First Year Down, First Year To Go

This is a special bonus episode of #RockedUp that's actually the January 21 episode of the Short Time Wrestling Podcast. It's plugged into the feed to give subscribers an update on the program since the whistle blew on Conner Ward's first match.  Little Rock hosted its first home event of the year on January 17 at the Jack Stephens Center against Oklahoma State and SIUE. The tri-meet launched the second season of Little Rock wrestling on the mats. Coach Neil Erisman, an Oklahoma State alum, sat down to talk about the progress of the program in the second year of competition, what it’s like to bring in new wrestlers with something tangible to show rather than just a vision, and the investment a coach feels when they lose an athlete who doesn’t want to compete anymore.    Erisman also explains some of the things that aren’t taught, but learned on the job, such as working with mentors from the community, giving back with community outreach as well as his relationships with assistant coaches Javier Maldonado and Chandler Rogers. 

When November 24, 2019 finally came, it put a close on the building era of the Little Rock wrestling program. It’s been 616 days since the announcement during the 2018 NCAA Division I Championships of a new Division I program. For coach Neil Erisman, it’s been 522 days since he was introduced as the first head coach in program history. For wrestling fans in the state of Arkansas, it was a decade and a half in the making. The only time a major state school had sponsored wrestling, as you learned in Episode 1 of Rocked Up, came in the 1950s at Arkansas State. That was more of a pet project of a wrestling coach rather than a bonafide college athletics program. That also pre-dated the NCAA’s divisional structure. So history was going to be made when the first whistle blew at 2 p.m. on Sunday, November 24, 2019 at the Jack Stephens Center on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. These are the final hours leading to the culmination of the building process and the commencement of competition. One last practice. They weigh in, at home, for the first time, in 24 hours. Welcome to Rocked Up, the story of the foundation and formation of the first Division I college wrestling program in Arkansas, starting in November of 2019 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. This is the finale to that story. We started the journey developing the foundation of wrestling in the state of Arkansas and now we’ve moved on to the formation of the team, because to tell the full story of this program, you have to start at the very beginning. Where one door closes, another opens, and in Little Rock, we close the book on how this all got started. Now, the coaches, administration and athletes at Little Rock will write their own stories. Thank you for listening. I’m Jason Bryant. Rocked Up is a presentation of the Mat Talk Podcast Network and can be found on the web at GetRockedUp.com or at MatTalkOnline.com.

With the days winding down before Little Rock wrestlers take to their home mat at the Jack Stephens Center for the first time, there’s been a change at the top. One of the men instrumental in making Little Rock’s wrestling program a reality, Chasse Conque, left Little Rock in late August to accept the role of Athletic Director at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, which came into being after a consolidation of three separate colleges. You might have heard of Texas-Pan American. You probably haven’t. Conque also brought Molly Castner with him as she assumes the role of Deputy AD and Senior Women’s Administrator. This left Little Rock searching for a person to lead the department, not just into the launch of its new wrestling program, but to the lead during a time of great growth within the school’s athletics programs as a whole. They turned to George Lee, the standing Senior Associate Director of Athletics and Chief Financial Officer. This is a man who’s job was to make sure things were financially viable for anything to happen within Little Rock Athletics. Lee is a Little Rock alum who’s had an association with the school for over 30 years. His wife works at the school and he previously served as an interim AD in the past. Today, we learn more about Lee. Welcome to Rocked Up, the story of the foundation and formation of the first Division I college wrestling program in Arkansas, starting in November of 2019 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. This is the 11th edition of this story. We started the journey developing the foundation of wrestling in the state of Arkansas and now we’ve moved on to the formation of the team, because to tell the full story of this program, you have to start at the very beginning. Lee’s background is on the financial side. While a fan of sports, he’s always been one of those administrators who didn’t have to make all the public appearances and address the people. Lee’s role is a requirement in college sports. If no one’s managing the money or asking “How do you expect to pay for that,” then you have balance sheets in the red and athletes potentially out in the cold. First, Lee explains how the campus has changed in size and stature since he attended in the 1980s. Rocked Up is a presentation of the Mat Talk Podcast Network and can be found on the web at GetRockedUp.com or at MatTalkOnline.com. 

