T.J. Jaworsky Position: Assistant Coach

After a career as one of the finest wrestlers in NCAA history, three-time NCAA champion T.J. Jaworsky enters his fifth year as an assistant to Carolina head coach Bill Lam and lends extensive collegiate and international experience to the Tar Heel coaching staff.

"T.J. brings a credibility to our program and is crucial to the success of this program," head coach Bill Lam says. "As a three-time national champion and with his continued success internationally and in freestyle wrestling, he's an example to our wrestlers that they can achieve their goals if they dedicate themselves."

After leading Carolina to Atlantic Coast Conference team championships in each of his three years in Carolina Blue, he continues to be a mainstay on the Tar Heel squad, assisting Lam with all aspects of the UNC program.

As a senior, Jaworsky became the first wrestler in ACC history to win three national championships when he defeated Babak Mohammadi of Oregon State, 13-6, in the finals at 134 pounds. In the process, he led the Tar Heels to an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Championships, their second consecutive Top-10 finish.

Jaworsky's win over Mohammadi for his third straight NCAA title capped a perfect, 38-0 senior season and brought his career record at UNC to 110-5. He was named the 1995 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Wrestler, the winner of the Dan Hodge Award as the national wrestler of the year and the most outstanding wrestler at the 1995 National Duals. He won his third ACC title in a row at 134 and was honored as the Most Outstanding Wrestler at the ACC Tournament for the second consecutive year.

Jaworsky won NCAA titles as a sophomore and junior after defeating Cary Kolat of Penn State and Mohammadi, respectively, in the national finals in 1993 and 1994. He captured the second of his three national championships before a home crowd as Carolina hosted the 1994 NCAA Championships.

A native of Edmond, Okla., Jaworsky will turn 29 early in the 1998-99 season. He transferred to Carolina after one season at Oklahoma State. Jaworsky finished his career as the owner of UNC records for career falls with 50, falls in one season with 24 in 1995 and career winning percentage with .957.

His sights set on the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Jaworsky continues to train and has successfully worked his way back from tearing his right ACL last February in Turkey.