Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal

Kai Orine was a two-time All-American at NC State. Now, one year into coaching at Little Rock, he says coaching is less stressful than competing. Mike goes through the Athletor IQ numbers on Stephen Little and Little Rock's recruiting with him, and asks how you get a kid from the middle of Arkansas to believe he can compete with anyone.

Guest: Kai Orine, Little Rock assistant coach, 2x NCAA All-American and 2x ACC champion at NC State

Topics: to coach is to serve, designing the singlets, Little Rock's facility, Stephen Little by the numbers, finding diamonds in the rough, the 2026-27 lineup, the myth of waiting, rapid fire with the Mount Rushmore of wrestling

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Two straight NCAA tournaments without giving up a takedown. Antrell Taylor, the Omaha kid who won the 2025 NCAA title for Nebraska, talks with Mike about the loss he still rewatches, being a savage in the practice room, and why college matches get won on top.

Guest: Antrell Taylor, 2025 NCAA Champion, 3X All American, Nebraska

Topics: progress over outcome, learning from losses, taking risks in practice, top wrestling, Greco and the body lock, hand fighting, walking forward, wrestling at home in Lincoln, the push-out rule

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Phil Ross broke his back at 16, got told he was done, and came back to take 2nd in Greco at Eastern Nationals that summer. Fifty years later, surgeons send him their patients. He talks with Mike about fixing backs without surgery, the 90 Days of Suck, and the year that changed how he thinks about control.

Guest: Coach Phil Ross, 9th-degree black belt, master kettlebell instructor, college professor, author of Managing Back Pain For Dummies and Exercise Snacks

Topics: back pain and strength training, the least invasive fix first, the 90 Days of Suck, not scouting your opponent, 9/11 and letting go of control, Too Stupid to Quit, the push-out rule

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Bo Bassett is chasing three world titles in one year, and he says he doesn't feel any pressure doing it. Mike goes through his Final X series against Real Woods with him, asks how a loss to one side of the body six years ago changed his attacks, and gets his take on what Virginia Tech needs to catch Penn State.

Guest: Bo Bassett, world champion and Virginia Tech freshman, 2026 U.S. Senior World Team member at 65 kg

Topics: the Real Woods film breakdown, training with Aaron Seidel and James Green, no fear of losing, learning from losses, Virginia Tech's lineup, rapid fire with the Mount Rushmore of wrestling

📊 Virginia Tech's full 2026-27 season preview: preview.athletorlive.com/teams/virginia-tech

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Alex Marinelli is back, this time to talk Iowa. Mike runs him through the numbers behind the Hawkeyes' No. 6 preseason ranking, and Alex explains why he thinks the gap to a team title comes down to one takedown at a time. He also shares what he's learned coaching 140 kids who all say they want to be elite.

Guest: Alex Marinelli, Iowa four-time All-American and four-time Big Ten champion, founder and head coach of the Hawkeye Wrestling Academy

Topics: Iowa's 2026-27 lineup, Ryder Block and Nasir Bailey, riding time and reversals, the jump from fourth to a team title, first-period aggression, motivating youth wrestlers, the Mount Rushmore of Iowa wrestling

📊 Iowa's full 2026-27 season preview: preview.athletorlive.com/teams/iowa

🔗 Recruitable: Your step-by-step playbook for today's recruiting process: athletorlive.com/product/recruitable

Sebastian Rivera won an Olympic bronze medal and a World silver, and then walked away from his coaching job at Columbia to go back to being a full-time athlete. In this episode, he explains the "find peace in suffering" mindset that keeps him improving at 27, breaks down the front head and crackdown positions with Mike, and talks about what it took to bring Big Ten intensity to an Ivy League wrestling room.

Guest: Sebastian Rivera, 2024 Olympic bronze medalist (65kg, Puerto Rico), 2023 World silver medalist, 5x NCAA All-American (Northwestern/Rutgers)

Topics: stepping down from coaching to compete, find peace in suffering, Buxton and Pritzlaff as coaches, front head and crackdown technique, Columbia wrestling culture, folkstyle push-out rule

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American head coach Jason Borrelli sees his program's AthletorIQ development score for the first time, and he's not satisfied being #4. We dig into what the data says about who's really developing wrestlers, the 86% first-takedown win rate at NCAAs, and what Borrelli looks for in recruits that numbers can't capture.

