Joe Heskett, an NCAA champion and four-time All-American at Iowa State, spent four seasons as Army's head wrestling coach, and served as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State and Cal Poly (Photo/Mark Aikman)The departures of Heskett and Anspach mark the 11th and 12th coaching vacancies of the 2014 offseason, by far the most in recent memory.
So ... what's going on?
Heskett's reasons for leaving Army are a combination of personal and professional opportunities. Leaving to take an administrative position at a growing athletics program like West Virginia is a natural fit for Heskett who is well-respected for his high character, work ethic and natural leadership. Coaching creates unique challenges, but for Heskett those challenges were no longer complicated enough to keep him motivated.
Anspach is Hofstra wrestling and to see him go means the loss of continuity for a program that faces tough administrative challenges. His move -- reportedly to a sales position -- means that Hofstra alumni and administration will need to create new relationships. For Anspach it's a chance to make more money and spend more time with family.
Add in that two weeks ago Penn head wrestling coach Rob Eiter resigned to pursue other professional opportunities outside of wrestling and that Derek DelPorto did the same at Eastern Michigan and a disturbing trend seems to emerge.
College coaching doesn't meet the mid-life work/life balance that many professionals seek.
What's interesting about these changes, as opposed to Shawn Charles' departure from Arizona State, is that they are voluntary. They show a waning desire of professional men in the later 30's, 40's and 50's to work the 70-90 hour weeks to try and create top 25 programs for athletic directors paying $60k-$100k for the effort.
The talent it takes to balance the administrative and technical side of coaching is almost unmatched in the professional world. College coaches have administrators, alumni, parents and wrestlers all pulling on their time. Add to that a desire to be a good father, brother and husband and it's easy to see that after three or four decades the low pay and long hours aren't fulfilling.
The danger for college wrestling is that the replacement hires will be frustrated by the amount of work, or otherwise incapable of recreating the diversity of successes it takes to manage a team internally. Wrestling needs more stability and that means that this latest trend -- the loss of mid-career coaches -- needs to subside.
To your questions ...
Q: What do you think of the new anti-stalling rules?
-- Jeff P.
Foley: YES! A million times YES! You think these guys are reading our mailbag?! No more #snoreride for the fans to suffer through and no more 3 second criteria wins for an NCAA title. I'm happy.
The quasi pushout rule will be pretty interesting to see implemented. What constitutes defense on your feet? Couldn't a downblock be seen as active defense? Also it sounds like they won't allow a simple drive forward, but that isn't easy to gauge either.
Overall, I'm the happiest I've been in years with the committee's idea for change.
Q: Uniform uniforms are a seriously dumb idea, and it seems that only international wrestling uses that convention, with the boring alternated red and blue singlets.
You note how exciting and popular World Cup FIFA soccer/football is... well, heck, note that their (non)uniforms proudly exclaim their nationality and culture, in exciting diversity of color and even design. Successful sports know how to package the product.
Is there a reason that FILA has (apparently) mandated this 'uniformity'? And no one complains? Bucks the system?
American kids proudly wear their school colors in scholastic and collegiate wrestling matches. Internationally, I guess that we're lucky that the red-blue was chosen for singlet options, but still.
-- Jim F.
Foley: There has been talk of changing the uniform combinations, but there are a few obstacles to manage before making a full change.
First is to understand how most other uniform systems work, which is based on white and color jerseys. For FILA to implement that system would require every nation to come up with tasteful white singlets. That's not as easy as it sounds, and given the general dislike of singlets at large there is little reason to ask for a reinvestment by every governing body unless you're certain it will go well.
The second major change would be to scoring displays. I know this is an easy fix for a professional league contained in one country, but when dealing with a worldwide outfit change that means the youth tournaments from Kazakhstan to Pago Pago will need to implement a band system and scoring display in line with each other.
Not impossible, just not easy.
The change will likely come. The need for a better product is at the front of the wrestling community's mind. To get there just might take more time, effort and cash.
Q: What happened to Henry Cejudo? At one time he seemed to be unbelievably talented. Now he seems to spend his time not making weight for low-level MMA fights and tweeting bullshit inspirational messages. He could be preparing for his third Olympic gold medal. Instead he's content with giving speeches about his glory day back in 2008.
-- Scott M.
Foley: I've talked about Henry Cejudo in previous articles and would tell you that not much has changed since 2009. Cejudo did something amazing, and despite the efforts of promoters and agents, coaches and friends, he hasn't quite figured out his next journey in life. His gold medal, the incredible day of wrestling he had in Beijing, will stand forever, but for the moment that gold medal has become more of a noose than a buoy.
MULTIMEDIA HALFTIME
Link: Vote for the Magic Man as the Best Male College Athlete
Link: Title IX via Time
Link: Important to celebrate
Kangaroo Jui-jitsu
Q: Looking at all the important occurrences to the wrestling community in the last year, how important has been the success of Flips Wrestling (headphones)? I haven't seen their QuickBooks, but it seems they're doing well while marketing a non-essential equipment product to the wrestling community. While we obsess about rules and equipment the fact someone is making money marketing to us is an extremely good thing. More money means bigger and better events and opportunities for grapplers, right?
-- Tom B.
Foley: Flips is a company that seems to be putting cash into the hands of top athletes while also providing a niche product. Though they spent heavily on advertising, I'd guess that they are generating some income after their first year, and that couldn't be better for the sport of wrestling.
There are lots of brands out there, but Flips has created an online personality that is positive and energetic. Yes, they advertise on InterMat, but all things being equal they are the type of company wrestling needs and I'm sure most fans can agree.
Q: Do you think if Aaron Pico continued to wrestle in high school and college he could have been a four-time time high school state champion and four-time NCAA champion?
-- Gregg Y.
Foley: Maybe a four-time NCAA champion, but not undefeated. The NCAA Division I wrestling tournament is too tough for any lightweight to make it through four times without a blemish. He's a talented future world-beater, but I don't see how he could escape the collegiate grind unscathed.
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