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anyone wanna talk about iowa wrestling's issues with race?

Sorry to trigger you, but your "I have a black friend" argument does not hold up.

I provided this thread for anyone that wants to discuss the painfully obvious racial disparity in Iowa wrestling. I will leave this here. If anyone wants to take part in a constructive dialogue, please feel free. From here on out, I will not engage with posts similar to Spooners that clearly lacks perspective and compassion for millions of americans.
 
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As the top programs are all seeking national champions, in order to examine whether one or more top programs are specifically deficient in terms of reaching black wrestlers, one might look at the number of black national champions at each school. Certainly one could mention Chris Campbell, Joe Williams, and TJ Williams, but you would likely counter that those wrestlers are relatively ancient history. So let us take a look at the five most recently wrestled NCAA championships (2015 to 2019).

Iowa had zero black national champions. But is that an outlier? Decidedly not. This is not analogous to Iowa as Kentucky and everyone else as Western Texas. Not a single D-1 wrestling program had more than one black national champion in the past five years. I did not look all the way back through 2010, but I think only PSU (picking up Ed Ruth to join Mark Hall) and ASU (Robles, Bubba J) had two black national champs in the past decade.

Stated another way, Spooner at least provided substantiation for his position while responding to your initial post. What was the basis for your post, 24Hawkeye7, in specifically calling out Iowa, as opposed to the sport in general?

Virginia Tech
1) Mekhi Lewis (2019)

PSU
1) Mark Hall (2017)

Missouri
1) J'den Cox (2017, 2016)

Cornell
1) Nahshon Garrett (2016)

tOSU
1) Myles Martin (2016)

ISU
1) Kyven Gadsen (2015)
 
OP is a weak troll who is attempting to light a fuse and walk away. Let’s not give him the satisfaction.

I think it’s fair to say that most would agree that we can all do better. A prime example is the football program and the mistakes that were made there. Regardless of your personal feelings, KF is trying to own it and is taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again. The entire athletic program is likely following suit.
 
This kind of stuff is getting way out of hand and ridiculous.

Why start a "topic" like this? It's either because you want to start trouble or you must feel guilty about something. I do not.

Wonder why the Williams brothers, Chris Campbell, Montell Marion, Moody, Cejudo (freestyle with Terry Coaching), Lugo, etc etc etc would come wrestle for Iowa?
 
This kind of stuff is getting way out of hand and ridiculous.

Why start a "topic" like this? It's either because you want to start trouble or you must feel guilty about something. I do not.

Wonder why the Williams brothers, Chris Campbell, Montell Marion, Moody, Cejudo (freestyle with Terry Coaching), Lugo, etc etc etc would come wrestle for Iowa?
Edwin Cooper
 
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Sorry to trigger you, but your "I have a black friend" argument does not hold up.

I provided this thread for anyone that wants to discuss the painfully obvious racial disparity in Iowa wrestling. I will leave this here. If anyone wants to take part in a constructive dialogue, please feel free. From here on out, I will not engage with posts similar to Spooners that clearly lacks perspective and compassion for millions of americans.

People are saying you beat your wife. No idea if it's true. Just a speculation I've heard going around. Hope that you can show compassion and engage in constructive discussion about this claim.
 
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People are saying you beat your wife. No idea if it's true. Just a speculation I've heard going around. Hope that you can show compassion and engage in construction discussion about this claim.

Oh, and any refutation that you may issue in defense of yourself is then proof positive that you really are an abuser.

That's how the mob works dude...be better.
 
Sorry to trigger you, but your "I have a black friend" argument does not hold up.

I provided this thread for anyone that wants to discuss the painfully obvious racial disparity in Iowa wrestling. I will leave this here. If anyone wants to take part in a constructive dialogue, please feel free. From here on out, I will not engage with posts similar to Spooners that clearly lacks perspective and compassion for millions of americans.

