Mat dreams fulfilled for former Bison standout

Saturday, January 8, 2011
Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette Former McCook High School state wrestling champion Nate Morgan (left) and his former coach, Bison head coach Nick Umscheid, pose for a photo in the Bison wrestling room earlier this week. Morgan, a freshman at Penn State University, spent the Christmas holiday back home in McCook.

Even if he never wrestles a varsity match in his collegiate career, former McCook High School standout Nate Morgan will receive a great education on and off the mat at Penn State University.

But if his first college semester is any indication, Morgan will get his fair share of varsity action for the Nittany Lions in the coming years.

The 2010 McCook High School graduate was home over the Christmas holiday after finishing his first semester as a member of the Penn State wrestling program. Morgan said he flew home from State College, Pennsylvania on Dec. 18, and he will return to school this weekend.

Morgan is taking a redshirt in his first collegiate wrestling season, meaning he will not compete at the varsity level this season for the Nittany Lions. But he has entered several open tournaments, and Nate, competing at 125 pounds, has won his fair share of matches, wrestling against fellow redshirt freshman and varsity-level competitors representing the top collegiate wrestling programs on the East coast.

Morgan said he hopes to compete in at least two more open collegiate tournaments this season.

Nate is the son of Mike and Jill Morgan. He is a three-time Nebraska state high school wrestling tournament medalist. Nate capped an undefeated season last February by winning the Class B 119-pound state title.

With several options available for his college career, Nate chose to chase his dream of wrestling for Penn State. The Nittany Lions are one of the nation's top NCAA Division I programs in the country, and Penn State is currently ranked second nationally.

Morgan, a kinesiology major, is thoroughly enjoying his first year of college

"It's going real well. I love it there," he said. "The classes are hard, but I really enjoy what I'm learning."

Morgan said he is also adapting to the college level of wrestling competition.

"It's definitely a different level," he said. "But just being in that room with all those good guys, you're constantly getting better every day. It takes you a little while, but I've been starting to catch up with everybody.

"I learn something new almost every day, almost every day."

Legendary coach

Morgan is learning from the best. One of the reasons for his desire to join the Penn State program was to work under head coach Cael Sanderson and his staff.

Sanderson is an Olympic wrestling champion and a four-time NCAA national champion. A four-year high school state champion at Wasatch High School in Heber, Utah, Sanderson took his mat skills to Iowa State University. Following a redshirt year in 1997-98, Sanderson set an NCAA record by winning 159 straight matches in his Iowa State career, including four NCAA national titles.

After completing his college wrestling career in 2002, Sanderson began training for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Sanderson claimed the Olympic gold medal in the 84-kilogram (184.8-pound) weight division.

Following the Olympics, Sanderson returned to Iowa State as an assistant coach, eventually taking the ISU head coaching position when veteran coach Bobby Douglas stepped down in March of 2006. Sanderson coached the Cyclones to a runner-up finish in the NCAA national meet and three Big 12 Conference titles before moving to Penn State for the start of the 2009-10 season. The Nittany Lions finished ninth at the NCAA national meet last spring in Sanderson's first year as head of the program.

"He's a legend, and he's a real good guy, too," Morgan said of his head coach. "It's awesome. All the coaches are great guys, and they know so much, it's ridiculous all that they know. Just seeing them wrestle, they don't even touch levels that they have. The best guys in our room will potentially be national champions and our coaches just make them look stupid because they're on that level. It's just crazy."

Sanderson's coaching staff includes his brother, Cody Sanderson (two-time NCAA finalist at Iowa State), Casey Cunningham (NCAA national champ from Central Michigan) and Troy Letters (Lehigh's last NCAA national champion).

Tough challenge ahead

After the redshirt year, Morgan will have four years of college wrestling eligibility remaining. He knows that it will be a tough test for him to crack the Penn State varsity lineup in the future, but he is ready for the challenge.

"It's really just a battle," he said. "They have such good guys coming in every year, that every year's going to be a battle, everyone's going to be fighting for that varsity spot. The competition is just crazy. Guys who should be All-Americans are not even making the lineup because they are so good in that room.

"At the beginning I got my butt kicked every day. But I've gotten to where I can hold my own against them."

Morgan said he has four other Nittany Lions in his weight class (125 is the lowest weight in NCAA wrestling competition).

"Every day is a fight," Morgan said of the tough practice competition.

Just one of Nate's fellow Penn State 125-pounders is a senior.

"But he's actually not the varsity wrestler right now, he got injured," Nate said. "The varsity wrestler right now is actually a true freshman. He's number 12 in the nation right now, I think."

No weight problems

Morgan said in an interview earlier this week following a workout at McCook High School that he is having no problems maintaining his 125-pound weight.

"I'm eating whatever I want," he said. "It's really not that hard to stay down there."

He's only been in college a few months, but it appears that Morgan has gotten bigger physically.

"That's what I've been told, but I don't know," he said.

Great facilities, fans

One other attraction of Penn State wrestling is the school's facilities. The team moved into the new Lorenzo Wrestling Complex, a state of the art facility. Morgan said the wrestling room has four mats stretched side-to-side, with another half a mat down the side.

Penn State's fans are another reason why Morgan chose to attend the East coach school. Penn State Athletics recently announced that the Jan. 30 dual meet between the second-ranked Nittany Lions and No. 7 Iowa is sold out. The meet will be held at Penn State's Rec Hall, which has a seating capacity of over 6,000.

Busy schedule

With a kinesiology major and wrestling, Morgan's college days are hectic.

"It depends on the day, but basically, in college my days are planned out before the day even starts," Nate said.

Some of those days start with a 5:30 a.m. wake-up call to get to a weightlifting session or workout 45 minutes later. Classes start at 8 a.m. and run through the day until a long practice session in the afternoon. Dinner is followed by mandatory study hall. Morgan said each Penn State wrestler has to fulfill at least seven hours of study hall weekly. The athletes check in to the study hall, and their time is monitored by a swipe card system.

"After all that's said and done, it's about time to go to bed," Nate said.

Morgan hopes to someday include a spot on the Penn State varsity lineup in his daily routine. He was asked about the prospect of weekend travel to competitions, studying, and a more hectic schedule in the future.

"It's just such an honor to be on varsity in that room, that it's doesn't matter," he said. "You're striving to get there no matter what."

A perfect fit

Morgan said the extended break spent in McCook will likely be the last time he gets to spend this much time away from campus for the holidays. It's tough being such a long way away from home, but it's worth it.

"This will be the only year I get this big of a break for Christmas, just because I'm redshirting," he said. "It's tough; I miss my family and friends and everything, but it's the place for me. The coaches and everything are so awesome. It's just a perfect fit for me, that it's not as big of a struggle as it could be for some people."

Morgan went to Oberlin, Kansas, last Tuesday to watch his former Bison teammates compete in a high school wrestling meet. Nate was asked what advice he would give for local and area youngsters who aspire to follow in Morgan's footsteps and wrestle at the NCAA Division I level?

"Just a lot of hard work," he said. "Having the right mind set every day in practice, and going after it, and just looking to be the best every day, every chance you get, every opportunity you get, just fighting to be the best."

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  • Nate is a good kid and Coach Umscheid has the McCook Bison program headed in the right direction.

    -- Posted by dennis on Mon, Jan 10, 2011, at 10:45 AM
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