New York Outrage Coach Steve Knight
“The Wrestling Family” — a phrase often used for the camaraderie that exists among competitors and fans regardless of their affiliation.
Yet for Steve Knight, coach of the New York Outrage, the meaning of that term began — and continues — with his own personal family.
“My dad was a high school football coach, and he boxed in the service. Those (sports) were my dad’s loves,” Knight said.
But then the family moved from a small town in southern Illinois, to Clinton, Iowa, a large river town along the Mississippi. “Clinton was such a booming wrestling town,” recalled Knight.
He began wrestling as a 5-year-old and by his first two years in high school, was competing as a varsity 98-pounder. That’s when his father said, “Go out for cross country and win a state wrestling title and let this football go.”
“For my dad to say this was really something,” said Knight, one of the family’s four sons (Mike, Steve, Jeff and Dan — sister Debbie Knight Sass is now an assistant principal at Clinton High School). “We just didn’t love boxing like we loved wrestling, but my dad was probably the best coach any of us ever had.
“He understood the mental side of sports, and he was a great motivator and optimist. Somehow my dad turned every negative into a positive.”
Taking dad’s advice enabled Knight to win two state championships in Iowa’s largest schools division. In USA Wrestling’s Junior Nationals competition, he reached the finals five times, claiming two Greco-Roman titles and one freestyle championship. In 1982, he became the first to be named Outstanding Wrestler in both styles.
At Iowa State University, where he earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in business communication, Knight captured a Big 8 Conference Title and earned NCAA All-American honors.
Despite a nasty shoulder injury in the NCAAs his senior year that required a nine-hour operation, Knight represented the United States 14 times in international competitions. After training and serving as an assistant coach at Iowa State in the 1988-90 seasons, he won the Pan American Championships in 1992 and went to the Olympic Games as a training partner for John Smith.
“At the Pan Ams, I beat the Cuban, 2-1, who beat John in the Olympics, but John went on to win the gold medal,” Knight said.
Knight trained with the Foxcatcher Club until it disbanded and USA Wrestling, the national governing body for the sport, began its freestyle program. He and his wife, Kristin, moved to Colorado, where he started Team Excel.
Team Excel, an official Junior Olympic program for Colorado and Wyoming, also offered a senior level program from 1996-2004. As full-time coach and executive director, Knight has seen his project grow to six locations serving more than 150 wrestlers in the Rocky Mountain region. “We started with 15 kids,” he said.
In 10 seasons, 62 wrestlers from Team Excel have won high school folkstyle championships. The last two NCAA Division I All-Americans out of the program were Scott Frohardt of the Air Force Academy and Tom Clum of the University of Wisconsin. Also, Tom’s brother Dan qualified for the tournament for the University of Wyoming.
But a change is on the wrestling horizon for Knight and his family. Although Knight will continue to help with summer camps, Angelo LaRosa, out of the University of Wisconsin – LaCrosse, will become interim director of Team Excel. On Aug. 1, Knight returns to Ames, Iowa to become the coach of the Cyclone Wrestling Club.
When it comes to guiding Real Pro Wrestling combatants, Knight said, his coaching background is a plus. Although he coached the Australian National Team for two years before the Sydney Olympic Games, Knight has served as a member of USA Wrestling’s national teams coaching staff for 11 years. He led the 2005 U.S. senior freestyle team in Uzbekistan, coached the Pan American squad last year and aided the Olympic coaches in Sydney and Athens.
He also worked for a time with the New York Athletic Club team, coaching eventual Real Pro champion Tony DeAnda and Ramon Blackmon, both of the New York Outrage.
“Being in the Olympic training room and being with most of these wrestlers over the years is an advantage (for a coach),” he said. “It’s easier to walk into a room knowing the guys.”
In the Knights’ own home, sons, Evan, 13, and Colby, 11, are the newest wrestlers in the family, but their dad deems their non-wrestling sister Mackenzie, 9, “the toughest one of the bunch.”
“I’ve really been fortunate to spend my life in wrestling,” Knight said. “The one common denominator that has allowed me to do well when I was a wrestler was having such a supportive family. Today it’s the same way with my wife and all she’s done and added to Excel wrestling.
“I’m thankful for what God has blessed me with.”
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