Recruits

[AmberValley]

Re: Recruits

Probably Zero. Division One only allows 9.9 scholarships. That gets divided up amongst most of the guys; starters and non-starters. Currently the online roster shows 36 guys.

A full wrestling scholarship is very rare.

I remember years ago hearing that you were lucky if you got over 10% scholly at the U of M.

[GopherHole]

Re: Recruits

First of all, I LOVE the debate going on with this thread. It shows how much passion there is for wrestling at SDSU. We are not that far removed from the days where this program was in serious consideration for being dropped.

When I was reading about the debate of landing more top recruits, it made me wonder how the big time programs build their teams. I watched much of the Hawkeyes vs. Huskers dual Saturday night after tuning in to see Peyton Robb take the mat for the Huskers. Yep, the same Payton Robb who inititally committed to SDSU.

The Hawkeyes have an impressive team. Many think this is the first team since the Gophers accomplished it in the early 2000's to potentially have All-Americans at every weight class. I looked at their roster and they have an impressive list, including 15 native sons wrestling for their homestate and legendary program. Care to guess how many wrestled against the Huskers? ZERO!

Their starting lineup consisted of 5 from Pennsylvania, 3 from Illinois, and 1 each from Florida and Ohio. This is the #1 ranked team in the nation, with no native Iowan in the starting lineup. No doubt it is important for them to lockup the best talent from Iowa, but even the Hawkeyes have to load up their roster from out of state talent to compete at the highest level.

I'd love to see 2-4 starters in our lineup from South Dakota, but I'm not willing to sacrifice competing at the highest level by not recruiting the best talent and students to Brookings. Stig and AJ have consistently built winning teams that are competitive at the highest levels with in-state talent. Just don't kid yourself, we have to build our team with talent from outside of our state border. Getting the best South Dakotans would be icing on the cake.

[Justwin]

Re: Recruits

Probably Zero. Division One only allows 9.9 scholarships. That gets divided up amongst most of the guys; starters and non-starters. Currently the online roster shows 36 guys.

A full wrestling scholarship is very rare.

I remember years ago hearing that you were lucky if you got over 10% scholly at the U of M.

My point exactly. Almost amazing any kids wrestle at all. They have to truly love the sport. No surprise football will get the upper weight kids.

[jackrabbit1979]

Re: Recruits

Also love this debate.

I'd like someone to list the SD wrestlers that you feel we've missed on the past five years, since SDSU wrestling became "relevant" again. What SD wrestlers are having success for other D1 programs, who would have helped us at SDSU?

[GopherHole]

Re: Recruits

Missed South Dakota recruits - The following South Dakota wrestlers are on rosters at other D1 programs nationwide. (I've checked over 50 rosters.)

Dan Stibal, Bon Homme - NDSU (best finish was 5th at Big 12 Championships)

David Jensen, Mobridge - Nebraska (best finish was 6th at Big 10 and DNP at NCAA's last year)


FYI: I didn't count, but there were well over 25 from Kansas that are wrestling D1. Not exactly Iowa talent, but definitely more than from SD & ND combined.

[TheWombat]

Re: Recruits

First of all, I LOVE the debate going on with this thread. It shows how much passion there is for wrestling at SDSU. We are not that far removed from the days where this program was in serious consideration for being dropped.

When I was reading about the debate of landing more top recruits, it made me wonder how the big time programs build their teams. I watched much of the Hawkeyes vs. Huskers dual Saturday night after tuning in to see Peyton Robb take the mat for the Huskers. Yep, the same Payton Robb who inititally committed to SDSU.

The Hawkeyes have an impressive team. Many think this is the first team since the Gophers accomplished it in the early 2000's to potentially have All-Americans at every weight class. I looked at their roster and they have an impressive list, including 15 native sons wrestling for their homestate and legendary program. Care to guess how many wrestled against the Huskers? ZERO!

Their starting lineup consisted of 5 from Pennsylvania, 3 from Illinois, and 1 each from Florida and Ohio. This is the #1 ranked team in the nation, with no native Iowan in the starting lineup. No doubt it is important for them to lockup the best talent from Iowa, but even the Hawkeyes have to load up their roster from out of state talent to compete at the highest level.

I'd love to see 2-4 starters in our lineup from South Dakota, but I'm not willing to sacrifice competing at the highest level by not recruiting the best talent and students to Brookings. Stig and AJ have consistently built winning teams that are competitive at the highest levels with in-state talent. Just don't kid yourself, we have to build our team with talent from outside of our state border. Getting the best South Dakotans would be icing on the cake.

