Last season, after a Penn State wrestler had lost his match against Oklahoma State, assistant coach John Fritz was so disgusted with the way the official had called the match he challenged the referee to a fight. Fritz is intense off the mat as well.

"He's intense in everything he does whether it's gardening or cutting the grass," said his wife, Mary Beth. "He makes a challenge out of everything, it doesn't necessarily mean wrestling."

Although he's intense about gardening -- he would own a nursery if he weren't a wrestling coach -- Fritz uses gardening to escape the daily rigors of coaching.

"Everybody needs something different, you've got to take yourself away a little bit and that makes you more intense," Fritz said.

Fritz's father who led the way for him to coach. Watching his father coach football and baseball at the high school level gave him the experience to understand the special responsibilities of coaching.

"My father really influenced me . . . coaching was a large part of my life," Fritz recalled. "My life revolved around sports."

Fritz's responsibilities go far beyond just setting up for practices. He's in charge of coordinating year-round recruiting efforts and the running of summer wrestling camps.

"We're not like other sports . . . we recruit from June to June," Coach Rich Lorenzo said. "It's a year-round type of thing."

Another important part of being a coach is keeping the players motivated. Fritz does this by keeping a positive attitude with the wrestlers.

"He tries to give us a lot of pride," 126-pounder Bob Truby said. "He's constantly trying to psyche us up, even a couple days from the match."

Fritz thrives on this type of intensity. He lets his emotions do the talking, especially when it comes to everyday coaching. When the time comes for the hands-on work, Fritz has no reservations about telling a wrestler what he's doing wrong.

"I try to first show the positive points, then show the areas of improvement," he said. This approach is particularly important when working with younger wrestlers who often have a fragile self-image.

Fritz started coaching in 1976 at Colorado State. After one year, he moved to Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the next year he became the head coach at Roxberry High School in New Jersey. Then, the next year, he moved to Franklin and Marshall, where he was head coach for two years.

It was in 1981, though, that Fritz's dream of coaching a national caliber team came true, when he returned to his alma mater and became an assistant coach for Penn State. In 1975, as a senior, Fritz rode such emotions and attitude to win the national championship at 126 pounds.

But at first Fritz had reservations about coming to Penn State. Raising two girls, ages 8 and 13, in a college atmosphere didn't sound appealing at first. "Girls tend to grow up faster in a college town," he said.

However, after considering that he would be contending for a national championship and deciding that State College is not such a bad place for kids to grow up he felt that Penn State was for him and his family.

Lorenzo, who coached Fritz as a wrestler at Penn State, thought of him as the "ideal kid to coach."

"He was very dedicated to wrestling, he worked out every day, including the summer," Lorenzo said.

Fritz someday would like to be a head coach. That possibility could happen right here at Penn State. Lorenzo is confident Fritz has the ability.

"I'd be very comfortable now stepping down and watching John Fritz take it over," Lorenzo said. "He could even accelerate it a little bit more by using his own ideas."