey made some change, I'm sure COVID

(35:07):
and the experience had some influence onit. But definitely that was probably of
like, hey, maybe maybe it'stime for change, and those thoughts kind
of came to my mind. Alittle bit, but you're sitting on a
lottery ticket and you can't cash it. Twenty one, I have to think

(35:29):
that when you're wrestling, because youare that the thought crosses your mind that
it could be us right there hoistinga trophy above our heads. Well,
twenty twenty was the hardest one byfar because a couple of things. Number
One, I think he could havewon Nationals. Who came into the scene

(35:51):
late, and he to be honest, we figured a thing out in the
room for him that I think wouldhave made a huge difference. And so
that one hurts me because he didn'tget another year either. I didn't I
didn't even care if he did itat Princeton. I just wanted him to
have a chance to win NCAA's Ilove that kid. He made a commitment

(36:15):
to us. He was our firstreal blue chip guy. That killed me
a little bit inside. I reallythought he was gonna runcas the team.
We were ranked eighth, but whatabout how slow had it was if the
seeds placed out, we would havebeen eighth. So I think that would
finish ever at Princeton, But ifyou look at our track record, we've

(36:38):
always placed higher than our seeds.I really think we could have got a
trophy. To be honest with you, I think Cloudsicha was grossly under ranked.
Glory could have won that year.Monday could have been in the hunt.
I mean, just for Stefan,it's hard to even talk about.
To be honest with you, Iget a little emotional. So twenty twenty

(37:00):
when it was canceled and then theaftermatch of kids getting sent home, which
happened pretty much everywhere, Yeah,I can't lie. I was a little
broken, but that definitely had aninfluence. Twenty twenty one was a little
different in the sense of it waschaos that I would talk to coaches who
were actually in season and some ofthem would be kind of wish I was

(37:22):
you, just because of the protocolsthat they had to go through to actually
execute the season. Twenty twenty one, just how we had to function was
difficult. But the missing of thecompetition ever put or down, and you
know, there was complications and peoplewere missing matches. So twenty twenty one

(37:44):
obviously was annoying, but twenty twentytwenty twenty was probably That whole situation was
probably one of the hardest parts ofmy coaching crew. Now that you are
moving to a different job, whattakes place once you get that job?
What have you been doing since thetime it was announced until today? Trying

(38:06):
to learn to be honest with you. I look back at my Princeton experience.
I was I was I think Iwas the second youngest head coach at
the time or something like that.But I was young, I was green.
I didn't know what I was doing. So I kind of look at
that those first couple of years andI say, what would I do different
this time? And so I'm kindof trying to do those things. And

(38:29):
the number one thing is I'm justI'm just listening. At Princeton, I
was kind of acting like I kneweverything and I was a great coach when
I really wasn't. Here I'm actinglike I know nothing, and I have
coach in this new position. SoI think it's just you know, every
day I learned some new things andI try to take note. I ask
a lot of questions. I askeda lot of questions of the administration.

(38:53):
I asked a lot of questions tothe team as well. It's very similar
to what I experience at Princeton.So the transition is fairly easy. The
hard things are just things you don'tthink about. And there are things that
everyone goes through in a move,changing your phone enough I address fill it

(39:15):
out forms. Those are the thingsthat are like really killing me. I'm
loving getting you know the people,but the biggest challenge is all the administrative
things that you have to do whenyou make a move. But it's it's
been great. Everyone here has beenstill helpful and the culture is one where
you can win championships here. Ifyou look, I passed national championship winning

(39:39):
coaches pass them in the hallway everysingle day. And so I know Princeton
was Bill Princeton absolutely the best IvyLeague athletics program. It's not even close
if you look at the statistics.So when I took the job, I
knew that we could win there.And when you look around, people are
winning national titles here to a littlebit of another level, the best athletics

(40:02):
department. And so the question Iasked at Princeton is like why not us,
That's the same question I ask here. So getting the job, it's
just like kind of putting my visionand giving them you know, who am
I for my philosophies and then justreally learning everything about the team and the
administration. Chris, we see youin the corner in March in Princeton,

(40:30):
or down, in my case,down at the National convention, coach.
Then the next time we see you, you're going to be in the corner
at Stanford. Of course, butyou had been there seventeen years and to
make a move a month before practicesstart, and it's not from one part
of New Jersey to another, it'sforty three hours, three thousand miles away.

