Pat and his team

[Mountain Hawk]

Naysayers can stand down. For a long time. We have the best coached heavyweight room in the country and might possibly put our 1st 2 weights as top seeds at NCAAs. We also have quite possibly the highest character coaching staff around with impeccable reputations for same around the wrestling community.
Bemoan results in the short term if you wish. Pee down on them from great heights when they lose a couple if you must. But just know….they are doing more with less resources than any coaching staff in the country. Enjoy the ride here while the sun is shining, but be thankful always for the man who leads this program and other men he’s chosen to lead with him. Talk to wrestling alums if you don’t believe me.

[George Porgie]

Naysayers can stand down. For a long time. We have the best coached heavyweight room in the country and might possibly put our 1st 2 weights as top seeds at NCAAs. We also have quite possibly the highest character coaching staff around with impeccable reputations for same around the wrestling community.
Bemoan results in the short term if you wish. Pee down on them from great heights when they lose a couple if you must. But just know….they are doing more with less resources than any coaching staff in the country. Enjoy the ride here while the sun is shining, but be thankful always for the man who leads this program and other men he’s chosen to lead with him. Talk to wrestling alums if you don’t believe me.

Agreed, look at where it looked like we would be at the beginning of the season and where we ended. Anyone would be proud of this coaching staff, team and effort.

[HFO]

Naysayers can stand down. For a long time. We have the best coached heavyweight room in the country and might possibly put our 1st 2 weights as top seeds at NCAAs. We also have quite possibly the highest character coaching staff around with impeccable reputations for same around the wrestling community.
Bemoan results in the short term if you wish. Pee down on them from great heights when they lose a couple if you must. But just know….they are doing more with less resources than any coaching staff in the country. Enjoy the ride here while the sun is shining, but be thankful always for the man who leads this program and other men he’s chosen to lead with him. Talk to wrestling alums if you don’t believe me.

Reminds me of Special Operations Truths
1. Humans are more important than hardware. People – not equipment – make the critical difference. The right people, highly trained and working as a team, will accomplish the mission with the equipment available. On the other hand, the best equipment in the world cannot compensate for a lack of the right people.

2. Quality is better than quantity. A small number of people, carefully selected, well trained, and well led, are preferable to larger numbers of troops, some of whom may not be up to the task.

I have posted on here many times. Personnel is Policy. Talent acquisition. Talent development. Talent Retention. Is everything to be world class competitive in anything. Most of the time, I had been talking about the decline of research and professor recruitment to LEHIGH. We became medicore.

Pat has run his program like it was Special Operations. While I was an Army medic in WWII and Korea, I had great esteem for Marines. They are smaller, do more with less, and intense mothers to almost fanatical. Their saying has always been they do more with less. They get leftovers from US Navy, always underfunded and always looking to be eliminated by Army and Navy at DOD. Yet, they are first response by self contained Special Purpose Marine Ground Task Force under command of POTUS since Truman for immediate National Security responses.

In the late 80s and early 90s, they had a private to 4 Star General named Al Gray. Al had a saying, "A good General believes an infantry man is replaceable. A GREAT General believes an infantry man is IRREPLACEABLE." The point is that Gray would always prefer battle tested men with experience, cohesiveness and institutional knowledge to be a better fighting unit in maneuver warfare. You cannot just take the next man up and think you will have a world class team. Doesn't matter if it is Marine Corps, a corporation or a college wrestling team.

I am not a big on critique of Pat. He comes from a long Lehigh family and Bethlehem. Has he made mistakes along the way. Absolutely. Nobody is immune to critique. That is how you get better. Pat has the core morals and ethics much like an Al Gray. He is developer of men with a vision for a world class program. He worked it at Maryland. He worked it at LEHIGH. There have been glimpses, but this by far is the pinnacle of his coaching career with 2 freshmen, 1 sophomore and 1 junior who are legitimate NCAA semi-finalists. He got 8 to NCAA.

You never know with any group how they will develop. Some classes are better than others. No different in hospital systems when we take on Resident each year. Pat got the potion in the bottle this year. It all came together. I don't know the quality of outside speakers to the team every year, but they two I remember Pat having were the Bethlehem resident who transformed his life and does the motivational speaking. The other is bringing in a guy like Colin Kilrain, not because he was a great wrestlers, but he was a great leader of elite teams made of elite warriors. When some of those ethos rub off, it can transform an individual. There were quite a number of Lehigh wrestlers who were transformed this year. Building upon growth steps, until they reached an increasing rate of change and their development sky rocketed. I like those kinds of mathematics!

Pat is the real deal. There are some good young men and women lined up to come to Lehigh Wrestling for 2024 and 2025. Don't think we will get anyone new for 2024 out of high school. Doubt Lehigh would even take a late admission if any prize recruit changed their mind. I think we will have a serious bump for 2025 recruiting and off to a great start for 2026.

