Athletor Podcast with Mike Mal

196 - J'den Cox

J'den Cox and Mike recorded this one on the first night of the Freestyle World Championships, with Bo Bassett and Kyle Snyder both into their finals. J'den shares the pho

195 - Alli St. John

Alli St. John is the first head coach of Iowa State women's wrestling, and she says winning is the only option. Mike asks how she coaches athletes who aren't wired like h

194 -- Kai Orine

Kai Orine was a two-time All-American at NC State. Now, one year into coaching at Little Rock, he says coaching is less stressful than competing. Mike goes through the At

Ep 193 -- Antrell Taylor

Two straight NCAA tournaments without giving up a takedown. Antrell Taylor, the Omaha kid who won the 2025 NCAA title for Nebraska, talks with Mike about the loss he stil

Ep 192 - Master Phill Ross

Phil Ross broke his back at 16, got told he was done, and came back to take 2nd in Greco at Eastern Nationals that summer. Fifty years later, surgeons send him their pati

191 -- Bo Basset

Bo Bassett is chasing three world titles in one year, and he says he doesn't feel any pressure doing it. Mike goes through his Final X series against Real Woods with him,

Why Alex Marinelli Thinks Iowa Is One Takedown From A Title | Athletor Podcast Ep 190

Alex Marinelli is back, this time to talk Iowa. Mike runs him through the numbers behind the Hawkeyes' No. 6 preseason ranking, and Alex explains why he thinks the gap to

Ep 189 - Sebastian Rivera

Sebastian Rivera won an Olympic bronze medal and a World silver, and then walked away from his coaching job at Columbia to go back to being a full-time athlete. In this e

Ep 188 - Jason Borrelli

American head coach Jason Borrelli sees his program's AthletorIQ development score for the first time, and he's not satisfied being #4. We dig into what the data says abo

Ep 187 - TJ Sebolt

J Sebolt went 207-1 in high school, won four Iowa state titles, and then built one of the best youth wrestling programs in the country from scratch — starting with 4 kids

Ep. 186 — Jeff Buxton

Jeff Buxton built Blair Academy into a 30-time consecutive National Prep champion, produced 10 NCAA individual champs, and earned the National Wrestling Hall of Fame's Li

Ep. 185 – Matt Ciampa

Mike wears two hats, dad and coach. Matt Ciampa texted him to say that's wrong, and then came on to explain why. Thirty-five years into coaching, he's never found the sea

Ep 184 - Nelson Brands

Nelson Brands wrestled at Iowa for his dad and his uncle, and says neither coached him until college. Now on staff at Cal Poly, he makes a specific case that beginners sh

Ep 183 — Coleman Scott

Coleman Scott won an NCAA title, an Olympic medal, and ran a D1 program. He'd rather do what he's doing now. Inside the Farm in Stillwater, and a blunt read on what NIL m

Ep 182 - Barry Davis

Barry Davis has three NCAA titles, an Olympic silver, and 24 years as a Big Ten head coach. He just took a club job, and this is his case for why the RTC seat is the best

Ep. 181 - Doug Schwab

We brought Doug Schwab the data on his own program: 13 of UNI's 19 NCAA qualifiers since 2021 were completely unranked high school recruits, and Parker Keckeisen carried

Ep 180 - Scott Green

Scott Green built Wyoming Seminary into the most feared prep program in the country, then helped put Army wrestling back on the map. Now he's rebuilding New York Military

Why Wrestling's #1 Recruiting Pipeline Refuses NIL Deals | Athletor Podcast Ep 179

Wyoming Seminary sent 26 ranked recruits to D1 in six years and put 4.5% of this year's NCAA tournament field on the mat, all without handing out a single NIL deal. Head

"I Care About the 22,000 Kids, Not the 141 D1 Recruits" | Athletor Podcast Ep 178

Shane Sparks, the voice of Big Ten wrestling, joins Mike for the argument they've been having over drinks for years: should California's 22,000 wrestlers really compete f

"It's just a fist fight for 7 minutes": Tommy Gantt on Wrestling to the UFC

NC State All-American Tommy Gantt left wrestling for one amateur fight and never looked back. Now an undefeated UFC lightweight training with Daniel Cormier, he breaks do