(40:52):
What went into the move logistically?Any interesting stories about the move itself.
I blame zachs the Zito based Uhyou know, well, actually so
so Zach took that kind of setthe dominoes and effect. James Green actually
is the one that that said allup. I guess I get. I

(41:13):
guess you could distill it down toJames Green. But I blame Zach as
he's a good friend and he's aJersey guy, so I'm gonna put it
on his shoulders. Actually, well, yeah, the timing is not good.
The timing's not good. Still,I had I had a few things
to accomplish. I had to Soit's like you think about recruiting, right,

(41:34):
So the recruiting, the life fundraisingand recruiting. So so now I'm
recruiting coaches. That's the first thing. And seeing, you know, is
are some people going to stay?Are some people going to leave? I
don't know what's going to happen.And so that's the first thing I got
to get a feel because you lookat the program. They did a great

(41:55):
job honestly what I got here.And when I saw what I was thinking
about taking the job, I'm like, wow, I'm taking over something that
was set up to be really good. So you got to think to yourself,
do I keep right so and andtwo it's like it's like will they
stays? Also the other question,and then there's the recruits, so like

(42:19):
there's the kids that are committed,and there's the kids that are on the
team. You're basically I came inand thing was like, keep the team
together because it's pretty damn good.So that's where the focus was. And
it was hard because it was solate in the game. It's actually still
going on, to be honest withyou, not in relation to coaching,

(42:39):
but the team is pretty much Butyeah, that was that was the challenge
of the time of of the dominoeffect going down, and it's funny admitted
I blame I blame HR as well. HR is all around the world like
that was what's going to happen,But nothing moves forward until it's totally official

(43:01):
after background checks and whatnot. Soit could have moved a whole lot Fastard,
but you know, the administrative piecesfloated it down a lot. So
that was a little bit frustrating.Like we all knew the standard open,
we all knew Rob took the job, but talking about a week or five
days or you know, that's abig deal at this time of the year.

(43:22):
So that was that was he wasjust dealing with, you know,
getting people to know me and andhands in a very short period of time.
I'm still doing it, by theway, now, on the stand
for Coaching, it says that theprevious assistant coaches are still there. Is
that accurate? It'll be updated toRyan Deakon's official he'll be the first assistant,

(43:50):
so he's staying. Pat Brooky shouldbe the second assistant. So that's
a pretty fun story. And ifwe get into it, Pat Rocky was
I have ever worked with as acoach. When he was at Princeton,
so he will be joining our staff. I probably have to say something for
HR like pending a background check orsomething like that, but uh, we

(44:16):
we let me use my words wisely. We anticipate Pat Brockie will be joining
us as as the second assistant,and then we have a position open right
now. So we're working on slowingthat grant Leaf Leaf is taken over Charlton
State. We're going to become Done. I actually didn't get in the

(44:38):
way of that. I just he'sa great coach and and we need D
one programs and I think that,you know, that's a great opportunity.
So I thought both were great opportunities. So it's way up towards to Stanford
Bear God mess that up a lot. But but him taking over THO is
good. So we currently have anopening for that volunteer. Interesting on Pat

(45:00):
Broukey, explain why he's there Michigan. Uh, there's no hurt there that
he left Princeton went to Michigan.No, none at all. There was
but we worked through it. Iguess you could say, so there was

(45:20):
a way he could have it washer, yeah, in the beginning,
but but it was a lot ofreally honestly, that's that's who we are.
Him and I we're very close.It sounds stupid. I think it's
cliche. He's family to me andhis family family to me. I hate
that in sports, but that's that'strue with him and and in this situation

(45:43):
that exemplifies it with a team,you know, it's everyone's trying to move
towards a common goal. In thatsituation, we we had differing views.
Uh, we talked it out andthen we hugged in the end. So
I got where he was coming from, he got where I was coming from,
and we we love each other.So it was fine. And that

(46:06):
was what's funny when he when thejob opened, you know he was when
he knew I got this job,he was he was quick quick to reach
out to me. For sure.When you have those conversations about coming on
board, do you outline the expectationsof what you want out of the assistant
coach? So I know it takestime. What I do is we're working.

