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I know it’s out of topic but without the people that serve in the military there is no website! Thank you to all that served and are serving now!

While we can't deny the numbers here point to the fact that specialization of sports leads to more success by your math here, but I do not agree with the methodology to this thought process. I'm not a fan of folding a sliver of fact around an opinion. Using your same numbers, I can also say that the reason there's more 4-timers since 2004 is because they had iphones. The numbers clearly state that since the invention of iphones we have had more 4 time state champions. There are many factors involved in winning 4 IHSAA state titles. We could also use your math to say that it's clearly easier to win a state title since the age of specialization and year-round competition from an early age. Is it possible that Angel Escobedo would not have won a state title as a freshman if some butt kicker cross country kid quit wrestling as a 10 yr old to just train cross country? Ugh. It's been my opinion for a long time that if you play a sport with the aspirations of money you're doing it for the wrong reasons. Play a sport because you like it. Workout because you like working out. If you workout because your going to get a scholarship, then what happens after you get a scholarship? It's over. But if you workout because you like working out, you have long term life habit that will be with you forever. Tom Cameron was my high school coach and the biggest mentor in my life. When I got my first coaching position he gave me a book called Winning is Everything, and Other American Myths. I highly recommend it to coaches and parents.

It feels like saying "you can get hurt walking across the street" or "you can get hurt in any sport" doesn't quite live up to what is really happening in football. I feel like with wrestling being 1 on 1 and having a referee only watching 2 kids at a time, it is astronomically safer than football. I feel a kid can defend himself against 1 other person and the ref can actually stop things before they get out of hand. I believe football is 4 to 22 for refs to kids with no chance of stopping a potentially dangerous situation. Whether its a running back who is getting hit high and low by multiple tacklers or a lineman who is engaged while his teammate gets knocked over on their leg, there is a lot that goes on that a kid cannot possibly protect themselves against. Not to mention how many tackles include someone grabbing a leg and rolling.

I understand the anxiety you feel about your son participating in a collision sport like football. About a third of my wrestling team plays football. All season long I am like a worried mother for every game. BUT, we have to always remind ourselves that no matter how much time and effort we put into these kids, we don't own them or their non-wrestling time. Some of Indiana's best wrestlers from out state (David Palmer, David Locke, Randall Hayes at Delta; Spero Karas, Joel Stubblefield, Ben McKenney, Donny Sands at PH to name two schools) played football. But like Danny Struck and others have argued, if we want football coaches to encourage their players to wrestle we need to be willing to make it a two-way street and encourage our wrestlers to play if that is what they want to do. And yes, I have lost my share of wrestlers during the football season. It IS heartbreaking and very hard to take and my selfish instincts tell me to influence the kids to save themselves for wrestling but is the right thing to do for the kids? By the way, thinking this doesn't make a you a bad person, just a concerned parent, coach or both. Dave Cloud

Ha...no doubt my quick illustration does not qualify as full-on research. However, it's a tiny example that represents a common theme highlighted in many prominent books and articles the last 15 years or so. That theme is this: assuming your talent level is at whatever needed minimum, your quantity of hours of investment will equal your level of advancement or accomplishment in a given skill across many fields of art, sports, and tech. But that by no means refutes any of your points. I definitely agree that there are numerous factors leading to the wrestling boom in our state--not least of which (even though you joked about it! :)) is the impact of the information age. I also 100% agree you CAN be successful doing multiple sports if you're dedicated. And the biggest point of all from this entire thread is your last one: you should never, ever make any of these decisions outside of doing the things you love--otherwise you'll shrivel up and die and/or live with lots of regrets. Thanks for highlighting this point so poignantly, Coach P.

One of many, but fairly recent...and based on evidence in Indiana. No wrestling mentioned, but good stuff about multi-sport athletes... article

Exactly, Coach P... I agree. But... say if a kid liked both sports equally. The money is Not equal. That was the point that I was trying to make. With that said, there are many other things to factor in. Me personally.. i am scared to death about the brain injuries being attributed to football. Good thread!

I believe that Mason will be there for Team IN so it just depends if Gable attends for the Team USA. If so then the house that Wiesjahn built will be the place to be for sure !!!!

So you guys would be okay telling a kid, if you have serious aspirations of playing college football, you shouldn't wrestle because you might get hurt after your season is over? Or if you are serious about playing college baseball, you shouldn't wrestle because you will come in to the season beat up. I'm just not a huge fan of telling kids to quit other sports and focus on one sport. I love what a kid like Mason Parris is doing. One of the top football players in Indiana and a Division 1 wrestling recruit. I loved watching a kid like Gelen Robinson dominate in so many sports. Maybe these guys are the exception. I've never met him and I don't want to speak for him, but I'm guessing Mason wouldn't give back these past couple of football seasons (state runner up last year, 11-1 this year) with his brothers to go to more national tournaments and maybe be a little fresher once wrestling starts.

Or could they meet at brownsburg high school after the season.

Let’s factor in college dollars also... We have kids here in our town who are solid football players getting full rides. NCAA FBS schools get 85 full rides per team. While wrestling gets 9.9. I know of state champs (best of our best) that are getting 15% to start their college careers. With this said... I would love to say if your son has D1 talent in both sports... then wrestling is the best! You should just do that! But... that is simply not true. Saying this on a wrestling forum is tough for me. But... if your boy has D1 football talent / size and likes football... then he should keep that option open. He would most likely get way more money to play football.

Agreed. That would parallel with a football coach not taking into account a players future on the mat, or a Team competing for a State Championship. I'm thankful neither of those are major issues that Im aware of at Shenandoah. It's ultimately a student-athletes choice. Although I'm sure there's at least at little of that going on inside each perspective Coach if I'm honest. They're human, in most cases care about their kids and want to win as much as their players do.

On a side note: one thing that ticks me off are those wrestling coaches who wish for their school's varsity football team to lose in the playoffs so that they can get their wrestlers back. I've always viewed that as selfish and out of good character.

BTW peasants, Anthony Lewis, former assistant at Jimtown, nephew/little brother of THE Darrick Snyder, is now the head man at Bremen! Congrats to Antknee and the Snyder crew! Now Bremen it's not quite Jimtown but it's not quite Brownsburg, it's almost right in the middle... GO LIONS

Wade, if you have connections I am sure Casey would agree to it in a heartbeat.