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Coach takes to the mat for Air Force wrestling team

  • Published
  • By Noel Getlin
  • 505th Command and Control Wing Public Affairs
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. (AFNS) --  When Tech. Sgt. Jay Field was asked to help coach the Air Force team this year, the former Air Force team wrestler put his experience to work.

"Coaching was the thing for me," said Sergeant Field, the 605th Test and Evaluation Squadron sergeant who has been helping the wrestlers at Milton High School in Milton, Fla.

"I find it rewarding to coach -- to start out with guys with basic skills and help them develop and become champions. Besides, getting older, your body gets beat up and it takes longer to heal these days," the 33-year-old said.

But when the team was in a pinch and short a wrestler, he actually took it to the mat.

"I wrestled at the Armed Forces Championship because one wrestler got bumped off his flight and was stranded in a snow storm in Colorado," Sergeant Field said.

By stepping in to wrestle in the Greco-Roman bouts and freestyle dual meets, he saved the Air Force team from forfeiting all points in the team standings, and kept the Air Force from having to forfeit the weight class in the upcoming tournaments.

Sergeant Field lost all three of his bouts, but the three opponents he faced took gold, silver and bronze individual Greco-Roman medals. In the freestyle competitions, he lost to gold and bronze medalists, but defeated the eventual silver medalist.

"I wasn't mentally prepared, because my focus has been on coaching," he said. "But I was glad to help out the team."

Sergeant Field had a successful high school and collegiate wrestling career. He was a two-time national NCAA Division III qualifier in 1997 and one-time all-American for NCAA Division III in 1998.

When he joined the Air Force in 2000, he focused his attention on his job and coached area high school wrestlers in his free time. However, when his director of operations at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., discovered that Sergeant Field was a wrestler, he encouraged him to try out for the Air Force team.

"I was still working out five times a week, so I tried out and made the team in 2003 and 2004," Sergeant Field said.

He also made the team in 2007. In 2005 and 2006 he was unable to compete due to job requirements, but kept himself busy coaching high school teams and competing in a Dutch league.

When Air Force wrestling coach Richard Estrella called to ask him to coach this year, the sergeant headed to Mountain Home Air Force Base for the trials and training camp in February, and then the Armed Forces Championship in March.

The Air Force Team placed third in the Armed Forces Championship, and then moved up to second place in Division II of the Open Nationals Tournament in Greco-Roman style.

Two Airmen also placed third and seventh in individual bouts at Nationals, and will go on to compete in the World Team Trials June 10. The winners of that match will represent the U.S. at the World Team Championships.

Sergeant Field has returned to Hurlburt Field and his job with the 605th Test and Evaluation Squadron. This summer, he plans to continue coaching area teams in his spare time. He says he considers wrestling a worthy primer for responsibility and discipline in life.

"It takes a strong will, dedication and a lot of hard work to be a good wrestler," he said. "You have no one to blame if things go wrong. (You've) either put in the time or you haven't."