#013 - Kevin Dresser

Interactive Transcript

spk_0 Welcome to the Area Podcast from the Ames Regional Economic Alliance.

spk_0 I'm your host, Eric Smith.

spk_0 On today's episode we're joined by Kevin Dresser, head coach of the Iowa State University

spk_0 Wrestling Program.

spk_0 He shares his journey in the sport, his approach to building culture, and what it takes to lead

spk_0 one of college wrestling's premier programs.

spk_0 This episode is presented by Flynn Wright.

spk_0 Iowa's premier full service advertising agency, serving clients from coast to coast for over 40 years.

spk_0 Experts in crafting stories that sell, Flynn Wright prides itself on helping brands drive performance and stay one step ahead.

spk_0 Coach Kevin Dresser, thank you for being on this episode of the Area Podcast. How are you?

spk_0 Good. Thanks for having me.

spk_0 I mean, you're in Go mode already, aren't you?

spk_0 I mean, it's wrestling season is. I mean, you're a little over a month away from the start of the season, but does it ever shut off for you?

spk_0 No, I don't know if Division 1 sports ever shuts off completely.

spk_0 I think to be a good Division 1 athlete, you really got to stay around your sport as much as you can.

spk_0 And so obviously we're around our athletes a lot.

spk_0 The wrestling rules are probably a little more forgiving than other sports, so we can spend a lot of time with our athletes.

spk_0 But yeah, we are. Let's see. We're going to do restyloths.

spk_0 Kind of the first round of our restyloths here on the 25th and 26th. I think that's the Saturday, Sunday, last Saturday and Sunday of October.

spk_0 So we're a month out.

spk_0 I mean, but for you and your coaching staff, I mean, it's, it's, you're hitting the throttle hard right now, aren't you?

spk_0 Yeah, we're spending a lot of time, you know, kind of getting in shape and with wrestling, there's always that weight loss component that does.

spk_0 You need to do correctly and slow and right.

spk_0 So we've kind of been in that mode. I'd like to say right now our teams trying to shrink a little bit to get to the weight classes that they need to get to.

spk_0 So a lot of calorie burning, you know, some weight training and obviously some match stuff.

spk_0 So they got three components right now.

spk_0 I mean, you got to have a whole team. I mean, dedicated to that.

spk_0 I mean, monitoring these guys, working with them on food and obviously the conditioning part of it because, I mean, once it starts, I mean, you're in it.

spk_0 Yeah, and you know, I think wrestling is different. I mean, the nutrition is important in every sport, obviously in, in all phases of life.

spk_0 But for wrestling, you know, to kind of get your guys to the optimal weight classes, you know, they need the lightweight guys need to live around six or seven percent body fat.

spk_0 So to get those guys from, you know, which tends pretty lean, 10 percent body fat down to six or seven is there's a science to it.

spk_0 And so, but it takes discipline on the guy side. So that kind of makes our sport tougher, especially the first couple months because you got to get them kind of in really disciplined diet mode where they're not missing meals and they're doing it the right way.

spk_0 And some guys are better at that. Some guys aren't.

spk_0 Yeah. No, I mean, I fully believe well, I'm going to have more questions on that.

spk_0 I'm going to do a quick recap of you. I mean, you're an Iowa native Humboldt two time state champion here in the state of Iowa.

spk_0 And then you went on to the University of Iowa national champion there in the 142 pound weight class conference champion. I mean, the list goes on and on.

spk_0 But I mean, you're you're an Iowa guy. Now you did go up and your first coaching stuff was at Virginia Tech. And so you did that before returning to the state.

spk_0 But talk about what it's like to grow up in this state. Obviously wrestling is is huge in Iowa. And then now to return.

spk_0 I mean, you've been head coach now at Iowa state in the cyclone since 17. But I mean, you've lived this your whole life.

spk_0 Yeah, I think you you realize how big, you know, when you're going through it, you know, growing up in Iowa and watching Iowa public television and

spk_0 you know, the college matches that you're able to watch as a middle school and a high school kid and then going to the events and seeing stuff of that auditorium and now Wells Fargo.

spk_0 And so you just to be quite honest, you just assume when you're that age and you're going through it, that that's just how wrestling is everywhere. And then you know, I go take a job in Virginia.

spk_0 And I'm a high school coach for 18 years and I'm a college coach for 11 years. So you spend 29 years in Virginia and you realize real quick when you get there and you travel through other states and you recruit other states as a college coach that it's not like that many places.

spk_0 Like there's very few places like Iowa where in fact, I don't know if there's another place where they take it so serious from the fan perspective to the everything from the cheerleaders to the who shows up and how many tickets are sold and all of our big events.

spk_0 It's just a different deal here. Yeah. So going back, I mean, even your high school days, I mean, what is it about the sport that kept you in it then obviously kept you motivated and determined to be successful.

spk_0 But you've taken that throughout your entire career. I mean, I just list it off. I mean, really just the highlights. But I mean, for you, this started up what an early age. I mean, not just high school. I mean, well before that.

spk_0 Yeah, most Iowa kids, you get exposed to the sport of wrestling, you know, when you're five, six years old. I don't think there's many communities that don't offer that opportunity.

spk_0 And I remember starting as a young kid, you know, liking it right away. Probably, you know, I tell a lot of people out there that I think to really do well at the sport of wrestling, you have to be a little bit different because not many people at five or six years old or motivated to go throw somebody down and strangle them legally for as long as they can.

spk_0 But that's really what happens at that age is it's just rough housing and and I was probably that kid that needed to be on a lot of ridlin before there was ridlin.

spk_0 Yeah. And wrestling was a great outlet for me. And, you know, I kind of fell in love with the sport from from from the from get go day one.

spk_0 So, I mean, you reference this. I mean, right wrestling's a different thing. You got to be wired a little bit different.

