Wisconsin Badgers Wrestling Adds Four-Time All-American To Coaching Staff

The Wisconsin Badgers have added Tony Cassioppi – a four-time All-American and former Iowa heavyweight wrestler to their coaching staff. After former Assistant Seth Gross recently moved over to the Wisconsin Regional Trainer Center (Wisconsin RTC) – Badgers Head Coach Chris Bono had a spot to fill.

Welcome to Wisconsin @tony25_8!

4X All-American and U23 World Champion Tony Cassioppi is joining the Badgers as an Assistant Coach

📰 https://t.co/UhXPi4OpOw pic.twitter.com/tInh3XW90F

— Wisconsin Wrestling (@BadgerWrestling) June 13, 2024

Who Are Wisconsin Badgers Getting In Tony Cassioppi?

Tony Cassioppi, by way of Roscoe, Illinois was a two-time Illinois state champion in his prep career. Cassioppi went 100-0 as a junior and did not give up a single points in two year.

TWO YEARS!

The two-time Illinois state champion set many records at Hononegah High School records – including a record of 35 pins, 220 takedowns, and pinning all of his opponents in two minutes as a senior.

This National Wrestling Hall of Famer also has extensive work in the national scene and was a back-to-back Junior Triple Crown winner – winning Greco, Folk, and Freestyle National Championships in 2017 and 2018 and was a U23 Junior Pan American Games World Champion in 2017.

Wisconsin Badgers Improve Coaching Staff

I really like this move for the Wisconsin wrestling room. During last season, Gannon Rosenfeld credited Associate Head Coach Jon Reader with continuing to develop him and work on the details.

“I been going up this slope for the last three weeks, Reader (Associate Head Coach Jon Reader), especially Reader, has been helping me get more of a game plan. At the beginning of the year I was just going out there and just wrestling but now I am actually taking a much way smarter approach to it, and week to week its getting better every time.

I just feel way more smooth in my attacks and way better at my hand-fighting and I think that’s the biggest part. That’s what we have been working on – better hand-fighting and making smarter calls when it comes to shots. Picking and choosing the shots that you want from the hand-fight and its obviously still a work in progress – keep climbing that mountain. But I think today was a good showing that the plan is working.”

It is undeniable that Coach Reader is great with the development of all wrestlers. I like this move to allow more time for Coach Reader to put more even more energy into the rest of the roster that is very young.

Wrestling coaches spend so much time with their guys that every minute is valuable in this bloodsport. The Wisconsin program just got better. The Wisconsin Badgers wrestlers are surrounded by greatness. Every coach on the Wisconsin coaching staff has earned national titles, were international medalist, conference champions, or were NCAA All-Americans.

Stay locked in with Badger Notes for dedicated coverage of the Wisconsin Badgers wrestling program!

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read our work at BadgerNotes.com. For more Wisconsin Badgers Athletics and Big Ten content, follow us on Twitter & Facebook. You can also subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You can also follow Ryan Eilers on Twitter: @ryanbeilers

Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter and listen to the BadgerNotes After Dark podcast, which is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all other streaming platforms. Because of your incredible support, we have become one of the fastest-growing independent media outlets!