Brent Metcalf will begin his wrestling coaching career at Cedar Rapids Prairie High School. In a recent interview with Andy Hamilton of TrackWrestling Metcalf stated that he would be taking an assistant coach position at Prairie joining Kane Thompson’s staff.
“That’s kind of how I’m moving forward,” Metcalf said in his Trackwrestling interview, “My intention was to be done after the Olympic Games. Just because I didn’t get what I want, that doesn’t mean I go do it anyway and change plans.”
The four-time World Team member has dominated the 65 kilogram weight domestically for the better part of the last three years, but at last April’s Olympic Team Trials he suffered his first loss to Frank Molinaro. Prior to that Metcalf has medaled at some of the toughest tournaments in the world, and was a perfect 8-0 at the 2014 and 2015 World Cup for Team USA.
In his May interview with Takedown Wrestling Metcalf stated that his wife, Kristen, was working toward a graduate degree at the University of Iowa and that it would take “a pretty great opportunity” to uproot him Iowa City.
This past season Cedar Rapids Prairie qualified eight wrestlers for the state tournament, with four of those wrestlers earning a spot on the stand. Their 62 team points was good enough for a seventh place team finish.
“It was one of those things where we both kind of knew the same person and things just kind of got hooked up in the right way,” Prairie coach Kane Thompson told IA Wrestle, “I couldn’t be more excited for somebody like that to be willing to come and take their time and be willing to help some high school kids and a high school team, and help them continue to grow and reach the vision that we are trying to set at Prairie.”
“I had a couple of assistant coaches that went different directions for this coming year and so I was looking for more people on staff and it just kind of worked out in such a way that he is going to be able to fit it into his schedule. I feel like a guy that was in the right spot at the right time,” Thompson continued, “He’s definitely a team player when it comes to helping other people out.”