spk_0 There's not only the physical component to it, but there's the mental component to it. I would imagine you're you're referring to both and maybe even more so the mental part of it as far as being wired a certain way to be successful in wrestling.

spk_0 Well, if you think about it, you're going to go out there and you're going to shake hands with, you know, another individual and it's just the two of you.

spk_0 And you represent one team and he's representing the other. And it's the you know that component of it right there. It's there's very few sports where it's that.

spk_0 I don't know if the right words intimate, but where you just it's a combat sport. You know, it's like boxing. It's it's a.

spk_0 You know, you you win and you have you can experience tremendous highs and you lose and you can experience tremendous lows. It's not like I played football all the way through growing up at Humboldt.

spk_0 And you know, your team loses a football game and you're all sad and you're all dejected for a while.

spk_0 But it's still not like losing a wrestling match in front of, you know, a packed gym of 900 people or a thousand people in high school gym. It's a different feeling.

spk_0 How is coaching then different? I mean, you made the transition very early on. You coached.

spk_0 You wrestled under Dan Gable. I mean, when you think of wrestling in the state of Iowa, I mean, that's probably number one on the list.

spk_0 So you wrestled under him, but then you turned around and coached with him as well. How did even back then?

spk_0 What has to turn in your brain to go from a wrestler to a coach? Or is it a lot?

spk_0 There's definitely a transition period there. When you're an athlete and you're a wrestler, especially when you're in a really competitive program like the University of Iowa was back then to make the team, you're just so focused on yourself to be quite honest.

spk_0 That might sound selfish, but if you don't have a really selfish mentality, you're going to struggle.

spk_0 Then you get thrown in a coaching situation and you realize, okay, now I'm here to help these guys.

spk_0 So it is kind of a 180 and you have to go from really kind of being extremely selfish to being really unselfish at all and making sure you're with your athlete, helping them through the hard times that you went through as an athlete.

spk_0 Yeah, you know, the switch flipped pretty quick.

spk_0 So what's your...

spk_0 You had to categorize your role today in this position. So this is not just a D1 wrestling program, but it's an elite D1 wrestling program.

spk_0 What's your job today as a head coach?

spk_0 A lot of jobs.

spk_0 You know, the coaching job and the coaching part is still what I enjoy the most.

spk_0 The actual X's and O's and helping kids get better at the sport or wrestling, whether it's physically or mentally.

spk_0 That's the thing I enjoy the most.

spk_0 But now, you know, with the advent of NIL and Rebshare and all that kind of stuff, you become more of a general manager, more of a CEO.

spk_0 You have to have a vast skill set. You have to have a fundraising side of you or plan in place.

spk_0 Just so many different hats you wear now.

spk_0 What thinking early in your career? Did you know you wanted to coach right away?

spk_0 Not really. I got an offer, even when I was kind of a grad assistant at Iowa there for two years.

spk_0 Before I got offered, I really good high school position out in Virginia.

spk_0 I didn't really know for sure if that's what I wanted to do.

spk_0 I was still kind of debating competing because there was an international opportunity for me to travel and train.

spk_0 So I was kicking that around.

spk_0 But ultimately, to be quite honest, I was broke when I was 23 years old and to stick around and think that I had to train for one more quad to make an Olympic team was and not make any money.

spk_0 When I got a really good job offer financially to coach a high school program and a high school club, I jumped on it and then started coaching and fell in love with it right away.

spk_0 Just boom, the first year or this is what I'm supposed to do.

spk_0 Any takeaways from just coaching from that Dan Gable time, but then when you moved into that high school, I didn't mention it.

spk_0 But you won a lot of state champions as a coach in Virginia.

spk_0 You referred to it as a good program.

spk_0 I don't know if it was good before you got there, but it was certainly great when you transitioned out of that program with all of those state titles.

spk_0 What were those early learning lessons that you picked up on things that worked or didn't work?

spk_0 I was very spoiled my first coaching job.

spk_0 I went into a rural Appalachia community and wrestling was really big there already.

spk_0 They had already won a couple of state titles when I got there.

spk_0 They had a lot of resources to help their athletes at that particular school.

spk_0 It was just a double A school in Virginia, but sports and wrestling especially were very important there.

spk_0 So I stepped into a situation where I had an incredible youth program.

spk_0 I had an incredible booster club.

spk_0 But what I was able to do was take them to a national level once I figured out coaching.

spk_0 It took me a while.

spk_0 Early on we were winning state titles right away.

spk_0 I mean I was there eight years, we won eight state titles, but Virginia is not really a wrestling state.

spk_0 That wasn't a big feather in my cap.

spk_0 I got about halfway through that 10 year.

spk_0 And about after four years I said, we need to be a national power.

spk_0 And so kind of got better at coaching the last four years.

spk_0 And we were nationally ranked.

spk_0 We were top 10 top 15 program in the nation.

spk_0 Did that bring some extra pressure?

spk_0 No not really because it was at that particular time that program had never ever done a national thing.

spk_0 They were the best team in the state of Virginia.

spk_0 But I wanted to be one of the top 20 teams in the United States.

spk_0 And so it was fun.

spk_0 I mean I want to say it was easy, but it was fun.

spk_0 Everybody was really motivated to take this kind of small rural app, a latch, a town, and put them on the map nationally and wrestling.

spk_0 And so that was my goal and my focus while I was there.

spk_0 What's the jump between take wrestlers?

spk_0 What is the jump like between being a state champion at high school level?

spk_0 Maybe Virginia, maybe Iowa, well take Iowa, and then wrestling at a D1 level.

spk_0 What's that like for like freshmen and sophomores to come in and now they're hitting the mat in your program?

spk_0 Is there a big learning curve? Do you see that? Do you prepare them for that?

