I am at the Mick Pickford freestyle tourney right now watching the broa wrestle. Ethan Andersen is here and sporting Mizzou gear. I can't remember if you said he was just being recruited at the moment or if he has committed already...but he is sporting Mizzou stuff. And he looks tough.

He's a 2016 verbal commitment according to Intermat. My guess is he projects at 285? If Cox indeed moves to Hwt and never takes his redshirt, it would appear that Andersen could step in as his replacement as a redshirt freshman in 2017-2018. Not a bad situation. He would get to work out with Cox for a year, and Miklus for two, while projecting to start all 4 years of his eligibility. It helps that Mizzou has been great in developing the upper weights in recent years (Miklus, Cox, Eblen, Mellon, Bradley, Ellis, Askren, etc)

Not sure how I missed this thread. I was a state champion at 135 (180 now) in high school and besides the workouts at the comrodery I really don't miss it. Having to keep all that weight off your frame when your body is just begging to grow wasn't fun. Eating like an anorexic canary for no reason didn't appeal to me.

I absolutely loved the challenge and the girls looking at you with that 'wow' look but I wouldn't starve myself ever again and not really sure I'd push my son to do it. That's some brutal shit.

It's sad you had to do that. The sport would be better without some of the coaches in it. I honestly think there's a lot less of that going on today than back in "my" day. And I hope it's more watched as we move forward.

It's not hard, work your ****ing ass off and wrestle your weight, it's just not that hard.

They hydro and perf test today, and, because of the past problems with it, I'd be fine with it getting even more monitored....

Lots of great coaches and a great sport just don't let someone your care about fall into that weight class pit. It's not healthy and when push comes to shove you're not making a living off wrestling.

Amen brother. I wasn't much, but my coach (back in the 80s!!!) said, "you wrestle you weight, not anything less." And I was glad to do that with my older son and will do the same with my younger son too.

THAT being said, there's nothing wrong with teaching a kid how to eat to be lean. A balanced diet, hydration, and working out. With wrestling the later is a joke, there are few, if any, wrestlers who don't get plenty of the right exercise (if they care), but add a little more to it than the food pyramid, and you can teach them how to build and maintain muscle. And then fear nobody at their weight.

And THAT being said, I never freaked-out when they came into the room from football season "fat"! Certain positions in football tend to have 5-7 pounds they can lose just by moving from the football practice field to the wrestling room. And I personally took note of the football players who were gassed during those first few practices. If they were, I knew they were in football shape, but not wrestling shape. THOSE guys could lose 5 pounds and I'd write it off to being in the room and having coaches who taught a smart and lean diet.

As a parent of a current wrestler who could be competitive in our state: I would tell the coach to get ****ed if they were trying to push my kid into a weight class where he didn't belong. If it's something he can maintain by monitoring his intake/output slightly, then that's fine. But I know kids who are competing for scholarships at the next level and the coaches are offering them contingent on them competing at a class where they may or may not be comfortable (lose 10 pounds and stay there going forward, and we'll give you a scholly).

That being said, I don't think there's anything wrong with kids learning how to watch their intake/outtake and control their nutrition.

Extra story: My Division I son (6-7 years old) has never even been close to being over the weight he competes (60 lbs). I still always try to make him conscious of his intake/outtake, just so he's familiar with the whole concept. He usually weighs about 57-58 lbs, so I really don't worry about his weight. We went to weigh in at a point in this season, and I had been ****ing with him about making weight and talking to him about how people lose weight, specifically talking about water retention. After we weigh in on Friday before tourney, he goes to water fountain and starts slurping down water. I asked him why he was so thirsty. Evidently, he hadn't had a drink all day because he was worried about making weight. Poor guy.

Anyone know how Mizzou is recruiting?

I came down with a rare disorder called cold urticaria when I was 20... That means I am allergic to cold. I went to the Mayo Clinic last summer because they suspected cancer could be the underlying cause of it...results were negative. Not much is known about the causation of it and treatment is basically nonexistent. It ****ing sucks. Recent studies have indicated that in 50% or so of the cases, cancer, mononucleosis or rheumatoid arthritis are underlying causes. I've been checked for all 3 now...negative on all of them.

