Lehigh becoming a training ground for coaches
6/13/2006 12:15:00 AM | Athletics, Men's Wrestling
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of The Morning Call
The Mountain Hawks finished tied for ninth at the national championships, the last go-round for their Fab Four of seniors Cory Cooperman, Derek Zinck, Troy Letters and Travis Frick, stars since when they were freshmen.
Cooperman finished third, Zinck fifth and Frick eighth to earn All-American status, while Letters, a national champion as a sophomore, took a medical forfeit after re-injuring his neck.
Last month, the university announced that assistant coach Chris Ayres was leaving to become the head coach at
''For a school that's not known for producing coaches — we're known for producing businessmen and engineers — it's kind of cool,'' Lehigh head coach Greg Strobel said on Monday. ''It shows we're producing a good system.''
With the departure of Ayres and Kutz, four former Lehigh assistants have gone on to head coaching positions in the last four years.
Pat Santoro will begin his fourth season at the
Ayres and Kutz will join the NCAA Division I head coaching fraternity as of July 1.
''For me, I'm proud of the accomplishments of my assistant coaches,'' Strobel said. ''I think they have paid close attention to what we teach and how we do things, and that has set them up to where they are now.''
Now Strobel faces the unenviable task of choosing new assistant coaches. Lehigh is conducting a nationwide search for candidates, and Strobel admitted he has already been in contact with ''more than half a dozen'' people about the positions.
''For an ideal staff, I'd like a lightweight coach, which Jason was,'' Strobel said, ''a middleweight coach, which Chris was, and a heavyweight coach, which McCoy was. Ideally, I would be happy if I could get three different [types of] coaches, and ideally, I would like part of our staff to be homegrown.''
The homegrown part is important for Strobel. He feels it is easier for a recruit to hear about the Lehigh experience from a coach who attended Lehigh.
''The nice thing about both Jason and Chris is that they were both graduates of Lehigh,'' Strobel said. ''They could talk to recruits from personal experience — 'I know what it's like to be recruited, to go to Lehigh, to take classes at Lehigh, to wrestle at Lehigh, to be an EIWA champion, to be an All-American at Lehigh' — and there is nothing a recruit likes to hear more about than personal experience.''
Strobel may not have to look far to fill his wish list. While he played it close to the vest and refused to name anyone he has been in contact with or would like to contact, a few names are more than blips on a radar screen for assistant coaching candidates.
Cooperman, a three-time All-American, twice third in the nation and a three-time EIWA champion, is available. As is Letters, the three-time All-American and three-time EIWA champion whose final season was marred by an injury to his cervical spine.
Then, of course, there is two-time NCAA runner-up Jon Trenge, who graduated with a master's degree in 2005 and assisted at
Former Lehigh All-American Brad Dillon is an assistant for Santoro at
And those are the easy homegrown candidates to consider. While all four seem like worthy choices, Strobel did say he wanted to bring in homegrown and outside coaches.
''I think the outside influence is good,'' he said. ''I like that outside influence to pick their brain, see how they did things someplace else.''
Despite the assistant coaching changes, this is an exciting time for Lehigh wrestling. The incoming recruiting class was ranked No. 1 in the country. The Mountain Hawks landed the nation's No. 1 recruit, David Craig of
Lehigh is also bringing in Mike Grey, the only four-time state champion in
''This year we have to train a new staff and get people on board,'' Strobel said, ''but it's energizing. Whenever there is change, change isn't fun, but change can be good.
''You re-examine what you do when you get new people. You re-evaluate what you do, and this is a fun time to be coaching here.''
This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, June 13, 2006 edition of The Morning Call. Used with permission.
