Classes for the fall semester at Doane University begin this coming week, which signifies the official launch for the United States’ newest Greco-Roman program.
Doane University, led by head coach Jason Christenson, announced the addition of their Greco-Roman team last fall, marking only the third time in the nation’s history that a college would embark upon such an endeavor. Northern Michigan University set the precedent back in 1999 and is still thriving as arguably the country’s most important and impactful program; 17 years later, Williams Baptist University in Arkansas became the second collegiate institution to include the classical style on an official basis, though administrative changes would later result in WBU abandoning Greco just prior to the pandemic.
The circumstances surrounding Doane are different, however. In Christenson, who was hired in short order late last year, the school boasts a head coach whose combination of knowledge, experience, and character serves as a robust foundation upon which both athletes and staff can rely developmentally and competitively. Christenson has entered this latest chapter of his superlative coaching career on his own terms. He was not necessarily seeking “a job” coming off the heels of a verifiable hall of fame run as the head coach for Southeast Polk High School in Iowa. To put it succinctly, Christenson could have explored any number of other options following retirement and found plenty of feverishly-interested suitors. Such is his sparkling reputation. But when the opportunity at Doane was presented to him, the challenge of helming an upstart Greco-Roman team, on the collegiate level no less, along with his longstanding passion for the style widened his eyes and resulted in the National program gaining the most qualified and professional candidate on the market.
Another difference, and a major one at that, is the presence of USA National Developmental head coach Cheney Haight. Haight — a multiple-time World Team member and the most technically-skilled upper-weight during his competitive days — played a critical role (in conjunction with former Programs Director Justin Ruiz) in Doane University opening their doors to Greco. Part of Haight’s current job description is acting as a roving ambassador to whom age-group teams and clubs can contact when it comes to all facets of development. He teaches, coaches, organizes, and provides trustworthy resources in an effort to expand Greco-Roman’s reach. Haight, essentially all by himself, is representative of an infrastructure that simply did not exist when Greco was offered at WBU. He is a buffer as well as a sounding-board, and is therefore perhaps the most important Greco-Roman figure in the country given the developmental obstacles which in the past have hampered the National program’s progress, though that is seemingly changing.
Thus, an air of newfound optimism can be detected with regards to United States Greco-Roman as the summer nears to a close, and as the fall semester impendingly looms. But, the thing is, Christenson has already been quite busy, this despite not one athlete having yet donned a Doane singlet in Greco competition. He has worked diligently throughout what has been a compressed recruiting process and signed several stout prospects, including U20 National/Fargo runner-up Ned Kauffman, and hired ’21 U23 World Team member Tommy Brackett (82 kg, NYAC) as the team’s inaugural graduate assistant. Christenson was also the principle coach for the U17 World Team that broke records earlier this month in Athens, Greece thanks to three athletes coming away with medals (MJ Rundell, Arseni Kikiniou, and David Calkins Jr., respectively). But even before the U17 World Championships, Christenson had his hands full and helped Doane make a sizable imprint on the map by hosting an enormous Greco-Roman training opportunity that saw nearly 100 wrestlers converge on campus and experience what the university may have to offer.
Christenson discusses all of this and more as the first season of Greco-Roman wrestling at Doane is about to officially get underway.
Head Coach Jason Christenson — Doane University
August 2025
5PM: The age-group camp held at Doane in June, which was hugely-attended, was almost like a soft opening for, or soft introduction to, your program.
Coach Jason Christenson: Yeah, absolutely it was. We had about 90 participants and it was by invite-only. I had some people who I wanted to invite, Cheney (Haight) had some people he wanted to invite, and we used it — since I was the U17 World Team coach — as a U17 and U20 training camp, which gave kids another opportunity to get together. Honestly, we had a great group, especially in the upper-weights, which you don’t find very often. That is what I think made this camp unique, to have as many good big guys as we had. We had planned on having more international flavor involved. Romania ended up having to back out. They are interested in coming in the future, but they just had their European Championships I think a week before our camp. It got down to where their visas weren’t approved until maybe two weeks before camp, and by then the flights were way too expensive. We did have a couple of athletes from Poland and one from Sweden who came. They were in that upper-weight range and they made the camp even better.
