Lori Ayres is the Director of Operations for the Cardinal WC and an advocate for D1 Women’s Wrestling. She is also the wife of Chris Ayres, and has been around wrestling since she was a kid.

In this episode, we talk about the state of women’s wrestling nationally as well as girls wrestling in the state.

Al Fontes is in the California and National Hall of Fame for his 40 years of contributions to the sport through the California wrestler, coaching, and writing in multiple national wrestling newsletters.

In this episode, we talk about wrestling history, we compare Idaho and California wrestling, and we get into the hot topic about possibly splitting California into divisions.

Daniel McCune is a teacher and coach for Fremont High School. He also coaches for the Sunnyvale Wrestling club and the SCVWA association team. He manages and helps run non-profits like Beat the Streets in San Jose. He has been building the wrestling website caliwrestling.com. He also works as a tournament director for many competitions in the CCS area such as the Pat Lovell Memorial, Webber Lawson Memorial, and the MidCals.

In this episode, we talk about what it is like to coach and manage organizations and the challenges that come with it.

Get ready for a great episode where the whole gang shows up to recap the state tournament. We go weight by weight in an episode that lasted almost as long as the state finals did.

John Meyers has been coaching at Poway for the last 22 years, the last 6 years of which, as head coach. Under Meyers leadership, Poway has transformed into a national powerhouse, ranked 3rd nationally as a team, and recently winning a California High School State Team title, breaking the team scoring record.

In this episode, we talk about Meyer's coaching philosophy, his vision for the program, and what this remarkable team was able to accomplish this past season.

Brian Navarro and Oren Dramen return to the show to talk about the California State Tournament this weekend. We preview each weight class, talk about the team race, and share our favorite things about the state tournament.

Brian Navarro and Oren Dramen have been on the call for state tournament together for the last few years. Both having experience working for Flowrestling and other productions in setting the video streaming and being commentators for major wrestling events such as Reno TOC, Doc B, The Big One, Battle for the Belt, and the California State Tournament.

Cody Vasconcellos is an assistant coach at Pitman High School and runs Vasky Bros, an elite club program in northern California.

In college, Cody wrestled for Sac City and was a JC State Champ in 2008, before transferring to Chadron State. He finished in the blood rounds at the D2 NCAA Tournament.

Flo and California State Wrestling Commentator, Brian Navarro, rejoins the show to talk all things Doc B.

Derek Moore is the Head Coach for Cal Baptist University, a D1 school located in Riverside, California.

In this episode, we talk to Coach Moore about his coaching experiences at CBU, and delve into his coaching philosophy.

Chris Ayres joins the show to discuss Stanford’s recent success at the Cliff Keen Invitational, where Stanford had 6 placers and a champion in Nick Provo.

Chris Ayres is in his first season on the Farm, arriving right before the college season started. He has spent the last 17 seasons coaching at Princeton where he was able to transform the program into a wrestling power, where in the 2022-2023 season, was able to produce a national champion in Pat Glory and a program high 13th place team finish.

Returning Guest Manny Rivera rejoins the show to talk about his experiences at the Senior World Championships.

Manny Rivera is a former D1 Head Coach at CSU Bakersfield. In college, he was a D1 All American in 2008 and 3-time NCAA National Qualifier for the University of Minnesota.

Grant Leeth rejoins the podcast to share his experiences these last few months, from being in the car when Koll was asked to interview for UNC, designing a comfortable shoe for professionals, to getting hired as the first Head Coach for a brand new division 1 school in Texas.

Grant Leeth is the new Head Coach for Tarleton State University, the first D1 school in Texas. Leeth has spent the last three years as a Stanford assistant coach.

Before coaching at Stanford, Leeth was an All-American at Mizzou, finishing 6th in the nation at 149 pounds in 2018.

In high school, Leeth was a 3-time Missouri State Champion out of Kearney High School.

Tye Monteiro is a Freshman wrestling 184 at Stanford University. In high school, Monteiro was a three-time state placer. He wrestled at Garces and Bakersfield High Schools.

In this episode, we talk about Tye’s transition into college wrestling, his experiences at Stanford so far, and his wrestling journey before college.

Brian Navarro is the commentator for the California State Tournament as well as numerous other wrestling events including the Clovis-Buchanan dual, Doc B, and the Battle for the Belt.

Navarro has been a part of the Temecula Valley wrestling program for over 30 years. In this conversation, he shares with us his favorite wrestling moments, including commentating when two Temecula Valley wrestlers made the state finals.

Nick Coco rejoins the podcast as we discuss D3 wrestling, the wrestling scene in New York, and ways in which we can bridge the gap between the west coast and the east coast.

Nick Coco is the Head Coach for Hunter College, located in New York. He is also a wrestling mindset coach.

Resident Athlete for Penn RTC

U23 National Champion

3-time NCAA Qualifier

Pennsylvania State Champion

Our conversation with Zapf goes from his experience as a University of Penn athlete, to weight management, and how easy it is to have your identity become tied to the outcome of a wrestling match. We get an inside look at how Zapf has been able to use his experience as an NCAA competitor to now having fun competing on the freestyle circuit.

We talk about our favorite duals, what happened with Sammy Sasso, and the Coleman Scott coaching change.

Nick Coco is the Head Coach for Hunter College, located in New York. He is also a wrestling mindset coach.

Our wrestling conversation is filled with strategies on how to get wrestlers and parents to buy into your team's culture, as well as the benefits that wrestling has long term on your life. We also delve deep into coaching and wrestling philosophy.

NCAA qualifier for Cal Poly transfers to San Francisco State

Lawrence wrestled at Fresno State before the program got dropped. He then transferred to Cal Poly.

After graduating from Cal Poly this year, he entered the transfer portal and was recruited by a number of programs. He recently committed to wrestle for D2 San Francisco State University for his final year of eligibility.

Brock Zacherl is an assistant coach for Clarion University. In college, he was a 4x national qualifier for Clarion.

In this episode, we talk about his coaching philosophy, weight management, and being accountable for your wrestling and your life.