Yes, for what is likely the first time in their history (definitely the first time in at least 40 years) Iowa may have no native Iowans in their line-up at their conference tournament. That's as significant a stat as you're likely to find this year. It's important to note that almost all of their immediate back-ups are from Iowa, three of their four coaches are from Iowa, they do have 14 Iowans in the room (of 36 wrestlers) and they have three Iowan committed to the class of 2020 with another already committed to the class of 2021. It's not as if they're turned their back on their state, this is an aberration in the same way that it was when Minnesota started ten home grown wrestlers in a handful of duels a couple of years ago.

I don't think that we're arguing against each other here. I would also like to have a dozen or so blue-chip, out-of-state recruits and if we ever put out a line-up of ten South Dakotans out at the big 12 tournament, I think that the coach should be fired. This is not a yes or no question, it's a question of degree. To what degree ought the coaching staff to focus on in-state recruiting? Right now, I'd say that that focus is probably minimal at best. Nine is a very low number of local wrestlers and, looking at high school results, I have to assume that at least four of them were unrecruited walk-ons. In a five year recruiting cycle, thats an average of one recruit a year, now they probably failed to retain a couple and maybe they recruited some that I though they didn't, so lets be generous and say it's two. Is it unreasonable to say that they ought to average more than one or two in-state recruits a year? I don't think they need to break the bank, but make a couple of phone calls, show up at club practices, watch a tournament or two and hold some roster spots for the ones who are going to go there anyway. Let's at least get some recruited walk-ons. What exactly is Rotert doing on staff as "Recruiting Coordinator" if he can't recruit his own state?

[UWMandSDSU]

Re: Recruits

Yes, for what is likely the first time in their history (definitely the first time in at least 40 years) Iowa may have no native Iowans in their line-up at their conference tournament. That's as significant a stat as you're likely to find this year. It's important to note that almost all of their immediate back-ups are from Iowa, three of their four coaches are from Iowa, they do have 14 Iowans in the room (of 36 wrestlers) and they have three Iowan committed to the class of 2020 with another already committed to the class of 2021. It's not as if they're turned their back on their state, this is an aberration in the same way that it was when Minnesota started ten home grown wrestlers in a handful of duels a couple of years ago.

I don't think that we're arguing against each other here. I would also like to have a dozen or so blue-chip, out-of-state recruits and if we ever put out a line-up of ten South Dakotans out at the big 12 tournament, I think that the coach should be fired. This is not a yes or no question, it's a question of degree. To what degree ought the coaching staff to focus on in-state recruiting? Right now, I'd say that that focus is probably minimal at best. Nine is a very low number of local wrestlers and, looking at high school results, I have to assume that at least four of them were unrecruited walk-ons. In a five year recruiting cycle, thats an average of one recruit a year, now they probably failed to retain a couple and maybe they recruited some that I though they didn't, so lets be generous and say it's two. Is it unreasonable to say that they ought to average more than one or two in-state recruits a year? I don't think they need to break the bank, but make a couple of phone calls, show up at club practices, watch a tournament or two and hold some roster spots for the ones who are going to go there anyway. Let's at least get some recruited walk-ons. What exactly is Rotert doing on staff as "Recruiting Coordinator" if he can't recruit his own state?

How do you know they are not doing all of what you say you want to happen w/ in-state recruiting? Are you aware of how they are handling their in-state recruiting or are you basing on that at what the current roster looks like? I am asking as I don't know.

[jackrabbit1979]

Re: Recruits

Yes, for what is likely the first time in their history (definitely the first time in at least 40 years) Iowa may have no native Iowans in their line-up at their conference tournament. That's as significant a stat as you're likely to find this year. It's important to note that almost all of their immediate back-ups are from Iowa, three of their four coaches are from Iowa, they do have 14 Iowans in the room (of 36 wrestlers) and they have three Iowan committed to the class of 2020 with another already committed to the class of 2021. It's not as if they're turned their back on their state, this is an aberration in the same way that it was when Minnesota started ten home grown wrestlers in a handful of duels a couple of years ago.

I don't think that we're arguing against each other here. I would also like to have a dozen or so blue-chip, out-of-state recruits and if we ever put out a line-up of ten South Dakotans out at the big 12 tournament, I think that the coach should be fired. This is not a yes or no question, it's a question of degree. To what degree ought the coaching staff to focus on in-state recruiting? Right now, I'd say that that focus is probably minimal at best. Nine is a very low number of local wrestlers and, looking at high school results, I have to assume that at least four of them were unrecruited walk-ons. In a five year recruiting cycle, thats an average of one recruit a year, now they probably failed to retain a couple and maybe they recruited some that I though they didn't, so lets be generous and say it's two. Is it unreasonable to say that they ought to average more than one or two in-state recruits a year? I don't think they need to break the bank, but make a couple of phone calls, show up at club practices, watch a tournament or two and hold some roster spots for the ones who are going to go there anyway. Let's at least get some recruited walk-ons. What exactly is Rotert doing on staff as "Recruiting Coordinator" if he can't recruit his own state?