But it was kind of our soft opening. We had 90 great athletes on our campus and they got to experience one of our dorms. It’s brand-new, beautiful, and that is where they stayed. And I think our dining services did a great job. We had some pretty good food and meals. I think it was a good experience. We have great facilities. It was hot. Our field house doesn’t have air conditioning (laughs); but pretty soon when you’re going to Greece and you have a heat wave, and you’re sweating 24/7 and there’s no air conditioning in the arena, you realize that, Hey, this was a pretty good training environment to get ready for that.
I think camp went great. I think a lot of kids enjoyed it, enjoyed being on campus. I know just by the feedback from some Fargo guys and even the World Team members that it was just about providing another opportunity for kids to get together, especially in those age groups, to practice. It represented more opportunities and we brought a lot of kids in. Overall, I think it was a great week of training.
5PM: The camp was for the athletes, but since it was sort of your first overture as a full-time coach in this program, what was your mentality and approach as far as orchestrating the camp?
Christenson: I was, and I am, concerned about a conflict of interest that can happen between a USA Wrestling-assigned coach and our program, so I didn’t really look at it as much to do with me or my program. It was about the kids who came to the camp. That was my main concern, that they had a good experience and a good camp. Obviously, it’s a great benefit to our program to have had the best U17 and U20 Greco-Roman wrestlers in the country here, and we had some U15 and U23 guys, as well. But to have that exposure, it is, Okay, now when you hear about Doane Greco-Roman, you at least have a picture of what it’s like there. They know what the campus is like, what the wrestling facility is like… It was great for these kids to learn about another opportunity that is finally out there for them.
I was busy pretty much that entire week. We did have some kids who set up visits during that camp time, and that was all on their own accord or it had been something we had worked on beforehand. I was really pleased with it, personally. I was running around like crazy that whole week, and the thing that followed it up was a folkstyle camp we also had. That was the next three days, basically. I think we went Saturday to Sunday as travel days and the next Monday we started our folkstyle camp. So, that was three more days and we had to get nine more mats in and I think we had about 600 kids there for that. That time period from June 22nd through July 2nd or 3rd was like a whirlwind for me.
But it was great. I loved every second of it. I’m glad we were able to pull both of those off. That is where Stevie (Gee), Scottie (Honecker), Cheney and I really got to know one another, so that was another great part of camp, too. That was one of the best things. When you have guys like that, you learn something new everyday in practice. We did some videos of Cheney in our wrestling room. I got some out and shared a little bit with some of his ideas about positional awareness that he would like kids to learn. He passed some of that on to us coaches there. We also had a little bit of a — I don’t know what you want to call it — coaches’ summit or study program. It wasn’t huge. We had a handful of guys to spend some time with and help spread some passion for Greco-Roman along with some technical aspects and strategies. All in all, I really enjoyed it. It was good for me, it was good for our program, and I think it was good for the kids who came, for sure.
5PM: You had coached prior age-group international competition, so this year’s U17 Worlds marked a return to that. It also turned out to be the most successful performance for a US Team since it has become a true international event. You had a good chemistry with the other coaches on-staff for this tournament, but what was it about the athletes that made the biggest impression on you?
Christenson: You know, I’ll pick out MJ Rundell. Here’s a kid who didn’t actually make the Team, so to speak. He got 2nd (at the World Team Trials). He just took advantage of the opportunity that was there in front of him. He’s a competitor and has a fierce front headlock. I think that was the gameplan for him going in, to find a way to get to that position at all costs. Because, if he gets it, he is going to score with it. The scoreboard said 8-0 at one point in that bronze-medal match, right? Then there obviously was a good challenge, and it was close, but he did not expose. And then to come back when it was 6-0 and win that match 12-6? It is the competitive spirit that he has, and it’s something that can’t be taught. That front headlock, obviously, he picked that up somewhere. But that’s the thing with the Americans, I honestly believe that we know how to compete better than anyone else in the world, especially in that age-group, and you saw that in Athens.
