Blue White Illustrated

Earnest. Funny. They're good words to sum up how Sanderson took a team that hadn't won an NCAA team title since 1953 and led it to back-to-back national championships. With one more adjective, that is. Driv- en. "I've known Cael since I was 8 years old, and he's unlike anyone I've ever been around," said 165-pound NCAA champion David Taylor. "Even to this day, he'll be one of the last ones to leave practice. And if someone else wants to wrestle, he'll wrestle until that person wants to quit. You'll never see Cael quit. "But I think as the years have progressed, people are starting to see that Cael's kind of like a kid. As he's lightened up his personality, it's lightened up our personality on the team. You see how successful he is, how driven he is at practice. But out- side of it, he's having fun, making jokes." The way Sanderson tells it, he and his coaching staff are just trying to get out of the wrestlers' way. "You've got to do what you feel is in their best in- terests," he said. "What's going to help them, not what I feel comfortable with or what I want to do or what I would do if I were an athlete." Sometimes those instincts match up. He's cool with using run-n-gun as a warm-up; would do it himself, in fact. "No question," he said. "Because the mind is the most powerful tool we have, and we want these guys to be ex- cited to be there and enjoy practice, be- cause they're going to get more out of that." But celebrating a victory with a lot of arm-waving and fist-pumping? Sanderson, who was a low-key com- petitor, said he's less comfortable with that. (He wasn't quite sure how to re- act to Ed Ruth's two-toned tourna- ment hair, either.) "But you just sit back – that's part of them having fun, and I don't want to interfere with that." But he does have high expecta- tions, which partly explains why after coming back from a seven-year layoff to win the U.S. world team trials, Sanderson stopped competing after he finished fifth at the world champi- onships last September. "I just realized that I have different priorities now," he said. "My family's first, and my team – not my team, but our team – is second, with the indi- viduals on the team. That leaves your individual competition third, and if it's third, you're not going to do well." Sanderson was barely tested state- side. At worlds, though, he lost to the eventual world champion early, then wrestled back a few rounds, but not far enough to win a medal. "It took him a while to get past that," Cunningham said. "I don't know that he's ever taken fifth in a tournament in his life. To most people, that's un- believable. He was two clinches away from being a world medalist, and most people, they'd be excited about that. But he wanted to win it." Sanderson said he wasn't sure if he would have continued working to- ward the Olympics if he had performed better at worlds, but he thinks not. Anyway, he said, it's a moot point: "I just didn't set myself up to succeed. Mentally, I wasn't focused the way I needed to be, so I don't think it could have gone any other way." Plus, he said, he didn't really enjoy his comeback. "And we had kids get in trouble right before the champi- onships, and different things like that," he added. "Maybe I could have done more. I don't know." Sanderson does think the experience HONOR ROLL MISSY DOHERTY WOMEN'S LACROSSE The Nittany Lions received their first NCAA tournament invitation since 2005 after going 11-6 and fin- ishing third in the American Lacrosse Conference. "It's a great example of how the program is mov- ing along," said Doherty, who coached at Towson before coming to Penn State in 2010. The Lions de- feated three top-10 opponents dur- ing the regular season, then posted their first postseason victory in 13 years, a 15-8 triumph over Doher- ty's former school. With nine starters back and a second consecu- tive top-10 recruiting class heading to campus, it seems safe to expect more of the same in 2013. JOHN HARGIS SWIMMING & DIVING The Nittany Lions enjoyed their best NCAA finish since 2002, claim- ing 17th place and earning five All- America citations in Hargis's fourth season. A former PSU assistant, he left the school to become head women's swimming coach at Arkansas-Little Rock before return- ing to University Park in 2008 to ac- cept the head coaching reins of both the men's and women's teams. This season, he helped the Penn State men set six school records. W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M JOE PATERNO FOOTBALL How does one even begin to as- sess the last 12 months of Pater- no's monumental life? Joe Posnan- ski's upcoming biography may shed some light on the coach's final days, but it will take years for Penn Staters to come to terms with his legacy and the unimaginable way in which it all came crashing to an end. For now, let's keep things short and on-point: Paterno left Penn State as the winning coach in Division I history, having sur- passed Eddie Robinson's 408 ca- reer victories with a win over Illi- nois last October that would turn out to be his last game at Penn State. He was eulogized not only for his on-field success but for his commitment to academics and his philanthropy. Thousands of people poured onto campus to watch his funeral procession in January, and thousands more attended the Me- morial for Joe later that week. His final season was filled with cliffhanger endings and scores that were closer than anyone expected. Despite its struggles on offense, Penn State lost only one of those games, falling to eventual national champion Alabama while winning eight others. In that respect, at least, it was a fitting farewell. ERICA WALSH WOMEN'S SOCCER The Lions went 10-1-0 in confer- ence play (21-5-0 overall) and won the Big Ten championship in 2011. No surprise there; it was the team's 14th regular-season title in a row. The last time Penn State failed to win the Big Ten crown, Bill Clinton was president. Walsh has been the team's head coach for the past five seasons, and while the most recent one didn't end until the third round of the NCAA tournament, she wasn't satis- fied. "The Sweet 16 is great, but that's not our goal," she said. "We're proud of the steps we made this year, but it was just a stepping stone." COQUESE WASHINGTON WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Before ending Washington's sea- son in the Sweet 16, Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma paid her a compliment, noting that "there may not be five other coaches in her age group who are better than she is." That's an easy case to make after a 26-7 season and a Big Ten regular- season title. Washington's next chal- lenge will be to start defeating some of those elite programs. She'll get a chance to do just that this coming season. The marquee opponent on Penn State's upcoming nonconfer- ence schedule: Connecticut. – M.H. A U G U S T 2 1 , 2 0 1 2 21 will make him a better coach. He got a firsthand look at what athletes need from their coaches. "And I always had that itch – that nagging, maybe-you- should-be-competing in the back of my head. I don't think I'll have that any- more because it was a little more than I expected." And coaching – well, many days, that's challenge enough. "That's the good thing about coach- ing – you've always got to be on your toes," he said. "But the more you get into coaching, the more you realize you're just kind of there. It's the kids who are doing the work. You've just gotta be grateful to go along for the ride."

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