New Iowa State wrestling coach Kevin Dresser has no problem throwing around the word “great.” He wants Iowa State wrestling to be great in every aspect.

Whether that’s the collegiate wrestlers in his room, the fan base or even the new prominence he plans on putting post-graduate wrestling with the Cyclone Regional Training Center.

But it all starts with the guys he has competing for him.

“I’m really excited about what this [hire] means for everyone involved — but especially the young men in our wrestling room,” Athletic Director Jamie Pollard said.

The cornerstone for Dresser and his future at Iowa State starts with current freshmen Kanen Storr, Ian Parker, Sam Colbray and Gannon Gremmel.

“Darn exciting,” Dresser said of the young guys in the wrestling room. “It’s pretty exciting to see some of the young guys, and I got a chance to meet some of the coaches this morning, and they’re obviously very high on some of the names that you mentioned.”

To go along with the crop of young talent already in the room, the departing coaching staff has put together another top-rated recruiting class for 2017.

Dresser said five of the seven guys who committed under Kevin Jackson would remain committed to Iowa State. He said one probably won’t be coming to Iowa State and the other is firmly on the fence — he just needs to push him off.

The Humboldt, Iowa, native knows what it takes to build a national power — he did it at Virginia Tech. But the hard part is keeping the program at that level, and he said it starts with the guys in the room.

“To keep a team in the top five is incredibly hard,” Dresser said. “But that’s what we have to get to. That’s exciting and that’s the challenge I’m looking for.”

Naturally, if the Iowa State wrestling program was in the top five, fans would flock to Hilton Coliseum. But Dresser wants the fans there sooner rather than later.

He has already planned an event in Ankeny, Iowa.

“It’s important [to get fans at Hilton] and I don’t think it’s going to be that difficult in Iowa,” Dresser said. “I think there’s so much tradition here and so many levels of generations that have wrestled. I think just getting Iowa State back involved like the hay day, and ultimately winning will determine how big that happens.

“When I started at Virginia Tech we had 400 to 500 people, then we got to 2,500, so that’s five times the crowd. So if you’re getting 2,000 in Hilton and we can get to 10,000 — that’s fun when you walk in and have a team that’s ready to go and you got the fans there that appreciate it. I enjoy that.”

Iowa State put up a black curtain to divide Hilton Coliseum during volleyball and wrestling matches to focus the crowd into a smaller area. Dresser already has plans for the curtain.

“We got to burn that sucker soon,” he said. “We got to burn that damn thing down.”

Another part of the wrestling program that’s getting revamped is its senior-level and post-graduate wrestling. Dresser wants a Cyclone Regional Training Center.

Instead of having three guys wrestling at the Cyclone Wrestling Club, they would have about six guys training at the Cyclone Regional Training Center.

“Division I wrestling is a different game than it was 12-13 years ago,” Dresser said. “The advent of the Regional Training Centers potentially makes the [gap between the] haves and the have-nots get bigger. We have to put systems in place to compete with the Penn States, the Iowas and the Oklahoma States of the world. That’s going to take a little bit of time.”

And if Dresser can renew the Iowa and Iowa State wrestling rivalry, the better it will be for the state of Iowa and for the state of wrestling.

“It’s great for the sport,” Pollard said. “We’ll have fun with it. Who wouldn’t? Tom and Terry [Brands] will do their part to stoke this fire. We won’t bring the gas or the matches. That kind of excitement will probably bring people to the wrestling meet.”

But in the end, it’s all about building a great program once again at Iowa State.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to be great,” Dresser said. “That’s one thing we really, really have to buy in here as a team. You can publicly say you want to be great. We’ve said it, now we have to do it. It is a vision of mine to pack Hilton Coliseum on a regular season.”