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-The New Guy-Coach Sinnott
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
I would be lying if said I wasn’t afraid coming here. I am a Michigan boy born and raised. Many thoughts were racing through my mind before coming to Maryland. Probably the hardest aspect of it was the thought of leaving my friends and family. I am a big family guy and I love spending time with them. Leaving my friends who I built great relationships with was hard as well. I was comfortable where I was at which is not always a good thing. I thought coming to Maryland would be a fresh start with an opportunity to forge new relationships and a chance to coach one of the most talented teams in the nation. With that in mind I said goodbye to Central Michigan University and started my career at the University of Maryland
I believe I landed in one of best situations at the division one level. I have the privilege of coaching guys like Mike Letts, Hudson Taylor, Steve Bell, Alex Krom and the many other talented young wrestlers in the program. It also doesn’t hurt to get hands on instruction and training from 2x Olympian Kerry McCoy. In less than a month I have learned so much from Kerry. I definitely feel that I am becoming a better freestyle wrestler under him.
As a young coach I have a unique situation with the guys on the team. Not only am I a coach to them but I also have that athlete relationship with them due to my age and my desire to keep competing. Sometimes as an athlete it is hard to turn to an older coach for help, that is when they can come to me. Even though my position is unique, my age can still be used against me. The older guys especially can over step their bounds but I believe it is more unintentional if anything. I just hope I can be the best coach possible to these guys and help them reach their peak wrestling abilities.
On the bus ride to Buffalo I was highly anticipating the outcome of the tournament. Finally we could showcase all of the hard work that went into this preseason. Our guys wrestled well for their first competition. There were some disappointing matches but that what these competitions are all about; learning from our mistakes. I know our guys were able to take away a lot from this tournament as well as myself. The freshmen are very talented but still have much to learn. Sometimes it can be so frustrating seeing them wrestle but I just keep reminding myself that they are young. I started to develop challenges for the ones who still hang on to bad habits. I need to get some one on one time with them to work on certain positions they were struggling with. Overall our guys looked tired; it was probably a combination of nerves and proper weight cut. This week will start out with some much needed rest for the guys that traveled to Buffalo. After they recover we will go right into our training to prepare for the tri-meet against York and Drexel. A few good, hard days of training and we will be ready to go. Thank you for your time.
I am proud to be a Terrapin, GO TERPS!!!
Brandon Sinnott