For years, the name Ken Chertow has been synonymous with wrestling in central Pennsylvania — with his camps and clinics, with his legacy competing for Penn State and internationally, and with the number of top-level athletes like Zain Retherford and Mitchell Port who have been under his guidance.
Early last year, however, the 1989 Penn State graduate and former U.S. Olympian opted for a major life change, leaving State College to start a new program at Division II Queens University in Charlotte, N.C. The Royals have posted a 4-5 dual-meet record in their inaugural season, using a roster of 24 athletes, 18 of whom are freshmen. Chertow shared his thoughts on the new venture with the CDT:
Q: How is the progress on building the program at Queens?
A: They gave me the option to wait a year to start it, but I chose to go ahead and get it rolling. I recruited in April and May of last year; that was my main recruiting, putting everyone together for this year’s class. It’s going well. We’ve got a lot of 18-year-olds out there, winning about half our matches, and I feel good about our progress. I’m enjoying the experience. We’ve got another 12 guys committed from this year’s (high school) senior class, so they’ll be joining us next year.
Q: Did you pull in any students, anyone who was already on (the Queens) campus?
A: That definitely wasn’t the main goal, but one guy had an interesting story: He never wrestled before. (Freshman Copeland Barbee) didn’t wrestle in high school or anything. He came, he’s a big guy, and he had an interest and he was going on about WWE — I kid you not. I was a little skeptical at first, wasn’t too keen on it, but he’s proven to be a very dedicated athlete to the sport and he’s athletic. He weighs about 230 (pounds), so he doesn’t have to know a lot of moves. He’s picking it up pretty quickly, so I’m pretty pleased with that.
Q: When you are building a program, what are some of the challenges to starting a program, especially in an area that doesn’t have the rich tradition of an area like Pennsylvania?
First of all, it’s getting the word out, promoting the sport in the southeast, letting people the opportunity’s there. And once you get the athletes here, creating a culture of a serious, year-round, intense training of guys that want to do extra and help and motivate guys to want to do extra. I guess promotion and creating a culture of excellence.
A: Is there anything that you had from your time at Penn State, State College, working around here that you’ve implemented down there?
Being a Penn State athlete, and learning from Coach (Rich) Lorenzo and Coach (John) Fritz and the many coaches that impacted me, definitely I’ve gleaned information from them — absolutely. Watching some of my best athletes that I trained as kids, for example Quentin Wright and Zain Retheford, I’ve watched them progress and grow and mature at Penn State, along with the many other great athletes that are at Penn State now. What they’re doing now with the program is incredible. I’m an avid student of sport, and my goal is to teach our athletes the best, most high-percentage moves that are going to work most consistently, so certainly I keep up with the most cutting-edge training and technique, and implement it here. I think the guys have the right attitude in general. The main difference is, most guys up north, especially at Penn State, have been competing since they were 6 years old, year-round to some degree. Many these wrestlers were just starting in seventh or ninth grade; they’re just not as diversely experienced. They have the work ethic and intensity, I’ve just got to expand their repertoire and create the year-round culture.
Q: Do you still do your clinics in State College?
A: Absolutely. The Ramada Inn has been very good to me in State College. We’re there every year the Sunday after Arts Festival (Central Pennsylvania Festival for the Arts). We start (this year) July 15 and run that camp until July 20, pretty much every summer, every year. It’s a great setup. We wrestle, eat and sleep right there in that training facility. It’s so good to see so many wrestlers grow up, come to my camp and go on — whether they go to Penn State, Cornell, Lehigh, Pitt or wherever they go away to college. I’ve been sending kids away to college for a long time. Now, with my children in college, I decided it was time to take over a college and go ahead coach the guys at this age group instead of the younger age groups.
Q: Some local residents are probably wondering, are there any nibbles on your custom-built house near Boalsburg — the one with the large wrestling training building?
A: We’ve had about 10 people come through. ... Seriously, we would like to sell it. We are relocating for good to Charlotte. We like it here, we’re happy here, we have a good situation here, and we’d like someone to buy that house. That was my dream. Training wrestlers year-round, walking out my door and having a wrestling room in my backyard. That was my thing. I saved up money for over a decade to build the dream, build the ideal house for my family, raise my kids — it was awesome. But it was time. ... We got to move south, start a college wrestling program, I got to return to college coaching. I would like to see it used for wrestling. (Former Penn State national champion) David Taylor looked at it. Him and his wife came through a couple times, took a serious look at it.
Gordon Brunskill: 814-231-4608, @GordonCDT
This story was originally published January 27, 2018 8:10 PM.