After nine years at UW, wrestling Head Coach Barry Davis is looking to produce another excellent class of UW wrestlers. A silver medalist at the 1984 Summer Olympics and a graduate of the University of Iowa, Davis has coached 10 all-Americans, 39 NCAA championship qualifiers and two national champions. Davis' team finished ninth in the Big Ten last season, with an 11-10 overall record.
The Daily Cardinal: What are you looking forward to this season?
Barry Davis: Last year we took 25th and we weren't really happy with that, both the coaching staff and the athletes. Hopefully we'll see an improvement as the younger kids step up and the older kids go to a new level, as well.
DC: Are there any incoming freshmen who you think will be a valuable asset to the team?
BD: The only freshmen we have starting right now are Kelly Flaherty and ... [Dennis McSweeny]. Tom Clum is competitive, as is Eddie Gutnik. Lee Kraemer will be starting for us too. Most of those guys are young. They're freshmen. But, this is their second year of college, so hopefully they'll step up for us.
DC: There are no home matches until Dec. 1 and after that the team is on the road until February. Do you think the team will be at any disadvantage because of this?
BD: No, but it'd be nice to have more home duals. Right now, the NCAA has only 16 dates and we're trying to get 21 to 25 dates, and hopefully we can do that, but it hasn't gone through yet. If we had more dates, we'd be able to establish more of a fan base.
DC: The Big Ten tournament in will be in Madison this year. Does that give your team an advantage?
BD: We hope so. Being on your home turf, with your home crowd and home state, it should be a motivating factor. But before then, we've got some things to work on as a coaching staff and bring the kids along. I think ... it'll be a big plus, because wrestling in our own building will be good for us.
DC: How long has the team been practicing and how often do they practice?
BD: You can only go six days a week. We had some running workouts and some preseason stuff, but the [first] official practice was a couple weeks ago.
DC: Who will be some of the key wrestlers for you this year?
BD: [Senior captain Kevin Black], being an all-American, I think he's looking to make an improvement on his fourth-place finish last year. And I know [junior captain Ralph DeNisco] was a match away from play last year. [Sophomore Brady Reinke] might step as well too. If those guys can step up, I think some things might take place and we'll be pretty happy with things.
DC: Will victories this weekend at the Michigan State Open really be helpful to starting off the season?
BD: I think so. It'd be nice to get some big wins early for some of these young kids, win some matches for them. The main thing is that they go out hard and be competitive the whole time. If you do that, there's a certainty that things will happen.
