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What programs would you like to see do well?

The attrition of wrestling participants is closely related to the decline in the number of farm boys who used to wrestle. The smaller family farms are gone and so are the studs who used to compete. They were also responsible for squads having full teams.
Sadly true.
 
The attrition of wrestling participants is closely related to the decline in the number of farm boys who used to wrestle. The smaller family farms are gone and so are the studs who used to compete. They were also responsible for squads having full teams.

I don't think so. Any sport that has declining numbers can almost certainly attribute it to specialization. A kid like Spencer Lee, 20 years ago, probably would have run cross country and played baseball. Now he wrestled 12 months out of the year. So two other sports have one less participant.

Quarter of a million HS kids are wrestling. Several times as many youth wrestlers.
 
I believe the changing nature of the sport at the youth and HS level bodes well for the Ivy League, and all high-academic schools. My observation over the last ten years has been that the best wrestlers are starting to come from wealthy families - who can afford the clubs, private lessons, nutritionists, strength coaches, travel, etc. that starts when the kids are 8 or 9 years old. I look at NJ, where the top kids are not only spending that kind of money, but are spending even more money going to schools like Delbarton, Bergen Catholic, and Blair for coaching and exposure. Most those kids' parents spent more money on their wrestling than it would have cost to send them to four years at a state college. For some of them it is the somewhat psychotic "daddy ball" driving them to make champions out of their kids, but a growing number of them are doing it specifically to set their kids up to get into an Ivy. They have the money for any college; they're looking for an edge for admittance.
Art, I had some conversations with a few of these parents in the Boston area, and you are unfortunately dead on. The difference between these families and the blue-collar wrestling families I grew up with is huge. Wrestling is generally very weak in New England, where hockey is king. But in better wrestling states like NY, NJ, and PA, this could be significant nowadays. Lacrosse is getting super-popular around here too, but it barely overlaps wrestling season in high school, so kids could do both.
 
I don't think so. Any sport that has declining numbers can almost certainly attribute it to specialization. A kid like Spencer Lee, 20 years ago, probably would have run cross country and played baseball. Now he wrestled 12 months out of the year. So two other sports have one less participant.

Quarter of a million HS kids are wrestling. Several times as many youth wrestlers.
In Iowa, I think the decline of small family farms IS significant to wrestling, or at least to wrestling culture in Iowa. And you are right: those farms kids probably don't specialize like suburban kids do. Obviously, this won't be significant in your area.
 
Art, I had some conversations with a few of these parents in the Boston area, and you are unfortunately dead on. The difference between these families and the blue-collar wrestling families I grew up with is huge. Wrestling is generally very weak in New England, where hockey is king. But in better wrestling states like NY, NJ, and PA, this could be significant nowadays. Lacrosse is getting super-popular around here too, but it barely overlaps wrestling season in high school, so kids could do both.

Lacrosse is huge in wealthy NJ towns. Drives the football coaches nuts.
 
I don't think so. Any sport that has declining numbers can almost certainly attribute it to specialization. A kid like Spencer Lee, 20 years ago, probably would have run cross country and played baseball. Now he wrestled 12 months out of the year. So two other sports have one less participant.

Quarter of a million HS kids are wrestling. Several times as many youth wrestlers.
Wrestling is a great tool to tame men's testosterone and aggression more wrestling programs equals less prison time
 
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Currently there are seven million men on a prison on parole or probation and 700,000 women are actually two million men in jail compared to 200,000 women. We need more wrestling programs not less. Helps calm the male spirit.
 
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I don't think so. Any sport that has declining numbers can almost certainly attribute it to specialization. A kid like Spencer Lee, 20 years ago, probably would have run cross country and played baseball. Now he wrestled 12 months out of the year. So two other sports have one less participant.

Quarter of a million HS kids are wrestling. Several times as many youth wrestlers.
I do think so. The basis of my statement is backed by conversations with coaches and friends who have/had children and grandchildren wrestling in rural areas of IA, MN, WI, SD and IL over the last twenty to forty years.

