But thought he was the best of the candidates who's names were being thrown around. There were a few things he did at the outset that have made his own stamp on the program:

1) Even before he was hired, he began to emphasize freestyle. While he was still an interim coach he made the decision to pull our redshirts and backups from the National Collegiate Open, so that could focus on the University Nationals, a freestyle event. The thing to remember here, was that Robie never was a freestyle guy, but he realized the importance of emphasizing freestyle to keeping all of the room engaged and getting recruits.

2) He nailed the hires. His hires needed to to show current wrestlers and recruits what direction he wanted the program to head in. Rather than hiring primarily from his (or edinboro's) tree, he hired Frank Molinaro, an Olympian who came from the type of program he want VT to be (PSU), Frayer an Olympian who left the coaching ranks but seemed to be hungry to get back and Ty Walz, a VT graduate who is a great example of what Robie is about.

3) He retained our wrestlers. After looking at the rampant amount of transfers, I am convinced that had we hired anyone else we would have had several wrestlers transfer to other programs. Degens was the only wrestler to transfer. Many on this board credited Dresser for not poaching these guys, but the guys lobbied WB to give Robie a shot.

4) He made SERTC a living, breathing thing. After his staff was in place he had a series of conference calls to explain what SERTC was about. Most of the the staff still compete (and win) internationally. There are SERTC practices, there's actually a SERTC singlet. Gone are the days where the only visibility of SERTC was sponsoring a post matches social and asking for money..... it's alive and finding success.

5) We had a strong season on the mat and have kept the momentum through the freestyle season.

6) We've worked hard on recruiting, and that work is beginning to bear fruit.