New coach grapples with team, training

“I have high expectations (for the team). As a competitor, I live and die by the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat,” Prior said. “Of course I have to develop life skills (for the team) that wrestling can provide.”

This will be Prior’s first-ever high school coaching assignment, but he has spent a bulk of his life training. He took up judo in middle school, but transitioned to wrestling and football in high school, being named team captain for each team his senior year at Lower Lake High School in Santa Rosa, where he was a 2006 graduate. He continued his education at Sacramento State University and when he could not wrestle — the school didn’t have a team — Prior went back to judo.

After leaving Sacramento, he started training for Strongman and bodybuilding competitions but, when he realized he would have to turn to steroids to reach the elite level in either of those endeavors, he went back to judo about five years ago. For the last two years, Prior has been competing with USA Judo internationally. He is currently the top-ranked heavyweight on the US national team and is training for a spot on the 2024 Olympic team.

He was attempting to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but the pandemic wiped out all the qualifying tournaments, forcing him to turn his attention to the 2024 games.

The pandemic not only wiped out his 2020 Olympic dreams, it also took a toll on his pocketbook as his job because a casualty of COVID-19 as well.

Because he doesn’t have high enough ranking, Prior receives no financial support from either the U.S. Olympic Committee or the U.S. judo federation.

“I’m a self-funded athlete, which is really tough when you have 20 competitions all around the world,” Prior said.

So how does a judo practitioner end up coaching a wrestling team? According to Prior, there are a lot of similarities between the two sports.

“Between wrestling, jiu jitsu and judo, they’re all grappling. It’s about grabbing your opponent and trying to score in a variety of ways,” Prior said. “There isn’t a whole lot of difference between high-level wrestling and high-level judo training. The same muscular features and techniques carry between [wrestling and judo].

“To me, judo transfers well to wrestling. Wrestling doesn’t transfer well to judo.”

And Prior has high-level judo training. He said he took a pair of month-long trips to Japan, the birthplace of judo, last year.

“I have a training partner who is part of the world (judo) team from Egypt. When I came back from my second trip to Japan, he was mad because he couldn’t throw me anymore,” Prior said. “During my second trip, in those six weeks, I absolutely doubled my judo skills.”

Can he expect that kind progress from high school wrestlers? Prior said it’s possible. Prior believes a high school athlete may have the physical ability to handle a high-level workout, but Prior said the bigger question is: does a teenager have the mentality to handle that kind of intense training and work?

“Is their maturity and mentality ready to absorb all that it takes to be a champion?” Prior said.

Regardless, Prior will take what he gets and try to help mold the team into champions. He realizes not everyone will be on the same level and will treat each wrestler accordingly.

Given the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Prior realizes neither he nor the team has been put into an ideal position. So Prior’s goal is to get the most out of what he can if and when the season is permitted to start. According to the California Department of Public Health return-to-sports guidelines, wrestling is in the “indoor high-contact” category and the county needs to be in the yellow tier of the state’s risk-assessment system before being allowed to practice and compete.

So Prior plans to do what he can with the what he is allowed to do and his first step is develop a workout schedule.

“I’m going to develop an at-home plan for the athletes not doing football or Season 1 sports,” Prior said. “This is a tough year, unfortunately. I’m not coming in with a lot of experience so I really want to focus on the seniors.

“I want everything to wash away when they’re in the wrestling room. … I want them to focus on being an athlete. … I want them to have relief mentally, but physically extreme training.”