Practicing Outside (Tyler Buckwalter)

This was the first time I had ever had the experience of wrestling outside on mats. It was a nice change from the hot, muggy wrestling room where we usually practice. The sun was shining and was a little draining, but at the same time, there was a nice breeze blowing, which made it comfortable. One other thing I really liked about wrestling outside was how soft the mats were. The sun made the mats really soft, and it was nice wrestling on them. Overall, I would say I enjoyed wrestling outdoors.

The environment of wrestling in the center of campus with people stopping to watch was pretty exciting. Wrestling, as a sport, has trouble getting a lot of publicity because a lot of people do not understand it. I feel that events like this are a great for our team and sport in general. I was surprised at how many people stopped to watch us, and the support we had from other administrators and coaches on campus. I saw a few basketball coaches, our athletic director, and even the president of the University made an appearance. It was a great overall event for our team. We just finished a great preseason of training, and I believe we will have an outstanding year as a team. Hopefully, more people, having seen a little of what Kent State wrestling is all about, will come support us throughout the season.

The Idea of Having a Practice Outdoors (Matt Hill)

Monday, Oct. 14 at Risman Plaza

We have this new Risman Plaza and I just thought it was a great location to put a mat on.  There’s a “K” there with a square around it that looks like a mat.  And it’s a nice flat surface.

In that location there’s thousands of students that walk by each day.  It’s going to be open to everybody and fans can literally come right up to mat and watch our guys wrestle live and drill.  It’ll be a different experience and I’m excited about it.

It’ll be exciting to see how our wrestlers react. I don’t think they know exactly what to expect.

This is a good opportunity to promote our team.  We’re excited about everything we’ve got coming up this season so we want to get it out in public more.  A lot of people don’t know what goes on in a wrestling room.  Our guys never get to do this stuff.  It’s an opportunity for them to display their skills and athletic ability.  These are tough, strong athletes.  Some people think wrestlers just throw each other around, but there’s a lot more to it.  

We’re also going to have a new Kent State Wrestling Fan Club sign up Monday.  We’ll pick out two names at the end of the day to win prizes.  We want to continue to build a good email base to shoot updates to.

Our first official practice is Thursday (Oct. 10). We tried to schedule this for then, but there’s a conflict with a pie throwing contest out there.

Students will hopefully get to see another side of these guys too and I think it will open some people’s eyes a little bit.  It won’t be exactly like a typical practice, but we’ll do our best to make it like one.

Young But Experienced (Josh Moore)

After graduating eight seniors from last year’s team, our squad has only one senior (T.J. Keklak) on the roster this season.   In most circumstances the coaching staff would be a little worried about the upcoming season, but we are NOT! We may be a young team, but we are experienced as far as National Experience goes.  We return three NCAA qualifiers from last year’s team (Mack McGuire (Soph), Caleb Marsh (Jr), and Sam Wheeler (Soph), as well as two qualifiers from the previous year in Tyler Small (Jr.) and Ian Miller (Soph), who redshirted last year, but still won many open events during the season.  Our roster also boasts 30 student-athletes that have three or more years of eligibility left thanks to the large recruiting classes the past couple of years! These young student-athletes are continuing to work hard both on and off the mat, and we look forward to the season and future success of the program.

Roster Breakdown: (Athletic Eligibility)

Freshman-15

Sophomore-15

Juniors-5

Senior-1