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PODCAST

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal

The Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal

Welcome to "The Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal" where we delve into the world of college and youth wrestling. Join Mike, the head coach of Poway RTC, as he sits down with guests from all levels of the sport, including high school, club, college, and senior-level coaches and athletes. Each week, Mike will bring you insightful discussions on the latest in college and youth wrestling, including training techniques, strategy, and everything in between. You"ll hear from some of the biggest names in the

sports wrestling

All Episodes

00:53:44

191 -- Bo Basset

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/10/07

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 kgTopics: the Real Woods film breakdown, training with Aaron Seidel and James Green,

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00:50:43

Why Alex Marinelli Thinks Iowa Is One Takedown From A...

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/09/30

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 AcademyTopics: Iowa's 2026-27 lineup, Ryder Block and

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00:44:37

Ep 189 - Sebastian Rivera

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/09/23

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

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00:54:18

Ep 188 - Jason Borrelli

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/09/16

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 coachTopics: development scoring, data-driven recruiting, the 85-150

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00:51:04

Ep 187 - TJ Sebolt

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/09/09

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

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01:03:40

Ep. 186 — Jeff Buxton

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/09/02

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

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00:56:28

Ep. 185 – Matt Ciampa

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/08/26

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 YearTopics: coaching your own kid, the dad hat vs. coach hat

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00:57:04

Ep 184 - Nelson Brands

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/08/19

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

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00:58:36

Ep 183 — Coleman Scott

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/08/12

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

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00:47:20

Ep 182 - Barry Davis

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/08/05

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

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01:03:34

Ep. 181 - Doug Schwab

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/07/29

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

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00:57:58

Ep 180 - Scott Green

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/07/22

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

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00:39:16

Why Wrestling's #1 Recruiting Pipeline Refuses NIL...

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/07/15

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 veteranTopics: D1 recruiting pipeline, wrestle-off

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01:18:41

"I Care About the 22,000 Kids, Not the 141 D1...

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/07/08

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,

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00:33:23

"It's just a fist fight for 7 minutes": Tommy Gantt...

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/07/01

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 lightweightTopics: wrestling-to-MMA transition, the cardio and length edge, building fight IQ, why MMA

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00:43:46

Navy's Blaize Cabell on Camps, Coaching Feel, and the...

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/06/24

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:

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01:06:41

Stop Cutting Weight: Damion Hahn's Case for Wrestling...

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/06/17

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

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00:52:22

How Air Force Builds NCAA All-Americans Without NIL...

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/06/10

Air Force wrestling doesn't buy transfers and doesn't play the NIL game — yet they're keeping pace with the top 5 programs in the country. Head coach Sam Barber sits down with Mike Malinconico to explain how.Guest: Sam Barber, head wrestling coach at the United States Air Force Academy (12th season), former head coach at Upper Iowa and part of three NCAA DIII title teams at Augsburg.Topics: building a developmental program, Carter Nogle's All-American run, the "Camp

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00:41:00

"I Couldn't Ride for 30 Seconds to Win a Title. That...

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/06/03

Coach Bryan Snyder, associate head coach at Nebraska and the winningest wrestler in Husker history, joins Mike to go deep on the numbers behind Nebraska's riding game, how they evaluate recruits for top-game potential, and why their transfer portal picks keep turning into All-Americans.Guest: Bryan Snyder, Associate Head Coach, Nebraska Wrestling. 4x All-American, Big 12 Champion, .925 career winning percentageTopics: Nebraska's near-fall and riding time dominance, transfer portal recruiting

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00:52:23

Half a Million or Olympic Dreams — That's the Choice...

Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal ·

2026/05/27

UPenn assistant coach Darian Cruz sits down with Mike to talk about what the data says about Ivy League wrestling at the NCAA tournament, why coaching at Penn means competing with Wall Street for your athletes' attention, and how a post-COVID conversation led him to represent Puerto Rico on the international stage.Guest: Darian Cruz — 2017 NCAA Champion (Lehigh), 2024 Paris Olympian (Puerto Rico), UPenn Assistant CoachTopics: Ivy League vs EIWA NCAA performance, conference scoring data,

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