It’s Cael Sanderson’s least favorite part of being the Penn State head wrestling coach.

But dishing out discipline for off-mat, out-of-the-gym issues is an integral part of the job and a responsibility Sanderson found himself undertaking more than usual in the months following the team’s national title win in March.

In the offseason, six Nittany Lion wrestlers were implicated in various legal incidents.

The most notorious headlines were made in August when Andrew Long left the team after he was accused of sexual assault. Long is set to go to trial in November. He’s facing charges of criminal attempted rape, aggravated indecent assault and indecent assault.

“Kids just think they’re invincible I guess at that age,” Sanderson said. “As much as we talk about it and counsel them and tell them what they need to be doing, ultimately they’re the ones that have to make those tough decisions and they shouldn’t be tough decisions, but sometimes they do (make bad ones).”

Sanderson took a flier on Long after the then-freshman got into trouble at Iowa State, but when asked if he regretted his decision to bring Long into the Penn State program, Sanderson — who has kept in touch with Long — said no.

“When you recruit a kid in you’ve got to stand with them I think until we know exactly what happened or until something’s resolved there,” Sanderson said. “Until that point, I think he needs a little support, to some degree. He’s not anywhere near here, but he still needs some advice and he needs to get some help and he’s been doing those things.”

Sanderson said redshirt sophomore Ed Ruth has “dealt with” the legal issues hovering over him after a skirmish in Washington D.C. this summer that resulted in an assault charge.

“Ed Ruth is a guy that we really haven’t had any issues with at all,” Sanderson said. “He’s done a great job and he just put himself in a bad situation there and we’ve dealt with that. He’s fine moving forward. I’m not worried about Ed Ruth at all.”

Also, Bryan Pearsall, Sam Sherlock, James Vollrath and Nick Fischer were charged in a related alcohol-buying and underage consumption incident, which their teammates said they’ve moved on from.

“I think we have a lot of good guys, a lot of leaders on this team,” senior Cameron Wade said. “We’re not really thinking about any of that stuff that happened in the offseason. It’s not going to change what we want to come out of this season.”

Alton to redshirt

Andrew Alton, who enjoyed a stellar freshman campaign last season, will redshirt this year.

Sanderson said Alton would’ve had a tough time trying to cut weight to 141 pounds which is the weight class he competed at last season.

“He’s a 49-pounder right now,” Sanderson said. “He’s just a guy that we’ll get a lot more out of him in three years at 49 than we will this year at 41. It’ll be good for him here to redshirt,” Sanderson said.

Alton’s contributions and personality didn’t go unnoticed last season and will be missed in the lineup this year, Sanderson said.

One half of a twin-brother duo, Alton compiled a 30-10 record including a 14-5 mark in duals. He led the team by a longshot with 18 pins.

“He’s one of those guys you just want to have in the lineup because he’s so much fun,” Sanderson said. “Just the spark that he brought to the team last year I think was incredible. He deserves a lot of credit for getting the train moving with some of the things that he was doing, especially early in those dual meets with those big pins and kind of got everybody believing in what ultimately resulted in a national championship. But this year, we’ll have to wait.”

Ruth, Wade fully recovered

Sanderson confirmed that Ruth had minimally invasive surgery in the offseason to “clean out” cartilage in his left knee.

Ruth defaulted in the NCAA quarterfinals after his knee injury caused him to forego the final round of that match.

“He just started getting back on the mat maybe a couple of months ago,” Sanderson said of Ruth. “But a guy like Ruth, if he’s fresh, that’s the best thing for him. He’s not a guy that needs to be wrestling 365 days a year, three times a day. It’s actually worse for him. When he’s fresh, he’s just so good and so talented and such a competitor, that’s what we’ve got to do as a coaching staff is try to keep him hungry and fresh like that.”

Ruth was not available for interviews Monday because of his class schedule.

Wade, who suffered a partially torn meniscus in the NCAA quarterfinals, is also ready to go after undergoing rehab for the injury this summer.

Because Wade only suffered a partial tear, he didn’t need surgery and the injury healed on its own with rehab.

“I feel 100 percent now. I’m feeling good,” Wade said. “I had a little bit of rehab after nationals, but besides that, I was wrestling live over the summer and I was healthy.”

New coaches, familiar faces

Aaron Anspach and Adam Lynch, both recent Penn State graduates and former wrestlers, join Sanderson’s coaching ranks this season.

Anspach has spent four years working in some capacity with Penn State wrestling. Last year, he worked closely with the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club.

Lynch, who was a member of the team last season and had a 7-3 record, is the team’s new Director of Operations. He replaces Mat Dernlan who departed the program after seven years this summer to take the head coaching position at Clarion.

Sanderson described the two as passionate former wrestlers who “love Penn State.

“They’ve been around the program for so long. I know everybody on the team, we have such a high regard for Adam Lynch and Coach Anspach,” Penn State junior Quentin Wright said. “It’s really a help to us to have them there because we have a really good friendship built in with them and they’re going to help us reach our goals at the end of the year.”

Sanderson focused on PSU

A career comeback is the furthest thing from Sanderson’s mind with the first Big Ten dual less than a month away.

“I’m just really focused here on getting our team ready to go,” Sanderson said. “It’s all Penn State wrestling right now. I’m not worried about my own wrestling career at all right now.”

Although the Nittany Lions head coach did let on that he still views himself as a competitor. He hinted that he continually tries to progress every day in the room as a wrestler working with his assistants and athletes.

Sanderson — who never lost a match in the collegiate realm — has revived his own wrestling career. Just after the Nittany Lions won the NCAA championship in March, Sanderson won in the Brockport Open in New York. He won the 84-kilogram class at the 2011 USA Wrestling World Team Trials and finished fifth in the World Championships in Istanbul.