Courtesy of John Harrison
An All-American and Olympian wrestler, top-level student, and successful entrepreneur and coach, Ken Chertow has met with success in every direction he has turned. Also an outstanding role model, he serves as a mentor for thousands of young wrestlers whom he coaches in his clinics, camps and school every year. Not only are these youngsters learning superior techniques on the mat, but Ken is also teaching them the same positive attitude toward life that has led him to success through the years.
Some of Ken’s accomplishments:
Academic Honors:
- 3.65 G.P.A.
- B.S. Penn State 1989
- Golden Key National Honor Society
- ODK Leadership Honor Society
- 3x GTE Academic All American
Athletic Achievements:
- 2x West Virginia State Champion & 2x Outstanding Wrestler
- 1984 Junior National Champion – Freestyle and Greco-Roman
- 1984 Junior National Outstanding Wrestler Award
- 1984 Junior World Champion
- 1986 World Espoir Champion
- 1986 US Olympic Festival Champion
- 3x NCAA All American at Penn State 1987,88,89
- 1987 National Dual Meet Team Championship
- 1988 US Olympian
- 1986-92 US National Team Member
- 1992 US Olympic Alternate
- Featured in Sports Illustrated Article Along With Teammate Jim Martin
Ken, update us on your life.
Last year I moved back to State College with my wife Laurie and our two children, Emily (three) and Alexander (eight months). Laurie is also a Penn State graduate, and we thought this would be a great place to raise our kids. I love my family and have a great lifestyle. Working out of my home office, I can be with my wonderful wife and kids whenever I want to be.
I have created a unique career (carved out my own niche if you will) in our great sport. I conduct my “Olympian” Wrestling Camps throughout the summer and fall, while running my local “Olympian” Wrestling School in the evenings from October through May. During the day, I work on organizing and promoting my different coaching endeavors, field phone calls from parents and coaches interested in my camp and school and hang out with my family.
I have also produced a series of 8 instructional videos and written a book, Wrestling: A Commitment to Excellence. I have developed a strong mail order business to sell these learning tools. I fill book and video orders on a daily basis and also sell home mats for the Resilite Mat Company.
I frequently study video tape of elite college and international competition, as well as my students. I am a devout student of the game and am commited to becoming far more successful as a coach than I ever was an athlete.
This summer I held 2 weeks of my camp at the Days Inn Penn State in downtown State College. Kids from throughout the nation come to train under the guidance of me and my staff of over 50 outstanding coaches. I have been honored to have many former Penn State wrestlers help me at my camps over the years.
Although there are more and more wrestling camps throughout the country to choose from every year, I am proud to tell you that my camp enrollment has increased annually since I started my camp upon graduation from Penn State in 1989. This summer I trained 1050 students during a 5 week span. I am having a significant impact on the lives of many youngsters and am enjoying my work tremendously.
My local wrestling school students did extremely well last year and the turnout was great. We have outgrown our gym and are building a new facility. My new wrestling school is being built behind the Hills Plaza on S. Atherton Street and will be opening in August, 1999. Come visit when you are in town.
What have you been doing since you left Penn State?
After graduating from Penn State in 1989, I took a job coaching with Russ Hellickson at Ohio State, enrolled in medical school, started my own summer wrestling camp and continued my competitive career on the freestyle and greco circuit. During my first few months at Ohio State I fell in love with coaching and took a one year leave of absence from medical school. I have not looked back since. My whole life has been engulfed in our great sport.
During my 3 years at Ohio State we had the two best season’s in school history, finishing 4th and 5th in the NCAA Tournament.
When Rich Lorenzo retired, John Fritz recruited me to help him during his first year as head coach. I was bleeding blue and white again. We worked extremely hard and had a very memorable season. Our record was 20 and 1, we were 2nd at the NCAA Tournament and we won the National Dual Meet Championship. It was a dream season and I figured I would be on board at Penn State forever.
Following that awesome 1992-93 season, I hit the recruiting trails aggressively and was largely responsible for signing Penn State’s current senior class of Musser, Pritzlaff, Jayne and Walizer, as well as graduates Lange and Neidlinger. The future looked bright. However, after careful consideration and a lot of soul searching, I decided to leave college coaching. There were many factors involved in my decision and it was extremely difficult to leave my alma matter, but it was time for me to move on and focus my energies on working with kids and building my camp.
