Zalesky returns to Iowa
Speaks out on being fired
By Andy Hamilton
Iowa City Press-Citizen
CEDAR FALLS — From a distance, he looked like he raided John Smith’s closet.
But closer up, the Oregon State emblem was visible on the bright orange button down that went with the black tie and black dress pants that Jim Zalesky wore Sunday.
“I did tell Smith when I saw him at Reno, ‘Hey, I’ve got a trademark on the O-S-U chant, so Oklahoma State’s going to have to come up with some other cheer,’ “said Zalesky, retelling a December conversation with the Cowboy coach at the Reno Tournament of Champions. “He started laughing. He said, ‘We’ll support you until you get too good.’ It was funny.”
Zalesky might wear different colors than the black and gold he donned for nine seasons as Iowa’s head coach, but his sense of humor is one thing that hasn’t changed.
Zalesky has a new job, a new team, a new challenge.
Back in his home state for the first time since this summer, Zalesky’s unranked Oregon State Beavers split a pair of dual meets Sunday at the McLeod Center, suffering their first loss of the season in a 21-12 defeat against No. 18 Tennessee-Chattanooga and beating Northern Iowa 25-16.
Zalesky scheduled the trip back to Iowa as an avenue for coming home. It used to be that friends and family were regulars in attendance to watch his teams, but that changed in March when he was fired with one year left on his contract with the Hawkeyes.
“I don’t really respect what happened, “Zalesky said. “That’s about the bottom line. If you’re going to do something, at least say, ‘Thank you.’ I don’t like the way it happened.”
Zalesky thought he deserved some gratitude for what he did at Iowa where he won three NCAA titles as an athlete and three more as a head coach. He compiled a 127-34 record and finished in the top four at the national tournament seven times. But attendance slipped, and the Hawkeyes stumbled to seven dual losses last year, a sixth-place finish at the Big Ten meet and Tom Brands was hired to replace Zalesky.
“I think there’s some things there behind the scenes that I’m not going to talk about, that I’m not going to air out, “Zalesky said. “Why it happened is probably because of one guy.”
Zalesky told the Des Moines Register that he lost respect for former Iowa athletic director Bob Bowlsby over the way the firing was handled and said his former coach, Dan Gable, “lied through his teeth most of the time in the papers.”
Zalesky was Gable’s top assistant before inheriting the program when Gable stepped down in 1997. Gable has since returned as Iowa’s top assistant — a job former Iowa NCAA champion Troy Steiner held before following Zalesky to Oregon State.
“I think he’s got a lot of fire, “Steiner said of Zalesky. “I thought Jim had that when I was (at Iowa). I think Jim likes the pressure, likes the expectations put on him, and I think anyone who has come through that program knows that. As an athlete, you had that and you kind of thrive on that. He seems to be doing a good job where he’s at now, he’s adjusting well and he seems to have the same fire he did there, maybe a little more because of what happened.”
Zalesky looks at Oregon State’s past and college wrestling’s current landscape and draws hope that he can take the Beavers to an elite level. Oregon State has 18 finishes in the top 10 at the NCAA meet and placed second to the Hawkeyes at the 1995 national tournament in Iowa City.
More optimism springs from a glance at the current rankings. Programs without longstanding traditions such as top-ranked Missouri and No. 6 Hofstra have charged onto the national scene.
“I think you can get it done anywhere, “Zalesky said. “You just have to put the time and effort in, and you can get it done anywhere. You look at what’s going on in athletics, if you get the right support from the administration, right support from your fan base and get the coaches and athletes working together, anything can happen.”
Zalesky said his expectations haven’t changed and the pressure doesn’t feel any different than it did at Iowa when questions about his job security often were raised.
“I think he took it year-by-year anyway because that’s how it is in this sport, “Steiner said. “You don’t dwell on the past, and you don’t look too far ahead. You’ve got to focus on what’s going on right now.”
The Beavers are 8-1. They started the weekend road trip with a 21-15 victory Friday night at No. 20 Nebraska.
“It’s a fun team to coach, “Zalesky said. “They wrestle hard, they work hard, just got to keep getting better. But they do a good job as far as listening to you and that type of thing.”
Zalesky’s former team is 5-0 and ranked fifth in its first season with Brands in control. Steiner said he has kept an eye on how the Hawkeyes have fared.
“Those guys meant a lot to me, and I was close to a lot of those guys, “he said. “I haven’t really talked to many of them too much, but I’ve talked to a few of them. For their sake, I hope they do well. They’re good kids, and they did what we asked when we were there. I wish them well.”
Steiner spent Saturday afternoon in Iowa City at the Lepic Duals. He got a look at Kansas City Oak Park senior Shane Nay, who signed with Oregon State in November, and caught glimpses of several of the top underclassmen in Iowa and potential recruiting targets for the Beavers.
“We’ll look wherever the good kids are, “Zalesky said. “We’ve got some connections here. We’ll see if those pan out in the future, but the Northwest has some good kids out there.”
Zalesky looked through the crowd and found many familiar faces Sunday. He didn’t rule out the possibility of competing against the Hawkeyes sometime in the future.
Iowa will compete next door at next weekend’s National Duals in the UNI-Dome, while Zalesky and company will wrestle at home against Cal State-Fullerton.
“I wanted to get back and see my family, “Zalesky said of scheduling the dual against UNI. “My family’s not going to be able to come out there and watch us wrestle, so the next best thing is to come back to the Midwest and wrestle. If we get good enough to be in the National Duals some year, hopefully the National Duals is still here.”
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