But it's a whole different situation this year.

Kocsis has been hired as the head coach for a brand-new wrestling team at Penn State Mont Alto. And when we say brand new, we mean it -- the program was approved in October.

"It's going to be interesting," said Kocsis, who has had only two practices so far. "Right now we're just going to focus on getting in shape and getting into the right weight classes, and we'll try to be competitive."

At a meeting after the school announced it would start a program, 18 showed up.

"I was really surprised at the interest right away," Mont Alto athletic director Marty Ogle said. "It kind of caught me off guard how much support there is for this sport."

Ogle said the conference (Penn State University Athletic Conference) did a feasibility study recently to determine what might be a good sport to add and wrestling was at the top of the list. Since then several PSUAC schools have added the sport.

"The university sees athletics as a recruitment and retention tool," Ogle said. "And with Penn State's tradition (the Lions won the NCAA championship last year) and the fact that Pennsylvania has more high school wrestlers per capita than any state, it made sense."

Mont Alto began to consider a plan to bring the sport to campus in the summer and got all the financial details approved in October. Of the 14 PSUCA schools, eight now have wrestling and all but a couple just started their programs in the last two years.

Ogle said, "What helped make our decision easier is that we're sort of the only game in town. The only colleges close to us that have wrestling are Shippensburg, which is Division II, and Gettysburg, which is an expensive school. We're optimistic because all of the high schools around us have wrestling."

Kocsis had been the coach at Fairfield High School and helped build that program from its infancy. So he's no stranger to the task he faces.

"We haven't seen these guys much, so we're evaluating what we have," he said. "It looks like our strongest kids are at 125, 141, 149 and 197. Most of the kids we have are from the Maryland-D.C. area.

"Of the 18 we had, we're down to about 14 because of some problems with class schedules and work schedules. That's something new for me to deal with, too."

Kocsis said about 75 percent of the kids on the team had wrestled in high school.

"It's been a little different in practice because we have kids just learning and some who know what we're trying to do," he said.

Kocsis is originally from Strongsville, Ohio, and he wrestled at Lindenwood University and then stuck with it during some time with the U.S. Marine Corps. He has been a wrestling coach for 15 years.

Ogle said, "He brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and energy to the program."

The situation this year is pretty strange, considering none of the team members came to Mont Alto to wrestle. But Kocsis believes the school is in a position to improve rapidly.

"I was surprised our numbers are pretty good already," he said. "But I think with how good District 3 has become recently, we're in a good situation to recruit some of those kids. And we can even go into the Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia area to find kids, too. We have a really good pool to draw from."

For this year, what Kocsis calls "a building year," he wants to maybe pull out a couple of dual-meet wins -- the schedule begins in January -- and have some of the Lions do well in the PSUAC Tournament, which will be held in PSU's Rec Hall.

"Then we can focus on the offseason for the kids we have now and give them a chance to get better," Kocsis said. "At the same time, we'll be trying to fill in the gaps with new kids. I think we can be a nice option for kids who want to wrestle, but maybe not at the top, hard-nose level."