wolfpackwrestling Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 My athletic director has basically given me an ultimatum for next season. Either I have more than 10 wrestlers ,which we didnt this year, or the program will be shut down before it can begin its third year. If there are any other coaches with experience in raising a program from scratch who have ideas for recruiting* <dirty word I know> please direct them to this post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pin2win1 Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Back in the 70's Chris Geesman at Penn inherited a small football team that had very little success.... So what did he do? He guaranteed that everyone who came out for football would get playing time. Now was that varsity playing time? Not sure, but if i were you I would promise that everyone would be guaranteed enough matches to get a varsity letter. Now, this may take away from the value of a letter, but it will get u much needed wrestlers to keep the program alive. I think I would also get together with the football coach if you have a football team.... spell out the benefits of wrestling for football players, especially line men wrestle. Also you might want to hit the track coach and tell him that it would benefit some of his distance guys to wrestle during the winter. By getting support from other coaches you might get them to encourage students to wrestle. As for a long term solution, I would try to start a summer wrestling camp for the grade schoolers... nothing fancy.... just maybe a 2 hour practice for a couple of weeks. By doing this maye the AD will see that wrestling has a future. BTW: I forgot to say... Chris Geesman probably ran one of the most successful football programs the state of Indiana has ever seen. Out of curiosity... where do you coach? Do you have other coaches helping you out or are you a lone ranger? I hope that this helped you out some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2CJ41 Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Also make sure you are lifting weights during the season. That usually is a big thing football coaches tend to stress. If you want to have a successful program at the small school level you and the football coach need to be best buds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pin2win1 Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Good point y2.... weights are a must, and should be done whether u want football players or not. Al Smith always made us lift cause he said that when you cut weight without lifting, that you lost muscle rather than fat. Dunno if this was true, or not..... but I don't care how old coach smith is.... he could beat the snot out of me anyday, so i'll take his word for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duck_and_run Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 You may want to start a youth program up. Hand out flyers at the elementry school. If you can show enthusiasm at the lower level you could get the ball rolling. Plus the more people you have envolved with wrestling in your area the more pull you can have arround the school district. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chambers Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 I coach at Tecumseh. Last year was my first year at that school. The three years before I took the job Tecumseh ended the year with 3 wrestlers two years and only 2 wrestlers the other year. My first year we had five wrestlers go out for the team and two of them got season ending injuries during the two weeks before sectional. I do not teach and am not from that community. Almost nobody knew me and that made it hard to get the kids onto the team. This year I have eleven wrestlers on the team and can fill ten weight classes. The big difference between year one and two is that I helped out with the football team. I know very little about coaching football and did not play in high school. The football staff knew this but still let me come in to practice and I would help out where I could. I worked mostly with the 7th and 8th grade teams and filmed for the high school team on Friday nights. This let the kids get to know me and most of them told me that they would not have been on the team if I had not been around at the football practices. Our schedule is not very tough right now and that is ok for our team as most of my guys are first year wrestlers or guys that wrestled in the past by then quit the team for 2 or more years. This gives our new guys a chance to get a win here or there and keep them excited about the sport. Wrestling is a tough sport for tough guys but when you have a young or inexperienced team they need some events where they can have a chance to do well. You really need a middle school or JR high team. I think you wrote something about having one this year. Do you need a match? I will have 7 or 8 guys that have wrestled before but I should also have a lot of the guys from the 7th and 8th grade football team out this year that have never wrestled. Another thing I do with my high school team is go to the weightroom two times a week which makes the football coach happy. Out of the eleven guys on my team only two are cutting any weight at all. I told the kids when I was trying to get them out on the team that I did not care what weight they wrestled as long as they were on the team. My 145lber is cutting all of 4 pounds from his weight at the time of the skin fold test and another guy that is cutting 8lbs. Everyone else started under weight or right on weight. My theory is that I am trying to build a team/program and to get the kids hooked on the sport I need to make it fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drooke Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Excellent post, Chambers! Good Luck, Wolfpack! Are you a teacher as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfpackwrestling Posted January 17, 2010 Author Share Posted January 17, 2010 No Im not a teacher. I coach at Crawford County High school in rural south central Indiana. We are a 2a school in football a program that has been varsity for all of years now. My wrestling program is in year two and I have 5 kids out right now. I appreciate all of the ideas and suggestions. I will pick and choose and try to blend these along with my own to try and build a succesful program. Feel free to continue to respond with ideas as I enjoy seeing what has worked for other schools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TripleB Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Get with Moe and have start offering Wrestling Practice as a way out of ASD. Might work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drooke Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 No Im not a teacher. I coach at Crawford County High school in rural south central Indiana. We are a 2a school in football a program that has been varsity for all of years now. My wrestling program is in year two and I have 5 kids out right now. I appreciate all of the ideas and suggestions. I will pick and choose and try to blend these along with my own to try and build a succesful program. Feel free to continue to respond with ideas as I enjoy seeing what has worked for other schools. I'm sure you have already thought of this but in case you haven't..... Have a sit down in the middle of the mat with your 5 kids and have a discussion about your program and who you/they could recruit. Most likely when you bring up the topic they will mention several kids that have the potential to be good wrestlers....the thing is those kids just don't know it yet....that is where you come in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccbig Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Go to where the athletes are- This helps you get to know the parents and athletes and to help get their attention towards wrestling. You are doing this already by being involved with the football team. Because they share many of the same skills make sure to let athletes and parents know that being a wrestler can help make the athlete a better football player. Often overlooked is the cross country running team and they can be a great source for lighter athletes and all will have the great cardio needed for wrestling. Don't forget to look for the smaller athletes! Check with gym teachers and ask about great athletes who are smaller in size. Wrestling is one of the few sports that a small athlete can compete against someone their own size! Be involved with the youth program to create a natural feeder program to the middle and high school team. Make sure your current athletes get noticed for their successes in the school announcements, paper and in local newspaper if possible. Letting the kids know about a good chance to earn a varsity letter in wrestling on a smaller team is a great point! Make it a mission for each of your current wrestlers to bring at least 2 of their friends to come out and try wrestling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB145 Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 I coached for a few years. I took over a program with 4 kids on the team the previous year. My third year we had 23 kids on the roster and had a decently competitive team. Some things I did to jump start the program was one become part of the football coaching staff. I was a volunteer in the high school and didn't get paid however I was with a lot of the kids and got them interested. You'll be surprised if you get one kid interested he will usually bring one along. I also coached football at the junior high level which built up my middle school program. Two I had frequent meetings before the season started at school. Yes some of the kids would come just to get out of class for 15 minutes but it still would get some kids interested if they seen their friends in there. And if I did that once a month it kept it fresh in their minds. Another thing I think that's important is being involved. I took my kids to camps, and clinics. Did fundraisers with them and even wrestled in tournaments with them. Also getting the parents involved and having them help build up the program was a big key as well. Long term start yourself a feeder program. Those kids might have older brothers. The parents will get involved and help build the program. It can be done. I did it even with a athletic department who fought us the whole way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twmaurer Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 My nephew is the wrestling coach at a 2a school and had trouble filling his roster until his son played football his senior year. I believe he had 24 or 25 kids come out for wrestling this year. Maybe buddy up with the football program. Don't give up and hopfully things will work out for you and your wrestling team Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCWrestlefan Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 The only thing i might add would be try to get as many kids ( all your Wrestlers & their buddies ) and take them to Conseco to watch the State finals and all the Glory on Wrestlings largest stage. This may help because as we all know Wrestling is a very demanding sport that gets little recognition, so it may not be so popular to these young Men. Good Luck to you Coach! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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