For a solid year, Neil Erisman was it when it came to the new wrestling program at Little Rock. He was every coach, every recruiting coordinator, he ran every errand that needed to be run. He did all this while awaiting the completion of his offices and wrestling facility and with a wife and three – soon to be four – kids at home. It might have been the busiest year of the young coach’s life. But when it came time to hire an assistant coach, there were over four dozen candidates interviewed. Some were close friends from his time at Oklahoma State, others were coaches who were looking for upward mobility and a good paycheck. Then there were the ones who were true coaches, but ultimately one candidate stood out above the rest. Coach Erisman wasn’t just hiring an assistant coach, he was hiring the other part of his staff that would create the coaching unit to pilot Little Rock wrestling into its maiden wrestling season. Remember the situation when Little Rock hired Erisman to be their head coach? Did they go for the high profile national champion? The seasoned Division I assistant or the sexy name hire? They went with a guy who had a passion to build and a passion to teach. Erisman did the same when he selected Javier Maldonado as Little Rock’s first assistant wrestling coach. Welcome to Rocked Up, the story of the foundation and formation of the first Division I college wrestling program in Arkansas, starting in November of 2019 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. This is the 10th edition of this story. We started the journey developing the foundation of wrestling in the state of Arkansas and now we’ve moved on to the formation of the team, because to tell the full story of this program, you have to start at the very beginning. In 2018-19, Javier Maldonado was leading Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida to its second straight Top 20 finish at the NAIA National Championships. Southeastern was the first varsity college wrestling program in the state of Florida in nearly three decades. The school put an emphasis on wrestling and building the profile of the sport and the school, doing it with one of their native sons. Maldonado is a Florida native. Rocked Up is a presentation of the Mat Talk Podcast Network and can be found on the web at GetRockedUp.com or at MatTalkOnline.com. 

One year since the hiring of Neil Erisman, things have been changing at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Construction was starting on the new on-campus practice facility, recruits have joined Conner Ward, creating the roster for the first team that would take to the mats in November of 2019 and conference affiliation and scheduling was starting to become more prominent in coach Erisman’s day. That wrestling facility was set to finish in early September, just days before the official start of practice. Erisman’s wrestling family had grown, but his immediate family was growing too, as a new Erisman child was coming in the late summer. A year after Erisman was hired, the wrestling program started looking like it was a real wrestling program. With one year on the job done, but his first official year leading the school into uncharted waters, now the actual competitive work had to get done. Welcome to Rocked Up, the story of the foundation and formation of the first Division I college wrestling program in Arkansas, starting in November of 2019 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. This is the ninth edition of this story. We started the journey developing the foundation of wrestling in the state of Arkansas and now we’ve moved on to the formation of the team, because to tell the full story of this program, you have to start at the very beginning. Rocked Up is a presentation of the Mat Talk Podcast Network and can be found on the web at GetRockedUp.com or at MatTalkOnline.com.

With coaches hired and administrative support set, the first whistle blows for Little Rock’s first wrestling dual in November of 2019. But even before that dual and that official season commences, there’s one athlete who’s already ready to roll. When new programs are started, colleges typically decide to hire a coach and recruit athletes the year prior to actual competition. Those coaches will then redshirt those athletes, allowing them to practice and preserve eligibility, but they aren’t typically competing. They’re a team, but they’re not yet a team. Such is the case with Conner Ward, a Kansas native who during the first semester of the 2018-19 academic year, was the ONLY wrestler at the school. A handful of wrestlers would transfer in for the second semester, but during the first semester, Conner Ward was “The Little Rock guy,” the only wrestler on a team that really didn’t even exist yet. Last season, Ward was the most unique wrestler in the country and today, we’ll find out how and why that materialized. Welcome to Rocked Up, the story of the foundation and formation of the first Division I college wrestling program in Arkansas, starting in November of 2019 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. This is the eighth edition of this story. We started the journey developing the foundation of wrestling in the state of Arkansas and now we’ve moved on to the formation of the team, because to tell the full story of this program, you have to start at the very beginning. Rocked Up is a presentation of the Mat Talk Podcast Network and can be found on the web at GetRockedUp.com or at MatTalkOnline.com. 

