C.D. Mock was fired last week from his position as head wrestling coach at UNC-Chapel Hill. Mock had been at the school for 14 seasons and though he'd enjoyed little success, the program had improved in 2014 with a freshman All-American and the school's third top 25 finish in three years.
The stated reason for Mock's firing was his lack of performance on the mat, but many, including Mock, suspect that his firing came as a result of his recent campaign to discuss the issue of sexual assault on campus.
C.D. Mock (Photo/Jeffrey A. Camarati)Mock's undoing was his recent and outspoken criticism of the debate surrounding sexual assaults on American campuses. As many people know, Mock's son Corey was expelled from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga after on-campus disciplinary hearings found him guilty of sexual assault.
Sometime after the ruling was handed down, Coach Mock began posting on the website CoreyMock.net, which included the oh-so-subtle sub-header "FALSELY ACCUSED OF SEXUAL ASSAULT IN COLLEGE." The blog included rants about the Columbia University student who carries her mattress in protest of how sexual assault cases are handled on campus, videos of women who have falsely accused men of rape and other diatribes about men who have been "victimized' by women. There is even mention about how many beers it takes to make a woman capable or incapable of consenting to sex.
There is a certain amount of understanding you can extend to Coach Mock for working on behalf of his son. A father will always want to protect his child and he believes he needs to correct the public perception of his son and his actions. If Coach Mock came out in vehement defense of his son and promised to fight to clear his name then we all could appreciate his desire as a father even if we disagreed or held suspicions. However, Coach Mock's argument extended well past his son's case and began to unravel into a hysterical blog seeming to shame women who are victims of sexual assault.
In light of these viewpoints it's the wrestling community's job (and athletic department's job) to clarify and distance themselves from bigotry, sexism or anything short of the full and complete protection of women on college campuses.
In choosing to start a blog and grant interviews about how sexual assault claims on campus are false or harmful to men, Mock made himself public fare. You are always free to say what you want, but when you work for a company, public or private, you represent that company and if you choose to speak out then you risk your employment. Spoken plainly, his firing is in no way a violation of free speech. Mock was fired because he was working at the pleasure of a college administration and when failed to head their warning and/or uphold the standards they demanded he was fired.
Mock's actions and statements are also not representative of the wrestling community's larger views on women. His reductive, thick-browed analysis of the sexual assault issue on campus has proven crass, irrational and out-of-touch with how modern men -- and modern wrestlers -- view women.
Most in the American wrestling community want to embrace women competing in our sport. Most in our community abhor the idea of violence against women. Most have the perspective to understand that sexual assault is a crime that takes from its victim's innocence and trust in men. That Mock represented himself as a warrior for a cause that has a dwindling army of troglodytes is fine, but I, like the UNC administration, don't want him doing it in the name of wrestling.
The wrestling community is better than to be represented by hate, or any idea short of compassion and inclusion. There will never be a way to know exactly what happens in the bedroom, but as a wrestling community we can focus on making certain women will always be protected and that their interests, their safety and their health are also our top concern. Mock's continued assault on progress is out of line with that viewpoint.
Wrestlers have proven to be progressive in the past. Hudson Taylor's Athlete Ally helps create a better community for LGBT athletes and the recent Super 8 campaign by United World Wrestling has helped form new international sports policy regarding development programs for women.
Wrestlers are often at the front of change. We are bold and decisive and never quit. We are strong enough now to stand in the face of cultural bullies, even one that has been our own, and tell them to take a seat.
To your questions ...
Q: What was up with Jordan Burroughs' "shame on you" tweet? What set him off? Overall he seems like a humble guy but ruffled a lot of fans' feathers with this one making it seem like he uses a social media persona.
-- Peter W.
Foley: I flatly disagree that Jordan Burroughs has two different personalities -- one for social media and one for interpersonal communication. That is just not defensible, not based on one tweet or from any other feedback of him as a person.
Jordan Burroughs defeated Kyle Dake in the finals of the U.S. World Team Trials (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)The international sports community tends to be bitterly anti-American and yet the most anti-American individuals, fans, coaches and officials seem to think Burroughs is everything that's right about wrestling. Yes, he confounds them, but he's won over fans in Iran, Russia and even Belarus. Hell, even the Russians have come to respect him and his talents in private.
If I'm Burroughs I'd be pissed off, too. Shame on all those people who thought that because Kyle Dake got a three-point throw he somehow could outperform a two-time World champion and Olympic gold medalist. David Taylor? Sure there is an argument that he might have been able to pull off a match. But two? Beat the rest of the world for four years straight? Andrew Howe matches up well, but still lacks the international success. America has the best pound-for-pound wrestler in the world -- one who represents the country with grace -- and because a few guys look the part of an American hero he somehow earns doubt? Hell, I'm mad on his behalf.
Support Jordan Burroughs. Support greatness. Let's stop trying to find reasons to tear down or minimize his accomplishments and start paying more attention to how well he competes and has become an American ambassador for good around the world.
