“As this camp has grown, I’ve grown the coaching staff every year and there are now more superstars, former Olympians and NCAA champions here teaching than ever before,” Chertow said. “We have an incredible coaching staff that I surround the kids with — I try to bring the best (coaches and clinicians) in the country here to Altoona.”

The camp is open to boys and girls from the elementary school through high school levels, with training available according to age and gender divisions.

The headline guest coach for this year’s two-week event, which begins Sunday afternoon and will extend through Sunday, July 27, will be the legendary Wade Schalles, who won a PIAA state championship at Hollidaysburg Area High School, three NCAA titles at Clarion University, a gold medal at the 1977 World University Games and earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the sport of wrestling’s all-time leader in victories (821) and falls (530).

Schalles, 73 — who served tenures as an NCAA Division I head wrestling coach at both Clemson and Old Dominion University — will instruct at Chertow’s camp this Wednesday night from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Ken Chertow

“Wade Schalles is somebody who I looked up to growing up, and when he won his state championship (in 1969) at (Penn State’s) Rec Hall, I was there, and I’ve watched videos of that,” Chertow said. “I learned from Wade Schalles when I was a teenager, and he recruited me when I was coming out of high school and he was the coach at Clemson.

“I’ve stayed in touch with him over the decades, and when I moved my camp to Altoona, I reached out to him and I was able to get him to come here. I’m real excited about it. He’s an icon in our sport.”

So are a few others who will be clinicians at this year’s Gold Medal Camp. Among them are two former Penn State stars, Zain Retherford and Sanshiro Abe.

After winning PIAA Class 2A state championships at both Line Mountain and Benton high schools, Retherford went on to become a three-time NCAA Division I champion and four-time All-American at Penn State. After college, he embarked on a very successful freestyle wrestling career, winning the gold medal at the 70kg weight class at the 2023 World Championships in Belgrade, after taking a silver medal at 70kg in the Senior Freestyle World competition in 2022 and placing third, also at 70kg, in the U.S. World Team Trials.

He also represented the United States in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, weighing in at 65kg, but his participation was cut short due to a head injury that caused him to medically forfeit out of the Olympics after one match.

Nick Frick

Retherford began attending Chertow’s Gold Medal Camp with his family when he was only 8 years old and has been a fixture there ever since, now as a teacher.

“Zain came to my camp as a scholastic wrestler every single summer for a decade and I’m just so proud of him,” Chertow said of Retherford, who will instruct at the camp on Sunday, July 20.

Abe was an NCAA champion and four-time All-American at Penn State and competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, where he finished ninth at 57kg in the freestyle competition.

Abe will be on hand for instruction with former Penn State coach John Fritz for the opening session of the camp on Sunday, beginning at 3 p.m.

“He’s coming in from Japan,” Chertow said of Abe. “The opening session of the camp will be real exciting.”

Other camp clinicians will include Pat Glory, a former NCAA champion and four-time All-American at Princeton, along with James Yonushonis, a former Penn State and Philipsburg-Osceola High School standout. Also on hand will be former Central High School state medalist Nick Frick and former Hollidaysburg High School and longtime college coach Joe Baranik, an Altoona native.

Frick’s brother, Eric, who was Hollidaysburg’s last PIAA Class 3A state champion in 1999, had been planning to attend as a clinician but will be unable to make it because he will be undergoing surgery.

Nick and Eric Frick are the proprietors of the Frick Brothers Wrestling Academy in Sarasota, Fla. Both brothers have military wrestling backgrounds and coached teams from their academy to state freestyle and Greco-Roman championships last season.

Nick Frick said that he is honored to be a part of Chertow’s camp.

“My homecoming to Hollidaysburg is truly exciting, and it’s an honor to coach alongside Wade Schalles and Zain Retherford right here in my hometown,” Nick Frick said. “Having competed nationally for the All-Army Team, I am eager to share the technical skills that I have gained through my travels and international experiences.

“I look forward to helping the kids and working alongside Ken Chertow to develop champions, as (Nick and Eric) have been doing in Florida.”

Sage Mortimer, who won a championship at 110 pounds at the 2025 NCAA Women’s Wrestling Tournament in Coralville, Iowa, along with Midland University (Neb.) women’s wrestling coach Chelsea Dionisio, will also be clinicians at the camp, which will again feature a sizeable contingent of high school girls wrestlers.

Chertow said that wrestlers have the option to register for either one week of training or the full two weeks. All wrestlers are required to pre-register for the camp.