Article by Andy Hamilton

Audio Interview by Scott Casber

Ryan Morningstar had opportunities last summer to begin his career in coaching.

Neither time nor place seemed right then to the former Iowa wrestler.

But Wisconsin coach Barry Davis reached out to Morningstar earlier this month, and the two-time All-American said Thursday that he has accepted an assistant coaching position with the Badgers.

“I just know I wasn’t ready to leave Iowa City (last year), and it kind of depended on the right opportunity that came along,” Morningstar said. “I had four or five opportunities to go somewhere else and coach and train, and it just didn’t feel right. This felt right.”

Morningstar said the timing made it feel right. He’s stepping into one of the Wisconsin positions created by the departures of Don Pritzlaff and Jared Frayer. Pritzlaff left the Badgers for an assistant position at Michigan. Frayer, who spent a year as Iowa’s strength and conditioning coach, returned to his alma mater, Oklahoma.

“It’s a big-time program in the Big Ten,” Morningstar said. “They’ve got a good tradition. Barry Davis is an ex-Hawkeye; he was one of the greats, an Olympic medalist.”

Like Morningstar, Davis grew up in Eastern Iowa and wrestled for the Hawkeyes. The Cedar Rapids Prairie graduate won three NCAA titles and four Big Ten championships at Iowa and claimed the Olympic silver in 1984. He still holds school records for career victories (162) and wins in a season (46 in 1982).

Morningstar, 25, finished his career with the Hawkeyes in 2010. The Lisbon native placed seventh at the NCAA Championships as a senior at 165 pounds, wrestling the entire tournament with tears of the posterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his right knee. His third-place finish as a junior helped Iowa rally to the national title in 2009.

Morningstar spent the past year training with the Hawkeye Wrestling Club. He said he’ll continue his competitive career while coaching.

“I’ve met most of the guys (on the team at Wisconsin), but it hasn’t really sunk in,” Morningstar said. “Until I get up there and I start moving stuff up there and I’m staying overnight up there, that’s when it’s really probably going to hit me that it’s a change. I’ve been in this area my whole life. I’ve been in the Iowa City area the last six and a half years, and I was in Lisbon the 19 years before that. It’s a change, and I think it’s a good change.”