How unique philosophies, investment and leadership are pushing Brown wrestling to new heights

When Brown head coach Jordan Leen stepped on campus to begin his tenure with the Bears in June 2022, he knew he was joining something special. 

Leen had spent the last six years with Pittsburgh, coaching 27 NCAA qualifiers and seven NCAA All-Americans, but the opportunity to lead a program, to lead this program, prompted him to make a move. 

He recalls a specific conversation he had with Dave Amato, a former head coach of the program, right after he took the job, that highlighted the true uniqueness of this new role. 

Introducing the next head coach of our program, !

📰 -

— Brown Wrestling (@BrownU_Wrestle)

“[Dave] said ‘Jordan, I coached here for 30 years, and I just want to tell you that not everyone is going like you… but here’s the thing about Brown: everyone loves Brown. So, you always have Brown, even if your guys don’t like you,’” Leen said. “I thought that was so cool. I haven't heard a wrestling coach speak so highly of the university that they represent before. Typically the pride is in our program or the athletic department, but there is a true integration and pride in this place.” 

Now, as Leen heads into his second year at the helm, he is reflective on what he’s built at Brown, and he’s grateful for the institution that supports his program. 

But he’s also aware of what needs to change. 

Brown went 4-10 in duals overall last year and did not qualify wrestlers for the national tournament. This is a program that, in Leen’s words, still has “a huge gap to fill” before it's competing for team trophies and conference titles — filling that gap is a key goal on his radar. 

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The story of Brown wrestling right now is one of evolution, ingenuity and energy from the administration down to the athletes. This is a program with great potential, so here’s what you need to know about the present and future of this program under Leen’s leadership and why the Bears will be a team to watch in the coming years. 

Individualization and self-discovery

Brown, as an institution, has become known for being different, being eccentric. It’s a school built around an open curriculum where students act “as the architect of their own education” according to the University and develop their skills around personalized passions. 

This philosophy extends to the wrestling program as well. 

Leen has built a training program around such personalization and self-discovery on the mat, and he sees his role as someone who helps wrestlers “identify a lane, and help[s] them grow their lane, whatever that lane is.” This personalization, though, doesn’t mean a lack of intensity. 

In fact, while Leen is quick to say that there isn’t one way to categorize the style of a Brown wrestler, or one particular size, skill or approach they all share, the wrestlers on Leen’s team are grouped together by a personality trait: ambition. 

His assistant coach, Ty Walz, agrees.

“If [a recruit is] looking for a casual college wrestling experience, that’s not going to fit with what we have to offer,” he said. “We want people that want to be NCAA champions and NCAA All-Americans and want to be part of a successful program, so that’s very important to us. They have to love to compete.” 

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Self-described as someone who used to have an “old-school” wrestling mentality, Walz said he was used to a more standardized training system of developing elite, competitive athletes.  Wrestlers would be told what move to learn, instructed to drill those moves and then pushed to practice those moves on repeat. It was a traditional process and focused on generalized recommendations for all athletes at once. 

But Walz has embraced this new, individualized philosophical coaching change, and he said he’s seen great gains from the Bears, even just in the first few weeks of official practice this year. 

“From Day 1 until now, it doesn’t totally feel like the same group of guys that we were starting with,” Walz said. “Our momentum, and the athletes’ understanding of what our expectations are, are all continuing to improve. You see it more on a weekly basis, but I would say on a daily basis guys are coming more prepared, guys are coming with a better understanding of what has to get down, and you see the improvement across the board.” 

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The Bears will have another two weeks before competition begins on Nov. 5 with the Clarion Invite, though the team’s schedule overall this year will be a little different than past years. Brown will focus on tournament-style competition for the entirety of the first semester, allowing athletes time to develop and prepare. Duals will start for the Bears on January 12 when the team takes on Davidson before beginning Ivy League and EIWA competition on January 27 against Cornell. 

The Big Red won the conference title last year and topped Brown 35-6 in Providence before finishing third in the NCAA tournament. 

Leen is making some big moves on his end. He wants to build on a foundation that he hopes will allow his driven Bear athletes to be competitive with these top teams in the future. 

Investing in success 

The 2023-2024 season will be key for Brown. Leen has his new coaching staff in place, including Walz, and TJ Dudley, and he’s also building up a Brown Regional Training Center to serve as a supplement to the college team and provide a pathway for athletes to continue in the sport professionally post-graduation. 

The Regional Training Center (RTC), in fact, already made a splashy investment in bringing in Iowa All-American Max Murin this summer. Plans are in place to continue growing this team for wrestlers like Murin, from national championship-caliber programs, to come and train alongside Brown wrestlers present and future. 

Introducing our newest BrownRTC Athlete: Max Murin

— Brown Regional Training Center (@Brown_RTC_)

Drew Clearie, a two-year starter for the Bears at 174 pounds, noted that Murin’s added great value to Clearie’s wrestling, both from a training standpoint and a mindset perspective. Clearie will be taking a gap year this year to train with Murin and the RTC, and Leen expects that gap years with the RTC for his Brown varsity athletes could become more common within his program as wrestlers chase freestyle goals and general skill development while pursuing an Ivy League degree. 

Other Ivy League schools, Penn, Princeton, Columbia and Cornell in particular, have built out RTCs. Cornell’s associated RTC, Spartan Combat, now sponsors four-time NCAA champion Yianni Diakomihalis. Princeton's NJRTC serves as a home for athletes like Nate Jackson and Chance Marsteller. Penn’s RTC, aptly named the PRTC, also hosts Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs and Olympic Trials finalist Joey McKenna, among others. Columbia works with the New York City RTC, yet another example of an Ivy League school building relationships with professional wrestlers in the community.

There’s a blueprint for a college wrestling program to create these kinds of partnerships, and Leen believes Brown has the resources to do so, largely because of the support of his administration. 

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Post-COVID, Brown, as a university, has invested heavily into athletics overall, a decision that Leen called “countercultural” but one that has caught the attention of donors and led to a great increase in financial contributions to the wrestling program. 

The school also welcomed a new athletic director Dr. Grace Calhoun in March 2021, and Leen’s excited about what Calhoun can continue to bring, leadership wise, to the department. Calhoun, a Brown alum, previously led the athletic department at Penn during the period of Penn’s RTC growth. 

We are the change-makers.
Rebels.
Champions…
Our style is not for everyone…
We take our work seriously, with unparalleled focus, unmatched humility and unequaled joy.
Ever Improving.
Ever Curious.
Ever True.

— Jordan Leen (@JordanLeen_)

Leen feels confident that between Calhoun’s experience, Brown’s support and a new, revitalized training philosophy, he could be on the precipice of building a memorable program in Providence. 

“We are here at a very fortunate time,” Leen said. “[The program] is being funded on an offensive, and so [while] investment typically doesn’t precede success, in this case it did, and we understand how rare that is, and we understand our place in it, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to make the most of it.” 

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