is a private, non-profit organization with the mission of providing world class training, education and development for wrestlers in helping them achieve their goals. With the help of your financial partnership with the ARTC we can continue to support our wrestlers in their goals and develop young athletes into world class wrestlers and world class people.
Thanks for considering partnering financially with the Arkansas RTC. Your donations allow us to grow our sport, invest in our athletes, and recruit more athletes to a world-class training and developmental environment.
Dates: May 17th, 2021
Location: Pleasent Valley Country CLub
Cost: $375 person/$1,500 foursome
During his coaching career, Erisman has mentored 20 NCAA All-Americans and four NCAA individual champions and is now the head coach of the Division 1 Little Rock Trojans.
Before coming to Little Rock, Erisman spent four seasons at the University of North Carolina where he has played a key role in helping the Tar Heels improve on the national stage while coaching multiple All-Americans and ACC Champions. Erisman has also coached at Stillwater High School and the Oklahoma High School National team coach in 2014 as well as at his alma mater Oklahoma State University under legendary coach and 6 time world champion John Smith. While coaching at OSU Erisman helped coach the 2013 Big 12 Champion cowboys and helped lead them to a second place finish at the NCAA tournament.
Erisman put together a stellar collegiate career in Stillwater at OSU, compiling an overall record of 92-36 and was a four year letterwinner for the Cowboys from 2007-11 under coach Smith. He was the 2011 Big 12 Champion at 157 pounds after placing second in 2010 and third in 2009, being named an Academic All-Big 12 selection in 2008. In high school Erisman compiled a 150-5 record while winning the prestigious USAW nationals simply known in the wrestling world as Fargo.
Before coming to Little Rock as the assistant coach for the Division 1 Little Rock Trojans, Maldonado spent four seasons as the head coach at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. Maldonado built that program from scratch, and led the Fire to a 41-31 dual meet record in his four years while mentoring 18 national qualifiers and 6 All-Americans. Under his leadership, Southeastern finished 12th in the 2019 National Wrestling Coaches’ Association Scholar All-American rankings with a combined 3.145 GPA for his starting lineup.
Maldonado previously coached at Osceola High School in Kissimmee, Florida coaching seven individual state champions, 22 state place winners and nine All-Americans as well as spending time coaching at Las Cruces High School in New Mexico and being a graduate assistant at his alma mater the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Maldonado was a three-time NCAA qualifier at 125 during his collegiate career at Chattanooga, capturing the Southern Conference individual title in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Maldonado posted a 79-31 record during his career with the Mocs, but his successes were not just limited to the mat as he was also a three-time NCWA Academic All-American and All-Southern Conference Academic Team member. While in high school, Maldonado was a two-time Florida state champion at Osceola, and was named a Senior Nationals Freestyle All-American and was an Academic Hall of Fame member.
Rogers comes to Little Rock by way of the Olympic training center and the Air Force regional training center training for the postponed 2020 Olympics in his post-collegiate career. In college, Rogers was a four-year starter for the Oklahoma State Cowboys, a three-time NCAA qualifier and a two-time NCAA Division 1 All-American. Prior to that, he made the 2012 Cadet World Team in Greco-Roman and went on to finish eighth in the world.
In more recent international competition, Rogers won the 2019 Pan American Championships in freestyle as a part of team USA, took third in the 2020 US Senior open in Greco-Roman, and second at the U23 Greco World team trials as he trained to make the 2020 Olympic team.
Following a successful baseball career as a catcher at Christopher Newport University, Coach Lawless began pursuing a career in the field of athletic performance having recently received his masters degree in Exercise Science from UA-Little Rock. He currently serves as the Assistant Athletic Performance Coach at the University of Arkansas Little Rock working directly with the wrestling, golf, and track and field programs after serving in a two-year Graduate Assistant role. Coach Lawless has several years of practical coaching experience through multiple internships at the division 1 level as well as working with several programs at Little Rock. Coach Lawless also assists in coaching the Men's and Women's Basketball and Volleyball programs at Little Rock as well.
The Greg L. Hatcher Wrestling Center provides a state-of-the-art home for the Trojan wrestling program and is considered to be one of the best in the nation. The wrestling center is over 16,000 square feet, featuring four wrestling mats comprising the interior. Coaches offices, locker rooms, a players lounge, training room and a weight room will all be housed inside the facility.
"The Greg Hatcher Wrestling Center is one of a kind," said head coach Neil Erisman. "It will be rivaled by none and envied by all. This is a direct reflection of who Mr. Hatcher is and what this program is. We are forever grateful for Greg and his contribution to our program and wrestling as a whole."
"Little Rock wrestling isn't here just to participate, it's here to compete," said Hatcher. "To have four wrestling mats to practice with in a stand-alone building with its own locker room, its own coaches offices and its own weight room, Little Rock will have one of the premiere wrestling facilities in the country."
The Hatcher Wrestling Center will also feature a pair of outdoor patio areas, which will be utilized by the campus community, giving a place for students, faculty and staff to meet and socialize. The facility is adjacent to the Donaghey Athletic Center on the south end of campus, occupying the space where the old tennis courts used to reside.