Leaderboard

Congratulations to Christian on his commitment to serve our country and attend the United States Military Academy at West Point! Not only has this kid put hours of diligence on the mat but has made leaps and bounds in the classroom. I'll never forget when a scrawny 106 pounder with an indifference to his GPA told me over the dinner table three years ago that he wanted to go to an Academy and wrestle. Knowing the rigors of that decision, I rolled my eyes but said "well let's go to work." Three years later, I stand corrected. Good things come to kids who work hard in the classroom. Congratulations to Christian and his family, and Go Army!

I know from a coaching standput I think getting guys like Angel and Kendrick involved would do wonders not only are they best of the best but Are really good at communicating with the kids and relating to them. Not to mention they are pretty good at wrestling.

The best recruiter for the wrestlers are the other wrestlers. These guys know each others twitter, instagram and sometimes even phone number. They keep up each other and talk to each other all the time. If they start selling each other on the idea of a tough team that can compete then we will have one that can compete. If they feel the cause is worth of the effort then I'm sure they will train more to adapt to Freestyle and find a way financially to go. However right now the drive is just not there for many of our solid wrestlers to justify that type of summer effort or financial commitment. Currently they don't know much of a team will actually show and are not sure if they want to commit the effort and fund raising to be there. The state is just recovering from a dismal decade of writing off The Olympic styles all together which isn't helping either since many of our top guys have done very little wrestling in the spring over the last several years. 7-10 matches against top national talent shouldn't be to hard to sell especially if these guys know they are going to be on a good team. I'm sure some big name coaches calling guys early in the process and talking it up would help but getting their peers to take a leadership roll will be the best selling point. I remember hearing an interview with the Oklahoma guys a year or two ago where they said the wrestlers selling the idea of buildings a mega team team to each other was one of the reasons they were able to get so many top guys to commit and also hold each kther accountable to improving their Freestyle ability.

Like i said peoples reasons for not going are theirs and it may have absolutly 0% to do with wrestling and what not. I think we just have to make it as attractive as possible to entice the kids/families to want to participate.