Building A Division III Powerhouse

You can learn a lot about leadership from someone who once graduated with a 2.0, started at junior college, and still fought his way to a master’s degree and a long head coaching career. We’re talking with Baldwin Wallace University head wrestling coach Jamie Gibbs, a Division III wrestling staple in Northeast Ohio who’s built his program the hard way: by betting on people, setting a standard, and staying consistent long after the hype fades.

We trace his path from rural Iowa and Western Dubuque High School to college wrestling, coaching, and big moves across the country, including a stretch in the UNC system before landing in Berea. Coach Gibbs opens up about how mentors changed everything, why culture matters more than shortcuts, and what it means to develop student-athletes beyond “getting your hand raised.” If you care about college athletics, wrestling recruiting, and real athlete development, you’ll hear practical insight on depth charts, retention, and building confidence in a room full of competitors.

We also get into the fun stuff: stories about former BW standouts, early UFC toughness, and a straight answer on what separates a great Division III wrestler from a great Division I wrestler. Stick around for the Fast Fiddy Five to close it out.

If you enjoy the conversation, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more wrestling fans can find the show.

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Transcript

Sponsors And Season Milestones

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home Rants Podcast. This is your special guest host, Fiddy, on the ones and twos today, bringing you a very, very special guest and a legendary coach, not just in Northeast Ohio, but in all of Division III Wrestling. Before we dive into the show, though, with this great coach, make sure you peep all of our sponsors in the pre-roll as we redid the pre-roll. So you definitely want to peep them. They're all great sponsors for us, all small business owners. And then stay and check out the post-roll as well. So with some great uh info from Mike. Also, make sure you're checking out all of our shows from the past five seasons and this season being season six. We are halfway through season six. It's crazy, over 300 episodes of the Ride Home Rants podcast. So make sure you're checking all the great guests out and all the roundtables and all the time that we grew from 2020 really through now in 2026. Without further ado, though, I'm going to jump into today's show with a legendary coach, and he's even a better guy than that, and just a great man, Coach Jamie Gibbs from Baldwin Wallace University. Jamie, thanks for joining the show today.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Thank you. Thanks for the kind introduction. I appreciate that. So let me get this straight. It's Fitti F-I-D-D-Y.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

That is that is right. That's been my nickname since I've been 15 years old. It's been with me for 24 years. So what happened was is I what happened was I was walking home in ninth grade, and a couple guys I went to school with were sitting on the front porch of the one guy's mom's house, and they were like, J Fitty from the city, as a joke for you know, John Falcone. So they say it. Then from there, right, everybody start calling, they just start saying J Fitty from the city in school. Then it went down to J Fitty, then it went from Fitty from the City, then it just went to Fitty, and then now 24 years later, pretty much everyone who I know in social circles in this podcast knows me as Fitty. A lot of people never even knew my name was John or Johnny for a long time. So there's your fun fact of the day, coach.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Well, when I asked Steve Thompson for your uh cell phone contact, that's how it came, Fitty. Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Steve's always called him.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

And he said, Yeah, I only know him as Fitty.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Yep. So Steve's always called me that. Shout out Steve Thompson, former guest of the show and the director of athletics at VW. But yeah, so that's uh that's my little background with the uh with the nickname. So, Jamie, you're originally not from the state of Ohio, you but you are well traveled and you're you're here now. So talk to the listeners out there about you know where did you grow up and what were you involved in as a kid and through high school?

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Yeah. So I grew up in Rickardsville, Iowa. It's about 12 miles north, 12 miles north of Dubuque, Iowa, northwest of Dubuque, Iowa. Very rural area. I went to Western Dubuque High School and grew out in the country where you know, lived on a gravel road and you know, cornfield in the backyard, forest on side yard, forest in the front yard across the gravel road, and cornfield and hayfield on the on the on the east side as well. So yeah, grew up there for and then did my play played sports growing up, did baseball. My dad was my baseball coach growing up, played football, and then just stuck with wrestling probably after my sophomore year and wrestled in college at Iowa Central for two years and then to Co College for two years, and then got my master's degree at University of Wisconsin LaCrosse, and then got my first full-time coaching job at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And from there, got my first head coaching job in Pembroke, North Carolina, at UNC Pembroke, and then well, I just completed my 15th year here, Johnny. And uh so 15 years ago in August, I'll have lived uh in this August when August hits, I'll have been lived in Ohio for 15 years, so it's pretty wild.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Yeah, that's a that's a heck of a journey from Iowa to Wisconsin to you know North Carolina in Ohio. Now, I want to talk to you about a little bit about Iowa. Now, we had a couple legendary Hawkeye football players on this show previously. Ricky Stanzi, the winningest quarterback in Iowa football history, 3-0, three huge bowl game wins, and one of the greatest defensive backs in Iowa football history and Joe Von Johnson as a four-year starter

