Well it wasn't too long ago we had immovable fatties like Cole Konrad and Dustin Fox winning championships. I think Sam Stoll is going to try and bring back the fat for Iowa next year.
I think some of it has to do with the popularity of football. If you're the type to have to lose weight to make 285, you're likely a football player and not a wrestler.


As far as adding a weight, id rather see one added in the middle weights since participation numbers support that thinking. But if we could bump 197 up to 210, id be ok with that. Someone 225-230 could reasonably get there. Something like:

127
135
144
152
160
169
180
192
210
285

I like that idea a lot.

What about the tiny dudes who have a difficult time gaining enough weight to wrestle 125? They are out there. Do you think a 118 lb class would work? I wrestled in college with a guy who was a complete badass and no matter what he did, he couldn't outgrow 115 lbs. He hit the weights religiously, went on weight gaining diets, etc....he could just not overcome the fact that he was 4'10 and never going to reach 126. And he was GOOD. One of the hardest workers in the room, for...sure. One of the best, most physical wrestlers. He was just too small. If there was a weight suitable for him, he would be 3rd tier D1 material... A guy who would probably make some noise and maybe win some matches at nationals. Instead, he was 2nd string D3 at 125 his entire career, weighing 116 on full feed and won 65% or so of his matches. Sad stuff...he had so much heart.

Btw, Hamas... Do you think wrestling is something you could become a fan of of you learned the ins and outs of it? It'd be cool as hell having your smarts (when you accumulate it wrestling-wise) in this thread for sure!

Btw, fun little random fact. When my youngest brother was a 3rd grader, he wrestled this stud from Fort Dodge in the semis at AAU state in the 3rd and 4th grade division. A couple matches later in that same round, on that same mat....one of the most highly anticipated match ups in recent AAU memory took place. It was the semis match between Cory Clark and Thomas Gilman as 8th graders. These two butted heads a few times in youth. Gilman won...stalled his butt off. For those of you who don't know, the significance of this match was that these two are Iowa's current 125 (Gilman) and 133 (Clark) tandem. They fought all year last year for the 125 spot, which ultimately went to Clark.

Thought that was a fun fact because Gilman wrestled HS in Nebraska. Many people don't realize that he was an Iowa boy from Council Bluffs who went to a Catholic school/wrestling powerhouse (Omaha Skutt) in high school. He was expected by most to wrestle for Council Bluffs Lewis Central...which is 3A just like the school Clark went to (Southeast Polk). Lewis Central was a powerhouse in my day...kicked out studs like the Paulson twins (ISU), Brandon Mason (OK State), BLake Anderson (Iowa), David Kjeldgaard (Okie State), etc. Clark won 4 titles in Iowa...I THINK Gilman did the same in Nebraska. Wonder how things would have gone if Gilman stayed in Iowa... Crazy to think about.

I think a watered down weight like 118 would be bad for the sport. I know wrestling wants to be the sport that includes everybody, but i don't share that line of thinking. I can't imagine how hard it would be to recruit a 118 pounder that wasn't killing himself to make weight. I know there are a few good 113 pound seniors this year, but some of them actually do fill out eventually. Matt Kyler and Jordan Conaway come to mind. I felt the same way when people complained about moving 103 to 106. God forbid your 95 pound freshman wrestler has to wrestle JV for a year. If it means less forfeits, it's good for the sport. Another example is having an 88 pound weight class for 14/15 year olds at the Cadet level. When there are as many 106 pounders as there are 88 94/100 combined, why do we still have 88?

The high school weight classes at the lower weights has always baffled me. Back in the day, 98 lbs was the lightest weight in Iowa. And I meet former 98 lbers all the time. I don't hear very many stories of teams having difficulty filling that slot back in the 70's/80's. However, the minimum weight increased to 103 and now to 106...and many schools have a hell of a time occupying the 106 lb weight class... Have people gotten smaller or were the scales different back then? Not likely, but I can't help, but wonder if the coaches were a bit sketchier back then when it came to weigh ins. When I was a Freshman and Sophomore in high school, we weighed in, first thing in the morning. The only thing necessary that had to be present for a successful weigh in was a certified coach had to be present and witness the kids weighing in. Our own coach weighed us in...and he was honest about it. I've always wondered how many coaches around the state cheated a bit on it...and I wonder if you saw more 98 lbers back in the day because of it. We didn't move to the "weigh in an hour prior to competition in front of both team's coaches" system until I was a Junior...crazy to think about.

I tend to agree. Unlike myself, my sons wrestle/wrestle were always in the "25th percentile" of size and weight, so wrestling really helped them not get crushed by every fat and overweight kid in many other sports. Yeah, AND I EVEN HELPED start the local youth football league, AND coach them both in baseball too. So I know and love all the sports, so I think I know where I'm being fair, but wrestling is the one sport where size and weight are taken out of the mix for the most part.

Yep... one of the cool things about wrestling is that it appeals to some of the kids who firmly believe that they have been overlooked for whatever reason in other sports, and wrestling works for them for they have more control over their destiny.

Yeah, it seems weird to me too. Not sure why it's different. I do like going back and watching old Olympic matches at 48kg and 52kg. It's hilarious watching two lightning quick jockeys going at it.

It was true for me. I was a basketball kid and I just never hit a growth spurt. Wish I would have wrestled earlier in life.

Other than the GT fans on their blog not getting Gabe's point after winning, Gabe really said it well, wrestling is a sport where you're in control. It's one of the first things you learn when you get into it, and it's what drives any number of self-proclaimed "great" athletes away from wrestling.

There might be some wiggle room for those who say "the room" and "practice partners" can make a huge difference, and I'll buy that to a point, but in the end it's on the wrestler and ONLY the wrestler to control the outcome and his future. Well, aside from some of the "crap calls" you'll here all too often, but you can't fix that.

I stressed a saying with my wrestlers and especially son, "when you're out there, you have no team mates, no timeouts, and no excuses. (If you need them you need to try baseball, football, basketball, or soccer)" Once they grasp that concept, have their first ass-kicking from a kid who out-everything'ed them, they make a choice - work harder and get better, or quit.