spk_0 It's a gigantic. It's not even big. It's a gigantic learning curve to go from being a really good high school wrestler to being a really good college wrestler.

spk_0 Division I wrestler, it's a big jump.

spk_0 And so yeah, I mean you try to ultimately find out what I always say to be a really good successful division one wrestler.

spk_0 You really have to love it. I mean you obviously have to have a certain skill set.

spk_0 You got to be certain certain athletic ability, certain skill level.

spk_0 But at the end of the day there's a lot of guys that graduate high school that have a good skill set, have good athletic ability.

spk_0 But to go from that high school superstar to that college superstar.

spk_0 There has to be an exceptional amount of love for this sport because you got to be in the gym a lot and you got to be on the mat a lot.

spk_0 And you got to be a mat rat and you got to be able to really absorb hard things, really hard things and not body and that's where the learning curve is.

spk_0 But even from like a weight class standpoint, I mean you can have what 18, 19 year olds wrestling against you know 22 year olds.

spk_0 And like that's a big difference in age even though they're the same weight.

spk_0 I mean they're probably built a little bit different I would imagine as well.

spk_0 Well everybody matures differently. I mean physically matures. You'll see you'll get some kids that will come to college and they're pretty.

spk_0 They're ready.

spk_0 Well they're ready and they're really physically mature, which helps them.

spk_0 But then you'll see other kids that come to college that are kind of lay bloomers that you know might come into college and be a 133 pounder and they leave a 157 pounder.

spk_0 That still could be pretty good wrestlers for you.

spk_0 They might struggle a little bit early just because they don't have that physicalness.

spk_0 But everybody's a little bit different. You see kids a lot more taken extra years and you know taking that gap year or gray shirt or really just taking them taking it slow.

spk_0 So they can let their body mature so they can be the best version of themselves.

spk_0 And that makes a lot of sense right now because the guys are starting to get paid.

spk_0 So you know delaying your entry in college is a financial decision now more than a physical decision.

spk_0 Do you see from those early early years of success at high school and then they're coming into your program.

spk_0 Do you see a bit of like early plateau where it's like man I'm busting it but you have to get through that hump you know.

spk_0 Yeah and I think everybody goes to college and takes their fair share of whoopens as they say you know so I think there's a learning curve there especially if you're in a good room.

spk_0 I don't know if eight years ago when we got started if we would David Carza for example you know David Car came into our room as an 18 19 year old kid and could just pretty much handle everybody.

spk_0 Okay. You have a good good program. I don't think we're going to have that problem. I don't care who we recruit.

spk_0 You're going to come into our room and you're going to struggle it first because there's going to be somebody there that's going to be able to put it on you.

spk_0 And that's what we want.

spk_0 And you want that right?

spk_0 I mean you want that level of competition.

spk_0 You know that's what's going to make you great. That's what was the beauty of Gabel back in the days. Gabel was obviously a tremendous coach but the best thing Gabel did was.

spk_0 He created a room full of type A killers you know and if you could survive the room you could survive anything because the workout partners and the training partners were just you know the elite of the elite.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 So if you can make it through that when you got to the division one competitions it almost became almost easier because it was such a competitive environment.

spk_0 How do you harness a room full of type A personalities? You're a type A.

spk_0 But you're the guy in the room. I mean they have to know that but everyone else at one point they were the guy too.

spk_0 Well you're managing a lot of alpha males. Let's put it that way.

spk_0 And if you're not an alpha male at least when the whistle blows or when you're training you can be the nicest guy in the world.

spk_0 David Carves another example probably one of the nicest kids you'll ever meet in Ames Iowa.

spk_0 But when the whistle blows and you if you sneak a take down on David Carve he's not going to let you go for a while.

spk_0 And so you need to have that. Like if you don't have that alpha male in you at the end of the day that fight in you that competitiveness in you you're going to struggle because you're going to run into somebody really quick that does.

spk_0 So take him as an example. I mean he was elite of the elite. I mean two time national champion out of this program.

spk_0 I've seen him off the mat. He's got the biggest smile in the world. He'll do anything for you. He's the nicest person you will ever meet.

spk_0 And yet when he gets on that mat now to imagine you have a room full of guys like this but we can use him as an example.

spk_0 What switches? I mean because these feel like very opposite things. I mean you're that. I mean it's this is great. This is awesome.

spk_0 But you get on that mat and it's go time. It's different. Well I think David will even learn. I think David's if he had a chick coming on coming into college was as he probably wasn't enough of a.

spk_0 You know I don't know the proper word without using using a bad word but he wasn't enough of a savage when it came time to compete like in the room and just compete for.

spk_0 You know he competed pretty well on the mat but he still didn't have that one level of like I'm going to bury you and I'm not going to feel bad about it.

spk_0 Yeah. And he got that kind of pretty quickly. He realized that if I'm not a savage out here and you know ready to dish out a little uncomfortable I'm not going to probably beat those top three or four guys in my way.

spk_0 Yeah. So this isn't this isn't wrestling but I have professional experience around what was at the time an elite powerlifting program here in the state of Iowa and I had a front row seat to it.

spk_0 I'm not a power lifter. I'm not a wrestler but I had a front row seat to it based on the work that I do where they won national championships and they they had a 16 year old at the time this was 2015.

spk_0 Who could squat 650 pounds and bench press 350 pounds and he ended up going going on and representing team USA the junior divisions in what was like the Olympics he went off to Ukraine and doing this and so I was around during that time watching him train and my sense was it's very hard for a person in isolation to you know you can go and do it.

spk_0 You can get somebody to be really good you know you can self produce like yourself I want to be really good at wrestling or guitar or insert whatever but to get to that rare a fight air of of elitism it takes coaches it takes people around you know them to do that I mean you know you you are trying to do that they obviously have to have that unique ability as well but you can't do these things in isolation.