Meet Coach Jamie Gibbs

SPEAKER_00 4:48

out there, former NFL player, former CFL player, both those guys did play in the NFL. So, you know, I wanna I wanna ask you this. Um, are you an Iowa or are you an Iowa State football fan?

SPEAKER_02 5:00

Uh Hawks all the way. Okay. Okay. So then no cyclones. That's what we got.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

So then you probably know about Ricky and then Joe Von B in there, and they spoke nothing but great things about University of Iowa. And actually, funny story, I was going through Iowa about five years ago. We drove the Omaha, Nebraska from Taven. And we drove right right through 80, exactly the whole way. We stopped in the University of Iowa, and I you know, I thought it was a nice campus. I don't think it was over spectacular though, compared to some of the other Big Ten schools. So I do give the University of Iowa a lot of credit for the success they have in all their sports with not having campuses like Penn State and Ohio State. But, anyways, what I want to ask you though about Iowa is when we were driving and it was nighttime, all we seen were these blinking red lights out of nowhere. And we were like, what is this? Is this like an alien spacecraft or something? And here it

How Fitty Got His Name

SPEAKER_00 5:59

was like the wind turbines, so planes don't hit them. So is that like a was that like a common thing like growing up, the thing just in the darkness, those red blinking lights because of all of that there?

SPEAKER_02 6:11

I I don't I don't recall that, but okay. Sounds right.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Because it was like terrifying. It was like, what are these like hundreds, if not thousands, of red blinking lights? And it's like, what what is this? This is like crazy. And then finding out it was like the wind turbines when I looked it up. But so tell me though, with your with Iowa, with with its like rural started to like rural density and yet some other areas that are well populated, what are the high schools like there? Are they like by county or they by city? Like, what was your high school like? Was it like a bunch of like rural areas added into one school?

SPEAKER_02 6:48

Yeah, so Western Dubuque, if you if you do a Google search, I know at one time they they were on like Good Morning America for their bus routes, like in one day the number of miles that that all their school buses travel goes all the way across the US of A. It's it's it's that large of a school district. You know, with all this, it's just a it's a whole bunch of small towns getting bussed in from you know 15 to

Growing Up Rural In Iowa

SPEAKER_02 7:21

20 minutes away.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Wow. Okay. You know, and I know I I know some of the more rural areas in the United States do have that, right? It's like they put a bunch of the smaller areas in there, but I know it definitely can create a strain on busing, you know, and the transportation. So so you stay at home, you know, in Iowa, you you wrestle, you know, in college, and when you finish up wrestling in high school, you go on to college. You know, what was that experience like, you know, being a college wrestler, you know, at the community college level and then the you know, the the four-year level?

