Terry Steiner, a three-time All-American and 1993 NCAA Champion at Iowa, recently accepted the position of USA Wrestling's National Women's Coach after six years as an assistant coach at Wisconsin.    He has helped to develop many of the top college wrestlers in the nation, including two-time NCAA Champion Donny Pritzlaff. He will now be stepping into a different role, one he is not completely familiar with, as he will help develop the United States' top women wrestlers. USA Wrestling has created this new coaching position as women's wrestling has been added as an official Olympic sport in 2004.    TheMat.com had a chance to sit down with Steiner and get some of his thoughts on his new position.    TheMat.com: Are you excited about the opportunity to work with USA Wrestling and their women's team?  Steiner: I am. I am really looking forward to it. It's definitely a new challenge and a different challenge. It's been a part of wrestling that I haven't been involved in, so it is exciting in that aspect.    TheMat.com: Do you feel that this is an honor to be selected as the first full-time women's coach at USA Wrestling?  Steiner: The one thing I don't have is a world medal or Olympic medal. I never would have imagined that I would be a national coach at USA Wrestling. I was maybe in the right place in the right time to get the position. I'm looking forward to the opportunity.    TheMat.com: What sparked you to apply for this position and why did you decide to accept it?  Steiner: Originally it was like a curveball thrown at me. After talking with some of the athletes, that really changed my thinking a little bit. I realized their commitment to training, competing and winning.    TheMat.com: What were some of the things the women athletes did to convince you this was the right position for you?  Steiner: I was talking to Patricia Miranda, and she said she was putting off law school at Stanford for a couple of years to train, and I got a sense of her commitment for the sport. You realize that they are every bit as into it as I ever was when I competed. They are definitely athletes and not just doing something part-time.    TheMat.com: Going from a life of college recruiting at Wisconsin, what is the biggest transition that you will have to make as the women's coach?  Steiner: With Kevin Jackson and Steve Fraser, I know they are on the mat everyday with the athletes. That's what I like most about wrestling. I will be on the mat every day and I am happy for that. I won't have to do recruiting in the sense of college, but I will be recruiting women to compete in our sport as well as recruiting coaches to believe in it. There is a lot of development to be done, and hopefully we can make this bigger than anybody envisioned. Hopefully we can change some attitudes and open some eyes. It's a time of change and there has to be a change of attitude.    TheMat.com: Has everyone been supportive of this decision?  Steiner: Very supportive. Everyone that I have talked to has been. The people that I am really close to and care about their opinions, they are very supportive. My brother and I talked about it a lot, and we hashed a lot of things over.    TheMat.com: Have you had a chance to evaluate the women at the Senior level? If so, what have you been most impressed with and what do you feel needs the most improvement?  Steiner: Just seeing their desire, their determination and their commitment has shown me that they are passionate. For a long time, I was on the other side of the fence, just thinking that this was something they do half-heartedly. They're into it. Technically, we start from square one, just like you would with any high school or college team. We make sure our basics are solid, and from there we go. We need improve our basic wrestling skills. These girls have a good sense of wrestling. We're not going to come in and reinvent the wheel with them, just fine-tune some things.    TheMat.com:Will you be working with the youth level of women's wrestling? If so, what kind of programs do you plan to implement?  Steiner: We need to work with the state organizations that sanction this sport. We need to get as many coaches, whether it is high school or federation level, on the same page so these kids are coming up through a system. That way, no matter what the level, they are not going to have to re-learn everything. How to do that, I am not quite sure yet, but I do know that instead of working just with the athletes, we need to work with some of the coaches that have been behind women's wrestling as well. It's going to take time. It's a sport that definitely is going to grow, but hopefully we can grow it in the right way.    TheMat.com: What is your first priority as the women's coach?  Steiner: My first priority will be to simply get everyone on the same page together, especially coaches. From youth to high school to even the college coaches that help develop some of the women, we need to get a plan in place so that women continue to make strides in wrestling technique as they move on to the next level of competition, whatever that may be.    TheMat.com: Are you looking at this job as a challenge or as an opportunity?  Steiner: It's both. I want to come in and see things happen in a positive way. It's so new. Anytime there is change and new things, people are hesitant to jump on board. I am looking forward to it. It's a wrestling mentality, meaning that you should always be ready and willing to take on new tasks.    TheMat.com: Can women's wrestling help the sport of amateur wrestling as a whole?  Steiner: I think so. You are getting more exposure for wrestling. You are getting more people that aren't involved in wrestling to look at wrestling. Anytime you can put wrestling in front of people's faces, whether it is men's or women's wrestling, we are better for that.