I knew what I was getting into. From 1989-1993 while I was working diligently to help the Lion and Buckeye programs, I was also spending a lot of time working with younger wrestlers. I ran my own kids program while in Columbus and coached the Penn State Kids Wrestling Club while in State College. I am proud to say we had 85 members ages 8-18 during the 1992-93 season and they were at all the home matches cheering loudly. In addition to my kids clubs, I was also spending a couple months each summer teaching at my summer camp, as well as Penn State and Ohio State Camps.
When I left Penn State, I also took the best worker in the athletic department with me, my wife, Laurie. Laurie was Tim Curley’s (PSU’s current athletic director) secretary and we worked together daily checking on the admission status of our wrestling recruits. She takes credit for that strong recruiting class 🙂
Laurie and I got married and moved to my hometown, Huntington, WV. Huntington is also the home base for my Olympian Summer Camp. We use the Best Western Gateway Convention Center, a classy 225 room hotel with over 12,000 square feet of ballroom space. From 1994-97 we worked steadily to improve and promote my camp and the enrollment has grown from 480 kids in 1994 to 1050 kids in 1998.
During this time period I also started my local Olympian Wrestling School in Huntington. My team improved steadily. In 1997 we won the 1997 Tulsa National Championship and Wrestling USA National Challenge Cup, two of the premier events in the kids wrestling circles. Eight of my students won AAU National Championships.
In October, 1997 I turned my Huntington gym over to my assistant coach, moved my family to State College and opened a second Olympian Wrestling School and summer camp location. We have been back in State College a year now and we are very happy here in State College.
I look forward to seeing everyone at the NCAA Tournament, and we will also be at all the home dual meets. Don’t hesitate to say hello.
What are your best memories from the years you spent as a Penn State wrestler?
My best memories from years as a Penn State Wrestler were home dual meets. I loved the excitement and the fan support. All the local wrestling club people were very supportive and I appreciated it. Coming from West Virginia where the only fans at matches were relatives, wrestling in Rec Hall was something special.
Beating Iowa in both Rec Hall and Carver Hawkeye was very memorable. I won big matches in both duals and then got to sit back and watch my teammates whip the Hawks. Although the road win was more challenging, the incredible excitement during our home match in Rec Hall made that my most memorable dual meet.
My sophomore year I beat Rick Bonomo in Rec Hall and then beat Rocky Bonomo for 3rd place at NCAA’s. Those were fun matches.
Many hours between classes in the wrestling room with Coach Fritz and intense workouts with Tim Flynn, Jim Martin and others also stand out in my mind. These were the important training experiences that helped me excel.
How has the Penn State wrestling experience impacted your life/career?
The challenge of excelling both in the classroom and on the mats while I was a student-athlete at Penn State may be the hardest thing I ever did. It is so difficult to do both. During my redshirt year, 2nd year of college, I earned 36 hours of straight A’s, as I was able to focus totally on academia. However, while training for and traveling to competition during my other four years, there was never a minute to spare in a day. I worked intensely for every grade and every win I ever earned and learned how to budget my time. Time management is essential if you are going to excel at anything you do in our society.
How has collegiate wrestling changed since you were a wrestler at Penn State?
Wrestling is wrestling. Most changes I see are subtle additions of new techniques. Some of the elite wrestlers of today are better than some of the legends of the past, especially as underclassmen. For example, Lincoln McIlravy, Les Gutches, Cary Kolat, Jeff McGinnes, Eric Guerrero, etc… have been wrestling year round since they were very, very young, so they were able to make a big impact on the college scene as freshman and have continued to improve throughout their careers.
Ken, what advice do you have for collegiate wrestlers today?
Take a diverse curriculum. It is important to be well rounded and you never know what you will end up doing for a living. Although I was a biology major, many of my favorite classes were in other fields such as business, exercise science, health, psychology and other fields.
You cannot wrestle forever. Make sure you take your education seriously!
Thanks Ken!
