What I meant by "if given the choice" is that all things being relatively equal including money, PSU should be the obvious pick.
Great facilities, great coaching, great fan base, great tradition and an immediate opening at his weight.
Recruiting Puzzle
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What I meant by "if given the choice" is that all things being relatively equal including money, PSU should be the obvious pick.
Great facilities, great coaching, great fan base, great tradition and an immediate opening at his weight.
Regardless who they recruit this recruiting period, Tomasello will be 133# starting 2016-2017 season. There is a reason why schools like tOSU and others are looking at wrestlers like Micic, Suriano & Lee and it's not to have them wrestle 133#. Does anyone really think that Micici is bigger than Tomasello? Not a chance.
If all things were equal, I doubt he goes that far away from home. Lucky for PSU all things are not equal.
That may have been the plan if they landed Micic. If he is not going there I don't see Tomasello bumping up if at all possible. They have Rodriguez in tow, and probable on Pletcher according to the same guy. That's a lot of talent/money at 133 to have sit multiple years between the two. Lee slots in perfectly after Tomasello leaves.
jrod9,
Again, it doesn't matter who they recruit, Tomasello is moving up during the 2016-2017 season. If Pletcher attends tOSU, I would think that after his redshirt year, he would wrestle 125# for a year and then move up if he grows into 133# weight class because Tomasello would be graduating after the 2017-2018 season. Rodriguez is extremely talented and I'm not going to speculate what type of scholarship he signed. What I do know is that he d1collegewrestling has him ranked at #47.
Wrestlers do grow out of a weight class, Retherford (149#), Garrett (133#) and so forth.
I've stated many times that projecting weights of kids that are still in high school is an inexact science, at best. With that caveat, I somewhat disagree with your projections on Pletcher. This past season as a high school junior, he placed 2nd in PA Class AAA at 132. I'd be quite surprised if after his senior year of high school, and a redshirt year of college, that he'd be able to make 125.
If I were Pletcher's coach/personal trainer, I'd have him hit the weights hard the next 2 years. A strong and athletic Pletcher at 141 pounds could do well in college.
Tom,
I don't know Pletcher personally so I don't have a solid opinion or comment from him about what weight class he would like to wrestle in college. I agree that predicting someone's college weight is very difficult but the fact remains that college coaches have to make an "inexact science" guess when recruiting student athletes. Maybe coaches are looking at him for 133/141 or 141/149, I can honestly say, I don't know.
Wrestlers have been known to wrestle at lower weights in college than what they did their senior year HS. In no way am I saying that's going to be the case with Pletcher or anyone else, just commenting out loud. Chance Marsteller started his college wrestling career at 157# and won a state title at 170# his senior year. Everyone is different I know but just pointing out that it happens.all the time.
I wouldn't say it happens all the time but it does happen. Most of the time it is someone who was so good in high school they didn't need to cut weight or someone that is already fully grown while still in high school. Marstellar fits the bill in both cases but he wasn't very successful last year at 157. He was MUCH better at 165, finishing 4th at the Scuffle.
Or maybe there's depth in the room that if you want to start, you have to make the sacrifice and cut weight more weight than one would like too. Or maybe you cut weight to make the team stronger and on and on. He did wrestle better at 165# but even at that weight, he wrestled 170# his senior year. My point is that it's not uncommon to see that type of situation occur but I understand your point.
Tom McAndrew provided the following Link. I've stated the below in the past regarding academic scholarships for PSU wrestlers. This hurts PSU in recruiting for athletes that require all the financial aid that is available. PSU has started a winning tradition and some wrestlers/parents are willing to take care of some of the cost. We'll never know how many recruits PSU has lost because of the academic scholarship disadvantage but if they keep winning National titles, it doesn't really matter.
The fact that Penn State doesn't offer academic aid doesn't help, either, but Sanderson is well on board with that philosophy. "Penn State doesn't have to do that because the value (of a degree) is obviously strong enough and the demand is there,'' he said.
Like you, I don't know Pletcher personally. However, I have watched him wrestle several times, and have a pretty good sense of his size, and what he's wrestled. As I mentioned earlier, he wrestled 132 as a high school junior. He's on record as saying that he plans to wrestle 132 as a senior. He wrestled 126 at the 2015 FloNationals a month after the PA season ended. (I think they had a 4-pound allowance, but am not certain of that.) He wrestled 60 kg (132 lbs, 4 oz.) at the 2015 ASICS US Open in May. Going backwards (before 2015 States), he wrestled 132 at the 2014 PowerAde in Dec. 2014, 132 at Super 32 in Oct 2014, 120 lbs at the 2014 FloNationals in April 2014, 120 at States in March 2014, 106 at States in March 2013, etc. I think the trends are pretty well established, but there is the caveat that I started my prior post with. Finally, in a recent Takedown Wrestling interview, Pletcher had this to say about his college weight:
"I will be wrestling 133 in college unless my future coach decides otherwise."
