Boardwine Putting the “Fight” in Camels

Campbell Program Making Strides

Willie Saylor, Editor

Wrestling success is built in the room, not on the recruiting trail. Campbell Head Coach, Joe Boardwine, knows that.

But he also knows that talent goes a long way in providing the framework for success. Which is why Boardwine and Assistant Rocco Coponi, a three-time ACC Champion as a Virginia Cavalier, have hit the recruiting circuit early and often.

More than once over the past year, a high-level talent has come across the wire as committed to Campbell. And while the initial reaction from the wrestling public may have been one of a raised brow, Boardwine has a vision that is encouraging for both the university and its incoming athletes.

It was just over a year ago, in July of 2010, when Boardwine, who made his mark coaching high school in Ohio, became Campbell’s 9th Head Coach since the program’s 1968 inception.

“I looked at the potential with the University community,” Coach Boardwine explained. “I definitely wasn’t desperate to move my family nine hours from home and I didn’t just need a job. So I wasn’t going to do this unless I thought there was compelling evidence that this program was a sleeping giant. In the end I thought there was huge potential for growth and improvement with the wrestling program here at Campbell University. I thought there was a huge gap between the level they were currently competing at, and what they were realistically capable of in the very near future.”

As with the reconstruction of any program in a sport with little parity, reluctant wrestling fans will ‘believe it when they see it.’ But Boardwine has obviously instilled some optimism in the Buies Creek (NC) college of roughly 5,000.

The facilities have been upgraded. There is a strong support from the administration and local community. And last month it was announced that, along with former fellow East Regional squad Gardner-Webb and the recently resurrected Southern Illinois-Edwardsville program, Campbell will be joining the SoCon Conference, which should offer the Camels increased exposure, competitiveness, and wrestling stability.

• Mark Hartenstine (149)-Had one of the most productive red shirt seasons in the country last year posting a 30-5 mark for the University of Maryland. PA State Runner-Up. NHSCA Sophomore National Champion. 3rd at Super32.
• James Cook (174)-mid-season transfer from American University. A rare 4x-California State place-winner. State Champion as a Senior, and an NHSCA National Champion.
• Ryan Krecker (157)- 3x State Placer, Bethlehem Hurricane Classic Runner-Up
• John Weakley (184/197)-formerly of Oklahoma and Ohio St. Placed at Big Ten’s as a Buckeye.
• Josh Fisher (125)-4x State Champion, NHSCA Champion
• Joey Rizzolino (133/141)- 2x State Placer, Reno Runner-Up

In a much broader sense, it’s nearly incumbent upon wrestling purists and those interested in the health of the sport to root for more competitive and passionate programs such as the one the administration is fostering at Campbell.

Like Mark Cody had done at American University, a struggling program before his arrival in D.C., or Jason Borelli in Mt. Pleasant at CMU, there is cause for optimism in ‘smaller’ programs, and a universal benefit to the sport from burgeoning programs such as Campbell and, say, Clarion. Just look at what Boardwine’s alma mater, Kent State, has been able to accomplish recently.

While a dynasty may be a long a ways down the road, competitiveness seems just around the corner. By all indications Coach Boardwine and Caponi are giving the Camels a ‘Fighting’ chance.

Last year’s class was just the beginning, as the Camels are in on many studs recruits in the 2012 class.

We had a chance to speak with Coach Boardwine on several issues concerning the wrestling program at Cambell, including his approach to rebuilding, his current self-evaluation, administrative support, the move to the Southern Conference, and more.

WS: What attracted you to the program at Campbell?

Coach Boardwine: I really enjoy building wrestling programs almost from the bottom up – or close to it. That kind of situation is not for everybody, but I love it. I like to be able to come in to a situation where a major turn-around or overhaul is needed.

I figured a lot of people would think I was crazy and wouldn’t see the potential. But that’s usually the way it is.

I can remember before I took my first coaching job at little Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in Akron, Ohio. My brother Jim, who was also a state champ, made fun of me and how bad of a team it was. A lot of others pointed out how much suffering I was about to endure trying to coach this team to win in Ohio. We started off with only 13 wrestlers on the team. Fast forward a few years later – we had 30 kids on the roster, Harry Lester winning the Cadet World Championships, five guys in the State Championship Finals in Ohio, and placed 3rd in the Ironman behind only Blair and St. Edward’s. My brother wasn’t making fun of me anymore!

I thought the situation at Campbell University could be very much the same way.

I also talked to several D1 head coaches that I have a lot of respect for and have a personal relationship with. I shared with them my thoughts and the facts about the Campbell University situation, and they provided some great feedback.

Tom Ryan (Ohio State), Tom Borelli (Central Michigan) and Drew Pariano (Northwestern) all were really helpful to me in the process of determining the ultimate upside of this program. Each of these guys have taken “risks” so to speak in their coaching careers. Ryan (at Hofstra and Ohio State both) and Borelli have done great work building something special in situations where others thought it was either unlikely – or impossible.

Drew Pariano and I are from the same county in Ohio and used to train together some. He’s been everywhere from a DIII grad assistant to a Big Ten head coach, and so he had some very keen insight into the opportunity here.

