wrestle87

Steveson not working hard and completely big brothering feldman is an extra impressive physical feat.

That is a uniquely disgusting insult. Almost as disgusting as the fact that I'm sure you only eat smooth peanut butter.

This wasn't the first time I've seen that called, but it is rare. I think I saw it at NCAA's a year or two ago. Arnold wasn't wrestling, he was fingerlocking and just pushing out of bounds, pushing out of bounds without wrestling is illegal under the rules. Refs typically just call action, but in the case where it was actively inhibiting action in the match, there is room for a stall call. Again, super rare because typically if somebody has the horsepower to push their opponent out of bounds that many times, they have more than what they need to execute other offense rather successfully. But...gabe arnold is proving to be one of those "shooting is spooky" wrestlers. I'm going to call it here first. I think Arnold goes 2-2 at best at NCAA's, and he won't be the guy after this year. Ferrari probably puts it on him pretty good, and I'm betting we see arnold in another singlet before the end of his college career.

You are correct, that salary reference was an error on my part. Do you have solutions or are you just interested in debating points that don’t move the needle?

Comparing Iowa to Cleveland state is as apples and oranges as it gets. I'm sure pay has gone up in years since because of inflation, but here is what 2018 salary was for the head coach in question...$52K. https://opengovpay.com/oh/joshua-moore-j/31588871 For that same year, there are 10 professors and administrators making more than $250K. https://opengovpay.com/employer/oh/university-of-cleveland-state And we're talking about a campus that, rounding down, has 9,500 undergrads and 4,600 grad students. So, again, objective carrying costs of cleveland state wrestling...very low. RELATIVE carrying costs of cleveland state wrestling, ALSO very low.

Ah yes, that marginal inch because Davison is 6'2". Allow me to take measurements out of the conversation. Tall guys are a bad matchup for feldman, and he needs to get it figured out.

Keuter just exposed feldman big time. Feldman might be the rare wrestler who is too muscled for his frame. Anyone taller than 6'1" is feldman-kryptonite.

The moment got the best of him, he knows that was a garbage move he just wanted the match to be over.

If you look at his legs, it's clear that he has some nerve issues with his left leg. He's got one muscled leg and one that looks like it belongs to a 125 who doesn't cut any weight.

Looking at Teemer I feel like inactivity should be factored into rankings. No way is this dude the #1 157 in the country. I love sasso's story, but baring any magic with his leg, I don't see him being an AA threat.

Both ayala and bouzakis out today? What's that all about?

Princeton was an absolute bottom barrel team before Ayres got there. He built them up a great deal, and that legacy will (hopefully) continue on for a while. In terms of other examples, hard to say. I think it's pretty clear that the division of labor while Koll was at Cornell was very well managed, he had Grey, Hahn and later Dake to help with a lot of the in-room lifting, while he clearly did a very good job managing the alumni and administration relationship. Despite the way that some of his kids behaved this week, I would say simply based on presentation that Pendleton seems to be doing a decent job, basing this largely on the off-season interview he did about the team culture, and the way he presents during duals. Just occurred to me as I'm typing it, but another guy who handles his program and his situation very well is Scott Goodale. Rutgers was not good when he took over, and he does a good job of developing local Jersey guys, but more importantly he's turned Rutgers wrestling into a flagship program for the University, and he's made wrestling matches fun to attend, and he fills the stands. Even though they got smoked by Penn State tonight, the place was loud, and the fans care. 20 years ago it was a coin flip as to whether a Rider or a Rutgers match would draw a bigger crowd, many times it would be Rider.