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Yeah, so you know, I think coming out of high school, I was I was not uh I I I hated school. I was a terrible student. I graduated high school with a 2.0 and I had to go to community college. Didn't even want to go to school. I had zero, you know, didn't know what I wanted to do. I was a very young, immature kid. But I enjoyed wrestling, and you know, thankfully I I knew I really wanted to wrestle in college, but you know, again, being a terrible student, I went to junior college route was my only option. And, you know, with with hopes of you know, I wanted to wrestle at the highest level possible and went there for two years. And my first semester, I was a 2.2, and then you know, I just started getting around the right people. I mean, and probably where I'm at today, you know, I after that I never got below a 3.0 again and went on and even got a master's degree, which, you know, I you know, I just I I I did not excel at the high school level, but again, getting around the right coaches, the right people, you know, probably again why I do what I do today. The, you know, the the some of the mentors that I've had and and what they the way they guided me and found my strengths, you know what I mean? And complimented my strengths and and just really helped me find my path. You know, I changed majors five times. I had no, you know, no idea what I wanted to do, no, you know, didn't want to go to college and you know, went on to get my master's degree. And so, you know, I think doing what I do now, it is tough to know what you want to do at 17, 18 years old, know what you want to do the rest of your life. So that was that. And then uh, you know, I I uh went on and wrestled at at Co. College. It was a remarkable experience. And I had some unbelievable teammates and mentors and professors, and and then, you know, so the guy I wrestled for, he was a three-time All-American at Ottawa for legendary Dan Gable. And so he was another he was a he was a world team member for Team USA. But you know, this guy when I graduated from Co. College, he drove me three and a half hours for a graduate school interview that got my master's degree paid for. And you know, then he hired me as the school's first ever full-time assistant wrestling coach. And you know, he was in my wedding, that's the type of impact he had in my life. And you know, so that that was you know, that's kind of my journey into finding my career.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Yeah, no, I mean, and everyone has a really great life experience. And what's something we always talk about on the show, right? Like we want people on here who are relatable to the average average everyday person, right? Because the experience of maybe being a bad high school student or not being quite prepared for college, but going on and and then getting your associates and getting your bachelor's and getting your masters is way more relatable to the average everyday person, right, than what Joe Rogan, for example, lives in his life. Sure, sure, sure. Big podcaster. So, you know, the things you're talking about, I think, can hit home for a lot of different, you know, people and their experiences. And I'm definitely glad you found your way as a young person in that, in that, in that space. You know, my college coach used to say this to our team back in a long time ago when I played. But he would say, you know, not all of you are gonna be academic all conference guys, not all of you are gonna be academic all-Americans. Some may graduate with a 2-7, some may graduate with a 3-0. Some of you may hate school, some of you may love school. I'll never forget this. But he said, but if you love playing football, then you better find a way to stay eligible because without your grades, there is no football. And I think that was something that always stuck with me with that, you know, and I took that into my coaching journey when I did that a long time ago as well. So you graduate, okay, you get your you get your master's degree and you begin your coaching, you know, experience, right, as an adult, as as something that's paying your bills. So guide us through that, you know, from the time you were in, you know, uh UNC in that experience in their system to you know being here at BW and the success you've had for 15 years. So guide us through what that journey has been like, you know, not just as a career, but as a as a young man starting

From Junior College To Master’s

SPEAKER_00 12:31

it, growing into a full-fledged adult.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Yeah, I I think uh, you know, again, you know, just to touch on what you were talking about, you know, if you really love football or you really love I I think, you know, he talked about just being eligible, right? And I think that was always my mindset, just doing enough to stay eligible, right? Not really, and I as I matured and got around, you know, there's a lot of crossover in who you are as a as a person and as a as a man or as a woman, and and just you know who you who you are, and I think uh that started to click for me, you know, that there is some significant crossover in just your character, and regardless of what it is, whether it's your favorite thing or your least favorite thing. So my first full-time college coaching position. So my master's degree was in exercise science with a concentration in adventure education. So the first job I had at Co. College was probably 25% coaching, 25% teaching, 25% strength coach, and 25% running the fitness center and rec center. And so, you know, kind of doing a little bit of everything. I loved it, and then I just really wanted to make that jump to becoming a head coach, and you know, got my first opportunity and had to move 18 hours away. And it was a big deal at that time for my family. We're all from Iowa. I had just started dating my now wife, and so you know, I moved to North Carolina, and then she decided she was gonna come down probably oh, maybe nine months later, eight months, whatever, six months later, and and then yeah, we ended up getting married, stayed there for five years, and it was it was exciting, but very you know, she moved 18 hours away from her family. I moved 18 hours away from my family, and had our first child down there, and then uh had this opportunity come up. And at that time, I didn't know much about Baldwin Wallace and small coaching world. The guy knew that I was looking and said, Hey, you should really look at Baldwin Wallace. You know, I don't know much about their program, but I know it's a great place, and just kept an open mind, and here I am today.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

No, that's that's definitely great. It's just it's just crazy with with coaching journeys, right? Like the what people will do to make it work, like 25, 25, 25, 25, to move 18 hours and then you know move 10 hours, you know, north, but yet be closer back to Iowa. So, no, that's that's definitely very, very interesting. How did you like your time though in North Carolina? Did you like did you like it like the weather and the setup and how everything goes down there?

