Leaderboard

One thing our area as done for a while for the beginner level kids is to have "Rival Nights". This is hosted by the area schools and we do mat side match ups based on age and weight. We include all of Adams County, Wells County, Jay County, New Haven, and Parkway Ohio- along with any other kid that has an USA card. The HS kids officiate and we push though as many matches as possible just to get them match experience. Since we have done this, I feel we have done a better job retaining our beginner kids. Our club numbers have increased significantly over the last 7-8 years. Once those kids have a couple years under their belt, we move them to the duals team, individual events, etc.

Micic beats the Italian and will wrestle for bronze. He also clinches a spot for Serbia (himself) in the Olympics--something that only a few Americans from the 18 wrestling weights have been able to do.

Going the route of weekday duals makes sense. My athletic director and I have talked about even doing a wrestling meet to coincide with one of the boys and girls varsity basketball double headers...Wrestling at 5:00, Girls BB at 6:30, boys BB at 8:00 (or however the times worked out). And definitely looking to improve oneself as both a coach and a leader of a program is an excellent idea. Is there anything that the wrestling community can do as a whole to help the situation? Is there anything that we should be collectively pushing toward or emphasizing or promoting that would help the growth of the sport as a whole? One thing that I have felt for a long time needs to change is our approach to youth wrestling. Almost always we reward those that are already headed in the right direction with more wrestling, and we tell those that are struggling, "Nice try little fella, now get out of the way so we can see who the best 8-year-old is today." Would it help our cause to do more round-robin and pool-type wrestling and fewer bracketed winner-take-all meets? Scheduling-wise alone I would think it would be a load off everyone's minds.

Your first step, and I mean this sincerely, is to attend the Scholastic Leadership Academy as part of the IHSWCA Fall Clinic. Coach Pete Jacobsen will cover a range of topics designed to help build your program, deal with parents and make wrestling special in your school. Pete turned around a program and made it into a power in New York. You will come away from this event as a better coach.

Just a correction, it takes a different skill set to be good at the bigger weights than it does smaller weights.