Almost certainly, the statistical analysis which supports your statement on specialization, included demographics of rural and metropolitan areas.

school enrollment numbers in towns with a population of 5,000 or less. Are down significantly, hence a record number of school district consolidations and fewer participants

From my perspective of being impartial to the country mouse, Common sense supports my earlier post.
Take a drive where the grain elevators stand in the shadow of the weathered water towers.
Looking forward to your findings.
 
Well, three threads on Stoll are enough! Had to switch the conversation to something more relavant! By the way, my next post may be, “Will concussion protocol ruin wrestling? Let’s do a thread post,within a post?

Concussion/CTE research might ruin football/MMA unless medicine research/advancements find a way to regenerate brain damage.
 
Arkansas Little Rock. Would be nice to see a team in the deep south have some success, and hopefully open up a new market.
I hope so too! As a youth coach in Arkansas, I see a ton of passion from our young wrestlers — but they don’t have a history or a cultural link to it like I did as a kid growing up in Big Ten country. Having a *successful* D1 program here in-state will help the sport grow in Arkansas.
 
Brands has made this point several times. For wrestling to grow we need some of the big-money, big-name programs in big states to add it. Texas, Florida, SoCal. Until a Conference like the Big-12 ACTUALLY looks like the Big-12 in wrestling and not Okie State v the Mountain West, it’s going to be hard to make a big national step-change. Thankfully schools like UALR are adding wrestling in new geographies. If we can’t get the big-money guys behind it, hopefully we can at least get enough regional diversity with the new programs to expand the fan-base.
 
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Anyone that wants a good laugh should visit the Goof's forum "recruits".

To summarize... Minny fans were kind of ripping Kerk after his struggles overseas. Lot's of bitterness that he went to OSU. Secretly, I think they know he's going to handle GS once he's on full feed. In a nutshell, Kerk's old man ripped into the negativity towards Minny high schoolers that leave the State. Several posters were trampled in the back peddling and apologized.

Gopher fans are losers and such pussies.

Ya there is no room for negativity on forums.

Someone said Kerkvleit is going to be a 4x NCAA runner-up to Gable 3x and Nash Hutmacher once(alluding he wants him to be a Gopher). That is what set off Papa Kerk. I am glad you will not stand for this injustice Mitch. I hope you can share a posting etiquette seminar so we can all meet the standard you have set.

Mitch is the Jammen of the Iowa fan base.
 
I'm not sure where Flo got its data, but here are the boys participation numbers for the last 5 years from the National Federation of State High School Associations:

2012/13 270,163 IA 6,709
2013/14 269,514 IA 6,773
2014/15 258,138 IA 6,424
2015/16 250,653 IA 6,512
2016/17 244,804 IA 6,586

You can double check my math, if you wish.

http://www.nfhs.org/ParticipationStatics/ParticipationStatics.aspx/


Your math is good; however, I am wondering about the quality of the dataset.

Being a lifelong resident of western PA, I can tell you that football still rules - no surprise there. Western PA and pretty much statewide, we have seen the very rapid growth of ice hockey, which is no friend to wrestling. If you look at ice hockey participation numbers for PA, the data is showing all 0's. It is one of the fastest growing sports in PA!!

Ice hockey and lacrosse are almost like "sister" sports. I would love to know how many hockey players also play lacrosse. From what I see, it has to be a lot.

I think ice hockey picks off kids who otherwise may wrestle. The success and popularity of the Penguins have helped feed the growth. The ice hockey fan base has a very significant female component (read, moms) and thus young kids are being steered to hockey in favor of other sports. Ice hockey is a heck of a lot "sexier" than wrestling.

You would think the cost of hockey would be an impediment to a lot families, and perhaps it is. While western PA has pockets of affluence, there are many more families of modest means in the rural areas.

Despite what I have written above, I'm happy to report that the wrestling culture is alive and well in PA!!
 