I really believed that Campbell University was ripe for a major overhaul and turn-around and that a much, much higher level of performance and success was possible out of this program.

WS: Did you come in with a plan to turn Campbell around?
Please expand on it, if you can. What were your top priorities?

Coach Boardwine: Yes. I came in with a big vision for the program and a pretty detailed plan in the six areas below, of what I thought it would take to make major improvements.

Actually, I started putting this plan together from the very beginning, before I interviewed for the job. Like I said earlier, I wasn’t interested in this because I needed a job. I was attracted to it because of its potential. So I started honestly analyzing the situation and putting the corrective plans in place on my own to see if I truly thought this program could become great. I wanted to analyze exactly what I thought was wrong with the program – i.e. where they were falling short in terms of competitiveness and championship potential – and then determine if what was wrong was “fixable.”

So by the time I got to the point where they wanted to interview me, I already had strong ideas and a strong plan for specifically what I would do if I were the head coach to bring the wrestling program at Campbell University into national prominence.

It wasn’t hard to explain the vision to the administration, because I really believed in it. Likewise, most of that original plan is in place exactly as it was in the beginning – and so it’s easy to explain with conviction to recruits and their families and existing team-members.

The basic categories/building blocks of the plan were: 1) Athletes / Recruiting / Visibility 2) Facilities and Equipment 3) Coaching and Support Staff 4) Alumni, Community and Administrative Support 5) Off-Season development 6) In-season expectations and training.

It was more of a 3-5 year business-type plan and I knew I couldn’t do everything at once, so I had to prioritize how much energy I would put into each category in Year 1. I felt the top priorities were Athletes-Recruiting-Visibility, Coaching and Support Staff and Off-Season development.

We already had great facilities that were sparkling-new and the Administration was very supportive of the program. I felt we could make a big push to reach out to the community and grow the alumni network beginning in Year 2.

But right away we had to lay the foundation with the right athletes and coaches and increased visibility so that we would have the pieces in place to have an exciting product to tell them, the alumni, and community about. We couldn’t waste a minute on the recruiting front, especially.

So I decided to focus heavily on what I would call “targeted recruiting”; bringing the right athletes to our program and getting more coaching help in place to train them once they got here. I also wanted to increase our program’s visibility greatly.

WS: After one season, evaluate the program’s progress.

Coach Boardwine: I would say things have changed pretty significantly in the last 12 months. Looking back at it, I think we were able to do a couple years worth of improvements in one year. One of the key pieces of progress took place in the coaching staff. We hired two new assistant coaches. There had historically been one part-time, graduate assistant coach position that turned over on a regular basis. I thought this created a lack of continuity and there was a lack of manpower to get all the work done needed to take our program into the Top 25 because the grad assistant was not involved enough in all aspects of the program. At least it didn’t seem that way.
We were able to bring in 3x ACC Champ Rocco Caponi (upperweight) as an assistant coach. Also, former Penn State starter and University Nationals FS All-American, Jarrad Turner, became an assistant coach – in addition to his role as Assistant A.D., for Marketing and Promotions. These are both extremely loyal and hard working individuals.

Beyond that, we did some things where we shifted some responsibilities to other support staff for the wrestling program that had not existed before. For example, we brought on an undergraduate student assistant (coach), Derek Tomasone, who had wrestled for St. Edward HS (Ohio) and one year for Campbell. He actually did a ton of work for our program this year and took on a lot of the former duties of what the G.A. had done. That was a big help. We also added managers who worked hard and are now hiring an Administrative Assistant from our School of Business. The upside to all of this is that the program can run more efficiently in terms of operations, without taking all of the coaches’ time.

This has allowed me to focus more on recruiting, securing the future of the program and making sure that the program is being proactively worked on from all areas, instead of being bogged down by the day-to-day duties. Someone has to be “thinking” for the program at all times and being proactive and planning – otherwise it is just too easy to fall into being reactionary and just maintaining what already exists.

Another huge area of progress has happened in recruiting/talent development. I was hired at a time late last summer where there wasn’t much opportunity to recruit. Everyone had already made their college decisions. So that class of 2010 really didn’t get recruited by Campbell much at all. But from that time until now, we brought in about 26 new athletes to be on our roster. Instead of 21-22 wrestlers, we should be right around 40-42. And we’re recruiting nationally. We’ve got five wrestlers from California here, for example. We did a lot of targeted recruiting – where I worked hard to identify who the top kids were – possibly under the radar, but not necessarily – that we had a significant chance to actually sign. On top of that, we’ve got some very talented recruits that could become a factor right away. I don’t think Campbell has never had this kind of quantity (or quality) of wrestlers in its program at one time.

I like the changes we have made with our schedule. We toughened it up and reduced or eliminated exposure to NAIA, NCWA, and NCAA D3 or D2 teams.
I am not saying that some of that isn’t ok, especially when you are established, but with where the program was, I thought there was too much of it. Our current athletes needed to see first-hand what we expected of them. And they needed to be prepared for the NCAA’s. I think we needed to make a statement to the wrestling community that we are “all-in” to compete at the highest level.

