Though the head coach is often the one given credit and blame for a team's performance, his or her assistants have a lot, if not everything, to do with the team's success.
Fortunately for the Virginia wrestling team, the coach has two excellent assistants in Scott Moore and Pat DeGain.
"My staff is great," Virginia coach Steve Garland said. "The coaches are extremely hardworking guys."
Their hard work is reflected by the players, who have high praise for their assistant coaches.
"They are glorious coaches," sophomore Rocco Caponi said. "They are great coaches on and off the mat. During practice they are bleeding, sweating, crying right with you. They are into every match, going crazy and yelling at you. They are both great coaches to have."
Moore is no stranger to the Virginia wrestling program. He was an All-American for the Cavaliers in 2004. That year, he was ranked number one through most of the season in the 141-pound weight class while on his way to a third place finish. His experience as a Cavalier has proven helpful on the recruiting trail.
"When we walk into some kid's house we can say, 'why would you come here, why would want to train with us?'" Garland said. "Well Moore did it and not only did he do it, he became an All-American and was also one of the best wrestlers in the nation his senior year. He showed that success can occur at U.Va. and that means a big deal."
As Garland's right-hand man on the recruiting trail, Moore has brought in back-to-back top-25 recruiting classes,
"Recruiting wise, Moore has done a phenomenal job. He's my right-hand man on the road," Garland said. "He helped me bring in a top-three recruiting class which is obviously going to help us down the road."
DeGain also excelled in collegiate wrestling. He was an All-American for Indiana University in 2005, placing third. He is also fifth on the all-time wins list at Indiana with 115.
DeGain "was an extremely good high school wrestler and was one of the top recruits in the country," Garland said. "Some of the big guys in high school think 'Wow, this guy really proved himself, this guy really did it and he must have some good stuff for me."
Another facet of the program with which the assistants help is practice. Not only do they help run it, but they also participate in actually wrestling against the team every day.
"The way they help the most is one-on-one with the wrestlers," Garland said. "Wrestling is a very unique sport in that we wrestle with the kids virtually every day, and it's nice to have [Degain] and [Moore] wrestle every day because they were both great wrestlers in their own right. It helps the wrestlers from a tactical standpoint and physically."
Both Moore and DeGain provide the necessary tools for Virginia to excel on the mat, and Garland, a former Virginia wrestler and assistant at Cornell, could not appreciate them any more.
"There is a hunger and a desire to win with these coaches," Garland said. "People don't realize how much time my assistants put into the program, from designing practices to running extra workouts to recruiting. These guys are very motivated and they are driven and they want to have great careers, so they work hard at every aspect of the job"
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