Foley's Friday Mailbag: March 23, 2018

With the 2018 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships wrapping last Saturday night in Cleveland, fans of the sport had more than a few favorite moments to take into the summer: the arrival of NC State's shot-happy Tariq Wilson, Bo Nickal's championship-nabbing fall over Myles Martin, Kyle Snyder's third title, and the surprisingly heart-warming weekends of Kyle Conel and Chance Marstellar.

For me, watching from a computer in Takasaki during the Women's World Cup, what most stuck out was the behavior of the wrestlers during and after matches. Yes, Austin DeSanto made a fool of himself with some extracurricular activity, but what's compelling is that his behavior stood alone. Not only did it stand alone it stood in juxtaposition to what was a tournament filled with moments which showcased a more approachable form of the sport.


There was Iowa Hawkeye freshman Spencer Lee entering to Pokemon. The star of the most intimidating program of the past 50 years didn't enter to AC/DC, Tool, or other metal band. He instead chose the theme song to a popular kids game. Add on to that entry a backstory with him and Nick Suriano that was filled with handshakes and respectful commitments to "give fans a good show."

Impressive respect & sportsmanship for two great individuals. (We as coaches and adults need to note!)
Thank you Spencer and Nick! pic.twitter.com/df5XhcKGBU

�" Kevin Dresser (@CYWrestle_KD) March 23, 2018

Mark Hall, after a crushing defeat to Zahid Valencia, was the first out of the tunnel to congratulate Bo Nickal for sealing up Penn State's seventh title in eight years.

Adam Coon, on the cusp of going 2-out-of-3 with the Olympic champion, gave a gracious post-match interview.

South Dakota State coach Chris Bono could be seen backstage hugging Terry Brands after his program's first national championship.

Hell, even Cael Sanderson showed some emotions when he lifted Nickal into the air after his finals victory.

All told there were dozens of stories that were filled with genuine moments of sportsmanship. For me, this was the NCAA tournament that proves wrestling can (and should be) fun. The style that wins is the style that allows these student-athletes to wrestle wide-open and express themselves. To manage the stresses of their season through friendship, comradery and a commitment to action rather than simply aggression.

Some rules still need to be altered, but the sport's soul seems intact and healthy. The wrestlers this weekend proved that goodwill towards their competitors strengthens the spirit of our sport and that should give all of us the confidence to continue making bold changes for the betterment of the on-the-mat product.

To your questions …


Q: I get I'm an Iowan and as such, biased, but how was Spencer Lee not OW of the NCAAs? True Freshman, two techs (fastest of the tournament), two falls (over top six opponents) and a decisive win over an undefeated wrestler who hadn't surrendered a takedown to that point (Lee got two), didn't surrender a single offensive point (only gave up four points on escapes). Bo Nickal had one major, three regular decisions and one fall (albeit in the finals to clinch the team title). He's a returning champ and was favored to win it. As far as dominating the tournament I can't see the argument for Nickal winning it. Is it that Lee has years left to win the award? Is it just the fact that the pin clinched the team title? Is it the easy pick because it's a wrestler for PSU and they're "so hot right now" (Will Ferrell voice from Zoolander)?
-- Confused Hawkeye

Foley: Nickal winning the Outstanding Wrestler had a lot to do with his ability to pin his opponent in the finals. Though he wasn't as dominant across the three days, I think your logic was correct in that they awarded him the OW for the drama of the moment.

Spencer Lee is my wrestler of the year. I'm smitten. He wrestles with determination, purpose and is incredibly active start-to-finish. I've said all season how much I like watching him wrestle, but I was even more taken at the NCAA tournament when he manhandled NATO, who is not only an NCAA champion but a massive 125-pound wrestler. Were I still a coach, Lee is everything I'd want in my wrestler. Heck, I'd be happy if they were 80 percent like him. I'm obsessed with his never-die attitude that blends with a quirky, smiley kid who loves the sport.

I said in a mailbag a few months ago that the decision to pull Lee's redshirt could inspire the Hawkeyes to a team trophy. In the end, it did. I will now predict that the Hawkeyes will win an NCAA team title before Lee graduates. He's as a generational talent and someone who the Hawkeyes can use to build a new-look program.

Also, love the Zoolander reference.

Q: Just wanted to say when the chips are down, Spencer Lee just wins baby.
-- Dustin K.

Foley: High-five emoji.

Q: My question is, who do you forecast moving weights next year? Will Zahid Valencia who looks like a big 174 move up to 184 and challenge Bo Nickal? Will Myles Martin move up to 197? Any other big moves that your crystal ball sees as possibilities?
-- Rick B.

Foley: Tough to forecast too many of the weight class changes since the incoming classes have yet to report. The success of the freshman class over the past several years has meant that even established starters may have to shift in order to make way for new teammates. While that won't be the case for Martin or Valencia, the shift from below may have an effect.

