“As soon as you look at our schedule, you will see how competitive of a schedule we have this year,” Charles said. “We did that, in part, because we are committed to making sure our guys are ready for the Pac-10 Championships and for the NCAA Championships where they can become All-Americans, earn the right to become a national champion and to help us win the Pac-10 title this year. We are looking for progress throughout the season. Our main focal point is we will start with what we start with and then, as the season goes on, we build up and improve so that come conference time, we are prepared to win the title and then send guys to the NCAA tournament to become national champions. That is our goal.”
Of the duals slated for home and away, the Sun Devils will face three teams that placed in the Top 20 nationally last year, including home dates with fourth-place Nebraska and third-place Iowa State and a trip to 16th-place Oklahoma State. The Sun Devils also will compete in the NWCA National Duals in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and the Lonestar Duals in Arlington, Texas, which will give ASU more chances to face the best in the nation. At the National Duals alone, the Sun Devils could face the Top 5 teams from the 2009 NCAA Championships (Iowa, Ohio State, Iowa State, Nebraska and Cornell), as well as seven other teams that finished among the Top 15 nationally one year ago.
“Going to the national duals is huge because we are going to be butting heads with some of the best programs in the country,” Charles said. “For me, I want to see progress. From our first dual on November 13 through the National Duals, I want to see progress in our athletes as far as their strength and conditioning levels, their confidence levels and their technical skill levels. I want to see them wrestling and wrestling well.”
The Sun Devils will open their season with four-consecutive road duals with two each slated for the opening two weekends. First up, ASU will hit the road for two Pac-10 duals as it faces UC Davis (Nov. 13) and CS Fullerton (Nov. 15) and then will travel to America’s Heartland for its duals at Oklahoma State (Nov. 20) and Oklahoma (Nov. 22). The trip to both Oklahoma schools will mark the sixth time ASU has faced both in the same weekend on the road and the first time since a trip during the 1999-00 season.
November will come to an end with the Sun Devils’ fifth dual of the year as they play host to intrastate rival Grand Canyon, who ASU has defeated in each of the past two seasons. From there, the Sun Devils will participate in a trio of individual tournaments, including the Cliff Keen/Las Vegas Invitational in Las Vegas, Nev. (Dec. 4-5) and the Reno Tournament of Champions in Reno, Nev. (Dec. 20).
When the New Year begins, the Sun Devils will return to dual action on the road and open by facing CS Bakersfield in Bakersfield, Calif. (Jan. 3) before heading to the National Duals (Jan. 9-10) and the Lone Star Duals (Jan. 16). From there, ASU will have six more competitions to prepare for the championship season and will begin its push by hosting Nebraska (Jan. 22). Following the Sun Devils’ first trip to Prescott, Ariz., to take on Embry-Riddle (Jan. 24), the team will return home for a Pac-10 dual with Oregon State (Jan. 31).
“We have some really good matches later in the season, too,” Charles said. “We have Nebraska, which is very strong Big XII school, and later, we have Iowa State, who is supposed to be in position to challenge for the national title this year. No matter who it is, when that time comes, I feel we should be winning. I want to see hard work and effort from our guys, but by that time in the season, we should be challenging the best programs in the nation and our guys should be confident enough and in good enough shape to beat the best in the country.”
The month of February will see the Sun Devils compete in its final three duals of the season and will open with one road and one home dual. First up, ASU will travel to Cal Poly for a Pac-10 dual (Feb. 5) before returning home for its final non-conference dual as Iowa State visits Tempe (Feb. 7). One week later, the regular season comes to an end for ASU as it plays host to Stanford (Feb. 14). The Sun Devils will then return to Davis, Calif., for the Pac-10 Championships (Feb. 28-Mar. 1) before competing in the season-ending NCAA Championships (Mar. 18-20) in Omaha, Neb.
This season will mark the 48th year the program has competed on the varsity level and its 32nd year as a member of the Pac-10 Conference. In that time, the Sun Devils are the only program west of the Rocky Mountains to have captured the NCAA Division I title (1988) and have collected 16 Pac-10 championships, the second most in the history of the league. ASU has produced 64 individual All-Americans who have accumulated 108 total honors, including Charles, who is one of only four, four-time honorees (1990-93) in program history.
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