The first time I saw my son fight through a loss with two tampons shoved up his nose, only to lose, I knew he was in it to win it. All he said after that loss, and I let him lead in with the post-match debrief, was that he tried his best and will stick him next time. Other than hiding the tear that was welling-up in my eye, I knew there was no coaching point that could be made at that moment because he did the #1 most important thing, he tried his hardest, stayed calm, worked the moves he knew, and left it all on the mat (and some blood) - so what if that's more than one!!!! Later we broke-down the film, he noted some opportunities he missed, and we moved on (swollen nose and all - yeah, broken!). That was the day I realized he was better than me at this sport too (more athletic in every way, and mentally in a really good place).

And he didn't stick the kid the next time, but he won by 8 points and most of the points were back points (both ways to be honest!). They are still friends today.

Oddly enough, when he gave-up wrestling for robotics, he did pickup tennis, and one of the reasons he loves tennis so much is because he doesn't have to worry about whiny team mates, there are no excuses, and he kind of likes the time-outs...

That's one of the reasons why I've always like golf. I rely on myself and myself only.

An example of my inability to trust teammates: When I was in little league, I would often run from first to back up second on steal attempts because they would **** up the catch so often that I didn't want the ball to get through and have the runner advance to third. It pissed them right off.

WOW!!! Ohio St. was so dominant in this tournament. Logan is a great kid and he deserves all of the success that comes his way. This team will only get better with a healthy Hunter Stieber and Nick Tavanello next year. Then throw in Micah Jordan next year and they should be even better. If only OSU would keep all of their kids in state, they wouldn't have as much difficulty winning the Big 10. The state of Ohio produces so many great wrestlers.

I coach catchers (still the best position in baseball IMO!!!), and my kids get a dose of my 1970s/80s upbringing by learning that you backup 1st. Once we got it through their heads, we actually built plays around it. Not that it worked a lot, there were those cases when the kids called for an overthrow of first. Hardly a usual play, but the kids loved it.

And from 13 years old and up, I often times turned the game over to the pitcher and catcher to call. Some of the parents hated it, but they didn't get how much more the pitchers and catchers learn to communicate, the whole infield actually, when the adult is taken of of the mix. The pitcher know that if the call came from the coach, don't question it, but if it came from the catcher, perhaps there's something to discuss. AND.....when the catcher knows he's on tap to "call the game", he starts to learn A LOT more. He studies batters, he pays attention to his pitcher's stuff, and most of all he keeps his head even more in the game.

And I love to watch these young athletes work their game from a cerebral perspective. And they can, given the chance, they can...

Well now I feel bad about letting my feelings about The OSU be put out there...

Either way, **** Ohio State!

Sorry!

I don't know about better. They will be great, but they could struggle to make up Logan's points. Hunter is a huge injury concern and Courts would be lucky to AA again with the talent coming back at 184. 133 doesn't get any easier for DiJulius either. Mark Martin has the best shot to make a jump in performance, but he's been underwhelming his whole career. I thinks it's fair to expect something out of Micah Jordan, but he is no Bo. Tavanello is just limited physically and they might be better off with Thomas Haines if he can prove something. Perhaps Hayes from Missouri will come in and contribute right away at 141, but you just never know.

I don't know if they were as dominant as you think. They were two takedowns away from losing the NC to Missouri.

They were tremendously aggressive it seems, and they certainly deserved to win.

I don't even know what to think about next year until these redshirts and true Freshmen start showing what they are all about. Things can be so simultaneously predictable, yet unpredictable in wrestling.

Ohio and Pennsylvania really produce some studs starting in youth and high school... I've been to Fargo tournaments where Pennsylvania kids just wiped the floor with seemingly everyone. And man are they arrogant about it...not much for small-talk, even if it's about how good their kid is, if the person who is trying to converse with them and compliment them is an Iowan.

In ten years, I think the biggest youth/high school powerhouse may very well be California. My youngest brother was on the 8th grade Iowa team at the NUWAY duals last year...they really struggled with the California team they faced. They are takedown machines over there... Lot of taking down, letting them up, taking them down, letting them up, etc. Evidently, some of the Hispanic/Latino population in California is starting to really catch on to wrestling...

The Snyder/Cox match still pisses me off. Snyder did nothing but back off to the edge for 5+ minutes after the initial takedown. He didn't deserve shit and I'm glad he got flattened in the final. Tomasello was a rightful champion, however.

That had to be embarrassing to get pinned in the national final.

It happens. It happened to David Taylor of Penn State as a freshman... to a former teammate who was nudged out of the program by coach Cael Sanderson. Taylor was undefeated and the favorite too. Taylor and Sanderson caught grief for it, but Taylor went on to become one of the most dominant wrestlers ever in college wrestling.

I remember that match like it was yesterday.

How do you think the Gadsen vs. Cox match would have gone, had Cox won?

OSU had some noticeable dirty, cheap-shots from multiple wrestlers in their lineup throughout the entire tourney.

Hard for me to pick against Gadson. I just like the kid too much. I know it would be close. Kyven won 3-1 in sudden victory in what I believe was their only matchup last year. It'd likely be another low scoring match coming down to one takedown.

I am at the Mick Pickford freestyle tourney right now watching the broa wrestle. Ethan Andersen is here and sporting Mizzou gear. I can't remember if you said he was just being recruited at the moment or if he has committed already...but he is sporting Mizzou stuff. And he looks tough.

He's a 2016 verbal commitment according to Intermat. My guess is he projects at 285? If Cox indeed moves to Hwt and never takes his redshirt, it would appear that Andersen could step in as his replacement as a redshirt freshman in 2017-2018. Not a bad situation. He would get to work out with Cox for a year, and Miklus for two, while projecting to start all 4 years of his eligibility. It helps that Mizzou has been great in developing the upper weights in recent years (Miklus, Cox, Eblen, Mellon, Bradley, Ellis, Askren, etc)

Not sure how I missed this thread. I was a state champion at 135 (180 now) in high school and besides the workouts at the comrodery I really don't miss it. Having to keep all that weight off your frame when your body is just begging to grow wasn't fun. Eating like an anorexic canary for no reason didn't appeal to me.

