Cory Cooperman will be taking over as the head freestyle coach of the New York RTC at Cornell this fall.

Cooperman went over some of his ideas for the program in a phone interview, as well as where he has been coaching recently. For the past five years, he's been coaching at the middle and high school level, which he said "really helped see and experience what the kids are doing at the grassroots level, learning a different scene." Prior to that, he had been coaching at the collegiate level.

I had a great mentor in Joe Galli, and a tremendous opportunity to work him and his family. Joe was a professional mentor to me, and I was able to learn a lot from he and his wife about being a parent and raising a family.

The three-time All American was coaching and training Kurt McHenry over the last several years, who won a cadet world title last August. When Cooperrman heads to Cornell in a few months, he will be coaching McHenry's cadet world teammates Yianni Diakomihalis and Vito Arujau.

I'm getting my first opportunity to coach at the senior level, back in Ithaca where I started my coaching career. I have a great group of guys at the senior level, as well as a number of kids coming in who I really look forward to working with.

Kyle Dake is the most notable athlete currently training at the New York RTC, along with recent Cornell grads Gabe Dean, Brian Realbuto and Dylan Palacio, as well as incoming Cornell freshmen Yianni, Vito and Ben Darmstadt.

A Lehigh grad, Cooperman has already begun a dialogue with other RTC coaches about working together, starting with his former coach at Blair in Jeff Buxton and Michigan RTC coach Sean Bormet.

It's pivotal the RTCs work together to make Team USA as strong as it can possibly be. Our top wrestlers need to be able to pick the brains of our top coaches. When it comes time to battle, we'll battle. But otherwise we have to be willing to train together.

Over the course of the conversation, Cooperman mentioned his positive experience with Bill Zadick at the OTC and that USA Wrestling can, "get the best of both worlds" as the RTCs continue to train together.