Recruitment Roundup

New Age of Early Commits

New Age of Early Commits

Oct 29, 2014 by Ryan Holmes
New Age of Early Commits
Are the days of enjoying the entirety of the recruiting process over or are wrestlers more mature nowadays and can make their college commitments earlier?

The regular season has yet to begin, but so far 15 juniors have verbally committed to schools all over the country. We all know the pressures of picking the right school that you’re going to be spending the next four to six years of your life at. But why rush it?

As a 16 to 18 year old kid, getting that first recruiting letter or phone call from a school is a great feeling and certainly puts the pressure on to say yes. Of course committing early eliminates the pressure and allows these guys to wrestle without having the fear of the future in the back of their minds. But taking your time and truly enjoying the process where you can go on multiple recruiting trips (both official and unofficial) and see as many campuses as possible before posting your decision to twitter has it’s advantages too.

However, former Greco Olympian Brandon Paulson, who now coaches two wrestlers who have commit early, sees it differently.

“To me, its all situation specific,” Paulson said. “A guy like Mitch McKee has a different reason for committing early than Hunter Marko.”

Marko committed to Wisconsin and McKee to Minnesota.

“Being their club coach I see them all the time so I know the difference between the two. I just hope they didn’t rush it,” Paulson added.

Making the decision no matter if you’re a junior or a senior truly comes down to the maturity level and if you are looking into the right aspects of the school.

“Maturity is the key but it has nothing to do with what class you’re in,” commented Paulson. “Who’s to say that a junior isn’t as mature as a senior? As a student-athlete you have to make sure you’re making the right decision for you. If a school is going to throw a bunch of money at you and ask you to commit right there it’s probably best that you take your time and look at two or three more schools before doing that. But you have to be mature enough to do that.”

If Arizona State’s recent off season has taught us anything, it’s that changes can happen quickly. Committing early could mean buying into one coaches program and ultimately ending up with a completely different one when you get there. Not every coach-wrestler dynamic is a match made in heaven, especially if you initially thought you were getting something totally different.

“If the program is what you are committing to then a coaching change after you commit won’t make a difference because you are invested in what the school is doing,” he said. “But if the program suffers because of the coaching change then I have nothing against a kid who wants to transfer to a different school that suits him better. But that’s a risk that anyone takes.”

In the end there’s a ton of great reasons to commit early and a number of bad reasons for it as well. But like Paulson said, it’s all situation specific.

“Ultimately, I think that it’s a good thing for the kid but a bad thing for the school that’s investing money very early into a kid who they don’t know how he will progress,” he added. “I just hope we don’t see any younger kids starting to doing it too.”

Class of 2016 Commitments w/ weight projections

125/133: Jack Mueller (TX) – Virginia
125/133: Ty Agaisse (NJ) – Princeton
125/133: Brandon Paetzell (NJ) – Rutgers
125/133: Kyle Norstrem (FL) – Virginia Tech
133: Luke Karam (PA) – Bucknell
133: Mitch McKee (MN) – Minnesota
133: Hunter Marko (WI) - Wisconsin
133: Matt Schmitt (MO) - West Virginia
149: Mark McCormick (NJ) – Rider
157: Kaleb Young (PA) – Iowa
174: Chris Weiler (PA) – Lehigh
174: Alex Marinelli (OH) – Iowa
174: Dakota Geer (PA) – Edinboro
184: Nick Reenan (TX) – Northwestern
285: Jordan Wood (PA) – Lehigh