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Re: Recruits
I am not arguing that we should fill to upper half of out depth-chart with all local guy, that would be stupid. But we aren't going to get 40 Fargo all-Americans in the room. When we can get a top flight guy from South Dakota, I think that we should try to do that (Maybe we get a guy like Kellyn March over a guy like Caleb Gross). That's not always possible and where somebody is from shouldn't move the needle tremendously here. But, more importantly, when we're filling out the bottom half of our depth chart with projects and depth guys it make a lot of sense to shop local. I have no problem with guys like Copestick, Lakeman, Rucklos and Mcconville, but why not take a look at the Turman brothers, Michael Lusk, Dante Colecheski, or Logan Warzecha. There would be no drop off in talent, it would help build the sport in the state and they are almost certainly cheaper. I just googled him, and it looks like Michael Lusk is actually in Brookings going to school anyway. He's a three time state champ, four time finalist. Why not give this guy a phone call, buy him some text books and get him in the room rather than trying to convince Dalton Lakeman to move 2,000 miles away from home?
I live on the East coast and I'm from Minnesota; I have never even seen a SD high school match in person but I see a lot of value in investing in the betterment of South Dakota high school wrestling. The reason that Iowa is such fertile recruiting ground is the vast number of successful college wrestlers that have turned around and given back to the community. They've helped out at high schools, put on clinics, started freco clubs and camps. South Dakota have comparable interest in wrestling to Iowa. They have a quarter of the population, but they also have a quarter of the collegiate wrestling opportunities. If we build the infrastructure, we can have comparable results over time.
There are tons of youth coaches that do great work and don't know the finer points of a cross-wrist tilt, but the higher level that you coach, the more that you need to know and, outside of Legends of Gold, there aren't a ton of places that you can go to learn very high-level technique in state That's why SoDak has so many wrestlers but so few great wrestlers. J Rob's wrestlers transformed Minnesota high school wrestling when he was there, Ben and Max Askren are doing the same in Wisconsin right now. It may take a while for this to bare fruit, but it will and they won't be worse for having done it.
Originally posted by KSjack
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I live on the East coast and I'm from Minnesota; I have never even seen a SD high school match in person but I see a lot of value in investing in the betterment of South Dakota high school wrestling. The reason that Iowa is such fertile recruiting ground is the vast number of successful college wrestlers that have turned around and given back to the community. They've helped out at high schools, put on clinics, started freco clubs and camps. South Dakota have comparable interest in wrestling to Iowa. They have a quarter of the population, but they also have a quarter of the collegiate wrestling opportunities. If we build the infrastructure, we can have comparable results over time.
There are tons of youth coaches that do great work and don't know the finer points of a cross-wrist tilt, but the higher level that you coach, the more that you need to know and, outside of Legends of Gold, there aren't a ton of places that you can go to learn very high-level technique in state That's why SoDak has so many wrestlers but so few great wrestlers. J Rob's wrestlers transformed Minnesota high school wrestling when he was there, Ben and Max Askren are doing the same in Wisconsin right now. It may take a while for this to bare fruit, but it will and they won't be worse for having done it.
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