High Risk, but with the best interest of the athlete first and foremost our staff made a difficult decision…
This year, the staff took a huge risk in removing Lee’s redshirt. The safe decision was to hold Lee back and sandbag for the future with a young and talented team. Who could criticize the logic in that move?
The huge risk was to make the decision they did, because if Lee got hurt, had a bad NCAA Tournament, placed 5th or got upset or wrestled poorly for any reason: sick, hurt, nerves, the staff would have been brutalized by many on this forum. I can hear it now, how stupid to pull the shirt of a kid 12-months removed from major knee surgery, …to sacrifice a year of Lee wrestling in the future? Look at the current field, hold him back and two national champions graduate, the wrestler ranked #1 by many might move up to 133... Are you kidding me, redshirt Lee and he has a clearer path, on paper, to the NCAA Title next year. He's a year stronger, a year to get bigger, because many on this forum said that he was too small to wrestle a NATO. What a stupid staff, stupid decision, should be fired etc. The thread might have set a new record for length and pages. Our coaches said that while it certainly helped the team to pull his shirt, the main reason they pulled the shirt was that Lee needed to wrestle and that it was best for him to wrestle and that they always put the needs of the athletes first. They also said that they felt that Lee could win it this year and I guess they were right.
This is leadership and this speaks to the character of our staff. They did what was right for Lee and no matter what happens moving forward, he will always be an NCAA Champ and the first true freshman since the creation of the 125lb weight class to win the national title. It was right for him and it was right for us, because recruits see the right decisions being made. They see Lee talking about Iowa as a family and how much he loves the coaches, his teammates and Iowa in general. Future recruits and their families hear language and messaging that is very different than what’s being told to them by rival coaches ("we like scoring, we are not robots like what was said in the past") and they are hearing it from someone that they have watched wrestling on the biggest stages for years—four age group word championships, Cadet Nationals, Junior Nationals, Super 32’s and a young man that comes off as authentic and not being a "Bo Nickals" etc.
Our team led the entire field in bonus points this year. When was the last time that happened? We beat Penn State in the bonus point battle despite the fact they returned 5 national champions this year and most of our points are back next year and we add Warner who has great bonus point potential and I think Lugo has better scoring potential than Sorenson--remember some tough wrestlers graduate like a Retherford. Then you look to Murin, Young etc., not to mention another year of experience for the entire team. We beat Michigan in the team race, because they only scored 11.5 bonus points and we scored 30.5 this year. By doing the right thing by the athletes, by taking a risk as a staff and not listening to popular sentiment our staff has placed us back in the discussions for the team race for next year, which will influence recruiting. I can’t imagine us not being ranked #2 going into the next season since we return the 2nd most NCAA team points and we are bringing out a few great red-shirted freshmen and a 2X national qualifier in Lugo. Even those that always try to dismiss Iowa as they did in all of the NCAA Tournament predictions can’t miss our returning point total.
We can win it next year, yes it will be tough and we won’t be favored, but we can win it, but more importantly, we have established momentum that can set the table for future team national titles. Our staff took a chance and did what was right and that decision reflects leadership. The environment and landscape is very different now than in the past when the HWC was the only club like it in the nation and now we have programs with multi-million dollar endowments to finance their teams, so we have our work cut out for us, but I will always stand behind the guys with good character that do the right things and that describes our coaching staff. I want to give a shout out to our staff for making the right call on pulling the redshirt for Spencer Lee.
This year, the staff took a huge risk in removing Lee’s redshirt. The safe decision was to hold Lee back and sandbag for the future with a young and talented team. Who could criticize the logic in that move?
The huge risk was to make the decision they did, because if Lee got hurt, had a bad NCAA Tournament, placed 5th or got upset or wrestled poorly for any reason: sick, hurt, nerves, the staff would have been brutalized by many on this forum. I can hear it now, how stupid to pull the shirt of a kid 12-months removed from major knee surgery, …to sacrifice a year of Lee wrestling in the future? Look at the current field, hold him back and two national champions graduate, the wrestler ranked #1 by many might move up to 133... Are you kidding me, redshirt Lee and he has a clearer path, on paper, to the NCAA Title next year. He's a year stronger, a year to get bigger, because many on this forum said that he was too small to wrestle a NATO. What a stupid staff, stupid decision, should be fired etc. The thread might have set a new record for length and pages. Our coaches said that while it certainly helped the team to pull his shirt, the main reason they pulled the shirt was that Lee needed to wrestle and that it was best for him to wrestle and that they always put the needs of the athletes first. They also said that they felt that Lee could win it this year and I guess they were right.
This is leadership and this speaks to the character of our staff. They did what was right for Lee and no matter what happens moving forward, he will always be an NCAA Champ and the first true freshman since the creation of the 125lb weight class to win the national title. It was right for him and it was right for us, because recruits see the right decisions being made. They see Lee talking about Iowa as a family and how much he loves the coaches, his teammates and Iowa in general. Future recruits and their families hear language and messaging that is very different than what’s being told to them by rival coaches ("we like scoring, we are not robots like what was said in the past") and they are hearing it from someone that they have watched wrestling on the biggest stages for years—four age group word championships, Cadet Nationals, Junior Nationals, Super 32’s and a young man that comes off as authentic and not being a "Bo Nickals" etc.
Our team led the entire field in bonus points this year. When was the last time that happened? We beat Penn State in the bonus point battle despite the fact they returned 5 national champions this year and most of our points are back next year and we add Warner who has great bonus point potential and I think Lugo has better scoring potential than Sorenson--remember some tough wrestlers graduate like a Retherford. Then you look to Murin, Young etc., not to mention another year of experience for the entire team. We beat Michigan in the team race, because they only scored 11.5 bonus points and we scored 30.5 this year. By doing the right thing by the athletes, by taking a risk as a staff and not listening to popular sentiment our staff has placed us back in the discussions for the team race for next year, which will influence recruiting. I can’t imagine us not being ranked #2 going into the next season since we return the 2nd most NCAA team points and we are bringing out a few great red-shirted freshmen and a 2X national qualifier in Lugo. Even those that always try to dismiss Iowa as they did in all of the NCAA Tournament predictions can’t miss our returning point total.
We can win it next year, yes it will be tough and we won’t be favored, but we can win it, but more importantly, we have established momentum that can set the table for future team national titles. Our staff took a chance and did what was right and that decision reflects leadership. The environment and landscape is very different now than in the past when the HWC was the only club like it in the nation and now we have programs with multi-million dollar endowments to finance their teams, so we have our work cut out for us, but I will always stand behind the guys with good character that do the right things and that describes our coaching staff. I want to give a shout out to our staff for making the right call on pulling the redshirt for Spencer Lee.
