Wheaton, Ill. - Wheaton College wrestling coach Jim Gruenwald was recently named one of the two coaches for the 2010 Senior Greco-Roman Pan American Championships Team.

The championships will be held in Nuevo Leon, Mexico from April 27 to May 3.

The Senior Pan American Championships are held every year except pre-Olympic years, where it is called the Pan Am Games. There are five continental championships held in the world - the Pan American Championships, European Championships, Oceanic Championships, African Championships, and the Asia Championships.

The Pan Am Championships can serve as a qualifier for the Pan Am Games, which in turn becomes a qualifier for the Olympic Games.

Gruenwald himself has competed in the past at the Pan Am Championships and Pan Am Games, as well as the Olympics. After serving for years as a coach at the Olympic Training Center, Gruenwald is now able to help coach in the Pan Am Championships.

"I couldn't be selected for these different championships because technically I was an employee of the Olympic Committee, and there would be a conflict of interest there," Gruenwald said. "So when I came on board with Wheaton College, I immediately submitted my name to the volunteer coaches pool and picked the trips I wanted to go on that would work with my schedule. And the Pan Am Championships were what I was selected to go on."

The teams participating can only bring along two coaches. Gruenwald feels his role in the process is to make sure he is fine tuning the athletes to perform their best on the big stage.

"You just make sure the athletes are mentally and physically prepared to step on the mat and do their absolute best," Gruenwald said. "There's not a whole lot you can do training wise because there are other coaches who have been working with these athletes year round. So it would be almost presumptuous or absurd to think that, in just a few days beforehand, I would be able to teach something that's going to profoundly change their performance on the mat in terms of technique.

"Now with respect to inspiring the guys to do their best, what I have learned as an athlete and a coach is to help them from a mental capacity and also help them fine tune with preparing their bodies so that they peak at the championships," Gruenwald concluded. "That's something we can do. That will be our biggest concern on the trip."