My approach to a wrestling program is that they are the least costly programs you can have. All you need is a room, a mat, and a coach who can drive a car and push a mop. Many very successful programs have that and no more. That is half a professor's salary. Unfortunately, the next time an athletic department uses the word "strategically" and also tells the truth will be the first time. That's just a managerial code word for "we felt like doing this, and weren't persuaded otherwise." Wrestling is such an insanely low overhead sport, there's really no justification besides politics or just chasing arbitrary institutional metrics. I'm not saying this to come across as cynical, but the realm of higher ed is particularly opaque and interpersonally political. And the transition between "coach" and "director" is where employees make the transition from employee to what can be considered upper management, those that have meaningful input into making the sausage so to speak. To put things in perspective, the school gives out just shy of $200 million a year in financial aid each year. This is not a program that draws money in any way. From a broader perspective, if we look at the three key metrics of operation for a college/university, this is what Cleveland State is operating at. Tuition after aid - $16K Admission Rate - 85% Graduation Rate - 46% These metrics aren't great, but they also aren't those of a school that is on it's way to getting edinboro'd. So long as you have a functioning training room, a wrestling program is free room and board and free publicity. Especially in the state of Ohio. To answer your "managing up" question, it's about crafting and maintaining the relationship that your program has with its host school. When you go back and look, those programs that are the strongest are those that have the active support of the institution they are attached to. Across the board these programs are those where the coach has a strong relationship with the AD, and the rest of the administration. Gable wrote about spending time with the Iowa AD while he was there, Cael actively discusses it, the Brands brothers also are very publicly active in making Iowa wrestling a name that people see associated with charity fundraisers every year. Chris Ayres did and clearly does an amazing job cultivating relationships with admissions and athletic departments more broadly, he knows how to put on a show for his team, and he knows what's required to get good guys in. There's a reason Princeton has seen a drop off since he left, and it's not because Dubuque is bad, it's because Ayres was excellent and managing the non-wrestling aspects of the program. This is where the stereotypical salty, snarly wrestling coach is so at odds with higher ed in general. The personality we traditionally associate with a wrestling coach, at leas the old guard of coach, was a disgruntled semi-hermit who knew how to control and shape equally disgruntled student athletes into champions. The sport has done a lot to improve that optic broadly, but there are still a ton of coaches who behave this way, and those sorts of personalities are anathema to the sort of politicing that is necessary for a program to thrive long-term in a higher ed environment.

https://www.csuohio.edu/sites/default/files/2024-11/fy24-budget-book-final-summary.pdf https://www.csuohio.edu/sites/default/files/2024-11/csu-fy25-budget-book_0.pdf https://www.csuohio.edu/sites/default/files/2024-11/fy25-budget-financials-summary_compressed_0.pdf https://www.csuohio.edu/budget-financial-analysis They give away so much to yield students, there's no way wrestling being cut has anything to do with money. This, unfortunately, is where wrestling teams and wrestling coaches very regularly do a bad job of managing up. I wish this was a class that gable, cael, ayres, and the brands would give to coaches around the country. It makes such a difference in the health and wellbeing of programs nationally.

Somebody needs to start a cleveland state girls wrestling team immediately

He could be one of those dudes who is way better on an international mat than he is a folkstyle mat.

Yup, that’s how forgetting about things works.

Such a gaff on my part, sorry tony, I completely forgot about him and his complete ownership of the 3rd place spot on the podium.

Keiter is a tweener big time. He would be a rail at 197, and bulking up might legitimately not be in his genetics unless he gets on some tren-balogna sandwiches. Maybe he had a tough match, I don’t see him having the speed or strength to enforce his technique enough to AA. That said, the brand’s definitely know how to manage hometown spectacle as much as athlete development. They could get a better heavy easily, Iowa heavies rarely do better than round of 12, but keuter has major hometown/homestate support, he brings in the fans and the brands definitely like that.

Welcome! That is awesome that you have found the sport, and you have found it at an excellent time in the history and evolution of the sport.

I will give you names who used to be part of the flo team, all left. Martin Floreani, Joe Williamson, Mike Mal, our own board host here, Cliff Fretwell, Lee Roper, just to name a few. Bader used to have 10x the face time he does now. So…like I said, if you were around for it, if you know, you know, it’s not a question, just a reality.

If you know you know.

Flo is Flo in name only. I’d venture easy 50% of the people who read Flo do it out of reflex remembering when Flo used to legitimately rewrite the playbook for wrestling coverage every month. They invest maybe 10% of the effort they used to. It is just a corporate click and subscription hunting webpage anymore. Maybe the Flo platform really breaks ground in other sports, but Flowrestling specifically is a cold stinky skeleton of what it used to be.

I can't say anything for blood sugar necessarily, but I can absolutely say that circadian rhythm impacts performances. There was 2 hour bands throughout the day when i would wrestle well and feel with it, and 2 hour bands when I would always feel out of it. It wasn't intentional, it just always turned out that way. If I had a match that was 10am-noon, 2pm-4pm, or 6pm-8pm, I would be waaay more consistent and with it. If you put me on the mat between 8-10am, noon-2pm, or 4-6pm, wouldn't work, I'd always be tired. I know not everybody is that way, but for me managing that was my biggest struggle in performance consistency. As a way to sort of shortcut that, I HAD to take a nap in between matches, even if it was just 5 minutes. If I didn't, in those in-between sleepy bands of time I would be all messed up. I have no idea why this is the case, but this continues to be something I have to manage in terms life as an adult as well. I'm a MUCH more effective, much happier person if you let me take naps.