Wrestling: Zadick working for World title

Mike Zadick

The irony of the situation never occurred to Mike Zadick during that 16-mile cattle drive through Montana.

Here he was, a couple weeks past winning the World Team Trials again and in the middle of a vacation that included two days on a horse with six cowboys moving 400 cattle across some of the most picturesque land in his home state.

“It’s work, but it’s fun work,” said Zadick, an Iowa assistant wrestling coach who was a three-time All-American as a competitor with the Hawkeyes. “People like to get out and fish or hunt, and those are things I like to do, but (I like) doing anything around the ranch, I like fencing and those kind of things. It’s different. It’s kind of like going back in time. Going back and moving cows like that on a horse, a lot of people do it on four-wheelers now, but it’s pretty handy on a horse. You run into some snags and it’s just getting through them. In 16 miles, there’s a lot of things that happen and a lot of nature that you see and a lot of barriers to go over, creeks and things like that.

“You’d have a calf run out or a cow split from the herd and you’d get out around them and bring them back into the herd and the horse would run right up to the cow and bite it on the back like (the horse was saying), ‘Keep your ass in line.’”

The funny thing is, Zadick has been known as the type who occasionally strays from the herd, the type who sometimes crosses the boundaries of political correctness to get a point across, the type who blazes his own trail at times rather than following the pack.

“Now that you bring it to my attention, it kind of makes me laugh,” Zadick said. “I’m not going out of my way to try to be this special individual, it’s just how I’ve always been. I look back at my life growing up in a Catholic school and bumping heads with a lot of the teachers, even though I look back now and I respect them and hopefully they respect me. But I had trouble there, and I was kind of a hellion when I was a kid and it’s because I did (things) differently than the herd. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but I wouldn’t change anything.”

This is, after all, a guy who lives on a farm south of Solon and looks after his dog Smoke, peacocks, chickens and other small animals, only because there’s not enough room on 14 acres for the “gazillion cattle and horses” Zadick once said he’d love to have.

But one thing Zadick wants more than the gazillion cattle and horses is a World title. He’ll get another shot next month in Moscow when he wrestles on a freestyle team that also includes 24-year-old Brent Metcalf, who won two NCAA titles with the Hawkeyes.

Zadick came close once when the gold slipped through his grasp at the 2006 World Championships. He beat Russian star Mavlet Batirov, a two-time Olympic champion, to reach the 60 kg gold medal match. He lost to Iranian Sayed Mohammadi in the title bout and hasn’t posted a victory in international championship competition since after quick exits at the 2007 World Championships and the Beijing Olympics and losing his spot on the U.S. team to Shawn Bunch last year.

But at 32, Zadick might be in the midst of a career renaissance. He swept Bunch in the best-of-three final series in June at the World Team Trials to avenge a loss in April at the U.S. Open and earn a spot on the U.S. freestyle team for the fourth time in five years. Zadick dropped the first period in each of his last four matches at the World Team Trials, but stormed back to beat Matt Valenti, Coleman Scott and win twice against Bunch. He opened up his offensive arsenal to go with his typically-stingy defense. He wrestled so well in Council Bluffs that some of his longtime followers pondered this question: How long it has it been since Zadick looked that sharp?

“Probably up to his finals match at the Worlds,” Iowa coach Tom Brands said. “He beat some good wrestlers in that world tournament in ‘06. But he’s actually looked good all year. Even at the open he looked good. Just because he got beat doesn’t mean he wasn’t looking good. It’s more a matter of probably needing an extra couple months of what he was already doing to get himself over the hump – with just being solid and wrestling his style. He built that confidence up between the open and the trials.”

Zadick’s revitalization goes back further than this winter. It stretches back to 2008. That’s when the alarm sounded, when he realized he needed to make some changes.

Zadick won the Olympic Trials that June after the U.S. failed to qualify the weight for Beijing. He was a last-minute addition to the tournament after two Bulgarians sustained bizarre injuries in the week leading up to competition, but the late sprint to make weight took a toll on Zadick. By the time he made it to the mat, he said he felt worse than he ever before on a wrestling mat. He said he felt like his shoes were stuck to the mat, like he’d been hit by an 18-wheeler.

“I had nothing,” he said. “You poker face and you stay tough, you step on the mat and you believe you’re the best and I did, but I didn’t have any kind of result whatsoever to even talk about. I learned a lot from that. I went through some pain in that tournament that was embarrassing and it hurt so bad I never wanted to feel it again and it was due to my weight.

“From then on, I’ve done a lot better job of keeping it under control and not fluctuating up super high. Even when I have down time and I can go do whatever — eat an ice cream cone or cake, have a beer or whatever, it’s something that’s (consumed) in moderation.”

Zadick said he felt like he was on track last year even though he lost to Bunch in the final series of the World Team Trials. While others may have looked at Zadick as a fading star, he took note of how he lost. He’s quick to point out those matches would have had a different outcome if this year’s rules were in place in 2009.

Besides, Zadick was there in 2006 when his brother Bill became a World champion at 33.

“I never really compare it to Bill, even though most people (do),” Mike said. “The fact that he won (a World title at 33) doesn’t make a difference to me. I honestly believe I’m getting better, and I’m in a great environment right now and that’s why the success or whatever you want to say is going on. … But it doesn’t matter if he won it at 33 or if John Smith or Tom Brands won it at 45. It doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is what I’m capable of and what I can do, and that’s why I feel good, that’s why there’s confidence there and that’s why I’m moving forward. I really don’t think I’ve peaked and that’s why I’m doing it.”

In some ways, Zadick said he’s better than he was four years ago.

“I expect to win because of the way I live my life,” he said. “I’m not saying I’m a little angel by any means. But if you live the right way and you train the right way in every aspect of your life, you don’t deserve it, but it stacks more in your favor.”

“I think he’s probably driven to get over the hump,” Brands said. “And when you get older you realize your window is shrinking. He doesn’t have as many opportunities left as he did in ‘06.”

Brands said he’s seen a change in Zadick’s approach this year. He said there’s been more consistent training rather than periodic stretches of hard work followed by a break.

“When you get to be a certain age, you know what you need,” Brands said. “But you still have to be open minded enough to take direction and coaching and especially from people who can help you. He’s done that better this year as well. I know that Mike knows what he needs. I know he feels like he probably has the final say on it, but I think he’s been more open minded and probably because he’s put more energy into his training again. It all kind of circles around his commitment — the weight control, his relationship with the coaching staff, his confidence level.”

Zadick hopes it all leads to breaking free from the pack at his weight class.

“Say you get beat in the finals of the Open and you trained seriously for three months,” Brands said. “Now you add three plus two and you’re at five months and you win the Trials. Then five plus three months and you’ve got eight months under your belt. That equals a World championship.”

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Tags: freestyle wrestling, Mike Zadick, Tom Brands, World Championships, wrestling

Category: Wrestling