David Calkins, as well. Just another huge competitor. He was one five-second span in a match away from… He didn’t need to go to where he went (positionally). He could have stayed out of that chest-to-chest, 50/50 position. He was ahead in that match but he went for it. I think it was on the edge, too, and it is also going to be before on the edge when you go to your back. But then to bounce back and get the bronze was awesome. And (Arseni) Kikiniou is a fabulous athlete, a fabulous wrestler. So those three medalists were obviously super-impressive technically and tactically. And you know, another thing is that lot of these guys are not right now full-time Greco guys. They are just great competitors, though Kikiniou is the closest thing to full-time. He is obviously really good in both styles, and is also the first one to medal in both styles (at U17).
I’m talking about those three but we had a lot of other guys win matches, too. We went 13-11, which is the best that they have done in what you would call the modern U17 World Championship era. This is what happens when you have guys winning matches like that. We had a few who only had one match. (Thales) Silva only got one match, but that kid (Abdurrahman Huseynli of Azerbaijan) was pretty good and we thought that he was actually going to be the one in the finals if Silva didn’t get the shot. I think that the kid was a European champ. But just up and down, having some guys pick up wins and gain experience, one thing that comes to mind is that they had multiple opportunities to get to camps. That, as well as the fact that Cheney has traveled all over the country, is why we are starting to see some good things happen in that respect.
Another huge difference, for me, is having the personal coaches involved. I have something similar to a doctor’s motto or whatever you want to call it, but for me as a strength coach it was, “Do no harm”. You always try to live by that. These kids put themselves in a situation to compete for World titles and it is a different feel now because those personal coaches are super-helpful. I still scouted out all of our kids and watched film on them so that I might have things that could help them, but I think it was a good move on USA Wrestling’s part to allow personal coaches to go and be in the corner. Those are all things that had an impact on me on this trip that were differences compared to previously. Our results have been better. I think that is something we started doing, I’m not sure what year, but I’m guessing since after the pandemic. So, good move.
5PM: With this experience over the past few months, and with including this recent training camp, you have gotten to know some people well, or at least reasonably well. These people are meeting you and perhaps they are aware of your reputation as a successful coach. Upon meeting these other people, especially coaches, is there an understanding that you might be interested in creating potential pipelines to Doane?
Christenson: I think that we probably talked about it in the last article, how important relationships are, and this whole coaching thing is based on trust. That has probably been my biggest charge over the past four months, building those relationships with those types of people. I tell you what, there was probably no one I was happier for than Stevie Gee when David Calkins won his medal. I know that he is the second age-group World medalist that CYC (Community Youth Center, Concord, CA) has coached. I know what that’s like. I’ve been there before and that feeling is unbelievable, and then to see the kids and his parents together afterwards with the medal… I don’t know. I’m a crier, I guess. I’ll tear up. Just being in that environment… I mean, that’s why I coach. It’s not the winning the medal, it is the pure joy from the journey that this family has been on. Just to see them celebrate, that gets my blood flowing and my heart pumping. It’s just awesome.
But it’s not about developing a relationship because I want to get kids from you. I truthfully want them to know that I have a kid’s best interests in mind, that I truthfully want them to do what’s best for them. I’ve even told kids in the recruiting process, Hey, I understand that this might not be the right fit for you, and that’s okay. Whatever you feel is the best fit for you, I don’t want you to look back in 20 years and say ‘I wish I would have done something else’. But, obviously, like I said, it’s about building trust with those guys. I was fortunate that Jeff Estrada from Sons of Thunder reached out to me with a couple of kids. They are really good kids. They don’t have a ton of Greco experience but he told me that he thought they could be really good if they focused on this, and I think that they are going to be. And then we’ve got Max Nowry giving me another one, just reaching out and saying, I’ve got this kid who has been living with me, what do you think? Then there is also Pat Martinez from Beat the Streets-Chicago, so now we’ve got an inroad there in which we’ve got one of his guys. Robby (Smith) I saw at Fargo and he’s got a guy, so Fargo was really big for us, too, where we were able to go back and see some of the kids at camp who weren’t on the World Team and follow their tournaments. We also met some more kids, and more coaches.
