Here's an old OSU Cowboy (2 x AA) and was born about 10-15 years too early or he would be have been big time. The Big Cat moved extremely well for a guy his size...
Sincity Hustler,
thanks for your post. Please ranke 1-20 states in your opinion
A good indicator for quality wrestling is the amount of state-natives who become All Americans in a given year. In 2010, for instance:
8: Pennsylvania
7: Iowa, New York and New Jersey
4: Idaho, California, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan 3: Ohio
2: Oklahoma, Arizona, Maryland, Missouri, Oregon, Utah, Wisconsin
1: Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Nevada, and Virginia, Moscow, Russia.
Obviously each year is a little different. Ohio is almost always better. An even better indicator, especially because it would account for depth, is national qualifiers. I don't have that information, though.
source: http://www.examiner.com/college-wrestling-in-national/2010-ncaa-div-i-wrestling-all-americans-by-the-numbers
http://adccbarcelona.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/tom-erikson1.jpg?w=225&h=300
pic of Big Cat (not mat battle)
Top HS wrestling states, (includes all 3 styles)
1. PA
2 NJ
3 OH
4 CA
5 IL
6 MN
7 NY
8 IA
9 WI
10 MI
11 IN
12 OR
13-49 everybody else
^^^ Note Mississippi does not have HS wrestling.
I listed the top 13 because those are the states who have seperated themselves from the rest with national results year in and year out. I could have listed Florida and Virginia but there may be some states I'm leaving off who can make a good arguemnt for being above them. Oklahoma is right on the cut off bubble IMO.
Texas is a sleeping giant. They have the potential to really climb up the list and make some noise. The south is beginning to rise with Georgia making waves and a couple of others.
SinCityHustler - Top HS wrestling states, (includes all 3 styles)
1. PA
2 NJ
3 OH
4 CA
5 IL
6 MN
7 NY
8 IA
9 WI
10 MI
11 IN
12 OR
13-49 everybody else
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Great thread. I wrestled since I was 6 through high school, but that was 20yrs ago and it wasn't super popular. My question: do you see MMA having a positive affect on the number of kids going out for wrestling nowadays?
SinCity, where would you say the best place to read up on HS wrestling on a national level is?
SinCityHustler - Top HS wrestling states, (includes all 3 styles)
1. PA
2 NJ
3 OH
4 CA
5 IL
6 MN
7 NY
8 IA
9 WI
10 MI
11 IN
12 OR
13-49 everybody else
Nice list. I've always divided it into tiers:
Tier 1: PA
Tier 2: NJ and OH
Tier 3: CA, IL, NY, MN, IA
Tier 4: the rest of your top list
Tier 5: the rest of the country.
I like www.usawrestlingnation.com There are guys on there from all parts of the country and the message board is pretty active. I follow California closest, being that's where I wrestled, (www.thecaliforniawrestler.com). www.intermatwrestle.com is a great source for rankings and interesting stories, previews, analysis, etc. www.theopenmat.com is another good one. usawrestlingnationseems to get fed by all the rest with the most info located in one spot.
For videos www.flowrestling.com is 2nd to none and www.themat.tv has a ton of videos as well.
8flat -SinCityHustler - Top HS wrestling states, (includes all 3 styles)
1. PA
2 NJ
3 OH
4 CA
5 IL
6 MN
7 NY
8 IA
9 WI
10 MI
11 IN
12 OR
13-49 everybody else
<br type="_moz" />
Great thread. I wrestled since I was 6 through high school, but that was 20yrs ago and it wasn't super popular. My question: do you see MMA having a positive affect on the number of kids going out for wrestling nowadays?
It's difficult to determine if MMA is having an impact on kids because it's pretty much word of mouth or guess work. My opinion would be a little bit, sure. I think parents, (dads) wanting to get their kid prepared for MMA would put him in an MMA class and learn wrestling there. That's probably the majority. I imagine there are a few dads though that see how good wrestling is for MMA but aren't interested in MMA for their kids and decide to enroll them in wrestling.
