Cael Sanderson et al Move to Penn State to Start Wrestling Dynasty
By Joe Drape
The New York Times
State College, Pa. » They turn cartwheels and mime acrobatic moves to the techno beat pumping through the sound system until sweat begins to glisten on their bodies. They are muscled and agile and could pass for Cirque du Soleil performers except that most of them have mangled ears, a telltale giveaway that they are wrestlers.
In their midst, rolling his shoulders, stutter-stepping and slapping the neck of an invisible opponent is their coach, Cael Sanderson. He is a youthful 30, with a shaved head that makes him indistinguishable from his Penn State wrestlers.
Except Sanderson is not just a coach: He is the greatest wrestler in NCAA history — a four-time champion and the only one with a perfect record (159-0). He also won a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics. Last spring, he left his alma mater, Iowa State, where in three years as head coach he sent every one of his wrestlers — 30 in all — to the NCAA championships.
Cael Sanderson hails from Heber City and Wasatch High School and when you consider all the great athletes across all sports you could make a great case that his achievements are the greatest in Utah sports history.
159-0! Unbelievable!!!!!!!
Penn State has a gem!
His departure shocked the wrestling world because at first glance it looked like the equivalent of an actor leaving Broadway for regional theater. Sure, the Nittany Lions had captured a national title — but that was in 1953, and Penn State is still the only school east of the Mississippi to have won one.
Sanderson, however, saw it as a once-in-a-generation opportunity. As a wrestler and a coach, he had too often looked across the mat and seen Pennsylvania kids in the singlets of Iowa, Minnesota and Oklahoma State — the three programs that have accounted for the past 20 NCAA titles.
In fact, of the 80 collegiate wrestlers to earn all-American honors last spring, 11 were from Pennsylvania, but only one was from Penn State, according to Pennsylvania Wrestling Newsmagazine . Sanderson saw a chance to build not only a champion but also a dynasty much like the Hawkeyes, the Gophers and the Cowboys have.
“It’s like if I was a football coach with a chance to go to Texas where all the great players are, where they have the best facilities and where the fans support you to this incredible level,” said Sanderson, who said he was bowled over when 500 students and wrestling fans showed up last April for a news conference introducing him as coach.
‘Looking down the road’
Sanderson’s tenure is in its infancy here in Happy Valley, but he has not disappointed anyone. Season ticket sales have doubled to more than 2,000 since he was named coach. The Nittany Lions are 4-1 and ranked No. 15 despite the fact that Sanderson has chosen to redshirt his entire freshman class — considered the best in the nation — as well as Quentin Wright, who was an all-American last year as a freshman.
Wright, who is from nearby Wingate, Pa., and is the kind of wrestler Sanderson intends to keep in-state, is thrilled to be spending the year out of competition and learning at the side of one of the sport’s icons. Last week, Sanderson spent the entire practice chin-to-temple, chest-to-back and in all manner of pretzel constructions as Wright’s wrestling partner.
“I’m looking down the road,” said Wright, who finished sixth at the NCAA championships last year at 174 pounds. “I’m getting a chance to grow, and a full season of learning every day from maybe the greatest technical wrestler of all time. Coach has made his goal for us real clear: We want to win a team championship, and we want to win a lot of them.”
Sanderson is a low-key presence in the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex, which underwent a $4 million face-lift three years ago. In fact, with his shaved head, square jaw and coat-hanger shoulders, he looks more like the Nittany Lion wrestlers of the 1960s and 1970s whose photographs hang on the complex’s walls than a connoisseur of its state-of-the-art weight room, and sound and video system.
He speaks quietly to individual wrestlers while his older brother Cody and Casey Cunningham, both of whom he brought from Iowa State, do the barking that keeps the practice moving. His younger brother, Cyler, who was an all-American for the Cyclones two years ago, has joined the Nittany Lions as a senior.
The Sandersons are a wrestling family, and a very close one. Steve Sanderson introduced the sport to his four boys (Cole also was a four-year letterman at Iowa State) as well as much of the youth in Heber City, where he ran programs and coached the varsity at Wasatch High School.
“It was my dad that I was on the phone with at 3 a.m. the night before I took the job here,” Cael Sanderson said. “My brothers, too, were part of the decision. All of them helped me think this through.”
‘An opportunity to build something’
Judging by the reaction in Ames and beyond last April when Sanderson left, no one thought one of the most famous Cyclones would ever leave the home of his greatest triumphs — except perhaps Penn State’s athletic director, Tim Curley.
He knew his history and how iconic wrestlers can be the foundation for greatness. Dan Gable, who wrestled at Iowa State, turned the in-state rival Iowa into a powerhouse, winning 15 NCAA team titles, including nine in a row, before becoming an assistant athletic director at Iowa. John Smith was a champion at Oklahoma State and has won five team championships as the Cowboys’ head coach.
“We thought we had an attractive situation here for Cael because wrestling is so much a part of the state’s sporting history,” Curley said. “Plus, we’re next to Ohio State and New Jersey. He had an opportunity to build something here, and everything he needed.”
Sanderson concedes that he was surprised by Penn State’s interest — in fact, it was the first time any school had come calling. He had wrestled for and succeeded Bobby Douglas at Iowa State and continued to preach technique and family at Iowa State. It was working, too.
Last year, the Cyclones finished third in the NCAA championships, and were returning the 197-pound champion Jake Varner and a group of talented juniors. Still, Sanderson fell for Curley’s pitch.
He insists it was not about money. He acknowledged he received a raise, but he said it was nowhere close to the $400,000 or more that has been rumored. Curley will not disclose Sanderson’s salary package, but denies that it is anywhere close to those numbers. Cody and Cyler admitted that they were surprised when Cael told them he was moving east and asked them to join him.
“But it wasn’t much of a decision,” Cyler said. “I was going with my brothers.”
So now the Sanderson clan is starting anew in a state that perhaps appreciates what they do more than any in the country. Newspaper beat reporters, radio broadcasters and a booster club of more than 1,200 people travel with them to dual meets and tournaments across the country.
Sanderson insists he and his brothers want to give them something that he has never accomplished as a competitor or a coach: a team title.
“It’s the mark of a program, and it shows that you got a group of guys together and they shared in a common goal,” he said. “It’s something I have missed. I don’t only want one of them. I want a bunch of them like the University of Iowa. I believe I’m in the right place for that to happen.”
A closer look at Cael Sanderson
» Only undefeated wrestler in NCAA history (159-0).
» One of only two wrestlers to win four NCAA individual championships (1999-2002).
» Won four Most Outstanding Wrestler awards at the NCAA Championships.
» Won a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics.
» Won three Big 12 team titles as Iowa State head coach from 2006 to 2009. Led Iowa State to second-place finish in 2006 NCAA Championships.
» Named Penn State head coach on April 17, 2009.
Sanderson on YouTube
For a short documentary on Cael Sanderson’s college career, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-i4pIa1SG0. Or enter “Cael Sanderson 159-0″ in the site’s search field.