spk_0 Is that your job I mean it like and how do you push like what does that look like now that you're getting into season you know the top guys like okay they can make a run this year how do you push them throughout the season.

spk_0 Well that's the challenge always you know whether your coach in wrestling or anything but you know especially an individual sport because what works for one guy you know my 133 might not work for my 157 in terms of preparation in terms of mentality.

spk_0 So you really kind of got to try to figure out all if you have 10 weight figure out the best guy at all 10 weight so you're kind of obviously you want to have a general practice where you're all pushing you all have the same goals and in the same you want to get the same outcome as a team but in but sometimes what works for one guy doesn't work for the other guy some guys you can coach hard some guys you can't coach hard and you got to figure that out as soon as you can because it'll you know what work like say there's a couple guys out there that if you get on them a little bit they're going to fall apart yeah

spk_0 It's a couple other guys we've got if you get on them they're going to take it to another level you talk about that with your coaching staff absolutely you know we we we recognize and sure when you first get him in there you try to do as much research as you can

spk_0 and talk to their club coaches and their high school coaches so you got to get a feel for what you've got but you know you really got to feel it when you get him in a tough situation because it's everybody's coachable when things are going great it's when things aren't going great you find out who's really coachable.

spk_0 How do you handle setbacks there's going to be losses there's going to be wins there's going to be like how do you you know the seasons does this season feel long to you is it is it quick is it is it long to the to the wrestlers it's probably

spk_0 Oh it's definitely longer for the wrestlers because it's just that that component of I don't maybe get eat everything I want to eat even though they're very healthy they're healthier than anybody walk in

spk_0 the same names but just the mentality that you can't go and eat as much as you want to eat affects half of our lineup at least so I think that's

spk_0 you know that makes us a little bit different but you got a coach who you know you really like I said I'm I tell them all the time like you know this this coach and stuff is going to be会 easy when we're winning when we're losing we're going to learn a lot more and we lose and you're going to prove a lot more by losing

spk_0 So losing is okay, but now you're gonna, you know, this is where the coach is easy to coach when you're winning.

spk_0 It's harder to coach when you're losing.

spk_0 In the big 12, I mean, you always have a potential.

spk_0 Everything's aggrined. I mean, I mean, there's no easy way.

spk_0 There's only 79 or 80 Division 1 programs left in wrestling.

spk_0

spk_0 Do you think about it?

spk_0 I always do the numbers. There's 300,000 high school wrestlers a year, okay?

spk_0 And you're down to seven.

spk_0 Let's just use 80 for a round number.

spk_0 You're down to 80 programs.

spk_0 So that means you're down to 80 starters, right?

spk_0 80 programs in every team's got 10 weight classes.

spk_0 So you're down to the best 80 kids in the nation.

spk_0 So every time you go out there, I don't care if you're wrestling Bloomsburg or Franklin or Marshall or Cal Baptist.

spk_0 If you, if you're shaking hands with a Division 1 wrestler, he's probably in the point

spk_0 001% of high school wrestlers.

spk_0 That's what I mean.

spk_0 Yeah, so there's no cream puffs.

spk_0 There's no, there's no dayoffs.

spk_0 You know, you're never going to get a day off in Division 1 wrestler.

spk_0 You probably say that every day, don't you?

spk_0 To the guys.

spk_0 We remind them quite often that, you know what?

spk_0 There's very few layups.

spk_0 Now in football, you know, you can go, you can go play a team and bring them in and you know,

spk_0 you're going to pay them a lot of money and you're going to beat them by 40.

spk_0 They're going to win.

spk_0 You're going to beat them by 40.

spk_0 Basketball too.

spk_0 Yeah, we don't have much of that because you know, you got like

spk_0 there's only 80 guys.

spk_0 There's 300,000.

spk_0 You do the math on that.

spk_0 These guys are all pretty good if they start for a Division 1 program.

spk_0 This episode of the Area Podcast is sponsored by...

spk_0 You have a story to tell.

spk_0 That story has a job to do to be seen, to be heard, to sell,

spk_0 to find inspiration and insight.

spk_0 To use persuasion to change behavior.

spk_0 To turn strategy into tactics, tactics into action.

spk_0 To sell.

spk_0 Nobody does that better than Flynn Light.

spk_0 It all started with the mulch colorant that made our name.

spk_0 And now color biotics, manufacturers, millions of pounds of product, month after month.

spk_0 Bringing brilliance and resilience all around the world.

spk_0 And as we look ahead, all we see is growth.

spk_0 A growing customer base and growing sales mean a growing team.

spk_0 From the lab to the field, backyards to ball fields and beyond.

spk_0 We need vivid imagination, intense passion and brilliant ideas.

spk_0 If that sounds like you, we have one question.

spk_0 Are you ready to get to work?

spk_0 Colorbiotics.com slash careers.

spk_0 Just south of Iowa State University.

spk_0 In the heart of them in west, since the Iowa State University Research Park.

spk_0 550 acres of opportunity and innovation.

spk_0 With over 1 million square feet of developed space.

spk_0 It's home to more than 145 tenant companies.

spk_0 From startups to global leaders.

spk_0 Discover innovation hubs, collaborative spaces.

spk_0 And a community that's shaping the future.

spk_0 Whether you're scaling up or starting fresh,

spk_0 ISU Research Park has room to grow.

spk_0 Visit ISUPark.org to learn more.

spk_0 So when you look back, I mean, how has...

spk_0 How is the sport evolved?

spk_0 I mean, from like a preparation standpoint of the guys that you're bringing in today.

spk_0 Versus 20 years ago, is it different?

spk_0 Yeah, I think it is. Unfortunately.

spk_0 Unfortunately.

spk_0 Unfortunately, we can't train guys like...

spk_0 I guess we did in the good old days.