I haven't seen the numbers in the last couple of years but the trend for years has been that the active wrestling membership increases annually. In fact, wrestling has been the 4th most popular HS sport for some time, trailing only football, soccer, and baseball.
it's not just Oklahoma State Wrestling that is producing good fighters. When I went to school at Oklahoma State I started an MMA club and we had 60 people in it a semester, it was REALLY popular. One of the guys I trained from day 1 actually knocked out Shane Roller in one of the local shows. We traveled and competed in MMA & bjj tourney's. I got to train mma with a couple of the oklahoma state wrestlers since they were all starting to get into it since it was becoming popular and those dudes were super tough even not knowing striking or jiu-jitsu. Tyson Griffin's brother wrestled for Oklahoma State and would come down to train and he had EXCELLENT bjj, I assume he used to train with his brother before he came to OSU. I think he actually just started to fight, he could be VERY good. Unfortunately, when I graduated and moved back home (2008) the club dissolved :(
Sephiroth - not surprising, all these top wrestling schools will be doing the same. Iowa, Arizona St., Penn St, Minnesota, and on will be producing great fighters forever.
By the way tonight ASU fell to winless Iowa State, by a score of 25-14.
SinCityHustler -I chuckled when I saw AZ St. mentioned as a top tier program....Sephiroth - not surprising, all these top wrestling schools will be doing the same. Iowa, Arizona St., Penn St, Minnesota, and on will be producing great fighters forever.
By the way tonight ASU fell to winless Iowa State, by a score of 25-14.
How is Florida HS wrestling? about 10-14 years ago the state as a whole was a joke. Our team (in Ohio) use to to joke about moving our team down to Florida and winning states no problem. I wrestled Freshman year at 119-130lbs (never wrestled before) and wrestled a guy who was going to be a senior in Florida and took 3rd at districts and was tossing him around like I was getting tossed around by the Sophmores when I first started. It was very surprising.
Adam Rosholt is my children's wrestling coach. My son is undefeated this year. Hes doing something right. Wrestling is starting to ooze down here in Texas from Oklahoma. Hope it continues.
Magnum TA -Purgey - Cormier was from OSU?
OKTT time?
I approve of this thread :)
OKTT 4 Life!!!!
HaMMerHouseFAN -SinCityHustler -I chuckled when I saw AZ St. mentioned as a top tier program....Sephiroth - not surprising, all these top wrestling schools will be doing the same. Iowa, Arizona St., Penn St, Minnesota, and on will be producing great fighters forever.
By the way tonight ASU fell to winless Iowa State, by a score of 25-14.
How is Florida HS wrestling? about 10-14 years ago the state as a whole was a joke. Our team (in Ohio) use to to joke about moving our team down to Florida and winning states no problem. I wrestled Freshman year at 119-130lbs (never wrestled before) and wrestled a guy who was going to be a senior in Florida and took 3rd at districts and was tossing him around like I was getting tossed around by the Sophmores when I first started. It was very surprising.
Florida has come a long way. They routinely place guys at junior nationls and some of the big folkstyle tournamnets. Their M.O. seems to be to hold their kids back and get an age advantage in that manner. Their big guns seem to come from just a handful of programs. Not a lot of depth down there but the top end does have qulity. I wouldn't put them as a state any where near the top 10, however.
Magnum TA -![]()
Jared Rosholt could be the next good one to come out of OSU. He was brought in to help Overeem prepare for his fight with Lesnar and is 4-0 in MMA all via stoppage. Jared is the winningest HW in Oklahoma State wrestling history.
his brother thought he would steamroll with the UFC, didn't work out so good
Florida's best HS athletes play football, baseball, basketball, soccer
Larry Appleton's Chicago Destiny - Florida's best HS athletes play football, baseball, basketball, soccer![]()
That's generally true for most states,