With Martin, I don't see him growing into 197 pounds, but again I don't know where he is in his growth cycle or how large his family members have grown. Kollin Moore also returns for the Buckeyes at 197 pounds. I remember several conversations with wrestling folks regarding David Taylor's bump up to 86 kilograms. The consensus there was that he hadn't finished growing and that if you looked at his family members and his frames he could easily carry the weight. Martin does have a large frame, so maybe it's possible to see him go up.

Q: What are your thoughts on the NWCA? Their mission statement claims to be about promotion and growing the sport, but it seems they are relentless in their narrow-minded picture of things. Cael was not the best coach this year. Last year he had five champs and won by 40 points. All five returned this year, won four titles and PSU won by eight points. How does Cael win the award this year? Pop led NC State to their first-ever top-four finish, Bono led SDSU to three AA and their first ever Division I champ. These are big deals in our sport and show its growth.

Those coaches should have been rewarded and those communities should have been rewarded. One of those coaches should have that award as a recruiting tool to get other wrestlers such as Seth Gross, Nick Gwiazdowski and Michael Macchiavello to look at the non-traditional powers as a place to succeed and win titles. Now that is something that would help the grow the sport. I say come on NWCA stick to your mission statement and see the big picture. What do you say?
-- J.F.

Foley: The NWCA is hard at work and while their name is attached to several awards, I don't know that it's an institutional failure that Cael was awarded the Coach of the Year honors.

That written, I agree that Pat Popolizio was the CLEAR favorite for Coach of the Year and I agree with your premise that the sport should do more to spread around the accolades, especially to programs like NC State since their turnaround story could be bolstered by this type of coach-saves-program type of storyline. Success via leadership is like catnip to athletic directors. Dynamic personalities that draw in fans and donations means one less worry for AD's stretching dollars, and their attention spans.

The same is true of South Dakota State. More attention needs to be paid to the success that coaches in theses non-traditional programs are achieving. However, I would go a step further and say that the "non-traditional" should be amended to something like "emergent power" since that adds some much-needed flare and robustness to the nomenclature around programs going through improvement phases.

Overall, the shift to schools with coaches who draw in talent through inspiration and cult of personality, while also allowing for individual freedoms and a positive atmosphere are CLEARLY winning the day in the sport and the NWCA and all other organizations should embolden more schools to take up the change and find these types of hires.

Q: Are you surprised more wasn't made about two-time national champ Dean Heil not becoming an All-American this year? Heil gets a bad rap (since his match scores this year don't necessarily support that label) as a defensive wrestler and I wonder if that is part of the reason his national tournament didn't surprise anyone.
-- Merris S.

Foley: I'm not surprised, because I think most fans saw this coming and he's so well-liked by those in the wrestling world that there wasn't much incentive to celebrate his failures (though there should never be that incentive, schadenfreude is a real thing).

Overall, I think Heil's 2018 performance comes as a consequence of the new scrambling danger rule. The inability to latch on fundamentally changed Heil's outlook, and once he lost his two-time NCAA champions confidence it was too difficult to get back. What an amazing career and I hope he continues in the sport as a coach and/or athlete. He seems like a well-liked, intelligent young man.


Q: What is Austin DeSanto's future? What is going to happen betwen him and Coach Azevedo after the end of the Michigan match and then yelling at his coaches after he lost to Rutgers? Did the Rutgers wrestler jump into the arms of the Drexel staff after he beat DeSanto?
-- Frank S.

Foley: I met DeSanto two years ago in New York and was impressed with his drive. The pressure might have gotten to him a bit and his emotions got a little scrambled. It'd be good for him (like many athletes) to see a sports psychologist and look to optimize his performance mindset. He's a good kid and I think that he'll be back stronger than ever in 2019.

Q: As a high school wrestling coach, lately I have come across more instances of parents holding their kids back (sometimes multiple years) from entering high school. The result, we have kids that enter high school competition as freshmen at 16 years of age (I can recall at least one high profile example of this occurring this year with a nationally ranked middle weight), and graduating high school at age 20. Think about that; we have a possibility of 20-year-old MEN (masquerading as high school seniors) wrestling 14-year-old freshmen. From a sportsmanship, fairness, and safety perspective, this is grossly negligent and shows lack of respect and awareness from parents encouraging it and governing bodies allowing it.

My proposed rule change for state high school wrestling institutions: institute a cutoff date (my proposed date is Aug. 31 as Sept. 1 unofficially marks the first day of school in the U.S.) where wrestlers born before or after that date are required to compete in that "class" regardless of what "grade" they are in. Next, allow junior high wrestlers to compete in senior high state tournaments (some states like New York and Minnesota do this already, but institute exemption rules in states that do not yet allow it, like Pennsylvania). This way, should a child be held back for academic reasons, their high school eligibility can technically start in eighth grade in line with their actual age. Hypothetically, this means that a wrestler's high school eligibility could end during their junior or sophomore season (whenever they turn 18). This would not upset the balance of collegiate sports however; which I view as grown men competing against other grown men. What this rule would do is prevent parents from gaming the system from a competitive standpoint. Thoughts?
-- Coach O

Foley: I might be mistaken, but I feel like the state of Virginia has a 19-year-old cap on high school athletes. Do any readers know the guidelines in your states?

