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Q: I respectfully disagree (with your last mailbag comments about St. Ed's). Being that every wrestler at St. Ed's lives within a 40-mile radius and always has. The Eagles get it done by using local talent. How many Blair wrestlers that are currently on their team grew up living within 40 miles of Blair? My bet one or two. I do agree with a lot of what you said. Coaching brings great wrestlers to the schools mentioned. But having the ability to house their wrestlers gives Blair an advantage.
-- Joe D.
Foley: The question becomes: How many public schools in major metropolitan areas across the country have a 40-mile radius to pull from? The answer: Not many.
The St. Ed's model is local, but let's not confuse this to mean that there are 14 kids living on the same street who by some chance all happen to have the genetic gift of becoming a Division I-caliber wrestler. The Cleveland area is one of the most wrestling-rich in the country, so even if you only pull from a 40-mile radius, you're going to have a lineup where kids don't have to make insane leaps between "serviceable" and "Ryan Bertin." Cleveland wrestling is good but no pocket is the equivalent of Mud City football.
St. Ed's is private and all-male, and based on the area it covers is probably very similar to the academic magnet schools that tend to pop up in wealthy suburbs (Thomas Jefferson High School, Va.) and give kids with calculators and an intellectual man-crush Neil deGrasse Tyson a place to let their talents blossom. (Neil deGrasse Tyson was captain of his high school wrestling team jump to 29:10.) But those magnet schools don't charge tuition. St. Ed's does.
Imagine if I started a private school in Pittsburgh and was able to hire Cael Sanderson as my head wrestling coach. Let's limit his reach to a 40-mile radius around Pittsburgh. Don't you agree they'd be pretty tough? Do you think some guys might leave Shaler, Reynolds, or North Allegheny for the chance to wrestle with Cael at a private school? Is attracting only the local talent in an 80-mile diameter around Cleveland much different than getting kids from all over the country? I don't think so.
Greg Urbas of St. Edward (Ohio) is a coaching legend (Photo/Bob Tuneberg, BuckeyeWrestling.com)Coach Urbas is a legend and St. Ed's is an impressive program. Also, the majority of the guys I've wrestled with from St. Ed's have been great people in addition to being technically proficient wrestlers. YES, they are all from the Cleveland area, and NO there is not a boarding option, but I don't think you can equate St. Ed's with just another public school.
Q: Any reason why Troy Letters was named interim coach and not given the job outright? It seems like he would be a "win/win" for all involved. Also, I watched a Chance Marsteller match last year in mid-December then attended the Midlands shortly after? Am I dumb for assuming he would have placed at 157?
-- Jason R.
Foley: I was excited to break the news on Monday that Troy Letters was going to be named the interim head coach at Clarion. Letters and I actually wrestled each other in 2004, with him getting the better side of a 5-4 decision. It was a fun match, and though I was upset at the time to not get the last-second takedown (I felt like I was so close!), Letters went on to win the NCAA title that season, taking off a little of the sting. He's a tough, tough wrestler and really nice guy.
Troy Letters (Photo/Clarion Sports Information)As for Chance Marstellar? Well, yeah, he's a stud. I've never seen him wrestle in person, but you're probably right that he could've placed at the Midlands this year. Maybe he'll enter the 2012 tourney?
Q: What is your take on the new coach here at Binghamton, Matt Denrlan? Also, are you still feeling comfortable about your Barry Davis prediction from last week?
-- Josh Z.
Foley: Matt Dernlan is a great hire for Binghamton. He's been at enough successful programs to understand the complexity of creating a winning formula. When we talked Monday he told me that his goal is to eventually compete for a team title. He said that the BU administration made promises that would ensure he'd receive the type of support that would make a title run possible in the future. It seems obvious, but when your coach is openly discussing what it takes to win NCAA titles, you've made the right decision. It might sound surprising, but not all coaches vocalize their goal to win an NCAA team title. The dirty little secret is that most know it's impossible for their programs to compete with those in the top ten and try and do their best to just crack into the top fifteen at the NCAA tournament. That outlook might seem defeatist or depressing, but most coaches make those goals because they see the rational limitations of their budgets and scholarships. WE ARE not all Penn State.
I still believe in Barry.
Q: What do you think of Mark Cody snaring both Andrew Howe and Travis Rutt? Pretty amazing to me.
-- Mark S.
Foley: Boomer Sooner! What a pair of transfers. The mood in Norman, which had been abuzz with the Olympic team qualifications of assistant coach Jared Frayer and former Sooner Sam Hazewinkel, had dimmed ever so slightly when Tyler Caldwell announced he'd be making the leap upstate to wrestle for John Smith. But that didn't last long as the Sooner staff added an NCAA champion and an All-American in Andrew Howe and Travis Rutt.
Why Oklahoma? I'd guess that the move had as much to do with Frayer being on staff as it did with the significant and impressive recruitment capabilities of Oklahoma head coach Mark Cody (One head coach told me he thought Cody's best recruiting was luring in transfers.) Here it seemed to be a combination of Frayer's pre-existing relationship with the boys, his making the Olympic Team, and a little bit of Coach Cody's considerable charisma. I'm sure that having Michael Lightner on staff didn't hurt either.
Q: I'm really excited to hear that Jay Borschel is back in the college wrestling world and glad he is at Northwestern. How do you see him fitting in with the Wildcats? Also, who on the team do you think will benefit the most from having him in the room?
-- Betty G.
Foley: Biggest benefit? The man's piano playing ability!
To have an NCAA champion as your full-time volunteer is a BIG deal. What's interesting about Borschel is that he also seems exceedingly intelligent, which allows him to help the kids at Northwestern unwind whatever is being thrown at them in class. I've seen the ball of stress that the academic-minded wrestler can put themselves under and another voice to help them untangle the complexity of it all is valuable.