I swear, I acquired that condition by cutting way too much weight in high school and college. I think I ****ed up my equilibrium. I cut an atrocious amount of weight in grades 9-11 and my Sophomore year in college. Like...up to 30 lbs, when I didn't have much fat to begin with. I remember when I was a Freshman, I was varsity at 119 and the first weekend of the year, our 112 lber broke his hand. I was the only one who they thought could POSSIBLY make 112, so they asked if I would go down while we slid the JV 119 (who was a future state qualifier...pretty good) in at 119. I agreed despite the fact that it was HELL making 119. I weighed 129 at the end of the day that the kid broke his hand...gained 10 lbs that day just from making 119...and I had to make 112 by that following Thursday, and every Thursday and Saturday following that until after Christmas break. And I did it. The only thing I would do to eat or drink was suck on an orange and spit the juice out in a cup. Starved myself. And that's just one of many awf weight cutting experiences I had. It was a bitch making 112/119 as a Freshman, it was an even bigger bitch making 130 as a Sophomore, it was the biggest bitch making 140 as a Junior, it was a pretty decent sized bitch making 152 as a Senior, it was a huge bitch making 174 as a Freshman and Sophomore in college and a helluva bitch making 184 as a Junior in college. Just kept growing...thankfully it wasn't stunted, but I think my equilibrium was.

And weight cutting is so overrated...I wrestled worse because of it. I wrestled my best in offseason freestyle tourneys when weight wasn't a concern. Not only does it wear at you physically, but the stress and anxiety of making weight also wears at you. So counterproductive.

Congrats on winning state! What state?! Lonewolf was a state finalist.

I hear ya brother. Both my brothers are 6 foot or bigger and I'm 5' 9" and I know it was at least partially attributed to trying to be a 135 pound guy. That's 45 ****ing pounds and I didn't have an ounce of fat on me then or now. That weight cutting shit is bullshit and no good. States were won in Pennsylvania back in the mid 90's. Never pursued wrestling once past high school. I played college intramural hockey and practice Brazilian jiu-jitsu as much as I can fit in. I'd be happy if I was never in another brawl in my life. There were too many take downs that ended badly on both sides. Thank you on the congrats! Hope all works for you on the health issues. I'm rooting for ya.

I watched Battle at the Gridiron today at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City. It was ****ing awesome!!!! One of the best wrestling events I've ever been to!!

We've started practices back up. 3 times a week for 90 minutes at a stretch, and my boys still can't get enough of it and are always asking if tonight is another wrestling night?

Our club hired a real coach this year. A young kid who wrestled in college for Ouachita Baptist. Great guy, and he's very passionate. I'm excited because our former coaches were just dads who basically had the kids live wrestling for over half the practice. This coach is much more into drilling and also seems to be able to make it fun.

My son live wrestled against a teammate for like 10 minutes the other day. Just take down after take down. He got his ass whipped every time, bounced back up, and went at it again (the other kid is a year older and a lot more developed). He was shedding some tears by the end of it (and I was probably yelling more than I should have trying to tell him what to do), but I was proud of him for bouncing up and going at it probably 20 times even after suffering some brutal takedowns.

Older son (with disability) is also wrestling, but he won't compete. He just likes being out with the guys, and it's damned good exercise/therapy for him. He doesn't have a lot of active stuff he likes to do besides swim, so he's put on quite a bit of weight and gotten a gut in the last few months. These wrestling practices are quickly helping him shed that though.

Our first tournament is the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. I'll be curious to see how the youngster competes in his first year as Division 2. I'm worried it's going to be brutal.

Iowa is college wrestling. Great day for sports in Iowa City. 40k+ in attendance for the wrestling meet this morning then 70k for football tonight.

Truth. Total truth!

They had a verbal from Ethan Anderson from Southeast Polk, but he recently committed to Okie State, I believe. He would have been a great pickup for Mizzou... Kind of a bummer.