Blue White Illustrated

KLAHOMA CITY – Head coach Cael Sanderson dropped a quote from the 1998 movie "Water Boy" during his news conference after the 2014 national wrestling tournament. Penn State had just won the team crown, the school's fourth in a row, but this – a line from one of Adam Sandler's funniest films – had to have been a pro- gram first. Here's how it came about: Prior to the tournament's final round, David Taylor climbed over a railing to join his parents in the PSU fan section of the Chesapeake Arena. (He watched portions of every session alongside his father, Dave, and mother, Kathy.) When he started to climb the metal railing to join them in the stands, the rail popped loose and smacked Taylor directly under the left eye, causing him to bleed. "Hopefully too many people didn't see it," Taylor laughed. "It's kind of embarrassing, but it's kind of funny, too." Taylor was asked about "his run-in with the railing" during the presser. But Sanderson, who doesn't often talk about injuries, quickly butted in before Taylor could respond. "It was the gorilla that escaped from the zoo," he said (not in the Bobby Boucher voice, unfortunately). Right on cue, Taylor piped back, "The search continues." It drew a genuine laugh from the dozen or so media members in the room and caused Sanderson's and Taylor's championship smiles to only grow. It was a lighthearted, comedic moment within a 23-minute news conference that revealed a jovial side of Sanderson that reporters don't often see while he is speaking on the record. In fact, after covering Sanderson for the past four seasons, I had never seen him in this type of mood following a national tour- nament. This year was different, though. And it had very little to do with the Nittany Lions becoming only the third program in college wrestling history to win four consecutive NCAA championships. No, this was about Sanderson's indi- viduals. "In coaching, you just try to serve these guys, and that's all it is," he said. "It's just trying to help these guys reach their goals, and I'm only thinking about how to help them." Not all of Sanderson's athletes reached their personal dreams at the 2014 NCAA Wrestling Championships, but Penn State finished with seven All- Americans. And all of them – Nico Megaludis, Zain Retherford, James Eng- lish, Matt Brown, Ed Ruth, Morgan McIntosh and Taylor – finished the tournament with a victory. That's never happened before under Sanderson's watch at PSU. Last year in Des Moines, Iowa, Taylor lost the blockbuster vs. Cornell's Kyle Dake. The year before in St. Louis, Quentin Wright dropped a tight battle to Cornell's Steve Bosak, and in Philadelphia in 2011, Taylor was pinned by Arizona State's Bubba Jenkins, a for- mer Penn State teammate, during the same final round in which Dake topped Frank Molinaro. Despite winning a team championship in each of the previous three seasons, Sanderson was devastated in the mo- ments immediately following those losses. When Taylor fell to Dake last year, Sanderson could be seen in the bowels of the Wells Fargo Arena, slumped to the floor with his head between his knees. The year before that in the Scottrade Center, after I asked him about Wright's loss, he let out a frightening yell then ran toward the locker room. (It was only my second year on the job. To steal an- other "Water Boy" line, I was simply hoping a can of whoop-ass wouldn't be opened.) Sanderson enjoys the team titles, no doubt. But he puts so much time and ef- fort, blood, sweat and tears, literally, into ensuring that his stars can stand atop the podium that it stings him when they don't. So both of those instances aren't your typical reaction from a coach who had just won a national championship. This year, instead of sorrow and out- bursts, however, it was high-fives, hand shakes, a Bobby Boucher quote and pure joy, at last, from Penn State's fifth-year mentor. "All of our All-Americans won their last match, and that's a big deal," he said. "It makes it easier as a coach when your guys win their last match. Usually after a tournament you have somebody who hasn't reached their goals. So it feels good for these guys to go out with a win." Likewise, his wrestlers take pride in pleasing their coaches. After English, the unsung hero of PSU's championship run, won his first All-America honor, Sanderson picked up the 149-pound sixth-year senior, put him on top of his shoulders and carried him off the mat. Said English, "That meant the world to me." That's a moment that English will never forget, and for as happy as English was, Sanderson was beaming just as much. That's what he coaches for. That's what he lives for. Like English, individual results such as his mean the world to Sanderson, too. "If they're happy," he said, "we're happy." ■ L A S T W O R D T I M O W E N | O W E N . T I M . B W I @ G M A I L . C O M All's well that ends well O

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