One-on-One with Mark Perry

Mark Perry of Iowa is an immensely talented sophomore who remains extremely confident in his abilities. The nephew of Lee Roy, John, Pat, and Mark Smith, arguably the most successful wrestling family in the U.S. during the modern era -- Perry grew up bleeding Oklahoma State orange. His father, Mark, was also a long-time assistant coach for the Cowboys. Perry was born and bred to be a Cowboy. But to everyone's surprise, when it came time to choose a college, the former Blair Academy standout chose Iowa over Oklahoma State.

Last season, as a freshman, Perry entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 4 seed and proceeded to knock off the defending national champion and heavy favorite, Troy Letters of Lehigh, in the NCAA semifinals. In the NCAA finals, Perry lost to Johny Hendricks of Oklahoma State.

In an exclusive interview with RevWrestling.com, Perry discusses his move up to 174 this season, his thoughts on Steve Mocco, his relationship with Jim Zalesky, his expectations for the Hawkeyes this season, and his future aspirations.

There has been a lot of speculation that you're moving up a weight class to wrestle 174 this season. Is that a done deal?

Perry: I would say that I'm about 95 percent certain that I'm moving up. Unless, somehow, in the next month I lose 15 or 20 pounds just naturally, that's the only way I'd go back down. I lifted real hard this last summer with the team. It's a lot better with me going up, because we have two guys who are tough competitors at 165 -- Cole Pape and Eric Luedke, who is a JUCO national champion. So it's just better for me … and it's better for the team.

So how much are you weighing these days?

Perry: I'm weighing about 190 right now.

You have a wide-open style, but you're also a bit unorthodox. How would you best describe your wrestling style?

Perry: Yeah, I guess I'm a little unorthodox. I honestly think a lot of people enjoyed watching me wrestle last year. Something I went over quite a bit with my coaches this summer was for me to be a little more open this season. Sometimes I was a little hesitant last year, even though it might not have seemed that way to the spectators. But, yeah, I need to open up more this season.

You had an outstanding freshman season. You finished runner-up at both the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments. But I know you have extremely high expectations for yourself. How would you characterize your freshman season?

Perry: For me, if I don't win, I'm not satisfied. Regardless of whether I'm a freshman or a senior, I'm not one of those kids who wrestles at the national tournament just hoping to become an All-American. My goal is pretty plain and simple -- I want to be the national champion. Anything but that, I'm not going to be satisfied with. I don't train for second. So it was a disappointing season. But luckily it was my freshman season. So I have this season to win my first title and go from there.

Mark Perry upset top-seeded Troy Letters of Lehigh in the NCAA semifinals.

In the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament, you defeated Troy Letters of Lehigh, the defending NCAA champion and a wrestler many thought was unbeatable. What was your mindset going into that match?

Perry: I was actually pretty excited to wrestle Letters. Obviously he was the defending national champion. The thing with Letters is that he's just an all-around good wrestler. He's good in every position. And he's strong. I was looking forward to that match, though, because most people don't like to scramble with me, and I knew that he wouldn't be afraid to get into some scrambles. I said that I could beat him. And I knew that I was going to beat him. I kept a good game plan. I was attacking the whole match and I think that's why I beat him.

Midway through the second period against Letters, in a scoreless match, you were able to tilt him for three near-fall points to go up 3-0. What was going through your mind at that point?

Perry: I pretty much knew the match was over after I got the three near-fall points. For him to win, he was going to have to get a takedown, let me go, and then take me down a bunch more times. People have a hard enough time taking me down once, let alone a bunch of times. I didn't give up a single takedown the entire NCAA Tournament, besides the takedown in the finals … and that wasn't even really a takedown.

In the NCAA finals, you met a familiar opponent in Johny Hendricks of Oklahoma State. You had lost twice to Hendricks during the regular season. Was it tough wrestling him, because of how familiar you are with his style?

Perry: For one, it was just pretty embarrassing wrestling him. I can't take anything away from him, but I let him attack me the whole time. Our first two matches, he got me. I don't think I was nearly as strong in the head as I am now, because I grew a lot over the summer. I let my uncles kind of … I don't know … it just kind of affected me a little bit. Mentally, I was just not quite in those matches with Hendricks. The first few times I wrestled him, I just fatigued and didn't hold up too well in those matches. But in the finals, I was pretty confident that there was no way that he was going to get me fatigued.