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Loved it. And it was an awesome institution. I had great mentors. And you know, the UNC system is an awesome system. I I loved it. We were down, we were probably about about an hour, an hour and a half from about everything. We're about an hour and a half straight south of Raleigh, an hour and a half east of Charlotte, an hour and a half west of Wilmington, and an hour and a half north of Myrtle Beach, you know. So we were in a great spot. I was teaching at the time, taught six hours there as well as coaching. And, you know, my wife, both of us being Midwesterners, and you know, I just really wanted an opportunity to find a place that would be great to raise a family. And that's not to say the other that North Carolina wasn't, it's just wanted to get back where wrestling, you know, was really, really important and had the chance to really and and while at that time Baldwin didn't have maybe the largest tradition or a great tradition, but that there was definitely tradition there. They were successful. There was a great football tradition, the location was incredible, and you know, honestly, I I again I didn't really know much about BW. And when I looked up their program, they were falling on hard times as well. But got here, kept an open mind, and just the people, man. The the people, and you know, you you've been around me now for my my kids are here all the time. It's a great place to raise a family. My in-laws moved here, so it's it, it's it's been that's what we were looking for. A place that could be the next step, but also could hopefully be, you know, home. And that was one thing I knew early on in my coaching career. I didn't want to be on that coaching carousel and trying to move ever all the darn time. So wanted some stability. And my wife and I were both Division III athletes. We had an awesome experience. She was a college softball player, and so this is a good fit for us.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think the the Carolinas, and I've been there a couple of times, they are they are great, but it's a different type of lifestyle. It is very busy, um, especially where you're at. And we were just there not too long ago, back in December, a friend and I, a friend and I drove down to the Myrtle Beach Bowl and checked out the bowl game there. But it is a very busy area between North Carolina and South Carolina

First Coaching Jobs And Big Moves

SPEAKER_00 18:14

where you know you come up to Ohio and it's a little bit more kickback. So you've been at BW going on 15 years, and actually, one of your former wrestlers was also a guest on this show in Jaleel Richardson. Um he got a chance to, you know, coach with you, and you've known him from his time in high school to being the great guy and father and employee that he is. But you you've really had to build that wrestling program from when you know you first started to to the powerhouse it is today. So I know there's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in there, but how did you how did you come in and you you've seen this vision, right? But how have you executed that in these past 15 years, Jamie, to get to where you are today?

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Man, I've just been so lucky to been able to surround myself with great people. You know, you talked about Jaleel. Jaleel was part of my very first recruiting class. You know, when I first got here, there were six kids on the team. So I got here in August of 2011. There were six kids on the team. Only one of those kids stayed with wrestling the next year. So basically we were, you know, kind of starting over, and we brought in three straight classes of over 20 athletes each every year, and that helped us really, you know, solidify, you know, getting our numbers to where. But during that time, we just was able to surround myself with great people. I've had, you know, I've got a lot of great coaches, great administrators around me, and but just really, you know, the people at BW, they just care. You know, it's they might not love wrestling, but that they they want to see people be successful, and they, you know, just good Midwest people that want to help. And so that's I I would say that's probably the biggest part of our success is just being consistent with good people around us, you know. I've had Bill McGrain help me for 14, 15 years, and some, you know, guys like Jaleel, his rec hit his he was part of a first recruiting class, and you know, I'm still very close with so many of those guys that some of them are still sticking around and helping me coach now, you know. And um we've just been very fortunate to keep good good people around us, and it's the BWA man.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Yeah, and and it's so great that you talked about Jaleel with that because we had Jaleel on the show. I threw this out to him because I hosted his show and he got a big kick out of it. Now, one of the former guests of the show, one of the original guests within the first, I think, two seasons that we did, um, is now a professional MMA fighter in Blake Perry. And you were Blake Perry's coach here as well, and Jaleel's teammate was Blake. And Jaleel said Blake was one of the nicest people he's ever met, and Blake's been on the show, and his mom, Danica, has been on the show, but he also said Blake was one of the toughest human beings he's ever been around. And for anyone that doesn't know Blake Perry, go look up the fight when he shattered his nose and wanted to keep fighting. But Will, what was that experience like, you know, watching Blake come in, you know, to now seeing him as a professional MMA fighter?

