USA WRESTLING NAMES JOE DEMEO AS HEAD COACH AND DAN RUSSELL AS ASSISTANT COACH OF 1999 PAN AMERICAN GAMES GRECO-ROMAN WRESTLING TEAMUSA Wrestling has named Joe DeMeo of Niskayuna, N.Y. as head coach and Dan Russell of Colorado Springs, Colo. as assistant coach for the U.S. Greco-Roman team that will compete in the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada, July 24-Aug. 8.
USA Wrestling's selections must be formally approved by the U.S. Olympic Committee's International Games Preparation Committee.
DeMeo served as head coach of the 1994 and 1998 U.S. Greco-Roman World teams. The 1994 World Team placed in a tie for seventh in the team standings and featured one medalist. The 1998 World Team finished eleventh, with one medalist. He was an assistant coach on the 1991 Pan American Games team which placed second in the team standings. He was head coach of three World Cup teams (1980, 1984, 1987) and has been on the coaching staff of five U.S. Olympic teams.
He is currently the Greco-Roman coach for the New York Athletic Club, and has coached four different club teams to national team titles. He served as head coach at SUNY-Albany for 18 years, and was head coach at Stanford for seven years. DeMeo was also an assistant coach at Michigan State. He competed at Cornell University, and now works in real estate sales.
Russell is a club coach with Team Excel, and serves as an assistant coach with the U.S. Olympic Training Center resident athletes. He has coached a number of U.S. Senior teams on international tours, as well as youth international exchange teams. In addition, Russell has helped coach USA Wrestling age-group state teams for 10 years.
He worked four years as an assistant wrestling coach at Portland State, and was a volunteer coach with Rampart High School in Colorado Springs, Colo. Russell was a Greco-Roman Team USA member as an athlete, and boasts silver medals at the Pan American Championships and the World Cup. He is one of just two U.S. wrestlers to ever win the respected Padubbny Tournament in Russia. Russell was a four-time NCAA Div. II national champion for Portland State Univ., and also claimed two NCAA Div. I All-American honors. He hails from Gresham, Ore. Russell is on staff at Covenant Presbyterian Church, and speaks to youth groups across the nation.
Since the inclusion of Greco-Roman wrestling of the Pan American Games in 1975, the United States has won a medal in every single weight class in Greco-Roman wrestling. At the most recent Pan American Games, held in Mar del Plata, Argentina in 1995, the U.S. won three gold medals, four silver medals and three bronze medals in Greco-Roman wrestling.