Is Iowa High School/Youth Wrestling Getting Worse?

[Bogiyev]

One possible factor, in combination with several legit factors listed in this thread, may be that fewer Iowa high school wrestlers are being recruited and given the opportunity to train, develop and compete in a D1 wrestling environment. Fewer D1 wrestling teams than any other point in time, and those opportunities have been in decline for years.

 

[ISUBryceC]

Getting pinned in 20 seconds or less isn't doing anything for anybody, and that's a lot of youth tournaments around here.

We’ll agree to disagree. If you want to continue to have barely enough kids to fill weight classes at tourneys we can keep chasing off good athletes who don’t spend 9 months of the year on the mat. Seems to be working great for Iowa based on this thread.

 

[SPOONER]

M McDonough, J Borschel, C Clark, J Slaton, D St John, and I know i've seen R Morningstar in some Ubasa pictures as well, but that might have been a team Iowa dual type of thing.

There is nothing recent about this list as it’s been a full decade since most of these guys wrestled in college. Try again.

As I've mentioned, I think iowa is deep in good talent. Sure maybe being ncaa champ/aa seems to be down.

Should have stopped here. If you had, maybe you’d have caught on to what everyone else is talking about.

 

[Is_there_vodka_in_heaven]

M McDonough, J Borschel, C Clark, J Slaton, D St John, and I know i've seen R Morningstar in some Ubasa pictures as well, but that might have been a team Iowa dual type of thing.

That's all like a decade plus ago... Any recent ubasa kids?

 

[Is_there_vodka_in_heaven]

As I've mentioned, I think iowa is deep in good talent. Sure maybe being ncaa champ/aa seems to be down. However these kids sure seem destined when they leave high school to be very good.

Who in HS right now seems destined to be good at the college level? Having just watched the state finals, I didn't see a lot that I would call "destined to be very good".

 

[Is_there_vodka_in_heaven]

There is nothing recent about this list as it’s been a full decade since most of these guys wrestled in college. Try again.



Should have stopped here. If you had, maybe you’d have caught on to what everyone else is talking about.

Exactly.

 

[Is_there_vodka_in_heaven]

One possible factor, in combination with several legit factors listed in this thread, may be that fewer Iowa high school wrestlers are being recruited and given the opportunity to train, develop and compete in a D1 wrestling environment. Fewer D1 wrestling teams than any other point in time, and those opportunities have been in decline for years.

What? If they were D1 AA caliber kids they would be recruited and given the chance to compete at a D1 program. This makes zero sense.

 

[Bogiyev]

What? If they were D1 AA caliber kids they would be recruited and given the chance to compete at a D1 program. This makes zero sense.

I'd use a guy like Jesse Whitmer as a possible example. Today, that guy might end up at Grandview. Likely multiple AA/Champion. Thankfully, he had the opportunity to sharpen his skills with D1 coaching and partners (Mena, etc.), and stuck with it. There are fewer available roster positions now, so fewer kids are recruited to D1 schools overall. This takes away some opportunity for a hard working "fringe" Iowa kid to become an D1 All-American/Champion. Does that make any sense?

 

[BGon4ND]

Who in HS right now seems destined to be good at the college level? Having just watched the state finals, I didn't see a lot that I would call "destined to be very good".

Right now in high school, I'd say Ross, Schwab, Collins-Hendricks, Landers, Youngblut, Knaack, and and I'm sure I'm missing some, based on national tournaments, I would expect to be good in college.

 

[BGon4ND]

There is nothing recent about this list as it’s been a full decade since most of these guys wrestled in college. Try again.



Should have stopped here. If you had, maybe you’d have caught on to what everyone else is talking about.

Nah, I'm good. Reread what I'm saying and you'd be better at catching on what I'm explaining.

 

[SPOONER]

Nah, I'm good. Reread what I'm saying and you'd be better at catching on what I'm explaining.

All you’re doing is supporting the initial point of this thread, and this sentence is a defining example:

As I've mentioned, I think iowa is deep in good talent. Sure maybe being ncaa champ/aa seems to be down.

The above literally agrees with the OP’s point yet somehow you believe it to be a counterpoint.

As a review:

It seems to me that Iowa is producing fewer D1 National Champs and All Americans than in prior decades/generations.

 

[Life=HawkeyeWrestlin]

Two Ross kids. it’s hard to take 1A kids serious no offense to you small towners. I don’t know to spell his name but kid from LinnMar pretty good but idk about d1. Just last year we had what four to five kids heading to d1 ready to make shit happen. Tough year for seniors but I would argue Iowas wrestling high school talent is best it’s been in 10+ years with helps of high quality clubs that have popped up past ten years. IMHO of course

 

[SPOONER]

Two Ross kids. it’s hard to take 1A kids serious no offense to you small towners. I don’t know to spell his name but kid from LinnMar pretty good but idk about d1. Just last year we had what four to five kids heading to d1 ready to make shit happen. Tough year for seniors but I would argue Iowas wrestling high school talent is best it’s been in 10+ years with helps of high quality clubs that have popped up past ten years. IMHO of course

Naaktgeboren? He’s not a major recruit.

And way more than 4-5 Iowa kids went D1 last year.