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Wild, wild. Yeah. Blake was, you know, he he was he was a machine. That guy would work out and work out and work out, practice be over, and he'd be on a treadmill. And you know, he was always tr trying to be the best that he can be. And one of my favorite Blake Perry stories is we're packing the bus and we're going down Interstate 71. On the BW bus, and uh the bus driver's light goes off that the the back door is open, and we pull off to the side of the road and we can see in the mirrors, and there's a bunch of Blake Perry's oranges bouncing down the interstate from his bag that fell out of the BW school bus.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

That's great. I'm gonna text Blake down and be like, hey, I heard that the bus had to pull over because of you. Yeah, orange. Okay, I will definitely have to send him a send him a message, and I'll make sure I send him the show when it airs too.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Yeah, you'll have to do that. Ask him about his shower in Nashville, Tennessee. I will I will definitely ask him about Blake was Blake was I'll I'll little spoiler alert out. Blake was taking a shower and there was some raw sewage coming out of the shower.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Well, you know, if you can survive that, you can survive a shower. That's why he's so tough. That's why he's so tough. But great Blake's great guy, you know, and and if people, you know, just don't know him, go follow his career, you know, and his mom Danika has been an amazing resource for the show, too. So shout out to to both of them. But when you got guys like Jaleel and Blake on your team, you know, not only do you have a great team, but you're surrounded by a bunch of great people. So that's definitely, definitely awesome. So, you know, Jamie, when you're when you're going through this this coaching cycle, right?

Rebuilding BW Wrestling From Scratch

SPEAKER_00 23:31

You're getting guys in every year, every year, right? And you're trying to build competition within the weight classes and the depth and things like that. You know, what is what is the hardest part you think as a as a head wrestling coach compared to some other sports, about trying to get depth pieces compared to say, like when you're in football and you know you have four quarterbacks, right? But if you have four legit guys that wrestle at 189 or whatever it is, how how is that balance as a head coach trying to keep all those guys happy and getting mat time and getting that actual experience on the mat wrestling?

SPEAKER_02 24:07

Yeah, it's tricky. I would say, probably like the other sports, you got to make sure that you know every person matters, right? So whether, you know, you know, and that we we talk about that during the recruiting process. If you're looking for, you know, a place where you can start the easiest, this might not be the place. But if you're looking for a place where you can be the best version of yourself and you're going to be held to that standard each and every day, both on and off of the mat, and have a lot of opportunities to launch your career, this could be a great fit. And and I think you know, one something, you know, again, we have 12 coaches on staff, 10 to 12, you know, most years, and those coaches are unbelievable mentors, so they're helping them. Everybody on our team is getting individual attention from all of the coaches, not just the primary coach, but and uh that's not just on the mat, that's you know, with their careers and helping their lever helping us help them leverage their BW relationships to open up doors for their career. And you know, I think making sure that they understand. I don't think we have many issues with it, honestly, Fiddy, as long as a kid really uh understands the value that wrestling can bring to his life beyond getting his hand raised, right? If they understand the same skills that we're gonna and the standard we're gonna hold them to is gonna one, it's gonna make him more competitive on the job market, make him a better father, better husband, you know, and just they're gonna see not just growth on the map, they're gonna see a lot of personal growth. And as long as they are, you know, understand and they have that value, they're gonna they're gonna feel loved here. They're gonna feel they're gonna they're gonna know that they're growing and getting better. Will they be the the best guy at that position? Maybe, maybe not. But as long as they're working towards that, hey, that that's what it's all about.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Sure. No, and that's that's a great point. And I think, you know, when there's definitely overlap with like the team sports, right, versus like the individual sports that are also team sports, right? It's it it there is some overlap with that, but yet it does get very unique, right, when you when you do have to coach the individual ones because you need so much attention. But if you have such a large staff that definitely getting that mat time and then individual time with those guys, I definitely think is is a huge plus for them and all the things you talked about, but it also helps with them wanting to retain here, you know, at a school. And that's a that's a big part of stuff in college people don't realize, right? Is also retaining them. So, you know, thank you for sharing that. Now, Jamie, we're gonna kind of switch gears here before we finish up the last part of the show. You know, I'm I'm knowledgeable in wrestling, but there's there's a few guys I want to point out. I'm gonna get your take on three of them. They're three of them more of my favorite guys who have wrestled over time. So I gotta start with, even though you know, you don't like the Cyclones, you know, what are your thoughts on uh, you know, Cal Sanderson? Is he is he the greatest Division I wrestler ever?

