Football players wrestling.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

This is not completely football related but thought I would ask this here anyway.

Back in the day (80's) many of the athletes that played football also wrestled, especially linemen and non skill positions. Today it doesn't seem this happens so much.

Of all of the people on the board who played Football or still are playing football, How many of you also wrestled?

[NCF]

This is not completely football related but thought I would ask this here anyway.

Back in the day (80's) many of the athletes that played football also wrestled, especially linemen and non skill positions. Today it doesn't seem this happens so much.

Of all of the people on the board who played Football or still are playing football, How many of you also wrestled?

My son wrestled from age 7  through high school. Several of his teammates played football and wrestled.

[mattvsmith]

My cousins played football in the fall, wrestled on the winter, and played lacrosse in the spring. But that was 20 years ago. I don't know if kids are that active these days.

[Jonny Utah]

I think back in the 1980s, the concentration of d3 schools were in areas where wrestling was big (From Iowa across the midwest to New York/PA).  I'm from Boston where wrestling was a sport in most high schools, but wasn't as big as it was in upstate, NY when I went to college there.

I think in general, wrestling and phys ed. is a bigger phase of public school life in this midwest/PA/NY region than it is in other parts of the country, including New England, the South and the West Coast.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

My son attends a HS in Ohio that at one time in the 80's and 90's was very good. Ranked high in the state and sent quite a few to state every year. Since the 2000's not so much. We usually send 7-8 wrestlers to district, and in a good year one or two makes state.

The downward trend happened at about the same time as coaching changes in Football. The coach at that time started convincing kids to focus on Football year round. Plus he thought the cutting weight portion of wrestling was of course at odds with the goal to put on wieght for football in the off seson.

Today this school has a hard time filling the upper weight classes with athletes.

[Jonny Utah]

My son attends a HS in Ohio that at one time in the 80's and 90's was very good. Ranked high in the state and sent quite a few to state every year. Since the 2000's not so much. We usually send 7-8 wrestlers to district, and in a good year one or two makes state.

The downward trend happened at about the same time as coaching changes in Football. The coach at that time started convincing kids to focus on Football year round. Plus he thought the cutting weight portion of wrestling was of course at odds with the goal to put on wieght for football in the off seson.

Today this school has a hard time filling the upper weight classes with athletes.

I'm not a wrestling guy, but I always wondered if the weight classes had anything to do with it.  If I remember correctly, Massachusetts high schools had weight classes of 174, 189, and then heavyweight.  Anyone over 189 who wanted to win at the heavyweight level was usually in the 250 pound range, and if I recall correctly, there might even have been a weight limit for heavyweights (275 or 315?).  I ended up being in that 195-215 range and had no shot against those bigger heavyweights.  I believe there is a 215 class now, which would have balanced some things out.

But yea, you do have the old football/wrestling coach angle.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Two years ago (this is the second year) they updated the weight classes. They removed a middle weight class between 135 and 170 and added a 220 especially for that reason.

[sigma one]

  Wrestling practice starts well before the end of football season, and a football player joining the wrestling team late is a liability.  In addition, many football coaches frown upon (sometimes more than that) football players' involvement in another sport.  Of course, this varies from school to school, but it's out there.  I"ll speak from my knowledge of another sport.  The NCAA allows a spring period when football teams can be together; coaches think of this "spring practice" as extremely important for player and team developent.  As this "conflict" pertains to track and field, there is an obvious tension.  After Wabash won the NCAC outdoor track and field championship several years ago, an observant person remarked that Wabash's T&F roster, and many of those athletes who scored points at the conference meet, was generously sprinkled with football players.  In fact, their whole 4X1 relay team was made up of football players, all of whom had a significant role in the previous fall's team success.  For other NCAC schools to have football players on their track team was rare, and I heard from several sources that football coaches had something to do with that--up to the point that (and this is second hand) a coach told a player that if he participated in track he would not be a football team captain.  The observer said to me: Wabash had figured out how to manage to have multiple-sport athletes. 
     Of course, this is not the only reason football players do not often participate in winter and spring sports. Many are dedicated to becoming the best they can be in one sport and think (correctly in the case of some) that they have to focus to be good, or even to be a significant contributor. And this isn't universal. Case in point,  Wittenberg's McKee and Cooper recently in basketball, and also Hodges and Walsh at Wabash.  Wrestling is tougher because of the weight classes and type of conditioning required. Wrestling heavyweights may be the exception.  I am not saying that no football players participate in winter and spring sports, but it's becoming rare--and football coaches don't oftern help.  I am pleased to say that Wabash has figured out how to make it possible, without tension, for a football player to be a multi-sport athlete. No doubt other schools accomplish this as well, but I  know Wabash first hand.  Another good example is baseball where a tight end of recent times holds the Wabash home run record.  In the end, it's about coaches supporting one another from the recruiting process through players' school years.  There are examples of very good athletes at Wabash who would likely not have attended except for assurances that they could participated in multiple sports.  Again, at many schools there is a kind of selfishness among football coaches that prohibits or makes it difficult for athletes to go to another sport. 
       

