Gavin Teasdale battles Patrick Glory at Beat the Streets in New York (Photo/Juan Garcia)Gavin Teasdale, who had committed to the University of Iowa before joining the roster at Penn State last season at 125 pounds, has told PA Power Wrestling that he plans to join the Hawkeyes for the upcoming season, projecting between 125 and 141 pounds.
"In the end, stuff happens for a reason," the Pennsylvania native said on the PA Power Podcast posted Tuesday. "This is where I need to be."
Originally, Teasdale -- a four-time PIAA state champ for Jefferson-Morgan High School with a near-perfect 162-2 record -- had verbally committed to Iowa along with friend and fellow Pennsylvania prep superstar Spencer Lee back in 2016 ... but later changed his commitment to Penn State in March 2017, while Lee has claimed back-to-back NCAA 125-pound titles for the Hawkeyes in 2018 and 2019.
Back on January 22, 2019, Penn State head coach Cael Sanderson announced that Teasdale was transferring out of the program.
Despite originally being on the Nittany Lions roster for the 2018-19 season, Teasdale never stepped onto the mat for the program. In November 2018 he announced he was leaving school for health reasons, and although he returned to campus a few weeks later, he did not wrestle.
In the PA Power Podcast, Teasdale said, "The main reason I decided on Penn State in the first place was because it was close, it's home, it's an atmosphere you know, but the atmospheres you know can hurt you. The place where you feel the most comfortable can be your biggest enemy.
"You don't really know about Penn State's style until you're up there. It just didn't work for a guy like me. I need a hands-on type of coach who's there for you through thick and thin and just has a passion about the sport. It's not just about you on the mat. It's about you as a man as well."
Teasdale painted a contrasting picture of the Iowa Hawkeye wrestling program, where he said he's been working out for the past two or three months.
"It's one partner after another after another," Teasdale said. "You've got (Thomas Gilman), you've got (Cory Clark), you've got Spencer. You've got Terry and Tom Brands. You've got the women wrestlers. The whole Hawkeye program is passionate about the sport.
"You can see the coaches who are straight and honest. They're real with you, and they're not going behind your back and saying something else. I like it when someone tells me when I'm doing something wrong, and they tell me to my face.
"The coaches that I have here, there's nobody better in the country."
I hope Teasdale finds what he wants at Iowa, no matter what the reason is. Life is too short for someone to stay somewhere that they're a bad match - especially if they have bad habits at the same time they're paired with a high expectations coach.