Q: What do you think of the World Team Trials qualifying system? Seems unfair to those who are behind world I believe the process of determining the representative from the USA in the World Championships should be reviewed and revised so that the process for naming the USA wrestling representatives for the Olympic Games next year is more fair to the challenge tournament winner.
-- Barry M.
Foley: This dovetails into the above point. The main thrust of the complaints regarding qualification came from Kyle Dake who about a month before the U.S. Open tweeted, among other things, "If you win the Super Bowl the previous year, should you receive and automatic bid to the playoffs?"
While asking questions is always welcome, I think that the passive-aggressive self-assured tone made the inquiry seem self-evident, which of course it's not.
I understand it's frustrating to be a 74-kilo American wrestler -- backups around the world undergo the same struggle -- but for Dake to prime the American wrestling crowd into complaining about the Trials format because a change would directly benefit his cause is disingenuous. It's also not especially forward-thinking or big-minded.
As for the World Team Trials system itself and why the USA system is exceedingly fair …
I've been at the European Games the past week and was able to ask some team leaders about their current systems for selecting individual World Team members. Overall, I think that Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan are the most compelling comparisons for how open and fair a process the USA wrestlers enjoy.
Until this year the Iranian Greco-Roman national team was hand-selected by head coach Mohammed Bana. Year-in and year-out there were no wrestle-off's for the most successful athletes -- many of whom were from Bana's club. This year, with Rasoul Khadem as the president of the wrestling federation -- and Bana fired -- all wrestlers were asked to enter a national selection tournament. The idea was to eliminate the political drama and give everyone a fair shot.
Hamid Soryan (six-time World champion, one-time Olympic champion) is the most successful wrestler in Iranian history and though he weighed-in, refused to wrestle, citing that in ten years he'd never been asked to wrestle off and he wasn't about to start.
Omid Noroozi (2012 Olympic champion) did wrestle and actually lost in this year's tournament. Noroozi believed his loss came as the result of a bad call and responded by breaking a chair and charging the head table with one of the legs held high over his head. On the freestyle side, four of the top wrestlers in the world lost in the tournament and will not represent Iran at the World Championships -- Esmailpoor and Taghavi among them.
The Iranian press told me that a single elimination one-time tournament was an over-correction since some wrestlers began preparing only for their expected opponents, not international competition.
Russia has used this single-elimination national tournament as an ultimate qualifier for a couple years, save extraordinary circumstances. This year three-time World champion Denis Tsargush lost to a relative nobody at Russian Nationals and is being replaced by three-time European champion and Yarygin winner Anuiar Geduev. The rest of the team remained relatively unchanged minus the musical chairs at 57 kilos and 65 kilos.
As a reminder of how biased selections can become, the Azerbaijan national team has a tournament in December, which puts the wrestlers in a ladder, but wrestlers for competitions throughout the year are chosen for a number of reasons. Winning does not make you No. 1 with a bullet. For example, if a wrestler is Azeri and is on par with a Dagestani transfer then the Azeri might get the nod. It's as political a system as exists in wrestling, but for them it seems to work.
Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan have incredible resources and depth which allows for their cutthroat style of selection. Nobody would argue that Russia and Iran won't perform well in Las Vegas even given the elimination of some of these established wrestlers. They have talent, a proven system and great coaching to assist their young wrestlers and new World Team members.
In the past eight years America has won 12 World and Olympic medals. Burroughs has won four of those medals, Dlagnev has two, Varner has one gold and one bronze, Scott, Herbert, Cormier and Cejudo each have a medal a piece. By comparison Russia has 43 medals, Iran 24, Azerbaijan 19, Cuba 15 (they missed three competitions), and Ukraine and Uzbekistan are tied with 13.
Save the perception that our 74-kilo weight class is filled with three World champions (it's not) overall the USA does not have enough quality backups across 24 weight classes to warrant a single-elimination tournament. It seems that only Russia does. To compensate the USA is forced to incentivize returning World medalists to keep competing and the best way to do so is to give them this slight advantage to the finals of the challenge tournament.
The other issue being presented is one of rest. While we can complain about what we think would happen under a variety of rest-based scenarios the truth is that it doesn't apply to the 2015 team. Take for example 86 kilos where I believe you had a perfect iteration of the system. Jake Herbert wrestles at the U.S. Open, wins by beating returning World Team member Ed Ruth, gets a bye to the World Team Trials finals and then beats Ruth two more times in that final. Yes, Ruth wrestled two more matches, but at the World Championships it's just as likely that you could wrestle one more match than your opponent and you could wrestle three times in sixty minutes if you get a loaded repechage bracket.
Herbert wrestled Ruth three times and recorded three lopsided wins. No matter the conditions that is pretty damn definitive on who is the better wrestler right now. (Note: Jake competed at the Paris GGP and Yarygin tournaments while Ruth only made an appearance at last year's GGP in Baku and the World Cup.)
Similarly, Tony Ramos won the U.S. Open in dominating fashion and went 2-0 at the World Team Trials. He wrestled six matches and was rarely in danger (He competed at the Yarygin, Paris GGP and World Cup.)