[NCF]

  Wrestling practice starts well before the end of football season, and a football player joining the wrestling team late is a liability.  In addition, many football coaches frown upon (sometimes more than that) football players' involvement in another sport.  Of course, this varies from school to school, but it's out there.  I"ll speak from my knowledge of another sport.  The NCAA allows a spring period when football teams can be together; coaches think of this "spring practice" as extremely important for player and team developent.  As this "conflict" pertains to track and field, there is an obvious tension.  After Wabash won the NCAC outdoor track and field championship several years ago, an observant person remarked that Wabash's T&F roster, and many of those athletes who scored points at the conference meet, was generously sprinkled with football players.  In fact, their whole 4X1 relay team was made up of football players, all of whom had a significant role in the previous fall's team success.  For other NCAC schools to have football players on their track team was rare, and I heard from several sources that football coaches had something to do with that--up to the point that (and this is second hand) a coach told a player that if he participated in track he would not be a football team captain.  The observer said to me: Wabash had figured out how to manage to have multiple-sport athletes. 
     Of course, this is not the only reason football players do not often participate in winter and spring sports. Many are dedicated to becoming the best they can be in one sport and think (correctly in the case of some) that they have to focus to be good, or even to be a significant contributor. And this isn't universal. Case in point,  Wittenberg's McKee and Cooper recently in basketball, and also Hodges and Walsh at Wabash.  Wrestling is tougher because of the weight classes and type of conditioning required. Wrestling heavyweights may be the exception.  I am not saying that no football players participate in winter and spring sports, but it's becoming rare--and football coaches don't oftern help.  I am pleased to say that Wabash has figured out how to make it possible, without tension, for a football player to be a multi-sport athlete. No doubt other schools accomplish this as well, but I  know Wabash first hand.  Another good example is baseball where a tight end of recent times holds the Wabash home run record.  In the end, it's about coaches supporting one another from the recruiting process through players' school years.  There are examples of very good athletes at Wabash who would likely not have attended except for assurances that they could participated in multiple sports.  Again, at many schools there is a kind of selfishness among football coaches that prohibits or makes it difficult for athletes to go to another sport. 
     

North Central also allows football players to participate in two sports. football  and wrestling in college would be difficult because of the overlap. you are right about certain athletes choosing a college based on their ability to participate in two sports. in my son's case, he did not take part in any conditioning during spring ball. It wasn't always easy having two practices three days a week, but he made it work for him.

[DGPugh]

Huntingdon College doesn't have wrestling,  but when the boy (son) was a freshman there were a pile of his football teammates were high school wrestlers, 3 (including the boy) were state champions in different classifications and different weight classes. Most were defensive players (LB or DL's)

when he was a senior, at least a dozen of his teammates were former high school wrestlers, and again  3 were former state champions (2 new additions 1 DL and the other a OL)

I wish they had wrestling at Huntingdon, but the problem would have been who to Wrestle, as much has left the south. Shorter (NAIA, now D2 NCAA) in Rome, Ga, has wrestling as does UT Chattanooga. A few Kentucky NAIA and NC schools (NAIA & NCAA) have programs. the rest in the south east are club wrestling.

the boy turned pro as a Deputy Sheriff in ATL Metro, and still rolls a bit in JuJitsu and well with the occasional bad guy.... but mom and dad worry.
neat discussion
keep the faith

[HScoach]

At my medium sized rural high school in NE Ohio in the mid-80's, my football O-line coach was the head wrestling coach.  D-coordinator was the assistant wrestling coach.  Junior high wrestling coach was the junior high football coach.   So there was a good relationship between the 2 programs.   All of the linemen were 'encouraged' to wrestle too.  For those that didn't, there was lifting sessions each morning before school at 6:00 AM.  So for some, wrestling was the lesser of 2 evils.  And for me and most others, wrestling was a great way to stay in shape for football while giving us something to take out our aggression.   And the wrestling work sure made playing center and DT a lot easier come football season.

Back then about 75% of our football team also wrestled, including our All-County TB who was also the league champ at 167 lbs.   It wasn't until you got under 138 lbs that the 1st team wrestler wasn't also a football player.   And most of us were starters in both sports.

But by the time I was back coaching there in the late 90's, the FB coaches were no longer also doing the wrestling and the numbers of cross-over with the kids was way down, as was the overall wrestling numbers.  Less than 10 kids did both sports.    And none of them were starters in both sports. 

In the 80's, we had 50+ kids on the HS wrestling team and fielded a full varsity, JV and freshmen squad at all weight classes.   Often sent JV and freshmen squads to different tournaments on the weekends just to get them some experience when the varsity was wrestling someone that couldn't field a full JV to compete against.   By the mid-90's the wrestling team had shrunk to maybe 35 +/- kids and couldn't field a full JV.   Now the wrestling team is 20+/- kids and they're forfeiting a couple varsity weight classes and the JV is worthless.   Which as a former wrestler, I find rather depressing.

[Knightstalker]

I think back in the 1980s, the concentration of d3 schools were in areas where wrestling was big (From Iowa across the midwest to New York/PA).  I'm from Boston where wrestling was a sport in most high schools, but wasn't as big as it was in upstate, NY when I went to college there.

I think in general, wrestling and phys ed. is a bigger phase of public school life in this midwest/PA/NY region than it is in other parts of the country, including New England, the South and the West Coast.

You can include NJ in the list.  Wrestling is very big here.  When I was in HS back in the late 70's football players quite often played three sports, football, wrestling or basketball and then baseball or track.  We used to have many kids that were letter winners in three sports.  It has changed though, although some kids still play football and wrestle or play basketball.