By Mike Finn, W.I.N. Editor
Editor’s Note: Chris Bono, the former NCAA champion (1996) from Iowa State, is in his second year at UT-Chattanooga; the former Florida prep has high goals in two areas: make people take notice of the Mocs on a national level after he sent nine wrestlers to last year’s NCAA tournament and saw this year’s team upset Ohio State and later win the Keystone Classic in his native Philadelphia. In addition, Bono is also trying to compete on the international level in freestyle until the 2008 Olympics where the three-time World Team member hopes to make his first Olympic team. Bono recently visited with W.I.N. editor Mike Finn and shared his dreams of Olympic gold and making UT-Chattanooga a traditional national player.

Q UT-Chattanooga is considered by many to be somewhat on an island since there are so few college programs in the southern United States. How do you feel about that?
A I don’t feel like we are off on an island because we do have good wrestling down here. Within the area, there is Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and there is some good wrestling going on right now. We just need to get better recognition and hopefully from what we are doing, we are attracting kids to see that. When I went away to school, I went to Iowa State, which was pretty far from Florida. Now we have some opportunities where kids can wrestle for a national-caliber team right in their area. We are hoping to keep all those kids at home. Football is king here and I understand that. But we are trying to get every wrestler from this area to wrestle for us.

Q UT-Chattanooga has had a program for a long time, but my sense is that you are trying to make UTC what you would have seen at Iowa State or other top-notch programs. Is that right?
A I’m here to help this program win a national title. Not too many people think that can be done down here. I truly believe it can be done. We’re doing some good things. I’m getting a good schedule in line. We are getting good caliber teams to come and wrestle here.
Our administration is behind us 110 percent. Our booster support is unbelievable. With that, plus a little bit of time in talking up a few good kids, we are wheeling our way to getting it done.

Q What has been your proudest moment so far? Taking nine guys to the NCAAs last year?
A My proudest moment is graduating my first class. I graduated five kids last year. That has to be first and foremost. On the mat our proudest moment hasn’t happened yet. I can’t rest on what we’ve done.
We’ve beaten a few good teams and taken guys to the NCAAs, but our proudest moment is yet to happen.

Q Is that never-be-happy attitude necessary to take this team to the top or among the nation’s elite programs?
A I’m not never happy. We’ve set goals and we haven’t reached them yet. I’m happy that we’ve reached some minor stepping stones and I’m happy with our improvement and other things. But we are here to win a national title. If we rest on winning the conference or sending nine guys to the NCAAs, you are not going to get to the final goal.

Q How big of a surprise is what you are doing?
A To me it’s not a surprise at all. I expected it. I’ve been trained by the best. I was in coach (Bobby) Douglas’ system for a long time. I’ve studied other coaches. I’ve been studying coaching and wrestling for 30 years now. Ever since I started, I took every experience and have tried to learn from everybody. I’ve taken a little bit from everyone that I’ve been around. I’ve been around the world and at the Olympic Training Center. My days at Iowa State, in the state of Iowa and I’ve tried to mold that into my philosophy.

Q What is the key to getting the most out of an individual wrestler since everyone can be different?
A You have to understand the individual. Not one of my individuals are the same but I have to get these guys to understand that wrestling is 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. When these kids finally understand that, that’s when they are going to reach their goals. Some kids are not on that page. The guys who are World and Olympic champions are on that page and that’s what we’re trying to get these kids to understand.

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