Pat Santoro Featured On TheWrestlingMall.com
11/20/2004 7:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Nov. 20, 2004
By Andrew Hipps - TheWrestlingMall.com Staff Writer
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The University of Maryland is a college rich in sports tradition. It is one of only six schools across the country to have won a national championship in both football and men's basketball. Sports Illustrated ranked it 24th among America's best sports colleges. And they compete in one of the most recognizable conference in America, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
Wrestling, a sport that has produced only two individual national champions but has compiled a .629 winning percentage and 20 ACC titles in its 64-year history, has almost become an afterthought at Maryland. But second year head coach Pat Santoro is hoping to change that.
"The attitudes have definitely changed here," said Santoro. "The intensity level is a lot higher. The talent level has risen and a lot of guys are putting the extra time in, which is necessary to be able to win matches and do well at the national level."
Santoro has the resume to prove that he is the man to lead Maryland's wrestling program to national prominence. Before coming to Maryland last year, Santoro was the assistant coach at perennial power Lehigh for nine seasons, where he was honored as the national Assistant Coach of the Year in 2003. As a competitor, his credentials are equally as impressive.
He was a two-time NCAA champion at 142 pounds for the University of Pittsburgh and a four-time member of the U.S. National Team.
Last season, in Santoro's first year, Maryland brought in a solid recruiting class that included three wrestlers considered to be among the top 20 in their respective weight classes. And this year's class has the potential to be even better. They have already received a commitment from Hudson Taylor of Blair Academy in New Jersey, who is considered to be one of the top upper-weight prospects in the country.
Taylor is a two-time national prep champion and is projected to wrestle 184 or 197 in college. Pennsylvania standout Steven Bell has also signed with Maryland.
"I definitely want to recruit throughout the country," said Santoro. "Our big support is probably going to be east coast, obviously, just being that we're an east coast team. But on a national level, I want to recruit the best kids in the country."
The Terrapins are coming off a season in which they finished 4-9 in dual meets and last place (out of five teams) in the ACC. They had no NCAA qualifiers last year, but Santoro is hoping that this year will be different.
"We're trying to get national champions and All-Americans," said Santoro. "That has always been our goal. We're not going to so much focus on the dual meet season. We want to win duals, obviously, but the bottom line is going to be the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament."
The Terrapins will also have a new face on their coaching staff this season, with the hiring of two-time All-American Brad Dillon, who Santoro coached while at Lehigh.
"Brad brings a lot to our program," Santoro said. "He has always been an excellent technician and a very hard worker. He also relates very well to the guys. He's very versatile because he can work with anyone on the team. He spends a lot of the morning in the wrestling room working with anyone from 125 to 197. He has been a great asset."
The Terrapins will open their season on November 19th at the Body Bar Invitational at Cornell. They follow that up with the Mat Town Invitational at Lock Haven on November 27th and the Penn State Open on December 5th. They open their dual meet season on December 11th when they head to New Jersey to take on Rutgers and Rider.
The Terrapins finish out the first half of their season with the Southern Scuffle in Greensboro, North Carolina, on December 28-30. The second annual event features 32 Division I teams, including Division I powers Minnesota and Cornell, as well as many rising teams from throughout the eastern area.
"We're going to be tested every tournament this season," said Santoro. "We're seeing some tough competition and that's what we have to do if we want to be ready in March."
The Terrapins will wrestle nine non-conference dual meets this season, with one of those coming against Lehigh, a school in which Santoro spent nine years coaching.
"It'll be a fun match," said Santoro. "It'll be a hard match to coach because I know a lot of those guys. They're a great team. I'm obviously very close to the coaching staff and I'm pretty close to a number of the wrestlers. It's going to be a great event for us. We need to see teams like Lehigh. They could legitimately win the NCAA tournament this year and it's important for us to see teams like that."
The Terrapins will kick off their conference dual season on January 8th when they hit the road to wrestle North Carolina and Duke. On January 22nd they travel to Blacksburg, Virginia to wrestle Virginia Tech, who begins their first year in the ACC, under the guidance of first year head coach Tom Brands.
Brands, a 1996 Olympic gold medalist and wrestling icon, served as an assistant coach at the University of Iowa for the previous twelve seasons. Santoro believes that having Brands in the conference is a positive.
"He's going to have an amazing impact," said Santoro. "He was a great competitor and I think he has shown that he's a great coach and recruiter, too. He's just going to raise the whole level of the ACC. Having him come to the ACC is just going to help the conference. I think it's going to force all the other teams to step up - and that's exactly what this conference needs. I think this year they're going to be on the top teams to win the ACC. We're going to have to play catch up right now."
The Terrapins will finish their conference dual season with home dual meets against North Carolina State (February 13th) and Virginia (February 19th). Santoro expects Virginia Tech, North Carolina, and Duke to be the top teams in the ACC this season.
The Terrapins will wrestle in the ACC Tournament on March 5th in Greensboro, North Carolina, before hopefully sending some wrestlers to Saint Louis for the NCAA Tournament, which takes place March 17th-20th.
