The East Kansas Wrestling Club is organizing a "Wrestling Combine" to be conducted at St. James High School on Sunday, March 8th. We recognize the difficulty in getting wrestlers the exposure they need to get financial aid packages and scholarships from college wrestling programs. Since our state tournaments are fragmented we hope to draw the best to this combine and have a significant audience of coaches. The goal is to gather at least fifty junior and senior high school wrestlers who desire to compete in college. We are inviting coaches, clinicians, and wrestlers to attend. Our agenda is to include agility and skill measurements, live drilling, videos, and other measures of performance to be passed along to college programs.

We are looking for feedback and ideas from the wrestling community. I will be communicating with the KSHSAA and NCAA to insure that we do not jeopardize any wrestler or coaches elegibility.

I do not expect this event to be an instant success but rather a work in progress that will eventually become a "must attend" event. Thanks in advance for your feedback.

There was a similar “summer camp” in Wichita where some of the top DI football coaches (Pete Carroll, Bob Stoops, Urban Meyer) came to watch Arthur and Bryce Brown, Chris Harper, and former wrestler Jaydan Bird along with a host of other talented kids in the region work out in a similar combine situation. It would be awesome to have the top DI coaches (John Smith, Tom Brands, Cael Sanderson, J Robinson) coming to Kansas for a glorified practice. I don’t see why KSHSAA or the NCAA would have any problem with this unless it is a no contact time for recruiting.

This is a great idea. It might take some time to grow, but great initiave to provide another avenue for our kids to be seen.

Thanks Will!

24/7

Will,

This is a great idea! Let me know how I can help.

Here's a thought maybe we could incorporate...

For the younger kids (9th and 10th graders) we could have a discussion or brief for them on the NCAA clearinghouse requirements. That way they could get educated on what kind of classes they need to be taking while they are in high school. Maybe we could get some of the college coaches to talk to them and tell them what they look for.

This might make it too big but you asked for ideas.

Shawn Budke

Incorporating the freshmen and sophomores would be a brilliant idea...Many students don't realize the stringent rules that NCAA requires to be eligible and what it all entails. Although the freshman and sophomores may not wrestle they could definitely see some great wrestling action and drilling sessions.

This is one of the best ideas I've seen on the board! Great idea Will!

I am experienced in developing wrestler's profile packets for college recruiters if that would be helpful.

What will the kids need to do to get signed up for this event? Is there a deadline. I assume you will need to gather record informaion, state placings, ect. and compile a list and send it to the coaches that are interested in coming. This is a great idea, and should help kids who want to wrestle in college get recruited.

Great idea Will. What kind of cost will there be to the wrestler to attend?