Captains' Corner: A Preseason Conversation
10/25/2010 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Oct. 25, 2010
A great sense of opportunity and optimism abounds for the University of Michigan wrestling team as the Wolverines put the final touches on their preseason preparation in the Bahna Wrestling Center. With all 10 starters returning for the 2010-11 campaign, coupled with the addition of several talented redshirts and 14 newcomers, the Maize and Blue will be equipped with the experience, balance and depth it lacked during a difficult campaign a season ago.
Headlining the returning corps is senior/junior Kellen Russell (High Bridge, N.J./Blair Academy), who earned NCAA All-America and captured back-to-back Big Ten titles at 141 pounds before sitting out last season with injury, as well four additional NCAA qualifiers in junior Zac Stevens (Monroe, Mich./Monroe HS), fifth-year senior Aaron Hynes (Mt. Morris, Mich./Flint Kearsley HS), senior/junior Justin Zeerip (Fremont, Mich./Hesperia HS) and fifth-year senior Anthony Biondo (Clinton Twp., Mich./Chippewa Valley HS) at 133, 157, 174 and 197 pounds, respectively.
Stevens is expected to redshirt the 2010-11 season, making room for highly touted sophomore/freshman Eric Grajales (Brandon, Fla./Brandon HS) at 133 pounds. Grajales was a four-time undefeated Florida state champion (217-0) and two-time member of the Greco-Roman FILA Junior World team before his arrival at Michigan. The Wolverines' other projected newcomer in the starting lineup is sophomore/freshman Dan Yates (Hesperia, Mich./Hesperia HS) -- a three-time Michigan state champion who posted a 23-5 record during his redshirt season -- at 165 pounds.
As the annual season kickoff at the Eastern Michigan Open (Nov. 6) looms just around the corner, Michigan's recently named captains -- Biondo, Russell and Zeerip -- sat down to discuss the attitude around the Wolverine practice room, which teammates are poised for breakout seasons, and their team's opportunity to surprise some people this season.
Leah Howard: When you bring in 14 new people, it can totally change the dynamic of a team, and this team is obviously quite different than last year's team. So, with several weeks of practice under your belts, what have you seen so far with this team?
Anthony Biondo: "I think that especially with this team we are trying to create a new attitude, moving forward from the last few years, and I think we have. Guys seemed to be a little more focused and are working a little harder. I just feel like we are moving in the right direction."
Kellen Russell: "I think we have a lot of younger guys who are trying to prove themselves right now, which makes the overall attitude in the room a lot more positive. They are coming in and working hard every day and that makes the older guys want to come in and work hard every day, because now they have these young guys pushing them."
LH: You mention a positive attitude, what is the attitude right now?
KR: "I think people are having a lot more fun when they come in the room. Everyone wants to wrestle hard. There is nobody here who doesn't really want to be there, which is great. Everyone is here to push each other, and they don't mind little scuffles and scraps here and there. We're all able to see through that after practice, because we're all on the same page. I think this team does a lot better job of that than some previous teams."
Justin Zeerip: "I think it's good we have a lot of fresh faces in there. Like Kellen said, they are coming in and working hard every day, and they're pushing the upperclassmen. They want to establish themselves, and as upperclassmen, we don't want to be outworked by any freshmen."
AB: "I think a lot of the mentality on our team is that a lot of guys feel like we have something to prove. Michigan wrestling traditionally has been a powerhouse in wrestling and we had a down year last year, so I think a lot of us -- especially the leaders -- want to have a great year."
LH: If you look at last year's lineup, it was very young, but there was a lot of upswing and potential. A lot of those young guys knew exactly what they needed to do in order to improve. Have you seen them put in the work over the offseason that they needed to get themselves better?
AB: "Yeah, definitely. If you look around you'll see guys like Sean Boyle, who had a pretty decent freshman year, was in the room all the time this summer. He's been working with Coach [Joe] McFarland and getting extra work in. Tons of other young guys really put some time in. I think that that is key --getting on the mat and putting your time in so that everything pays off in the long run."
KR: "I think this summer was the best summer for us that I've seen here. We did a lot of good work with strength and conditioning, a lot of sport-specific stuff all summer. We were doing lifts and workouts, and all of our conditioning stuff had to do with being on the mat. Everything that we did related to what we do on the mat. I remember last year watching some of our guys who weren't as strong as they needed to be at certain weights. By doing a lot of sport-specific stuff all summer -- we had four or five months of stuff -- I can see already in the practice room that guys are way stronger than they were before. Even if maybe their bench press max didn't go up, it's all about being strong in specific wrestling situations, and I think this summer we did a really good job of doing that not only with [Mike] Favre but with our wrestling workouts and working on different techniques or different styles that people maybe aren't used to."