They gave him a takedown that wasn't even close to a takedown in the first period. That resulted in a scramble that lasted over one minute -- and then add on the riding time. I just made a freshman mistake. I was trying to look for two, trying to reverse him, not going for my one, and that's what really cost me the match. I just wasn't being smart after a bad call. I'm not going to blame it on the ref. Stuff like that happens all the time in all kinds of sports. You just have to bounce back from it, and I didn't do a real good job of it. It cost me that match. He didn't really have to do much after that except just kind of hang on.

Mark Perry lost in the NCAA finals to Johny Hendricks of Oklahoma State, 5-2. Perry's uncles, Pat Smith and John Smith, look on.

You mentioned your uncles. How tough was it competing in the NCAA finals against an Oklahoma State wrestler who was coached by your uncles, Pat Smith and John Smith? How did that play on your psyche?

Perry: I always told myself that it wasn't going to be that big of a deal. But for some reason, it was a lot harder for me than I thought it was going to be. I just have so much respect for them. When I signed to wrestle at Iowa, I felt like I let them down a lot. I'm a pretty strong-minded, independent person, so I told myself that I wasn't going to let it bother me. But it got to me. Usually I'm pretty focused when I wrestle in the sense that I can't hear anybody or anything. But for some reason, I wasn't focused. I was always able to hear my uncles, and they would kind of take me out of my game plan. I just think that was more me just not being as mentally tough as I should have been last year. But that is something I worked on a lot over the summer, along with technique. Last year it kind of affected me a little bit, but they won't have any effect on my career the rest of the way.

After the NCAA finals match, you went over and shook both of your uncles' hands, and they said something to you. Do you remember what they said to you?

Perry: I don't really remember. I was pretty upset. I just shook their hands out of respect. They probably said something, but I just don't really remember what it was.

How much motivation does that NCAA finals loss give you going into this season?

Perry: The feeling that I had after my NCAA finals loss is something I think about every day, every hour. I'm pretty obsessive about my wrestling. I think about it probably more than any other person thinks about a lot of stuff. It's a feeling that I don't want to experience again. But I don't plan on experiencing it again. Every day when I was doing my training this summer, it was something that would drive me. It wasn't necessarily about losing to him, but more about making sure that I don't have that empty feeling again, once the year ends.

What was your off-season training like? Did you spend most of your time in Iowa City?

Perry: Yeah, I spent the whole time in Iowa City. For the most part, my number one training partner was Coach Hartung. We wrestled quite a bit. There were numerous guys that I worked out with, but Coach Hartung was really the one who I did 90 percent of my training with.

A lot of wrestling fans across the country are excited about the possibility of you wrestling against Ben Askren of Missouri. You are both considered to be unorthodox wrestlers. Is that a match-up that you're looking forward to this season?

Perry: I've never wrestled him. But, yeah, it's a match-up that I'm looking forward to. I'll probably wrestle him in the All-Star match (on November 21). My coaches have stressed all along that it's the beginning of the year. So I don't want to put too much emphasis on that one match, more so because they want me to be prepared for the end of the year. But at the same time, I never go into a match looking at the end of the year. I have to look at that match at that time. He's a wide-open wrestler. He likes to scramble a lot more than other guys do. I think he'll enjoy wrestling me, though. A lot of people, like Pendleton, who is a great wrestler, would wrestle him real solid. And other guys would try to wrestle him that same way. I'm not afraid to scramble with him if he wants to scramble. I feel that I'm a better scrambler than anybody. But I think we'll enjoy wrestling each other.

On January 7, the Oklahoma State Cowboys come to Iowa City for a dual. Obviously you have family ties to that program, does that match carry any special significance?

Perry: No, it's just another dual. I'll never see it any different again. It's another dual that we're trying to win. And that's it. It'll be interesting, though. It'll be the first time that Mocco will be back in Iowa City. So I think it will be a pretty crazy dual.

Steve Mocco was a former teammate of yours both at Blair Academy and Iowa. Talk about his decision to leave the Iowa program, and how you felt about having one of your friends transfer to a rival program.

In 2003, Mark Perry won the NHSCA Senior Nationals title at 160 while at Blair Academy and earned Outstanding Wrestler of the Tournament in the process.

Perry: We had a really tight friendship. And then he just backed out. He left for no real reason. There are no coaches at Oklahoma State for heavyweights. They have Daniel Cormier and Muhammed Lawal, who are both great wrestlers at bigger weights, but they don't wrestle like heavyweights. I just don't quite understand it. It was just upsetting. I'm not going to say they have never had a good heavyweight, but in the last 15 years -- that hasn't been one of their more solid weight classes. It just made no sense. Everyone on our team kind of took it like he was just going there to be on a team that was going to win the national title. Basically, the main reason why I was so upset is because at that point in time, I looked at like he just ruined two years of college wrestling for everybody.

