The value to Tucson of the appearance of Penn State coach Cael Sanderson at the KD x RBY Wrestling Clinic on Monday at Desert View High School can’t be understated.
“It’s just cool that we can build this for the community,” Roman Bravo-Young, the Sunnyside great who won two national titles at Penn State, said of Sanderson accepting the invitation to work with the youths at the clinic.
“He’s just a good person. He came to Tucson … a lot of people don’t do that, giving us their time of day.”
Imagine John Wooden in Tucson to conduct a youth basketball clinic while he was in the midst of winning 10 national championships in a span of 12 years at UCLA.
Think about Nick Saban coming here to teach and coach young athletes in a football camp during his run of six national titles in 12 years while coaching Alabama.
Wooden has the most championships for a college basketball coach, and Saban earned the same honor in college football with his seven titles (including one earned while coaching at LSU in 2003).
Sanderson is closing in on Dan Gable’s record of coaching 15 wrestling national titles at Iowa. Only 46 years old, Sanderson is at 13 championships, all in the last 16 seasons since 2011. Three of the titles included Bravo-Young as one of his top wrestlers.
“Talking with (Sanderson) is something that will last with you; it will be huge to look back on,” said Jet Sports Training owner Bobby Rodriguez, one of the coaches in the RBY x KD Clinic.
Sanderson’s relationship with Bravo-Young, which dates to when Bravo-Young was in grade school competing in regional and national events, drew him to Tucson for Bravo-Young’s youth wrestling clinic organized and managed along with Khaled Dassan.
Sanderson has collaborated with Dassan, known as Coach KD, with many of his wrestlers attending Dassan’s KD Training Center in New York before and after advancing to the Nittany Lions’ program.
A few Penn State connections are involved with coaching at the clinic, including All-American sophomore P.J. Duke, 2024 NCAA runner-up and Team USA member in the U23 Worlds Rocco Welsh, and Nittany Lion assistant coach Nick Lee (a former teammate of Bravo-Young who continues to compete at an international level).
“I didn’t hesitate when they offered me the opportunity — Roman and KD and the collab,” said Sanderson, who hails from nearby Salt Lake City. “Obviously, I grew up in the West, so just an excuse to come to the West is something I will jump on, but I know they have a lot of great things going on here, a lot of incredible wrestlers from the area.
“Roman is an example of that, one of the best in the world, was just a superstar for us at Penn State. And that’s really by example, his work ethic and passion for what he’s doing. Just being able to be a part of what they’re doing, and obviously a great opportunity for me, and, and our program at Penn State.”
For Sanderson to bestow praise on a wrestler carries a lot of meaning.
He is the most accomplished collegiate wrestler in history, compiling a perfect record of 159-0 with four national titles and three Hodge Trophy selections while wrestling under late coach Bobby Douglas at Iowa State from 1999 to 2002. He also earned a gold medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics for Team USA, which was coached by Douglas.
Sanderson attended a memorial ceremony on Sunday for Douglas at Arizona State, where Douglas coached from 1975 to 1992 before coaching at Iowa State from 1992 to 2006. Douglas passed away at age 83 from health reasons on Feb. 23.
Sanderson replaced Douglas as Iowa State’s coach in 2007 and coached the Cyclones for three years before taking on the opportunity at Penn State in 2010.
Douglas’ past of recruiting championship wrestlers from Sunnyside to Arizona State and Iowa State was a factor in Sanderson’s ties to Bravo-Young. Eddie Urbano and Thom Ortiz competed for Douglas with the Sun Devils. Brothers Nate and Nick Gallick were recruited to Ames by Douglas.
“I’ve seen Roman since he was a little kid and watched him just because of our ties — Tucson and Sunnyside, there’s a lot of connections to Arizona wrestling,” Sanderson said. “Just from where I grew up, and then Coach Bobby Douglas as my coach, so a lot of ties.
“I actually watched Roman since he was kind of a little younger than most of the kids we watch. He obviously got better as he grew up. We recruited him hard. The last time I was here was when we were recruiting him, so the years fly by, because that was a few years back.”
What sets Bravo-Young apart from all those who have earned 109 All-American honors under Sanderson is his athleticism.
“We have a lot of kids that work hard, and we have a lot of kids that are talented,” Sanderson said. “I mean, he’s as talented as anyone will ever be, just with his athleticism, his speed, and just his ability to land on his feet in strange, weird, freaky, athletic positions. That coupled with just his desire to do great, he was just extremely consistent.
“He’s just one of the few guys you have to really hold him back, like when it gets time to compete and stuff, because he just trains, he puts the time in. I think the thing that really stands out about him, too, is he just continues to jump levels, which is hard to do, especially when you’re successful as he is at those levels. You kind of think you have everything figured out, so sometimes to move forward, you almost have to feel like you take a step back. A lot of kids aren’t going to do that. If you see his career, he just got better every year. He wrestled as a true freshman for us as an All-American, and then he was immediately a title contender the next year. Pretty special.”
Sanderson mentioned he came to know Bravo-Young’s grandfather Mike Bravo and former Sunnyside wrestling and football coach Richard Sanchez (now a wrestling and football assistant coach at Mica Mountain) during Bravo-Young’s developmental years.
Bravo helped raise Bravo-Young and Sanchez welcomed Bravo-Young into his home while the young wrestler attended Sunnyside.
Mike Bravo, Sanchez and Sanderson were all in Desert View’s gym Tuesday when Sanderson served as a guest coach for the more than 200 wrestlers on hand.
One of the youths is Pueblo Class of 2027 standout Elizabeth Valenzuela Smith, a three-time state champion who is ranked No. 7 nationally at 110 pounds by SI.com.
She attended the clinic to sharpen her skills with coaching from Sanderson and his Penn State “collab,” as the coach calls it. The Penn State method is obviously working with the 13 national team titles and 44 individual championships in Sanderson’s 16 years at University Park, Pa.
“For me personally, it’s important for me being here to see the techniques they’re showing, whether it’s a new super brand new technique or one I’ve seen before,” Valenzuela Smith said. “It’s just interesting to know this is what they’re doing at the highest collegiate level, or even on the world stage.
“It’s not super crazy. It’s kind of just basic and fundamental wrestling, so it’s easier to grasp and just keep going and make it your own. I think that’s what’s really cool about this camp, you can go back and make it your own and just keep working on it.”
Sanderson in Tucson has an impact of a broad scope because of the unique nature of his visit.
No other coach — pro, college or high school — with as much success as Sanderson, has come to town to provide their wisdom to the community’s youth.
Bravo-Young mentioned that he is not as “star struck” as others about Sanderson’s appearance because of his longstanding relationship with the coach. But he is grateful for what Sanderson means to him and for the coach willing to help kids in Tucson who share a similar background as him.
“He’s given me a lot of opportunities to change my life,” Bravo-Young said. “Now we’re changing kids. He’s done a lot of things that people don’t know that he’s done and helped me in a lot of ways that I can’t repay him. Just a good person.
“I look up to him, just how he cares, the things he does. It’s just all something I will idolize for the rest of my life, the things he’s done for me, my family, and other people. I’ll always look at him as a role model, and something I strive to be.”
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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