Three of the seven Team U.S.A. members headed for the 2011 World Championships in Turkey – Teyon Ware, Jake Varner and Cael Sanderson – are also members of the The Nittany Lion Wrestling Club.

Cael came out of his public wrestling retirement to win the position last weekend, but he never retired from competitive wrestling. This low-keyed throwback to a day when men of physical, spiritual and mental might were the backbone of this country has never stopped competing, nor will he ever, at what he is called to do. He just decided that he should do so publicly again for reasons I suspect have to do with his own calling, and I will leave it at that.

The Nittany Lion Wrestling Club also has two world team members from Puerto Rico: Pan American Games champ Franklin Gomez, and Jaime Espinal, who finished in fifth place at 84 kg in the Pan Am games.

Teyon Ware, the former Oklahoma great, used his explosive style to beat Brent Metcalf in the finals of the World Team Trials. It's ironic, because I was talking with Teyon a few months ago about working with him on some of the diet and weightlifting parts of his game, but that's out the window now. He is on top of his game, so I am not going to be the one to advise him on anything before the World Championships. My role as a volunteer strength and nutrition adviser for the wrestlers in residence is to help bring ideas that may work for them. But when something is working, stay out of the way. It's working for Teyon, so I will stay out of the way.

As for Jake Varner, he is simply getting bigger and stronger here, and right now he is untouchable among U.S. wrestlers at his weight class, 96 kg.

Oddly enough, one person I can see giving him a run next year is teammate Aaron Anspach, but Aaron has to adjust to this lower weight, which he just arrived at for these trials. He may be the best athlete at 96 kg or 120 kg, but he has to make up his mind where he wants to be and become a machine there.

At 55 kg, former Penn State All-American Mark McKnight has made great strides this year, but is a year away. Still, the "Spider Monkey," as I call him, is on his way, and a few more pounds of attack-dog wrestling muscle and he will be challenging for this class.

At 60 kg, our entry, Nick Fanthorpe, is perhaps as hard a worker as I have ever seen in this sport. Nick has been battling a hamstring injury and has a couple of things left to do as far as finishing shots to be right there. He is a guy who I talk to, but his nutrition and strength game is down to a tee. He is like a machine, and has only some other relatively small things to toy with. Gomez, who is one of the nicest young men I have come across in this sport, is also at this weight class, wrestling for Puerto Rico.

We move up to 74 kg in what is an empty weight class for us, with Cyler Sanderson on a mission for his church. My not-so-secret wish is that Casey Cunningham would give it a run, a la Cael. I don't think you need to run around the world to be a world-class athlete. Casey wrestles Cael and the guys in the room from 180 pounds up, including the Penn State wrestlers and the other NLWC members, and that is enough to make you better.

What a story: father of four adorable kids, married to Tara, an Olympic God medalist in women's weightlifting at 48 kg – it's like "Cinderella man" in wrestling (I am the fat, dumpy trainer character who shows up in the movie). Obviously I am biased. Casey is my training partner and one of my closest friends. But I have been around enough to know that the second toughest guy in our room, pound for pound, next to Cael, has to be good enough to give this a run.

Sorry if I am putting pressure on you, Casey, but I have to speak the truth.

Of course, the other guy I keep trying to lure back is assistant coach Troy Letters. As bad as he beat anyone in a Penn State uniform when he was wrestling at Lehigh, it would be nice to see him in a NLWC uniform beating the tar out of anyone who was not in one of those.

As for Cael, he is one of five athletes I have seen who epitomize what legendary Penn State wrestling coach Bill Koll used to say: Wrestling is the perfect sport to make you as strong as you can be. By that I mean, I don't think Cael Sanderson needs to lift weights, just to wrestle and eat right. By doing that and holding your weight about 10 percent over competition weight, you will get stronger – wrestling wise and otherwise.

And there is no need to change the way Cael is going about business right now; no need to compete in this tournament or that. He has – and for that matter, all the NLWC guys have – what they need here to go to the top. He has a great family, his head is screwed on right, and he answers his calling the way he knows is right for him.

