While We Were Watching Rio

The week of Olympic Wrestling for many reasons good & bad. While the wrestling world peered at the mats in Rio, the news in the USA didn't stop. So let's catch up. 

Mark Cody resigned from the Head Coach position at Oklahoma University. No official word has been made as far as what brought the decision to a head, but the Sooners are looking for a new coach. Cody was the breakout coach when he took American University from the scrap heap to trophy contenders, but the bigger named program did not bring the next step of success that most people assumed would happen. Cody will be an interesting name hovering out there when future jobs open up. 

Kendrick Maple has also left Oklahoma and is now an Assistant Coach at Purdue. The Boilermakers are a program on the rise with Tony Ersland making some awesome strides there in energy and recruiting. However, the move is a little surprising thinking that Maple may not be done competing and a larger program with an RTC would be a more logical choice. 

Jason Tsirtsis has left Northwestern stating academic reasons and is headed to Arizona State. He is probably not the first person to leave Northwestern for Arizona State for academic reasons, but it comes at a time where the program in Evanston keeps taking hit after hit. It'll be interesting to see if Zeke Jones and staff can get him turned around both on the mat and in the classroom. 

Brent Metcalf has taken a position coaching at Cedar Rapids Prarie High School and will be "stepping away" from competition. He is keeping the door open as far as a return to competition goes. We will probably not see him for a year or two in this next Olympic cycle leading to Tokyo in 2020, but I expect to see him hit the mats for that shot at the Olympic games.