I absolutely loved the challenge and the girls looking at you with that 'wow' look but I wouldn't starve myself ever again and not really sure I'd push my son to do it. That's some brutal shit.

It's sad you had to do that. The sport would be better without some of the coaches in it. I honestly think there's a lot less of that going on today than back in "my" day. And I hope it's more watched as we move forward.

It's not hard, work your ****ing ass off and wrestle your weight, it's just not that hard.

They hydro and perf test today, and, because of the past problems with it, I'd be fine with it getting even more monitored....

Lots of great coaches and a great sport just don't let someone your care about fall into that weight class pit. It's not healthy and when push comes to shove you're not making a living off wrestling.

Amen brother. I wasn't much, but my coach (back in the 80s!!!) said, "you wrestle you weight, not anything less." And I was glad to do that with my older son and will do the same with my younger son too.

THAT being said, there's nothing wrong with teaching a kid how to eat to be lean. A balanced diet, hydration, and working out. With wrestling the later is a joke, there are few, if any, wrestlers who don't get plenty of the right exercise (if they care), but add a little more to it than the food pyramid, and you can teach them how to build and maintain muscle. And then fear nobody at their weight.

And THAT being said, I never freaked-out when they came into the room from football season "fat"! Certain positions in football tend to have 5-7 pounds they can lose just by moving from the football practice field to the wrestling room. And I personally took note of the football players who were gassed during those first few practices. If they were, I knew they were in football shape, but not wrestling shape. THOSE guys could lose 5 pounds and I'd write it off to being in the room and having coaches who taught a smart and lean diet.

As a parent of a current wrestler who could be competitive in our state: I would tell the coach to get ****ed if they were trying to push my kid into a weight class where he didn't belong. If it's something he can maintain by monitoring his intake/output slightly, then that's fine. But I know kids who are competing for scholarships at the next level and the coaches are offering them contingent on them competing at a class where they may or may not be comfortable (lose 10 pounds and stay there going forward, and we'll give you a scholly).

That being said, I don't think there's anything wrong with kids learning how to watch their intake/outtake and control their nutrition.

Extra story: My Division I son (6-7 years old) has never even been close to being over the weight he competes (60 lbs). I still always try to make him conscious of his intake/outtake, just so he's familiar with the whole concept. He usually weighs about 57-58 lbs, so I really don't worry about his weight. We went to weigh in at a point in this season, and I had been ****ing with him about making weight and talking to him about how people lose weight, specifically talking about water retention. After we weigh in on Friday before tourney, he goes to water fountain and starts slurping down water. I asked him why he was so thirsty. Evidently, he hadn't had a drink all day because he was worried about making weight. Poor guy.

Anyone know how Mizzou is recruiting?

I came down with a rare disorder called cold urticaria when I was 20... That means I am allergic to cold. I went to the Mayo Clinic last summer because they suspected cancer could be the underlying cause of it...results were negative. Not much is known about the causation of it and treatment is basically nonexistent. It ****ing sucks. Recent studies have indicated that in 50% or so of the cases, cancer, mononucleosis or rheumatoid arthritis are underlying causes. I've been checked for all 3 now...negative on all of them.

I swear, I acquired that condition by cutting way too much weight in high school and college. I think I ****ed up my equilibrium. I cut an atrocious amount of weight in grades 9-11 and my Sophomore year in college. Like...up to 30 lbs, when I didn't have much fat to begin with. I remember when I was a Freshman, I was varsity at 119 and the first weekend of the year, our 112 lber broke his hand. I was the only one who they thought could POSSIBLY make 112, so they asked if I would go down while we slid the JV 119 (who was a future state qualifier...pretty good) in at 119. I agreed despite the fact that it was HELL making 119. I weighed 129 at the end of the day that the kid broke his hand...gained 10 lbs that day just from making 119...and I had to make 112 by that following Thursday, and every Thursday and Saturday following that until after Christmas break. And I did it. The only thing I would do to eat or drink was suck on an orange and spit the juice out in a cup. Starved myself. And that's just one of many awf weight cutting experiences I had. It was a bitch making 112/119 as a Freshman, it was an even bigger bitch making 130 as a Sophomore, it was the biggest bitch making 140 as a Junior, it was a pretty decent sized bitch making 152 as a Senior, it was a huge bitch making 174 as a Freshman and Sophomore in college and a helluva bitch making 184 as a Junior in college. Just kept growing...thankfully it wasn't stunted, but I think my equilibrium was.

And weight cutting is so overrated...I wrestled worse because of it. I wrestled my best in offseason freestyle tourneys when weight wasn't a concern. Not only does it wear at you physically, but the stress and anxiety of making weight also wears at you. So counterproductive.

Congrats on winning state! What state?! Lonewolf was a state finalist.

I hear ya brother. Both my brothers are 6 foot or bigger and I'm 5' 9" and I know it was at least partially attributed to trying to be a 135 pound guy. That's 45 ****ing pounds and I didn't have an ounce of fat on me then or now. That weight cutting shit is bullshit and no good. States were won in Pennsylvania back in the mid 90's. Never pursued wrestling once past high school. I played college intramural hockey and practice Brazilian jiu-jitsu as much as I can fit in. I'd be happy if I was never in another brawl in my life. There were too many take downs that ended badly on both sides. Thank you on the congrats! Hope all works for you on the health issues. I'm rooting for ya.

I watched Battle at the Gridiron today at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City. It was ****ing awesome!!!! One of the best wrestling events I've ever been to!!

We've started practices back up. 3 times a week for 90 minutes at a stretch, and my boys still can't get enough of it and are always asking if tonight is another wrestling night?

