billyhoyle

The thing that stands out in this pic are the cowboy hats. Do OSU fans show up dressed as their mascot? Also, there’s a guy 6 rows behind and a couple seats to the right of Trump who didn’t get the memo on how to do the wave (or got a very outdated memo).

4 of the 5 4xers (Pat Smith, Dake, Yianni, and Stieber) wrestled in state at their marquee university. Cael was the only 4xer to really have a wide-open recruiting situation (Utah to ISU). Cornell has been getting a lot of the top NY talent since Nickerson, and they continue to do so. I don't view this as a recruiting thing, and more that Cornell has some great coaches and there has been incredible talent out of NY. Also...Pretty sure Cael is about to get a 4xer.

Wait, but why can't they just let their athletes wrestle the Israelis? I'm pretty sure China doesn't refuse to compete against Taiwan.

But your point about Griffith only being there for one year could be even more reason to bring him in. It's not like it would be a career-ender for Facundo, and one year working with Griffith could help him perform during his Junior/Senior seasons. He could get matches in across different weights throughout the season to give some of the other guys rest.

If we are talking the HS state tournament in Oklahoma, sure, you'd be right. But most attending NCAAs went to the colleges that are competing or some other college. If you look at the voting patterns/demographics of college graduates, most are liberal and less religious than the population as a whole. In terms of hard working, the tickets aren't cheap, so I think you are correct about that.

The recruits who go to PSU know that if they don't perform, they will get recruited over. Just look at Beard and Nevills. There's no shame in being on the bench or a depth guy for a year and then either stepping things up junior year or transferring out.

Why not knock Facundo out of the lineup?

I'm not sure he will be received too fondly if he's introduced. He's not a fan of the college-educated. I remember Donald Rumsfeld being met with resounding boos when he was given an award at MSG a number of years ago.

Training staff wouldn’t have sent him on the mat with torn ACLs. Look at the way they handled Suriano-they put his health first and refused to let him compete despite his wishes.

Repost

But shouldn’t the training staff be prioritizing long term health? Look at Burroughs-he had a knee injury, took an entire season off to recover, and came back even better. Lee tried to compete even last year. And same for his true freshman year after the knee injury the March before.

What I don’t get is why he has repeatedly competed through torn knee ligaments rather than take an extended period to rehab. It seems like his injuries have been mismanaged for the sake of getting him on the mat in ncaa competition. If he’s not 100%, why not take more time following last year’s surgery?

The glasses destruction is going viral. It’s not quite at the Mongolian stripping protest level, but it’s the closest thing we’ve had in a while. Was the loss painful for his family? I’m sure, but that was an objectively funny reaction. You can’t stop memes, and it’s a good one.

He’s 24. He’s still too young for humor? The last forum called Mocco the great pumpkin when his dreams were crushed. Smiles and cries-we need to embrace both.

Anybody know a good optometrist in Tulsa?

When Elon Musk banned any mentions of other social media platforms, it immediately reminded me of Themat.com and "He who must not be named."

Have they let this guy into the U.S. since? I could see why they don't want to after statements like that. "No, that's German for The to America, The"

From ChatGPT: Based on the information provided, it appears that the Penn State wrestling team may be in trouble for this year's NCAA competition. The team has holes at 125 and 157, and one of their wrestlers, Dean, is either injured or has regressed. It is not clear what can be done to address these issues, but it is possible that the team's performance at the NCAA competition could be affected.

Here is the response from chatGPT: " In wrestling, a counter attack is a technique where a wrestler counters their opponent's move by quickly switching from defense to offense. For example, if an opponent tries to take down a wrestler, the wrestler can counter by using their own momentum against them and taking them down instead. A reattack is a technique where a wrestler tries to regain the offensive position after being put on the defensive. For example, if a wrestler is taken down by their opponent, they may try to use a technique like a switch or a bridge to quickly get back to their feet and take the offensive position again. The main difference between a counter attack and a reattack is that a counter attack is used to prevent an opponent's move from being successful, while a reattack is used to regain the offensive position after an opponent has gained an advantage. Both techniques require quick thinking and good timing to execute successfully."

I didn't read the post, but I fed it into chatGPT, and asked it to rewrite it for clarity and split into multiple paragraphs. The result is below. I have no idea how well it did (because I didn't read the original post), but at least it's something to start the discussion. There are many factors that are trending high school wrestling towards becoming a niche sport. These issues have been discussed in various posts, but it is unclear which factors can be addressed most easily. One factor is the growing battle for participants, especially with fewer multi-sport athletes. Another factor is the trend towards co-ops in small districts for sports such as hockey, swimming, gymnastics, and even football. This could lead to a similar trend in wrestling. Another issue is the increasing number of forfeits due to a lack of willingness to consider fewer weight classes. This not only reduces opportunities for wrestlers, but also negatively impacts fans who may not know if the wrestler they want to watch will have a match or a forfeit. The reliance on long tournaments also discourages many families from committing to them. Finding coaches who are also teachers within the school is becoming more difficult, making it harder to recruit new wrestlers and exacerbating the belief that youth experience is necessary. The continued reliance on coaches for input on improving the overall health of the sport is also an obstacle, as most are only willing to support initiatives that benefit their team in the short term. While the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) has provided some guidance, the concept of offering three options for weight classes further weakens the health of the sport. It is hoped that younger minds will come up with ways to grow the sport, as little progress has been made in the last 20 years. It is also hoped that someone will convince their state to pilot something new and different, such as margin of victory scoring or matside weigh-ins with locked line-ups. This could help convince fellow students and casual fans that watching a dual match can be time well spent.

How was it a mess? The Iranian soccer team was courageous in their actions at the world cup, and the US team offered them support.

Dean is probably 25 or 26 at this point. Guys that age aren't gearing up for an entire 4 month season. I bet he in form in March.

My take on Askren is that he is a genius-he essentially reinvented folkstyle wrestling. The only other person I've seen do it is John Smith, but arguably Askren's effect was even more significant because of how different it was. But like a lot of geniuses/creatives, he is drawn to outlandish conspiracies and nonsense. And because he is so brilliant at one thing (wrestling), he is convinced that even his most ridiculous ideas outside of the sport are correct. So I can't listen to his FRL or read his book because so much of what I have seen from him recently makes no sense to me. I prefer his wrestling opinions.

If this forum grows, maybe give the larger programs like PSU or Iowa their own section to talk about topics that are very specific to the program that the rest of us don't really care about (like recruiting, RTC news, assistant coaching drama, scheduling, etc). I'm not sure a conference-specific board is necessary because at this point, the majority of the discussion in the general section is about the big 10 anyway. But there's a lot of team-specific info that probably isn't posted on a national forum.