This feature was written by Tony Greathouse, the founder and owner of Michigan Grappler.. Greathouse wrestled at Mason High School and Michigan State University and is the current Head Wrestling Coach at Brighton High School. Contact him via email: associatedwrestlingpress@gmail.com and feel free to leave comments on the bottom of this page.
Welcome to Michigan Grappler's newest feature - Tuesday Morning Takedowns. Every Tuesday from here on out we will have a member of our staff taking on questions from our readers as well as addressing any big recent news in the Michigan wrestling world.
This is not a mailbag, not an opinion column, and also not a news briefing, but a combination of them all - and more. The idea is that each Tuesday morning we will go takedowns with all the big things happening in Michigan wrestling!
If you would like to submit ideas or questions for our Tuesday Morning Takedowns, email associatedwrestlingpress@gmail.com.
You are right - it does seem as if all of sudden Brent has exploded. Normally a huge improvement would be result of a young guy fresh out of college finally getting the hang of the international scene or something like that, but with Metcalf, not the case as he has been all in on his freestyle game for four years now training and competing like crazy.
With Brent, I think the biggest reason for his recent success is the FILA rule changes from last year. He has always been the best US wrestler in his weight class, but the old rules with the 3 separate period scoring system enabled those who were not at this level to be able to compete with him. The new rules expose how much better he is than his peers, at least within the United States.
At the international level, he has always been right there with the top guys, but with the old rules every match was like splitting hairs. Periods that were not decided by ball-grabs were decided by a single pushout or a single mistake would usually cost you the period against the high level guys because they could sit back and evade action all day long without penalty as long as they stayed inside the circle. The new freestyle rules are a life-saver, I don't know how much longer I could have went watching those old 1-0, 0-1, 1-0 snooze-fests that were becoming the norm.
Let me preface my response with this: I have been hearing grumblings off and on about different college wrestling programs & their coaching staffs in Michigan for a few years and while I love the enthusiasm of our Michigan wrestling community and the desire to win, I really have a hard time chiming in on criticizing our College Wrestling coaching staffs.
In general, I think it is important to keep in mind that College Wrestling is more competetive than ever, not just in the meat-grinder that is the Big Ten, but smaller conferences like the MAC are turning into power conferences as well due to other conferences being eliminated and teams spilling over. Therefore, it is becoming more competetive than ever, and I really have a hard time trying to play arm-chair quarterback to a group of coaches who have way more experience & knowledge than I do, and who devote their lives to trying to build succesfull programs.
Now, in response to the question specifically, I think that the Wolverine wrestling program is moving in the right direction and I don't think Donny Pritzlaff leaving for Rutgers is a bad sign at all - and not because Pritzlaff isn't an amazing coach. He is one of the best in the country, no doubt about it, however I think that this move was merely one of opportunity and potential career advancement for Pritzlaff. Bormet appears to be the "next in line" for Head Coach att Michigan if McFarland were ever to leave and as much as I love Donny he is too good of a coach to not be a Head Coach in a power program, and it appears that he has stepped into a situation where he will be the next head guy at Rutgers. In addition, with Rutgers joining the Big Ten and being on the talent rich East Coast, they have the potential to make big gains quickly.
Last part of the question - I think it is unfair to say that Michigan isn't winning already, they did beat the National Dual Champs Minnesota this year, finished Top 20 at the NCAA Tournament, and they have 6 NCAA Qualifiers coming back next year as well as another Top 10 recruiting class coming in. They were very competetive this year with a very young team, and arguably their best wrestler (Taylor Massa) redshirted. Also, lets get back to my earlier point about the competetive nature of college wrestling. Has Michigan been getting really good recruiting classes the last few years? Yes. But, take a look at who Penn State, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio State, Cornell, etc., etc., etc. have been bringing in the last few years. All these power programs bring in the same kind of classes and they have been doing it year in and year out. So it is not like UM has some monumental advantage in terms of recruits - their recruiting classes of late are indeed comparable to that of the juggernaut programs, but they still have a lot of work to do with these guys once they arrive in Ann Arbor. Not only teaching them to wrestle, but teaching them to be young adults and function as students, athletes, and human beings without their parents telling them what to do. It is way more than just X's and O's, so back to my original point, lets be less critical of our college programs and more supportive. Focus on the positives, because there are a lot of them.