Like denny, I will not join you for the promised land, but wouldn't it be nice if Lehigh won its first NCAA Team Title along the way. It may not be this year, could be a potential next year if we get elite transfers in at 165, 174, 184. I really like the Terrell Baraclough young man from Penn State. If Carter Starocci, all the better too. It would be something if 3 All American would transfer in for their final year of eligibility.






https://www.socom.mil/about/sof-truths

[HFO]

Pat with nice recap of the EIWA.

https://www.flowrestling.org/events/113 ... 1&limit=60

[1/2NELSON]

Just the THOUGHT of this kid hogging-out at McDonalds gets me howling!

https://www.flowrestling.org/events/113 ... g=12283883

[JAD77]

Naysayers can stand down. For a long time. We have the best coached heavyweight room in the country and might possibly put our 1st 2 weights as top seeds at NCAAs. We also have quite possibly the highest character coaching staff around with impeccable reputations for same around the wrestling community.
Bemoan results in the short term if you wish. Pee down on them from great heights when they lose a couple if you must. But just know….they are doing more with less resources than any coaching staff in the country. Enjoy the ride here while the sun is shining, but be thankful always for the man who leads this program and other men he’s chosen to lead with him. Talk to wrestling alums if you don’t believe me.

Reminds me of Special Operations Truths
1. Humans are more important than hardware. People – not equipment – make the critical difference. The right people, highly trained and working as a team, will accomplish the mission with the equipment available. On the other hand, the best equipment in the world cannot compensate for a lack of the right people.

2. Quality is better than quantity. A small number of people, carefully selected, well trained, and well led, are preferable to larger numbers of troops, some of whom may not be up to the task.

I have posted on here many times. Personnel is Policy. Talent acquisition. Talent development. Talent Retention. Is everything to be world class competitive in anything. Most of the time, I had been talking about the decline of research and professor recruitment to LEHIGH. We became medicore.

Pat has run his program like it was Special Operations. While I was an Army medic in WWII and Korea, I had great esteem for Marines. They are smaller, do more with less, and intense mothers to almost fanatical. Their saying has always been they do more with less. They get leftovers from US Navy, always underfunded and always looking to be eliminated by Army and Navy at DOD. Yet, they are first response by self contained Special Purpose Marine Ground Task Force under command of POTUS since Truman for immediate National Security responses.

In the late 80s and early 90s, they had a private to 4 Star General named Al Gray. Al had a saying, "A good General believes an infantry man is replaceable. A GREAT General believes an infantry man is IRREPLACEABLE." The point is that Gray would always prefer battle tested men with experience, cohesiveness and institutional knowledge to be a better fighting unit in maneuver warfare. You cannot just take the next man up and think you will have a world class team. Doesn't matter if it is Marine Corps, a corporation or a college wrestling team.

I am not a big on critique of Pat. He comes from a long Lehigh family and Bethlehem. Has he made mistakes along the way. Absolutely. Nobody is immune to critique. That is how you get better. Pat has the core morals and ethics much like an Al Gray. He is developer of men with a vision for a world class program. He worked it at Maryland. He worked it at LEHIGH. There have been glimpses, but this by far is the pinnacle of his coaching career with 2 freshmen, 1 sophomore and 1 junior who are legitimate NCAA semi-finalists. He got 8 to NCAA.

You never know with any group how they will develop. Some classes are better than others. No different in hospital systems when we take on Resident each year. Pat got the potion in the bottle this year. It all came together. I don't know the quality of outside speakers to the team every year, but they two I remember Pat having were the Bethlehem resident who transformed his life and does the motivational speaking. The other is bringing in a guy like Colin Kilrain, not because he was a great wrestlers, but he was a great leader of elite teams made of elite warriors. When some of those ethos rub off, it can transform an individual. There were quite a number of Lehigh wrestlers who were transformed this year. Building upon growth steps, until they reached an increasing rate of change and their development sky rocketed. I like those kinds of mathematics!

Pat is the real deal. There are some good young men and women lined up to come to Lehigh Wrestling for 2024 and 2025. Don't think we will get anyone new for 2024 out of high school. Doubt Lehigh would even take a late admission if any prize recruit changed their mind. I think we will have a serious bump for 2025 recruiting and off to a great start for 2026.

Like denny, I will not join you for the promised land, but wouldn't it be nice if Lehigh won its first NCAA Team Title along the way. It may not be this year, could be a potential next year if we get elite transfers in at 165, 174, 184. I really like the Terrell Baraclough young man from Penn State. If Carter Starocci, all the better too. It would be something if 3 All American would transfer in for their final year of eligibility.

https://www.socom.mil/about/sof-truths

POTY - Post of the Year.

[The Kid]

watching a lot of promising Lehigh teams pushed down by injuries in recent years, it is great to see it all coming together better than expected. Hell of a coaching staff and dedicated athletes.