spk_0 And I don't want to sound like a guy that walked to school every day barefoot in the snow, you know.

spk_0 But it's just facts.

spk_0 And I don't know if the kids because kids are bigger, stronger, faster.

spk_0 But the amount of injuries that we have right now.

spk_0 And it's not just in wrestling and college sports where we're all just growing astronomically.

spk_0 I don't know, you know, you think with all the science and all the technology and all the nutrition.

spk_0 It would be going the other way, but it's not.

spk_0 And so I don't know what that is.

spk_0 It's one of the most frustrating parts of my job is just dealing.

spk_0 And we had a miserable year last year with guys getting hurt.

spk_0 I don't get it.

spk_0 We probably, you know, terms of going live where we actually scrap and two guys are getting after it.

spk_0 You know, live.

spk_0 We're only going two days a week back.

spk_0 We're back in my day.

spk_0 It was five days a week.

spk_0 And we had less injuries with going five days a week than we do our two days a week right now.

spk_0 Why is that?

spk_0 I can't figure it out for the life of me.

spk_0 It's like, I don't know if these kids are just that bigger, faster, stronger.

spk_0 So the impact.

spk_0 Maybe.

spk_0 And the styles change a little bit.

spk_0 There's a lot more scrambling and wrestling.

spk_0 So you're putting your knees and your shoulders and your elbows in more precarious situations.

spk_0 But still, I just don't understand.

spk_0 I don't understand why the amount of ACLs, the amount of laborums, you know, those are the common searchers they have.

spk_0 And it's not just that I was stated, it's across the board.

spk_0 We just had a terrible year of injuries last year.

spk_0 And it was just crazy stuff warming up.

spk_0 I mean, we just had a kid.

spk_0 Two weeks or three weeks ago that was just doing cartwheels and popped his knee and surgery out for five months.

spk_0 You know, doing a cartwheel.

spk_0 Like kids do cartwheels every day.

spk_0 So, you know, maybe it's just that certain kids are more injury prone than others.

spk_0 Everybody's body's built a little different, but I'm I'm I throw my hands up.

spk_0 I don't get it from an X is an O standpoint.

spk_0 Is it is it different than what it was 20 years ago?

spk_0 I mean, as far as like technique.

spk_0 I think technique evolves and you learn, you know, more ways to skin the cat so to speak.

spk_0 But I think overall the basic premise hasn't changed that much.

spk_0 I mean, you better be able to go take your opponent down and you better be able to go get away from your opponent.

spk_0 And everything else is nice to have turns, headlocks, funky holds.

spk_0 But at the end of the day, if I can go take you down and you can't take me down and I can get away from you,

spk_0 I'm going to win a national title.

spk_0 It's pretty simple.

spk_0 So you better make sure that you really got to go to take down.

spk_0 That sometime in that seven minutes that you can score a take down.

spk_0 Because it's worth three points and you can get away because that's worth one point.

spk_0 You need to have those four points on the scoreboard.

spk_0 And that's pretty simple.

spk_0 From a preparation standpoint, obviously some wrestlers, they have better components here and there where they can do those things here and there.

spk_0 You reinforce the other pieces of it.

spk_0 What is practice training and what does that preparation look like?

spk_0 Well, from a style perspective, you know, if you've got these kids, so we only have 30 kids on a roster.

spk_0 And obviously they are all very successful in high school.

spk_0 So you don't want to take away, so to speak, the moves or the techniques that they use to win.

spk_0 To be a high school state champion, multiple time state champion, national, national guy.

spk_0 You don't want to ever take that away from them.

spk_0 So you want to make sure that you still, you know, make sure they get those reps in.

spk_0 Of what they've made them great as a high school kid.

spk_0 But then you want to add the skill sets that you just like I just mentioned that it's going to help them win at the college level.

spk_0 So you always want them to learn more, but you know, it's still pretty basic.

spk_0 It's like football.

spk_0 If you can block really good and you can tackle really good, you're going to win a lot of games.

spk_0 Is it really that simple?

spk_0 It's that simple.

spk_0 No, it's like you got to have a go-to take down on our sport.

spk_0 That means if I'm wrestling you and I shake hands, that I can tell you what I'm going to do to you in the next seven minutes and you can't stop it.

spk_0 Just like blocking and tackling, you know, if you whistle blows and I can block you every time and you can't get to the quarterback, we're going to win a lot of games.

spk_0 Same thing goes with defense aside.

spk_0 If I can tackle you all the time, it's really elementary and wrestling.

spk_0 It's elementary is if I can take you down and you can't take me down, I'm the champ.

spk_0 Do you review once you're in season?

spk_0 Are you reviewing, reviewing tape here?

spk_0 Is it all, um, you watch the video from time to time?

spk_0 We don't like to go out and just worry about what the other guy is going to do but everybody has tenetsies and wrestling.

spk_0 If you wrestle David Carr, he's going to shoot that outside single leg.

spk_0 Everybody knows he's going to do it, every wrestler's watched it.

spk_0 Just whether you can stop it.

spk_0 But very few people stopped it.

spk_0 At the end of the day nobody stopped it and that's why I won.

spk_0 What he's going to do in the bottom, can you stop him from getting away from you?

spk_0 There's a lot of techniques to keep guys down the mat but if you've got a really good skill set where you're good in the bottom,

spk_0 nobody can ride you.

spk_0 You get that one point of escape every match that's big because at the highest level you it's like any any sport.

spk_0 When you get down to the last few guys at each weight class, everything's a one point match.

spk_0 So that extra point, that extra details is really critical.

spk_0 Is a lot of it for these guys based and for you two wrestling, how much of this is refined instinct?

spk_0 They've learned these things because they've done so much wrestling.

spk_0 They have this instinct that maybe they can't even articulate from time to time.

