UNO full of passengers on plane to greatness

By Jason Bryant
jbryant@intermatwrestle.com

Omaha, Neb -- As you walked into the Sapp Fieldhouse on Saturday morning at the Brute-Adidas Nationals, the display was hard to miss.

Situated just past the front door of the gym sat dozens of trophies showcasing the dominance of the University of Nebraska-Omaha wrestling program.

A large banner listed the All-Americans that have competed for the Mavericks along with NCAA Division II and NAIA national team championship trophies caught the attention many of the over 800 wrestlers at the third Brute-Adidas Nationals.

The most recent addition to the trophy case was a 2006 NCAA Division II National Team Championship by Mike Denney’s team.

Under Denney’s direction, the Mavericks have been unmatched on the Division II level, earning 26 Top 10 finishes in the 27 years the division has been established and is a Division II-best with 18 Top 3 finishes. The first national title came in 1970 when UNO was a member of the NAIA.

For Denney, who coached for 10 years in the Omaha school system before taking over as coach of UNO 27 years ago, this group had all the tools.

“This is my 37 th year coaching, and during those years, you understand how difficult it is to be ranked number one at the beginning of the year and go wire to wire,” Denney said. “Then to lead ever round of the national tournament, it’s so hard to do that, that consistency is tough to do. This group was special. I think for us to be able to hold that, it sets them apart from a lot of teams.”

“This group, and we’ve had some special groups, but this group had a 3.4 GPA and was third in the nation academically, which is the highest team GPA we’ve ever had and we got third (nationally),” said Denney. “Last year, we had a 3.38 and won the academic national championships.”

“Last year was the first time in history that a team has won the academic national championship has also won the wrestling national championships,” he said proudly.

While the Mavericks weren’t as dynasty-based as Oklahoma State and Iowa on the Division I level, they’re starting to carve out a niche for themselves, winning the last three Division II crowns, most recently, taking the 2006 championships held at the University of Findlay in Ohio.

The group also stepped up when needed. When returning All-American Steve Conlon went down with a knee injury, ending his season, Denney moved J.D. Naig to 174 and inserted true freshman Ross Taplin, a Kansas native, into the starting lineup at 165.

Naig ended up winning a national championship and Taplin finished third.

With three national champions, including four-time heavyweight national champion Les Sigman, UNO outdistanced intra-state rival Nebraska-Kearney 117-98.5.

Denney believes this team had it coming.

“This team, I’ve told them this from the beginning, this team did deserve to be successful because they’ve done it in the right way,” he said. “They deserve it.”

Denney uses his limited resources to create a reward-based system. His current operating budget, not counting his salary, is less than it was 32 years ago. He has more scholarships now (five) than the program did back then, but when recruiting athletes, he stresses a reward-based issue and he’s high on loyalty.

“When you guys like a Les Sigman is doing well and coming here for next to nothing and you have guys like Cody Garcia or Patrick Allibone or JD Naig …”

“If those guys are doing well for us and I’m giving these recruits a lot more money, they’re going to be like ‘wait a minute coach, I’ve proven myself’.”

“You have to take care of your people,” said Denney. “You have to reward, in any business, you have to reward somehow. Not with just money, but you have to reward those people for staying. Saying hey, I know you could go D1 and be a D1 All-American, but you know, that loyalty is big.”

“In any organization, whether it’s a wrestling team or business, all the same things have to hold true. You have to take care of your people, you have to be loyal, you have to have people of character.”

“We’ve been fortunate. These guys … I’m so proud of them. You’d have them in your organization, they wouldn’t have to be wrestlers, you’d just say that guy is quality, he’s that upper crust. He’s going to make the organization better.”

But when recruiting, there’s an obvious drawback for the wrestler with dreams of wrestling on college wrestling’s biggest stage, the NCAA Division I championships.

“Coming into their home, coming in and meeting their parents, I tell them right away, there’s one thing I can’t give you – and that’s the Division I National Tournament,” said Denney.

