I had a thought while having my Sunday morning cup of joe, community colleges offering wrestling as a varsity sport. Following up on my previous post about the end of game of wrestlers, not all wrestlers are going division 1-3 or even NAIA. We've established that taking lessons from your wrestling career that can mold you into the responsible, healthy, hardworking adult we all strive to become is first and foremost. But what if there were more opportunities for kids with possibly less skill or academic issues?
I am going to use my area as an example, but I am certain anyone who reads this could compare the same situation to their area as well.
In the Chattanooga area there are several community colleges that offer varsity sports like basketball and baseball. Numerous players use this route to become academically eligible prior to transferring to a 4-year program, or even a way to improve with the hopes of continuing their career elsewhere after the completion of their two-years of community college.
Why isn't this happening in the sport of wrestling?
Remember me speaking about Cleveland and how everyone tries to emulate how they do things? There is a community college in Cleveland that offers a handful of varsity sports, but again no wrestling. Imagine the kids that sit and wait their turn behind a d1 wrestler and is in that room for four years, maybe one a starter, they would be entering their athletic prime at the end of their high school career. A chance to wrestle at a community college and improve physically, while earning their associate degree, could potentially lead them to transferring and flourishing elsewhere upon completion. For major college programs, this could be a feeder system so to speak. You train, become academically eligible, compete, and improve within a local viewpoint to local major college programs. In our area that would be the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Here is a hypothetical situation. Imagine a senior doesn't break the lineup until his senior year. He has a great season but finishes 3rd in the state. Major programs aren't recruiting this kid. It would even be a longshot to get scholarship money from lower-level programs as a one-year starter. In this case, this kid could stay at home for a couple years, have a lower tuition cost, still work on improving his wrestling skills, and try again two years later at joining a four-year college program. The same would hold true for kids that struggle academically. An opportunity to get on the right track with a lower amount of overhead (tuition, housing, etc.)
I can even imagine that major college programs would encourage these community college wrestlers to drop in to their RTC practices to continue improving and would support these programs anyway that they could. By assisting these community college programs, coaches from theses major programs could see the development of these athletes consistently for recruiting purposes. It would be similar to a major league baseball team supporting their minor leagues. Does every minor league player make it to the majors? No, but the ones that do make the system worth having in place for development.
I know college programs have to have a female sport to equal the male sport. Community colleges that would begin to offer wrestling, should offer a women's program as well. During the 2022-2023 season, Flo wrestling stated that women's wrestling has grown 46% across all states. So, this shouldn't be an excuse not to add the sport.
At the end of the day, more opportunity for everyone is a great thing. Obtaining a degree that will assist you the rest of your life is a great thing. If community colleges would offer wrestling, there would truly be a ton of opportunity for wrestlers to continue growing past their high school career, while obtaining the education that will essentially lead them to their full-time career. A complete win/win situation. If it can be done with sports like basketball, baseball, volleyball, and softball, it can be done with wrestling.
In my humble opinion,
Jesse Drennen
Founder $Bmoney Beastin' Athletics LLC.
Info@bmoneybeastinathletics.com