This is not a mailbag thing as much as just general comments. For the last 7 years since I started Michigan Grappler, I have tried to make a point of putting out great rankings consistently throughout the pre-season, season, and post-season. I think rankings build our sport - they get kids names out, they give local newspapers and fans a gauge to use to get an idea of who is who, and they get people talking about wrestling. I see other states that do not have good, impartial, consistent rankings and it kills me (which is a big reason why I started helping launch sites in Ohio, Indiana, New York, and Pennsylvania)
Michigan Grappler has gained more readership and notoriety from rankings than anything else, however, I have also seen more conflict, tension, and harrasment come about from the rankings.
Whenever rankings come out that coaches, parents, or wrestlers do not agree with, people take it personal, and sometimes they say things or do things that they probably end up regretting. For that reason, I think it is important to remember the purpose of these rankings. The purpose of our rankings is to try to give fans a general idea of who the best wrestlers are - whether it is in a weight class or in a graduating class or whatever. When the rankings are put together, we try to base it on RESULTS and leave OPINION out of it as much as possible. Obviously rankings are always going to have flaws, unless Steve is a relative of Patrick Jayne (CBS' The Mentalist) and can read into the future, he or anyone else doing rankings is never going to be 100% accurate, but the system that we have in place is pretty darn good and I am positive that no other state in the country does as good of a job of ranking high school wrestlers as Michigan Grappler.
A little history on the rankings - I used to do them entirely myself when Michigan Grappler first started until a few years ago when Steve took them over. Now I make it a point to stay out of them entirely and let Steve do his thing.
When I used to do the rankings one of the most disheartening complaints I heard from time to time (and I am sure Steve hears this today) was that my rankings were costing kids college scholarships. While I am flattered by the idea that Cael Sanderson and Tom Brands are handing out scholarships based on what Michigan Grappler says, I have to break it to you all that is simply not the case. I am sure that many college coaches browse our class rankings to see if there are any kids they somehow missed in their recruiting proccess, however, if you are a really good wrestler and you put in the work, college coaches are going to find you regardless of what we rank you. Winning state titles, competing in national events, and placing in national events is what will get you recruited. If you are doing those three things and Steve drops the ball and puts you HM in the class rankings, you are still going to get recruited, although if you do those three things your going to get ranked pretty high!
Morale of the story is this: we put a ton of time and effort into rankings and I absolutely LOVE it that the wrestling community thoroughly cares about them and that everyone follows our rankings so avidly. However, please don't take rankings too seriously, they are just rankings. State Titles are not handed out based on rankings and no matter what anyone tells you - college scholarships are not determined based on our rankings! It is absurd to think that Tom Borelli, Joe McFarland, Tom Minkel, and Derek Delporto are sitting in their offices all summer waiting for MI Grappler's Fall Recruiting Rankings to come out before they can start inviting kids to campus for official visits! Not the case - so read them, enjoy them, but dont let our rankings or anyone else's ruin your day!
The video below is a recent tribute from State Champs Network on the late DCC Football Star David Widzinski. David is the brother of MIG's own Steve Widzinski, who has been a huge part of taking MI Grappler's High School coverage to a whole new level with more in depth rankings, insight, previews, and event coverage. Steve is the best high school wrestling analyst in the country and we are proud to have him as a part of our family. Shout out to State Champs Network and Catholic Central for being so supportive of Steve and his family.
It is crazy how busy this Spring has been, but there is more coming up.
MI Grappler HS Analyst Steve Widzinski will be continuing our new Top Classes by Team feature this week with the Junior and Senior edition.
Next week we will be unveiling the 2014 MI Grappler HS Dream Team
Memorial Day Weekend (May 23-25) will be a big wrestling weekend with the NHSCA National Duals going down in Virginia Beach with a huge crop of Michigan preps, Middle Schoolers, and Elementary wrestlers making the trip south to compete. Also going on Memorial Day weekend will be the FILA Cadet Nationals and University Nationals in Ohio.
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