By the way, the other wrestlers I have seen who should not lift were Lou Banach, Cary Kolat and the Hughes Brothers when they were here. Amazing athletes. Guys like that should just eat and sleep right and wrestle – and they get better. So you see, I don't think every wrestler has to lift.

However, the nature of the sport means there may be more thorns than roses on the road to a second gold medal for Cael. I am appalled by the rules and refereeing in freestyle. Cael's style – constantly attacking to create positions of possibility – is not rewarded by the rules.

For instance, in his first comeback match, a period ended 0-0. Cael had chased his opponent all over the mat; the guy ran and counter-wrestled. When a period ends 0-0, a drawing takes place to see which of the two wrestlers will be put in an advantageous position to score. This is utter nonsense. Cael did all the work, yet by the luck of the draw, the opponent gets the advantage. That is absurd

How in the heck is that a) fair, b) rewards the aggressor or c) encourages action? If I am a lesser-skilled or in-worse-shape opponent wrestling Cael, all I need do is back away as much as possible and then hope I get an advantage in a draw. Having a 50-50 chance of a favorable draw is a lot better than if I decided to go in and actually attack. What a load of hooey.

The sport will continue to wither and die unless rules are made to reward offense, not defense. Heck, there are more people at regional-level bodybuilding shows than at national freestyle wrestling competitions. Mixed martial arts and ultimate fighting attract huge crowds.

I am not suggesting we turn wrestling into a bodybuilding show or do what the MMA does (by the way, I am a big MMA fan). I do think we should reward the guys who are in good enough shape to attack and do so, not the guys who lay back and wait. Who the heck wants to watch paint dry?

To his credit, Jake Herbert did go after Cael in the World Team Trials final and acquitted himself as the champion he is. Obviously, the final match had two of the best action-oriented freestyle wrestlers in the world.

And by the way, waiting in the wings in that weight class are our own Bald Iggle Brawler, Quentin Wright, who won some matches in the trials, and Doug Umbehauer.

Heavyweight Les Sigman got hurt and did not compete, but Les is doing some things that I think will make him the dominant U.S. and world 120 kg wrestler for 2012. Here is why. He has taken the steps to up his level with nutrition and lifting. When he comes back next year, he may weigh 270 pounds, but I think he is going to make the kind of transformation that Kerry McCoy did and had people gawking when he won the trials in 2000. I sense that commitment from Les, but the coming months will tell.

Unlike the chest-to-chest, win-1-0-via-clinch or push-out world of other heavyweights, Les is brilliant at attacking below the knee – lightning fast low singles that would have 125-pound college wrestlers envious. That kind of ability at that weight class, combined with being in the best shape of anyone in the class when he comes back will make Les have the best year of his life in 2012. Keep in mind he is a four-time NCAA champ at the University of Nebraska and last year's 120 kg national freestyle champ. He may never beat my son Garrett in golf or Ping-Pong again (the two go at it like their lives are on the line, much to my amusement), but his best year in wrestling is ahead of him.

I know things are tough for a lot of people, but the club needs your support to help with the expenses of some of our guys. I brought this up before, and I do so again. Any way you can help support the club, please do so. These are great guys. They are future leaders and the kind of people who don't squander the aid people give them. As I said in a previous column, these are not a pampered bunch of athletes, but they need your support. And anything you do to support the Nittany Lion Wrestling club goes to a cause that goes beyond wrestling. It is a cause that builds leaders – the wrestlers in residence and the people they affect, which includes our team here at PSU, and the people they know and touch.

I know this is sort of "trickle down" wrestlingenomics. But no matter what you think about the other trickledown theories, this one works. It is no coincidence that the coach at the top is having an effect on a lot of things around here, and his wrestling again gives me a chance to write about this and help make you aware.

At the trials, we got three for seven. For the Olympic year, we need seven for seven, but need you to help make what was a huge weekend for the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club the ultimate year.

London is calling in 2012, and we want to have seven wrestlers there for the clash.