Penn State wrestling: Why Anthony Cassar is ‘pumped for fresh start’
Penn State’s Anthony Cassar has been through a lot since starting college. However, two things never changed for the senior.
The first was Cassar’s commitment to the Nittany Lions.
“No, I never considered it,” Cassar emphatically said Tuesday during Media Day, when asked if he ever thought about leaving. “I’m Penn State all the way; when I committed here I knew that. It was never something that I looked outside of me and said, ‘I have to leave this school to get what I want.’ It was always inside me. If I didn’t get what I want, it was something I did wrong. I had to improve and make changes and I did that all summer.”
What were those changes he made?
Cassar bulked up.
He said he is roughly about 235 pounds, meaning nearly 40 pounds heavier than last year. Cassar said he was consuming between 6,000-7,000 calories a day and lifting to put on “clean mass.”
“When you see him, you’ll see he is a bigger and stronger version of an already big and strong dude,” Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said of his new heavyweight. “We are excited to see what he can do.”
The second thing that never changed was Cassar’s character.
He said he knew people expected him to transfer to a different school, so he could start, after losing his spot to Shakur Rasheed last season. However, that’s not the type of person he is.
“I’m the kind of guy that’s going to stick it through,” Cassar said. “I knew the challenges of Penn State when I committed here and I still know them today. I just continue to fight through all of that and trust in God and my family. I used it to grow as a person and not use it to defeat me or define me.”
It’s that trait of Cassar that Sanderson admires, too.
“It was a tough situation last year at 197, with the success that he was having, and then Shakur (Rasheed) started doing really well,” Sanderson said. “We tried to make the right decision. Shak earned that spot, we thought. It says a lot about the character of Anthony Cassar. You know, you hear [opposing] coaches are trying to contact him.
“He stayed strong and a lot of that comes from coming from a strong family, and being an exceptional individual. I think he was definitely disappointed. Obviously, he’s a guy that would’ve done very well. He just kept working.”
Rumors circulating during the offseason were that Nick Nevills wasn’t wrestling, and recovering from an injury he suffered at the NCAA Championships in March. Sanderson confirmed that Nevills had surgery immediately after the championships but has been wrestling.
Nevills was seen in the wrestling room on Tuesday on the mats. However, Nevills can’t be the presumed starter at heavyweight this year as he has been the past two seasons.
“We feel like we have two heavyweights there that are two of the best in the country,” Sanderson said. “We will see how that plays out as we go along here. They haven’t wrestled off or anything at this point. The first one will probably take place at the Keystone Classic, I would guess.”
Cassar said he is “pumped” for the “fresh start” at heavyweight. He plans on bringing a style to the weight class that fans haven’t seen before with his “strength, speed and creativity.”
One thing Cassar learned from last year was to take advantage of every opportunity he has in his final season. He knew there were a couple of times last year he didn’t do that.
This year, he plans to dominate in every opportunity he gets, so that way he doesn’t lose a starting spot again. He looked at former lighter heavyweights like Ohio State’s Kyle Snyder and Duke’s Jacob Kasper for inspiration on how he can achieve his goal of becoming the 2019 Heavyweight National Champion.
“Those guys had a lot of success,” Cassar said. “I have a similar body type and stature, so I plan to do similar stuff that they were doing, but add my own spice to it.”
Lineup set for Flash
Sanderson was asked if he knew what the lineup was for Penn State’s season-opening dual against Kent State on Sunday.
Here is what he said:
125: Devin Schnupp, 133: Roman Bravo-Young, 141: Nick Lee, 149: Jarod Verkleeren, 157: Jason Nolf, 165: Vincenzo Joseph, 174: Mark Hall, 184: Shakur Rasheed, 197: Bo Nickal and Cassar at heavyweight.
“I think our guys are in great shape right now,” he said of their readiness. “I think their attitudes are very good. This team just loves to compete. We’ve had some great teams. This team has the potential to be a great team, but that’s up to them.”
Sanderson in favor of rule enforcement
The NCAA rules committee is making sure officials are keeping a keen eye on hands to the face.
It’s common for wrestlers to tap each other on the head to slow the other but it has got a little out of hand, according to Sanderson.
“I think we definitely had a problem, especially the last two years,” he said. “I think kids made hand fighting [into] punching their opponent in the face. Zain [Retherford] saw that a lot. Kids got fired up thinking they were wrestling Zain and had to match his pace. They match his pace by jabbing him in the face.”
There were a lot of times last season guys were having their eyes poked and such because of the laxity of officials calling it. The touching of a wrestler’s head isn’t even allowed in freestyle wrestling.
If called, it is an awarded point for unnecessary roughness.
“I was at the Clarion Open, so I watched it firsthand,” Sanderson said. “I think it’s a good start. I think there is a clear difference in a block and a jab and that’s kind of the tricky part. I think the intent is good, but how they are going to implement that and get there, we will see. The wrestlers will adjust.”
Lorenzo to be inducted into National Wrestling Hall of Fame
On Monday, former Nittany Lions coach Rich Lorenzo was named as one of the members of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame’s Class of 2019.
Lorenzo along with Carl Adams, Brandon Paulson, Townsend Saunders, David Errett, Dr. David Curby and James McCloughan will be inducted during a weekend of ceremonies on May 31-June 1 in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
“I was very happy to see Coach Lorenzo get inducted into the Hall of Fame,” Sanderson said during Tuesday’s Media Day. “I say it every chance I get, but Penn State wrestling is what it is today because of Coach Lorenzo. The support that we have is because of the relationships he built with wrestlers when he was coaching.”
Lorenzo coached Penn State from 1978-92 and had a career record of 188-64-9. He had 53 All-Americans, which included several champions in Jeff Prescott, who was a two-time camp, Carl DeStefanis, Scott Lynch and Jim Martin.
“There are other great coaches also, but he is very special,” Sanderson said. “I would have loved to watch him in his prime. He’s the kind of guy you want to coach your kids.”
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This story was originally published November 6, 2018 at 6:59 PM.