Wharton official trains to bring home the gold

By Eric Dash Trevor Lewis' life revolves around two important goals. As the Wharton School's associate director of finance and administration, Lewis, 32, says that his day job -- which includes helping to manage the $128 million capital campaign funding the new Huntsman Hall business education complex -- is most important. But you might not realize it from speaking with him. Since childhood, Lewis' passion for wrestling has driven him toward his other goal: to win the gold medal as a member of the U.S. Olympic wrestling team. Still, while Lewis has wrestled in the international circuit since 1990, the closest he has come to a gold medal was scoring fourth place in the Olympic trials three years ago. "After the last Olympic tryouts, I recalibrated and decided that I was strong enough to continue for the next four years," he said. "I was disappointed. I want to win." Lewis knows that is easier said than done. "The people I compete against either train full time or are wrestling coaches. It's easier for them, absolutely," he explains. "I have to be able to find [training] partners, find time for running and lifting." And he must do it around his nine-hour work day. Currently, Lewis schedules his two daily workouts during his lunch break and after work, when he is often found racing up the Franklin Field steps or practicing his technique on the mats at Hutchinson Gymnasium. However, the majority of his crunches these days are done with numbers -- calculating mathematical models for Wharton capital projects or creating department budgets. "Time constraints have changed the way I train," he said. "The effort I put in has to be more concentrated and more diligent." Lewis has always had to juggle athletic and academic success. Starring on his East Brunswick High School wrestling team as a senior, he earned fourth place at the New Jersey state championships as well as a spot in Princeton's class. And as a four-year varsity member of the Tigers squad, Lewis qualified in the 167-lb. division of the NCAA wrestling tournament and was captain of the team his final year in college. But after graduating from Princeton in 1988, Lewis turned to assistant coaching at Lehigh University while earning his MBA degree. "The thing that attracted me to Lehigh and Princeton was that you could go and be a wrestler. But you could also excel in academics," he said. "You could be more than just a Big Eight blockhead." However, wrestling became the primary focus of Lewis' life when he left Lehigh in 1991 to pursue his Olympic dreams full time as a member of the New Town Square, Del.-based Foxcatcher wrestling club, where he remained until 1995. But just after Lewis left in January 1996, Foxcatcher team sponsor John DuPont -- the eccentric millionaire and heir to the DuPont fortune -- murdered one of Lewis' former teammates, wrestler Dave Schultz. Upset by the loss of his close friend and former coach, Lewis became more determined than ever to win the gold. "It put a knife into my heart," Lewis said. "I want to do everything to succeed to make his memory live on because [Schultz] was a great guy, a great wrestler and a master technician." Lewis now honors his late friend by acting as a member of the Dave Schultz Wrestling Club. Later in 1996, Lewis found his way to Penn when wrestling coach Roger Reina -- a personal friend and training partner -- offered him a position as an assistant coach. While helping Reina build the Quakers wrestling program, Lewis was able to train for the Olympics full time, working out with fellow Penn assistant coach and Olympic hopeful Brian Dolph. After a year of coaching at Penn, Lewis determined that his long-term interests extended beyond wrestling. At that time, Wharton Dean Thomas Gerrity -- a former Rhodes Scholar and competitive wrestler at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- helped Lewis land a job where he could apply his business background as a Wharton administrator. "I wanted to apply my academic [skills] and start my career off while simultaneously continuing my wrestling," Lewis said. "I wanted to be a full-time worker and wrestle -- and excel at both." In many ways, Lewis's two roles are much alike. "When you train in wrestling, you don't just go onto the mats. You have to work on technique, conditioning, live matches," he said. "And I'm always working at my plan, calibrating where I am at in terms of getting to Sydney and giving myself a chance to win the Olympics." At work, Lewis must similarly prepare himself in order to manage the many tasks his job requires. He is constantly monitoring Wharton's benchmarks in terms of fundraising and academic rankings. Still, the Olympic hopeful admits there is one important difference. "Wrestling is an escape. I love it. I truly enjoy it," Lewis said with a gold medal smile.

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