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Yeah, yeah, probably I mean there's a couple guys here recently that but you know when I was at Co. College, we we had a match against Iowa State and Cale wrestled and you know got to follow his you know career pretty closely being a Hawkeye fan. And he he's he I don't know how you can argue, especially now that there's some guys that have matched his credentials on the map on the four time champs as well, but he's the first to ever do it and pretty remarkable. So yes, I I'm in agreeant. I I agree with you. I still have a Wheaties box with Kale on it.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

So that's a true fan right there. So next guy I want to talk about is probably I think to me

Depth Charts And Developing Everyone

SPEAKER_00 28:14

one of the toughest human beings ever, and that's uh Kurt Angle winning that Olympic no Olympic gold medal with uh with a fractured neck from Clarion University. So, what are your thoughts on Kurt Angle?

SPEAKER_02 28:27

I don't know him as as well, but yeah, stud. And good for him, man. He's made it big in the in the WWE world, hasn't he?

SPEAKER_00 28:36

Yeah, yeah, he had a good career there. He's done some acting. He was in the the MMA movie Warrior with Tom Hardy. Yeah, um, so he's he's done some some good things there, but I always say, man, that could be the toughest human being ever to number one, and I always will say this to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling, you have to be tough. To do it with a fractured neck, you are superhuman. And then the last guy, one of my favorite, because for people that don't know, when the UFC first started back in the early 90s, they had a hodgepodge mix of guys, and there was a guy with a big, huge guy that came in, big mustache, he wore wrestling shoes, and he used to fight guys who would who would wear boxing gloves and everything else, and that is Dan the Dan Sever Severn from Arizona State, one of the toughest people ever. And if you don't know who Dan Severn is, somebody YouTube Dan Severn USC body switch because Dan Severn would would take it and take you on a ride, and you didn't not want to go on that ride. What are your thoughts on Dan Severn?

SPEAKER_02 29:37

Yes, I probably know him most from his MMA career, 100%. But I do know he he had uh he had a wrestling background and he he was when that was first coming up, he he was he was the man and one of the toughest SOBs in the in the UFC. Yeah, he he was unique. That's when UFC was really fun to watch. Yeah, for sure, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:03

And because you had guys like Dan Severn, right? Who who had some strike ability, but he was a but he was a wrestler his like whole life, and then he he did some WCW wrestling, so he had the studio wrestling, but you know he was athletic and can move, but then you're getting guys like Royce Gracie in there, and you're getting guys like Ken Shamrock, and you're just getting guys who are you know who are wearing boxing gloves and no shoes and shoes.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

And there was no weight classes, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:25

I mean, they no, there was no weight classes, and you were fighting these one-day tournaments, and it would be wild, like and Dan Sever's in there just taking elbows to the head, and then he once he got a hold of you and he started throwing you over his head around, you were definitely getting concussed because you were hitting that that mat or whatever it was really, really hard with a lot of force.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

Less rules then than there is now.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

I think the only rules they had back then was it was like no eye gouging, and then it was like literally, you just went until you were there, there was just uh unlimited time. It was wild and was knocked out. It was it was wild, but Dan the B7, everybody definitely check check him out. So going back to talking a little more about you, Jamie and BW. So, what was this past season like? You know, it seemed like you guys had a lot of success here this past winter. What was this past season like for you guys?