spk_0 They have this timing down where they know when to go in or they sense the other guys' hands are doing this and they just instinctually know to counter that.

spk_0 Because I would imagine that if I can do this to you, I have this technique down.

spk_0 Well, I should assume you probably also have that technique down.

spk_0 Not saying it's an even playing field but it's so elite that you can both do these things.

spk_0 It's just who can do it this much better and I'm holding my fingers apart very small.

spk_0 No, it is. It's a game of inches and why do certain guys, why are certain guys able to go hit the hold and other guys aren't?

spk_0 Well, maybe it's because they've done a lot more repetitions.

spk_0 Maybe it's just that they're that much of a competitor.

spk_0 There's a lot of intangibles in there but when you have that, when you have that, whether it's that toughness or that skill set and you can go score those points, you're going to be pretty successful.

spk_0 You're going to be really successful.

spk_0 How much do you think about this being an extension of your family?

spk_0 I mean, these guys are spending a lot of time together.

spk_0 You're spending a lot of time with these guys, with your coaches.

spk_0 That important?

spk_0 Well, I think probably just about any minute to high school level you'll see during the seasons that as a coach, you'll spend more time with your staff than you do your own family.

spk_0 And you'll spend more time with your team.

spk_0 And I think that's true for us, especially kind of as we go from mid-September to mid-March,

spk_0 you're with these guys a lot.

spk_0 And you know, some of them need more hand holding than others.

spk_0 You played disciplinarian too?

spk_0 Oh, you got to do. You got to have that side of you.

spk_0 You know, you hope that they get it.

spk_0 And I'm always kind of one of those guys like, hey, can I trust you?

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 Can I trust you academically?

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Or do I need, do you need more help?

spk_0 Do you need somebody to help you?

spk_0 Do you need somebody to help you more with your homework?

spk_0 Do you need somebody to help you more?

spk_0 Just get the class.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Right. Can I trust you with your weight management?

spk_0 And if I can't, how can we help you?

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 And some guys are better at it than others.

spk_0 And some guys you have to hold their hand.

spk_0 If you want to win because some guys just, they'll tell you, coach, I got it.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 But they ain't got it.

spk_0 They ain't got an A.

spk_0 And they ain't never going to get it unless you help them do it.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 You know, and I asked that question, not like disciplinarian as far as like, you know, bad things.

spk_0 But you know, I mean, this is parenting.

spk_0 This is coaching.

spk_0 What do you need?

spk_0 How can I help you?

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Not get off.

spk_0 Sometimes you got to do the not get off thing, you know, like, well, you know, they always say this.

spk_0 And my wife says this a lot, but it's the male brain doesn't quite develop as fast as it should.

spk_0 So, you know, sometimes you have 19 year olds that act like they're 13.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 And then sometimes you got 20 year olds that act like they're 25.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 And that's a big factor in there because the maturity level, which you never know when you were

spk_0 a good kid.

spk_0 I mean, you can talk to the club coaches and everything and find out they'll probably give you a pretty good feel.

spk_0 But are you mature enough to win?

spk_0 All right.

spk_0 mature means you got to turn off your cell phone at night.

spk_0 mature means you got to understand that the homework is part of it.

spk_0 mature means that you've got to, you know, push away from the table every night when everybody else isn't pushing away from the table.

spk_0 That's the maturity that it takes to win in an individual sport like wrestling.

spk_0 And if you know what, it's amazing how many kids have come back to me when they're 27, 28, like coach,

spk_0 I just wish I was more mature.

spk_0 Like if I would have been more mature, like I just didn't get it.

spk_0 That's the thing about being immature.

spk_0 You don't know it.

spk_0 Until you're done.

spk_0 You look back at it all of us when we were in.

spk_0 Oh, yeah.

spk_0 Some of the stuff I did when I was 19, I'm going, what a knucklehead.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 What the heck did I do that for?

spk_0 I could have won a lot more matches if I would have not done that.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Do you remind yourself of that?

spk_0 Yeah, I do.

spk_0 I don't mind yourself like, hey, I don't ever profess perfection.

spk_0 I don't expect perfection out of them.

spk_0 It's just about learning and growing from it.

spk_0 So we're all going to make mistakes.

spk_0 We make mistakes in wrestling matches.

spk_0 We've all lost wrestling matches because we beat ourselves.

spk_0 But that's how we learn.

spk_0 And you're going to learn a lot more from losing and failing than you are winning.

spk_0 And you just try to remind yourself that, hey, these guys are still 19, 20, 21, 22 year olds.

spk_0 Isn't that bizarre to think about because, yes, that is true.

spk_0 But they're also on a national stage.

spk_0 I mean, you know, like, Hilton gets filled up watching these guys.

spk_0 You know, wrestling, I think about that often.

spk_0 I mean, living and working here in a university town and it applies to every sport, you know, at Iowa State where,

spk_0 yep, they're kids.

spk_0 And I remember, you know, like you said, I was 19, 20, 21 and yet they're representing things that are much larger than them.

spk_0 Do they know that?

spk_0 I don't think.

spk_0 Maybe you don't need to.

spk_0 I don't think they do because that probably scared me if you told them just quite, quite frankly, that way that, you know, you guys are under this huge microscope.

spk_0

spk_0 But I think the competitiveness and, you know, one of the things we, we always sell when kids come in on recruiting trips to Iowa State has come to Hilton.

spk_0 You know, you're going to wrestle in one of the top three crowds every year, year in and year out.

spk_0 Oh, yeah.

spk_0 So you're signing up to Russell and Big Crowds.

spk_0 But my experience has been as the blue, blue chip athletes love the Big Crowds.

spk_0 Yeah, I bet they do.

spk_0 And so it's an easy sell to this like man, you can go over here and wrestle it North Carolina or I'm picking on some schools here.