There’s a lot of moving parts in a college athletics department. It’s more than just an Athletic Director and some coaches. There’s support staff, administrative assistants, academic support, compliance, sports information, marketing and promotions, ticket sales, donor relations – so when the University of Arkansas-Little Rock announced its new Division I wrestling program in March of 2018, there was a lot more work involved from an athletic administration standpoint after the announcement than just hiring a coach and recruiting some wrestlers. While the landscape of big time college sports today seems to be enamored with pay-for-play and athlete likenesses, sports outside of basketball and football stay out of that mainstream spotlight. For administrators at most places, the focus on a successful college athletics program isn’t always just about championships – it’s about their belief in what athletics can bring to a campus – a real sense of community. For Little Rock, a coach has been hired and a start time has been set. But it’s not just up to newly hired head coach Neil Erisman to get things done – there’s a lot of moving parts that don’t directly involve wrestling mats and headgear. It’s not all falling on people like AD Chasse Conque, either. That’s where people like Molly Castner come in. Welcome to Rocked Up, the story of the foundation and formation of the first Division I college wrestling program in Arkansas, starting in November of 2019 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. This is the sixth edition of this story. The first five set the table, because to tell the story of the Little Rock Trojans wrestling program, you had to start from the ground up – with the foundation of Arkansas high school wrestling, which didn’t even exist 11 years ago. Rocked Up is a presentation of the Mat Talk Podcast Network and can be found on the web at GetRockedUp.com or at MatTalkOnline.com. 

If you’re the athletics director at a Division I institution and you’re looking to hire a head coach to start your team from scratch, what are some of the credentials you look for? If you’re starting a basketball team, are you going to look at someone like a legendary coach like Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski or UConn’s Geno Auriemma? Would you go with a legendary athlete like a Michael Jordan or a LeBron James? In football, are you looking for the Joe Montana-type or are you looking for someone who’s built a career on coaching despite not having lavish athletic credentials like New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick? Are you looking for a person to groom the culture and create a community and family or are you looking for someone who wants to win at any cost. The one thing about college sports is all of those types of coaches get jobs at some point or another. In wrestling, Division I head coaching jobs are rare. As we enter the 2019-20 college wrestling season, there are 78 Division I wrestling teams. In Division I basketball, there are 347 teams. Wrestling teams are often classified as non-revenue sports, meaning the school isn’t taking in a lot of money on gate receipts. At the Division I level, basketball and football are revenue sports, where schools sometimes rely on the attendance and success of those programs to help finance the other sports in the department. Whether or not those teams bring in positive cashflow doesn’t change their distinction. So the pressure to win and put butts in the seats isn’t as imperative on a wrestling coach, although in the competitive climate of athletics with rising costs, coaches are now being charged to make their programs more valuable in the eyes of a department. If you’re a team with low graduation rates, poor grades, disciplinary problems and a culture of trouble, you’re going to be at risk, especially if you’re a non-revenue sport. With all that being considered, wrestling fans typically get stars in their eyes about the latest up-and-coming coach, usually someone who’s got tremendous credentials on the mat. It’s almost a let down for some fans when they hire a coach who isn’t a national champion. I don’t have anything statistically to justify this claim, but the impression I get is wrestling believes more than other sports that you have to have achieved at the highest level to be a successful coach. If it’s not a “name” hire, then the administration failed the fans and the alumni. So what type of hire was Little Rock AD Chasse Conque going to pick up? Welcome to Rocked Up, the story of the foundation and formation of the first Division I college wrestling program in Arkansas, starting in November of 2019 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. This is the sixth edition of this story. The first five set the table, because to tell the story of the Little Rock Trojans wrestling program, you had to start from the ground up – with the foundation of Arkansas high school wrestling, which didn’t even exist 11 years ago. Last episode, we talked with Chasse Conque shortly after the announcement came in March of 2018 that Little Rock would add Division I wrestling to its sports offerings starting in 2019-20. On June 20, 2018, Little Rock introduced the man who would lead their new program and set the tone for what to expect. So who is Neil Erisman? Rocked Up is a presentation of the Mat Talk Podcast Network and can be found on the web at GetRockedUp.com or at MatTalkOnline.com. SUBSCRIBE & LISTEN TO THE SHOW Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Spreaker | RSS SUPPORT THE SHOW And if you're a fan of the extensive and broad-based reach of the shows on the Mat Talk Podcast Network, become a TEAM MEMBER today. There are various levels of perks for the different levels of team membership. If you like wrestling content -- scratch that -- if you LOVE great wrestling content, consider becoming a team member and supporting the show. You'll get some cool stuff too.