(46:30):
We're all working together. Deep andknows the must the most about what
house things work at Stanford, soI lean on him a lot. He's
taking stabilities because he knows how toyou know, he knows how to execute
an official official visit weekend administratively,so so I lean on him a lot.

(46:52):
What happens is we're all going totake on kind of all the tasks
right now. Figure I got it. I have to figure out where their
strengths lie. I kind of havean idea, and then generally after that
I'll write some job descriptions. I'mgenerally pretty organized with my staffs in terms

(47:12):
of telling them, you know,where I think they should focus their energies
of what they need to accomplish.And then two, I give them a
lot of autonomy in terms of they'retrying to learn how to be head coaches.
I am not a micromanager. Iwill say, hey, you're in

(47:34):
charge of the schedule. I expectyou to call the coaches. I expect
you to get the data set.I expect you to work with the administration
and it will want to wrestle andwe'll have some general conversations, but you're
in charge. I think it's workedwell, especially at Princeton. Again,
leaving there, they knew how todo the job at a very very high

(47:58):
level. I think because I wasthat way, gave them responsibilities and I
sort of trusted them, so we'rewe're sort of I joke with the team,
it's I say, I say tothe team at practice, because we're
kind of figuring out technically, youknow, what are all our differences,
uh technique, And I tell theteam that I said, you've got to

(48:22):
pretend that Ryan and I are sortof on our first date. It's like
we're getting to know each other.We're asking a lot of questions, we're
seeing what we what, what thesimilarities are. So just just in practice,
and I think it's the same wayin the office too. Uh,
we're just getting to know each other. We're we're we're a first time step.
I will say this one thing andit's and it will it will one

(48:46):
prove to be right. These guysare some of the best coaches in the
country. They're going to be exceptional. And you asked a question like Pat
Brucky never coached or Ryan has onlybeen here in the In the time I've
been with these guys, it's theirimpact insane and my goal is that someday

(49:09):
these guys become head coaches at otherprograms. So, uh, I can't
eat. I can't be more happywith what I have in relation to the
assistance recruiting is going to go towhen you're in Princeton. Let's talk about
New Jersey. I remember Scott Goodell, the Rutgers head coach, talking about
how different New Jersey was as awrestling state. Would you describe New Jersey

(49:34):
wrestling? New Jersey A couple ofthings. First thing, first thing that
comes to mind, it's similar toCalifornia one state tournament, So I think
those two states have an interesting similarityand that you know, it's tough to
win the New Jersey state Tournament's toughto win the California. Also, California

(49:54):
is a whole coast, so itwould be like one state tournament for New
Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, NorthCarolina, and South Carolina. So there's
a there's a there's a huge populationhere and to be a state champion New
Jersey. New Jersey is different.It's got every state that's really good at

(50:15):
wrestling has its own little slavor.Uh Jersey. Those kids have a little
swage. They don't they don't leavevery often. But yeah, I grew
up for sure. But Cali' isreally cool too. I mean, I
think the difference, the major differencein where we were in New Jersey,

(50:37):
there was twelve D one programs ina one hundred and fifty miles rais twelve.
So the competition for fan, thecompetition for people who want to help,
is they got a lot of choiceshere. It's crazy. The Bay
area is still untapped. We can't. We have an opportunity to be pretty

(51:00):
much one of the only shows intown, and so that excites me a
lot. I kind of veered offcourse there on your question, but it
made me think about the similarities andthe differences between the two. The opportunity
here is isn't incredible. How wellhave you gotten to know some of the

(51:20):
guys at Stanford? Uh as wellas I can. I guess, you
know, once in a while,I still have to the roster to make
sure I know a guy's name.I'm kind of joking. That was like
last week. I literally two kidslook alike and I was sort of like,
which which one is that guy?So literally that's where I'm at right

(51:42):
now. I'm trying to learn theroster. Like I said before, what
year every guy is is is challengingright now? Uh So, Yeah,
but I'll tell you this. Thenumber one thing that has been you know,
exciting for me. That the bestpart of my These kids you know,