Our club hired a real coach this year. A young kid who wrestled in college for Ouachita Baptist. Great guy, and he's very passionate. I'm excited because our former coaches were just dads who basically had the kids live wrestling for over half the practice. This coach is much more into drilling and also seems to be able to make it fun.

My son live wrestled against a teammate for like 10 minutes the other day. Just take down after take down. He got his ass whipped every time, bounced back up, and went at it again (the other kid is a year older and a lot more developed). He was shedding some tears by the end of it (and I was probably yelling more than I should have trying to tell him what to do), but I was proud of him for bouncing up and going at it probably 20 times even after suffering some brutal takedowns.

Older son (with disability) is also wrestling, but he won't compete. He just likes being out with the guys, and it's damned good exercise/therapy for him. He doesn't have a lot of active stuff he likes to do besides swim, so he's put on quite a bit of weight and gotten a gut in the last few months. These wrestling practices are quickly helping him shed that though.

Our first tournament is the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. I'll be curious to see how the youngster competes in his first year as Division 2. I'm worried it's going to be brutal.

Iowa is college wrestling. Great day for sports in Iowa City. 40k+ in attendance for the wrestling meet this morning then 70k for football tonight.

Truth. Total truth!

They had a verbal from Ethan Anderson from Southeast Polk, but he recently committed to Okie State, I believe. He would have been a great pickup for Mizzou... Kind of a bummer.

Did anyone catch the 30 for 30 about John Du Pont murdering Dave Schultz?! It's called "The Prince of Pennsylvania." Crazy stuff...Du Pont was actually one of the greatest things to happen for international USA wrestlers...until the squirrels got loose in his head.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of great wrestling schools, Mizzou among them. I'm just a little partial having grown up in the Gable era...

I wrestled terry brands in a freestyle exhibition at a camp when I was a junior in HS and he as a freshman or sophomore at Iowa. I know most will probably be surprised to hear this, but he pretty much beat the shit out of me for 5 minutes.


Later that summer I met him again in a pre surgery waiting room, he was getting a shoulder fixed and I was getting ready to have something else done. He was much nicer in the waiting room than inside the circle.

5 minutes? You must have been pretty good...

Oh, I know. I'm 51, so his era was just before I got into it, but the man is a true legend...

Wrestled Catoosa, OK today. Fun tournament. Son went 3-2, but didn't finish with hardware. Really happy with how he wrestled though. He's showing huge improvements sincee last season already.

Barlow McGhee beat the crap out of Zeke Moisey, 14-4 today. Mizzou kid. Who in the world is that?!

6:30 am weigh in tomorrow morning. This is the kind of shit that makes me love/hate wrestling. I'd love nothing better than for us all to sleep in tomorrrow, but I'll also love nothing better than driving up to that gym with a cup of coffee in the morning.

ROFL

This....

I ALWAYS loved it when we could weigh-in the night before.

Where is the tourney tomorrow? Good luck!!!

My exact first thought when I read that.

Rogers, AR. And we usually do remote weigh in on Thursday or Friday, but due to the holidays and such... we're about to hit the road.

My son won his first tournament today. Albeit, it was a novice tourney, but he didn't place in the same tournament last year. He won all his matches but one by fall in the 1st round. One kid took him to points, but he won 11-3.

Very cool. Great work dad...

My wrestler won 1st in Novice and 3rd in Open today.

Highlights:
Wrestled a really, really good kid who has a lot of stuff. He bridged for like 20 seconds twice to avoid the pin. Still got beat on points, but my son has always been really really shitty at defending a pin, so I was so stoked to see that.

Wrestled a kid who, a month ago, pinned him in the second round (it was a weird pin, as my son was leading him on points and generally whipping his ass and suddenly the ref slapped the mat). Anyway, my son pinned him 8 seconds in today. It was freaking awesome.

Anything that goes around my boy's neck is his kryptonite. Headlocks or reverse halfs or anything like that has made him panic and basically give up a pin in the past. Today, he got headlocked with constricted breathing for 30 seconds to end the first. He fought it off, came up crying, got his shit together then threw a headlock on the other kid and pinned him in the second. It was freaking awesome to see him bounce back from, what in the past, would have beat him.

That is awesome. Congrats!

Went up and wrestled a good tourney in Missouri today.

Drew a rough first match against the kid who would win the bracket.

Won 3 in a row after that with some tough fought battles.

Got pinned in second round of final match after leading the whole match. My wrestler has gotten pretty strong. The good part of that is that he's overpowering kids. The bad part of that is that his technique has gotten sloppy. If he'd been executing his moves properly in his final, he would have beat the kid in the 1st round, but his poor technique caught him.

Anyway, he ended up 4th in a tournament where he'd likely DNP'd in the past. Pretty happy with his progress this season, but I'm ready to get him into some camps and really start seeing him drill and work technique properly.

We ran a dual tournament today, and it was a ton of fun. Took 200 kids from like 15 clubs in the area, divided them up between 10 random teams. Tried to match weight/skill fairly closely, but kids were basically on teams with a bunch of kids they didn't know.

Best tournament ever! Seeing all these kids that might have sort of known each other before but haven't actually bonded, now being on a team together and bonding and talking and wrestling with each other was so much fun. They all run into each other at tournaments, but don't really talk because kids stick to their teams. This tournament allowed them to actually get to know each other and form that community.

We were talking and were thinking how cool that a lot of these kids (the younger ones especially) are going to be running into each other and spending a lot of time together over the next 10 years.

Oh, and my boy went 4-2 today. His wrestling is coming along. He's had a surprisingly good season. He'll probably end up 2nd or 3rd in state at the tournament in a couple of weeks.

I've been helping coach the youth group this year, we've had up to 50 boys(and girls) in the room....which is great considering how low wrestling numbers are in HS across the state.

As a group they've been doing pretty well at tournaments. I've taken my 5 year old to a handful. I've harped all along that winning isn't the most important thing and that all he has to do to make me proud is try hard and do his best.