Kyle Snyder beat an Olympic champion, wrestled in last year's Junior Worlds and then competed a collegiate season. He went 3-0 against Olympic champion Jake Varner.
Same with Brent Metcalf. (Paris GGP, Yarygin, World Cup) 3-0 against Jordan Oliver.
Tervel Dlagnev even went 3-0 against a very powerful Zack Rey.
At 74 kilos, Kyle Dake chose to qualify through the regional system, giving him fewer looks at top-ranked competition than that of Andrew Howe and David Taylor who both qualified at the U.S. Open and had a season wrestling overseas. Dake did not compete overseas in 2015 and hasn't competed in a meaningful freestyle tournament since taking fifth at the Golden Grand Prix in 2013. (He won a watered down Granma Cup in 2014.)
While the popular perception is that Dake is a fantastic shot to medal he hasn't wrestled enough to prove that he can be effective in international competition.
Prior to the Trials, any of the feelings about Dake's potential seemed to be rooted in his NCAA success, which is not applicable to the Trials discussion. The other source seems rooted in his Global Wrestling Championships win over Andrew Howe, which of course in no way should count since it didn't follow international rules.
For perspective, over the past two years Jordan Burroughs has gone undefeated at two World Cups, won two Medved prizes, the Sarsygian and a World Championship. He finished in bronze at last year's World Championships, beating Rashid Kurbanov (Uzbekistan) who won the 2014 Asian Games, Golden Grand Prix, Paris GGP, Asian Championship and is a World bronze medalist. Burroughs also pinned Rustam Dudaiev (Ukraine) for bronze, a wrestler who has been ranked in the top ten in the world.
Should all of Jordan Burroughs' international successes be risked to a single elimination tournament for which his opponent could choose to prepare for only him? That's highly irrational when considering USA Wrestling wants to incentivize our best to compete overseas throughout the year without having to worry about one guy sitting at home training for one opponent.
It's also worth mentioning that once they did compete Burroughs had no issues dismantling Dake, which essentially muted his personal appeal.
The current process still allows for others to win the starting spot, and the elimination of the international tournament placement post-World Team Trials was the right call, but in no way should the USA step away from their system which has been lauded by other NF's for its fairness and for producing results.
For wrestlers that don't think it's fair and that they could win a best-of-one series, there are plenty of other nations with money looking for quality wrestlers. The immediate transfer policy available from United World Wrestling makes that a viable option for 2016. Is that right for Dake or Taylor? Maybe, but maybe not. Their motivation might be to represent the United States, but their motivation may also be to represent their own best interest.
MULTIMEDIA HALFTIME
Link: Panda video to unwind
I mean … game, set, match. Right?
Q: What are your thoughts on the angry birds being thrown out instead of the cubes?
-- Tim H.
Foley: That started at last year's European Championships in Vantaa, Finland, the home base for Roxio, the makers of the game Angry Birds. The USA Wrestling officials see the comedy in it and chose to adopt it. Bravo. Wrestling is a sport that is supposed to be entertaining. I love it.
Q: Why does Joey McKenna get a special wrestle-off?
Foley: I honestly don't know about McKenna, but he did wrestle a ton of overseas matches and took the year off to train for international competition. Given his success overseas, the legitimacy of his appeal and the hope that more wrestlers will take the risk to follow his lead would all seem to be indicative of a positive result.
Q: How much fear does Jake Herbert's mullet strike into the hearts of his opponents? Is it as much as Lincoln McIlravy's mullet did?
-- Ryan P.
Jake Herbert earned a spot on the U.S. World Team at 86 kilos (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)I will say that Herbert's mullet is only part of a much bigger story. Talent without hard work is bound to fail and for a few years there Herbert dabbled in wrestling. Now, with clear focus he isn't just the best in the country, but a threat to make an impact on the world stage.
McIlravy came by his mullet honestly, which is much, much more terrifying.
Q: Is Kyle Snyder the first college freshman to make the senior World Team? The only two people I can recall that made the World Team while still in college were Cael Sanderson (but USA didn't send a team with tourney in Iran due to safety if recall) and John Smith. But both of them were upperclassmen.
-- Frank C.
Foley: Yes, Kyle Snyder is the first enrolled college freshman to make the U.S. World Team in freestyle, a feat that is unreal especially considering he needed to beat an Olympic champion three times to make that happen. In 2009, both Dustin Schlatter and Jake Varner made the U.S. World Team in freestyle before their senior seasons of college wrestling.
Snyder is special. We've known it since high school, but as he's matured he's seemed to embrace development rather than fear loss. The comments on his personality (I've never met him) seem to indicate that his focus is unbreakable and his mentality one of light-hearted but complete dedication.
I don't know how he will fare at the World Championships as 97 kilos. The weight class is loaded with former World and Olympic champions. Though I think gold is ambitious, I fully expect Snyder to beat ninety percent of the international field. He will need a nice draw, but only Gadisov (Russia), Gazymuv (Azeiberijan) and Yazdani (Iran) feel like heavy favorites. Valerii Andriitsev (Ukraine) isn't much better than Snyder, but could give him an issue as he's quite the bully.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now