Wombat - I'll ask my question again...who do you think this staff, or the staff before them, missed on in SD the last five years when SDSU wrestling has been relevant at the D1 level and had a chance to recruit talent? Who is having success elsewhere (as a starter, backup, etc.) that should be at SDSU if the staff would have put a little effort into SD as you referenced?

[TheWombat]

Re: Recruits

How do you know they are not doing all of what you say you want to happen w/ in-state recruiting? Are you aware of how they are handling their in-state recruiting or are you basing on that at what the current roster looks like? I am asking as I don't know.

I don't know and If anyone does I'd love to hear it. But judging by the rate with which they pull wrestlers out of Iowa and Minnesota, where they are competing with other DI programs and some of the top DII and DIII programs in the country, they ought to be able to recruit in-state with incredible efficacy. They aren't doing that, in fact they are doing to opposite of that. If it isn't due to lack of recruiting talent, funding, or reputation which we know that it isn't. I don't know what to attribute it to outside of lack of interest or effort. Maybe there's some character issues that make them these kids unrecruitable or maybe they're all burned out on wrestling but you would have a hard time convincing me that they can't find a wrestler who is willing to be a jackrabbit that they can work with.

[TheWombat]

Re: Recruits

I just want to pause and say that I hope you all are having as much fun as I am. Getting into little forum debates like this are one of my favorite ways to pass the time (I got to look up the last 40 years of Iowa Hawkeye line-ups and I'm about to take a deep dive into the past five years of South Dakota recruits!) but I suspect that that isn't the case for everyone. If I detect that people are getting upset, I have no problem walking away from this one.

[GopherHole]

Re: Recruits

Wombat - you bring up great passion and thoughts to ponder. This friendly banter is making my day too.

By the way, if you look at my post #50, you will see that I've found two native South Dakotans on other D1 rosters. Only David Jensen (Mobridge) from Nebraska has qualified for the NCAA's. I'm not digging yet either as I can't believe there are not more. There may be some credence to past talent from the state that have chose not to pursue collegiate wrestling at the D1 level.

[MontanaRabbit]

Re: Recruits

Wombat - you bring up great passion and thoughts to ponder. This friendly banter is making my day too.

By the way, if you look at my post #50, you will see that I've found two native South Dakotans on other D1 rosters. Only David Jensen (Mobridge) from Nebraska has qualified for the NCAA's. I'm not digging yet either as I can't believe there are not more. There may be some credence to past talent from the state that have chose not to pursue collegiate wrestling at the D1 level.

Logan Storley and Robert Kokesh. Although those guys were before SDSU was relevant again.

[UWMandSDSU]

Re: Recruits

Dakota Galt. Went to Arizona State is now at UMary.

[GopherHole]

Re: Recruits

Logan Storley and Robert Kokesh. Although those guys were before SDSU was relevant again.

I'm just going off of active rosters, so that should give an idea of wrestlers who graduated high school in the last 4 or 5 years.

A trend that I'm seeing is that outside of a couple, most SD wrestling talent is either going to SDSU, D2 or not wrestling in college. Outside of the two I found wrestling for NDSU and Nebraska, they just aren't out there. Makes me wonder if there is more of a need for coaching some of these kids in national tourneys during the summer. Our local high school in Kearney, NE has been sending top talent to Fargo Nationals for a number of years. Only one of those kids is at a D! program and the rest are at D2. Phillip Moomey is a kid I tried to get to Brookings, but he's at Cornell and doing well. He won Fargo Nationals and represented the US at an international tourney because of his exposure at Fargo. He'd likely be wrestling D2 if it were not for that exposure. Maybe we need more kids from SD competing at that level.

Wombat - you may be on to something. Not specifically that Hahn's staff needs to work SD better, but that the talent in the state is not being challenged and exposed to more by not competing nationally.

[jackrabbit1979]

Re: Recruits

Logan Storley and Robert Kokesh. Although those guys were before SDSU was relevant again.

Yep - would have loved to have them and if SDSU was at the place we are at now when they were being recruited, I think there is a decent chance that we would have been in the running. Where our program was at when they were being recruited basically eliminated us.