Why is Penn State’s wrestling team so effective in dominating the sport of wrestling?

After clinching their ninth Division I national wrestling team championship under Cael Sanderson in eleven years (Destin, 2022), one might start to think about what it is about the program that makes them such an effective team. Team effectiveness focuses on team excellence or what is the desired outcome from teamwork based on two critical functions which are performance (task accomplishment) and development (team maintenance) (Northouse, 2021, p. 466). Looking at the Hill model for team leadership we can analyze the developed standards of effectiveness or criteria of excellence to assess the team by looking at the six enabling conditions that lead to team functioning developed by Hackman in 2012. In addition, we will look at the eight corresponding characteristics developed by Larson and LaFasto in 1989 that have been consistently associated with team excellence (p. 466), to help us determine why Penn State wrestling is so dominant.

Hackman’s six enabling conditions and the corresponding characteristics developed by Larson and LaFasto are:

Is it a real team (enabling condition)?

Unified commitment (characteristic) – The Penn State wrestling team has been carefully developed to include members that are committed to the team and individual excellence.
Collaborative climate (characteristic) – In the wrestling room members work together to develop the skills that make the team and individual wrestlers better.

Compelling purpose

Clear, elevating goal – Win national championships and wrestle to potential
Results-driven structure – The Penn State wrestling team is made up of nationally recognized coaches and highly ranked recruits that wrestle for a school that provides the staff, resources, and code of conduct to drive results.

Right people

Competent team members – Coach Cael Sanderson is a four-time national champion and finished his career with a 159-0 record for starters and has produced over 32 NCAA national champions (Wogenrich, 2022). In addition, the team is consistently getting number one recruits and top ten ranked wrestlers to commit to the program (Wolf, n.d.).

Clear norms of conduct

Standards of excellence – Nine national championships and thirty-two individual championships in eleven years (Destin, 2022)(Wogenrich, 2022).

Supportive organizational context

External support and recognition – The Penn State community is one of the most supportive communities in all of college sports (gopsusports, 2019). The wrestling program not only receives national recognition for its dominance in the sport, but also from the fans. In 2019, Penn State’s home attendance was ranked 2^nd in the nation with an average of 6551 fans attending home dual meets (2019).

Team-focused coaching

Principled leadership – Leadership is the catalyst for team effectiveness and can influence the team through four processes:

Cognitive – The coaches help the wrestlers understand the challenges of being a successful Penn State wrestler.
Motivational – The coaches set high-performance standards and then helps the team to achieve them.
Affectively – Coaches provide clear goals and strategies to alleviate stress to the wrestlers.
Coordinately – Coaches put their wrestlers in the best positions to succeed and then provide feedback to make them better.

-(Northouse, 2021, pp. 466-470)

After analyzing the criteria for excellence in team effectiveness, it is easy to see why the Penn State Wrestling team has been so dominant over the years. The program consists of top-tier coaching and highly recruited wrestlers that are committed to working together to become the best wrestling team in the country. The team has a large national following, and the championships bring added attention to the program making it hard for top-tier talent to not want to go there. With a disciplined approach to excellence, focused attention on team and individual development, and clear expectations of what the program wants to achieve, it explains why the Penn State wrestling team has been so effective in dominating the sport of college wrestling.

References:

Destin, A. (2022, March 19). Penn State wrestling claims 9^th national title in 11 years. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved from https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/psu/2022/03/19/ncaa-wrestling-championships-results-nittany-lions/stories/202203190032

Fans boost Penn State to nation’s best in fall home attendance top 10 rankings. (2019, January 28). Gopsusports.com. Retrieved from https://gopsusports.com/news/2019/1/28/general-fans-boost-penn-state-to-nations-best-in-fall-home-attendance-top-10-rankings

Northouse, P.G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and Practice. 9th Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications

Wogenrich, M. (2022, March 20). Cael Sanderson reflects on Penn State’s latest NCAA wrestling title. FanNation. Retrieved from https://www.si.com/college/pennstate/wrestling/penn-state-coach-cael-sanderson-reflects-on-winning-ncaa-wrestling-title

Wolf, A. (n.d.) Why is Penn State so good at wrestling? Fluentbjj. Retrieved from https://fluentbjj.com/why-is-penn-state-so-good-at-wrestling/

Mark Castille says

March 21, 2022 at 5:44 am

First of all, I was not aware of the Penn States’ highly successful wrestling team, so thank you for writing this. I see that your assessment combined Hackman’s 2012 and Larson’s and Lafasto’s 1989 theories into your comparison for team effectiveness (Northouse, 2021, p.467). The components that make the Penn State Wrestling team successful are likely to be encompassed in the Team Leadership model, and even though there is a lot to unpack in this eleven-year win streak, let’s dive in.
Framing the sports team with the components of Leader, Follower, and Situation, there is a blend of managed attention in all three components that you highlighted in your analysis. Beginning with the situation, after an eleven-year win streak, the team now has a legacy to uphold, which many groups may find difficult to maintain. In Legacy, about the most winning Rugby team, The New Zealand All Black, the team unveils the struggles and reconning it had to face to maintain its winning edge (Kerr, 2013). The All Blacks had to rekindle was a culture of excellence with cohesive accountability (Kerr, 2013).