(52:04):
when you walk into a situation,they're they're a little they're a little
weird, like they're they're a littleyou know, they don't know you,
so they're a little cautious. ButI'll say after about you know, they
are on board with what we're doing, and I think they believe in in
this staff and what we're trying todo here, and I think I think

(52:27):
they're excited to a whole new level. Another little side note is, you
know, for these seniors, I'mcoach number three. So I kind of
joke with them. They said,you know, in my interview, I
was with some of them and youknow, they were like, you know,
you'll be our third coach. Andso after the interviews and I got
the job, and I was like, you can refer to me as coach

(52:52):
number three. It's cool. UhSo, so that's kind of a little
inside joke with the seniors that coachthree is here. We talked about the
exit meeting you had with Princeton.What does the entry meeting look like with
Stanton? Uh that was good?So I tell him my philosophy basically,

(53:13):
so broad brushstrokes. I gave himmy philosophy on coaching, and then uh,
at Princeton we actually have this likehigher Basically we wrote this manual that
has here's how, here's what youhave to do to be great, and
within it is the coaching philosophy aroundtechnique and just how to live your life.

(53:34):
So basically I did a few principlesabout how I work, kind of
got into the coaching philosophy, philosophyin regards to wrestling, and and it
was good. They knew where Istood, and ever since then they still
know where I stand. So itwas it was pretty quick, pretty clean.
Moved on to work and to makethe program the best it can be.

(53:58):
We have a lot of work todo, you know, organizationally as
a group. I have some thingsthat I want to implement that just take
time. So yeah, so uh, that was the actually very productive.
Do any of the athletes approach youabout transferring in that moment because they may
have liked the previous coach. Therewas discussions about transfers, yes, but

(54:25):
yeah, and so nobody's nobody's transferring, so that's pretty good. We might
have lost one kid in the twentytwenty four commits. But other other than
that, we're keeping everyone. Imean, in reality, it's you're in.
So it's a little bit the interviewis a little bit about me,
but it's Stanford. Uh. Fora kid to leave to go somewhere else

(54:50):
other than Stanford is a little insane. It's it's one of the top three
schools in the country academically, rightdepartments, one of the most directors cups.
So I mean, in reality,I don't think it was because of
me. I think it was becauseit was Stanford. But they just had
to make sure I wasn't a lunaticto stay. So I think the Stanford,

(55:15):
not me, Chris. When you'reat similar type institutions like you,
like the one you went from towhere you are now, how much does
recruiting your your pool change, ifat all, it's the same. So
for incident stand to get into justif you look at the requirements of if

(55:35):
you if you collected every every acceptedkid in these highly academic schools, if
you compare the transcripts Princeton and Stanfordhave, they'll have the most ap You
can't go by g PA. That'sa little challenging just because you know,
one g PA with just college prep, you know, it could be really
high, and then a GPA witha lot of aps could be lower.

(55:58):
But in reality, the kid inthe peas is a better So if I
think that's the best way to judgehow challenging the places to get into?
And uh, yeah, Stafford requiresit's almost identical. Uh the administration is
pretty funny here because I think whenthey onboard a new coach, the new
coach is shocked and set, andI caved. I was like, yeah,

(56:21):
this is sounds good. I waslike, yes, this is exactly
what I was dealing with before.So there's absolutely no difference in what's necessary
to get in. So I know, you have to tell us about the
double glasses that you wear. Ilove that video that Princeton did about just

(56:42):
kind of picking at some of thequirks of the coaching staff. Do you
actually wear double glasses, Chris?If I have sunglasses and you know I
might lose a pair, it getschaotic in this job, so you know
you needed a spare pair once ina while. Yeah, so I'll have
double glasses sometimes, definitely. Sothe actual not just is not the sunglasses

(57:07):
you actually have done the double glasses? Yeah, yeah, both, Yeah,
No, definitely sunglasses are common asthe double. Sometimes I actually forget
that I have one pair of glasseson my shirt and I'll look, it's
on my shirt. I don't realizeit, and I find the other pair
and I put it in there.At that point I usually realized that I

