Remember when there were a lot of bad feelings about the hiring of Santoro not working out and less enthusiasm about the hiring of Gavin? Well in the 2021 Tournament, Pitt finished 11th with 40.5 points and Lehigh finished 31st with 11.5 points.
Lehigh
- Thread starter New York Panther
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That was the worst season Lehigh has had in a long while. I think that the short to RTCs has really hurt the smaller wrestling schools that cant come up with big school money. Schools like Lehigh, Lock Haven, Edinboro, and Clarion really stuggle to compete in this environment. I dont think its a stretch to say that a school like Lock Haven will ever pull a recruit like Kolat again and that is really sad. Makes wrestling feel a lot like football and basketball these days.
Thats great to hear. Any Kolats in there?
Did they have any NCAA qualifiers this year? I dont recall seeing any in the brackets
Those schools can still get high level recruits, but not really the transcendent, 4x nation champion types. That was my point really
Hardly anyone can get 4 timers because they are insanely rare but Crookham will be a top 2-5 P4P guy next year and has a chance to be transcendent.
I don't believe Lock Haven had any qualifiers this year but to be fair they announced like a week before their conference tournament they announced they were coming back because initially their administration was not going to allow them to wrestle this season. They got a pretty good kid from Hempfield who is a commit from this year but the top guy was Stolzfus from last year. Kid is a stud and I can see him doing big things there
He was interested because he is a Pitt guy, still.
Lehigh is also very expensive compared to Pitt, so when awarding a partial scholarship, a wrestler is a lot harder to get there when factoring finances, not to mention admissions issues.
But Lehigh has some boosters, and better and newer wrestling facilities than Pitt.
Not that it was a sure thing that he would have taken the Pitt job, but Pitt absolutely blew the interview process.
Does Lehigh give out wrestling scholies now? They did not give them in the past, but gave out other monies which allowed them to bypass the 9.9 rule.
Yes they do, but they don't have other money unless it is academic, and they admissions and aid office doesn't make exceptions for athletes that you find at some other schools (including Ivies).
They are at a disadvantage for in-state kids because of cost.
Lock Haven got Kolat as a transfer. The PSAC schools get by with selling small time town environment, pulling diamonds in the rough, and getting the occasional transfer.
Lehigh is a totally different animal.
Exactly, no, I wasn't in the room. What I can tell you that impression Pitt made was that it was unprepared: didn't present plans or visions for the program, didn't convey commitment to the program, and in the end, didn't even make an offer. To be fair, Lyke was employeed for all of something like two days, but it wasn't a meeting that anyone would have walked away with a difficult decision to make.
Pat was set to be hired, HL came on board and wanted to look at other candidates. Pat got cold feet and stayed at Lehigh. Things have turned out OK for both sides fortunately.
No doubt, Gavin has done a good job so far ..... the other thing I seem to remember though was that if Santoro was hired as head coach, there was talk that he planned to bring Gavin on as his top assistant (we might have had both Santoro and Gavin, Pitt's last two National Champions) ....... I would have been interested to see how that would have worked out ..... in any event, hope Gavin keeps up the good work and continues the program on an upward trajectory !
Pat is a Pitt man, but he had no interest in Pitt after the interview. He wasn't sure about it to begin with. A lot of family ties in Bethlehem, but would always hear Pitt out. Whatever presentation was made, it was not impressive in the least.
This isn’t accurate but at this point it’s water under the bridge.
Accurate according to whom is what you need to ask yourself.
Only the one perspective matters.
After wanting to look at other candidates, did Lyke look at anyone other than Gavin?
I don’t disagree with you at all on that but I’m just referring to the media like Flo Bono had more hype
Bono was definitely a hot name. I think Flynn has accomplished more tho.
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this is what happened. It had nothing to do with presentations. She thought Lou would be better but he didn’t want it since he has been at OU less that a year.
Clearly she wasn't interested since Pitt never offered depsite bringing him in for an interview. The meeting with Santoro was not good from the perspective of the side that was being interviewed. It was over at that point. And if they didn't change things up, it would have been difficult to get anyone with any pedigree, which they didn't. Had no plans for the program or facilities, no firm commitment on anything: that is the impression that was made.
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Lou was asked to interview but wouldn’t.
Pat was shown plans for renovations. The interview wasn’t good because he could sense something was off. And he was correct.
If Heather had been hired 1 month later, Pat would be our current coach. Almost certainly. Pat had agreed in principle to a contract to the search committe, but when Heather was hired Pat’s hiring was put on hold so that Heather would interview him. She had other ideas about hiring someone she knew and put Pat off. Pat ran home and signed a new contract with Lehigh
So once Roselli was no longer an option and Pat went back to Bethlehem, did Lyke reach out to Bono, Flynn, or anyone else or did she go straight to Gavin?
Also, are Pitt wrestling fans still bummed about Lyke not hiring Santoro or are they okay with Gavin?
Also, are Pitt wrestling fans still bummed about Lyke not hiring Santoro or are they okay with Gavin?
I dont understand why this is still important. That water left the bridge and is in the Atlantic ocean right now
People asked so I answered them. I don't like revisionist history.
However things worked out fine for Pitt and Lehigh. I'm not even sure Flynn or Bono would have been good fits here, and I think Bono just used us to get a raise.
I for one am very glad coach Gavin is in charge. I’ll admit I was hoping for Bono out of all of those names but I agree that looking back I don’t think he was a great fit just the biggest “name” at the time. I see that Gavin is doing things like the Rokfin page and being more active on social media which will help immensely plus he is as genuine as they come. Just get the facilities to improve to stay in the arms race and we will be cooking in no time
That's the right answer. It is water under the bridge, but for those of us who never fully understood what happened, it is nice to know. So my thanks to everyone who responded to my questions. And so glad we are all happy to have Coach Gavin.
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