The first tournament was a little rough as later in the year a lot of these boys have had a lot of matches...and in that one there were teams of boys from a few states away, including Kansas boys. He came really close to winning one but fell short. I was really proud of how hard he tried, never stopped or gave up. Wrestling technique can be learned....heart cannot. The thing that surprised me the most was how much he hates losing. Hated it.

Second tournament was much better...wasn't nervous if the activity and crowd and understood things better and went out like a little beast. It was so fun to see and a friend caught a video when he came off the mat...he was so proud. You saw the light switch to on. Beat an older boy in the 2nd and lost in the champ round by making a mistake with 8 seconds to go. I was really really proud of the effort, he said "I hate 2nd, it sucks ..." And didn't want his metal.

3rd tournament was a mix of wins and an ass whooping by a talented little boy.

I'm baffled by the kid because in practice he isn't really competitive...he definitely acts 5, but he is so much more aggressive and competitive in matches. I'm glad he hates losing and it makes him want to do more.....but I'm trying to figure out how to harness it.....I'm more interested in him having fun, working hard, learning one new thing each week....and act right after matches. We tach all of our boys to win/lose with class...if you try hard, hold your head up......and not only shake your opponents hand after but also his dad/coach.

Anyway....I think we're about done for the season and I'm keeping him out of the Aau state qualifiers. He's not ready and I want to stop for the year before it's not fun......we might go to some of the freestyle practices after high school state for fun and mat time.

Anyway..... Wrestling is awesome....and this is how you drive through a double leg!

So awesome!

I'm loving the progression of my kid, and I'm really ready to see what he can do with some small group clinics this offseason when he's working on some very specific skills.

He's still not as driven toward improvement as he needs to be, but I'm seeing that attitude develop quite a bit. He's starting to step up as a leader on the team as well, keeping the other kids in line and encouraging others during conditioning.

I check the oil in my car every time this thread is bumped.

You guys are a bunch of shitty midwesterners. You're supposed to actually be INTO wrestling, unlike me, who is a southerner.

Out of curiosity, what are some good forums about wrestling out there?

I'm not really interested in keeping up with college wrestling and such, but I'd like a forum just about the sport of wrestling. Training tips, different move series, things of that nature.

Kolat wrestling has some amazing video tutorials, but I'd like other just sort of "wrestling primer" sites that tell you, "here's what you need to have your kid doing at this age/skill level." And things like different strategies and ways to teach strategy.

One of the main problems my kid is facing currently is: learning to sense what your opponent is trying to do and fight it off before they can actually do it. So if a kid is starting to try to run a chicken wing on him, he doesn't necessarily realize it until his opponent already has the move in. So like, ways to teach kids to think strategically, stuff like that is what I'm looking for.

Awesome to hear that you are helping out with the youth program. Strong youth programs are the foundation of strong high school programs. Always begins in the youth scene.

Cool to hear that your boy is doing well and is competitive.

Kolat is my absolute favorite. My two youngest bros (Senior and Sophomore) love watching his training vids. I would love to take them to a Kolat camp.

The board I am on 20+ times per day is thepredicament.com, but that is for Iowa youth and HS. themat.com has an active forum....was pretty active as of a few years ago...It's been a while since I have ventured there.

So my Sophomore brother at 138 has been on an absolute tear lately and I am real excited about that. He pinned a real tough kid from Washington in the finals at Sectionals yesterday (if the kid would have gotten off his back, he would have ended up with a 21-6 tech fall), so he is on to districts and it is looking as if it should be him and the Washington kid will be the ones to advance to state.

Things are pretty dang dramatic for the Senior brother at 132 pounds. The #2 ranked kid from 126 (and runner-up from last season) unexpectedly bumped up to 132 in the other Sectional we face. Not sure why he did this, but if he would have stayed at 126, he would have had Brock Rathbun...the 2 time state champ that my Sophomore brother had that crazy semifinal match with at state last year (I posted the youtube vid to that match a few months ago...the commentary from Gable and Ironside made that match very entertaining as well as the match itself). I mean, so if he would have lost to Rathbun, at least he would have been on the opposite side of the bracket as him at state.

Anyways... My brother is ranked #3 at 132. He beat the #8 ranked kid from Washington (a kid who placed 8th last year and the year before) 6-4 in OT yesterday... He has ALWAYS struggled with that kid. The kid has such strong hips and uses them well. He has a deadly neck wrench-trip. He is the type of kid that you can be up 14-0 against with 20 seconds left and still feel uneasy. Anyways, that kid will have the #2 ranked 126 lb guy first round at districts... A good kid will not qualify at that weight...and I hope that's not my brother.

My friends boy is slowly getting better. Will be a freshman next year at Staley. Just needs to have the switch turn on and he will be a champion. Keeps getting 2nd and 3rds. Traveled to texas and one other states national tournaments. Won one total, so he sees what he needs to learn.

His only block right now is mental.

Note: I am not posting this to brag or anything... In fact, I have mixed emotions about this article. I just thought it was interesting...and I don't think I have shared it with CP yet.

I don't think I mentioned this yet, but on the Christmas Day in the sports section of The Hawkeye newspaper, the cover story was a story about my family's wrestling tradition....My grandpa, dad, my brothers and I. 2 big pictures on the front, a couple in the mid (continued from front page) section...on Christmas Day...kind of crazy.

In order to read stories on the internet from The Hawkeye, you have to pay for a subscription. However, they posted the story on Iowa's primary wrestling page/forum/newspaper called The Predicament... therefore I am able to share it with you.

Like I said, I was a bit mixed on this... I felt like with me, they kind of tried looking for went wrong opposed to what went right. I wasn't a 3 time state finalist/state champ like my brother closest to my age, but I did place at state...and I did pin my way through Conference 2 times...and I still hold 3 school records (single season nearfalls, career nearfalls and career pins)... I don't know... Yeah, I had some frustrating shit going on, but I felt the doom and gloom plus being my brother's brother were emphasized pretty heavily. One of the questions I was asked was, "what was it like being Justin Swafford's brother?" I knew exactly what he was getting at...I'm not obtuse... but I didn't give him anything. I just said something like, "oh it was great. He was a fun person to root for because you could literally always count on him to win, no matter who the opponent was, whether it be on the state level or national level. We had a great sibling relationship." My brother was upset because he felt like the majority of what he wanted to be quoted saying about he and I was not used.

