Wrestling Media Availability with Cael Sanderson

This afternoon, Head Coach Cael Sanderson spoke to media ahead of Friday’s 6pm EST dual at Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Cael Sanderson – Head Coach

Practicing against defensive tactics and limiting frustration?

Yeah. I mean, we’re obviously preparing and it’s not anything new, right? I mean, anytime you have a good wrestler or like a good team, you know, people are going to try to figure out how to beat you. And sometimes, you know, that’s maybe the best shot. And you know, I’m sure we do the same on the flip side at times, you know, just try to slow things down. But yeah, we’re preparing for that as much as we can. It’s nothing new obviously. Probably not something I should have mentioned, I guess, but it’s just you know, you just want your sport to be exciting and you want action, more points being scored. As a team, the more points that are scored obviously that benefits us. Even if our opponents are scoring on us early, it’s still to our benefit to create action. That’s something with seven minutes, there’s a lot of time to make mistakes and give up a point here or there. (00:10 – 01:17)

Expecting family and friends for the two guys from Michigan going home this week?

Their family and friends maybe. But yeah, I don’t know. I think wherever, whatever. Obviously, Michigan’s just one of the best states for wrestling in the country. So, we’ve got a long history of great wrestlers from the state and we hope to continue that. But yeah, Michigan’s got a great team like they always do and a lot of great competitors. So, got to go wrestle well. (01:18 – 01:52)

Seeing wrestlers pushed outside their comfort zone due to emotion in duals like Nebraska?

Well, I think you know you want discipline. It is obviously just a success principle, something that you got to have in all aspects of your wrestling and your lifestyle. So yeah, when actions are not what we want them to be, I don’t think that’s necessarily a good thing at all, right? It’s just like, hey, we just need discipline, obviously emotional discipline and focus is important. But yeah, everything’s preparation. You know, we make mistakes, we learn from it, we make mistakes again, we learn from it. It’s just a matter of just trying to figure things out and just do a better job. Obviously, anything that happens as a head coach, that’s on me. So yeah, we’ll learn and move forward. (01:53 – 02:58)

Feeling of being home for the next couple weeks after this final road trip?

Yeah, it doesn’t matter to me whether we’re home or away. I mean, we just like to compete. I think being on the road’s good from the standpoint that it’s almost easier because you’re in a hotel, you know, you’re isolated. It’s fun to go wrestle in other people’s arenas, but yeah, either way, we’re just happy to compete. Grateful that we have that opportunity and that the stressors in our life—well, I’m sure everyone has a lot going on in their life, you know, families and different things—but the stress of trying to do well in a sporting event, I mean, that’s a pretty amazing stress to have. It’s something we’re grateful for. (02:59 – 03:51)

Status of Bonnie Epstein to help with principle of discipline?

No. Unfortunately, Bonnie is no longer with us. She’s moved back with her family; she’s in San Diego. She’s just having some health issues and different things. I mean, she is with us in spirit. I still use a lot of her concepts and ideas and quotes. I think she’s in contact with our guys a little bit over the phone, but yeah, unfortunately, she just isn’t able to kind of work with us anymore. But yeah, we love Bonnie. She’s great. But yeah, you know, discipline obviously is a part of success in anything. It’s just consistency. So, nothing new there, but yeah, unfortunately Bonnie’s not with us anymore. (03:52 – 04:52)

Replacing that role or using other resources?

Yeah, she was with our program for quite a while. I know right when I came to Penn State, we had people working with her over the phone and then it worked out that we were able to get her into State College, which was great. But yeah, we don’t really have that role replaced. She was kind of a unique and special person. Obviously, they have counseling services and basically sports psychologists that work with the whole athletic department. Pyramid Health has been a great resource for us and they sponsored our program, so that’s who we use for the most part now. (04:53 – 05:47)

Best way to get someone to cool down when they get uncharacteristically fired up?

Well, I don’t think there’s anything you need to do. I mean, if something happens, it happens and it’s out there for the world to see. There’s nothing you do about it. Just learn from it and just kind of figure out like, well, how do we get to that point or whatever. But yeah, it was just a good match. Obviously some great wrestling and for the most part we wrestled really well. So, I think Nebraska’s one of the teams that we got to beat if we want to win the nationals, and Michigan, obviously Ohio State’s coming up and all these other teams. But we just got to be our best self and do what we do and just be calm, collected, and just go score points. We’ll be good. (05:48 – 06:46)

Masanosuke Ono settling in with the team?

