Tony Cassioppi accepts position as assistant wrestling coach at Wisconsin, a former rival
Tony Cassioppi's career as a wrestler may be coming to a close.
"We'll see," Cassioppi recently said, "but it could be over."
While his career as a wrestling coach is officially kicking off.
"That's the part of my life that I'm really ready to begin," he added.
Cassioppi, the two-time state champ for Hononegah who went on to become a four-time All-American at the University of Iowa, has accepted a position as assistant wrestling coach at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. It was made official on Wednesday night.
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He will start his duties by traveling with Masoma Endene, now a Badger wrestler, next week for the U23 Pan Am Championships from June 21-22 in Rionegro, Columbia, as his coach. Cassioppi earned a bronze medal at the U23 World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain, back in 2022, and he wrestled in the Pan Am Games twice.
"They want me to go out there with him," Cassioppi said, "and just help him out... I have a lot of wrestling experience, so that should help."
And then when he gets back, he will start his new life as a Big Ten assistant coach. He wrestled in the Big Ten for four-plus seasons, before he was suspended before the 2023-2024 season by the NCAA for his entire senior year after a controversial sports gambling probe. Now, he will coach in it.
"It's a huge opportunity, and I'm super excited," Cassioppi said. "They approached me, and I said 'Yeah, this is definitely something I would consider.' I went up and visited, they showed me around campus, and it's all worked out. I've never coached before, so this is it."
Wisconsin was 9-7 overall last year in duals, and 3-5 in Big Ten action. The Badgers' seventh-year head coach Chris Bono hasn't led a Wisconsin team to higher than a seventh-place finish in the Big Ten Conference Tournament since he arrived.
Cassioppi hopes he can help change that.
"I think I'll be pretty good at it," he said of coaching. "I'm a hard worker, and I know wrestling. I'll pick up on the rest pretty quickly. I'm excited to start my new life."
Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School Sports Newsletter here at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears and Blackhawks to local youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Tony Cassioppi named assistant Wisconsin wrestling coach