I gave such a rambling, stupid interview. I was so anxious and some of the questions were so open-ended. They caught me off guard. There was a point where I felt like I sounded like The Excited Southerner from one of those Adam Sandler albums. Haha.

I like the guy who wrote it, though...He is a nice guy and has always been good to my family. I realize that whatever I perceive in what was written about me was not intended for me to perceive it that way... I mean...it's the media, what am I supposed to expect?

Anyways, here it is:

https://www.thepredicament.com/2016/...ing-tradition/

A family (wrestling) tradition
Posted on January 22, 2016.
By Matt Levins


MEDIAPOLIS — Bob Swafford had it all planned out, or so he thought.

Swafford, who was a pretty fair basketball player during his day at Oakville High School, envisioned his three sons — twins Brian and Kevin, as well as Mark, a year younger — would be basketball players for Mediapolis High School. They would follow in their father’s footsteps and, if things worked out, maybe, just maybe, they would make up 60 percent of the Bulldogs’ starting lineup in the middle and late 1970s.

But one sentence from then Mediapolis wrestling coach Ron Crooks forever changed the course of history. Crooks noticed that Brian and Kevin Swafford were not happy with their roles as bench players on the Mediapolis junior high basketball team, so he approached Brian one day at school.

“Why don’t you give wrestling a try?” Crooks asked Swafford.

And with that, a wrestling legacy was born.

Kevin, Brian and Mark Swafford each went on to become state wrestling qualifiers for the Bulldogs over the course of the next five years. The Swafford brothers had a collective 157-56 record and each qualified for state once. In 1977, Kevin became the first wrestler in Mediapolis history to win a match at state, breaking the barrier and setting the standard for those who followed.

Now, nearly 40 years later, the last of the Swafford clan is making their way through the Mediapolis wrestling program. Shea and Brennan Swafford, the youngest of Mark and Jacinta Swafford’s four sons, are coming off state tournament appearances last season and both are ranked in the top four at their respective weight class.

Shea, a senior, and Brennan, a sophomore, are following in the footsteps of their older brothers, Justin and Josh, who wrestled for the Bulldogs more than a decade ago.

What started out as a dream to have a family of basketball players instead turned into a wrestling legacy for Mediapolis. Wrestling has become a family tradition for the Swaffords, something which brings the family together and something which has been passed down from one generation to another, and soon another.

And it all started with one sentence from Crooks some 40 years ago.

“My older brothers went out for wrestling their freshman year. I went out for basketball my eighth-grade year. They were bringing all these wrestling moves home and, playing basketball, I was the sixth man. I never got in the game until there was 30 seconds left. I thought, ‘This is no fun.’ I quit basketball halfway through my eighth-grade year and went out for basketball. So my brothers kind of influenced me. It kind of fell into place. I remember I won my first match and it kind of came easy for me to a degree. It was difficult, but it flowed for whatever reason,” said Mark Swafford, who was 50-26-3 during his high school career, qualifying for the state tournament in 1978.

“I think one of their teammates talked them into it. One of the wrestlers told them,’ You’re wasting your time with this basketball stuff. Come out for wrestling.’ So they went ahead and swapped and went out for wrestling. The next thing you know they’re practicing moves and home and I’m sitting there going, ‘Hey, can I try that?’

“My dad (Bob) played basketball for Oakville. He graduated in the 1950s. He didn’t like it at all until he went to his first wrestling meet. Then he was hooked. He really wanted me to play basketball. When I quit he kind of pouted about it to a degree. I think he was kind of disappointed. But before that first season was over, as a parent, he was hooked. He was all in.”

“I remember the twins went out for basketball in middle school and they were sitting on the bench a lot. They weren’t very happy,” said Joyce Swafford, Bob’s widow. “Ron Crooks asked Brian to give wrestling a try. Brian went to practice and it was a lot of fun. He went to New London for a meet and he won his first match and he came back and told Kevin it was the most fun he had had in a long time. Well, that was the start of it. Kevin joined up and not long after that Mark was wrestling.”

As for the current generation of Swaffords, well, they know a little bit about the family history. But they’re more focused on the now. Shea and Brennan are trying to make their own mark, both on the program and the family legacy. As for Josh and Justin, well, they are Shea and Brennan’s biggest fans. They would love nothing more than to see their two little brothers erase the marks they made over a decade ago, to push that bar a little farther and a little higher.

“Crazy would be the number one word for it. Honestly, I wouldn’t want to grow up anywhere else. My dad can be a jerk sometimes, but it’s for the better. It’s teaching me responsibility. I wouldn’t be in the sport without him, I don’t think. He’s the one that got me introduced to it,” said Shea Swafford, who is 10-0 and ranked second in Class 2A at 132 pounds. “I remember Justin wrestling at UNI. My earliest memory was at a high school meet. I don’t remember Justin wrestling, but I remember Chad Hutchinson and the Kellers. I remember hanging out with them and hanging out with Russ Hutchinson and going to Chuck E. Cheese afterwards. Other than that, I don’t really remember much.”

“They’re pretty good. Josh is like the intense one. When I was in the little kids club, he was screaming on the mat, telling me to do stuff. Justin was like the technician. He would teach me to do things the correct way. That definitely helped a lot coming into high school. I can’t wrestle with Josh as much because he’s way bigger than me. But I’ll be there by my senior year. But I can wrestle with Justin now. But he still beats my butt,” said Brennan Swafford, who is 8-2 and ranked fourth at 138. “I know Justin was a state champion and Josh placed sixth. Mt Dad and my uncles, Kevin and Brian, they were all state qualifiers. They never really had the chance to do the little kids club stuff or they probably would have been really, really good. They started in junior high or even freshmen in high school and they still made it to state. That’s pretty amazing.”

