Who is your state's Ben Askren?

[Idaho]

18 hours ago, BruceyB said:

With the success of AWA and the rapid growth of quality D1 wrestlers that are coming out of Wisconsin.. for those of you in a non-powerhouse wrestling state, who would be your ideal candidate (whether currently in residing in your state/coaching or not) to set up a series of clubs in your state to elevate your in state talent to competitive D1 athletes?

As someone from Washington, I'd probably lean towards Michael Mangrum (Oregon State AA). His dad led a local club that developed a number of D1 athletes in Western Washington during the late 00's and he was a real talent. 

Candidates must be from your home state. 

Yes, this is a doldrum of the off-season question, but I am interested to hear everyone's thoughts.

For those of you from wrestling rich states, you can still answer despite having several powerhouse clubs within your respective states.

Where is Mangrum coaching? I have not seen his name associated with any clubs for a long time. I would have picked Feist or Coleman out of Orting. 

[BruceyB]

39 minutes ago, Idaho said:

Where is Mangrum coaching? I have not seen his name associated with any clubs for a long time. I would have picked Feist or Coleman out of Orting. 

I've been out of the Washington wrestling scene for a while, so I have no idea if Mangrum is even involved with the sport at the moment. Feist and Coleman are both great high school coaches, but I don't know that they have the ability to elevate athletes to national relevance with any regularity. Of all the great high schoolers they have coached, I can't think of any from either coach that have been relevant on the D1 scene. 

Edit: I feel like this may come off as a negative towards the two great coaches, which is not my intention at all. I just wonder if someone who was highly competitive at the D1 level would be able to get wrestlers to the D1 level more consistently. The Swartz brothers would be an interesting choice as well.

Edited Friday at 11:25 PM by BruceyB

[Idaho]

2 hours ago, BruceyB said:

I've been out of the Washington wrestling scene for a while, so I have no idea if Mangrum is even involved with the sport at the moment. Feist and Coleman are both great high school coaches, but I don't know that they have the ability to elevate athletes to national relevance with any regularity. Of all the great high schoolers they have coached, I can't think of any from either coach that have been relevant on the D1 scene. 

Edit: I feel like this may come off as a negative towards the two great coaches, which is not my intention at all. I just wonder if someone who was highly competitive at the D1 level would be able to get wrestlers to the D1 level more consistently. The Swartz brothers would be an interesting choice as well.

If Mangrum isn’t even coaching I don’t see how he is even a possibility to establish clubs to produce more D1 level guys in Washington. Are the Swartz still even coaching? I know Brad just competed at masters again. If you are looking at young guys I would go with Brandon Kaylor. He is the head coach at the Beaver kids RTC. He is great with younger kids. He is also doing some coaching and working out at OSU 

[Idaho]

18 hours ago, Tripnsweep said:

Eric Larkin probably. 

What Larkin is doing at Valiant is impressive. 

[Idaho]

Chase Pami is doing a great job in Nevada with Gold Rush Wreetling Academy. 

[BruceyB]

20 minutes ago, Idaho said:

If Mangrum isn’t even coaching I don’t see how he is even a possibility to establish clubs to produce more D1 level guys in Washington. Are the Swartz still even coaching? I know Brad just competed at masters again. If you are looking at young guys I would go with Brandon Kaylor. He is the head coach at the Beaver kids RTC. He is great with younger kids. He is also doing some coaching and working out at OSU 

The question was meant to be more hypothetical than practical. Jake Swartz is coaching at Notre Dame College currently. I'm not surprised to hear that about Kaylor. He bounced around to a lot of clubs when he was about schoolboy age and a club I coached at was one of them. I'd have him demonstrate a gut wrench because even at that age it was textbook. He was a great kid from my interactions with him.

[SNL Wrestling]

Indiana- Maybe soon to be Nick Lee? Not sure I understand the question.

 

LeRoy Vega was a HS coach of a successful team in Indiana and now coaches at Purdue. Chad Red is at IU, Angel Escobedo, Joe Dubuque

[Tripnsweep]

2 hours ago, Idaho said:

What Larkin is doing at Valiant is impressive. 