(57:27):
have two pairs of glasses. SometimesI don't. When you take a job
like this, and we just talkedabout needing that change, did it feel
the finality could happen when you havePat Glory whin the nca Championships earlier this
year. That mission accomplished. Wegot this done. Now I feel good
about going to the next college.I checked a box. I think Princeton

(57:52):
wrestling helped me at Stanford. Ithink Princeton rustling can do higher, better
things. I guess you could saymy mind I was. I always say,
you know, I think I saidthis at the beginning of the show.
Why not? Why not us,like, let's win a national title
if all the stars align and happened. So pac Roy was a big moment

(58:15):
for me. Uh, to beperfectly honest, Uh, the reason I
coach is because I didn't get anational title. Uh, and if I
had gotten that. If I hadit, I probably would have went into
finance or something like that. ButI was pretty irked that I didn't get
that goal. So that's why Istayed in wrestling. So anytime someone wins

(58:36):
a national title, it's it's reallyspecial. Uh, Pat, you know,
Pat had amazing career, and yeah, there was a little finality in
that. If I'm going to behonest, what are your thoughts on the
move to the a c C.Amazing? I cannot wait. We we
had a meeting, uh meeting,I guess with the wrestling coaches about how

(59:01):
you know, with the schedule wouldlook like I love it, man,
the a c C. So rewinda little bit, you know, in
the ives we were we were talkinga little bit about like what a what
an ivy League tournament? It wasjust the IVS and we looked to the
a c C as an example.And if you tracks how they've done,

(59:22):
they're the fastest growing wrestling conference byfar in the country and adding Stanford with
what man, that just that's justup the game a lot. Uh.
They're very organized. It seems likethe tournament I think was sold out last
year or something like that. Sothere's some great teams in the A c

(59:44):
C and we're gonna have to wrestle. So I think I think it's we're
gonna we're gonna give a Big tena run for their money. Uh,
in relation to viewership, a relationto our crowds. PAC twelve is great,
but it's just not the same thing. So I when I this is
an interesting story too. When Iwas getting when I was I shouldn't say

(01:00:06):
when I was getting the job.When I was going through the process,
the application process and the interviewing process, they didn't have a conference. So
that was like pretty interesting to mebecause I was like, this could end
really badly or it could be great. And the Big ten was in as
an option. Like people, alot of people, they were saying a
lot of different things. So sowhen when they announced the ACC, I

(01:00:30):
was thrilled. I was still,it's gonna it's throw a lot of attention
for sure. I need to goback to what you said in the previous
answer about being driven by not winningan NCAA championship. So you got seventh
or lee high and you felt likethat drove you because you didn't get fulfilled.
I wanted to accomplish. You takePat Glory, he got the NCAA

(01:00:52):
championship, and it sounds like heis moving on to a professional life.
We hear that theme often that Ididn't get what I wanted in wrestling,
so that drove me in some ways. Is that a what you want because
we keep you in coaching and you'redriven to find the next level that you
missed out on individually? Uh,cliche time. I mean things happen for

(01:01:17):
a reason. My wife has beenblessed. I share that even though I
didn't achieve that national championship, atthis very moment, as I sit here,
I've got shows right now, I'mright where I'm supposed to be in
life. And so you know thatas led me to this point, and

(01:01:43):
I'm glad I didn't want it,to be honest with you. I love
what I'm doing. I think Iwould have been miserable in business. Pat
Rucky had had it. Yeah.Uh, he had an engineering job.
And the reason he's here right nowis probably because he didn't get what he
wanted to either, and he's thrilledto be here. And so I think,

(01:02:04):
you know, life, there's areason life takes you where it takes
you. I do believe that you'vegot to take chances. I think like
life can be driving you in onedirection. You can resist change. But
I feel so good right now sittinghere in you know, California. I'm
right where I'm supposed to be.You mentioned Matthew Klozac earlier when we had

(01:02:29):
him on this podcast on the mat. When I got done, I felt
inadequate with my life? Should Ihave felt that way? Now? He's
got his He's got he's got aton of flow. All have those fus
He just he just presented himself.Well, he's a great human being.
Well man, I would love tosee him make an Olympic team. He's

(01:02:53):
got that deality too. Yeah,but he has to be honest. I
proached it and uh and I thoughthe'd be our first national champ. And
it was on path. We werethere and you know, you know when
things happened, and so yeah,I think about him a lot, and

