Ranking Roundup

This initial Ranking Roundup may have fewer polls than Roundups in the future.  Many ranking services have prepared preseason rankings, but others are waiting until the season gets going to begin the greuling task of ranking our sport's best teams and individuals.  In addition, we expect to see many more Wolfpackers in the rankings in the near future!

WIN Preseason Tournament Power Index (TPI)
09.13.2012
#35 NC State (tie with Navy)

WIN Preseason Individual Ranking
09.13.2012
#8 HWT Nick Gwiazdowski (Redshirting 2012-2013 season)

Atlantic Regional DI Rankings
10.13.2012
#15 157 Matt Nereim
#19 165 Nijel Jones
#18 HWT Eloheim Palma

Wrestling Report NCAA DI Ranking
09.29.2012
#33 157 Matt Nereim

What is #PackMentality?

Mentality Monday

New Weekly Segment Premiering Wednesday

Starting next Wednesday (10.31) I will begin our "Ranking Roundup."  This weekly feature will bring all of the ranking services to you in one place, noting each ranked Wolfpack Wrestler and team ranking. This feature will continue all the way through the season, with the final Roundup being the week after Nationals.

Stay tuned for that on Wednesday, and have a great weekend.  Don't forget to cheer on Pack Football as they face UNC on Saturday! Go PACK!

Athletic Director Debbie Yow on Wolfpack Wrestling

Thanks to FloWrestling for taking time to do a great interview with Dr. Yow!

Watch more video of NC State Enters The Season on flowrestling.org

Wolfpack Birthday!

Wishing Coach Jamill Kelly a very Happy Birthday! 

 

Retreat: Skydiving Photos

When we arrived at the retreat last Friday evening, the first thing we did was simulated skydiving in a wind tunnel.  A few pictures are below, and the entire album is here.  I'll also put a link on the Photos page.  Enjoy!

And so it begins... Official Practice!

We had our first official day of practice today.  Our preseason was a little longer than most teams (official practices could begin as early as 10/10).  The extended preseason is done by design, as the coaching staff determined that it would be best for the team to structure workouts this way.  We are very excited for the season to get underway!

We opened practice with a dynamic warm-up, followed by Coach Kelly teaching some defense (down-blocks & front headlocks).  From there, we went in to a short, hard drill and then wrestled an extended period of live.  We broke in to three-man groups and went 15, 2-minute live goes, switched groups, and continued with 15, 1-minute live goes.  We finished practice with a match-length of shadow drilling.  Overall, the team did very well adjusting to the regular season workout.  There are a few guys who need to force themselves to open up offensively when they're tired, but overall, it was a great, intense, first day of official practice in the Wolfpack room!

Mentality Monday

The Final Countdown

This weekend, the Wolfpack is heading out of town for a team retreat (*secret locale*) to cap off their preseason work.  Official practices will begin next week.  FloWrestling is in Wolfpack Country to document the new era of Wolfpack wrestling and to capture some moments from the retreat.

Stay tuned for a recap of the retreat next week.  For now, below are some photos from today's workout.  Enjoy!

 

D1CW Spotlight on New Head Coaches

 
 

To read the entire article from D1CW, click here. Below is the segment featuring Coach Popolizio:

NC State-Pat Popolizio

Coaching Resume:

2006-2012 Head Coach-Binghamton University

2004-2006 Assistant Coach-American University

2003-2004 Assistant Coach-US Military Academy

2002-2003 Assistant Coach-Sacred Heart University

Background:

The NC State Wolfpack won the Pat Popolizio coaching sweepstakes.  Over the past few seasons it was rumored that Popolizio would land at a handful of different big time jobs.  He earned the title of "Hot Coaching Prospect" by taking a non-fully funded Binghamton team from scratch to become a team that finished 14th at the NCAA Championships with two NCAA All-Americans in 2011-12.  Prior to the 2008-09 season Binghamton never had a DI All-American.  He has also been credited with helping Mark Cody lay the foundation that helped become a top ten program at American University.

The Future:

The Future is exactly what they are building for in Raleigh.  Pat Popolizio and his staff are in the midst of changing the culture at NC State, so the 2012-13 edition of the Wolfpack will feature a young, inexperienced team after multiple veterans are no longer with the program.  One of Popolizio's prized pupil's from Binghamton, 2012 True Freshman All-American Nick Gwiazdowski, has transferred to NC State but will redshirt in the 2012-13 season. 

Pat Popolizio has assembled a very good coaching staff to assist him at NC State starting with one of his coaches from Binghamton in Frank Beasley.  He doesn't get the credit that other assistant's nationwide get, but Beasley is one of the better assistants out there. Prior to his stint in Binghamton, Beasley helped Buffalo haul in the #11 overall recruiting class by D1CW in 2010-11. Also on board is Popolizio's Oklahoma State teammate Jamill Kelly, 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist.  How many coaching staff's can claim that?

One intangible that has to be mentioned about the NC State coaching position is the support that they will be getting from their administration.  Athletic Director Debbie Yow is one of the biggest proponents for Olympic sports as far as AD's go.  She previously was the AD at the University of Maryland and oversaw the construction of the program by Pat Santoro, and also hired current Head Coach Kerry McCoy.  As soon as she took the position at NC State the program got a boost forward.  In the long run, don't be suprised if the Wolfpack breakthrough and unseat the northern ACC teams (Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech) as the class of the conference.