Very. They have arguably the best coaching staff in the country. 

[BruceyB]

40 minutes ago, Tripnsweep said:

Very. They have arguably the best coaching staff in the country. 

It's been truly impressive. If they expanded to provide similar training opportunities across the state, I wouldn't be surprised if they had AWA type success on the national level. The AWA model spreads out the coaching talent while Valiant has an abundance of elite coaches in one location. Arizona is a huge state where a lot of wrestlers don't have the proximity to receive their coaching.

I'm not that knowledgeable about Valiant, is it all essentially local kids or is it similar to Blair where kids move and live on campus? 

[MichiganMade3]

On 5/9/2025 at 1:00 AM, mad_rascal said:

Michigan here. Prob be Casey Cunningham for me, bring that PSU magic. His brother was a stud also, so they could easily have multiple locations like the Askren bros. 

Nick Simmons already has a club, we'll see how they do. David Morgan also has one now, he's not from Michigan originally though, I don't think.

Massa's have a Club and so does Donahue or will he used to he's the one that coached all the studs that are in college today and of the last five to 10 years

[Tripnsweep]

1 hour ago, BruceyB said:

It's been truly impressive. If they expanded to provide similar training opportunities across the state, I wouldn't be surprised if they had AWA type success on the national level. The AWA model spreads out the coaching talent while Valiant has an abundance of elite coaches in one location. Arizona is a huge state where a lot of wrestlers don't have the proximity to receive their coaching.

I'm not that knowledgeable about Valiant, is it all essentially local kids or is it similar to Blair where kids move and live on campus? 

Most of the state population lives within 2 hours of Valiant. So it's not widespread. The Phoenix metro area has roughly 5 million people. There's no real reason to do that. Anyone within driving distance can go there. The kids from Eloy would commute and that's like 45 minutes to an hour each way. I don't know about the makeup of the students since I'm not privy to that or really know much about the inner workings. I've heard kids from other states attend there, but I don't really know. 

[HoosierWrestlingFan]

12 hours ago, SNL Wrestling said:

Indiana- Maybe soon to be Nick Lee? Not sure I understand the question.

 

LeRoy Vega was a HS coach of a successful team in Indiana and now coaches at Purdue. Chad Red is at IU, Angel Escobedo, Joe Dubuque

Chad Red Sr- Red Cobra Wrestling Academy (CJ, Brayton Lee)

Ryan Parrish- Contenders Wrestling Academy (Hockaday, Dickman, Bell,Rioux)

Matt Coughlin/Blake Maurer- Maurer Coughlin Wrestling club (Lee brothers, Boarman)

[scourge165]

On 5/9/2025 at 9:27 AM, Gus said:

In South Dakota the answer is probably either Logan Storely (4xAA, 6x SD state champ, Belator interim champ) or Seth Gross (only national champion for South Dakota State). Gross is currently in ND running the Matpac wrestling program and I would love to see him move down into SD! Storely is still fighting and living in FL so that seems like a pipe dream at this point. 

I don't know Storely, but Gross seems like he's got a personality that is particularly suited to work with kids and HS Wrestlers. 

 

I'm also more inclined to go with guys who just did things a bit different than guys who were just hammers and had freakish athletic ability(though Kolat is an exceptional coach). 

So Gross, Askren...a guy like Gomez who teaches kids to just go for it(and then they can go to a College where the College coaches teach the kids to go for it juuuust a little bit less often, particularly when you're getting in on and the legs and dominating the match)...Andronian. Those types. 

It's the Scoring+Fun+Hard work ideology that I think is great for kids. 

 

I see this kids...and I've seen it in my own Family(even 20+ years ago) where you have kids who are good, but a Dad is just out there SCREAMING at a kid and he loses and that kid gets all emotional and then they run off. I had a couple uncles like that. Guys who won a few JV Matches and now they're treating the Hilltopper Classic, School Boy 110 LB weight class like the 54th Olympiad. I've seen a few of them quit, a few just melt down in big matches later on, I've seen it with other kids. My Dad and Coaches...they MIGHT ask what I learned after saying good job. My Dad probably not even that, just 'what do you want to eat on the way home.' 

