In 2010, for the first time in 40 years, coach Carter Jordan and the Wolfpack wrestling program will have a full coaching staff at its disposal.
“You always want to have a full staff,” Jordan said. “It really allows you the ability to really focus on specific areas that each coach is really good at. We all bring a different skill set to the job. You can be much more organized and it’s much easier to plan.”
In hiring former Missouri assistant Lee Pritts, a 12-year coaching veteran, the Pack has added far more than a placeholder to what is no longer an understaffed group of coaches. A year after hiring Steve Anceravage to give the former two-time All-American at Cornell his first experience coaching at the college level, Jordan has brought in a seasoned assistant who coached a number of All-American and national champion wrestlers while helping elevate Missouri to national prominence.
Jordan said Pritts’ recruiting track record speaks for itself.
“Lee’s accomplished in every level of coaching, especially recruiting,” Jordan said. “That’s the most important aspect of our job, in my opinion. He has high school and college contacts all over the country. Just the couple weeks that he’s been working for us have been amazing.”
Jordan believes the addition of Pritts will elevate a program that already has no problem attracting some of the best local talent on the national scale.
“When you’re the University of Iowa, everyone wants to come to your school. When you’re N.C. State, there’s a lot to attract but you have to get in there and sell it,” Jordan said. “You have to go out there and beat the bushes, and Lee is a great bush beater.”
Pritts, who grew up in Florida and wrestled at Eastern Michigan University, said his new job is one he began dreaming of before he completed his own All-American collegiate wrestling career back in the 1990s.
“Ever since I decided I wanted to coach wrestling when I was in college, I knew N.C. State was where I wanted to be,” Pritts said.
Now, Jordan has two former collegiate wrestlers in Anceravage and Pritts working alongside him that came to State for an official visit but, for one reason for another, chose to go elsewhere.
“One way or another, we’ll get you here,” Jordan said. “It may take a while, but we’ll get you here.”
Pritts’ hire as the Pack’s newest assistant will not only help Jordan with recruiting and give Pritts himself a job he has always wanted, his track record indicates that he will also improve every Wolfpack wrestler on the roster by giving everyone from 2009 national champ Darrion Caldwell to incoming walk-ons a better chance at starring at nationals.
“A lot of kids that come to the collegiate level, for whatever reason, never pan out,” Jordan said. “There are a lot of kids that you wouldn’t give the time of day to. Lee does a good job of finding those kids – the diamonds in the rough.”