Guest: Jason Borrelli, Head Coach at American University, formerly Stanford's all-time winningest coach

Topics: development scoring, data-driven recruiting, the 85-150 recruit band, overperformer mindset, first-takedown data, growing the sport

🔗 Recruitable: Your step-by-step playbook for today's recruiting process, from first contact to signing day: http://athletorlive.com/product/recruitable

J Sebolt went 207-1 in high school, won four Iowa state titles, and then built one of the best youth wrestling programs in the country from scratch — starting with 4 kids in a two-mat room. He talks with Mike Mal about what it's really like coaching your own daughter at the international level, the moment he realized he'd pushed a kid too far, and why his wrestling room has world team boards but no state championship board.

Guest: TJ Sebolt, 4x Iowa state champion, founder/head coach of Sebolt Wrestling Academy

Topics: dad coaching, youth wrestling culture, building an elite club, state vs. national goals, discipline vs. fun, iron fist vs. velvet glove coaching

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Jeff Buxton built Blair Academy into a 30-time consecutive National Prep champion, produced 10 NCAA individual champs, and earned the National Wrestling Hall of Fame's Lifetime Service award. Now coaching at Columbia under Donnie Pritzlaff, he talks about what it really takes to rebuild a program, why he split his own team to develop younger wrestlers, and what Bruce Burnett taught him about ankle laces.

Guest: Jeff Buxton, Columbia University Assistant Wrestling Coach, Hall of Fame honoree, 30x National Prep Champion coach

Topics: Columbia wrestling rebuild, Blair Academy dynasty, coaching philosophy, iron fist vs velvet glove, freestyle technical evolution, matside weigh-ins

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Mike wears two hats, dad and coach. Matt Ciampa texted him to say that's wrong, and then came on to explain why. Thirty-five years into coaching, he's never found the seam between the two, and he'll tell you exactly what the one hat actually is.

Guest: Matt Ciampa, head coach of Eclipse Wrestling Club (NJ), assistant men's wrestling coach at East Stroudsburg University, 2013 New Jersey Freestyle and Greco-Roman Coach of the Year

Topics: coaching your own kid, the dad hat vs. coach hat debate, controlling behavior instead of feelings, wrestling as a sport of affluence, the disappearing middle-of-the-pack wrestler, the 0-4 heavyweight who became NCAA champ David Zabriskie, New Jersey's Mount Rushmore

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Nelson Brands wrestled at Iowa for his dad and his uncle, and says neither coached him until college. Now on staff at Cal Poly, he makes a specific case that beginners should learn to hand fight before they ever take a penetration step. Guest: Nelson Brands, former Iowa Hawkeye, son of Terry Brands and nephew of Tom Brands, assistant coach at Cal Poly. Topics: hand fighting before the penetration step, wrestling as an infinite puzzle, being raised by the principles of wrestling, identity versus winning, wrestling parents, clubs that gatekeep, out-of-season contact rules, getting rid of headgear.

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Coleman Scott won an NCAA title, an Olympic medal, and ran a D1 program. He'd rather do what he's doing now. Inside the Farm in Stillwater, and a blunt read on what NIL money is doing to recruiting and development.

Guest: Coleman Scott, 2008 NCAA champion at Oklahoma State, 2012 Olympic bronze medalist, former head coach at North Carolina, owner of the Farm in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Topics: running 77 straight days of camp, starting a state-accredited school, the three-pillar club model, what NIL did to development, chasing money versus chasing fit, the questions to ask a recruit, youth wrestling parents

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Barry Davis has three NCAA titles, an Olympic silver, and 24 years as a Big Ten head coach. He just took a club job, and this is his case for why the RTC seat is the best one in wrestling. Head coach John Stutzman joins to explain the rebuild at Bloomsburg.

Guest: Barry Davis, 3x NCAA champion at Iowa, 1984 Olympic silver medalist, head coach at Wisconsin 1993-2017, now RTC and club coach at Bloomsburg. With John Stutzman, head coach at Bloomsburg.

Topics: the RTC role and the recruiting loophole, the April-of-junior-year contact rule, what to look for in a recruit and his family, fundraising a Division I program, building a town's wrestling culture, why the parents are the problem

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We brought Doug Schwab the data on his own program: 13 of UNI's 19 NCAA qualifiers since 2021 were completely unranked high school recruits, and Parker Keckeisen carried up to 66% of the team's national tournament points. His answer: "I don't think we're overachieving at all." Then he explains exactly how UNI develops kids nobody ranked, how he recruited his own son, and why verbal commitments mean nothing in 2026.

Guest: Doug Schwab, head coach at the University of Northern Iowa, NCAA champion, 2008 U.S. Olympian

Topics: recruiting your own kids, the extra year decision, home visit red flags, developing unranked recruits, the Parker Keckeisen effect, NIL and the transfer portal

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Scott Green built Wyoming Seminary into the most feared prep program in the country, then helped put Army wrestling back on the map. Now he's rebuilding New York Military Academy from the keel up, with a four-year clock on winning Prep Nationals. This one is a masterclass in program building: why buy-in beats technique, how to recruit 8th graders honestly, and what happens to wrestlers who have nothing but wrestling.

