Ogden: Oregon State's Zalesky moves on, up

DES MOINES - After seven years, Jim Zalesky easily calls Oregon home.

The bitterness is gone, at least outwardly, and the focus is on his future, his family and his team.

“I'm a Beaver,” he said without hesitation and with a smile inside Wells Fargo Arena on Saturday, after his Oregon State team secured a Top 10 finish at the NCAA Division I Championships.

This was the completion of his seventh season at Oregon State, a school with a rich wrestling tradition that finished as high as second in the national tournament in 1995.

But Oregon State is not Iowa.

Zalesky was a Hawkeye, once the top Hawk. He was a three-time NCAA champion as a wrestler there and the man who succeeded the legendary Dan Gable, his coach, as the Iowa coach.

His teams won three NCAA titles, the last in 2000. After nine seasons, however, Iowa officials, fans and media - myself included - thought a change was needed at the top and after the 2005-06 campaign Zalesky was fired.

It was a tough time for Zalesky, obviously, but also for many around him. Always the “nice guy,” he felt betrayed by many.

But he landed on his feet and has steadily moved past that period.

“It's like wrestling,” he said. “You lose a match, are you going to dwell on it? You've got to move forward and move on.”

All indications are Zalesky has done just that, personally and professionally.

He took over a program that had finished 41st in the NCAA tournament in 2006. His teams have gone from 26th and 46th his first two seasons to 10th last year and eighth this season, the Beavers' best finish since 1996.

Expectations at OSU are not what they are at Iowa, at least from the administration, fans and media. But Zalesky doesn't want any less for his Beavers than he did his Hawks.

“I think you've got to have (high) expectations no matter where you are,” he said. “I think any program can get (to the top) if you work hard enough.”

He had three All-Americans this weekend, and all will return to the wrestling room next season.

“I think we're getting there,” he said. “I think we're getting there every year. But we've got to take another jump, we've got to get guys in the finals.”

Sounds familiar, like most top wrestling coaches here this weekend.

Nice guys don't have to finish last.