Dennis Papadatos: Success. Principles. Win.

Winning with Class

Dennis Papadatos enters his ninth season as Hofstra University's Head Wrestling Coach in 2022-23. A two-time NCAA Division I NCAA National Championship qualifier for the Pride, Papadatos was named the 12th head coach in the history of the Hofsra University Wrestling program on August 4, 2014.

Coach Papadatos is a very open and honest coach who believes that if you build and maintain certain success principles and apply them in all areas of your life, success will come. More importantly, if you focus on being a good human being all the time, the wins on the mat as a wrestler will follow as well. This leads to a culture of not only winning, but also of building strong people and life-long relationships. Winning with Class is honored to feature Coach Papadatos, and we look forward to staying in contact with him, his wrestlers, and his program.

Takeaways:

1. Coach Papadatos mentioned quickly that his go-to early as a wrestler himself was "I'm going to outwork everybody." Is there a better place to start than that in terms of building our internal foundation? NOBODY has ever regretted working hard - and if you start there, the rewards will come.
2. Related to the first one, the succession or process of winning Coach Papadatos talked about in terms of going from WANTING...to HOPING...to BELIEVING...to EXPECTING to win...it's all related to the PREPARATION you're willing to put into anything you do. Maximum preparation - committing to outworking everybody - will lead to that expectation level of winning and success. The resulting level of confidence that follows will build a potential inside you that is simply limitless.
3. Transparency. Coach mentioned that he starts on the recruiting trip - before the wrestler is ever in his program - by being honest with the recruit that wrestling is hard, wrestling in college is even tougher, and, transitioning into being an adult while you're doing this is even harder than that. Coach is extremely upfront and transparent starting then and throughout the wrestler's career under him. We all need this type of transparency - with ourselves and in terms of having transparent people in our lives. The more transparency we have and surround ourselves with, the better we can take on and overcome the challenges that will come our way - in sports and in life.

Links:

• To follow Coach Papadatos and his Hofstra wrestling team, please see: https://gohofstra.com/sports/wrestling