NC State Wolfpack

Carter Jordan
	Position: Head Coach Experience: 6 years Alma Mater: NC State '86

When Carter Jordan joined the NC State wrestling coaching staff as an administrative assistant and part-time assistant coach in the fall of 1997, he had no idea that one day he would be succeeding legendary head coach Bob Guzzo.

At the time, Jordan had some experience coaching high school and youth league wrestling, but his initial goal upon returning to NC State was to finish the college degree he left hanging 12 years earlier. As far as his postgraduate plans went, he was more interested in administration than in coaching. He certainly had no idea that Guzzo would step down at any time in the foreseeable future.

"When I came back here, it wasn't with the aspirations of becoming the head wrestling coach," Jordan says. "It was with the aspiration of getting involved with college athletics. It wasn't until I coached my first year that I said to myself, `You know, I can do this. I can do this at this level. This is a lot of fun.' It's a big challenge. Of course, I got to tutor under one of the best coaches in the history of the sport, so I was very lucky in that respect. It's really funny how it all worked out."

To say the least, it's all worked out really well. On May 10, 2004, NC State athletics director Lee Fowler named Jordan the eighth head coach in the 76-year history of the NC State wrestling program. By that time, Jordan was ready for the challenge. During his time as an assistant coach, he had his hands on virtually every aspect of the Wolfpack program, from administrative details to recruiting to strength-and-conditioning to academic support to budget matters to the actual hands-on coaching of the wrestlers.

Jordan went from administrative assistant to full-time assistant coach in 1998-99, and took over as recruiting coordinator a year later. He became NC State's associate head coach three years ago, then began to prepare seriously to take over the program as Guzzo's retirement plans took shape during the 2003-04 school year.

When Guzzo finally hung up his whistle following the 2003-04 season, his accomplishments were staggering * 356 dual-match victories, 13 Atlantic Coast Conference championships, four individual national champions, and 87 individual ACC champions and 15 All-Americans, including nine multiple-All-Americans. Guzzo was named ACC Coach of the Year six times in 19 years (the award was first given in 1986). The program that Jordan took over couldn't possibly have enjoyed more success or had a richer tradition than that established by Guzzo.

"Any success that any coach has at NC State in the wrestling program will have been built on what Coach Guzzo did here," Jordan says. "What he's done over the last 30 years has been amazing, and I think is underappreciated by people both in and out of the sport. Any success that I have here will be built upon the foundation of his blood, sweat and tears."

Jordan played a prominent role in the Wolfpack's most recent run of success. Since he joined the coaching staff full-time in the fall of 1998, the Wolfpack has compiled a dual-match record of 69-50, including a 29-12 mark in ACC matches, produced 21 individual ACC champions, 37 NCAA Tournament qualifiers, and won three of the last five ACC team championships. NC State has won 26 of its last 34 matches against ACC opponents.

From 1998-99 through 2003-04, NC State was 61-42 overall and 25-10 in the conference. The last time NC State produced a better six-year won-lost record was 1991-96, and the last time the Wolfpack had a better six-year mark in the ACC or won three or more ACC team titles in a six-year span was 1988-93. And the last time the Pack produced more individual ACC champions in a six-year span was from 1981-86.

In five years as head recruiter under Guzzo, Jordan assembled two national top-10 recruiting classes, and signed four high school or prep national champions, the first in NC State history. Four of Jordan's recruits * Scott Garren in 2000, Dustin Kawa in 2001, Kevin Gabrielson in 2002, and Zach Garren in 2004 * were named to the Amateur Wrestling News' All-Rookie Team.

Jordan has continued to recruit successfully as head coach, bringing in 2005 ACC Rookie of the Year Kody Hamrah a year ago, and luring Ryan Goodman and Joe Caramanica, both former high school All-Americans, to Raleigh for the 2005-06 season.

Jordan, who wrestled as a walk-on for the Wolfpack from 1983-86, knows the program's storied tradition and knows what it will take to restore the program to that level. He was teammates with nine All-Americans and two national champions during his time with the Wolfpack. Those NC State wrestling teams compiled a dual-match record of 58-19, won the 1983 ACC championship, and finished in the top 20 at the NCAA Tournament three times.

Jordan's coaching career actually began after he left NC State in 1986. While working for an insurance company in Virginia Beach, Va., he was approached by a fellow employee whose son was on the wrestling team at Princess Ann Middle School. The school needed a coach, and Jordan was hired.

"It wasn't really until my second year in coaching there that I really fell in love with the sport," Jordan says. "I wrestled in high school and wrestled in college, but it wasn't until I saw what the sport could do for a kid, how it could take a kid who had some misdirected energy and could turn a lot of negative attributes into positive attributes."

In seven years as the school's head coach, 1990-96, Jordan guided Princess Ann to a 35-5 dual-meet record. In 1994, his team won the first city championship in any sport in Princess Ann Middle School history. Before long, however, Jordan felt the need for a bigger challenge, and in 1997 he returned to NC State.

Building on the Wolfpack program's recent run of success will be Jordan's short-range goal; building a consistent national contender and re-establishing the success of the 1980s will be his long-range goal. Reaching the pinnacle of the sport will be his ultimate goal.

"We want to win the national championship," Jordan says. "If you're not in this to reach the highest level, then you're in the wrong business. This is the purest form of competition. That's what's beautiful about being involved in college athletics * the finality of it, either you win or you lose. You certainly compete in the private sector, but the outcome can take months, or even years, and it's exciting in its way, but there is nothing like the finality of going into a wrestling competition and knowing two hours later whether you won or lost, what mistakes you made, what you have to correct. It's very exciting."

The 41-year-old Jordan and his wife Janie live in Raleigh and have three children, Chris, 18, Cole, 15, and Caroline, 12