State of Iowa had 80 high school girls wrestling 4 years ago and this year had over’4000. It’s growing with popularity at a crazy pace! Great for the state of Iowa and a great opportunity for those who don’t want to bounce a basketball. Great to see the University of Iowa be a pioneer to get it rolling at the college level as a sanctioned sport. Word is state will possibly be held in Carver going forward for the Iowa girls high school tournament. You may not like it, but the publicity is awesome for our program. Go Hawks!!!
Open letter/suggestions for Tom
- Thread starter augiehawk
- Start date
I want Kemerer back at Iowa as an assistant…he’s just too good to leave in Minny. I want him working with Angelo and not with Max.
We need more non-Iowa hammers IMO. Love Spencer, ADS, and SB, and am in awe of the accomplishments of the others, but I’d prefer getting more offensive juggernauts into the program.
Many people enjoy it. I've taken my daughter's to the championships this year and last year. Very fun to watch. It's converted me into someone that would rather watch freestyle. Men and women.
I’d tell him, you have to make tectonic changes to even be in position to win another title.
Current path isn’t working
You owe it to the kids you coach and the Iowa fans to explore every avenue possible to come back too.
And when he says “we like our guys”
I’d get the ball moving to change leadership.
Current path isn’t working
You owe it to the kids you coach and the Iowa fans to explore every avenue possible to come back too.
And when he says “we like our guys”
I’d get the ball moving to change leadership.
Obviously if my child competed in it I would support her, but otherwise I couldn’t see myself being engaged in a competition featuring, slower, weaker, less athletic and less explosive athletes. No thanks.
You’re obviously not an Iowa men’s basketball fan
I’ve yet to watch a full game of basketball in my life (women’s or men’s).
NCWWC each of the last two years were probably the most exciting wrestling events I watched each year. Helps that the Iowa team is so dominant but man, there's a lot of matches packed into two days and each match typically has a lot of action. I get that women's wrestling and freestyle wrestling aren't everyone's cup of tea and that's fine, but you're doing yourself a disservice for not giving it at least a chance
I love freestyle. I was basically forced to watch an event online as they mixed the men’s and women’s into the same event. Forced diversity at its finest. I saw part of a match involving a very large girl (had to be heavyweights) from Iowa vs a girl from a school that I’m sure was invented right before the event started. It was the finals and I was treated to about the least athletic contest I’ve ever witnessed in collegiate sport. No way either of these ladies could do a full pull up.
The D-1 men’s National wrestling tournament is the pinnacle of athletics IMHO. I’m just not interested in a watered down version of the sport I love. To each his/her own.
Here is the question I always ask myself? Do you want to be the top program or not? How do you expect to get there if you are burning money and resources into something your main competition isn’t. It’s ok if you don’t answer because it ruins your narrative
Fair enough then. Agree to disagree
Is the money to run the women’s program coming out of the men’s program? What resources is it pulling from the men’s program? What are we talking about specifically here? Serious questions. They definitely have separate coaching and training staffs and separate budgets.
Doubt Gomez would come didn't he accuse Iowa fans of saying racist remarks to him last time he was in Carver? Also, never understood these RTC's paying athletes who don't represent USA wrestling. I get bringing them in to train for a period of time but paying them seems counterintuitive.
targeting the womens program, which has been great for girls wrestlings, fans, and publicity, is an idiotic idea. it’s not a zero sum game where that money is coming out of the men’s budget. if you don’t believe me it’s public information. take your personal bias out of it and look at the numbers.
Tom...I shouldn't have to **** up my credit score trying to buy an expensive carver cone...
This and fixing the website should be his top two issues to work on this offseason.
And having wrestle offs open to the public and in Carver.
The facility ended up being much more expensive, because of it housing both the men and the women. Those dollars almost exclusively came from supporters of the men’s team. Millions of dollars that could have been put to different use. On top of that, the facility is a shared space, so the men can’t just come in and workout whenever they please.
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May get me smashed on here, but my son wrestled for M2 when it was still in a storage space. He's wrestled in Hershey. Those aren't to brag, but just to state that he is a solid wrestler. I've been to high level tournaments and have seen a girl tech a kid that ended up on the podium this year in Philly. May not have the depth, but there are some solid ladies out there.
I’d bet Kennedy Blades could kick the shit outta 83% of the dudes on this forum.
Have you ever done anything in life that projects farther out than just the day you’re living? It is coming to an arena near you. Either be first or be last and our University is first. Live with it bud. I don’t give two shits if you like it, that’s your opinion and you have the right to feel that way the same way I feel about having mine 🤷♂️
Most men on this forum are fat, old dudes. She’s a D-1 collegiate athlete, but by all means continue to simp for her.
If there was a woman on the planet that could be a D-1 wrestling starter, we’d have seen her by now. She’d make a lot of money for the University in ticket sales. Imagine if it was Winona Hendrickson that took out Gable?! There’s a reason male born trans athletes are fighting to compete against women and not the other way around. Let’s get back to reality fellas.
As a dad with a daughter who wrestles, and has fallen head over heels in love with the sport, I certainly pray we don’t drop the women’s program. That little girl is freaking GLUED to the home meets, Soldier Salute for both days and the events we can get on the internet. So many good role models and great examples of wrestling. She loves watching the men bc it’s wrestling, but it’s just different for a girl to watch women. The direct and indirect impact that program has had on my daughter is insane for it being two years old.
There's a reason some of us have him on ignore.
Chauvinistic much? lol They produce more offense than almost all the men. At least with the women we have a national championship wrestling team. Don’t see the guys getting there soon. Brands is so jealous of them he won’t let Coach Mayabb use the men’s locker room. You do remember an ex Hawk is the driving force behind the growth of women’s wrestling.
Okay back to reality. The reality is dropping the women’s program would be a huge mistake for the University.
Dear Tom, get rid of Telford, move Terry to HWC Bring back Kem, possibly Mocco with his kid, put Spencer in Terry’s place but give him time to train and travel through the 28 Olympic cycle. Then retire after 28 and let Spencer take over.
Adapt coaching to the changes that have occurred, scrambling, finesse (watch Messenbrink), actually teach more guys to ride to look for back points and falls instead of just riding. Accentuate and grow the skills the recruits come in with not try to convert them to the “Iowa Style’ (see recruits that came from young guns) Don’t run the team so hard that by the end the f the year they are not peaking they are bruised battered or injured. Open the facility to allow fans to watch practice on week days like the old room not just football Saturday’s.
Adapt coaching to the changes that have occurred, scrambling, finesse (watch Messenbrink), actually teach more guys to ride to look for back points and falls instead of just riding. Accentuate and grow the skills the recruits come in with not try to convert them to the “Iowa Style’ (see recruits that came from young guns) Don’t run the team so hard that by the end the f the year they are not peaking they are bruised battered or injured. Open the facility to allow fans to watch practice on week days like the old room not just football Saturday’s.
Leave the women's wrestling program alone. It may save wrestling with the Title IX crapola. Besides, the girls deserve to fulfill their dreams too.
^^^This. I haven’t watched a lot of women’s wrestling, but in the matches I have watched, there is much more shooting in neutral and much less dancing than most men’s matches.