“Whatever little bits of wisdom I can impart on them, I’m going to do my best and make sure they stay the course and make sure they’re balanced individuals and have a good work ethic. I think they’re already well on their way to that. It’s exciting to see them grow into that,” said Justin Swafford, 31, who works in marketing for the website company Hibu, doing website consultations, proofing and editing in Iowa City. “(Shea and Brennan) are starting to catch up to me size-wise. They’re definitely in better shape than me today. I sit in a corporate job, sitting on my butt and then I get out there and wrestle, it took it’s toll on me.

“I’m hoping this year to get back in shape and work out with them since they’re getting to that size where I can instruct more. I want to show them the kind of techniques I wish I knew when I was their age. I want to give them a little more of the hands-on instruction that is well needed.”

“It’s very comparable to watching Justin wrestle growing up. With me being 14 years older than Shea and 16 years older than Brennan, I feel like I’m not their father, but I play kind of a fatherly role with the age difference. Since I have two daughters, I feel like this is the closest I’ll be to watching my sons wrestle because I’m not really counting on having sons at this point,” said Josh, 33, who lives in Mediapolis and works at U.S. Gypsum with his father. “It’s real neat. I have a real good relationship with both of them. I think by the time Brennan is done growing he may be comparable to my size. But for whatever reason I’m bigger than all three of my brothers.”

Over the course of the last 39 years, Mediapolis head coach Dan Cummings has had the pleasure of coaching all seven Swaffords. Cummings was an assistant coach for two seasons under Crooks before taking over as head coach 37 years ago. Cummings coached Kevin and Brian Swafford their senior years and Mark Swafford his junior and senior seasons. He has come full circle now. He coached Josh and Justin all four years, is in his fourth year of coaching Shea and his second season coaching Brennan.

While Cummings sees many similarities in all of the Swaffords, he also knows that each has become his own individual. They have provided plenty of pleasant memories through the years, moments Cummings reflects on as he watches the final two Swafford cut their own swath through the program.

“The Swaffords have always been a family of wrestlers. Mark, Brian and Kevin were really, really good wrestlers. They were part of that 1977 team which was a really, really good team. We qualified six kids for state that season,” said Cummings, who also had the pleasure of coaching his own three sons — Jamey, Ryan and Brandon. “I remember when Mark told me that he was going to have another kid. It was almost like having two families with the big gap they had between the first two and the last two. They are all really good wrestlers, yet they are all their own persons.”

Mark and Jacinta’s four sons have made a huge impact on the program through the years. Through the Cedar Rapids Xavier Duals, the second generation of Swaffords has a combined 485-107 record, eight state medals and one state championship — Justin was the Class 2A state champion at 125 pounds in 2002.

One of the special moments for the Swafford came in 2001, when Justin finished as a state runner-up and Josh placed sixth at state. It was a moment none will forget, except Shea and Brennan, who were too young to remember.

“My wife and I were sitting together. I’ll never forget it,” Mark Swafford said. “t’s something you never dream of. (Justin) was so close the two years before he was in the finals. When it finally happened … it’s hard to explain how you feel. The main thing I felt was happy for Justin because he deserved that. He was such a hard-working, dedicated wrestler. There are a lot of kids in his class that didn’t there own thing. Justin was the only one who was still working while all his buddies were out having fun. He sacrificed so much in what I felt was overwhelming joy for him. Not for me. Not for the program. For Justin, for all the hard work.

“I felt really glad that he got his due. He sacrificed a lot. He was driving to Iowa City and working out with the Future Hawkeye Wrestling Club. That was new back then. That was a new concept. (Josh) struggled a little bit. He had tremendous talent. He could beat just about anybody in the room. Then he would take his anxieties out on the mat. It was hard to watch sometimes. He had all this talent and he put so much pressure on himself. But he got through it. He pinned the first two kids at state and got his medal. That was something I was pretty happy for him, too, because he was struggling with all these anxiety issues. He had sports anxiety.”

The family’s other treasured moment came last February, when both Shea and Brennan made it to the Class 2A state semifinals, helping the Bulldogs win their first state team championship. Only this time, Mark was sitting in the corner instead of watching from the stands. He left that to Josh, Justin and Jacinta. It was a scintillating evening, although Mark isn’t sure he wants to be in the corner if or when either makes to the state finals. At that point, he would rather be a dad than a coach.

“I didn’t have my coaching authorization when the two older ones went to state. Maybe I just need to be the kids club coach and back off. Then I wonder if it would benefit these kids if I sought my coaching authorization and I was in the room. I don’t regret that at all. I’m glad I did make that change. It’s been a special treat for me to sit in the corner at Wells to coach some of their matches. That’s kind of a dream come true. If either one of these two would get lucky enough to win a state title, I don’t know if I’m going to coach in the corner. I think I’d rather be a Dad, to be honest. In a moment like that they don’t need emotion. They need coaches that are focused,” Mark said.

Of course growing up, both sets of boys were best friends and competitors at the same time. That created more than a few interesting moments in the Swafford household from time to time.

“I looked up to him a lot. We had our spats, but there is a lot of love and respect, too. With Joshua, he liked to kind of dictate what was going on. He was always bending the rules. He’s that kind of guy. But that made me who I was and it made me tougher. That type of big-brother mentality is a competitive thing. It elevates you. We were best allies and best enemies, depending on the day and if there was food in between us,” Justin said of Josh. “He muscled me quite a bit. If we wrestled, I could kind of get him tired to where I could kind of go with him. I always had more of an engine that wouldn’t stop. In the wrestling room there was a little less pressure and he usually had a little more steam. He had exercise-induced asthma. A lot of that was stress, too. We scrapped a little bit in the room, but mostly it was being each other’s biggest fans, on and off the mat. I think that still holds true.”