Let's not over-analyze this too much. As likely as Borschel is to understand some math problems, the biggest advantage is that he's a stud former NCAA champion and for once a true upper-weight coach who is committed to coaching. (Herbert was on staff but traveled for competition, which of course paid off well in 2012.)
Q: Coleman Scott just went undefeated at the World Cup in Azerbaijan. What's the plan for who makes the U.S. Olympic Team at 60 kilos? Are they still wrestling a round-robin?
-- Geoff D.
Coleman Scott is the hot hand right now at 60 kilos (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)The plan is for USA Wrestling to host the matches during the "Grapple in the Big Apple" on June 7.
Q: With the recent signing of top recruit Devin Peterson, and a handful of other accomplished recruits, how would Iowa Western's recruiting class rank compared to its peers in Division I.
-- Mark M.
Foley: There is only one person to consult when discussing recruiting class rankings, InterMat's Josh Lowe.
Based on the InterMat commitment list, Iowa Western has seven
committed wrestlers.
Two of those committed wrestlers are Top 100 recruits (Peterson inside
the Top 50, Dunlap outside the Top 50). Both of those wrestlers are in
the top ten of their respective weight class. None of their other
wrestlers were weight class ranked.
As of now, 14 Division I schools have brought in three-plus Top 100 prospects, while another 8 brought in two Top 100 prospects. That does not account for the fact those schools may have brought in additional wrestlers that are weight class ranked.
Additionally, there are programs with one Top 100 but multiple others
in the weight class rankings that would merit Top 25 consideration.
I would say it fits clearly in the upper half of Division I programs for sure
and possibly right around the upper third.
Don't mess with Josh Lowe! My boy's wicked smaht.
Q: Each time I go to Google News and type in "wrestling," I get stories about obese men wearing a cape and elf shoes. As a journalist for the sport of wrestling, does it bother you when people get confused between wrestling and 'rasslin'?
-- A. Stevenson
Foley: I have the news alert for "wrestling" and have noticed that the stories are very streaky. One day it's articles in the New York Times about Iowa and its "losing streak" and the next day it's a blog post by a guy in Connecticut about the '14 Things to Look For at Royal Rumble.' The best is when an unrelated news story pops up, like, "North Korea Wrestling with Trading Nuclear Material for Food." That's when you and I learn the most, isn't it? (Trivia fact: The highest wrestling attendance is 190,000 at the Pyongyang Stadium, Pyongyang, North Korea for the World Peace Festival April 29, 1995.)
I'm surprisingly not that upset by the constant confusion between the amateur and professional ranks. There was a professor of mine who always said "You know something is wrong when it's on the cover of TIME Magazine. He didn't mean that breast-feeding toddlers is necessarily wrong just that there is a market for a journalist when he can look around and recognize when everyone agrees (or disagrees) on one thing. Though admittedly this cover was meant to be controversial, rather than widely agreed upon, I just added it for shock value.
There are few truths in the world, and if everyone thinks that professional wrestling is the only meaningful form of the sport, it means that we as a community, and I as a journalist have an opportunity to redirect the conversation. You'd be surprised how many books are written every year about professional wrestling, and there are some that are interested in the roots of the sport.
My current book project (October/November release) addresses just this phenomenon. I tell you a lot of things you never knew about Mongolia, but I spend the bulk of my time connecting what you've experienced as a wrestler to the fundamentals of human nature. I answer questions like "Why do wrestlers tend to be so sensitive?" "Why is professional wrestling so popular?" "Why do so many quality wrestlers come from PA?" I've included some pretty compelling science and theories and I hope it'll be an entertaining read for anyone interested in the sport -- even that dimwitted cousin we all have who just can't understand why we don't just use folding chairs.
Q: I know that there have been many professional football players who were accomplished wrestlers (Jim Nance and Carlton Haselrig, to name two multiple-time NCAA Division I wrestling champs who were, respectively, an AFL MVP and NFL Pro Bowler, and who grew up in hometowns within 30 miles of each other). Which current professional athlete do you think would make the best international wrestler? I think that tennis player Rafael Nadal could be great at 84-kilo freestyler. He's got great upper-body strength, and has such fast-twitch explosiveness that I think he'd have an awesome double leg.
-- Ronald M.
Great freestyle wrestler?I have to go with a pretty safe pick. Georges St. Pierre. Courage? Check. Hardworking? Intelligent? Athletic? Yes to all. Had he not dorked around in the dojo as a kid he'd be a World and Olympic champion wrestler.
Q: How do you see a Kyle Dake vs. David Taylor folkstyle match being different than what happened at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials?
-- Mike S.
Kyle Dake won by fall over David Taylor in the second period (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)Ask yourself this? Who can ride Kyle Dake? I'm willing to bet that nobody this side of J.P. O'Connor has a chance in hell and even he would find the task difficult. Top control would strike me as Taylor's best chance for victory, and without it he just loses at his own game, he's outgunned and outmanned ... he loses that battle, he loses that battle nine times out of ten.
Q: Who would win in a wrestling match: Seth Rogan or Jonah Hill?
-- Jake H.
Foley: Didn't they both lose a bunch of weight? Jonah Hill looked like shit running around in his police uniform on 21 Jump Street, partly because he was co-starring with mega-male himbo Channing Tatum, but partly because he has the athleticism of my 55-year-old aunt.
Seth Rogan seems solid. He apparently also just showed up in Hollywood one day, auditioned and got a quasi-leading role in a big budget movie. You should be thankful for his success though, not jealous. Rogan's is the kind of insta-success story that ensures LA will never run out of gorgeous baristas and screenplay-carrying waiters.
I gotta take Seth Rogan with a VERY quick fall in the first.
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