But I think if you look at a lot of the recruiting I’ve done for this year, we don’t have a ton of superstars, but I think we have the right guys. I think we have good guys who are passionate about improving in Greco. And a lot of those guys are from different types of programs. For example, we’ve got a kid from Allen, Texas because Allen has a pretty good wrestling team and he was one of my first ones. We’ve got a guy from Minnesota Storm, and he was was actually my first recruit.
It is obviously in the back of my mind to build those relationships and develop that pipeline, so to speak, because I think that is how you spread the word and get it out there that this is going on. And now we’ve had a bunch of kids come out to campus and see that this is a viable choice for them. We also have the ability for those kids who maybe aren’t quite willing to give up folkstyle completely to at least half the year focus on Greco, too. So, maybe a 50/50 split. Or maybe even leaning a little more towards Greco, but I think that they will figure that out.
But I have been able to be around some great people and they have all been super-helpful. I would not trade any of the time I spent with those guys over the spring, in the summer at camp, at the OPTC (Olympic and Paralympic Training Center), or at the World Championships. Those were great experiences with really quality people. That trust and respect goes both ways and I fully feel that the people working with those teams are 100% pro-kid, and pro-Greco. So, it has been good.
5PM: How did Tommy Brackett enter your radar as a staff pick?
Jason Christenson: Well, your friend and mine, Kerry Regner, back when this whole process was going on, told me, “I think I’ve got the guy for you. This guy should be your first assistant coach.” The deal when I got hired was, right away, ‘If you get five or six guys, we’ll be really happy; if you get 30, then we’ll add an assistant coach’. He was kind of on the back-burner at that point in time. I got hired in basically January. It was December, it’s the holidays with Christmas right there. I think I started recruiting the weekend before. I think I went up to the Battle of Waterloo and the assistant coach position was off in the distance. But then you fast-forward to where we’re at, and we’ve got 24 guys on the roster right now and I’m still trying to get a couple of more in here before the school year starts. I hope that Doane University is happy and pleased with the fact that we’ve put some heads in beds, so to speak.
Obviously when numbers started creeping up I was like, Hey, we’ve got to get someone in here to help me. And I knew who I wanted. I reached out. It took a little bit of time. I can’t remember for sure, but I knew we were going to get a spot. I went up to the US Open and watched Tommy compete. I saw that he has a really great back-step. A World-class back-step, I’d say. I also saw that he has really good positioning, and his demeanor is awesome. I guess the thing that sold me on Tommy Brackett was that there is not a person on the face of this earth who doesn’t like the guy. If you can find an enemy of Tommy Brackett? I don’t know, that’s like finding a needle in a haystack or a unicorn because he is a fantastic person. In my research and through just listening, I wanted to find out who he was. The first clip I see of him, he starts it off by saying, “I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for another opportunity to compete and do what I like”, which I think was at the Bill Farrell. For me, that said more than anything about the type of person who I’d be getting if he came to Doane. That is also the type of person I think a lot of parents would be happy to send their kids to.
That’s one thing about being a coach. I was a coach first before becoming a parent. I maybe went backwards in the sport. A lot of people get into the sport because their kids are interested in wrestling, or maybe they were wrestlers and their kids are wrestling, so they want to be involved. I was backwards; but once we had our son Gabe, I started to realize that people are trusting me with the most important thing in their world. So, that’s a pretty big task to be charged with as a coach. I realized that, and I think that Tommy is someone who fits that mold as a person who parents can trust. He is going to do the best that he can for their kids, and he is going to be a great role model for them.