I'm torn on what to do with age "stacking." On a personal level I would have benefited from staying back a year to grow a little more before entering high school. On the first day of class I was 95 pounds, barely pubescent and completely out of my depth on the football field and wrestling mat. My father floated the idea of a year back, but I resisted. In retrospect, I would have gotten better grades, had more opportunities in sports and possibly improved my chances at a scholarship. (I was a walk-on at Virginia.)

However, I do not think it's ever a good idea for a 20-year-old fully developed man to be on the mat and in competition with a 14-year-old. You might be on to something with the addition of some extra parameters by which schools and state athletic organizations must abide. But I'm fearful that the politics of these choices are often punitive against individual programs who have been labeled (rightly or wrongly) as age stackers.

Simply put: How pervasive is the problem, and are any proposed solutions possible to have unintended consequences worse than age stacking?

Q: As a fan, I thought Saturday night's finals matches were the best in recent memory. One of the things that helped was that all of the coaches had already used their allotment of challenges. Challenges slow down the action, award ticky-tacky points, and are misused as lung or momentum-stopping time outs. The finals flowed and had emotion as a result of the absence of these challenges.

The sessions on Thursday seemed to drag on because of all the challenge bricks being thrown. It seemed like Ohio State was throwing them like beads at a Mardi Gras parade and actually benefitted from some of them. But, ironically, Ohio State was out of challenges when they needed them most (end of the McKenna/Meredith semifinal stood out as one instance).

Perhaps the NCAA should reconsider the implementation of coach's challenges as they currently exist. Perhaps a lost challenge should result in the loss of a team point. Or, perhaps they should exist only for a score-keeping errors. What say you?
-- DD

Foley: I think you should get one challenge per match and if you lose the challenge you give up a team point. Why would the NCAA rules allow for opponents to choose positions after an injury time, but not also apply some standard of risk for throwing a challenge brick?

The other thing is that the replays need to be visible to the fans and the athletes! It's crazy to me that nobody gets to see what it being reviewed. Also, making it visible adds to the drama of the moment.

Q: Sean Bormet a lock to get the Michigan job?
Mike C.

Foley: Lock? Almost never a lock in college sports, but with his relationships and credentials I have to imagine he's the first guy being offered the job.

Q: Who would you like to see Wisconsin hire to lead the program? Could they entice Chris Bono from SDSU?
-- Mike C.

Foley: Part of me thinks Bono could bolt for a big name-brand school, but the other part thinks it would be foolish. He's creating a legacy that is now and forever going to be tied to his coaching. There is also less chance of institutional headaches in a place like South Dakota State where he is among that school's top coaches.

At Wisconsin, Bono would be (by default) treated as lesser coach on their internal totem pole, fighting to get guys into school with new admission officers and facing a newer and larger bureaucracy meant to serve the for-profit programs first.

I'd like to see Bono stay put.

Top choices have to be Damion Hahn and Donny Pritzlaff, with some serious consideration as well for Glen Lanham. Casey Cunningham could find a job as he wishes, but so far doesn't seem motivated to leave State College. I also think Mark Perry could be a top choice, but I'm not sure if he's looking to move again.

Q: We always hear about a push to save a wrestling program after it's dropped. That is happening with Eastern Michigan. Do you think there is any chance the program is saved? On a related note, what kind of crowds do they draw for home dual meets?
-- Mike C.

Foley: I'd like to see Eastern Michigan save its program, but there are host of complications in their quest to get back on the mats. The primary hurdle facing EMU and other schools is the new law, which has restricted what is and is not considered a tax-deductible gift. For example, premier seating for football games was once an allowable donation, but has since been eliminated as a perk. This along with a bevy of other restrictions has meant that non-revenue sports are being choked out by the need to send support dollars to the larger programs. Without donor money coming through to programs in massive chunks, many middling programs will struggle to meet their fundraising goals -- a major source of cost off-setting in college sports.

I don't want to push my "liberal agenda" on readers every week, but after watching last weekend's Women's World Cup and this week's Women's Development Camp in Tokyo I can tell you that these women need to be part of the collegiate wrestling atmosphere. They are well past the point of "deserving the opportunity." It's a shame that we haven't made room for them in our collegiate programs. Also, as a matter of practicality men's wrestling would be cut a ton less if there were a women's team to offset male roster numbers.

Q: Will we ever see wrestling programs at Florida State, Miami, Clemson (again) or any of the SEC schools again?
-- Jared W.

Foley: Not without women's wrestling.