Capturing the nation's attention In the big money world of Division I college athletics, only five championship sports actually make the NCAA money. Of course, the biggest is the Final Four, the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. Now 68 teams play their way to a championships. The venues are large and the volume of printed brackets and online office pools is astronomical. The other championships that make the NCAA money are the College World Series, held annually in Omaha, the Frozen Four, the name for the NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey tournament, the NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse championship – AND – to the surprise of many – the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship. Before you say “but what about football,” did you know the NCAA actually does not award a trophy and present an actual championship for what’s called the Football Bowl Subdivision? Oh, sure, there’s a trophy, but the only NCAA logo on a Division I football trophy belongs to the winner of what’s called the Football Championship Subdivision, formerly known as I-AA. Semantics and officialness aside, wrestling has been a consistent moneymaker at the championships level for decades. Much of that has come from the move away from campus sites and into larger metropolitan areas and major league arenas. Or in the case in 2020, NFL Stadiums. Yes, Minneapolis’ U.S. Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings, is expected to draw over 40,000 fans across each of the six sessions in March of 2020. It’s an indication that the health of wrestling has improved. It’s also a great spot to sell the sport of wrestling to curious college administrators. For people looking to start a Division I program in Arkansas, a sellout crowd at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland in March of 2018 was the perfect backdrop to make history. Welcome to Rocked Up, the story of the foundation and formation of the first Division I college wrestling program in Arkansas, starting in November of 2019 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. This is the fifth edition of this story. The first four set the table, because to tell the story of the Little Rock Trojans wrestling program, you had to start from the ground up – with the foundation of Arkansas high school wrestling, which didn’t even exist 11 years ago. Since the beginning, we’ve introduced you to high school coaches, wrestling leaders, athletic directors, financial benefactors as well as some of the pioneers within the state. Today, we meet one of the architects and one of the people who needed to say yes in order for this dream to actually become a reality – Little Rock Athletics Director Chasse Conque. EPILOGUE: As this episode gets released in August of 2019, there was a personnel change between the time we had meetings with Conque for this project. In early August of 2019, Conque took a similar position at Division I Texas-Rio Grande Valley. While he’s no longer at Little Rock, his fingerprints are still all over this move. Rocked Up is a presentation of the Mat Talk Podcast Network and can be found on the web at GetRockedUp.com or at MatTalkOnline.com. SUBSCRIBE & LISTEN TO THE SHOW Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Spreaker | RSS SUPPORT THE SHOW And if you're a fan of the extensive and broad-based reach of the shows on the Mat Talk Podcast Network, become a TEAM MEMBER today. There are various levels of perks for the different levels of team membership. If you like wrestling content -- scratch that -- if you LOVE great wrestling content, consider becoming a team member and supporting the show. You'll get some cool stuff too.

A Legend Comes to Town In the lore of college sports, there's always the aura of having done something no one else had ever done. In 1994, a wrestler from Oklahoma State University named Pat Smith became the first wrestler in NCAA Division I wrestling history to win four straight national championships. Years later, Smith would be talked into moving to Arkansas and helping create one of the largest grassroots wrestling movements the sport had ever seen. On Episode 4 of Rocked Up, we'll meet Pat Smith and discover how one of the legends of wrestling found himself in a state with zero wrestling and his involvement in helping build the high school and summer wrestling circuits. We'll also take a look back at 2009 and the first Arkansas team to go to Fargo. Check out that old video feature from host Jason Bryant during his time at USA Wrestling by clicking here. Rocked Up is a presentation of the Mat Talk Podcast Network and can be found on the web at GetRockedUp.com or at MatTalkOnline.com.