I hope so too! As a youth coach in Arkansas, I see a ton of passion from our young wrestlers — but they don’t have a history or a cultural link to it like I did as a kid growing up in Big Ten country. Having a *successful* D1 program here in-state will help the sport grow in Arkansas.
I lived in Alabama for 5 years before coming back to Big Ten country, and there is definitely some enthusiasm and talented kids (Brandon Womack was an AA). I think it's close to taking off in a huge way down there, but needs a little push.
 
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Ya there is no room for negativity on forums.

Someone said Kerkvleit is going to be a 4x NCAA runner-up to Gable 3x and Nash Hutmacher once(alluding he wants him to be a Gopher). That is what set off Papa Kerk. I am glad you will not stand for this injustice Mitch. I hope you can share a posting etiquette seminar so we can all meet the standard you have set.

Mitch is the Jammen of the Iowa fan base.
Not even close. I don't really pump up the Hawk wrestlers because I'm not close to the program and never even get close to the room except before some Fall football games and a few duals in a year.

With the grandchildren all heavily involved in youth sports... I have different priorities.

But I watch college wrestling at every opportunity and read numerous forums. And I make my observations and comments from those sources. And if you care to look through the archives and read my comments and predictions... I'm pretty damn accurate the majority of the time. Especially in my thoughts about the Gophers and ISU.

So I don't see the similarity to Jammies that you see.

BTW: On full feed and a full sized HWT... I predict Kerk never loses to GS again.
 
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Not even close. I don't really pump up the Hawk wrestlers because I'm not close to the program and never even get close to the room except before some Fall football games and a few duals in a year.

With the grandchildren all heavily involved in youth sports... I have different priorities.

But I watch college wrestling at every opportunity and read numerous forums. And I make my observations and comments from those sources. And if you care to look through the archives and read my comments and predictions... I'm pretty damn accurate the majority of the time. Especially in my thoughts about the Gophers and ISU.

So I don't see the similarity to Jammies that you see.

BTW: On full feed and a full sized HWT... I predict Kerk never loses to GS again.
I more so meant you both troll other fan bases at all costs with minimal touch on reality.
 
I more so meant you both troll other fan bases at all costs with minimal touch on reality.
I beg to differ. I don't post on other sites, so there's no trolling.

I have a firm grasp of reality and an ability to be extremely objective in my thoughts. A far greater level of reality than either Cyclone or Gopher fans on their own forums or when they post here.

You just don't like to read it. As an example... I was very skeptical of the Eggum hire and still am. No objective person believed he didn't know about the drug scandal occurring under his nose. J just happened to fall on the sword and your AD was too lazy to conduct a national search. Then running off a few guys and make them scapegoats. Then... back to back sub par seasons. He better be on the hot seat if this season ends with another finish outside the top ten.
 
I beg to differ. I don't post on other sites, so there's no trolling.

I have a firm grasp of reality and an ability to be extremely objective in my thoughts. A far greater level of reality than either Cyclone or Gopher fans on their own forums or when they post here.

You just don't like to read it. As an example... I was very skeptical of the Eggum hire and still am. No objective person believed he didn't know about the drug scandal occurring under his nose. J just happened to fall on the sword and your AD was too lazy to conduct a national search. Then running off a few guys and make them scapegoats. Then... back to back sub par seasons. He better be on the hot seat if this season ends with another finish outside the top ten.
You can troll from anywhere. You know ISU and MN fans eyes are on here. You go to their sites then love to run back here and bring it up. Same thing different platform. Jammen is to another degree, but u have some trolling in ya.
 
Not even close. I don't really pump up the Hawk wrestlers because I'm not close to the program and never even get close to the room except before some Fall football games and a few duals in a year.

With the grandchildren all heavily involved in youth sports... I have different priorities.

But I watch college wrestling at every opportunity and read numerous forums. And I make my observations and comments from those sources. And if you care to look through the archives and read my comments and predictions... I'm pretty damn accurate the majority of the time. Especially in my thoughts about the Gophers and ISU.

So I don't see the similarity to Jammies that you see.

BTW: On full feed and a full sized HWT... I predict Kerk never loses to GS again.

Lol, you're an adult?! In a week full of surprises, this is the biggest one.
 
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