Starting from scratch — Wrestling sport club to make program debut at WSU

Adam Roberts always wanted to be a collegiate wrestling coach, but he didn’t know that his start would be at the University of Idaho until March 2013 when he and his wife visited Moscow for Vandal Friday.

Six months later, UI’s new wrestling sport club is set to take on Washington State in its program debut in Pullman Friday. The exhibition match takes place the day before the Vandal football team faces the Cougars.

Roberts said it will be a friendly rivalry between the two Palouse teams as the Vandals will face WSU in most of their competitions this season.

“Everywhere we go, they’re going to be there,” he said. “They’re a second year program so we have to lean on them for some advice. Both of our teams’ goals are to bring down the house each time we play each other and we’re looking to face each other at least four times.”

The Roberts family visited UI after his wife was accepted into the law program in March. After deciding to make the move, Roberts immediately began to pursue starting a wrestling sport club for the Vandals.

“It was the first Vandal Friday,” Roberts said. “I just said ‘this is my dream, if I don’t start now then it’s never going to happen.'”

Since March, Roberts has been on the fast track to getting the program underway. Roberts, who is a disabled military veteran, has two other coaches helping him. But for the most part, it has been his persistence and hard work that has got the new sport club going.

“I’m one of three coaches,” Roberts said. “We don’t have a true head coach for the fact that we’re all students so it’s kind of hard for one person to have all the responsibility. But I’m in charge of recruiting, paperwork, funds, lately I’ve been doing everything to include training, stuff like that.”

Roberts’ two fellow coaches are Trevor Hampton and Roberts’ best friend Chris Adams. Hampton is just starting to get settled into his fellow coaching role alongside Roberts but Adams is currently supporting the program from across the country in Florida.

“Adam Roberts is my best, we’ve been best friends since fourth grade,” Adams said. “We’ve always wanted to start a team. My ultimate goal is to coach college … I’m supposed to be heading up there soon but I’ve got to get everything situated financially and so forth.”

Adams brings a high-profile background to his coaching experience. His accomplishments include being a two-time state champion in high school, three time national champion, four time world champion for Navy. It is safe to say Roberts hopes his friend can make the trek to Idaho sooner rather than later.

The coaches aren’t the only high-profile component of Idaho’s new wrestling sport club. Roberts has recruited several top-notch athletes including many former wrestlers that were already attending UI.

The Vandals’ starting lineup this weekend includes an athlete at almost every weight class and several wrestlers with past accomplishments.

Several Vandal standouts include former four-time state finisher Jake Waters, former state heavyweight champion Ty Beare, former state champion and three-time state finisher Nathan McLeod, assistant wrestling coach at Moscow High School Kyle Hinkle and Austin Alley, state finisher in Oregon.

Roberts said that although Idaho’s program is only at the club level, he thinks his team will be able to stand up against NCAA varsity competition in the future.

The Vandals will face several NCAA varsity level opponents despite only being a club team. At their first tournament, the Spokane Open, the Vandals will face NCAA Division II opponent Simon Fraser, top 10 NAIA opponents Great Falls and Montana State Northern, top two NAIA opponent Southern Oregon and junior college champions North Idaho College. In January, Idaho will potentially face several NCAA Division I teams in the Utah Valley Open. The Vandals work is cut out for them.

“When it comes to competition, it’s going to be stiff,” Roberts said. “I honestly believe, with some of our talent, we have chance of going pretty far in some of these tournaments. They’re all individual ranked — there’s no team scores in these. We have enough to prove that even though we’re a club, we don’t need to be treated like one.”

Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]

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Stephan Wiebe Sports reporter Sophomore in journalism Can be reached at [email protected]

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