By Andy Hamilton
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Montell Marion grew up in Des Moines, but it took a 1,700-mile roundtrip for him to get to the Iowa wrestling room.
Marion, a two-time state champion and four-time finalist at West Des Moines Valley and Des Moines Roosevelt, said Thursday that he will join the Hawkeyes this fall, completing his winding road to Iowa.
Marion signed a letter of intent to attend Northern Iowa as a high school senior in 2006, but opted instead to spend the past year at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs where he started thinking about a career with the Hawkeyes.
“It had nothing to do with (UNI coach) Brad Penrith, first of all, I want to say that, “Marion said of his decision to train in Colorado Springs. “He’s a good guy; he’s real cool. The campus is good, the wrestling team is good. But to be honest, I asked myself if I wanted to be a mediocre wrestler or if I wanted to put my name on the map and if I wanted to turn some heads and if I want to walk around campus having people know me as a part of the wrestling team. I decided I had to go do some more training to be able to catch up. … I had the opportunity to catch up and really level the playing field with my future opponents.”
Marion, a projected 133-pounder in college, has four years of eligibility plus a redshirt at his disposal, and his resume includes a freestyle victory this spring over Big Ten champion Jayson Ness of Minnesota.
“He made a lot of progress, “said former Hawkeye Terry Brands, the U.S. freestyle resident coach and twin brother of Iowa coach Tom Brands. “He’s got a lot of talent. I like him. I really like him.”
Terry Brands described Marion’s maturation as a process that evolved on and off the mat. He said Marion “had some growing up to do “when he arrived in Colorado Springs. Brands characterized it as behavior typical of an 18-year-old and the kind of things he and others went through while wrestling for Dan Gable at Iowa.
“(Marion) was very accountable, he was very humble about recognizing, ‘Yeah, you’re right, these are areas I need work on,’ “Brands said. “He was great, no problems.”
Marion said he bonded with Brands and their relationship sparked an idea in Marion’s head that he could go from wrestling for one Brands to another. But Terry Brands said he didn’t offer any recommendations.
“(Tom) called me about the kid and wanted to know about him, and I said, ‘That’s your job. You guys need to do the research on these kids for how they’re going to fit into your program,’ “Terry said. “I like the kid, but I didn’t plug him or pump him at all. I just said, ‘Take a look at him if you want.’
“Tom and (assistant coach Wes) Hand made initial contact to me about him. I didn’t bring Montell to them. I know Penrith and some of those guys, I know he thinks I pushed (Marion) into Iowa’s program, but I didn’t. I don’t do that here. I let these kids figure it out for themselves.”
Marion comes in at a weight where sophomores Daniel Dennis and Joey Slaton appear to be the frontrunners to replace graduated NCAA qualifier Mario Galanakis.
Marion compiled a 151-6 career record in high school, losing in the state finals as a freshman and sophomore before capturing his first state title in 2005 at Valley. He enrolled at Roosevelt in 2006 and won the 130-pound title, finishing 36-0.
But looking back now, Marion said he wishes he could’ve taken the Olympic Training Center experiences into high school.
“I think I easily could’ve had four state titles instead of two, “he said, “and I could’ve won (freestyle Junior Nationals in) Fargo instead of being a three-time All-American.”
Marion said he was on the same training regimen as the U.S. Olympic hopefuls in Colorado Springs. He said his training there was geared toward “areas of concentration “where wrestlers would focus on turning positions of weakness into strength.
“A lot of stuff was work on fundamentals that I wish I had in high school, which would’ve put me a lot further, “he said. “My hand-fighting got a lot better. When I took a shot before, I wasn’t really running through the shot, and they got me doing that. That’s a freestyle setting, so of course I learned a lot of freestyle, and I know going to Iowa I’m going to have to concentrate on the down position because that’s a big part of wrestling in college. You’ve got to be able to escape, and you’ve got to be able to ride in critical situations.”
Said Terry Brands: “He had to learn to down-block and keep people off his legs, and once he did that, he was very competitive. His learning curve is big, he’s got good talent, he’s got good mat feel that way. If he continues to love the sport and be open to learning, who knows where this kid’s going to go.”
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