 

So yeah, I think a coach that does NOT emphasize results until you're in HS is the BIGGEST criteria. I feel like this should also just be a blanket statement or rule for kids at all levels and also common sense, but for some reason(parents wanting to live vicariously through their sons) it's not...

[Gus]

36 minutes ago, scourge165 said:

I don't know Storely, but Gross seems like he's got a personality that is particularly suited to work with kids and HS Wrestlers. 

 

I'm also more inclined to go with guys who just did things a bit different than guys who were just hammers and had freakish athletic ability(though Kolat is an exceptional coach). 

So Gross, Askren...a guy like Gomez who teaches kids to just go for it(and then they can go to a College where the College coaches teach the kids to go for it juuuust a little bit less often, particularly when you're getting in on and the legs and dominating the match)...Andronian. Those types. 

It's the Scoring+Fun+Hard work ideology that I think is great for kids. 

 

I see this kids...and I've seen it in my own Family(even 20+ years ago) where you have kids who are good, but a Dad is just out there SCREAMING at a kid and he loses and that kid gets all emotional and then they run off. I had a couple uncles like that. Guys who won a few JV Matches and now they're treating the Hilltopper Classic, School Boy 110 LB weight class like the 54th Olympiad. I've seen a few of them quit, a few just melt down in big matches later on, I've seen it with other kids. My Dad and Coaches...they MIGHT ask what I learned after saying good job. My Dad probably not even that, just 'what do you want to eat on the way home.' 

 

So yeah, I think a coach that does NOT emphasize results until you're in HS is the BIGGEST criteria. I feel like this should also just be a blanket statement or rule for kids at all levels and also common sense, but for some reason(parents wanting to live vicariously through their sons) it's not...

Good point. The stuff a guy like Gross or Askren does is much more duplicatable for the average Joe. 

[HokieDave87]

3 hours ago, scourge165 said:

I don't know Storely, but Gross seems like he's got a personality that is particularly suited to work with kids and HS Wrestlers. 

 

I'm also more inclined to go with guys who just did things a bit different than guys who were just hammers and had freakish athletic ability(though Kolat is an exceptional coach). 

So Gross, Askren...a guy like Gomez who teaches kids to just go for it(and then they can go to a College where the College coaches teach the kids to go for it juuuust a little bit less often, particularly when you're getting in on and the legs and dominating the match)...Andronian. Those types. 

It's the Scoring+Fun+Hard work ideology that I think is great for kids. 

 

I see this kids...and I've seen it in my own Family(even 20+ years ago) where you have kids who are good, but a Dad is just out there SCREAMING at a kid and he loses and that kid gets all emotional and then they run off. I had a couple uncles like that. Guys who won a few JV Matches and now they're treating the Hilltopper Classic, School Boy 110 LB weight class like the 54th Olympiad. I've seen a few of them quit, a few just melt down in big matches later on, I've seen it with other kids. My Dad and Coaches...they MIGHT ask what I learned after saying good job. My Dad probably not even that, just 'what do you want to eat on the way home.' 

 

So yeah, I think a coach that does NOT emphasize results until you're in HS is the BIGGEST criteria. I feel like this should also just be a blanket statement or rule for kids at all levels and also common sense, but for some reason(parents wanting to live vicariously through their sons) it's not...

This sounds like the thought process of somebody that never won the Hilltopper Classic School Boy division.

[Fadzaev2]

On 5/9/2025 at 1:00 AM, mad_rascal said:

Michigan here. Prob be Casey Cunningham for me, bring that PSU magic. His brother was a stud also, so they could easily have multiple locations like the Askren bros. 

Nick Simmons already has a club, we'll see how they do. David Morgan also has one now, he's not from Michigan originally though, I don't think.

David Morgan is originally from Ferndale, Michigan