University of North Carolina Athletics
A Q & A With Wrestling Head Coach Bill Lam
February 10, 2003 | Wrestling
Feb. 10, 2003
North Carolina head coach Bill Lam is retiring at the end of the 2002-03 wrestling season after 30 years of service. In his time, Carolina has won 14 Atlantic Coast Conference championships, had 88 ACC champions, five NCAA champions and was named NCAA Coach of the Year and NWCA Man of the Year in 1982. Lam has been named ACC Coach of the Year nine times and has led the Tar Heels atop the regular season standings 16 times, including nine straight.
Coach Lam has had an intense rivalry with NC State over the years. He has a record of 32-24-1 against the Wolfpack. The two schools have won the last 25 ACC Championships and they have tallied over 165 ACC champions. Tomorrow night's match is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Carmichael Auditorium and could decide the ACC regular season champion again this season. So please come out and honor Coach Lam for his hard work and dedication.
TarHeelBlue: The ACC final regular season match is upon us. What are your emotions heading into this final battle with NC State?
Coach Lam: "I can't say that I haven't thought about it, because they've promoted it. This is going to be a big match it could go either direction. Surely, I'd like to win it with the rivalry we've had with NC State, but my biggest concern is we wrestle like a Carolina team. A Bill Lam team that goes out and fights.
"If we out fight them and end up a point or two behind, so be it. But if we go out there and we don't compete and don't fight, then it would be a bad memory and if we go out and compete and fight hard, then I'm fine with whatever happens."
THB: What has been the biggest difference since you started in coaching in 1974 till now?
Coach Lam: "I guess the biggest thing is the difference in how many people have shown up to matches over the years. There was about five people at my first ACC match, and hopefully we have about a thousand or two for the final one."
THB: What has the season been like for you so far?
Coach Lam: "It's the type of year I knew we were going to have. We have three freshmen starting and four sophomores starting. We lack maturity and leadership and when you have young kids you're going to go up and down.
"We've beaten State, that was a good win, we had a good showing at our tournament, we've had some good things. But losing to Virginia was a dark spot and I didn't like losing to Navy last week. This weekend isn't as bad though because we wrestled well, just couldn't buy a break."
THB: Is it tough to walk away from a team that is going to be so talented for the next couple years?
Coach Lam: "I thought about that ahead of time. I wanted to leave a good team here because C.D. is going to do a great job, but there is still a learning curve. It's different when you're the head person and I want him to have good personnel to be able to make that adjustment, or it could be tough and devastating and he might not get out of the box.
"I think C.D. knows a lot and will do a good job. I just wanted to make sure that he had a good foundation to work with."
THB: How do you rate our chances at winning the ACC Tournament?
Coach Lam: "It's going to be really tight. It's going to be between Virginia, NC State and us. There's going to be a couple of key matches that will determine the outcome. I think it's going to take a total team effort because the third place finishes will be just as important as the first place finishes.
"The difference is going to be did Virginia get a first and we got a third, or did State get a first and we got a second. So the second and third place finishes will be key."
THB: Do you think this year is one of the toughest years to win ACC's?
Coach Lam: "It's going to be one of the more competitive years. I don't think it's one of the better years in terms of talent, but its probably the most even it's been in some time."
THB: What are your plans after the season?
Coach Lam: "I want to focus on finishing the season and do a good job. But yes, I've thought about it. I'm the type of person where I have to know what I'm doing next. I'm going to take a little time off after the season and then I want to finish endowing the program. So for a year I will be working on that.
"Along with that, I'm planning on doing some speaking in the corporate work on team building and leadership. I'm fortunate in the fact that I have former wrestlers like Joe Galli giving me that opportunity. If I do well, then great, if not then at least I tried it."
THB: What have been some of the highlights of this season?
Coach Lam: "I was real pleased with the way we wrestled at out tournament. Cornell is ranked in the top eight in the country and I thought we were real even with them. We had just as many champions as they did.
"I was pleased on how some individual competed at the Reno Invite and the Virginia Duals. Overall, for the team that we have, I'm fine. The record is not stellar or impressive, but you know when you have that many young kids, you're going to have some situations.
"Evan Sola stands in my mind in how much he's improved from last year to this year. Mark Canty has grown a lot; Dusty Heist is having a good year. The freshmen have performed well some days and other days they freeze up."
THB: What is tomorrow going to be like for Bill Lam?
Coach Lam: "Tomorrow's match is going to be extremely emotional. When you stop and think about giving 30 years of your life, I mean one boy was one and the other one-and-a-half and now they're both grown and married. I'm a grandfather, so I've spent a big part of my life here at Carolina. There were only 60 high schools that had wrestling and now there are over 300. So you can't help but think of some of those aspects and then the rivalry between North Carolina and NC State is so intense, it's a match that I want to win.
"My high school coach is coming back. I mean he's 85 years old and to come all the way from Colorado for this match will show you that it's going to be emotional. Joe Galli and Carter Mario who were two of my better wrestlers in the early years are coming back for the match. So there's going to be a lot of emotions running through my body with the intenseness of the rivalry and the closeness of the match will make it 10 times higher for me.
"I just hope that the kids relax and wrestle. You know good and will that could end up not happening. You can get to up for something and get tight. I'm a prideful person and I'm proud of what has happened here, but there can only be one winner out there. But if we compete and they beat us because they're better, than I can live with that."
THB: You look at your resume-14 ACC Championships, 88 ACC Champions, five NCAA Champions, NCAA Coach of the Year and NWCA Man of the Year (1982)-can anyone ask for anything better in a coaching career?
Coach Lam: "I'm proud of what I've done. I really am! I don't think people realize what the state of wrestling was when I got here. People see that we've been pretty competitive for the last 20 years and so they see yeah he's doing a good job. I don't know that anybody could have came in here and turned it around but I think it's where it needs to be and I think the next coach can take it even higher, and I believe C.D. is going to do that.
"I've left C.D. a bar that he's going to have to jump at instead of running through it. But I really think he will raise it."
