Wrestling Blogs - Martin Floreani

So it is official, Terry brands, Henry Cejudo and Steve Mocco are off to Iowa. Those two along with Mike Zadick and Doug Schwab make four 2008 olympians training at one school. Don't forget about the slew of other contenders starting with Jared Frayer. NCAA wrestling is again facing the black clowd of Iowa hawkeyes that seem to hang in the background of everyone's conciousness. This black clowd leads to tenative 18 year old boys hesitating to the wrestlers in the black and gold with a determined Brands coach in their corner, check that, two determined brands coaches. Both will be expect total domination.

These perceptions leads to an increased confidence and expectations for Iowa wrestlers as they slowly morph into what people view them as: trained killers that the brand brothers specifically sculpted. It becomes a self fulfilling destiny for their competitors. This does not imply that the Iowa hawkeyes don't deserve what they get afterall they work their butts off. Nor does it imply they couldn't win without this wave of confidence and by the aura of the brands brothers.

Terry brands is off to a school where he can live without the politics that are so abundant at the otc. Its not really suprising that he makes this move as Terry Brands might be the worse bureaucrat of all time. He doesn't like to play games nor kiss ass. It is against his nature. God bless him.

With him goes his faithful following of Mocco and Cejudo who were the most successful of the Olympic freestyle team in 2008. This leads a baren otc that Zeke Jones takes over.

Rich Bender, the president of USA wrestling is in the buisness of producing Olympic gold medalists. Rich benders problem, or a symptom of it, is that one of his biggest assets is moving away from freestyle and into NCAA wrestling where the politics aren't nearly as thick. Making matters worse is that He takes along loyal disciples who happen to be America's best freestylers.

If there were to be only one truth in this world that I know it is that Terry brands loves wrestling. He lives his life like it were a wrestling match, intense, pure and full of his free will. Sometimes this is to his detriment as life isn't a wrestling match. These are insignificant details to Terry Brands. He pushes forward away from the otc and back into college wrestling.

At Iowa you can expect Terry Brands goals to be to create a dominating dynasty that sets him up for the next Big 10 or Big 12 head coach opening. If and when this happens he will leave to have something of his own. Afterall this is his wrestling match and his free will, not his brothers.

When Terry does have a program of his own the collegiate wrestling nation as a whole will breathe a collective sigh of relief. After all, at that time you will have the Brands brothers competing against each other and splitting top recruits that are more likely to train in that Iowa Style and culture.