To United States Greco-Roman National Team head coach Herb House, it has become time to shake things up for his program when it comes to preparing his athletes for World-level competition.
The US had their share of moments worth celebrating in 2024. For the first time in the modern history of the sport, six Americans earned World medals. Jayden Raney (55 kg, IRTC) won the U17 World Championships while his twin — and ’23 champ — Jordyn (60 kg, IRTC) earned bronze. At the U20 Worlds, Isaiah Cortez (55 kg, Daniel Cormier WC) and Otto Black (63 kg, CTT/Hawkeye WC) came away with silver, and US National Team member Aden Attao (130 kg, Beaver Dam RTC) rebounded to pick up bronze. Then in October, Beka Melelashvili (82 kg, NYAC) gave the US their first-ever medal from the U23 World Championships.
Throw in that Ildar Hafizov (63 kg, Army/WCAP) and Kamal Bey (Army/WCAP) placed second and third, respectively, at the CISM Military Worlds — as well as Black and Greco neophyte Austin DeSanto (60 kg, Hawkeye WC) both medaling in consecutive weekends in Scandinavia, and Courtney Freeman (130 kg, Marines) earning silver in Egypt — and by all appearances, the US has closed the calendar year in a rather encouraging fashion.
But while House is pleased with each of the aforementioned results, he also knows that Greco-Roman in the US is measured by only one primary parameter: Senior-level success in World tournaments. The United States struggled at the Paris Olympics, and likewise departed from the non-Olympic Worlds in October without an athlete having made the podium.
House’s attempt at a solution for ’25 is to isolate Greco’s World Team Trials by holding the selection event in April (in conjunction with the annual US Open). The National coach feels that having the World roster secured two months earlier than is the norm will avail precious time for the Americans to focus solely on preparing for when the World Championships gets underway in September. A major factor driving House’s decision is tethered to a hefty amount of international training, both at-home and abroad. Most of the plan throughout the season is centered around time on target with international counterparts. House believes that, given the challenges facing American Greco Seniors, a more aggressive protocol is in order. He laid out his vision over the weekend as well as provided a detailed timeline of what his athletes can expect.
USNT Head Coach Herb House — December 2025
5PM: What influenced the decision to hold the World Team Trials in April?
Coach Herb House: Basically, the influence was that by doing so it provides us more time and opportunity to focus on the World Championships. Most countries pick their teams in January and this gives us an opportunity to get our World Team selected earlier than usual, which will then allow us to go overseas in May as well as have people come over to train with us in June. That was my biggest thing. I feel like we need to give our World Team more time to prepare so that they can be successful at the World Championships.
5PM: How did you explain this to those in our program who are used to a US Open, Trials challenge tournament, and Final X? And how did you explain it to those athletes who might have disagreed with this decision?
HH: The biggest thing is more opportunity for the World Team to be able to train to achieve the best results we can at the World Championships. We need medals. I know that not everyone might think so, but the #1 priority for the Senior World Team is to go to the World Championships and earn medals. That is their priority. I explained to them that this will give us more success and more opportunity to plan, and it also allows for more space to give attention to our #1 guys. So now going forward, we can focus on each individual, come up with a plan for them, and fix any mistakes as needed before they go to the World Championships.
5PM: The US had their first U23 World medalist in October (Beka Melelashvili); and over the past month, two Military World medalists, then Otto Black and Austin DeSanto both won Haavisto a week after medaling in Sweden, and Courtney Freeman silver’ed in Egypt. If you could, comment on the US program ending 2024 on what is certainly a more positive note.
HH: I think the biggest thing helping these guys realize that they can have international success was last month when we had Ukraine here for camp. They all looked very good against Ukraine. We wrestled a great camp. It was probably one of our best camps that we’ve had. I think that, now, everyone realizes the importance of going overseas and training with our counterparts. It is a big, big advantage to be able to have that competition, which in turn raises our confidence against international wrestlers. I’m glad that they are doing it because that’s my model. I love to be overseas. I love to learn from other countries and help our guys get different looks compared to what they get at home in the United States.
5PM: What is on the agenda for January Camp?
Coach Herb House: Right, going back to it. We are going to have a big January camp as well as our athlete summit and our coaches’ summit. We will also have about 15 international wrestlers who will be attending our camp. Athletes from Armenia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia — we will have a mixture of different wrestlers who I invited to our camp. Not just teams, but individuals who I felt would give us the best fit.
Then right after that camp, we are going to shoot over to Croatia for the “Ranking Series” tournament (Grand Prix Zagreb Open). We will have the camp after the tournament. I believe that they are saying there will be between 20 and 30 teams at the camp. We are bringing our largest roster in quite some time over to Croatia. I have 28 US wrestlers who are going to Croatia. I’m very excited. I love that everyone wants to go. They want to put their careers in their own hands. I used to have to force people to travel. Now everyone wants to go. I’m getting calls every single day, ‘Can I go?, Can I go?’ And I’m not turning them down. If you can come, if you can help out and want to go? Then you can go.
5PM: Upon returning home from Croatia there will be a little over two months until the World Team selection tournament. What is the bridge, training-wise, connecting that gap in time for Senior athletes?
HH: Right after the NCAA Division I tournament, on March 25th we will be having another National Team camp and France will be joining us. That will be from March 25th to April 4th. That will help us get ready for April, and then we will shoot over to the Pan-Am Championships the first week of May. After that we will be going to Azerbaijan, but that trip will just include the World Team members. We will stay in Azerbaijan from May 19th until May 31st.
5PM: That will lead into another camp at the Olympic Training Center in June.
HH: Right, so I wanted to get a big team to come to the United States and I’ve actually been working on that for almost a year. We have Croatia, Ukraine, and Hungary coming and they will each bring about 10-15 wrestlers. They will stay from June 15th to July 2nd. We will have those guys here and I’m looking at doing exhibition dual meets at the end of the camp if we can get that done. That is something on my list I am really working on, getting some matches at the end of the camp to put on a little show for the Greco community.
After that, we are going to the second “Ranking Series” tournament (Hungarian Grand Prix) and to a camp in Tata (HUN) for the World Team following the event. We will come home for about a week or so, two weeks, then we are heading over to do our acclimation camp in Porec, Croatia. After that camp, we will take the bus down to the World Championships.
5PM: As you said, the upcoming trip to Zagreb is going to include a lot of athletes, many of whom are at the top of the domestic ladder or close to it. Given that the Trials are in April, just like they were a year ago for Olympic Team selection, how would you like to see these athletes approach their time training in Croatia?
Coach Herb House: I really just want these guys to believe in themselves that they really are World medalists. I want them to put that in their minds starting now. The message is, ‘Believe that you are a World medalist, you are a World champ’. Don’t think, ‘Oh, I can’t do it’. I want them to always be mentally-preparing themselves to become World medalists. And I want them to focus on areas of their wrestling that require extra focus. For the United States, I’ll say it again: we have to make sure that we understanding every component of par terre.
We need to understand the defensive part as well as the offensive part. You might be able to stop turns and be great at defense, but you need to have offense, too. That way when it’s your chance to get on top, you can score. That is my #1 priority, defense and offense from par terre. On our feet we are good, and we’re going to focus on that, too. But our #1 priority is par terre.
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