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Wrestlers attend special training sessions at Olympic Training Center to prepare for Worlds in New York

7/16/2001
Jason Owens/USA Wrestling

With the World Championships of Wrestling just over two months away, wrestlers are jumping at every advantage they can grab hold of to gain the upper hand on their competition.

Members of the U.S. teams joined national coaches Kevin Jackson and Mike Duroe
last week at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. to learn technique and push toward their goal of World gold. After all, champions are made in the training room. These are not mandatory training sessions, but are helping the U.S. athletes prepare for the Worlds in New York City, Sept. 26-29.

“The sooner you start preparing, the better off you are,” said Bill Zadick, a member of the freestyle team wrestling at 63 kg. “Wrestling is a thinking man’s game. You do your thinking beforehand because you don’t have time on the mat.”

Other wrestlers taking advantage of the extra training time were Joe Williams, wrestling at 76 kg for the freestyle team, Dominic Black, wrestling at 97 kg for the freestyle team and Toccara Montgomery, wrestling at 68 kg for the women’s team.

In addition to the extra mat time, the wrestlers gained valuable personal attention from the coaching staff that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to get.

“There aren’t as many guys here,” Zadick said. “You can work on more specific things.”

Williams took advantage of working with the coaching staff to concentrate on some specific techniques.

“I’m working on my par terre position and my movement,” Williams said. “I want to put on a good performance for myself and the fans. I’ve already got a week’s jump on my competition. We got a lot of individual attention. That was really important.”

Montgomery used the training sessions to take advantage of practicing with other world-class wrestlers Williams and Ramico Blackmon to prepare for her first international competition. She said the level of coaching and competition at the Olympic Training Center provided a more intense training atmosphere than anywhere else.

“You can only push yourself so much at home,” Montgomery said. “National coaches take it to a different level.”

Elite athletes in all three styles take advantage of the training facilities and National Coaching staff at the Olympic Training Center year round. On any given day, a number of world-class wrestlers are in Colorado Springs for personal training opportunities.

However, with the World Championships coming up soon, these special sessions become very important to the success of the U.S. program.

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Pacific University in Oregon announces the creation of a women’s wrestling program

Pacific University, a small liberal arts school in Forest Grove, Ore., located 20 miles west of Portland, has developed a women’s wrestling program.

The Pacific wrestling team, under Head Coach Frank Johnson, had two women participating with their men’s team last year. The wrestling program has generated outside funding to run an extensive women’s schedule for 2001-02 season and has begun to recruit women student-athlete wrestlers to attend the university.

The women’s competition schedule is not yet finalized, but is expected to include some of the following competitions: Sunkist International Open (Phoenix, Ariz.), Clansman International Open (Vancouver, Canada), Oregon Classic, USGWA Can-Am Championships (Detroit, Mich.), U.S. National Open (Las Vegas, Nev.) and the Dave Schultz Memorial International Open (Colorado Springs, Colo).

Johnson indicated that Pacific University has a long standing tradition of excellence in both wrestling and academics. The men’s teams have placed in the top 10 at nationals 12 times and has featured more than 60 All-Americans.

“We expect our women’s team to experience the same kind of success as our men,” said coach Johnson. “In the 2000-01 season, we had two women who trained with our men; one of them qualified for the final Women’s World Team Trials, as a result of her performance in Las Vegas. Next season we anticipate having enough women to run separate training sessions, so we can sharpen the women’s focus on freestyle.”

The Pacific University wrestling program has made international cultural exchange a regular component its wrestling experience. The university has sent its wrestling athletes to more than 30 countries over the past 25 years. Johnson expect to expand this program to include the women wrestlers as well.

On the academic side, Pacific University is recognized by Baron’s and US News & World Report as one of the top schools in the West.

Coach Frank Johnson can be at his office at 503-359-2827, or by e-mail at johnsonf@pacificu.edu or at his home 503-359-5313. He encourages potential student-athletes to contact him with any questions about the new women’s wrestling opportunity, as well as the university.