Q: Not really a question, but a comment. I had the pleasure of meeting one of your wrestlers, Tanner Garrett, while I was volunteering my time to the NCAA Wrestling Championships. What a class young man! My son is a freshman in high school here in the St. Louis area and is very interested in going to the Naval Academy. If all the students there are like Tanner, I'll have no problem sending my son. Congratulations on having such a person representing the Naval Academy. - asked by: Ron Rigdon -
A: Thanks, Ron, for the note. Tanner Garrett is an outstanding young man and we're all very impressed with what he has accomplished as a representative of our institution.
- answered by: Chet Gladchuk
Q: Congratulations on the tremendous success of Navy Sports...almost everywhere you look and particularly in two of our three historically excellent sports...football and lacrosse. My question is when are we going to see that third sport, with a long and proud history of excellence, return to its rightful place among the elite? Yes, I'm talking about wrestling. The won/loss records look great, but we haven't beaten a top-20 team (including archrival Lehigh) in a very long time and seem mired in the middle of the EIWA. Despite recent stated optimism about our recruits, the fine young men he has recruited in the past few years are unlikely to get us where we want to go (as stated by Coach B. at the wrestling reunion two years ago: "...no reason we can't be a top ten team..."). I think most of us long time Navy wrestling fans would be happy to see us back on top of the EIWA. Are we going to get there?
Again, congratulations on a great year of Navy Sports! Look forward to seeing you at Foundation Trustees Meeting this fall. - asked by: Carl Albrecht '59 -
A: Carl, this year the wrestling team went 12-4, won the Service Academy Tournament and had a number of our Midshipmen appear in the NCAA Qualifiers. Bruce Burnett is an outstanding coach who has done a fine job of recruiting some outstanding athletes. I would expect even greater success in this upcoming season. I talked to Bruce the other day, and he is very optimistic about the incoming plebe class, and he clearly realizes the great tradition and the responsibility that we have to succeed at the highest level with our wrestling program. I've seen steady progress and improvement with the program over the last three years and expect to see the same this winter.
- answered by: Chet Gladchuk