SPEAKER_02 31:18

Oh, this past season was you know, if you look at it on paper, we had six dual meet losses, and it took us a while to really get things to come together and you know, and just really finished the season super, super strong. And it was a very fun and rewarding year from the standpoint of you know, we had just graduated two of the greatest wrestlers in in BW

Legends Of Wrestling And Early UFC

SPEAKER_02 31:48

history with uh Jaden Hinton and Michael Petrella, and both, you know, Michael's a four-time All-American, three-time undefeated tramp. Jaden was a three-time All-American returning finalist. Then we lost some other key seniors. So we really we we had some we had some good high-end returning talent, but we had some spots we just didn't really know who was gonna emerge. Uh, and we took some lumps early on, and we had some inconsistent performances. And I tell you what, I was so proud of our group of guys. It was just such a neat season in that you know, they just kept showing up and taking ownership and knew it wasn't their best, you know, and it could be tough on them at times, and they just got back to work. And you know, and sometimes when you're when you're when you're going through those things and and and you're you're trying to hold the standard, they're they're gonna, you know, some sometimes teams will start, you know, finding reasons or or making excuses of uh and this group didn't didn't do that. They just kept on showing up, taking ownership, and and trying to write the ship. And it took us a while to get the right guys at the right weight classes, to get the right guys healthy. And towards the end of the season, we had you know, guys just fought their tails off and just competed to the best of their ability for the most part. And you know, that's so it was a very rewarding season from that standpoint of just how it started and how it ended, and the the the pro getting to watch that process was just very fulfilling. No, that's for them. I I think they're I think they're extremely proud, as they should be, and and I know uh the coaching staff was extremely proud, and you know this coaching staff is remarkable, and they just kept on pouring into these guys, and I think some good things happened.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

That's that's definitely awesome. Jamie, I want to get your your take on this too. One of the last couple things we're gonna talk about here, and we talked with Jaleel about this a little bit. Now, you've been around a lot of wrestlers, right? You've seen Kyle Sanderson, you you've you've coached at a lot of different places. You know, what really is the difference between a division three to division two and to division one wrestler, right? Those those top-notch guys per division. What sets them apart, though, from being like a really, really good division three wrestler, right, to a really, really good division one wrestler? Is it the technical aspect? Is it the strength? Is it the footwork? You know, with football, we we know it's kind of height, weight, maybe something else. But what is it with wrestling that sets the divisions apart?

SPEAKER_02 34:42

It's really the NCAA in terms of the institution, but though there is certainly, you know, the best division three and division two guys. There's no doubt they could uh compete at that at that higher level, uh, what level of success they're gonna have. That's where it gets really dicey, right? But I I would say the genetics, you know, just the the the athleticism and pure raw talent of those division one guys, they're they're very, very gifted athletically. They're very, very gifted athletically. So, like you said, the the genetics, you know guy with the same stature, division one, division three, you know. But I think you know, some of the programs that do it best, I I will put our wrestling experience against a lot of division one and division twos, and and how we develop our athletes on and off the mat and the things our kids get to experience, the doors they get open and things like that. But from a peer on the mat coming out of high school type of guy, it's that pure raw athleticism

A Season That Finished Strong

SPEAKER_02 36:01

and you know, or or that high level of skill, you know, that that higher level of skill.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

Yeah, you know, and and it's something that's that's I think they're different from sport to sport, right? Because, like, you know, if you're not a maybe a 6'3 quarterback, right, or 6'2, odds are and you can't move in the pocket, odds are you're probably not gonna be division one, division two. You may go down to division three, have a really good success. You know, in basketball, it's really it's all about height, right? You know, yeah you know, where the individual sports, when you get into like wrestling and track and field and swimming, you know, a lot of those, and we've heard from different people, a lot of it does come down just genetics, right? You know, some of it's technical, but a lot of it's like the genetic aspect of things.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

Even the technical stuff, you get a really, really athletic, athletically gifted guy, they can pick up a sport like wrestling. It's such a repetition and feel sport that if they have that athleticism, they can pick things up pretty fast and make some pretty big jumps pretty fast in our sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

Definitely, definitely good to know there. So, Jamie, if if students are interested, you know, in BW wrestling or just knowing more about BW, you know, what would you tell someone of why BW, why Baldwin Wallace University could be a great fit for them?

