UNIVERSITY PARK — Wearing workout clothes and with his office door shut, Cael Sanderson flips through a summer calendar, trying to plot his exact arrival for a freestyle tournament next month in Poland.
The calendar features one glaring omission. Sanderson can’t find any blank squares during the next three months.
Once again a competitor, Sanderson has embarked on a juggling act that would make popular county fair performers weary.
Penn State opened wrestling camps this past week. His role as a wrestling ambassador means additional summer clinic and camp appearances. His duties as a father never end. Sanderson and his wife, Kelly, have two young sons, Tate, 4, and Teag, 1. His Penn State team expects another NCAA title run. The world’s best loom in September.
Two weeks after a successful return at the World Team Trials, Sanderson, who turned 32 last Monday, is trying to train like it’s 2004, the year he captured an Olympic gold medal.
Sanderson said this month’s World Team Trials in Oklahoma City, where he defeated Jake Herbert to win the 185-pound title, proved his early-30s are different than his mid-20s.
Yet some things remain the same. Few athletes demand as much from themselves.
“I wasn’t super happy with how I competed,” he said. “Stepping back, the main part of the trials is getting through the trials and moving on to the next level. The goal is to win the World Championships. “I wasn’t satisfied with how I wrestled. But
I understand there’s more to it. I’m not the same person I was seven years ago. There’s more to my life now.”
A three-part balancing act that includes parenting, coaching and competing appears daunting. So Sanderson is leaning on a dedicated support staff.
Sanderson didn’t make a whimsical decision this month. He consulted closely with Kelly, his older brother, Cody Sanderson, and close friend, Casey Cunningham.
Without the trio’s support, Sanderson said he wouldn’t have ended his retirement. Cody Sanderson and Cunningham, along with assistant coach Troy Letters, will handle parts of Penn State’s daily operations while Sanderson prepares for the World Championships.
The championships are Sept. 16-18 in Istanbul, Turkey. Sanderson will participate in a tuneup event July 29-30 in Poland.
“Having my wife, Cody and Casey’s support was obviously the most important thing in all of this,” Sanderson said.
Cody Sanderson and Cunningham sat in Sanderson’s corner during the team trials. Sanderson, who also participated in a USA Wrestling regional one week after Penn State won the NCAA title, wrestled four times in less than 10 hours. The trials culminated with a convincing victory over Herbert, a former Northwestern star regarded as one of the world’s best 185-pounders. Sanderson had not wrestled in a major event since the 2004 Olympics.
“During the tournament, I kept asking myself, ‘What the heck am I doing? It’s weird. I’m about to step on the mat,’” he said. “But I’m glad that I did. I needed to take the challenge. I didn’t want to sit and think, ‘Should I, could I and all that stuff.’ I’m definitely glad that I did it.”
Sanderson said training with Penn State and Nittany Lion Wrestling Club wrestlers last fall rekindled competitive desires. Instead of watching workouts, he participated in them, often live wrestling with NLWC senior resident athlete Jake Varner and eventual NCAA champion Quentin Wright.
Sanderson weighed around 210 pounds last fall. He gradually lost weight, although he competed at 211.5 pounds during the regional event in Brock-port, N.Y. He then dropped to 185, the weight he won at the Athens Olympics. Varner, a close friend who Sanderson coached at Iowa State, made the world team at 211.5 pounds. Sanderson’s workouts revolve around Penn State and NLWC schedules.
“I’m here for the most part,” he said. “It’s just a matter of going into it with a different attitude and putting a little extra time in and not being a throwing dummy every day. I actually have to take shots, so it’s a little different in that way. As far as lifestyle, it’s just giving up maybe some recreation time.”
Those who train with Sanderson said he’s the farthest thing from a throwing dummy.
“He’s as good as advertised,” said NLWC athlete Aaron Anspach, who competes at 211.5 pounds. “I have never faced anything like him. You can’t accurately pinpoint why he’s so good. But he’s always a move ahead of where I am, which makes it real hard to wrestle somebody like that.”
Anspach said Sanderson occupies the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex practice room “all the time.”
“He’s in the room shadow wrestling by himself,” Anspach said. “He envisions stuff. He loves being in the room. He’s doing what he preaches to his guys.”
Sanderson’s return represents a boon to USA Wrestling, Penn State and the NLWC. His presence created a buzz earlier this month in Oklahoma City, with media outlets such as Sports Illustrated and USA Today devoting attention to the sport.
He also further energized the NLWC, which placed Sanderson, Varner and Teyon Ware on the world team. No other club features as many world team members. The club’s breakthrough season follows Penn State’s first NCAA title since 1953.
“Cael is not one to toot his own horn, but there’s no more visible wrestler in the country,” Penn State and NLWC director of operations Matt Dernlan said. “For him to step back in as a competitor, it drew that much more attention to what we are trying to do as a club.”
Sanderson plans on evaluating his 2012 plans after the World Championships. The London Games open next August, two months after he turns 33.
He initially returned to competition to fulfill a promise to his team for winning a Big Ten title. To the Nittany Lions’ surprise, they are now being coached by a current world team member.
“I keep saying as a coach your No. 1 job is to share your passion for the sport,” Sanderson said. “I guess that’s what I’m doing by competing.”
