# of matches to date

[indyshred]

I saw on the rankings updated thread that Lafayette Harrison has 26 matches already. Some schools dont even have 10 yet. In everyones opinion, does  the number of matches matter in a year? Do college coaches care much about overall record?, or is it solely where you finish in Feb. at Conseco? Just curious what everyone thinks.

[KarlHungus]

I saw on the rankings updated thread that Lafayette Harrison has 26 matches already. Some schools dont even have 10 yet. In everyones opinion, does  the number of matches matter in a year? Do college coaches care much about overall record?, or is it solely where you finish in Feb. at Conseco? Just curious what everyone thinks.

 

Conseco, Fargo, and Class Rank are all more important than overall record

[MAJAM152]

I have talked to some college coaches and I always ask that question. The answer is always where they finish in February!

[justadadnow]

The coaches I've spoken with all have one thing in common  GRADES  they'll take a wrestler lower on the podium with good grades over a higher placer with bad grades every time. They can improve the wrestler, but it's hard to improve the student. This is even more important for scholarship athletes, with the limited # of scholarships to give, they can't afford to waste them.

[rebels4life]

Just think of yourself as a college coach. What would you put more emphasis on. Myself would be grades, character, work habit, and the quality of matches, not so much the quantity.  How you stacked up with some of the best wrestlers in the state and on the national level. Justadadnow said it best, you can teach someone to be a better wrestler if all the above exist. If a student athlete has not taken the courses in High School to prepare himself for the college level. As a college coach why would I want to waste my time with him.

[cadet130]

Just think of yourself as a college coach. What would you put more emphasis on. Myself would be grades, character, work habit, and the quality of matches, not so much the quantity.  How you stacked up with some of the best wrestlers in the state and on the national level. Justadadnow said it best, you can teach someone to be a better wrestler if all the above exist. If a student athlete has not taken the courses in High School to prepare himself for the college level. As a college coach why would I want to waste my time with him.

 

As a coach at the collegiate level, I will agree with this post. We want to build a program with a reputation of winning both on and off the mat. There aren't many jobs out there (generally) for those whom don't possess a college diploma. Our goal is to recruit those kids that want to graduate college while winning some national titles as an added bonus.

As far as quantity or quality...I think the more obvious answer would be quality. We want those guys that we can count on to win the close matches and to come out ahead in OT to score team points. We want guys we can rely on to beat the guys they maybe aren't "supposed" to beat.

This is just a little bit of my view on how Coach Vega and I are approaching our recruiting.

[B Campbell]

Harrison will have 32 by Christmas, but we taper off after that.  Almost all of our meets have been super 6's, plus one super 10 so it's been easy to rack up matches.  It's a good way to get every single wrestler lots of matches, as opposed to individual tournaments where only the better kids get more matches.  After break....that all changes! Tune up for tournament time! Because that's when it really matters.