Blueprint for Success: Building a High School Program

with Kevin Dresser,
Iowa State University Head Coach;
2024 Big XII Wrestling Champions;
2024 and 2019 Big XII Coach of the Year;
2019 NWCA Division I National Coach of the Year;
Virginia Tech Head Coach from 2006 to 2017;
2017 ACC Co-Coach of the Year;
2016 NWCA Division I National Coach of the Year;
3x ACC Dual Meet Champions (2015-17);
Back-to-Back ACC Tournament Champions (2013, 2014);
Christiansburg (VA) High School Head Coach from 1996 to 2006;
5x Virginia HS Group AA State Champions;
Grundy HS (VA) Head Coach from 1988 to 1996;
University of Iowa Assistant Coach from 1986 to 1988;
wrestled for University of Iowa;
1986 NCAA Champion (142 lbs);
2x All-American and 2x Big Ten Conference Champion;
1986 Mike Howard Award recipient (most valuable wrestler)

Are you wondering what you can do to improve practice? Do you want to know if you're doing the right things? Many coaches spend time wondering if what they're doing is the right thing for their team.

Kevin Dresser has experienced great success in high school and college as a coach. In this video, he describes some of the biggest mistakes he has made as a coach. He also passes on what he's learned from those mistakes to allow you an opportunity to avoid making the same mistakes.

Coach Dresser's Keys to Success

The first part of the video outlines what Dresser calls his practice 'anatomy.' He has eight general steps that he uses everyday leading into his competition weekend. These begin with warm-ups (when to warm up hard and when to warm up subdued) and complete with live wrestling. He bookends these steps with a pre-practice talk and closes with an exit message. These are both important to the athlete as you bring them into a practice, as well as when you send them forward from practice.

'The 5 Biggest Mistakes a Coach Can Make'

Coach Dresser follows up practice plans with his five biggest mistakes that you can make as a coach. These come from many years being on one side of the whistle. The biggest one is not showing every move you know. Your athletes will learn the flashy/fun stuff on their own, but to win, they have to be good at the basics.

Dresser is also a huge proponent of the team concept, even as far as how he utilizes his staff and communication with those over him in the food chain. He concludes with an insightful, experience-laden perspective on warning signals of over-training (especially high school athletes).

'The 5 Most Important Things to Build a Championship Program'

Coach Dresser completes his session by sharing program-building philosophies. Thoughts on building from the ground up in your school, becoming someone who is respected and embodies the values you will want in your athletes such as hard work. The 'grassroots' style of program building will eventually get people into the seats and have your community, parents and administrators supporting you. He emphasizes the team concept once again, but places more importance on self-development and out-working everyone else you compete against.

Success isn't just measured in wins and losses; it has to be also measured in the incremental steps necessary to get to the top and then sustain it. Whether you are a rookie coach, or have been coaching for numerous years, this video contains information that anyone can use to grow!

35 minutes. 2018.