(01:03:13):
how the thing that bothers me,the just the way the NCAA handled with
it. So you know, thekid, it's COVID. He wrestled,
you know, nine matches. Thekids should get another year. There were
kids last year that were in theiraceh year, I mean their eighth year
of college. They might be thirty. I don't know. But you know

(01:03:34):
this kid was you know, fouryears straight, couldn't get a fifth year.
So frushooting, frushurty, you didn'tbe emotional right now? Why don't
keep bringing him up, Chris,we just know him. Let's let's end
with this Chris Air snapshot of thisseason, new rule changes coming, ni

(01:03:55):
L's in full swing. Transfer portal. Give us the Chris Air snap shot
of the twenty twenty three chaos.You have to you have to be adaptable,
like uh, more than ever.If I go back for year one
as a head coach, for now, it's a different job. It's a

(01:04:15):
completely complete and if you think it'sthe same way as it was back in
you know two thousand and seven,uh, you're gonna get You're gonna get
bowed over. Do I like everything? I don't like everything. I don't
like it? You better adopt.And those are the rules that are in

(01:04:36):
place, and you better you betteruse them for your advantage. So I
think it's going to be a yearof charaoss to be honest with you.
For me, personally, I'm readyfor the Carrerass. I'm gonna I switched
coasts. I mean in New Jersey, new School, So I'm gonna I
think this year is going to justbe chaoss. And to be honest,

(01:04:57):
right now that the last the last, since opposition to be in with August,
things have been chaotic and you justgot to embrace those things. Stands
for the season. It's just goingto be charos and you've got to learn
how to adapt. Andy slid mea note and it says, ask Chris
if he would fly me out onhis own dime during the month of January
to cover his program. So Idon't know if you have the budget for

(01:05:20):
them looking to get away from theIowa winners for a month. Uh,
let's talk off line. I lovethat to cover the program. If Kyle
provides some evidence of this note.But I tell you what I wouldn't I
wouldn't mind coming out to Stanford andGin. There was no no But I
guarantee you if if you would havesaid yes, we'll do it, I

(01:05:43):
think you would have made Andy considerit. Yeah, for sure he would.
He would love that. Funny thing. Funny thing about getting out here
is like when I was in Princeville, uh, really rest und Stanford because
I was like, oh man,that's that's hard to to It's a big
time difference. There's definitely a bigtime difference. But there's three airports within

(01:06:04):
like thirty minutes. Uh, andthey're all big airports. So I've been
doing the hike back and forth quitea bit with you know, having a
house in New Jersey and just tryingto sort things out. It's it's pretty
easy together, to be honest withyou. I said that was going to
be the last question. I haveone more. Where does it run?

(01:06:26):
When when Princeton beat Cornell in thatduel? Where does that rank in your
thrilling moments of your life? That'stop five for sure. It's hard to
place those five moments, but yeah, that's that's top five. Brett Harger
becoming my first All Americans up there, Glory winning is up there, collogic,

(01:06:51):
you know, four time All Americanthat's up there. Uh, you
know, two finalists that's up theretoo, And you could go back.
I can remember here what actually topfive? This one's going to take over
replaced third in the IVY League,and I remember we beat Brown and I

(01:07:12):
took the staff. We just hadn'twon in the Ivys and so long,
and I don't think we want amatch in the Ivies until we took third
in the Ivy and that was justlike an amazing moment that sort of like
it was like crucive concept. Wewon. What we're doing is working.
And I remember exactly where we weresitting. I remember who was there,

(01:07:34):
So I would take that up theretoo. Rob Rohan's two thousand and two
fall in the finals that make thecut, Well, so we're talking a
different team. I was. Iwas. I would say Troy Letters.
I was in his corner when hewon it, so that was a big
moment. Roan was insane. Iwasn't in his corner, but I did.