We eventually talked a few times on the phone. I told him about the program and the opportunity, and it’s not a secret that I’m no spring chicken. Or, maybe there is an opportunity someday for Tommy to start another program somewhere. But I’m absolutely thrilled to have him as our grad assistant. We got to go to Fargo and recruit together, and he did come to camp at Doane. He was there during that time, which was awesome, as well. Then after camp at the OTC, we left on Thursday together, traveled together, and stayed together. When we got to Fargo, we had a list of about 80 to 90 kids we wanted to hit. We didn’t see each other for the entire competition day, or rarely saw each other and regrouped at night and made our plans for the next day. But, like I said, I’m just thrilled. Yes, he’s got some great Greco-Roman skills, but I’m more impressed with the person that is Tommy Brackett, and that is what has me pumped up about starting this program with someone like him.
5PM: It was Doane that landed Ned Kauffmann from Pennsylvania, who has become well-known domestically at age-group between making the U20 National finals and finishing 2nd at Fargo. He is also someone who certainly seems to love this sport. What was that process like?
Christneson: I tell you, I feel really fortunate. I’ll tell you what I told Ned, which basically was, “I want to build this program around you.” And that’s no slight to anyone else we already have on the roster, and with Tyson (Beauparthuy) having been a U23 champ, and with Ray Ray Harris… We have some really good guys, but the future with Ned is that he’s the guy. I knew that he carries a personality and social media presence that will get people fired-up about our program, and plus I like Ned as a person. I like what he’s about. He’s a professional. I noticed it when he got to camp with just how he handled himself. As an example, you don’t have to tell him to do a cooldown. Ned does a cooldown every practice, and he does it after every match, as well. He even did one after his loss in the Fargo finals. That is important. It’s not always necessarily the results or the outcome of everything you do. It is how you approach training, how you approach competition. That’s big. I know how everyone wants to talk about “the process” and things like that, but Ned lives the right process. He lives the right lifestyle as far as his training.
We were fortunate because we connected before the Open and then it was simply that I was going to be there for every match. It was kind of the same thing in Fargo. I was there for every match for Ned. We have a great relationship I think. We talk on the phone almost everyday. Obviously right now, he’s at camp, so when he is at camps I don’t hear from him every single day. But I’m always checking in and keeping tabs because he is our future. I’m really excited to have someone of his caliber and passion for Greco. That is probably the difference between him and maybe everyone else who we have because Ned is full-time Greco all the time. He got a big chuckle when Coach Brackett called folkstyle “the f-word”. He likes that little saying. Ned is the perfect fit for us and I think we’re a great fit for him, too.
5PM: Speaking of Tyson, he took a tough and tight loss at U23’s with a good bounce-back for 3rd. I think most are cognizant that he is a very promising upper-weight prospect. I would say also that he is…
Christenson: He’s our best guy.
5PM: Right, he’s the cornerstone of your program right now. How has he been able to remain engaged during the summer? And since he has been on the ground floor in terms of this program’s launch, what has his feedback been like as it has developed thus far?
Christenson: The plan moving forward for Tyson is that is taking the first semester off and will be the grad assistant for the folkstyle team, and he is going to focus on folkstyle for his last collegiate season here. His body has been pretty banged up…
5PM: He’s got a knee issue, right?
Christenson: Yeah, he has some issues there. It’s not an ACL or anything like that, but he has some tendonitis and it has been pretty painful for him. His body needs a little break. He did come to our camp. He also had an opportunity to be out at the OPTC and I asked him if he wanted to go, but I prefaced it by saying, “I probably know what your answer is, and I know that the best thing for you to do is not to go.” And he smartly declined. He politely pulled back and was like, No, I’m good. So we’re just going to take care of his body right now. He also wants to win a national title. He has been a two-time runner-up at NAIA and he wants to finish on the top of the podium. Then he has Greco in his future after that.
