COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – It’s been a long time since the United States won a freestyle team title at the World Championships.

The U.S. won its only World titles in 1993 and 1995.

Zeke Jones vividly remembers those days. He placed fourth in the World in 1993 and won a World bronze medal in 1995.

The 1991 World champion is now the U.S. National Freestyle Coach, and Jones is determined to return the American team to its perch on top of the World.

That’s why Jones gathered two dozen of the best freestyle minds in the country for the U.S. National Freestyle Coaches Summit, held Thursday at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

“I think we got a lot accomplished. Any time you put 20 of the brightest coaches in America in a room and talk about freestyle wrestling for 10 hours, you are going to get a lot out of it,” Jones said. “We handed them what we think is the National Team road map to gold medals and they will take that map home and look at it and adjust it. I’m excited to see what the coaches do with their teams and their athletes.

“The path to the top of the mountain is different for every individual. At the end of the day, everyone embraces the common goal and I think we can come away with a consensus for what direction we want this program to go.”

At one point late Thursday afternoon, there were a handful of World and Olympic champions along with half a dozen World and Olympic medalists in the OTC wrestling room.

Among them was Olympic and World champion Kevin Jackson, World champions Terry Brands and Bill Zadick, and Olympic champions Kendall Cross and Brandon Slay.

Brands was back in Colorado Springs, where he was an Assistant National Coach for USA Wrestling through the 2008 season. Brands and Jackson coached Bill Zadick to a World title in 2006 and Henry Cejudo to an Olympic title in 2008.

“I think Zeke did a really good job today,” Brands said. “There are so many different factors that go into coaching. I think he gave some real good pointers and adjustments for us to think about.”

Past U.S. National Coach Bruce Burnett also took part in the Summit along with past Olympic and World Team coaches Joe Seay, Bobby Douglas, Greg Strobel and Kerry McCoy. Past World Team coaches Mark Manning and Lou Rosselli were among the others in attendance.

The elite list of coaches at the Summit also included Chris Bono, Sean Bormet, Jamill Kelly, Shawn Charles, Eric Guerrero, Steve Knight, Jason Kutz, Donny Pritzlaff and Matt Dernlan.

Seay coached the U.S. to its only World freestyle titles in 1993 and 1995.

“Everybody was throwing a lot of ideas out there today during the Summit, and that was great,” Seay said. “Back when we won the Worlds, I remember we had an organized plan that worked for us. The key is keeping the elite athletes around for more than one Olympic cycle. We’re losing too many guys when they are still young and still have good years left in them.

“Back in the 1990s, we had guys who wanted to win multiple World and Olympic titles. We don’t see as much of that today. Now it seems to be more about how much money they can make than about being passionate to win Olympic gold medals.”

Seay also said college programs need to put more emphasis on their athletes competing in freestyle.

“I think the best college teams are the ones who have a lot of guys wrestling freestyle,” he said. “That’s been a proven fact for a lot of years. Wrestling freestyle can help your folkstyle, and vice versa.”

Training philosophies, strategies, tactics, and top scoring actions from wrestlers around the World are among the issues that were discussed during the meetings.

“Anytime you can attract this level and quality of coaches, and bring them into one room and collectively form a think tank for the sole purpose of helping our country get better, it’s great for wrestling,” said Rich Bender, Executive Director for USA Wrestling. “It’s really encouraging, and we are blessed to have the very best coaches in our country pulling on the same end of the rope and trying to do everything they can to help us put athletes on the podium at the World Championships and the Olympic Games. I think days like today really make a difference for us. Our coaches are coming together for one cause, and that’s to help our country get better.”

Seay said winning a World team title in freestyle is still a realistic goal for the U.S.

“It’s about passion and national pride, and being the best in the World,” Seay said. “We need to get that mentality back where we go after the Russians and the other top teams. We’ve beaten them before and there’s no reason why we can’t beat them again.”