graham

...

Super solid post.

Your son may be at a disadvantage in USAW youth wrestling, in the sense of his age compared to others he is wrestling. But unless you enrolled him into school early, he will have an advantage in that way in high school. My 13 yr old is an October birthday and I think it has been great for him. One of the best youth wrestlers I know (if not the best) is not small for his age and his dad had him wrestle 8th grade and under duals from the time he was in 2nd or 3rd grade. So he was wrestling kids who were 3 and 4 years older. He would even have him bump up a weight at these duals. Lol It was tough going in the beginning, but he won USAW folkstyle nationals and got 2nd in USAW freestyle nationals this last year. He is in 6th grade this year. My two youngest sons both have November birthdays and I think it’s great. Either way, this is a USA Wrestling thing and not necessarily an Indiana thing.

I tried to get my son (8th grade) to play golf this summer like in the past but he would not do it. Wanted to keep focusing on wrestling. I don’t want him to burn out, and thought it’d be good to mix it up as we have in years past, but he sees that freshman year coming up. 🤷‍♂️ As far as middle tier kids not being as high in numbers... my guess is that this phenomenon is happening in other sports as well with the rise of specialization. It may correct as parents who got burnt are having kids and won’t allow their kids to do it. But the ideas posted here before about about bringing more hype to duals and wrestling in general—lights, music, recognition in publications. I think this is key to bringing new kids into the sport. Also, getting year-round kids to do some recruiting along with coaches. My son talked his friend into joining the team at school and my son wasn’t even on his team. This kid is now an 8th grader, gonna wrestle again this year and will probably wrestle in high school. Seems like adding 1 or two kids to a program a year is not too lofty a goal, and the hype should help retain if implemented.

Yes. And I want to say Thank You! to Indiana Mat for getting me a $30 discount on my Track Gold+ membership! Don’t know if the promo is still available but it prompted me to take advantage of that when I went to watch a match from the tournament.

Trackwrestling tweeted a clip of the pin out, recognizing Logan, and they didn’t question it either.

Logan Bailey! 💪💪💪💪

Dillon who??? Never heard of him Yeah I saw Ocampo at GRR. He looked tough. Last time I remember seeing him, he was smaller than Dillon, I think.

I saw a tweet saying that a lot of these cadets from other countries are definitely over 18. Is that possible?

I saw that on Twitter after I posted. Dang. Rooting for him the rest of the way!

When does he wrestle next?

Yeah when gsmith asked earlier in the thread if I had any input, this is why I said I will leave it to those who know better! 🤪

Oh wow. My bad, I thought he was an 8th grader. Lol

I’ll tell you an 8th grader that is not listed that I think will surprise a lot of people is Alexander Ocampo. 👍👍👍

Yesterday evening @Flowrestling tweeted: Jessie Mendez is the truth.