The crazy thing is that Tyson does not understand how good he actually is. I’m saying this because when he wrestled and got silver at the Pan-Ams a year ago, that was the fourth Greco tournament he had ever wrestled. There was no Fargo his senior year of high school due to the pandemic. His junior year, he had wrestled at the Greco state tournament and at Fargo; then he wrestled U23’s the previous year and his fourth competition in Greco, ever, was an international experience and a continental championship. So he just doesn’t understand. He is very competitive and wants to win, but he gets frustrated. He has been a little frustrated this past year with his results, but he has gotten better. He went out and hit the Venezuelan with an arm throw that we had just been working on a week prior. He had just started to learn that and implemented it right away. The previous year, he had gotten taken down and didn’t score an offensive point against the guy, and I think got lifted and thrown. He didn’t get lifted this time, so his par terre had improved. He did get into a sticky situation and had a close loss at U23’s this year in the semifinal. He gets frustrated and down on himself when he doesn’t win, but there is so much promise and potential with him.
I’m excited for when the time comes and the folkstyle season is over and he shifts gears. If he focuses on Greco full-time, and his body feels better, I think that he has a long, promising career ahead of him. I think the plan is that he stays at Doane and, once he has established himself, maybe he looks at the (Army) WCAP (World Class Athletes Program) route. Who knows? He could go back home to Colorado Springs, as well. I mean, it’s not like he wasn’t around the sport with his dad. But he has very limited competitive experience, so I think the sky with him is the limit. He really is a raw talent with so much potential. Then you add Tommy as a workout partner for him and he is going to get better fast. I’m excited for his future if his body can hold up and if he can get understand that it is not going to be a process of instant gratification or immediate. He can have a really long career in the sport.
5PM: We’re in August. As you get ready to break in the athletes coming for the first semester, what is the training plan?
Coach Jason Christenson: We’ll compete in the Dubuque RTC Showcase. We’re not really ready to dual anyone yet but we will send some of our athletes. That will be Sunday, October 12th. We will be bringing some of our guys up and trying to get some match-ups that are favorable because we’ve got a large group of freshmen.
School starts on August 18th and we’re going to have sort of an introductory, preseason type of phase. I know that our Greco guys are going to go three days per week to start. We’re going Monday, Wednesday, and Friday here in August and the folkstyle team is doing Tuesday/Thursday. They are lifting three days a week, we’re probably lifting three days a week, as well. So it’s a little bit off from what my plan is. I’ve got a four-year plan that leads to 2028. I had planned on doing a five-month meso-cycle and then having most of December off, but Andy (Bisek) messaged me and wants us to come up to Northern Michigan after finals are done. NMU has a women’s dual I believe on December 18th, and so we’re going to take some guys up to that.
The only issue that I have is that I’m not currently sure which of my guys are going full-time Greco and which guys are going to stick with competing in both styles here as we get started. There is not a whole lot of pressure on them to make a choice. One of the things I promised them was that, no matter what, if they decide they want to go one (style) or the other, they will keep the same scholarship. We’re in limbo a little bit as far as knowing exactly what we’ve got, but my plan was to train July, August, September, October, November, and be a little light come December so that guys can study for their finals and enjoy the holidays. But maybe that is the benefit of being a Greco-Roman wrestler, because things slow down at that point. So as we get going, I have one-month cycles that are laid out for each of those months. I was planning on doing more than what we are doing from an introductory standpoint but I need to remember that these kids are getting adjusted to college, as well. We’ll run a little short this preseason and have a good six weeks leading to Dubuque. Then obviously it will be getting ready for the Bill Farrell Memorial and we’ll extend into the end of December.
The best plans have to be flexible. I’m realizing that now as this sits upon us with August 18th and I have to make some adjustments. We have to figure out the kids’ class schedules. Once we’re ready to start going everyday — that’s full-time — I also have to remain cognizant of the guys who are duel-athletes and the ones who are folkstyle-only as far as the scheduling goes. I mean, we have a three-and-a-half mat wrestling room plus another two-mat room. We have five-and-a-half mat spaces, but we also have a folkstyle team and a women’s team. So, we have to coordinate schedules to determine when we can have practice for our full-time Greco guys. We have to see where the kids’ classes fall. We don’t know that yet, but there is definitely a plan. I have it laid out, but it is probably going to look different than what I have on paper.
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