The Transition from High School to College Wrestling (Tommy Zeigler)

Everyone talks about the huge jump from high school to college wrestling. Over the past couple months I’ve learned the reason for that.  I’ve had to improve my personal organization, and develop a strong mental attitude.  I constantly find myself telling people who ask me about my transition two things… One being, “I never knew how much I was capable of.” The second being, “I used to think I worked really hard. Now I know what that means.”  Something that has helped me a lot has been a desire to be seen as a mentally strong individual.  However, you don’t become mentally strong when everything is going great. You become mentally strong when times are hard which is why I am able to pride myself on the fact that the whole experience is making me mentally stronger than I ever could have been without it. 

Hard Work is the Most Important Component of Success (T.J. Keklak)

           

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” This famous quote from Vince Lombardi has become the motto for my fifth and final season here at Kent State. I have learned over my first four years at Kent State that hard work is the most important component of success.

Our coaching staff does an incredible job at making each and every one of us believe and buy into that mindset, that the harder you work the harder it is to lose. Day in and day out they encourage us and motivate us to push our bodies and mentally challenge ourselves to prepare for the long season ahead. A combination of concentrated technique and intense live wrestling help us stay sharp in our wrestling skills, while allowing us to try different moves against our teammates in a match situation. We work extremely hard each and every day, which will pay dividends as we prepare for MAC duals, the MAC tournament and ultimately the NCAA Championships.

            Over the summer I rededicated myself to the sport that I love and made a promise to myself that I would do whatever it takes to make my last wrestling season the best one yet. That started with the commitment to drop a weight class from last year and compete at the 149 pound weight class. I have made great changes in my lifestyle and diet that have already made a drastic difference in how I feel in my conditioning and my training. I realized that in order to reach my goals as an individual I needed to make sacrifices and become more disciplined not only as a wrestler but as a person. In order to be successful I have been training harder than ever before, because like Vince Lombardi said many years ago, “The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”

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