Yeah. Masanosuke [Ono] is just a great person. Love him, obviously a really good wrestler. We’re excited to get him in the lineup in the future. He’s very motivated. He really wants to kick butt in folkstyle and he’s really good. But yeah, just the kind of person he is, the energy is as good as it gets. So, just always good attitude, good energy. And yeah, it’s fun to watch him because he’s getting pretty dang good in folkstyle. He’s putting that time in and it’s showing. He’s probably not going to be able to compete this year; he’s just kind of had some health issues that have kind of held him back, but before long we’ll see him. (06:47 – 07:48)

Status of Tyler Kasak?

I think he’s doing well. He wrestled today overseas and he ended up going one and one. I didn’t see the last match, but it’s just good to go wrestle in these ranking series world-level events that have the best guys in the world in freestyle just so you know what you’re training for. It’s a different feel obviously. Freestyle, the best guys in the world, different countries wrestle differently, different tactics, whatever. So yeah, it’s good for him. I think he’s going to wrestle again this month too overseas, so it’s good preparation for him. And Roman was over there also. I think he made the finals and kind of just had an injury default, gave up a couple points, but kind of tweaked something in the process. So yeah, we want our guys competing and obviously it’s always—you’re always learning. The whole world’s trying to get better at the sport and so we just want to watch and figure out how we can do the same. (07:49 – 08:48)

Overall health of the team regarding bumps and bruises?

Happy and healthy, I would say. Yeah, that’s the plan. We’ll just stay that way. But feeling good. (08:49 – 09:03)

Braeden Davis and his hand injury?

Yeah. He had a little incident where I think he burned his hand. I don’t know, it may have been—it’s not something I should really talk about probably, but it’s not that big of a deal. But he had a little accident or whatever. I thought maybe there was like a picture of it online or something, I don’t know. But yeah, he just burned his hand in a little deal with a scooter he had plugged in. So beware of plugged-in scooters. (09:04 – 09:37)

How Rocco Welsh continues to wrestle at such a high level without lapses?

Yeah, I think he’s just a student of the game. He’s a great competitor and I think he’s just getting probably getting more and more comfortable. Like he knows that this is where he belongs. He knows that we love him, he’s our guy, and I think he’ll just continue to improve. And really it’s not even about improving, it’s just being yourself. I think he knows he belongs here and transferring is a tough thing. I think it can be a weird feeling for guys and we’ve seen that over the years. But like we’re super grateful that he’s here. He fits right in. So it’s fun to watch him because last weekend that was a tough match. An All-American, big strong kid that has given our program troubles over the years. But yeah, Rocco [Welsh] wrestled great and he’s just—that’s all it’s about is just be yourself, be free. It’s a game that is important, but it’s not so important you can’t just go be yourself, right? You should be motivated by opportunity, which is what it is. (09:38 – 11:14)

Weirdness of transferring and unlearning previous training methods?

Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s necessarily the training. I think anytime you transfer or something it’s probably weird just for obvious reasons and just probably our human nature. Maybe kind of goes against that. And obviously if you come to Penn State, there’s a high expectation here. So when kids transfer in here, it’s a different kind of pressure. They have to—I mean you’re in a lineup with a bunch of killers and so you don’t give yourself a lot of room to breathe. I think that that’s one of the issues maybe where they just feel more pressure to go out there and dominate when that’s not really the goal. The goal is just be the best you can be and that stuff will happen and will come. But I think that that’s probably the issue we have more with transfers is they think they’re Penn State and people just expect them to crush everybody every time. It’s a lot of pressure. (11:15 – 12:25)

Value of this stretch for Cole Mirasola?

Yeah, I think that’s just part of being in this conference. I think part of the reason why this conference does so well consistently at the national tournament is you’re just wrestling really good guys consistently. So I think it’s probably similar for all of our guys. It’s just being a freshman maybe it stands out more for him. But yeah, I think he just knows he’s right there and he’s just got to keep getting better. And the big thing is mostly just believing, not just for him but just generally speaking. So yeah, big match for him on Friday again against an All-American, and then another All-American. But he’s been right there, a scramble away in most of his matches. He’s wrestling a little smarter. I don’t want to say smarter but just—because he’s just a goer. Sometimes when you’re wrestling a guy that’s got 30 or 40 lbs on you, you need to maybe wrestle it a little bit differently. And he’s making some adjustments and he’s right there, obviously a close match there losing riding time to [Stephen] Buchanan who’s obviously really good and an All-American. So yeah, he’s right there and he’ll just keep getting better. (12:26 – 14:05)

What have you seen from Marcus Blaze this freshman year?

Yeah, I think he’s just a tremendous competitor. He stays in such good position as he’s competing. Yeah, I think he’s maybe a little under the radar if that’s even possible because he’s really, really good. And so yeah, we’ll just keep competing and wrestling the best guys. He’s just great. I don’t know what else to say. He’s a great competitor and he’ll just keep getting better. His best matches will be in the biggest moments because that’s him. That’s his nature, that’s his character. (14:06 – 14:54)