I provided the actual program experience with minorities. This is called “evidence” and your response stated you wish to ignore actual evidence and instead make baseless allegations—you posted zero evidence of your claim.
 
Edwin Cooper

I can only think of two black starters in Brands 14 years at Iowa (Marion and Cooper). For comparison PSU had 3 black starters this year. Neither Marion or Cooper were recruited straight out of high school. I don't see any signs of blatant racism in the program, but it seems like a good time for all programs to listen and self reflect how they can do better.
 
Sorry to trigger you, but your "I have a black friend" argument does not hold up.

I provided this thread for anyone that wants to discuss the painfully obvious racial disparity in Iowa wrestling. I will leave this here. If anyone wants to take part in a constructive dialogue, please feel free. From here on out, I will not engage with posts similar to Spooners that clearly lacks perspective and compassion for millions of americans.

If there is anybody who was triggered, it was you. Spooner gave specific examples...you didn't. Then you shut down your own "dialogue." Sounds like you just want folks that agree with you...constructively of course. Plus, you basically called Moody a token instead of a guy that worked hard and made a place here for himself the past 5 years.
 
I can only think of two black starters in Brands 14 years at Iowa (Marion and Cooper). For comparison PSU had 3 black starters this year. Neither Marion or Cooper were recruited straight out of high school. I don't see any signs of blatant racism in the program, but it seems like a good time for all programs to listen and self reflect how they can do better.
Iowa was openly recruiting 2 of those 3 starters. They recruit good wrestlers period. Race doesn’t matter. The fact that we were a runaway favorite shows we recruited a team of top wrestlers. It just so happens 9/10 were white. It’s a coincidence. If Iowa had Jordan Decatur, Elijah Cleary, Kennedy Monday they would be more diverse and also a worse wrestling team.
 
Sorry to trigger you, but your "I have a black friend" argument does not hold up.

I provided this thread for anyone that wants to discuss the painfully obvious racial disparity in Iowa wrestling. I will leave this here. If anyone wants to take part in a constructive dialogue, please feel free. From here on out, I will not engage with posts similar to Spooners that clearly lacks perspective and compassion for millions of americans.

You’re obviously not a golfer...
 
I can only think of two black starters in Brands 14 years at Iowa (Marion and Cooper). For comparison PSU had 3 black starters this year. Neither Marion or Cooper were recruited straight out of high school. I don't see any signs of blatant racism in the program, but it seems like a good time for all programs to listen and self reflect how they can do better.
Well I can only speak for myself, but I can't possibly tell you how relieved I am that you've come to the conclusion there is no blatant racism in the Program. Dodged a bullet there, and I can sleep tonight. Whew.

I guess in the meantime I'll just be content that we assembled the best DI team out there and deal with it as best I can.
 
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I can only think of two black starters in Brands 14 years at Iowa (Marion and Cooper). For comparison PSU had 3 black starters this year. Neither Marion or Cooper were recruited straight out of high school. I don't see any signs of blatant racism in the program, but it seems like a good time for all programs to listen and self reflect how they can do better.
If you want to talk about the umber of minorities on the team - or is it only black members we are going to discuss? Either way, stating the number of starters is not fair because no one really knows who will start when they recruit the kids. So discussing the number of black or minority athletes is a better way to discuss this. It is obvious that some teams have more black members than others. Is that the coaches fault or the kids making choices that are better for them? If you tell me that Iowa does not recruit black kids at all, then maybe it is a problem. I highly doubt that is the case though. If you tell me that black kids are not choosing Iowa but are being recruited, then I do not see any problem here.
 
OP has nothing but I have something.

How about we talk about the protesters who are turning protests into nights of drunken stupidity, tagging buildings and fooling themselves into thinking they’re a part of something special? They’re not. There’s nothing special in that sort of behavior.

How about we talk about the protestors who stood-by and watched others commit acts of destruction and vandalism...night after night...never standing up for their town and city....or themselves.
 
OP has nothing but I have something.