spk_0 But, and guess what? You know, you're going to have 150 people, 200 people, right?

spk_0 Maybe.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Or you can come to Iowa State and wrestle front of Big Big Crowds.

spk_0 Right.

spk_0 You know, I think about that all the time.

spk_0 You know, we all have a closet full of cyclone gear that, you know, we're putting on when we go to wrestling basketball, volleyball, football this weekend.

spk_0 You know, when they're all representing us, it's pretty cool.

spk_0 But there's an energy to it.

spk_0 It's pretty great.

spk_0 Do you, do you recruit with those variables in mind as far as like culture fit in the room?

spk_0 Or could you get almost any, any kid to come in and fit into the room?

spk_0 Well, you know, they're great.

spk_0 The great, great wrestlers are all a little quirky and all a little different.

spk_0 And so, I mean, that's probably what makes them great.

spk_0 So, you know, you're going to have some personality conflicts every now and then I think any program any sport does.

spk_0 That's very successful.

spk_0 And so, you just have to manage that as much as you can and try to coach maturity.

spk_0 And it's okay that he's different than you, but, you know, take what he brings to the program and understand that.

spk_0 And so, yeah, there's a personality factor there that you got to manage.

spk_0

spk_0 You know, these guys are all young.

spk_0 I mean, you're influenced. I mean, what you kind of referenced it, you know, a 27 year old coming back.

spk_0 You probably get that quite often where you get these alum that leave.

spk_0 And there's probably takeaways that you provide them that they soak in at the time, but it doesn't really, you know, trigger until they get older.

spk_0 And now they're into their professional career, whatever that is.

spk_0 And like, they're learning those leadership lessons.

spk_0 Everybody, you know, you can preach the same thing 365 days a year or five years.

spk_0 And I always wonder when did it register with them because I know with me, I heard things my whole freshman year college that didn't even register until about the middle of my second year.

spk_0 Like, why didn't I understand that because they were telling me every day?

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 So, I don't know if it's last year, might have been a little longer than that, but there was a documentary a series of the dual talking about the Iowa Iowa State, you know, wrestling program.

spk_0 And they focused primarily, or they focused on on the year where you won a national championship 1986.

spk_0 And I rewatched that match from the dual recently.

spk_0 I thought you were going to lose a knee in that thing, by the way.

spk_0 I mean, that thing was not in your wrestling for Iowa, but it ended up winning that match.

spk_0 Congratulations.

spk_0 It's kind of bittersweet saying these kind of things, you know what I mean?

spk_0 Because, you know, you're living it now here on this side.

spk_0 How big is that date on your calendar?

spk_0 I know, you could say a lot of things.

spk_0 I'll just let you respond.

spk_0 You mean as far as the 1806?

spk_0 The ongoing rivalry.

spk_0 I mean, yes, there was that.

spk_0 You lived it as a wrestler.

spk_0 I teed up because you lived it as a wrestler, but now you live it every year as a coach.

spk_0 And it's here, and then every other year, it's here.

spk_0 But then you go to Iowa City, also an elite program.

spk_0 There's just something.

spk_0 And then with wrestling in the state of Iowa, I mean, everyone has a side.

spk_0 We feel it in football too.

spk_0 We feel it in basketball, volleyball.

spk_0 It goes on and on.

spk_0 But for you, the wrestling having, having lived it as a wrestler on one end, coaching now on the other end,

spk_0 is it mean more?

spk_0 Do you circle it a little bit more?

spk_0 Well, I think the Iowa State Series rivalry will always be a little bit bigger date, no matter what sport you're in.

spk_0 I was fortunate because as a kid growing up, I don't think any high school wrestler in Iowa

spk_0 would tell you that they wouldn't give anything to wrestle in the Iowa State duel.

spk_0 I'm just because you grew up seeing it.

spk_0 So I was fortunate to get to do it as an athlete.

spk_0 I won a few.

spk_0 I lost more.

spk_0 Oh really?

spk_0 Because I had a really good guy from Iowa State named Joe Gibbons, who we were friends at all back then,

spk_0 but we've become really good friends now.

spk_0 Really good friends.

spk_0 And Joe was just really good.

spk_0 And he was better than me, both times.

spk_0 Every time I wrestled in me, he was ranked number one in the nation.

spk_0 I mean, so I had a high bar for the Iowa I was state mean.

spk_0 But back then, and I think we're getting there a little bit now, is that just how it was?

spk_0 It wasn't just my way.

spk_0 It was most weight.

spk_0 Because when you're got number one and two, like right now, according to rankings, we're three and therefore,

spk_0 and some polls probably have them three and us four.

spk_0 But when you got that high, you're going to have a lot of rank guys hitting each other.

spk_0 So now as a coach,

spk_0 yeah, you know, Iowa State hasn't beat Iowa for a long time and it had dual mean wrestling.

spk_0 And so we need to get over that hump.

spk_0 And we got a great opportunity here in November 30th this year to do that.

spk_0 And it'll always be a very, very exciting time.

spk_0 And you know, was here two years ago, and 15,200 people showed up.

spk_0 It was on ESPN live.

spk_0 First time ever, I'm doing a promo here.

spk_0 The first time ever, a college dual meet had been on live on ESPN where it was live.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 On the flagship.

spk_0 You know, they put it on ESPN 2.

spk_0 ESPN 2, they put it on ESPN 3.

spk_0 But never on ESPN, the flagship.

spk_0 And I think we're going to probably get that opportunity again.

spk_0 And it was a barn burner.

spk_0 We lost it.

spk_0 But it was great for wrestling.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 And we look forward to that opportunity.

spk_0 And we're blessed to have that opportunity.

spk_0 I tell kids all the time when we're recruiting them, it's like, you get a rest on the Iowa State Meet.

spk_0 Not many people can say they ever get to do that.

