Wondering which of you have football coaches on board?  Seems to be a lot of football coaches not willing to promote wrestling as winter cross training. I honestly think their opinions are based on lack of knowledge of our sport. 

Would like to see what everyone thinks. There’s a ton of a ex wrestlers on college rosters as well as several in pro-ranks. 

Johnson Central’s football coach is very much on board with promoting wrestling to his football players   

Ray Graham is on board with us here at HC.  I'm the defensive coordinator for HC football and head coach for wrestling the Co-defensive coordinator is on my wrestling staff as well.  Not sure why coaches across the state do not promote wrestling to their football players. 1/2 of my roster are football players/wrestlers.  

35 minutes ago, CUTiger184 said:

Ray Graham is on board with us here at HC.  I'm the defensive coordinator for HC football and head coach for wrestling the Co-defensive coordinator is on my wrestling staff as well.  Not sure why coaches across the state do not promote wrestling to their football players. 1/2 of my roster are football players/wrestlers.  

That’s great. You know what they say about team work?

Let’s phrase this another way. Those of you that don’t have any football coaches on your staff. Do you get any support from football. Does your football staff discourage participation.  If they do support you, how and why?

How would you guys suggest getting football coaches on board?

They seem to want football players to gain a tremendous amount of weight in the off season and fear wrestling because of the term “cutting weight” - even though we don’t do that on our team. It’s a tough sell for a relatively young program and football coaching staff that have very little experience with the sport of wrestling. However, those that do wrestle and play football seem to be the most productive on the football field. Here’s to hoping that becomes the best selling point.

We haven't had much support, but as mentioned above, we are a newer program. I have had a few show apprehension over wearing singlets. With several seniors this season, we are considering the 2 piece uniforms for next season. That and I will seek to gain more support from the football coaches. Have any teams seen a significant increase from football with the new "uniforms"?

I coach middle school football and I encourage my football players to wrestle. Even if they're no good at it, which they likely wont be right away if they've never done it. I preach this, there is no other sport that prepares you for every other sport like wrestling. Body control, conditioning, finding your limits and exceeding them. You learn leverage, you hear that lineman? It's going to make you better, period. Every year I seem to get 3 or 4 new wrestlers through coaching football. 

I also preach it to my high school coaches to encourage it and our coaches seem to follow the boys during wrestling season so I know they dont discourage it. 

More than likely the problem is, some football coaches feel it's a 2 way street and a lot of wrestling coaches dont like football because their wrestlers come in out of shape and beat up, sometimes out with an injury right off the bat. There's a lot of wrestlers who only wrestle and do it all year around to be as good as they can be. Football coaches dont like seeing a stud that maybe was also a stud in football in middle school but suddenly they think the coaches talked them out of it in fear of getting hurt for wrestling. Sadly, it's a legitimate concern.  Wrestling is awesome for football but football is NOT for wrestling. Some wrestling coaches would prefer their wrestlers train for wrestling or run cross country and come in to the season already ahead of the game conditioning wise.

That's just my experience.  

10 hours ago, Down by 3 said:

 Have any teams seen a significant increase from football with the new "uniforms"?

We have the 2 piece for our middle school team.  However many of them prefer the singlet and want the singlet instead. 

2 hours ago, PABacon said:

I coach middle school football and I encourage my football players to wrestle. Even if they're no good at it, which they likely wont be right away if they've never done it. I preach this, there is no other sport that prepares you for every other sport like wrestling. Body control, conditioning, finding your limits and exceeding them. You learn leverage, you hear that lineman? It's going to make you better, period. Every year I seem to get 3 or 4 new wrestlers through coaching football. 

I also preach it to my high school coaches to encourage it and our coaches seem to follow the boys during wrestling season so I know they dont discourage it. 

 

More than likely the problem is, some football coaches feel it's a 2 way street and a lot of wrestling coaches dont like football because their wrestlers come in out of shape and beat up, sometimes out with an injury right off the bat. There's a lot of wrestlers who only wrestle and do it all year around to be as good as they can be. Football coaches dont like seeing a stud that maybe was also a stud in football in middle school but suddenly they think the coaches talked them out of it in fear of getting hurt for wrestling. Sadly, it's a legitimate concern.  Wrestling is awesome for football but football is NOT for wrestling. Some wrestling coaches would prefer their wrestlers train for wrestling or run cross country and come in to the season already ahead of the game conditioning wise.

That's just my experience.  

I’d say you on spot with your comments. What coaches of all sports should realize success breeds success. We can all build off of each other. 

3 minutes ago, bulldog-leader said:

We have the 2 piece for our middle school team.  However many of them prefer the singlet and want the singlet instead. 

I have issues with the loose fitting shorts. I’ve seen hands get stuck. They just need to be a bit more snug.