By Mike Finn, W.I.N. Editor

Jim Gruenwald has two goals to fulfill once he gets back to Las Vegas this June for the Olympic Trials which will be held in the same community he won his third U.S. Nationals championship, April 25.

            One, the current resident of Marquette, Mich., will be shooting for his third Olympic team just days after he turns 38 years old on June 9.

            Two, the assistant coach at the United States Olympic Education Center at the University of Northern Michigan must teach his wrestlers to beat the No. 1 seed at 132 pounds: himself.

            Such is the conflict presented to Gruenwald after he defeated Joe Betterman — nearly 14 years his junior — at the U.S. Nationals, where Gruenwald proved he had ended his 2004 retirement in hopes of winning his first Olympic medal.

            But he also can’t forget about the likes of Betterman, who competed at his first World Championships last fall — when 2006 World champ Joe Warren was ruled ineligible — and was the No. 1 seed at this weight at the 2008 Nationals.

            “I have to coach (Betterman) to beat me and I will take it very seriously,” said Gruenwald, who has been an assistant coach to Ivan Ivanov at the USOEC for the past two years. “If (Betterman) comes up to me and asks me, ‘How do I beat you?’ it is my responsibility as a coach to help him. I have been doing that.

            “I told these guys if you want me to retire, then beat me and beat me consistently. I am older and I am going down swinging.”

            Gruenwald, who failed to medal at either the 2000 or 2004 Olympics, said the question on why he returned to the mat was a “sensitive” one.

            “There are several reasons,” said Gruenwald, who has three children with his wife, Rachel. “I didn’t want to look back ten months later and say, I wish I would have. Even though I’m 38, I’m nowhere near being an old man. But I am old for the sport, now.”

            Gruenwald, who also competed in three World Championships and finished fourth in 2003 despite wrestling with a separated shoulder, said he started thinking about coming out of retirement last summer.

            “I take care of myself and sought out serious counsel,” he said. “It wasn’t a flippant decision. I sought a lot of counsel from a lot of people who I respect in wrestling.  Everybody I talked to said, ‘You need to do this. You still have fire in your belly.’ ”

            One of those Gruenwald asked was U.S. National coach Steve Fraser, who coached him in previous World-level competitions.

            “(Jim) felt that if he was the best guy and better than anything that we have, he should do it,” Fraser said. “If he tries and comes up short, then he pushed our other guys to beat him. It gives them more confidence and it helps our overall team.

            “He’s just trying to be the total team player that he is. It is a win-win for him and us.”

            Oddly, it was not a winning situation for Gruenwald at this fall’s Sunkist Open, where he lost to Betterman, 7-1, 5-0.

            “He crushed me,” recalled Gruenwald. “I needed to get better at the reverse lift position. I have to get better at my weaknesses and maintain my strengths. Betterman taught me a lesson.

            “If you are an athlete or a coach, you cannot stop learning. Just in life in general, if you don’t learn something every day, you become mediocre. You don’t have to be an Olympic athlete to learn everyday. If I don’t learn from my athletes, I’m going to go out there and get crushed.”

            One of Gruenwald’s dilemmas was adapting to the new rules where each period is stopped after one minute and each wrestler is given an opportunity to score from par terre.

            “These rules are totally foreign to me,” Gruenwald said. “(FILA) switched it the year I came out and (the rules) do not suit my style. I’m an on-your-feet kind of guy, in your face, snap you down, break you and beat you type of wrestler. “

            Gruenwald must also focus on his dream of making the World Team.

            “Hopefully, I will get in better shape and won’t get caught off balance as much as I have,” he said.

            “That’s the thing with (Betterman). I can’t wrestle him my normal way of snapping down and getting under because he is so powerful straight on that he runs me right off the mat.

            “I’m one of those guys who God has given the ability that when it comes to competition to bring it out. The proof will be in the pudding. It came out well this time and tasted pretty good.”