“It’s like a squirrel fight. That’s the best way to explain it. We don’t really get in fights at home. The No. 1 place we get in fights is in that room,” Shea said. “Really what we have at home is an elliptical. That’s all we have for a workout. Other than that you have to make your own workouts. Tom and Terry Brands used to do shots on the wall. They used to do shots on each other in the living room. Sometimes you have to resort to that.”

And of course with a house full of wrestlers, someone had to be there to be the glue. That person is Jacinta, who was there to support both her husband and her sons every step of the way.

“I’m glad I’ve had her. She’s been one of the most understanding individuals. Really supportive of the kids. Mama Swaff knows what it takes to get the kids through it and to get me through it, too. It’s been a blessing having this particular woman as my wife and mother of these kids. I just can’t picture ever going through it without her support,” Mark Swafford said. “She’s the one that stops at the store and gets the pineapple and watermelon and muskmelon and the grapes and cuts them all up into pieces and makes sure they have their shrimp or their grilled chicken. She’s been a big part of it, too.”

There are still 2 1/2 more years of wrestling left at Mediapolis for the Swafford family. There have been plenty of other influential families through the storied history of Mediapolis wrestling, but the Swafford have left their mark. And they aren’t finished yet. Not by a long shot.

“It’s pretty satisfying seeing all the hard work they put into it is coming to fruition, especially Shea. Nothing has come easy for him. Sometimes he’ll have a blowup in practice, which is unfortunate. It’s all because of frustration. But if he keeps pushing through it, it’ll come back. To see the kids work really hard and then watch the results to me is fairly satisfying. Knowing the tradition of our family. Their uncle Kevin was the very first Mediapolis wrestler to win a match at state. I’ve reminded them a time or two — look where this program was when Cummings took over and look where it is now. They’ve been a part of that. That’s pretty refreshing for them,” Mark Swafford said.

“Mark has been a big part of what we have done through the years at Mediapolis, no doubt about that,” Cummings said. “I can’t imagine there not being a Swafford involved in the Mediapolis program. When you talk about Mediapolis wrestling, one of the names you always think about is Swafford. They have definitely had a huge impact on our program.”

Btw, both of my brothers, Shea the Senior and Brennan the Sophomore qualified for state again Saturday. Shea got 2nd at districts (the returning runner-up and ranked #2/3 guy at 126 moved up to his weight unexpectedly and he beat us in a close match. The Sophomore, Brennan, got 1st and is on an absolute roll right now... I'm pretty sure he has pinned his last 16 or 17 opponents...just doing crazy-good right now. They wrestle at state Thursday...The Senior placed 7th as a Sophomore and 4th as a Junior, the Sophomore placed 6th as a Freshman and almost had the upset of the tournament vs. an upperclassman who hadn't even wrestled a full match coming into the match with him. I posted the youtube clip of that one a few pages ago. Anyways, looking to build from that this year. If you get 1st at districts, you get a guy who got 2nd from another district and vice-versa... Ironically, the district runner-up bro, Shea, has the better first round draw. My youngest bro's first round draw is pretty tough...if he gets past him, I feel like things are looking ok for him to get to the finals. We will see, I guess.

That's a good story.

In some ways I wish I'd had older brothers to help and push me, but as it is I was the oldest of this generation so I guess I set the bar. The younger boys definitely broke it,mincliding a qualifier this year. The next batch has the youth room full and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in a few years when this group starts through.

The sports anxiety is a tough thing to understand but I know it's real. We had a senior when I was a freshman that could sidestroke anyone in our room, including a state champ....but before meets he would vomit and wouldn't be able to get air on the mat....he ran out of gas and eventually quit....said it was just too stressful. He had the talent to have been great but that stuff just shut him down when the strap went on his ankle.

It was so frustrating...I'd be able to go balls to the wall for 2 hours every night in practice and not give up a single point the entire practice and not be winded...then during competition, if the match lasted to the 3rd period, I'd basically be just trying to hold on... Felt like my legs had cinder blocks chained to them...the noise, it sounded like how the outside of the public swimming pool sounds when you are swimming under water...only voice I could hear clearly was my dad's. It was awful...vomited publicly and I gave up a lot of big leads. I think it was a combination of not really liking performing in front of a group of people combined with a fear of failure, more specifically failing my dad. Wrestling parents need to be careful how much pressure they put on their kids from a young age, for that seed can be planted soon.

The one thing that used to just piss me right the hell off would be when someone would say after the match, "you lost because you didn't want it! The other guy wanted it more than you and you WANTED to lose! You wrestled to lose!" I'd think to myself, "BULLSHIT!!! I want to win more than anything!!! If I didn't, I wouldn't stress myself out the way I do!!!" No one really understood what was going on with me back then... They always blamed it on asthma. Nope...wasn't asthma...it was 100% anxiety. Some people don't realize how something can affect you mentally to the point where you are actually physically handicapped from it. So frustrating. :(

My biggest fear was that the two youngest brothers would experience it. They both have their occasional bouts with it, but not near the extent that I did...which I couldn't feel happier about.

Keep me posted on here about how your program is doing! Sounds like you've got something good in the works!!

On the way to state wrestling! I'm a bundle of nerves!!!

Iowanian, I'll be rooting for your guys today!! Good luck!!!

I've loved the tournament this year. Anyone else following?

Who is watching the finals tonight???

You Mizzou fans have got to be pumped with how well Cox is doing.

I caught some last night. Glad to see the Hawks moving toward first place but Penn State, damn. That 149 of theirs with another stick. They keep adding bonus points, cant catch 'em.

Retherford is freaking amazing. And to think Aaron Pico, a guy who doesnt even wrestle in college at 19 years old beat Retherford 4 times at opens last year!!!! CRAZY! Went straight to the international scene, to my understanding. There are some crazy gifted wrestlers in this world.

It's cool espn is covering it. Could do without alex baldwin's retarted brother but still good to have it on the big screen.

My bracket is/was totally ****ed. Not a Mizzou fan but felt bad for Butler and Manley.

I am right in the middle with mine.

I met the great Cael Sanderson.