So you are thinking about wrestling in college...

               With the high school season coming to an end, you might be thinking of wrestling in college.  Whether you are a graduating senior or an underclassman, it is never too early to begin planning for the future. 

                Many wrestlers figure that if they are good enough, the college coaches will contact them.  They have the workman mentality that if they just work hard enough everything will work out in the end.  While that is true to a certain degree, there are several reasons why a wrestler should market himself to college coaches.

                First of all, you don’t have to be a four-time state champion to be a potential college wrestler.  While it is true that college coaches usually go after multi-time state champions, they often miss out on the state champion or state place winner that has not fully achieved his potential. 

                Just because a college coach may not be calling you doesn’t mean that you are not good enough to wrestle in college. Think about it.  There are hundreds of high school state champions at every weight class throughout the United States each year.  In fact, there are probably dozens of two-time state champions at most weight classes each year.  However, there are relatively few college wrestling programs where all these athletes can wrestle.  Most college coaches know about the multi-time state champions, wherever they are located in the country, but they don’t know very much about the one- or two-time state champions unless they are from the states where the college is located.  Excellent high school wrestlers with college potential reside in places like Nevada and Texas that do not have college wrestling programs. 

                A second reason to market yourself to college coaches is that the very act of researching college programs will enable you to learn more about the programs where you could wrestle.  There are many excellent schools that don’t get the national media attention like the perennial powerhouses such as Iowa or Oklahoma State.  Until the last few years nobody talked much about Cornell University as a place to go wrestle, but now in 2011, people are looking at them as a serious contender for the Division I national championship!

                A school like Cornell is looking for a special kind of student-athlete.   I’ve been impressed with the ability of Cornell’s coaching staff to take athletes that weren’t necessarily multi-time state champions and develop them into outstanding college wrestlers. 

                Another important reason to market yourself to college coaches is that you can initiate a contact with them several months before NCAA rules will permit them to contact you.  This gets you on their radar early in your career.  By the time you are a senior, they will have heard of you, whether you are located in their state and close to their campus or far away from them.

                Part of your efforts to market yourself can include sending a letter and a profile sheet, updates on your progress and invitations to watch you wrestle as well as providing them with videos of a few of your matches.  There are some specific things you can do beginning your freshman year in high school, which are too extensive to describe here. 

                I’ve included all of this in my book Wrestle and Win: The Wrestler’s Guide to Strength, Conditioning, Nutrition and College Preparation which you can order here on this blog site.  Three chapters will help you understand how to evaluate college programs, how to maximize your chances of getting a scholarship and walk you through the timeline of things to do each year before you graduate from high school.  There are even sample letters for you to use as you write to college coaches as well as a checklist of what to do on a campus visit.