The free agency movement continues for the current group of college seniors as David McFadden announced today he'll be joining the Pennsylvania Regional Training Center.

I couldn’t be more blessed and grateful for this opportunity. Excited for the next step in my career. https://t.co/32kmTLRCw7

— David McFadden (@davidd_mcfadden) April 17, 2020

The moves come as a bit of a surprise as McFadden is extremely proud of the fact that he was Buxton trained in high school and coach Jeff Buxton is at the Lehigh Valley WC, but one of his best friends is current Penn RTC athlete Joey McKenna. He will also be less than two hours from his childhood home in New Jersey.

McFadden will likely be a 74kg during Olympic years, but could spend some of his time up at 79kg where he made the U23 world team in 2018. He also wrestled in the third place match at Junior WTT in 2017, and had finishes of second and third at Fargo while in high school.

The PRTC appears to be loading up for the next quad, as a group of athletes they had from 2017-2020 all enter the next phases of their careers. Chase Pami and BJ Futrell have moved into coaching, opening up room for the likes of McKenna, McFadden, Ethan Lizak and other senior level athletes to embark on their Olympic journeys.

Below is the full release from the PRTC

The Pennsylvania Regional Training Center (PRTC) has announced the addition of three-time All-American David McFadden to its freestyle program. David joins Joey McKenna and Ethan Lizak as new PRTC athletes over the last year.

David, who wrestled for Virginia Tech, was vying to become the program’s first four-time All-American this year, but the season was cut short when the 2020 NCAA Wrestling Championships were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

A native of New Jersey and a two-time state high school champion, David’s NCAA finishes include 6th in 2016, 5th in 2018, and 6th in 2019. He is also a two-time ACC champion and three-time finalist. He has a career college record of 122 – 25. On the freestyle circuit, David was a 2018 U23 World Team Member at 79 kg.

“We are very excited to add David McFadden to our PRTC family. David embodies all our organization’s core values and will fit extremely well into our Philadelphia wrestling ecosystem. I have watched him compete with grit for many years, and it’s an honor to have him aboard. We look forward to being part of his future growth as a leader on and off the mat,” said Brandon Slay, executive director and head coach of the PRTC. David added:

“After analyzing other RTC opportunities, the PRTC was clearly different, and I’m thrilled to be joining the PRTC family. They deeply want to win, but they also value character, serving others, and making lives better through wrestling, which is very important to me. I couldn’t be happier!”

At the PRTC, our mission is to enrich lives locally and globally through the sport of wrestling, and we do this by living out our core values of Faith over fear, Full effort, Struggle well, and Serve others.