Originally Posted By: Aaron Sweazy
 Originally Posted By: Mike Furches
I suggest we have a questions for Richard and Swayz section to maybe see if it all possible for Richard to make the race close. Keep them open and honest, and non threatening please.

I do have one for Richard.

Richard, I really do appreciate all of the updates you provide, I am amazed because they come from all kinds of places. My question would be, do you have those pages bookmarked or what? In other words how do you get your information? Again, I am impressed and realize the value that provides to these forums.

One for Swayz, would be: I know you keep in touch with various college coaches. What are they saying as of recent regarding Kansas HS wrestlers, and anyone under the radar that we don't know about?


Well not to go into deep into detail, but I know we were all dissappointed with the performance of our guys at Sr. Nationals, but there are college coaches (especially from the East coast) that are contacting me like crazy.

For the most part colleges right now are looking for these weights in order of need (top 3 weights): 174 is top need, 197, and 285. If you are a light weight there is really not a high need this year, but the flood gates will open, although I will say that in the last week a lot of kids that have signed have changed their minds freeing up scholarship money.

I know of a DII school that contacted me out of PA today asking about several guys that were mainly runners up or 3rd in KS this year in the 112-125 range. I will say this, if you are going to be 112 or 103 as a senior you best have a record that has you having about 30 wins and less then 5 losses to even drum up interest (especially if you don't do summer wrestling).

As for some of the other weights, there are guys that took basically a Tshirt home from state, but impressed coaches at tournaments prior to that. Guys that wrestled in offseason folkstyle events really get coaching eyes opening up because for a lot of coaches it is the first time they have seen a kid wrestle, and folkstyle is what college does so it translates over better in terms of style then free or greco.

Talking with about 3 coaches, they said Fargo is great for competition, but bad in terms of recruiting and really getting a feel for a kid because of the inability to walk around closer to the mats in a more intimate setting, and the fact that FS/Greco are a different Beast then Folkstyle (I've seen some guys that are just poor at those styles that will be in a Folkstyle Championship 9 out of 10 times). These coaches shocked me but they really want to see kids at stuff like Sunflower State Games, Fall Brawl, Super32 and other events like that which take place off season but are folkstyle.

However, don't think doing FS/Greco is a waist of time. A majority (like 99%) of college coaches love the FS/Greco for conditioning sakes during the summer, and realize that the better athletes you are going to get to your school are the ones that focus on wrestling year round.

I know there are some kids that are multi-sport superstars and another thing that shocked me is some coaches don't seem to mind. If a kid is doing Football, Wrestling, and Baseball...then good, reason being it is good is because some parents push their kids too hard at one sport and you see burn out majorly on the next level. A kid once they choose to enter college will be emersed in a sport anyway that for now they need to just be kids.

Although if you are a senior and are wanting to be a college wrestler but are playing football or other sports, you need to allow yourself time during the season to work out a bit wrestling wise and have the ability to tell your respective coach, hey...I'm doing this to help you all out, but my plans in college are wrestling, that way if a tournament comes up like Fall Brawl or something and you are on a team, you can say, "Coach I'm not going to be here" and they can find a body, if they don't understand your long term goals, then they are being selfish (especially if you are in a big school where talent is a dime a dozen) -That was a long run on sentence by the way.

A thing kids need to realize too is how few wrestling (or any sports for that matter) are out there on the collegiate level. I hear about dissapointments when a kid doesn't hear from a certain program...Well, this is a no brainer to me, You have to Sell Yourself! Create a resume with stats from 9th grade on up including offseason including things like Record and weight each year, # of falls, School, Contact Information, GPA, ACT, off season succes, awards and honors in sport you are being recruited for, awards and honors in other sports participated in [coaches love the diversity], and Coach's Contact Information (this is so that a college coach can learn more about your work ethic and leadership in the room).

I think I rambled on long enough. If anybody has a desire to wrestle in college (especially some of you that just graduated but still can't find a school to go to, then contact me asap, and I'll fight to find you some money...trust me it is still out there!)


Swayz I think that is the longest post I have ever seen you make, if you had broken it up you would have had that 5,000 post. Great stuff though.