Purdue's State of the Union - Be Where Your Feet Are

This month I decided to double up on my Purdue Boilermakers Wrestling content. There were some good reasons for this. First off, I wanted to talk to their recently promoted Head Assistant Coach, Leroy Vega. Secondly, catching up with Coach Ersland is always a good time. So selfishly, I moved forward with this plan. The vision for this conversation being sort of a “State of the Union” on Purdue wrestling in June of 2024. 

I needed to start where we left off, which was March in Kansas City. In my previous conversations with Coach Ersland, we’ve discussed how great it was having two All-Americans in Parker Filius and Matt Ramos from the year before, so I knew that their goals and aspirations were high. I asked about how they’ve reflected on finishing the season having finished lower than their expectations and how the messaging to the team went from there. 

“Perspective is always important when you’re competing and working as hard as we do. We have some very capable guys on our team at the National Championships, in terms of Matt Ramos who had been ranked number one most of last year, as well as some young talent in terms of a guy like Joey Blaze or a Michigan product like Stoney Buell, who was having some success. We had high expectations and didn’t reach it. Everybody has their own barriers or adversities, so we didn’t get quite to where we felt we should be, but you’ve got to have perspective. You don’t shrug it off and say ‘Oh well, we didn’t get there’, you need to own it and make the changes that you need to, but remember that there is a bigger picture here and there’s growth. It’s also important to not be ‘event-driven’.”

I’m intrigued. This hasn’t been the last time this summer that this sentiment has been brought up in interviews, but it’s nonetheless interesting. So much of sports in general are focused on team or individual accolades and achievements. In this sport, much of that tends to focus on a couple of weeks in March, but there’s a lot of build-up to it. Let’s continue with Coach Ersland:

“Having perspective on what we did wrong, how we can get better, and where we need to put in that work. Everybody on this team is back next year, all five National qualifiers are back, so in one way or another you’ve got to grow and develop, and perspective is key around that.”

With a young team, it’s important to really lean into that perspective, especially when going through the gauntlet of a B1G schedule. My next question was about how they worked with those young guys to introduce them to the reality of a B1G season. 

Joey Blaze photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo

“We had two true freshmen in the lineup (Greyson Clark - 141, and Joey Blaze - 157), both qualified for Nationals, so at some level there is some success in getting them into that building and competing there, which will serve them well. Their journeys were very different (you could almost say that they went “Separate Ways” - I had to build in a Journey joke, let’s continue) 

Greyson was hurt after the Nebraska dual and didn’t wrestle again until the B1G Championships. For him, he showed that he was able to take a setback and still find a way to come back and compete at a high level. He beat Wyatt Henson at Nationals as well, which is a really good win. He learned that he could overcome an injury, stay focused, and put himself in position to accomplish goals. He didn’t put his head down and sulk. He learned a lesson that’s going to serve him very well when the body bounces back. What he’s taken mentally and emotionally, around what it takes to come back and succeed, is going to really set him up in the future. 

Joey had some big moments during the season, competed most of the year, had wins over Peyton Robb, and Ed Scott, which are some noteworthy wins. His expectation going into Nationals was to make the podium. He had some really tight matches against quality people (a tiebreaker loss to Franek of Iowa and an OT loss to Johnny Lovett of CMU), and the way it affected him, he sees that results aren’t guaranteed from working hard, and there are little things in the way you think and approach matches. How fine that line is between winning and losing in those areas. It has to be a focus on performance, rather than winning and losing. That perspective is around success isn’t a win/loss record. It’s about performing at the highest level, despite that record. Having many good performances out of 30 matches is the goal. He’s going to try to make it 30 for 30, but having 20 solid performances in 25 wins isn’t always getting better.”

At this point, I don’t need to ask about what the offseason plans are for the team so much (I still kind of do), but it’s becoming clear to me that a realignment of what’s going to get the desired results is what the plans are. Wins and losses are black-and-white declarative things. Bill Parcells used to say “You are what your record says you are”, but that’s not true. Maybe more so in Football, but we’ve always seen guys in wrestling grow throughout a season, learn from losses, get healthy, and figure out their weight cuts and diets to perform better, there are innumerable things you could point to that impacted a wins and loss record, and having the perspective to refocus the value on performance seems exactly what a smart coaching staff would do. 

