About

 Markus Mollica

I was introduced to wrestling by my friend Eric and started wrestling at 7 years old with coach Bill Barger at the YMCA. The next season we started at North Akron Wrestling Club (NAWC) in Akron, OH with coach Perry Renzi and Bill Barger along with several other supporting coaches. Perry was the technician. Bill made you feel like you could accomplish anything. Bill coached us all the way through high school as well. North Akron was a brutal practice room and I got pounced daily. It was a grind. You had to step up or step out. 

When it came to competition, we would travel anywhere from an hour to six hours driving for a wrestling tournament in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania. I lost a lot, got back up, lost more, quit wrestling, came back, lost more, got back up, won a little, won a little more. Then I won a lot. I always tell people that my turning point in wrestling was 6th grade. 

At North Akron Wrestling Club when I was in 4th, 5th, 6th grade, we had to wrestle off on Fridays to make the line up for the Ohio Youth dual on Sunday. After quitting wrestling around 4th-5th grade, Billy B talked me back into wrestling. I came back and lost every Friday for the whole year to the same kid in the wrestle-off. The next year in 6th grade, I wrestled off against a different kid and won every Friday and won the Ohio Youth League tournament at the end of the year. Quite a turnaround. There was no looking back now.

Accomplishments:

• Ohio Youth Champ
• Pennsylvania Junior High State Champ
• 2x Ohio High School State Champ @ Walsh Jesuit High School
• Junior Nationals Champ
• NHSCA National High School Champ
• 4x NCAA Div I All American
• 4x Pac 10 Champ
• 2x NCAA Div I National Champ for Arizona State University. First wrestler in school history to win the NCAA Championships as a freshman.

Coaching experiences:

• Numerous clinics and camps over the years
• Kids club of 5-10 years old
• Edison High School (CA)
• North Torrance High School (CA)
• Cal State Fullerton University
• Calvary Chapel High School
• Cerritos College
• Harvard University
• MMA Wrestling Coach (Beneil Dariush, Marvin Vettori, Raphael Dos Anjos, Neiman Gracie, and other fighters at Kings MMA). Cornered about 30 UFC fights.