Penrith Out at UNI; Who's Next?
I was saddened to hear that Brad Penrith had been fired from his duties as head wrestling coach at the University of Northern Iowa. When Don Briggs was fired after the 1996-1997 season, Penrith was my #1 pick. Fortunately for UNI, we got Mark Manning and Penrith came as an assistant. Manning is a class act, and Nebraska was wise to hire him away. I liked Penrith from day one and was happy to see him take over the job. I liked his humor, how he treated his athletes, and how he treated me. Under Penrith, UNI wrestling had a number of highly successful wrestlers, although team results against top-caliber competition were generally lacking. I was especially proud of UNI wrestling's academic successes, a sign Penrith was recruiting high-quality kids both on and off the mat. UNI did not wrestle well this year, but I understood that Penrith, in year one of a three-year contract, was redshirting some talent and bringing in a good class of recruits in the hopes of having a much stronger te...