What UNO’s ambitious schedule does do is seek out the best competition it can, and with an abundance of wrestling events that his wrestlers work and host, the fundraising enables UNO to travel to seek out some of the top competition.

“That’s the one thing that we can’t give you (Division I Nationals),” Denney said. “The rest of it, you’re looking at competition.”

“Les Sigman wrestled and won the Midlands. He’s wrestled ( Steve) Mocco and (Cole) Konrad. Our guys have the chance to go against the best. We have to give them that. The duals we wrestle, the tournaments we wrestle. I can’t give them the D1 Nationals.”

Denney is sure to keep things in perspective.

“If that is your dream – to wrestle in the Division I national tournament – I don’t want to be a dreambreaker, I want to be a dream maker,” said Denney. “We can give you everything AND more up until that.”

With a good graduation rate and a high level of community service, Denney feels the gelling between student and environment isn’t just a high priority, it’s the key priority.

“When you have someone like a Les Sigman staying here – that’s speaks something,” he said.

“With him staying, when he had opportunities; Offers -- probably more money than we were giving him -- I’m sure it was, to go to a Division I program, but he thinks this is the fit for him,” said Denney. “He’s not going around saying to the other guys saying ‘I wish I’d have gone Division I, I wish I’d have done this, I wish I’d have done that’.”

“This place was the fit for him,” said Denney.

“(When recruiting an athlete) if there’s a fit there and they feel this organization is the fit for them, it’s hard to turn away from home,” Denney said.

“It’s like divorcing someone almost.”

“We really try to get that closeness, that marriage that works from both sides,” he explained. “This is the fit for them, this is the best for them. Taking everything into consideration, this is what’s best for them.”

Putting together a championship team for Denney was less about the emphasis on winning than it was having the right personnel.

“If you’re going to fly to greatness, if you’re going to take the plane to greatness, you’ve got to have the right people on the plane and the wrong people off,” said Denney.

“This group is quality,” he said. “They are the right people to have on the plane. Not just for your athletes, but it holds true with your coaching staff … if you’re a volunteer assistant, your athletic training people, your strength coach. Every part of your staff, it has to hold true.

It’s not some huge thing, it’s all the little things and it starts with the right people on and the wrong people off,” he said, sticking to his anecdote.

Denney said he’s had some great groups of wrestlers come in, but recently, each group seems to exceed its predecessors.

“The bar just keeps going up,” he said.

“It’s not anything we really do, it’s the group. If you’re forcing them to do it, there’s no way. It’s that group, that culture that’s there and that’s huge in the whole scheme of things,” Denney said proudly.

“Teaching and Building. That’s my mission.”

“The draw of the winning, there’s a pull,” he explained. “You can get consumed by that, but you have to really fight against that. My thing is, I help teach and build.”

Denney’s wrestling alumni have also found their place in the wrestling world. Over 60 alums are coaching somewhere, whether it be on the high school level in the Midwest or at other colleges.

“ Steve Costanzo just won the (NAIA) national championship at Dana College and he wrestled here,” Denney said. “ Mark Manning is coaching at Nebraska – he wrestled here. I'm also proud of Marc Bauer, he coaches at Nebraska-Kearney, they took second to us this year.”

“You want them to walk in here (UNO) and be proud,” Denney said. “You want them to talk in and say, ‘Hey, I wrestled for them’.”

Denney grins when asked about Costanzo and Manning and their winning ways, although the Huskers did bring a young bunch into Oklahoma City this year and took their lumps.

“They’re doing it the right way,” Denney said. “They have success and they’re doing it the right way – teaching and building.

“Wrestling such a great vehicle to do that,” he said.

And with five returning All-Americans and a solid early group of signees, it would appear that Denney and his fund-raising happy group of wrestlers have their boarding passes on that plane to greatness and another Division II national championship in 2006-07.

InterMat Lead Writer
Jason Bryant