I watched the interview.
No doubt that there is some pride, relief, joy, and validation that the Hawks won the team title. Tom Brands grew up in Iowa; as an Iowa wrestling and Dan Gable fan; was a 3x champ for Iowa; assistant coach to both Gable and Zelesky at Iowa; and took on a lot when he left Va Tech to return to Iowa, and probably felt a sense of duty to the 3-4 guys who lost a year of eligibility for leaving Tech for Iowa. I can only think of one other coach (John Smith) in any sport- college or pro- who has so much of their life invested into the program they coach. Tom Brands really appears to welcome the heavy responsibility of delivering NCAA Championships to the wrestlers and fans of Iowa wrestling. And he did that - so there has to be some deep satisfaction, especially considering that they had to take the title from the other two programs and coaches that Iowa considers their peers (Ok State and Penn State). But, you could see it in his body language and hear it in his words that he is also feeling the emotional effects of the weekend.
I think most of us can agree that Tom Brands appears to get as emotionally-invested in his athletes, their matches, and the program as any coach out there. Not even knowing all of things that are going on behind the scenes, here are a few things- none of which are related to Penn State or Penn State going 4-for-4 in finals- that could certainly weigh heavy on him, even during a time of great achievement, that he is dealing with himself but also having to help each one of his athletes deal with:
- Two out of three finalists lost OT heartbreakers - as a coach, this has to hurt you because there's no doubt that it hurts the athletes. If they feel like they failed, then he feels like he failed because he is there to help them win those matches.
- Eierman transfers out of his home state program into Iowa, bumps Murin up (resulting in Murin not making AA), to finally win a title as a senior at the school he always dreamed of wrestling for, then loses in OT to a guy he beat two weeks ago. No doubt that Eierman is heart-broken and grappling with what to do next year.
- 6th-year senior Kemmerer, who showed faith in Iowa and was the first Young Guns wrestler to make the commitment to the Hawks and helped change the culture, does everything right throughout his career but loses in OT to a freshman he beat handily two weeks ago. No doubt that Kemmerer is heart-broken and grappling with what to do next year.
- One of the guys who also seems to do everything right and has had great success his entire Hawk career but has had disappointing NCAA tourneys, Marinelli, comes into the tourney as the #1 seed AGAIN, only to be upset AGAIN early in the tournament. Whether injured physically or emotionally, the pain is enough to have Marinelli withdraw from the tournament - probably a hugely troubling thing for a coach like Tom Brands to handle. Don't forget the heartbreak that Marinelli had to deal with only a year or two ago when his best friend died in a car wreck on his way to Iowa to witness the surprise engagement of Marinelli to the friend's sister, who also happens to be an Iowa wrestling manager. No doubt that Marinelli, a 5th year senior, is heart-broken and grappling with what to do next year.
- Austin DeSanto, who appears to be well-liked by his teammates for his work ethic and intensity, transfers into Iowa with a dark cloud as a result of his behavior, a short leash for bad behavior, and a bright spotlight on how the coaches would manage him. DeSanto has a huge tournament with a 3rd place finish and lots of bonus points, but has a WTF moment that leads to Iowa coaches having to ban him from coming back to the arena to accept his individual award or be part of the team award for fear of the wrestler being ejected and losing all of the team points he earned and costing Iowa the team title. That had to be a hard conversation for Brands to have and a hard thing for DeSanto to have to accept.
- His nephew, Nelson Brands, falls short of his goals and is one of only three wrestlers not to reach All American status - the other being Marinelli, who withdrew after his upset loss; and Murin, who was forced to bump up from his AA weight due to Eierman transferring in.
- Gable- who Brands has idolized all of his life- not being at the Championships for the first time in, probably, 55ish years (pretty sure I heard Gibbons mention that Gable was watching on TV from Florida).
Any one of those things on its own could take some of the luster off the 1st place trophy and subdue the celebration a bit.
Wrestling isn't like other sports due to the individual nature of the National Tournament - any one player in baseball, football, basketball, etc can have a bad game but still feel just as happy about the team championship as the players who had a great game. But wrestling...the goals of the guys at the top programs are individual championships first, which will help their team achieve success. Although the team can still achieve that success, the wrestler still feels the pain of falling short of reaching their goal and, in a weird way have a feeling of failing the dreams and sacrifices of themselves, family, coaches, etc. Sure, Tom Brands is a coach, but he'll always be a wrestler and he'll likely always see the NCAA Wrestling Championship Tournament through this lens. As he mentioned in the interview, unless they finish with 10 champs, he's going to feel some disappointment because he's going to have the guys he cares about feeling disappointed.
Sorry for such a looooonnnngggg post but it's just a very wordy way of saying that Penn State going 4-for-4 probably isn't the thing that had Tom Brands looking not as happy as some would expect the coach of the newly crowned NCAA Champ to look.
