Eric,

Let me begin by saying that I don’t know you personally but I have watched you compete a number of times and even coached against you as an assistant under Joe at Labette in 2005. I have always respected both the way you took care of business on the mat and the way you carried yourself off of it. Being a proud Kansan myself, I also took a lot of pride in your accomplishments throughout your career and I will continue to do so as long as it continues. I do wish you the best with everything you choose to take on.

With that being said, I felt compelled to respond on Coach Cody Bickley’s behalf, and namely with your point that since he was not a national champion or all-american as a competitor, he could not lead a national championship caliber program. I can’t help but feel that you’re somewhat off base with this line of thinking. If you are going to make this part of your campaign then there are some things you should understand. I can tell you that Coach Bickley dealt with some major injuries that heavily factored into him coming up empty handed at the national tournament. The details of all that are irrelevant, other than that he did all he could to wrestle through them. During his career he beat numerous all-americans and was a game opponent for whoever he faced. I have no doubt Coach Bickley would’ve accomplished his goals if he could’ve stayed healthy. I know injuries are a part of the sport, but some have more unfortunate circumstances to deal with than others. For the record, this is nothing he ever spoke of to me about. That is not his way. To him that would be making excuses. For some people that maybe true, but not in this case according to those closest to him. I was told about Coach B.’s circumstances on a couple of different occasions by the likes of Bob Smith, Myron Ellegood (teammate & 2X AA and national runner-up for FHSU), Josh Gooch(teammate & 2X or 3X AA HWT for FHSU) and Ben Loggains (teammate & FHSU first DII AA, and one of the toughest people I have ever met). All 4 men would rave about what a tough SOB Cody was and how he made himself that way through his focus and preparation. Coach B. preaches that same focus and preparation to his guys. On top of this, I contest that Coach Bickley is a great teacher of the sport as well, and I feel like I’ve been around some really good ones during my career. However, I don’t want to get into all the details that others have done a good job of covering such as Chas T. and Coach G. The point that drew me in was your belief that a main contributing factor to Coach B.’s lack of success as a coach was his inability to become an all-american or national champion as a competitor.

Before I go into this, I realize that wrestling is different than a lot of sports, and as wrestlers we take pride in the individual aspect of what we do, and that does separate us some, but at the end of the day, it’s about teaching your sport, motivating, and getting the most out of your athletes. And yes sometimes I’m sure athletes take comfort in knowing that their coach has achieved some of the goals they are seeking to, but by no means do I think it is a prerequisite for coaching success in any sport on any level. For example, I don’t think Roy Williams saw too much floor time while playing under Dean Smith, and I’m fairly sure Mike Shanahan never sniffed the NFL as a player, nor did Mark Mangino, Mike Leach, Charlie Weis, or Dennis Franchione ever even played college football. If we need to focus on individual sports more then we can look at mixed martial arts, which has a lot of wrestling ties… Greg Jackson a renowned trainer of MMA has trained 10 MMA world champions, but never even competed at that level himself, or how about Juanito Ibarra who now trains Rampage Jackson, Michael Bisping, and has co-trained Oscar De La Hoya, but also never even fought as a pro and how about boxing the sport of boxing? Freddy Roach who has trained a number of world champions including Oscar and Manny Pacquio, or how about Lou Duva (trained Evander Holeyfield & Pernell Whitaker), both of these men where scrappy but only average to slightly above average in their own careers. Lastly, here are a few examples of wrestling coaches who have had a high level of success without being highly decorated. Mark Leen comes to mind formerly of GCCC and U of Tenn. Chat.(to my knowledge never wrestled competitively in college), Mike Machholz of Missouri Valley has had great success, but I’m not aware of him wrestling at all in college. We could also mention Kevin Klemm, since Aikin’s name has come up on some posts, another phenomenal coach who to my knowledge never was an all-american. Lastly, how about an example that fits right into this DII wrestling discussion, how about Mike Denney. I’m fairly certain he never attained the accolades you’re seeking in a head coach for FHSU and I’m not knocking Coach Denney at all, he is a great man and coach. No one can argue with the results of his program, but I think it helps make my point.

Is being a national champion or all-american an important credential to have as a head coach of a college wrestling program? Sure I guess it could be. Is it the end all, be all of determining who is fit to coach at an elite level and who isn’t? No way. I don’t know Coach Zalesky or anything about his coaching methods, but I do believe he was a 3X national champion at Iowa, and for whatever reason he is no longer the coach there. I know I could make you a list of others as well, but I don’t feel right doing that. My point is that being highly decorated is not a guarantee for success either. Now with that being said, no body wants to be lead by some slug who has never been through the rigors of a college wrestling career. The mental and physical drain that can take its toll throughout a season are things that can be tough to explain to someone who has never had to deal with them, but if you’ve been through it and overcome such things yourself you can better help your athletes do the same. Coach Bickley is battle tested on the mat. His lack of never getting to the podium should not be a factor here, or at least not to me. You can throw out every other stat you like and crunch the numbers however you want, that is your right no doubt. My agenda with this post isn’t to tell you that you’re flat out wrong for what you have posted or what you are trying to do. Although, I do think both Chas and Coach G. along with a few others have made a strong case against your stance.

I think your interest in Kansas wrestling should be commended, and I know it is appreciated by many. Do I think this is the right way to go about showing your concern and support, not really, however again it is your choice. I just ask that if you feel you must continue to pursue this cause that you make Coach Bickley’s lack of all-american credentials less of a focal point.

Again, I do wish you the best in all of your future endeavors, but not with this, at least not in this manner. I will send my email to Hammeke, but it will not be to call for a man’s job. It will be to support my former coach and current head coach of the Fort Hays State University Tiger Wrestling Program, Cody Bickley!