(01:07:57):
I was in the stands. Idid a lap around the ah room
or whatever it's called, one hundredmiles per hour after tendem uh So,
yeah, that's up there too,Lehi had so we had so many great
experiences there too. I was kindof thinking only towards Princeton. But now
you're confusing me a little bit.Well, isn't it crazy to think that
was O two? If that wastwenty one hundred chance that someone would put

(01:08:20):
post that on social media and followyou around with the camp definitely a funny
story. Who was Oh man,I can't remember a corn up kid I
was. I was just like standing, you know, maybe I was a
prince. I'm not sure somebody won. Who was that finas I think I

(01:08:42):
think I think Sina's won on theOS or maybe it was Bozac. But
I was behind his dad, SoI was behind his day in the stands,
and so I kind of stepped intothe ah room and then he won
and his dad came flying out andhe was doing like a laugh like I
did with my own run, andI got it on video. I actually
started to record out here. It'sone of the best videos ever. The

(01:09:04):
dad he probably he probably hadn't runin like five years, but he was
sprinting like like as fast as anyonecould sprint. It was cool. That
is cool. And do you likethe social media age where everything's public?
I do, help. I mean, for Princeton, that's what got us

(01:09:25):
on the map a little bit.We were we adopted social media pretty early.
We started to have fun with it, maybe before maybe there was a
few other teams, haven't It wasback when Twitter and stuff first or not
wrestled got on, it would beyou'd just be reporting like results. So

(01:09:45):
we were at eat Stroudsburg one yearand it was like, you know,
it's not it's going so long,it's going to end up ten to them.
So we're just bored. They werelike, let's let's see you could
have the funniest tweet. So wewere all competing with ourselves with the results
of like who would who would havethe funniest tweet? So that kind of
set our culture around our social mediaat the time, and and really we

(01:10:10):
allowed us to tell our story ofPrinceton. And so I love it.
I love it. I love it. I love to see the stories of
other programs and what they're doing.I just I think it's cool. It's
cool to just get pulled in anygood ideas too, there's there's a creator.
I like being creative where I seesomething and I'm like, oh,
that's a great idea and then wemaybe implemented in our program. So I

(01:10:33):
love I love a social media game. I'm still figuring out here. It's
a little more controlling than Princeton,but uh, without here soon. That
is the last question. I promised, just promise that you will do the
double glasses at some point while you'reat Stanford that as I will. I
might. I might have them onnow and I only have one parent,

(01:10:55):
Okay, so so I'm good.We won't know this, so we appreciate
it. Time. All the bestat Stanford. Seriously, if you want
to fly Angy out during the Deadof Iowa, win or he would not
complain. Awesome, awesome, andwe need to get somebody out here at
some point. We appreciate it.Thanks for this time, Chris, Thank
you guys, talk you soon.Let's hear from Cliff Keen Athletic and then

(01:11:18):
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(01:11:42):
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(01:12:08):
YEP coupon code on the mat getsyou twenty percent off. That's a wrap
on Chris Ayres. I remember whenwe had Chris Arizon a few years ago
after the interview, thinking that wasone of the best interviews that I've been
a part of. He just delivers. I like his energy, I like
what he brings. I think it'sa great hire for Stanford. I know

(01:12:30):
from when we talked about just thedomino effect with Jams. If they keep
hiring head coaches, it's gonna haveto stop at some point, and stopped
at Princeton hiring an assistant coach.But again, those years happened where you
just have that coaching carousel, andthis one happened a little bit later than
normal. But I think right now, I think the coaching staffs are set.

(01:12:53):
So we have our coaching staffs forthe Division one programs and let the
season begin completely. He's got onemore position to fill there, head coaching
head coaching. We're we're fairly setthere. And the latest one in the
season I can still remember this iswhen Kevin Dresser got hired from Virginia Tech

(01:13:16):
in February it was, and thenKevin Jackson resigned, so I think the
Paulsons took over his interim head coachor one of them did, and then
Kevin Dresser let Virginia Tech know thathe was going to Ames, and then
he was just on the sidelines forthat small amount of time. That's one

(01:13:38):
I've experienced since I've been covering wrestling. Final thoughts from Andrew Hamilton before.
No, just along those lines,I mean, college athletics continues to get
weirder and weirder with with stuff likethis, and you see some roles and
opening up in the season earlier thanwe've ever seen before, and so it's
just a different times than what wegrew up in. Sures fun show for

(01:14:03):
Andy Hamilton and Chris Airs. I'mKyle Klingman you have been listening to on the mat