Dean Heil and Anthony Collica sign with Oklahoma Regional Training Center

The Oklahoma RTC, which is the Regional Training Center for OU, announced they signed former Cowboys Anthony Collica and Dean Heil. Heil closed out his career at OSU this season as a two-time NCAA champ and three-time All-American. Collica graduated in 2017.

HIGHLIGHT | Dean Heil finishes off the major decision for his final match at GIA! #okstate pic.twitter.com/yOhWYbnkLJ

— OSU Cowboy Wrestling (@CowboyWrestling) February 11, 2018

The coach at the Oklahoma RTC is Eric Guerrero, a former Cowboy wrestler and coach, that now heads up the RTC at OU. He recruited Dean Heil and some think Guerrero’s move to the Oklahoma RTC may have played a role in Heil’s performance drop-off in his senior season. Interestingly the head coach at OU, Heil, and Collica are all from Ohio.

We dove into what RTC’s are a while back. Essentially they’re sort of the “pro” option for wrestlers where they can get paid to train at these centers following college.

One other thing these RTC’s really do well is promote and develop local youth wrestling and help develop a lot of those guys. Derek Fix talked to us a little bit about that. So a kid like Dustin Plott out of Tuttle who’s a true blue-chip recruit may get some training in with the Oklahoma RTC that helps develop him a little even if he ends up as a Cowboy, so having some more OSU flavor in that room maybe isn’t the worst thing? Interesting move to see those guys head to Norman.