Guest: Scott Green, two-time National Prep champion coach at Wyoming Seminary (208-9 in duals), former Army West Point associate head coach, now Chief of Staff at New York Military Academy and Executive Director of the West Point Wrestling Club

Topics: prep school recruiting, program building, institutional buy-in, beating Blair, life after wrestling, the riding time debate

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Wyoming Seminary sent 26 ranked recruits to D1 in six years and put 4.5% of this year's NCAA tournament field on the mat, all without handing out a single NIL deal. Head coach Will Weber explains how a Marine's standards, two wrestle-offs a season, and brutal honesty with blue-chip recruits built wrestling's best college prep pipeline.

Guest: Will Weber, Head Coach at Wyoming Seminary; 12 years with the Blue Knights program, Marine Corps veteran

Topics: D1 recruiting pipeline, wrestle-off culture, coaching entitled blue-chip recruits, program fundraising without NIL, building a club from scratch, Scott Green's legacy at Sem

🔗 Championship Fundraising Challenge

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Shane Sparks, the voice of Big Ten wrestling, joins Mike for the argument they've been having over drinks for years: should California's 22,000 wrestlers really compete for one state title? Shane's case is participation and community. Mike's case is data: every top recruit since 2020 mapped by state, and the budgets behind the programs that produce them. Two sides, real receipts, and a middle ground neither expected.

Guest: Shane Sparks, play-by-play broadcaster for Big Ten Network, FloWrestling, ESPN, and the NCAA Championships

Topics: the state championship debate, big board recruiting data, program budgets and fundraising, Final X and Kyle Dake, Spencer Lee before Worlds, 11 weight classes, Shane's Mount Rushmore

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NC State All-American Tommy Gantt left wrestling for one amateur fight and never looked back. Now an undefeated UFC lightweight training with Daniel Cormier, he breaks down what actually transfers from the mat to the cage, plus the Pat Popolizio speech that still drives him.

Guest: Tommy Gantt, 2016 ACC champion and NCAA All-American at NC State, former Wolfpack assistant coach, undefeated UFC lightweight

Topics: wrestling-to-MMA transition, the cardio and length edge, building fight IQ, why MMA coaching lags wrestling, Pat Popolizio and NC State's rise, the mindset switch

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Navy assistant coach Blaize Cabell breaks down how the Midshipmen train, from SEAL-run summer camps to teaching the "feel" that turns good scramblers into great ones, and why heavyweight All-American Danny Wass is about to surprise people. A former three-time NCAA qualifier at Northern Iowa, Cabell coaches the Naval Academy's upper weights.🔗 Championship Fundraising Challenge - Raise your first $500 in 2 weeks or your money back: https://www.athletorlive.com/product/championship-fundraising-challenge🔗 Full Championship Fundraising Course: https://www.athletorlive.com/product/championship-fundraising-course

📋 ABOUT THIS EPISODEBlaize Cabell is an assistant coach at the U.S. Naval Academy, working primarily with the 184, 197, and 285 lb wrestlers, and a former three-time NCAA qualifier at heavyweight for Northern Iowa. In this conversation with host Mike Malinconico, he digs into how Navy structures its summer camps, what Cary Kolat's teaching unlocked for him as a coach, the mental edge wrestlers steal from Navy SEAL training, and the rise of heavyweight All-American Danny Wass. He closes with a sharp take on fixing college wrestling's stalling rules.🎙️ ABOUT ATHLETOR PODCASTThe Athletor Podcast brings you conversations with the coaches, athletes, and minds shaping wrestling. Subscribe for new episodes weekly.🔗 CONNECTYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXjsj-4x50ZVLOvSjaUEM9AInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/athletor.live/X: https://x.com/athletorFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/athletor.live/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@athletor

Damion Hahn helped pull five programs into a rebuilt Pac-12, and he is rebuilding South Dakota State at the same time. He sits down with Mike Malinconico to get into the conference move, developing wrestlers when you can't just plug in a transfer, and the case for building guys up in weight instead of cutting them down. He has the resume to back it: a worn-down 184-pounder who moved up and won two national titles at 197.Guest: Damion Hahn, head coach at South Dakota State, two-time NCAA champion, New Jersey wrestling legendTopics: SDSU's move to the Pac-12, rebuilding a program, wrestler development, going up a weight class vs cutting, leadership in the room, the one-semester college seasonChampionship Fundraising Challenge - Raise your first $500 in 2 weeks or your money back: athletorlive.com/product/championship-fundraising-challenge