Wrestling Blogs - Jim Brown

Things that make me smile


These blogs are frequently about the concerns I have for the future of amateur wrestling – especially at the collegiate level. Lest I perpetuate a “gloom-and-doom” attitude, here are some bright spots from this season





Record attendance at CMU

4,273 fans attended the Central Michigan University/University of Michigan dual meet at Rose Arena on the CMU campus. Last season the Wolverines averaged 1,159 fans in attendance for home dual meets and the Chippewas just 827. A tip of the hat goes out to the coaches, wrestlers, administrators and fans that made this happen. Let’s see more of this.


http://www.flocasts.org/flowrestling/matches.php?vid=7193


Girls in Texas

The current issue of W.I.N. Magazine has a great article on high school wrestling in Texas. When compared to the rich interscholastic wrestling traditions of states like Pennsylvania, Iowa and Oklahoma – the sport is a relative newcomer – but it is exploding. There is one way that the Lone Star State has it over everyone – the inclusion of girls. Over 1,300 girls wrestle at Texas high schools. That’s about a fourth of all of the girls wrestling interscholastically in the entire country.

Here’s what Texas does right – they offer separate girls’ championships. A few other states do the same, but the majority of girls must wrestle on boys’ teams. It’s true that Michaela Hutchison won a state “boys” championship in Alaska in 2006 and that a few other girls have made it to the medal podium in their respective state boys’ championships. The truth, however, is that most of the girls in “boys-only” states rarely see the mat in varsity competition.

Girls’ high school athletics and wrestling are significant parts of our culture in Iowa. I would hope that some day soon our state interscholastic sports organizations would see the wisdom of the Texas example.

For more information, read the article in W.I.N. You can subscribe at
www.win-magazine.com.

A change in the season

The NCAA and the NWCA are jointly studying the possibility of changing the intercollegiate wrestling season. Conventional wisdom has long been that moving conference and national championships into April to avoid the NCAA basketball tournament would help attract more fans to college wrestling. As the cliché goes – “It couldn’t hurt”.

Contest entries

As the regular readers know, I launched an essay contest last week to promote the NCAA Division III championships. While the quantity of entries so far is less than hoped for, the quality is outstanding. The contest ends next month and, if the writer consents, I’ll post the winning entry on March 3rd.



Brent Metcalf


Yes – I’m a Hawkeye fan, but Brent Metcalf makes me smile because of the way he wrestles and the way he has achieved his success. His active, aggressive style makes him a joy to watch and his work ethic is reminiscent of his head coach. Last night he knocked off another top foe when he “majored” Northwestern’s Ryan Lang.

Hopefully, Dustin Schlatter is healthy enough that we will finally get to see Round 1 of this highly anticipated match-up this Friday night in Minneapolis.