Weekly Weigh-Ins: RU Coaching Staff
Sep 02 | Wrestling
ScarletKnights.com is pleased to announce a new weekly column dedicated to the wrestling program called Weekly Weigh-Ins. Each week leading up to the Scarlet vs. Black intersquad dual (Tuesday, Nov. 2), ScarletKnights.com will sit down with coaches and student-athletes for exclusive features and Q&A's. Additionally, Weekly Weigh-Ins will post exclusive video content to the RU wrestling social media pages of Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=117162087457&ref=ts) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/ruwrestling).
For this week's Weekly Weigh-In, ScarletKnights.com sat down with the RU coaching staff to discuss their summers, summer workouts and their expectations for the coming season.
ScarletKnights.com:
What are some of the things that you've been up to this summer?
Cory Cooperman:
We had a pretty busy summer. We had our wrestling camps here which we did pretty well with. A lot of camps had a hard time with the economy, but we're continuing to increase our numbers and do a good job. We went out to Fargo, N.D., went to a couple of tournaments, did some recruiting and stuff like that so we've been active and busy this summer.
ScarletKnights.com:
This summer a lot of guys were coming in for workouts, who were some of the guys who really impressed you?
We had a good amount of guys consistently working out over the summer through the months of June and July. I hate to name names and point fingers, but there were certainly quite a few guys who made a good jump this summer. We had guys who were recovering from different things that did a good job of rehabbing and preparing. We had younger guys sticking around getting extra work in and really jump up a level and I think that's overall what it was for the whole program. There were some guys obviously who weren't around as much as we would've liked to have seen them but I think as a whole, our guys did a good job of improving, jumping levels, and making a commitment to this University and the team.
ScarletKnights.com:
You have nine guys on the roster with prior NCAA experience. Does that add to the excitement for the season?
I think so. I think what it does is show that there are expectations now. When you're able to bring in guys who have a certain amount of credentials and are, let's say, better wrestlers and who have done it before, there's expectations and that's where the excitement comes from. That's why the excitement's building because we have nine guys in our lineup, whether they're going to start or not, who have been to the national tournament. They have certain expectations, as a staff we have certain expectations and as a state and surrounding states there's expectations for this program to make a jump. So I think that's where the excitement is coming from with the guys we have returning and the guys who have come to Rutgers as transfers or who have signed with Rutgers. That's probably where the excitements from.
Cory Cooperman:
We have a lot of leadership from those guys too, the guys who have been to the NCAAs. They're coming in this summer, whether they're a transfer or not, and just telling our guys; come on, come on, do more. Then later on during the season, when we get closer to EIWAs and NCAAs and things like that, they'll be able to tell the guys what to expect and how to handle yourself when the pressure's on and that's going to be important.
I think the most important thing is that those nine guys need to learn off from what they had success with at the national tournament and what they didn't have success with and where they need to improve. I think that if they look at it from a critiquing standpoint then that gives them an opportunity to put themselves on the podium and not just be a qualifier. That's something that all three of us and the rest of the coaching staff think about all the time and we hope that's what's driving our guys - that they want to reach the pinnacle which is making it to the top of the podium.
Visit RU wrestling on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=117162087457&ref=ts) for the extended interview where the coaching staff discusses UFC Champion and RU club wrestling Coach Frankie Edgar and selling season tickets for the first time in program history.
