Weiss Brings Sense of Fun to Harvard

All work and no play? Not with Harvard coach Jay Weiss and the Crimson wrestling team.

When first told a feature would be written about him in the paper, Weiss chuckled, asking, “Who put you up to this?”

Apparently pranks and jokes are common amongst the team, which is not surprising, due to Weiss’s accessible and infectious personality.

“I like to have fun, and there are a lot of things we do to promote that,” Weiss said.

He brings his team together as a unit, generating relationships on and off the mat.

“This year we are especially cohesive,” junior co-captain Louis Caputo said. “We cannot seem to get enough of each other.”

Harvard grapplers do not consider wrestling purely individual, nor merely just a team sport, but rather as a family. The Harvard Wrestling Family is a significant theme, if not the central tenet, of Weiss’s program.

“The way my personality is…I need it to be close-knit,” Weiss said. “I think the sport dictates that as well, meaning wrestlers are different, and the more close-knit the group is, the team is, the more success you are going to have and the more fun you are going to have.”

In the high-intensity atmosphere that surrounds wrestling, it may seem ironic that having fun is a primary concern of the coach. But with 14 All-Americans in 14 seasons—including national champion Jesse Jantzen ’04—under his belt, Weiss seems to have figured out the secret to what makes his athletes and program tick.

He is a two-time EIWA Coach of the Year, and before Weiss took the reins of the program, Harvard boasted only seven-All Americans in almost eight decades.

“We have a ton of respect for the coaches,” Caputo said. “They are fantastic people to be around. With our team, unlike compared to others, the coaches are mentors but also really close friends.”

Weiss is concerned with not only influencing his wrestlers on the mat but also in their lives outside the sport. His program focuses on the growth of individuals through the development of a “family” that transcends the walls of the university. This home away from home has been perpetuated by Weiss throughout his career at Harvard.

A vital component of such a program is recruiting the right people.

“Character,” Weiss said, “that comes first and Harvard taught me that. You realize that is what you want to coach. I learned that from being here and that is the kind of student-athlete I want to deal with.”

Caputo recounted his recruiting process with Weiss, appreciating his upfront attitude and straightforwardness.

“He didn’t sugarcoat anything,” Caputo said. “He was honest about the whole process and told me it would be one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. And as far as I can tell, he was right.”

Weiss’s ability to recruit and cultivate highly motivated and talented athletes like Caputo has been an important aspect of his coaching success. In seven of his 14 years, Crimson grapplers have been named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year.

“From day one I have always told a recruit that as an individual sport you can come here and become a national champion, and by the way get the best education in the country,” Weiss says. “And if you do that with enough people, the program is going to keep going.”

In his eyes, the willingness and work ethic of each individual are the most important pieces of the puzzle and lay the foundation for a successful program and team.

According to Harvard’s mission statement, Crimson wrestling is unique because diverse individual goals combine to advance the common mission of the team. Through wrestling, Harvard grapplers acquire the tools together to face adversity and navigate through life.

“Coach Weiss has helped me in pretty much every part of my athletic career,” Caputo said. “He makes sure that if he can’t teach me something, he can find someone who can. He is a general caring guy about not only people in the program, but outside it as well.”

Leadership and individual development shape the mission of Harvard wrestling, so in the eyes of his grapplers, Jay Weiss—recipient of the 2007 United States Marine Corps Excellence in Leadership Award—fits the bill better than anyone to lead the growth of this team.