How about we talk about the protesters who are turning protests into nights of drunken stupidity, tagging buildings and fooling themselves into thinking they’re a part of something special? They’re not. There’s nothing special in that sort of behavior.

How about we talk about the protestors who stood-by and watched others commit acts of destruction and vandalism...night after night...never standing up for their town and city....or themselves.
Maybe if Iowa recruited some of those looters, people would say they are not a racist team. Oh wait, that would not be enough, the looters would also have to be starters. But then what if they did not win the NCAA title. Would that be racism?
By the way. What is the deal with Scrap life?
 
There may be tons of other reasons why people would not choose u of I. Most wrestlers seem to be good students. It could come down to their major and how that schools program is. Me personally I hate big cities and would prefer a small town. Therefore UCLA and USC among others would not be appealing if they recruited me. Also there is not much around Iowa City for people who enjoy big city life. Also, maybe not as diverse as other cities. Going to Champaign would put you very close to Chicago, Indianapolis, etc. Many kids might want to stay closer to home. Again iowa city might not be close to kids from Ohio, Michigan, etc. So many factors go into making that decision than just the sport itself. So as long as we are recruiting African americans I dont see any problem. The problem would be if we are not recruiting these kids. It sure looks like we are though
 
If you want to talk about the umber of minorities on the team - or is it only black members we are going to discuss? Either way, stating the number of starters is not fair because no one really knows who will start when they recruit the kids. So discussing the number of black or minority athletes is a better way to discuss this. It is obvious that some teams have more black members than others. Is that the coaches fault or the kids making choices that are better for them? If you tell me that Iowa does not recruit black kids at all, then maybe it is a problem. I highly doubt that is the case though. If you tell me that black kids are not choosing Iowa but are being recruited, then I do not see any problem here.

If you include all minorites then there has been 4 minority starters(Lugo, Ramos, Marion, Cooper) in 14 years. If you look at any minorites on the team only Perez and Moody have wrestles over three years and wrestled a substantial number of matches. Brantley wrestled 1 match from 2014-2017. Renteria, Jean-Jacques, Green, and Pendleton were on the roster for one year or less. Iowa State is also located in a small Iowa college town and they have 7 minorities on their roster including 4 starters.
 
There may be tons of other reasons why people would not choose u of I. Most wrestlers seem to be good students. It could come down to their major and how that schools program is. Me personally I hate big cities and would prefer a small town. Therefore UCLA and USC among others would not be appealing if they recruited me. Also there is not much around Iowa City for people who enjoy big city life. Also, maybe not as diverse as other cities. Going to Champaign would put you very close to Chicago, Indianapolis, etc. Many kids might want to stay closer to home. Again iowa city might not be close to kids from Ohio, Michigan, etc. So many factors go into making that decision than just the sport itself. So as long as we are recruiting African americans I dont see any problem. The problem would be if we are not recruiting these kids. It sure looks like we are though

My Dad and I were discussing this today. He's old school but we were talking about the transition one has to make re: the military but I think it applies to a program. One may have been around black people their whole life and now they are in Iowa City away from what they grew up in. Even if nobody is paying attention to what they say or do, sometimes it may feel like it (Spotlight Effect). My Dad was like "Hell...there is hardly any black women around or places to hang out in Ames or Iowa City." I know Iowa City prides themselves on being "diverse" but it really isn't compared to places that we recruit from. It's why its hard to get players to commit to coming to Iowa. By the time they leave, most of them (black or white) love it and their experience here. But it would be a tough experience being young, black and under a microscope because you are on the most beloved team in the state.

As for wrestling, it comes down to who is interested in the Iowa philosophy plus trying to win recruiting battles between the big schools. We tried for GSteve, really wanted RBY...we were just late to the party on that one because we thought we had our guys in Gavin, Renteria etc. Wrestling is much harder to recruit because of the lack of $$. You really have to make sure one is all in and even then we have missed on quite a few.
 
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