I find team climate, norms of interaction, and support crucial for group dynamics. Climate provides the conditions for culture, the unified narrative to achieve the collective purpose, and an overarching component for team excellence. Perhaps this is why I tend to gravitate to Followership, being a good teammate, and Team Leadership, propelling the team to achieve their potential, as my preferred leadership theories. So from that point, I am interested in the Assessment and Selection, cultural imbuing, and leader and follower shared cultivation of results-driven structures, processes, and behaviors. Even though the team has turnover every year as most collegiate teams do, there seems to be a transference of the team leadership behaviors to sustain a winning legacy of excellence.

Two characteristics that you highlighted stuck out as the most important to me: Unified Commitment and Standards of Excellence.

Unifying commitment is to develop ad design a sense of working together for a greater good (Northouse, 2021, p. 468). The team leader provides the first step by committing to the team members and the team, then the university, their collective Legacy, and themselves. In a commitment to excellence, you are last. I find it most interesting that although this is a team, the competition is individual, yet they embrace components of successful teams.

Standards of Excellence require a disciplined daily norm for behavior that compels members to work for each other and themselves (Northouse, 2021, p. 469). The team leader facilitates these expectations through systematic reviews and acknowledgments of behavior (Northouse, 2021, p. 469). Kerr also writs of winning teams that develop almost cult-like mantras as reminders of the behaviors the team holds important (2013).

This is not a typical sports team review of excellence. Still, it is worth further inquiry for mottos, culture, routine behaviors, ad transfer of the responsibility for leaders to carry the torch.

Mark

References
Kerr, J. (2013). Legacy. Constable: Little Brown Book Group.
Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership (9th Edition). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781071834473.

Comments

Mark Castille says

March 21, 2022 at 5:44 am

First of all, I was not aware of the Penn States’ highly successful wrestling team, so thank you for writing this. I see that your assessment combined Hackman’s 2012 and Larson’s and Lafasto’s 1989 theories into your comparison for team effectiveness (Northouse, 2021, p.467). The components that make the Penn State Wrestling team successful are likely to be encompassed in the Team Leadership model, and even though there is a lot to unpack in this eleven-year win streak, let’s dive in.
Framing the sports team with the components of Leader, Follower, and Situation, there is a blend of managed attention in all three components that you highlighted in your analysis. Beginning with the situation, after an eleven-year win streak, the team now has a legacy to uphold, which many groups may find difficult to maintain. In Legacy, about the most winning Rugby team, The New Zealand All Black, the team unveils the struggles and reconning it had to face to maintain its winning edge (Kerr, 2013). The All Blacks had to rekindle was a culture of excellence with cohesive accountability (Kerr, 2013).

I find team climate, norms of interaction, and support crucial for group dynamics. Climate provides the conditions for culture, the unified narrative to achieve the collective purpose, and an overarching component for team excellence. Perhaps this is why I tend to gravitate to Followership, being a good teammate, and Team Leadership, propelling the team to achieve their potential, as my preferred leadership theories. So from that point, I am interested in the Assessment and Selection, cultural imbuing, and leader and follower shared cultivation of results-driven structures, processes, and behaviors. Even though the team has turnover every year as most collegiate teams do, there seems to be a transference of the team leadership behaviors to sustain a winning legacy of excellence.

Two characteristics that you highlighted stuck out as the most important to me: Unified Commitment and Standards of Excellence.

Unifying commitment is to develop ad design a sense of working together for a greater good (Northouse, 2021, p. 468). The team leader provides the first step by committing to the team members and the team, then the university, their collective Legacy, and themselves. In a commitment to excellence, you are last. I find it most interesting that although this is a team, the competition is individual, yet they embrace components of successful teams.

Standards of Excellence require a disciplined daily norm for behavior that compels members to work for each other and themselves (Northouse, 2021, p. 469). The team leader facilitates these expectations through systematic reviews and acknowledgments of behavior (Northouse, 2021, p. 469). Kerr also writs of winning teams that develop almost cult-like mantras as reminders of the behaviors the team holds important (2013).

This is not a typical sports team review of excellence. Still, it is worth further inquiry for mottos, culture, routine behaviors, ad transfer of the responsibility for leaders to carry the torch.

Mark

References
Kerr, J. (2013). Legacy. Constable: Little Brown Book Group.
Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership (9th Edition). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781071834473.