Freestyle National Coaches Summit to set national plan in Colorado Springs, April 4

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Gary Abbott (USA Wrestling)
04/03/2012


Zeke Jones at the 2011 World Championships in Turkey. Larry Slater photo

The USA Wrestling Freestyle National Coaches Summit will be held at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., Wednesday, April 4.

National Freestyle Coach Zeke Jones and the National Freestyle staff has invited the top freestyle wrestling minds in the nation for a day-long agenda, including a series of planning meetings and seminars designed to strengthen the American freestyle program.

Over 30 top coaches will attend these meetings, including numerous coaches with Olympic and World Championship experience. The coaches from the top National Wrestling Clubs and Regional Training Centers will participate in the Summit, helping develop the direction of the freestyle program.

“We hold this meeting at this time for a reason,” said National Freestyle Coach Zeke Jones. “We review our long-term strategic plan and get organized for the Olympic Games. We will go through all the key parts of our plan. We dedicate half of the day to off-the-mat meetings and half of the day to on-the-mat sessions.”

Among the topics are Olympic Games strategic planning, Olympic Committee planning, Regional Training Centers, Freestyle Development, Areas of Concentration, Athlete Support, Fundraising and other important topics.

Jones believes that bringing America’s top freestyle coaches together is a key to America’s performance at the Olympic and World level.

“We have former National Team coaches, former World and Olympic team coaches, many World and Olympic medalist athletes among our coaches. All of these guys will coach wrestlers on our Olympic team and on future U.S. teams. We can’t beat the Russians individually. We have to do it as a country. This is where we are able to do that. These are the people who will move America into London,” said Jones.

The Regional Training Centers is a cornerstone to American success, and their coaches hold the key to elevating the level of training and performance.

“We have the National Team athletes in training camps every year, but they spend more than 250 days a year at their Regional Training Centers. The coaches here can take our plan to their teams and their coaches and work with it all year long,” said Jones.

USA WRESTLING FREESTYLE NATIONAL COACHES SUMMIT
Expected participants

Sam Barber, Dr. Dave Bennett, Cody Bickley, Sean Bormet, Terry Brands, Mark Branch, Casey Cunningham, Bobby Douglas, Mike Duroe, Dan Gable, Damion Hahn, Sammie Henson, Kevin Jackson, Zeke Jones, Jamill Kelly, Jason Kutz, Jared Lawrence, Mark Manning, Kerry McCoy, Chris Owens, Travis Pascoe, Chris Pendleton, Sam Portillo, Lou Rosselli, Pat Santoro, Joe Seay, Brandon Slay, Brian Smith, John Smith, Bill Zadick