My two cents...coaches have to work together. There is a big push at Rochester High School to get our coaches sharing more athletes. Not just kids but the athletes. Our football coach (Mike Zehner) and I have had a lot of discussions about how we can work together to get more of his athletes to wrestle. The nice thing about Mike is that he wrestled and sees a huge value in it. He also wants to win and he wants to win state titles. He knows I can (and I want to) help him achieve his goals. Honestly, I think he wants to help me achieve mine as well.
I did about a 30 minute presentation to the football team using a power point presentation that was given to me by Coach Struck at Jeffersonville. I modified it to fit our program and Mike gave me the time to present. Mike and I have also come to the agreement that during football season, I will not hold wrestling workouts, and during wrestling season there will be no football workouts. He has told his kids that their winter workouts will be a winter sport. For wrestling, I have 32 kids committed to coming out. Last year, we started with 16 and finished with 14. Our basketball and swimming programs have also benefitted.
Coaches have to communicate and they have to see the value in helping other sports succeed. At Rochester, we are headed in that direction. At a school our size it is vital that we work together and not just encourage, but teach our athletes the value in competing in multiple sports.
Clint