I had the chance to talk with SUNY Cortland Head Wrestling Coach Tommy Prairie over the weekend about the Red Dragons’ upcoming season.

I’ve known Coach Prairie for about four years, and I knew I wanted to start the “College Check-In” series with him and his program. Tommy is a mentor, a friend, and somebody who really understands what it means (and what it takes) to lead an organization of student-athletes. Before this conversation, I’ve helped out at a couple of Roll Red Wrestling Camps, and I’ve had numerous sit-down discussions (and life chats) with Coach Prairie–I always recognized his ability to lead and manage, his NCAA compliance intelligence, and his pure passion for the sport.

Back when I achieved my first National Qualifiers as a Head College Coach, Tommy sent me a text on the bus ride home. It said: “Congrats on your qualifiers. It shows that you’re doing things right.” I’ll never forget that. Why? Because Coach sent that text just hours after one of my athletes beat his athlete (in that oh-so-intense DIII 3rd-place match) to qualify for Nationals. That right there is the kind of guy you want leading young people, and the kind of guy Coach Prairie is.

Tommy Prairie was a 3-time All-American at Williams College at 125 lbs and has coached at Cumberland University, Plymouth State, and Washington & Jefferson before making his way to SUNY Cortland in 2022. Here is what Coach had to say about Red Dragon wrestling and this upcoming season.

NYWN: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧?
Coach Prairie: “We return 8 starters and 30 wrestlers. Having that core group should allow us to build on the progress that we made last season.”

NYWN: 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐲𝐞 𝐨𝐧?
Coach Prairie: “Colton Havens, Rocco Futia, Robby Cunningham, and Ethan Gallo. All of them should be in the conversation to make a trip to the NCAA tournament in Wisconsin in March.”

NYWN: 𝐀𝐧𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫?
Coach Prairie: “Ethan Gallo and Ryan Langenmayr were added to the roster in the second semester of last year. We’re excited to see how they do with a full season of college wrestling. As for the incoming class, we brought in 13 freshmen and 2 transfers. Danny Visha was a Scholar All-American at St John Fisher last year as a freshman; we expect him to thrive in our program.”

NYWN: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧’𝐬 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞?
Coach Prairie: “We are making a trip to Illinois and Wisconsin in December. Our Midwest trip is always a great test to see multiple, nationally ranked programs and feel that Midwest style of wrestling.”

NYWN: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐠𝐨𝐚𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧?
Coach Prairie: “The focus is always to produce NCAA All-Americans and Scholar All-Americans.”

For the last question I had for Coach Prairie, I asked him what it means to be a Red Dragon student-athlete. He responded that, “Being a Red Dragon is an honor, and winning is a tradition at Cortland. You can feel the pride across all of athletics to compete and perform at a high level. The team is excited to get to work in the next few weeks as we approach the beginning of wrestling season.” When I’m on that campus myself, I’ve felt exactly what Coach is referring to.

We wish Coach Tommy Prairie and the Cortland wrestling program all the best and can’t wait to see what the future holds for the Red Dragons.