Nov 15, 2019
For a solid year, Neil Erisman was it when it came to the new
wrestling program at Little Rock. He was every coach, every
recruiting coordinator, he ran every errand that needed to be run.
He did all this while awaiting the completion of his offices and
wrestling facility and with a wife and three – soon to be four –
kids at home.
It might have been the busiest year of the young coach’s life. But
when it came time to hire an assistant coach, there were over four
dozen candidates interviewed. Some were close friends from his time
at Oklahoma State, others were coaches who were looking for upward
mobility and a good paycheck. Then there were the ones who were
true coaches, but ultimately one candidate stood out above the
rest.
Coach Erisman wasn’t just hiring an assistant coach, he was hiring
the other part of his staff that would create the coaching unit to
pilot Little Rock wrestling into its maiden wrestling season.
Remember the situation when Little Rock hired Erisman to be their
head coach? Did they go for the high profile national champion? The
seasoned Division I assistant or the sexy name hire? They went with
a guy who had a passion to build and a passion to teach.
Erisman did the same when he selected Javier Maldonado as Little
Rock’s first assistant wrestling coach.
Welcome to Rocked Up, the story of the foundation and formation of
the first Division I college wrestling program in Arkansas,
starting in November of 2019 at the University of Arkansas at
Little Rock. This is the 10th edition of this story. We started the
journey developing the foundation of wrestling in the state of
Arkansas and now we’ve moved on to the formation of the team,
because to tell the full story of this program, you have to start
at the very beginning.
In 2018-19, Javier Maldonado was leading Southeastern University in
Lakeland, Florida to its second straight Top 20 finish at the NAIA
National Championships. Southeastern was the first varsity college
wrestling program in the state of Florida in nearly three decades.
The school put an emphasis on wrestling and building the profile of
the sport and the school, doing it with one of their native sons.
Maldonado is a Florida native.
Rocked Up is a presentation of the Mat Talk Podcast Network and can
be found on the web at GetRockedUp.com or at MatTalkOnline.com.
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