Any serious college wrestling fan can give examples of guys going down in weight in college. Heck, PSU's Matt McCutcheon wrestled 195 as a HS senior and 182 as a HS junior, but has wrestled 184 in college. While it does happen, and thus you can accurately state "all the time," I think that leaves a false impression. More often it happens with guys in the upper weights, or guys, like Marsteller, that are pretty short for their bulk. It's far less common in lower weights (again, not saying never).
A little more lightweight intrigue: Willie reported about 30 min ago that Hunter Marko has decommitted from Wisky. He's a borderline top-50 national recruit. Flo and Intermat both project him at 133.
I don't know if PSU is considering him. Just found this interesting as we watch lightweights.
I don't know if PSU is considering him. Just found this interesting as we watch lightweights.
One gets the sense there is a lot of shuffling about to happen within the next week.
Don't think he is considering PSU, but could be wrong.
EDIT: And now it looks like the rumor I heard was true. Minnesota for Marko
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He just announced on twitter.
Hunter Marko @marko_polo97 11m11 minutes ago
I'm happy to announce that I'm now verbally committed to wrestle at the University of Minnesota after high school. Go Gophers!
Hunter Marko @marko_polo97 11m11 minutes ago
I'm happy to announce that I'm now verbally committed to wrestle at the University of Minnesota after high school. Go Gophers!
Looked like that was his favorite from a few years ago per messages on the Guillotine - may have verballed to Wisky as a placeholder while waiting for a golden ticket from the Golden Gophers.
Snip ----
Quote from May 2013 http://www.twincities.com/ci_23184938/prep-wrestling-hunter-marko-amery-wis-there-is
"I'm going to add my name to that list three more times," he said matter of factly. "No one from my school has won four state titles, and I'd like to be the first."
That would make him a pretty impressive college recruit down the road at the University of Wisconsin, but Badgers fans might want to brace themselves for some bad news.
"I'd really like to be a Minnesota Gopher,'' he said. "That's been my dream forever, to wrestle for the Gophers.
I love Wisconsin, but there's something about wrestling for Minnesota that motivates me to perform at a totally different level."
Marko hasn't backed off his training regimen since winning his first high school state championship.
I dont see him beating out McKee at 133 or Thorn at 141. So probably won't see him in the lineup til his junior year after Thorn Graduates. Unless both Thorn and Stroker pump up to 149/157 leaving an opening at 141. Probably would have started at WI 141 after his RS year.
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I had a feeling today was going to be a day of Good News, Well I guess I was wrong...another day of no PSU news
I had a feeling today was going to be a day of Good News, Well I guess I was wrong...another day of no PSU news
MML...I check the forums every few hours. Sucks being addicted, don't it?
ohhhh Yesss, Hopefully next week will give us some great news to appease our obsessions
It was reported earlier that the light weight picture would become clearer "this week". I've been hitting "refresh" every hour since. Need relief!!
I suspect the dominos are going to start falling very soon. Suriano said he wanted to make a decision by the end of July and Micic said he would like to decide before Jr. World camp which begins tomorrow.
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Of course, if Micic hasn't decided by the time camp starts, maybe the announcement will be put off for a few weeks, the dominoes will keep standing,,and we'll all be refreshing our browsers every hour for another month or so.
I think he has to decide soon; must be enrolled in a school in few weeks or he could lose another year of eligibility. Imagine that involves a variety of paperwork being processed. Granted, I'm sure a coach can move things along quicker then normal channels but you would think he still couldn't wait too long.
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So much for that. We need a 125 and 133 or we've got a hole in 2 years. We can win with 1 hole but it'll be hard with Snyder coming back, ASU on the rise, etc.
Luke Karam's decommitment from Bucknell is starting to loom large. Not sure if he projects 133 or 125, but he could end up filling one of those slots nicely for Penn State.
Red projects to 133, you wonder if they'd live with a hole at 125 for a year to push hard for Lee
If things don't fall our way soon I may never play "dominos" again!! The guys we wanted all along (Surano, Red and Lee) are still yet to decide. I would have wanted to have have Soriano and Red on board before all the other commits and have Lee give an early commit as well.
Someone mentioned Red and Karam but I'm not sure I see Red getting up to 141, does anybody have insight there?
It could be an indication of such, but it doesn't have to be. At this point I would hesitate to put things in such absolute terms.
Where's that dude John Doe when you need a unique view into the future???
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