BLACKSBURG – After a busy offseason that saw two Hokies make world teams and a staff member earn a spot on the U.S. senior national team, the Virginia Tech wrestling team is back on campus and is already gearing up for the 2018-19 season.
Last week, second-year head coach Tony Robie had enough time to discuss a variety of topics – including the recent success of the Southeast Regional Training Center and an outlook on this year's team – before diving into team workouts.
We know it's early, but can you walk us through the lineup and give fans a preview of who you think you'll
"We're going to have some new faces in there, but when I look at this year's team I feel really good about it. I feel a lot better about this year's team at this point than I did a year ago, quite honestly. From top to bottom we're really, really solid. We still have to figure out a few guys and what weight class they're going to go but when you look at some of the new faces with Korbin Myers, Tom Sleigh and Billy Miller, you add Mekhi Lewis to that list who obviously is someone that our fans are excited about seeing. I'm really excited about seeing them all in there. We've got David McFadden and Zack Zavatsky back in the lineup but we're still in the early stages of figuring things out weight class wise. Hunter Bolen may be in there, he may be redshirting, it's hard to say at this point. We have some young faces like Mitch Moore who's a true freshman and has looked really good in the room that we may see in the lineup as well.
We'll figure that out as we move forward into the fall when guys start getting down to fighting weight. We have our intrasquad match tentatively scheduled on October 26th, so it's the day after the Virginia Tech vs. Georgia Tech football game that Thursday night. That'll be the first opportunity for fans to come out and watch our guys compete. We'll do some open practices in and around football games and I'm sure we'll do a couple out at Hokie Village outside. Anybody who's interested in coming and checking things out can touch base with our coaching staff and are welcome to come out and watch practice any day."
Speaking of organizing events around football, sounds like you've got a big weekend planned the first week of September.
"Yes, we're hosting our first ever Southeast Regional Training Center Golf Outing on September 7th at Auburn Hills Golf Club. Anybody who's interested in either sponsoring a hole or participating in that event can sign up at SoutheasRTC.com (link), all the information is there. We're excited about that. We're also tying in our Virginia Tech wrestling alumni weekend that weekend as well and we're going to do a Southeast RTC donor appreciation tailgate the day of the football game. We have a lot of activities going on September 7th and 8th for Southeast Regional Training Center donors, Virginia Tech wrestling fans and alumni. It's a great time to support the program and spend some time with our coaches and our athletes."
The Hokies are back on campus with classes starting this past Monday. What will these next few weeks look like for them as they prepare for the upcoming season?
"Most of our guys arrived back on campus midway through last week. They were here pretty much the whole month of July whether they were in class, working camps or just here training with the Southeast Regional Training Center. They had about three weeks to themselves where we provided no structure. This first week of school we don't have anything mandatory. That will allow the guys to get acclimated to going to class again, trying to figure out what their routine is going to be, what their schedule is going to be, especially for our younger guys and our freshmen. We'll start with our structure this upcoming Monday where we start our eight-hour conditioning weeks. We'll be in the weight room, we're allowed to do a little bit of technique and some conditioning in the afternoon. Thus far, I've liked the energy and enthusiasm. We've had 25 to 35 guys in here every afternoon on their own for open mats, working out and getting better. I like the attitude, the environment and the guys' willingness to be self-motivated."
With David McFadden on the U23 World Team and Mekhi Lewis on the Junior World Team, what's their preparation been like for their respective tournaments?
"Mekhi's been exclusively training freestyle throughout the course of the summer. He's been here all through August so he hasn't missed a beat, him or Dave. It's great that they're close in size and they can train together and can come in the mornings and afternoons. It's been a really good experience for both of those guys. Especially for Mekhi, to have opportunities to go out to Colorado Springs and the Olympic Training Center. He's been out there three times over the last six months. I think it's really broadened his horizons to what's out there in the wrestling world, where it can take him and how good he can really be by just being around some of these high caliber wrestlers and coaches. As far as David and Mekhi are concerned, they have definitely made some huge gains through this experience."
You've been here since 2006 and you're now at the point where you have two world team members and a volunteer assistant coach in Ty Walz on the U.S. National Team all in the program. What's can be attributed to that success?
"I think we've just placed a bigger emphasis on freestyle through the Southeast Regional Training Center. We've had a really successful year with our training center both on and off the wrestling mat with the support that we receive through our donors. I think that's played a large part in this as well. Having [assistant coaches] Jared Frayer and Frank Molinaro, who are both high caliber, world class freestyle wrestlers, both Olympians, having those guys leading the charge in that area and getting those guys excited about freestyle wrestling has been huge. Once our season was over we shifted to freestyle wrestling with our training center and having [director of performance] Tyler Graff here as well has been great. To have as many guys competing and as many high caliber wrestlers in the room training on a daily basis has really been contagious for a lot of the other guys. Wrestling is wrestling. When you're in here training and getting better, focusing on events, improving on your wrestling, it's going to carry over to your folkstyle wrestling as well."
The 2018-19 schedule is in its final stages of competition, but just looking at the opponents, what are your thoughts on this year's slate?
"I'll say this, we don't have any fluff on our schedule. All of our matches are against quality opponents this year so we're going to have to be ready to go.
Just going over our non-conference opponents, we're going to wrestle at Missouri and at Northwestern the third weekend of November on the road. We're going to have our work cut out for us. David McFadden will be in Romania wrestling at the U23 World Championships so we will be without him that weekend, which will obviously make it more challenging. Missouri has beaten us the last two years, as anyone who follows wrestling knows Brian Smith has done an amazing job with that program, but we're excited to try and get revenge. Northwestern is a Big Ten team and we were fired up to get them on the schedule. We added the Southern Scuffle to the schedule which is a great opportunity. Hopefully we'll have an opportunity to see Penn State there, who traditionally has gone to that event and will help prepare our guys for the nationals. They get to see wrestlers who they have to beat to win national titles. If you look at Cornell, anybody who follows college wrestling knows how good Cornell is and how they're going to be this year. They have Yianni Diakomihalis there who's a returning national champion. The quality of our schedule is really good and hopefully it'll prepare us well for the NCAA Tournament."
Of course, you wrap things up with the ACC Championships that will be held here in Blacksburg in Cassell Coliseum. How important is having ACCs held here on campus?
"To me the ACC Championships is the highlight of our schedule. To have that tournament here, we'll be going for our third tournament title in a row. Last year in Chapel Hill we had a tremendous crowd that cheered on Virginia Tech so this year we've got to work really, really hard to get as many Hokies as possible in the stands on in early March for the ACC Championships. I want to set a record attendance for that thing and fill Cassell Coliseum. It's going to be a great event. The quality of wrestling in the ACC is as good as it's ever been from top to bottom. Hopefully we have a tremendous crowd and we'll be able to celebrate afterwards."
