Brands named as World Team coach

The University of Iowa wrestling program already was well represented on this year's USA Wrestling's World Team.

Former Hawkeye NCAA champions Brent Metcalf and Tony Ramos earned a spot on the team and now they will be joined by a familiar face in the corner.

Iowa Coach Tom Brands was named a volunteer coach for the U.S. Men's Freestyle team for the 2014 World Championships on Sept. 8-9 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He will be joined by former Iowa State and current Penn State Coach Cael Sanderson, working with national freestyle coach Bruce Burnett, assistant national freestyle coaches Bill Zadick, also a former Hawkeye, and Brandon Slay.

'I think everybody is after the same thing,” Brands said in a news release. 'The commitment is they want to win in 2014. We have guys who are hungry. There are guys who are first-time team members and want to be World champions. We have Burroughs, but Burroughs needs help. We won't win the Worlds as a team with just him. Performance is key from each of the team members. Our young attitude is good. They know the important year is the one upon us. They are not looking down the road. It is now, not 2016. I like that.”

Metcalf will be making his third World Championships appearance, competing in the 143-pound weight class. Ramos, who won the 133-pound NCAA title in March, and claimed the 125.5-pound spot during the World Team Trials this spring in Madison, Wis.

Brands won an Olympic gold at 136.5 pounds in 1996 at Atlanta, Ga., surrendering just one point, and was a 1993 World titlist in Toronto, Canada. He was a coach on the U.S. Olympic team for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, where the U.S. grabbed three medals. In 2003, he was a World team coach, helping guide the U.S. to a second-place finish at the World Championships in New York City. Brands, Metcalf and Ramos are a part of the Hawkeye Wrestling Club.

'In my role, you stay out of the way, while providing more support for Ramos and Metcalf,” Brands said. 'My job is to get our guys ready from our stable, both Metcalf and Ramos, and to assist the national coaching staff with whatever else they need. We have to make sure they all are getting what they need and feel good about it. They all come from very good programs.”

Olympic gold medalist and former Iowa State NCAA champion Jake Varner will wrestle for the U.S. at 213 pounds.

l Comments: (319) 368-8679; kj.pilcher@thegazette.com