My two cents on high school wrestling
1. High school wrestling in Iowa is at an all time high. I bring this up because of the flo article a few months back that start every year questioning weather our state is still on top. Two things with the list. Flo post the list before they could add cash. Also shouldn't we get half a point for topher. He did wrestle two seasons in Iowa in high school. There are 5 factors that affect the state of Iowa not having more qualifiers for division 1 nationals. Dresser, population, economics, age, and state rules. Here my background on knowing what's going on in high school wrestling in Iowa. I just finished my 10 season as high school coach. I have coached at two different programs. I have been lucky to coach in the state finals 5 times. The first program I coached at was a wrestling community. We had multiple place winners every year. The second program that I'm apart of we would get kids to state but not place tell until this year.
Dresser will make Iowa state better. Which means more Iowa kids will qualify for D1. We can look at UNI as an example. UNI is not a power house yet but they do send a lot of Iowa guys to D1. I think UNI can develop into lower top ten program. With couple loaded classes UNI could push for trophy. Dresser will improve ISU witch means more Iowa kids qualifying for D1. With the improvement of UNI and hopefully the improvement of Iowa state not very kid in the state will want to grow up being a Hawkeye. There is a lot of talent that gets lost for whatever reason in Iowa room. We all know when all three programs are doing well it will only improve high school wrestling in the state.
Population is big factor when it comes to overall numbers of D1 qualifiers. The more kids out for wrestling the more freak athletes there are to pick form. Kids in Iowa are asked to play at least two sports or more depending on a school size. Kids that can focus year round on one sport gives them advantage early in there careers. If the flo article would have added cash form iowa would have been number 1 in D1 qualifiers per population.
Economics is a big factor in seeing more kids wrestling out of state in the offseason. The average household income where I live in Iowa is close to 50,000 a year. I know a young man that is wrestling at D1 college next year. His family told me they spent 7,000 last offseason for Disney duels, freestyle duals, Fargo, and other camps. Bigger cities usually means higher paying jobs and more business to get sponsorship to help programs out. We all know living in small towns businesses get hit up by different high school programs asking for money. The average wrestling family can't afford all the summer wrestling.
The average Age of wrestlers in some state is going up. Two state that come to mind are Ohio and Pennsylvania. Not surprising these are two of the hottest state producing D1 wrestlers. Yes this is happening a little in Iowa. Basically wrestlers are repeating 7 or 8 grade or call it taking red shirt year.
Last thing that hurts the state of Iowa is the rules imposed by the state. There are two rule that really hurt wrestling in the state. High school teams can only wrestle in border states not exceed I believe 275 miles form the state line. Not exactly sure on the miles 225 or 275 some where in there. The second rule you are not allowed to compete over winter break. This causes the state to miss out on couple good tournaments. Yes you can get wavers sign by the state but only so many get signed a year. The clash would be example of tournament sometime held over break.
Love the sport of wrestling and always want the sport growing. Don't really have favorite college team just want the rosters full of Iowa kids. Also a lot of good insight form some of you older guys on the board
1. High school wrestling in Iowa is at an all time high. I bring this up because of the flo article a few months back that start every year questioning weather our state is still on top. Two things with the list. Flo post the list before they could add cash. Also shouldn't we get half a point for topher. He did wrestle two seasons in Iowa in high school. There are 5 factors that affect the state of Iowa not having more qualifiers for division 1 nationals. Dresser, population, economics, age, and state rules. Here my background on knowing what's going on in high school wrestling in Iowa. I just finished my 10 season as high school coach. I have coached at two different programs. I have been lucky to coach in the state finals 5 times. The first program I coached at was a wrestling community. We had multiple place winners every year. The second program that I'm apart of we would get kids to state but not place tell until this year.
Dresser will make Iowa state better. Which means more Iowa kids will qualify for D1. We can look at UNI as an example. UNI is not a power house yet but they do send a lot of Iowa guys to D1. I think UNI can develop into lower top ten program. With couple loaded classes UNI could push for trophy. Dresser will improve ISU witch means more Iowa kids qualifying for D1. With the improvement of UNI and hopefully the improvement of Iowa state not very kid in the state will want to grow up being a Hawkeye. There is a lot of talent that gets lost for whatever reason in Iowa room. We all know when all three programs are doing well it will only improve high school wrestling in the state.
Population is big factor when it comes to overall numbers of D1 qualifiers. The more kids out for wrestling the more freak athletes there are to pick form. Kids in Iowa are asked to play at least two sports or more depending on a school size. Kids that can focus year round on one sport gives them advantage early in there careers. If the flo article would have added cash form iowa would have been number 1 in D1 qualifiers per population.
Economics is a big factor in seeing more kids wrestling out of state in the offseason. The average household income where I live in Iowa is close to 50,000 a year. I know a young man that is wrestling at D1 college next year. His family told me they spent 7,000 last offseason for Disney duels, freestyle duals, Fargo, and other camps. Bigger cities usually means higher paying jobs and more business to get sponsorship to help programs out. We all know living in small towns businesses get hit up by different high school programs asking for money. The average wrestling family can't afford all the summer wrestling.
The average Age of wrestlers in some state is going up. Two state that come to mind are Ohio and Pennsylvania. Not surprising these are two of the hottest state producing D1 wrestlers. Yes this is happening a little in Iowa. Basically wrestlers are repeating 7 or 8 grade or call it taking red shirt year.
Last thing that hurts the state of Iowa is the rules imposed by the state. There are two rule that really hurt wrestling in the state. High school teams can only wrestle in border states not exceed I believe 275 miles form the state line. Not exactly sure on the miles 225 or 275 some where in there. The second rule you are not allowed to compete over winter break. This causes the state to miss out on couple good tournaments. Yes you can get wavers sign by the state but only so many get signed a year. The clash would be example of tournament sometime held over break.
Love the sport of wrestling and always want the sport growing. Don't really have favorite college team just want the rosters full of Iowa kids. Also a lot of good insight form some of you older guys on the board
