Black and Wilson vital to Women's Wrestling success

Kevin Black has helped many New York Athletic Club women's wrestlers prepare for major national events.

In turn, Black believes some of those athletes are part of the reason why he had the opportunity to serve on the Team USA coaching staff at the World Wrestling Championships late last month  in Herning, Denmark.

The USA Wrestling's Women's Coach Selection Committee selected Black and Keith Wilson as coaches for the prestigious competition and both were approved by USA Wrestling's Executive Committee. They joined the staff of national women's coach Terry Steiner for the event.

The coaches are familiar on the national scene, in part because of their work with the two clubs that were most prominent on the Team USA roster for the World Championships.

Of the seven-member roster, Wilson had two Team Sunkist wrestlers on the team and Black had three from the New York Athletic Club.

"I think with myself and Keith Wilson, the two volunteer coaches, the mindset is we want women's wrestling in the United States to be the best in the world," Black said. "When he's with the Sunkist Kids and I'm with New York AC, we want our wrestlers to be the best.

"Domestically, we have a friendly competition, but what we both want is for the U.S. to have success, so it's an easy transition for us."

The wrestlers on the national team had a say in the selection of the two additional coaches. Black and Wilson were familiar because one or the other has worked with the majority of the team and each has also shown the willingness to advise wrestlers from outside their club.

Although Black works in the corner of New York AC in major events, he resides River Falls, Wis., where he has operated the Victory School of Wrestling since 2005.

"I think that's why the girls are comfortable choosing Keith or myself," Black said. "They know we're in it for USA Wrestling. We want wrestling to be better. That's always been our stance. We want everybody to improve. If making someone else better helps push our club's wrestlers to have to be better, it's good for the whole sport."

That team effort was evident during training for the World Championships.

"The athletes are very comfortable with them," Steiner said in a news release. "That is a big thing with the success of the team. They bring a lot of knowledge and enthusiasm to the team effort."

Wilson, from Colorado Springs, Colo., said the mixture of athletes created exciting possibilities for Team USA in preparation for the tournament. However, an injured shoulder slowed Olympian Clarissa Chun, a Sunkist Kids wrestler who lost twice at 105.5 pounds. Tatiana Padilla, the other Sunkist wrestler, took fifth at 121 pounds.

Black was familiar with most of the rest of the team.

Deanna Rix (130), Adeline Gray (147.5) and Jessica Medina (112.25) are all New York AC members, although Gray is relatively new to the club and Black's only work with her was at a junior development camp. Rix was fifth for the second straight year while Gray was also fifth. Medina won her first bout before losing two straight, including one to eventual champion Sofia Mattson of Sweden.

Ali Bernard (158.5) and Rix have both spent time in Wisconsin training under Black at Victory. Elena Pirozhkov, who finished seventh at 138.75 pounds, was the other member of the team.

While the coaches were added to work with the entire team, Black admitted a special attachment to one of the wrestlers.

"Working with Deanna Rix has been the most rewarding coaching experience of my life," he said. "I've coached hundreds of guys and quite a few girls, but I've invested more time into Deanna than all of the other athletes combined."

Black said that two years ago Rix's hopes of wrestling on the international level were disappearing. She has since worked her way back.

"We worked on life lessons, character building and some wrestling," Black said. "I knew if she made good decisions with the rest of her life and good choices with wrestling, things would take off."

While they worked together, the 2005 ASICS Girls High School Wrestler of the Year reached a point where she won each time she went on the mat and worked her way back to where she is now a resident at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.

"She's right in the hunt," Black said of her hopes to be an Olympic medalist one day.
Black has reasons to clearly remember the day Rix made her first world team in 2008. At the last minute, Black had to send Rix out on her own so he could remain home for the birth of his son, Isaiah.

Isaiah was born the day Rix made the world team.

"She hasn't come back," Black said. "She's been at the training center doing all she can to set herself up for the 2012 Olympics and a gold medal."

Bernard, a two-time Junior World champion who was fifth at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, is another wrestler who spent extensive time working with Black.

"She is very intriguing as an athlete," Black said. "She had her own plan and her own agenda to be successful and so far it has worked."

Black said Bernard has brought herself to the point where the structure of the national program can push her to the next level.

"Now, she needs to use USA Wrestling and some coaches to get her more medals," he said. "She's so receptive and so open-minded and she works hard at it."

Black said he has been able to connect with Medina, an individual national college champion at Cumberland, on the mental and spiritual side of preparing to be a world-class athlete.

"She has tremendous coaches in Colorado Springs who have helped her technically," he said.

The World Championships last month marked a return to world competition for Black, who was also a coach at the 2007 championships when Team USA finished fifth. He has other international experience, including coaching women's team tours to Russia, Poland and Canada, the U.S. University women's team in El Salvador in 2007 and the U.S. Cadet women's team in China in 2006.

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc. Tom Robinson is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of any National Governing Bodies.