My question has now become more specific. Now I want to know how to focus on performance and build that in a young team during the off-season; 

“It’s about always being where your feet are. It’s being in the moment right now and not getting sidetracked. Matt Ramos got sidetracked, and we’ll talk about him in a minute, but when you’re just trying for results and you’re not in the moment trying to do the best that you can right then and there, then you’re not getting better. I keep trying to go back and remind them that what you’re doing right now in this room is the most important thing you’re doing. Be involved in that. Then when the big moments come, and they will, then the distraction of winning a National title gets there, are you going to hang on and hope to not screw it up, or are you going to do what the situation calls for? That’s a difficult thing to be able to push all of that out of your head. Understanding that right here, right now, teaches them to focus on that moment and what needs to be done then. Talent is going to win, so it’s really the performance that you have to chase.”

NBA Hall of Famer, and probably the most famous Grateful Dead fan who ever lived, had a great quote that amounts to a lot of this. Mr. Walton had recently passed away when we had done this interview, so it came to mind. The quote from Bill Walton goes, “I learn from yesterday, I dream about tomorrow, but I try to make today my masterpiece.” I myself take on too many projects, it’s a thing I do to myself so this isn’t an excuse, but it’s important to really be present with what you’re doing. It affects the people around you, how you impact them, and what you gain from that experience. The same goes for training to accomplish your goals. That seems obvious, but because we’re human, we tend to forget it. The interview continues. 

Matt Ramos photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo

Getting to Ramos, I wanted to know if it was preseason hype, or what it could have been that seeped its way in between him and his goals. 

“If you look at the difference between the year when he made it to the National Finals, he was letting it fly. He was very dangerous and eager to wrestle to his positions and create action. He was wrestling free and going after people. I think at points last year when you’re wearing that number one ranking, and you’re expected to win, I think he got a little too careful. You want to be perfect and when you’re competing in that way, in my opinion, you’re not your best self. You’re not free and able to be what you’re capable of being. He went through a little bit of that, and learned how to be the favorite. He’s going to have to be the hunter. It doesn’t matter if you’re ranked one, ten, or three, the mentality doesn’t change. Since we’ve been done, he is working hard to get back to where he needs to be. You’ll see a guy closer to where he was when that upset happened than the guy who was trying to protect.”

Earlier I had referenced the recent promotion of Leroy Vega to the Head Assistant Coach position, but that is the result of AJ Schopp choosing to return to his Alma Mater, Edinboro. Here’s Coach Ersland on his contributions over the years:

“AJ was a worker in the room. Constantly working on technique and sparring and we’re going to miss that for sure. A lot of respect for everything he’s helped to accomplish. It was a good opportunity for him and his family to be close to home. It was a good opportunity for him to chase some other goals as well.” 

Not many programs can lose a coach so accomplished on the mat and as a mentor as Purdue can and simply reload internally, but the Boilermakers were in that position with Coach Vega. 

“I was very fortunate to get Leroy on staff years ago as a volunteer. We took an opportunity to know that he’s nearby, has a passion for coaching, and wants to help. Ever since that time, I’ve given him a project, or asked his thoughts, he’s just an all-in guy and takes initiative. He’s a fun guy and has a lot of energy, I don’t know if he’s ever met a stranger. In addition to the energy, he thinks outside of the box a little bit too, which is needed in today's environment, and his relationships with the guys on the team. He’s earned this because he’s shown that this is about passion and what he can bring to the table. It’s proven to be valuable and I wanted to reward him for his impact on the team as well.” 

If you haven’t checked out my interview with Leroy Vega, check it out here

Finishing things up, I wanted to touch once more on some of the accomplishments of the younger wrestlers on the team. I asked Coach about some of the leadership skills shown by the youth on the team, as evidenced by many of the younger guys winning their postseason awards. 

“Player-led teams are better than coach-led teams. There are lots of tremendous coaches, but if the players buy into the standards, systems, how to think, act, and train and they are leading the charge, that's a dangerous team. That’s the best kind of team. What are the standards, and why do we have the standards, that’s what we try to impart to them to get that buy-in, and a huge part of that coaching philosophy."

To end the conversation Tony Ersland told me about how they were bringing some incoming freshmen in to begin with some summer classes, and get them acquainted with the team and environment, but ultimately it’s to explain the standards, why they have the standards, and begin to get that buy-in. You learn a lot of things when you go away to school, but one thing I’m certain of is what these incoming freshmen are about to find out. They are about to understand the value in being where your feet are, that it’s better to measure progress than winning/losing, and that perspective is key. The P in Purdue is for perspective.