Associate head coach Mike Zadick dismissed from Iowa State wrestling program

Cody Goodwin | The Des Moines Register

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AMES, Ia. — A number of Iowa State wrestlers from the Kevin Jackson regime left the program after Kevin Dresser was hired to lead the program.

Now, as the Cyclones near the beginning of Year Two under Dresser, there will be a shakeup on his staff.

Mike Zadick, the associate head coach of the Iowa State wrestling team, was dismissed from the program Thursday. Zadick had spent the last three years with Dresser, coaching as an assistant at Virginia Tech for two seasons before coaching the Cyclones in 2017-18.

"I've decided to go in a different direction with our coaching staff as we continue to re-build the Iowa State program," Dresser said in a release. "There isn't a better guy to teach wrestling technique than Mike, but we had some significant differences of opinion and it is best that we part ways.

"Mike was given the opportunity to run our practice room and have substantial input on all elements of the program. At the end of the day, however, I'm the leader of this program, and our staff has to be aligned and unified."

Dresser, who couldn't be reached for a follow-up comment after the announcement was made, and assistant coaches Derek St. John and Brent Metcalf will assume Zadick's responsibilities. Dresser also said in the release that he would conduct a nationwide search to fill the full-time assistant coaching position.

"What's exciting for us, going forward, is that we've got multiple coaches in our wrestling room with championship backgrounds and a commitment to the Cyclone program," Dresser continued. "Derek and I have worked side-by-side for three years, and his rapid development as a teacher and developer of young men has impressed me.

"Brent is one of the most decorated competitors in recent times. Even as a volunteer assistant last year, his ability to connect with kids and prepare them for competition impacted our room incredibly. Brent is a rising star as a coach, and I'm eager to get him even more involved with our current Cyclones during this transition."

In his one year in Ames, Zadick helped lay the foundation for the Iowa State wrestling program’s potential resurgence. The Cyclones went 8-10 in duals and qualified just one wrestler for the NCAA Championships — Jarrett Degen, who reached the bloodround at 149 pounds — but the program also secured the nation’s 10th-best 2018 recruiting haul, according to The Open Mat.

Zadick, who did not respond to multiple phone calls or a text message from the Des Moines Register seeking comment, was a decorated competitor before becoming a wrestling coach. He was a four-time state champion at Great Falls high school in Montana, then a three-time All-American at Iowa from 2000-02. He won a Big Ten individual title at 149 pounds as a senior.

After his run with the Hawkeyes, Zadick competed internationally in freestyle. He was a silver medalist at both the 2006 world championships in Guangzhou, China, and the 2007 Pan-American Championships. He also made the 2008 Olympic team that competed in Beijing.

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He began his coaching career around that same time. He spent a decade at Iowa, serving as the strength coach, a volunteer assistant and interim assistant coach. He helped the Hawkeyes win NCAA team titles from 2008-10 under current head coach Tom Brands.

After the 2011-12 season, Zadick left coaching to live in a cabin in the Montana mountains. Then, ahead of the 2015-16 season, Dresser hired Zadick as a volunteer assistant at Virginia Tech, and they led the Hokies to a fourth-place team finished at the 2016 NCAA Championships.

The next year, Zadick was promoted to assistant coach, and helped Virginia Tech win the ACC team title. Seven individual Hokie wrestlers reached the finals at their respective weights, and six won championships. During his time in Blacksburg, Virginia Tech amassed a 34-3 dual record while 11 individual wrestlers earned All-American honors.

When Dresser was hired at Iowa State in April 2017, he brought Zadick along with him as the program’s associate head coach. During the introductory press conference, Dresser referred to Zadick and fellow assistants Metcalf and St. John — all of whom are former Iowa wrestlers — as his “dream team.”

“There’s definitely a lot of development to be done,” Zadick said then. “I think we have the firepower in our program.”

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At the time, Dresser made it known Zadick would be the leading voice inside the Harold Nichols Wrestling Room. He was expected to lead workouts and practices and demonstrate technique to individual wrestlers, something about which Dresser and his staff felt confident.

“I’ve watched Mike corral a group of guys and have them truly believing in what we’re doing,” St. John said during the introductory press conference in April. “And then they actually get results from what he’s doing.

“To me, it’s been a great learning process and soaking up a lot of what he’s throwing out to them.”

The staff faced a turbulent first season in Ames. There were at least eight defections from the Iowa State roster, including one public blow-up with 141-pound redshirt freshman Kanen Storr, who is now at Michigan.

But the team steadily improved over the course of the year. The Cyclones won eight duals after winning just one during the 2016-17 season. The team got demonstratively better and will add both impact transfers and talented freshmen who sat in redshirt a year ago to the 2018-19 squad.

The Cyclones will continue to turn around their storied program once the 2018-19 season commences. They open their season on Nov. 3 with the Cyclone Open in Ames, and they will do so without Zadick.

Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.