They're probably going to have four guys in the All-Star match, and we're going to have three. We feel we're going to have three or four guys in the national finals this year, and they're probably going to have four. But you take that one guy away from Oklahoma State, while they still might be good enough to win the national title, it's a whole different story without Steve Mocco. Not just me, but my whole team kind of took it personally. We just thought that he was being kind of selfish. It just made no sense. He has nothing there that was better than what he had at Iowa. I'm not going to say that he hasn't improved, because I'm not going to be critical of Oklahoma State, but it's not like he got a whole lot better last year. I didn't see any drastic changes. I've kind of gotten to the point where … whatever … he's done after this year.

He got married. You know, I'm happy that he's doing well. I'm not going to lie -- I'm still upset about it. But it's over, so there's nothing I can do. I wish the best of luck to him. I still think deep down inside, some of the guys are upset, not so much just upset at him for going there. If he would have gone somewhere else, I think it would have been a little different. But when he left here, we kind of had to start over. It just makes it a little harder to win that national title when one of your best wrestlers leaves to go the school that already won the national title the year before. A team that you're trying to catch up to. And now you really have to try to catch up. But we'll be fine. We have a good heavyweight, Matt Fields, who believes that he can beat Mocco. As long as keeps that attitude, then it's fine not having Mocco.

You had five freshmen starting in the lineup last season. So you're obviously a young -- but talented team. What are your expectations from a team standpoint this season?

Perry: I think it will be a huge disappointment for our team if we are not in the top two by the end of the year. Obviously we're looking to be national champions this year. But realistically, I feel that for us to accomplish that goal, we're pretty going to have to be a lot like Minnesota was when they won their first national title (in 2001). We're just going to have to be good all-around, balanced team. I really think we're capable of doing that. We could have 8, 9, or 10 All-Americans this year. But we're not there yet. I feel that we could be after some of our guys, get a little more experience. I expect some of the true freshmen last year, who had up and down seasons, to have breakthrough seasons this year. Basically, we're going to have to be a balanced team to win the national title.

Talk about your relationship with your coach, Jim Zalesky. And in your opinion, what makes him such a successful coach?

Jim Zalesky is beginning his ninth season as head coach of the Hawkeyes.

Perry: He's not one of those guys who screams and gets in your face, and says, it's my way or the highway. I like those people to a point. There are a lot of coaches like that. But when I came to Iowa, I thought they were going to make me change my style. He lets me wrestle the way I want, and then he works on little things that can help me. He just has a good, laid-back personality. I think people that don't know him, if they talk to him a few times, it might come across that he's arrogant or whatever, just because he doesn't speak a lot. But he's a funny guy. I think our personalities just click real well.

You wrestled some freestyle in high school. Do you plan on continuing your freestyle career in the near future?

Perry: Yeah, I'll probably compete quite a bit next summer. I think … I'm not sure. I wanted to wrestle this last summer, but I was just starting to get my weight up. I was getting up to 183 or something. I was trying to lift to get bigger. And then what am I supposed to do, cut 20 pounds that I just tried to put on?

What weight would you wrestle internationally, 74 kg (163 lbs) or 84 kg (185 lbs)?

Perry: I don't know. I'm caught in between there, big time. I'm not nearly the size that I need to be to wrestle at 185, but I feel like I can wrestle with those guys to a certain point. They are just so much bigger than me. Compared to guys like Lee Fullhart and Muhammed Lawal, they're like twice the size of me.

Mark Perry has Olympic aspirations.

Do you train much freestyle in practice, even though you're not competing in that style?

Perry: Yeah, I used to work out with Tyler Nixt. And Joe Williams and Tom Brands as well when they were here. Just whomever. I wrestled Junior World Trials when I was a freshman. I feel like I am actually better at freestyle. In high school, I wasn't that good at it, because I started late. Not like super late, but I started when I was a sophomore. Most kids start really young. I just got good at it. In high school, I wasn't really that great on my feet. I feel that right now I'm as good as anyone on my feet. I only gave up like five or six takedowns last year. In freestyle, if a guy gets to my leg, I feel that they might get one, but I know I'm going to get two. I feel like I can turn about anybody, and I'm pretty hard to turn. After college, I would like to take a shot at trying to make the World or Olympic Team. Like I said, I'm kind of caught in between weight classes right now. I might contemplate going 163 in Vegas (for the 2006 U.S. Nationals). I'm obviously not going to grow that much before that.

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One-on-One with Mark Perry

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