Pay the Price: Freestyle World Camp Opens

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Ted Witulski (USA Wrestling)
08/06/2001


The 2001 Freestyle World Team Training Camp opened Monday morning at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.  Nearly a year removed from the Olympics in Sydney seven new banners honoring last summer's medallists hung over the wrestling mats.  Each banner depicts an unforgettable moment from the Olympics.  Rulon's victorious lap with the American flag on his banner, and Brandon Slay's deep gut wrench on the World Champion from Russia.  The banners didn't go unnoticed by the first member of the 2001 World Freestyle team to enter the wrestling room.      While the lights were still off in the wrestling room, Kerry McCoy took a long look over each banner.  Surely McCoy still is motivated from his fifth-place finish in Sydney last year.  His expectations are high for the World Championships this fall in his hometown of New York City, "In a few more weeks they'll need to make room for a few more banners."      As National Freestyle Coach Kevin Jackson opened the training camp, immediately the eight World Team members and the thirty or so athletes who came to train, were confronted with Coach Jackson's high expectations.  Jackson's message to the wrestlers was it's time to "pay the price."      This year's World Team is a youthful bunch compared to past squads.  The U.S. has only one returning Olympian in McCoy. Three other wrestlers have previous World Team experience: Eric Guerrero, Joe Williams and Dominic Black.  Two wrestlers still have a year of college eligibility left: Stephen Abas and Cael Sanderson while competing on their first World Team.  Two other wrestlers, Bill Zadick and Chris Bono, are experiencing their first shot at a World Medal.      The team may be young in World level experience, but it didn't lower the coaching staffs' expectations.  In Jackson's words, "We are here to train to win the World Championships.  We are not a group of guys that should be looking to just medal.  We want eight gold medals.  That's where expectations should be."      This cycle of the Freestyle training camp is set to run through August 18th.  Each individual team member will have the tremendous backing of an elite coaching staff. The Head Coach is Mark Manning from the University of Nebraska and his Assistant Coach will be Olympic Silver Medallist Zeke Jones.  Other volunteer coaches for this training cycle will include Townsend Saunders, Olympic Silver Medallist; Tom Brands, Olympic Gold Medallist; Kendall Cross, Olympic Gold Medallist, and Bobby Douglas, Head Coach of Iowa State University.      The camp cycle is not a camp based on technical instruction.  Rather, it is a camp that will have a high level of intensity with its primary goal of increasing the conditioning level of athletes.  The coaching staff identified five other goals for the wrestlers including: identifying must win situations for each athlete from tie ups, par terre defense, and counter offense, sharpening current skills, and correcting specific techniques.      At this level, the coaching staff's job is narrower in focus.  Coaches will not be redefining a wrestler's style.  Instead the coaches will only be finding tools to enhance and develop a wrestler's current skills.  The room is full of wrestlers with dynamic and unique abilities.  Eric Guerrero has incredible speed and quickness that was honed with his training at Oklahoma State.  Sanderson's relentless attacking singles and picks have raised expectations for the standout from Iowa State.  Each athlete will have a training camp focused on improving them and peaking for the World Championships.      Before the worldwide wrestling community descends on Madison Square Garden for the World Championships there will be a lot of energy expended in Colorado Springs.  Each athlete achieved membership on the U.S. World Team through sacrifice and dedication to the sport.  The training regimen that each wrestler will face will be challenging, but each member of this year's World Team is seeking the greater reward that lies ahead in New York City.