SPEAKER_02 37:29

Just if they're passionate, you know, passionate, high character, want to be the best version of yourself, right? On and off the mat, you know, athletically, academically, socially, and I'll put career in that academic bucket, you know, access and year-round opportunities to improve and get better in both in all those areas all year round. I mean, I think that's the beautiful thing. Um I you know, many of our competitors, Johnny. I feel like you gotta sacrifice one of those three pillars. You know, maybe you gotta the social pieces gotta sacrifice and things to do and the conveniences, or you gotta give up the higher-end wrestling in order to get the higher-end academics, or vice versa. Where at BW, you don't have to sacrifice, you can get a really high-end academic opportunity that can open up a lot of doors career-wise, and wrestle at a really, really high level, and have a great time doing it here at BW with tons of conveniences and some really it's it's a cool atmosphere here, this campus community and the Berea area and the location speaks for itself. It just there's a lot of things to do

The Real Gap Between Divisions

SPEAKER_02 38:47

and a lot of doors it opens from a training and career standpoint.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

Sure. No, thank you for for sharing that. And you know, if anyone's interested, definitely you know, check out BW. And if you are interested in, you know, wrestling and you want to have a great experience, you know, shoot shoot Coach Gibbs a message here in an email. I'm sure he'll get back to him, you know, want to want to talk a little bit. Always recruiting, baby. So before we finish the show here, we get into my favorite segment we've brought in about five years ago, and it is the fast fitty five. It's five random questions that have nothing to do with this show, and we brought this in as a as a fun way to end the show. So, Jamie, if you're ready for the fast fitty five and five random questions, uh you can elaborate on them or answer them as fast as you want. Uh, we can get started.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

All right. Number one, what is the hardest sport to win a gold medal at in the Olympics, but you can't say wrestling?

SPEAKER_01 39:46

Hurling?

SPEAKER_00 39:48

Okay. I would probably say that looks like it it does look hard. I would say archery, but but that's definitely probably uh the one where they ski and then they gotta shoot? Ah, yeah, that was a good one too. Swimming too, you know, Michael Phelps is gonna be like Michael Phelps. Okay, that's a good one. Number two, are climbing trees overrated or underrated? Underrated. Okay. The best animal to have for a pet is a dog. Okay, I would agree with that. Number four, are fishing boats overrated or underrated?

SPEAKER_02 40:22

Underrated.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

Okay, interesting. All right, now I'm curious about this last one.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

Talking about a guy from Iowa here. That is true. That is true.

SPEAKER_02 40:36

Very underrated.

SPEAKER_00 40:37

Okay. I mean, I I I definitely can get that. Last one I'm curious about this, though. What's the better workout, in your opinion, for someone to do?

SPEAKER_01 40:46

Boxing or CrossFit?

SPEAKER_02 40:52

Better depends on what your fitness goals are. I know that's not the answer you want. What what I would choose, I haven't done much boxing. I'd choose a boxing workout right now. I've done the crossfit stuff, but uh the I I don't know which one's better. I think they both have their value.

SPEAKER_00 41:11

And I think both of them will make you throw up if you're not ready for it.

SPEAKER_02 41:14

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 41:15

So that was the Fast 55. A little fun way to end the end the show there, Jamie. But before we let you go, we usually give our guests about 30 seconds or a minute. If there's anything you want to get out there, anything you want to promote about wrestling or anything you have going on or a good message about BW, we're gonna give you about 30 seconds to a minute, and the floor is yours.

SPEAKER_02 41:33

I'm just super grateful for Baldon Wallace and the relationships that it's provided not only myself but my entire family. Driving home from a Cleveland Guardians game yesterday, I had my father-in-law in the backseat, and and he said to me, Jamie, we are sure glad that you are the head wrestling coach at Baldon Wallace University, because we had no idea that Cleveland was such an awesome place, and the greater Cleveland area to it's a

Why Baldwin Wallace Is A Fit

SPEAKER_02 42:03

it's it's a it's a gem that a lot of people don't really know about, and there's so much to do here, and so many things with the lake and play out square and all the pro sports, and man, we're so glad that you're the head coach. So I just I'm super grateful to be here and the relationships that you know have been created through Baldwin. And of course, I appreciate the Ride Home Rants reaching out to me. It's always fun. So thank you guys.

SPEAKER_00 42:34

Absolutely. We love it when a great message is said to end the show. So that's gonna do it for this week's episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast. As always, if you like the show, be a friend and tell a friend. And if you didn't like the show, tell them anyways. I bet they like it just because you did it. This is Fiddy signing off, and we will see you next week.