The College Coach’s Influence
Coach Gillespie will head the women’s Lakeland Muskies program. Photo: Pinterest
guest writer Shannyn Gillespie
IG: @coachshannyntalks
Twitter: @coachshannyn
As I embark on this new chapter in my life as Lakeland University Head Women’s Wrestling Coach, it occurred that many of the articles scribed by yours truly lacked the perspective and the influence a college coach imbues: from nurturing & teaching to listening & caring to guiding & shaping to educating. But is there more a college coach can do? Once upon a time, I was a women’s wrestling college coach and this piece will detail how the college coach can influence education with a slightly different theme...
State Organizations
Finding out who the key female wrestling people in the state are is helpful and they are usually at least involved with one of these two groups: High School State Athletics Associations & State Members of USA Wrestling. With those two groups, most college coaches will be able to ascertain who the key high school girls wrestling coaches (plus, and in many cases, the parents or volunteers of/for wrestlers) are in each state.
Armed with this information, college coaches can then begin to invite these coaches, athletes, & parents to their institutions for college visits, camps, & tournaments. In this way, the masses will learn about their specific college & women’s wrestling programs which in turn helps grow the sport plus gives more opportunities for female wrestling. (Those parents, volunteers, & coaches can also help with the educational trips to be discussed soon…)
Freestyle Development
In the article Folkstyle vs. freestyle, a description of the benefits of both styles of wrestling is given for males & females. However, the women’s colleges that compete in the WCWA, NAIA, & NCAA, all compete and train in freestyle wrestling. Some know this and some don’t, so it’s worth emphasizing...
In terms of freestyle development, college coaches can also learn, develop, & grow too. This will not only enhance the teaching ability of the women’s college coaches, it will also strengthen the ability of the women college wrestlers' technical game.
But where can college coaches learn more freestyle?
Travelling Abroad
The first year I coached at the U.S. Olympic Education Center (located at Northern Michigan University), we competed in the Italian Trofeo Milone tournament during spring break. In a nutshell, we learned the hard way senior level tournaments are for senior level wrestlers. Similar to the below Canadian camping experience, the college coaches and the college athletes get way more bang for their buck at U23 tournaments, U20 tournaments, or international training camps when compared to senior level tournaments.
College teams can go anywhere in the world for training camps and generally these trips can be during winter, spring, or summer breaks. Because Japan was the best women's wrestling country in the world, the USOEC teams went there during four spring breaks to learn. Again, not only did the athletes get an 8-10 day lesson in Japanese culture, training, & freestyle—so did the coaches.
International Competitions
Back in the day, USA women’s college teams (and high school students too) annually travelled to Canada Cup for a tournament & camp. There are at least two real good reasons why this trip to Canada was important... For one, Canada is different from the US culturally, so athletes & coaches learn about another land first hand. Secondly, Canada is a more cost effective to travel to than Italy or Japan or Austria that will be discussed below...
The other reasons this trip was important: Canada wrestles freestyle only—Canada is literally right over the border—and the international training camp at the end of the tournament. Many European tournaments held in the summer also have training camps at the end of the tournament. Well, those international camps are where both the athlete and the coach can learn about different cultures plus learn more freestyle skills.
College Athletics Associations
When I was in college, a college athletics association organized and sent men’s wrestling college all-star teams to European freestyle tournaments each summer. So, if the last two ideas from above seem implausible, this likely can be organized by the coaches/administrators who run your college athletics associations. The interesting thing is this—college men wrestle folkstyle and we had no freestyle training camp prior to wrestling abroad which was a freestyle tournament.
On the flipside, college women of the WCWA, NAIA, & NCAA all wrestle freestyle so they likely would be more prepared for a U23 international tournament. The aforementioned college athletics associations likely could lead the charge to international exploration so the athletes, coaches, & organizations could learn & grow—which would also grow the sport, too.
The National Governing Body
USA Wrestling is the national governing body for wrestling in the US and they organize trips to the U23 World Championships & the U20 World Championships. Actually USAW organizes trips to all of the age group world championships, national team tours, & of course, the Olympic Games.
But, this article is about the college coach’s influence and the U23, U20 age groups directly impact USA college students. And in most cases, these trips/teams are made up of college coaches & college athletes. The idea here is that college coaches & athletes can attend these trips, and then, set-up other (winter, spring, summer break) international tours during the networking that is being encouraged.
In the End...
College coaches are educators (college athletes are students) and what better way to learn about the world than to travel, explore, & experience it? Also, the college coaches' influence on the growth & development of female wrestling will become even more important as more states sanction high school girls wrestling state tournaments. These women’s wrestling college coaches will be seen as leaders & high level wrestling teachers in their respective states. Finally, these women’s leaders have the opportunity to positively impact the sport with their specific actions as it pertains to a freestyle and cultural education via travelling abroad...