 

[ff141]

Two Ross kids. it’s hard to take 1A kids serious no offense to you small towners. I don’t know to spell his name but kid from LinnMar pretty good but idk about d1. Just last year we had what four to five kids heading to d1 ready to make shit happen. Tough year for seniors but I would argue Iowas wrestling high school talent is best it’s been in 10+ years with helps of high quality clubs that have popped up past ten years. IMHO of course

Well. There are currently 3 ranked in the top 100. 98,95 and 85. Just this class but that’s not great. 7 last year though if you count Gabe Arnold.

 

[Life=HawkeyeWrestlin]

Naaktgeboren? He’s not a major recruit.

And way more than 4-5 Iowa kids went D1 last year.

Oh I was just going top of head. So one down year. We’re coming off a huge year for studs with some really young kids ready for next level. That’s my point. And yes. That linnmar kid. Not highly ranked but D1 to ISU. I didn’t mean he was all world or nothing by any means.

But yes last year had a ton of special kids

 

[SPOONER]

Oh I was just going top of head. So one down year. We’re coming off a huge year for studs with some really young kids ready for next level. That’s my point. And yes. That linnmar kid. Not highly ranked but D1 to ISU. I didn’t mean he was all world or nothing by any means.

But yes last year had a ton of special kids

Speaking of special…

 

[TS568]

While you wait for the experts to provide info, this from a few years back is interesting

The Rise, Fall, And Resurgence Of Iowa High School Wrestling - FloWrestling

Iowa high school wrestling used to be the gold standard but it has fallen on hard times lately. Has this proud wrestling state returned to its former glory?

www.flowrestling.org

That is a pretty incredible stat- 1991, 6 formerly Class 2A wrestlers in the D1 Finals. Were there 6 wrestlers in Class 2A this year good enough to make the D2 finals? Not being facetious. Such a different time.

 

[Hawks...#1]

Covered this in another thread but it's true here also. I had a kid wrestle for years as a youth and was on plenty of team Iowas all over this country in many age groups. 10u and under it's still pretty wide open, we have very good teams and they compete just fine and win plenty. When you hit those 12u and 14u teams we compete but California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Minnesota even are usually the best. Is it population, is it better development when kids really hit puberty, something else???? We can and still do win at times in those age groups but it's not with great frequency when everyone brings their best. Take all the 3A winners this year and wrestle the winners from Illinois, Pennsylvania and maybe Minnesota, see what happens.

 

[SPOONER]

Covered this in another thread but it's true here also. I had a kid wrestle for years as a youth and was on plenty of team Iowas all over this country in many age groups. 10u and under it's still pretty wide open, we have very good teams and they compete just fine and win plenty. When you hit those 12u and 14u teams we compete but California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Minnesota even are usually the best. Is it population, is it better development when kids really hit puberty, something else???? We can and still do win at times in those age groups but it's not with great frequency when everyone brings their best. Take all the 3A winners this year and wrestle the winners from Illinois, Pennsylvania and maybe Minnesota, see what happens.

Those are dual teams. Not what we are talking about here.

 

[Hawks...#1]

Those are dual teams. Not what we are talking about here.

Yes because those kids dont go on to wrestle in high school or anything. The same damn kids we wrestle on those dual teams go on to high school in their respective states genius. The same kids we wrestled in those teams are you know, the exact kids we are talking about

 

[Hawks...#1]

So yeah iowa high school wrestling as a whole is not even top 5 in the country right now, to say otherwise is just dumb.

 

[4net3sandbagger]

I think all the clubs in PA can be both a blessing and a curse. It's tough sometimes to get solid kids on a team when they know their district has several nationally ranked kids, and they only take three wrestlers to move on. The level of wrestling is very high, but it does hurt in participation a bit.

 

[SPOONER]

Yes because those kids dont go on to wrestle in high school or anything. The same damn kids we wrestle on those dual teams go on to high school in their respective states genius. The same kids we wrestled in those teams are you know, the exact kids we are talking about

We’re talking about AA and NCAA champion level wrestlers not how Iowa does really well producing solid D1 talent. Distinctive difference.

 

[Cradle to da grave]

Pablo might not currently have to to many top tier HS kids in his pipeline besides Jack Miller from Carlisle but has a few in NCAA that stand to AA this year with Devos and possibly Downey. But historically he’s helped produce several AA and National Champs.

Sebolt is clearly the front runner for youth club in Iowa these days. Everyone’s on that bandwagon. And does his kid dominate Iowa level and some national level YES. But in my opinion his style is not transitioning to well in D1. Yes he has quite a few in D1 schools but only a couple are a real threat to AA or even in the everyday lineup. If he doesn’t tweak his style a little in the years to come people will go other routes.

Pablo’s style is definitely more well rounded and better suited for NCAA. Plus Pablo truly cares about his kids and is not trying to dominate the market so to speak. Let’s also not forget who Sebolt got a lot of his coaching from with Pablo.

 

[parker01]

I’ve seen Ubassa, Big Game, Sebolt, Moyer, etc mentioned in this thread. Has anyone heard how Marinelli and Desanto’s club has been coming along? Obviously very early still, but curious to hear how that is developing.