UTC wrestling coach Kyle RuschellKyle Ruschell came to Chattanooga this past summer, looking to gain a year of experience in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling coaching system before eventually taking over for Heath Eslinger.
Eslinger had other plans.
Ruschell took over as the Mocs' head coach in August, succeeding Eslinger, who after nine seasons and 101 wins resigned in July for a job with Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Ruschell had come to UTC to be an assistant two months prior.
"Heath let me know he wasn't sure how much longer he'd be here," Ruschell said recently. "He has passions for what he's doing now, so I knew it would be soon. I just didn't know it would be that soon.
"I thought it would be closer to a year than a couple of months."
The Mocs will get their first official action under Ruschell today in the Hokie Open in Roanoke, Virginia. The event is scheduled to start at 9 a.m.
Ruschell spent the past eight seasons as an assistant at Wisconsin, helping five Badgers earn seven All-America honors during his tenure. Now as a head coach, he's had to learn how much more responsibility falls on the top guy.
"I have to be on the road recruiting and fundraising," he said. "I have to put this vision I have in front of these boosters and ask if they want to help out. I had thought about this for years, and I've prepared myself for a head-coaching role, but talking about my vision and what I want my team to be about, when you put the book together to put in boosters' hands and athletes as well, that's when it's like, 'OK, this is serious, this is real.'"
Ruschell's message to the team going into the season has been simple: Fight. Keep battling for extra points, and don't give up any easy points.
It's an easy message to convey, but with a team returning only three starters, it is an important one for the Mocs.
"If we keep fighting, we can beat a lot of guys," said senior Alonzo Allen, a 2018 NCAA qualifier at 125 pounds. "If we bring that fight out of the gate, people are going to be surprised and know we have a team up and down the lineup. I feel like our team is young, but we can shock people in the conference and outside the conference if we wrestle the way we wrestled the last month."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.