spk_0 I mean, I got people from the East Coast that are friends of mine that all want to do.

spk_0 They're like, they're going to get tickets and they fly in.

spk_0 It's like a bucket list event.

spk_0 And I probably have 30, 40, 50 people on a list already for this year.

spk_0 It's got to be the best duel of the year.

spk_0 I mean, across D1.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 It's one of the best duels.

spk_0 I mean, absolutely.

spk_0 How do you keep a pulse on recruiting when your season coincides with the high school season?

spk_0 Well, we're busy.

spk_0 You know, we'll try to hit all the major tournaments.

spk_0 Luckily, there's some really good pre-season tournaments that we can go see.

spk_0 We can feel good for guys.

spk_0 But we try to get to as many state tournaments as we can of kids that we're recruiting just to

spk_0 make an appearance.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 Because it looks good to mom and dad and grandma and grandpa.

spk_0 If you're really recruiting my kid, why aren't you at a state championships?

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 So, you know, if we're recruiting a kid that we really, really want on the California, we're in the stands in California.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 If there's a kid in Utah, we're in the stands in Utah.

spk_0 And you're looking nationwide.

spk_0 I mean, obviously, you're looking at Iowa too, but I mean, there's great rest of the process.

spk_0 Two guys starting first right now that are from Cuba.

spk_0 So we're looking internationally.

spk_0 Oh, okay.

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 We're worldwide, baby.

spk_0 Worldwide.

spk_0 What are you looking forward to this season?

spk_0 I mean, this is a blank slate.

spk_0 Every season's a blank slate.

spk_0 That's kind of cool.

spk_0 Everything's fresh.

spk_0 The guys are ready to go.

spk_0 Well, I like to keep score.

spk_0 So that's the great thing about my job is it's fun because every year you start over and you keep score.

spk_0 And so it's something you all work towards a common goal and then in March, you get evaluated.

spk_0 And you add up all the points and you see where you stand.

spk_0

spk_0 So if you're a competitor, I'm a competitor.

spk_0 I want to win everything I can win.

spk_0 And I want to do it with the right kind of people.

spk_0 I've got a great coaching staff.

spk_0 I always love our team.

spk_0 They're all challenging in different ways.

spk_0 But it's just a chance to compete all over.

spk_0 And then you know what?

spk_0 It's March 24th.

spk_0 And you get done on a Saturday night and Monday morning I wake up and try to figure out how to win again the next year.

spk_0 All your assistant coaches, I mean, they're all wrestlers or were wrestlers and have that experience.

spk_0 And they get in the mat with everyone.

spk_0 I mean, they show and play.

spk_0 Oh, yeah, we have a lot of coaches that still actually train with our guys that compete with them in the room.

spk_0 And obviously teach in the morning.

spk_0 So, you know, I've got some wrestlers at two-time national champ, two-time national champ, four-time all-American.

spk_0 You know, great credentials.

spk_0 I mean, the pedigree in that room is just off the charts.

spk_0 And that's what we strive for.

spk_0 It's kind of like I said, one thing I learned from Coach Gable was is you have to have a really competitive wrestling room.

spk_0 And the staff contributes to that.

spk_0 How do you keep that edge year in and year out?

spk_0 I mean, you can't be complacent because that filters down.

spk_0 No, I mean, as a leader, you have to set the bar high.

spk_0 And, you know, Penn State's ranked number one, they've won, I don't know.

spk_0 Eight years in a row, they've won 11 out of the last 13.

spk_0 But if we're not in there to beat Penn State, and I truly wake up every morning trying to beat Penn State because they're the best team out there.

spk_0 I figure if we can beat Penn State, we can win a national title.

spk_0 There's probably a lot of people, especially if you're watching this right now, they're going to say, well, you're crazy as heck.

spk_0 You know, I've been told I'm crazy as heck my whole life.

spk_0 So, I wasn't ever supposed to do this or that or this or that.

spk_0 And we figured out how to do it.

spk_0 So, we got to figure out how to do this.

spk_0 Well, give me a professional win from the last week.

spk_0 Maybe two weeks.

spk_0 A professional win?

spk_0 Yeah.

spk_0 The last two weeks.

spk_0 Well, probably, you know, getting some guys that have verbaled Iowa State.

spk_0 I can't say their names for recruiting rules reasons.

spk_0 But we've got a couple of really good juniors that came aboard in one senior that are blue chip guys that can come in and help us.

spk_0 And, you know, we like to all think we're super coaches.

spk_0 But guess what?

spk_0 If you do a bang up job and you kill them on the recruiting front, you're super coaching skills happen a lot quicker.

spk_0 You know what?

spk_0 You get the right guys in the room.

spk_0 You win a lot faster.

spk_0 I don't care what sport you're doing.

spk_0 So, you have to have a really good year in and year out.

spk_0 You have to recruit really well.

spk_0 So, for me, just getting some guys on board that are going to really make a difference in Iowa State when they get here.

spk_0 All right.

spk_0 I like that.

spk_0 We're going to be looking for those announcements here coming up at some point.

spk_0 So, well, Coach Dresser, you're a great ambassador.

spk_0 Not only for the state of Iowa, certainly Iowa State, but wrestling overall.

spk_0 Thanks for coming on.

spk_0 No, I enjoyed it.

spk_0 For everyone listening, if you enjoyed this podcast, if you're a cyclone fan, you should definitely be sharing this one.

spk_0 This is the area podcast from the Ames Regional Economic Alliance, Personal Stories, Professional Journeys.

#013 - Kevin Dresser

Interactive Transcript

Topics Covered

Related Episodes

Europa Universalis 5 Review

Happy Hour 562- She don't know who I is.

Hour 2: Friday Football Forecast

Game Scoop! 832: Our Favorite PS5 & Xbox Games

Share Episode