Instead, now we’re wrestling Big Ten teams like Northwestern and Indiana, for example. We are in the Southern Scuffle and the Virginia Duals. Those are both very tough events. And we also wrestle ACC teams like Virginia, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, and NC State. Last year, even though I knew we would be weak in duals, we wrestled Kent State, Ohio University, Virginia Tech, etc. I knew we would be overmatched that season, but I did it anyway because I wanted to make sure our current team, future recruits and the wrestling community as a whole, knew we were serious about getting in the game with the top teams.

My goal is simply to make our schedule so tough that no one will ever be able to look at our program and question the level of competition available to them. They can come to Campbell University to be a champion and wrestle the top D1 guys in the nation.

WS: How supportive is the university to the Camel wrestling program? Talk about facitlities, travel, scholarships, etc.

Coach Boardwine: The University is committed to wrestling and supporting initiatives to increase the success of the wrestling program. We have an awesome $30 million facility for wrestling training, strength training and competition. In fact, I would say it’s one of only a few places in the country where you can literally walk ten steps from our brand-new practice area and into the brand-new competition area. Our wrestling practice facility was recently completed and it’s a temperature controlled area that fits about 3 full mats in total space. Walking out of the wrestling room, in five steps, our athletes are walking right into their brand-new, wrestling-only locker room, where they each have their own cherry-wood locker and there are other amenities like leather couches, cable TV, dvd/vcr player, new showers, etc. It’s rock solid.
The competition area is just steps away from the wrestling room and is located in The Pope Convocation Center, which seats about 3,000, and is immaculate. This is the kind of facility where we can bring any team in the country to Campbell to wrestle and be proud of where we are competing, and also of where the visiting team will be staying (brand-new visitor’s locker area).

Also right near the competition area and practice facility, is our brand-new weight room and athletic training room. Having everything so close and accessible is just great. It allows our athletes to be very efficient with their training. They are not trekking all-over campus to have their most important needs met. In addition, our study area for academic hours, will now be housed right next to the weight room.

We have been getting more and more assistance from the University in the area of scholarships to help bring in more of the type of athletes we need to who can be highly successful as D1 starters and also as good students at Campbell. We’ve had really good conversations and plans about scholarships with the administration. They understand how important it is and are moving us steadily in the right direction. They truly want to see us become more successful in every way with our wrestling program. I think they are committed to doing what they need to on their end for resources to give us what we need to get into the top 25.

WS: Talk about the move to the SO CON.

Coach Boardwine: It’s a big move. And I think it’s a good move. We looked at it as both a coaching staff and as an institution, and thought this move would help take our program in the direction we wanted to take it. The SoCon has a great deal of respect and admiration among colleges and universities presidents and AD’s all throughout the south. Our upper administration, was very excited about wrestling being able to bring the University into a conference like the SoCon. They also recognized the need for a greater investment in the wrestling program in order to compete well in the SoCon, and made that adjustment quickly. So that is a great sign of things to come for Campbell.

Winning a SoCon title means a little bit more to the wrestling community than winning an East Region title, and so I think this will help not only with recruiting, but also in motivating our current athletes to train at a higher level to meet everyone’s higher expectations associated with the Southern Conference.

Schedule-wise, it didn’t really change things much for us this year, since we already had most of the SoCon teams on our schedule to begin with. I like the potential this move has given us to create regional rivalries with teams like UTC, which I could see getting pretty heated down the road. I can picture those matches being very much worth attending for the average fan. That’s important for any wrestling program.

That being said, our goals for this program and its individuals will always be above and beyond the conference level. We want to start producing National Champions and All-Americans. And if we are doing that successfully, then we will definitely be able to compete well within any conference.

WS: What is the atmosphere and fanfare like? How is the local community support and turn-out?

Coach Boardwine: Last season we were only at home twice, so we’re just starting to gauge the level of interest and support for wrestling in the local community. We did some special promotions and had a great turnout for our Black and Orange (wrestle-offs) match at the beginning of the year. In fact, we had close to 1,000 people – which was a really big deal for this program. I think people were stunned that we got that many people to come out for such an event. Most of those who attended were students.
The teams on campus really seem to support the other teams well by attending their meets and vice-versa.

The local community is very supportive and loves Campbell University as an institution. They also love sports. They need to be educated about wrestling and sold on following it. This coming season, we will be at home eight times and we plan to work hard and do some special promotions to engage the broader community and make sure we are converting some of the people in surrounding counties into wrestling fans. That’s one of the advantages of having Jarrad Turner on our coaching staff (Assistant AD for marketing and promotions). He knows what our goals are and he will help us work hard to fill the seats.

I can definitely see a time coming when a family will want to go out to a Campbell vs. North Carolina, or Campbell vs. NC State wrestling match. And that match will be a big deal in the local community– with a large crowd, and a lot of excitement about a highly-competitive dual.

One of the things to remember about this area is that college sports are king. People love to follow and attend college sports here. There isn’t much on the professional side to compete with compared to some states.

Combine that with the fact that their interest here in wrestling is growing every year, and I think you have a recipe for a community that will come out to watch a good, hard-fought match between two tough teams.