AB: "I think one thing we did a good job of with the coaching staff over the summer was identifying what we need to work on. I think a lot of guys did that. Me personally, I knew that I had a list of things I wanted to work on. We did it, and like Kellen said, Coach Favre has been tremendous. We had a lot of young guys last year, and a lot of guys who just didn't have that extra horsepower that they needed. I think now they might, so it's going to help a lot."
JZ: "We had a great summer. With Coach Favre's program, we did a lot of wrestling-specific lifts. This summer we really worked on a lot of different areas of wrestling we needed to work on, and I feel like a lot of people really got a lot better."
LH: There are a handful of guys on the team that are getting a lot of hype right now, while it seems others haven't received any sort of recognition. Do you sometimes feel like folks are underestimating not only certain kids in the lineup but the team as a whole?
KR: "I think we are definitely being underestimated, but I don't really see that as being a negative. I think it's good for some of the younger guys that they are being underestimated a little bit. It makes them feel like they need to prove themselves a little more, and it puts less pressure on them so they can just go out and wrestle and not worry about living up to expectations. I definitely think people are underestimating our team and how good we are going to be, but I really don't think it's a negative."
AB: "I think the beautiful thing about wrestling is that whatever people think or say truly doesn't matter. When it comes time to compete, we're going to compete, and we have some guys that are going to do some good things. Whatever people want to think, that's they are going to think. I really think we have a good team. I mean we have some big guns up top, but we have some other guys that are going to make some noise too."
LH: Who are some of those other guys? Who do you think is poised for a big breakout year?
AB: "I think of a kid that maybe some people around here know, but Dan Yates is a tough, tough kid. I don't think a lot of people nationally will know about him, but if he does a couple things right and puts some things together, the kid has such a tremendous amount of talent. Definitely, I think he can make some noise this season."
JZ: "Yeah, I have to agree with Anthony. I think Dan is going to have a great year, and I think Mark Weber is going to have a much better year too. He worked really hard this summer, and I think he has gotten a lot better too, so I think those two guys especially are going to surprise some people."
KR: "I think Sean Boyle is right there. Last year he was kind of thrown in there. I don't think he really expected it to be that much different from high school. This summer he worked out a ton, and he's been working his butt off here getting extra workouts in. He's ready right now. He's a lot stronger; just looking at him, he's more physically built. I think if he can put some stuff together this year, he can really make some noise for us."
LH: This is still a young team. Now, last year was a really young team, but this year is still young. Guys are going to continue developing over the course of the year. It seems like everyone in the program realizes how bright the future is, and there's a sense that this year is the first big step in that direction. Does that add to the excitement going into the season?
KR: "I think it's really important that we keep this positive attitude throughout the season, because there are bound to be some rough patches at the beginning with some of the younger guys in the lineup. I think it is important how we handle it. We have a tough first two weekends with Pitt and Lehigh. I think if we keep this positive attitude, we're definitely going to keep building throughout the season, and we could have a great Big Ten tournament and great NCAA tournament."
LH: The Big Ten is pretty wide open this year, so do you think that you can get in there and compete with anybody?
KR: "I think right now our lineup is pretty solid, and individually I think we can place a lot of people and get a lot of people to qualify."
JZ: "I think we have a tough dual-meet team, and I think we have a good tournament team -- we will score a lot of points."
AB: "I think for me, as a fifth year senior, it would be great for me to see this team take a huge step and kind of send it off so that I could leave on a good note team-wise as well as individually."
LH: How as captains can you help set the tone?
AB: "A lot of it this year, especially with a couple freshmen and sophomores in the lineup, I think our job once we get into the season is to help these guys out showing them the ropes, telling them the mistakes we made and the stuff we know and kind of guiding them through it. Like Kellen said, we need to keep everything positive and moving forward. I think we are doing a good job so far, but once the season gets going, it's a whole different beast. But I think us three guys can definitely do that and do it well."
KR: "I think it is our job to make sure they don't feel overwhelmed during the season. If people feel overwhelmed, especially when traveling, you just aren't going to perform as well. We are going to have to keep them positive, relaxed and show them little things here and there that we've done or maybe we didn't do and teach them how to survive and thrive through the season."
JZ: "I think constantly we need to keep a positive attitude and especially when people are struggling at different times throughout the year. We have to help them along and help them just to stay positive, get them through the times that they might be struggling and let them know that they are going to bounce back."
