Parity

[GunnerHawk]

Wrestlers from 16 different schools were represented in the finals. Don't know that I have seen that before. Probably good for wrestling but not good for the Hawks. Another noticeable shift is the number of east coast schools, in particular from Pennsylvania.

I am somewhat concerned that our recruiting focus seems to be Iowa and Illinois. We use to get more talent from the East.

 

[shobart]

Parity is a big driver of "leveling out the playing field" IMHO. Out East recruiting isn't easy as you have Cornell, Penn State, Ohio State, etc. lots of schools with good coaching, and along with that comes stronger competition from a recruiting perspective. I think we continue to see this in the future. Granted, as a Hawk fan, I always found it exciting when we were consistently the top dog and it was a question of how large a margin we would win by. However, I think it is great as it reflects how popularity has grown within the sport. I will say it makes the tourney pretty exciting. Lots of huge upsets this year, and I thought the tourney was exciting to follow.

Just my two cents.

 

[Jaybird319]

It's great for the sport of wrestling, I think everyone agrees on that. I'll take it a step further, I hope it translate into better international wrestling from USA. Olympic and World should always b the goal of top echelon wrestlers. I can only see a bright future for USA on international scene, more and more youths r wrestling Freco at an earlier age. More international success means more revenue from corporate sponsors and more coin into clubs/wrestlers pockets

 

[sloehawk]

Originally posted by GunnerHawk:

Wrestlers from 16 different schools were represented in the finals. Don't know that I have seen that before. Probably good for wrestling but not good for the Hawks. Another noticeable shift is the number of east coast schools, in particular from Pennsylvania.

I am somewhat concerned that our recruiting focus seems to be Iowa and Illinois. We use to get more talent from the East.

Iowa has always recruited nationally, but primarily has focused on locking down Iowa and the Midwest, which I would say has served them pretty well. We've got more "talent" from the East right now than we've ever had IMO. What we haven't got is the Banachs, the Heffernans, the Campbells, the Chiapparellis, etc. Guys that were at the very top of the sport during the regular season and NCAA's.

And Edinboro has been around in the wrestling world for a long time, they have several studs at the moment, but lose 3 of them. They will probably fall back a bit, but they are in wrestling rich P.A., so they can reload in state and will do well I'm sure. They haven't gone away, and they won't I'm sure.

The state of Virginia does seem to be moving up a bit however. My personal opinion is that Tom Brands all by himself pulled Virgina Tech wrestling out of the ashes and made them relevant again. They were gnashing teeth and the doom and gloom was out when he came back to Iowa, worried about dropping the program when he left, etc., and it's been better than it ever has (which I stated at the time he left - it was obvious they were much better off than they'd ever been - since proven in spades). There are several former Hawks out there helping that along at all levels as well.

Just this year, we had Evans, Dziewa, and Telford, from the East. We've got Kemerer, Marinelli and Young coming from out there and I'm sure are targeting some others in the region. We recruit Nationally and always will. Burak is from Colorado, Mejiah from California, etc.

 

[forcheyhawk]

I think you hit the nail on the head with the parity thing. I do think we've been doing a good job of recruiting nationally, however. Take a second and keep track of the can't miss recruits coming out of high school and all the hype that follows them. Then figure out how many of them end up being multiple time national champs like a Metcalf. Very few of them end up being as dominant as David Taylor, Ed Ruth, or Logan Stieber. That being said, Iowa has ranked very high in recruiting (as high as #1 in years past). So not only do our coaches think we are recruiting well but so does the rest of the wrestling recruiting experts. It's unfortunate but we've not got a few of ours to pan out like some of the other schools. Heck look at Isiah Martinez this year. To begin to compete for titles again, you are going to need a couple of guys that you can count on to win the title. The year that Mike Evans and Bob Telford committed I'd bet most of the wrestling world thought those two guys were it - likewise that same year the Altons were ranked higher than anyone we recruited and they were can't miss recruits many thought - also notice the states that each are from:

1) Iowa
Top Recruits: (184) #4 Mike Evans-Enola, PA, (157) #11 Nick Moore-Iowa City, IA, (141) #12 Josh Dziewa-Yardley, PA, (285) #19 Bobby Telford-Wilmington, DE, (141) #31 Jake Ballweg-Waverly, IA, (165) #74 Mike Kelly-Cedar Falls, IA, (149) #79 Anthony Baldosaro-Voorhes, NJ
How do you replace a senior class which included seven wrestlers who achieved All-American status over the course of their careers? You may not be able to, but Tom Brands and staff have certainly tried, signing seven wrestlers ranked in D1CW's top-80 High School Seniors. Ballweg and Moore are both familiar names to Hawkeye fans, as both have brothers who are current Iowa wrestlers. Nick Moore lost just one time in his HS Career, on his way to becoming just the 19th wrestler to win 4 Iowa State Championships. This year's Iowa recruiting class has a rare Eastern flavor, with National Prep Champ Mike Evans, PA State Champ Josh Dziewa, and 2x State Champs, Bobby Telford and Anthony Baldosaro.
Past D1CW Recruiting Rankings:[/B] 2009 #5, 2008 #6


http://d1collegewrestling.net/Recruiting_Rankings2010.html

 

[GunnerHawk]

Sloehawk,

I was thinking more about Rico, Ed and Lou from NJ. All great Hawkeyes.

We use to do well in Ohio but T. Ryan has done a great job of keeping the top kids in-state.

The underlying theme at many of the up and coming programs, head coaches and/or assistants wrestled at Iowa.

 

[Hicksy87]

Have several former Hawkeyes coaching in the Midwest has definitely IMO had an impact in recruiting. The Hawkeyes used to pull a few kids out of Ohio (the Heffernans wrestled for St. Edward I believe) but Tom Ryan has done a good job keeping most of the Ohio kids home. He could almost stock a team just from St. Edwards and St. Paris Graham.

I noticed Colin Heffernan wrestled for Central Michigan at the NCAA Tourny. I saw that he went to St. Edwards HS in Ohio but no other info on him. I presume he is related to Jim Hefferan at Illinois in some way.

 

[redghost1974]

I wish we got more Cali kids, but I think Perry's pipeline may be drying up with Zeke at ASU and Fresno State coming back.

 

[sloehawk]

Originally posted by redghost1974:
I wish we got more Cali kids, but I think Perry's pipeline may be drying up with Zeke at ASU and Fresno State coming back.

We can't get kids from every state every year fella's, and we have to protect the Midwest as well. Pure numbers game. And scholarship money roullette. We're a national brand, and aren't going anywhere. More hits and less misses would do wonders for this program.

 

[grappler6]

Pretty sure Collin is Jim's nephew. Jim's brother coaches at St. Eds as I am sure you are aware.