Iowa’s Recruiting Class

[mike412]

I was looking at the individual high school rankings by weight classes, which also list where committed wrestlers are going to college, and one thing that struck me was how few Iowa commits there were. Do they have almost no spots available, or is it possible that Tom and Terry either are burned out or have worn out their welcome?

PSU and Ohio State dominate the B10 in signing highly-ranked recruits, but (while I didn’t keep a written record while I was looking through them) Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Rutgers and Illinois all appeared to have better recruiting classes than Iowa. Like I said, I didn’t keep track on paper, but that was my general impression after I reviewed the rankings.

The other thing that struck me was how few WPIAL wrestlers there were. Lots of Eastern PA kids, but not much from the WPIAL.

 

[thom67]

Iowa has little money for next year. Sorenson is only large money guy they lose. They are still recruiting one more elite recruit. They will sign several more low money guys later.

 

[Warriordan]

its sad but the wpial is dying in most of the sports.

 

[FriendofPittWrestling]

That's what I wrote about several months ago. When I was a kid, Pgh was the fifth largest corporate head quarters in the world.

First off, the population of young people was much larger. Second, it was easy to "sell" the potential for employment after graduation- work hard, keep your nose clean- you will have lots of options.

Now, Pgh is full of government employees and university employees. Not nearly as much entrepreneurship anymore.

The combination means smaller local pool and harder to draw from other regions. Same phenomenon in football and other sports.

The traditions, advantages of Pgh and attending Pitt are obvious to us insiders, but require a lot more effort to sell to outsiders.

This new reality is a bigger problem for the glamour mentality of football and basketball kids.

Fortunately wrestlers are different and Gavin and Co will have no problems once they turn the corner and start producing AA's and NCAA champions in the next year or two.

 

[mike412]

Well, when you consider that a few year ago, Intermat had 7 WPIAL wrestlers ranked in the top 5 of their weight classes nationally, the rankings this year are quite shocking. Maybe it is cyclical, but Eastern Ohio and Eastern PA and NJ have a ton of highly-ranked kids.

 

[guyutethepig]

I think it’s completely cyclical.

 

[thom67]

Yes that is correct. That is one of the problems that Iowa faces. Iowa high school wrestling has been down for several years. Just look at the recent all Americans, not many Iowa kids getting it done. Iowa is coming to PA to recruit their best wrestlers.