I dont see it as recruiting. What I see is one mighty fine kids program that feeds into the high school. These kids grow up together on the mat and become friends. It is not like that there are established wrestlers at public schools that suddenly transfer. They have been brought up together and it is only natural for them to go where they feel comfortable
That is absolutely true. My son started wrestling with this club in the fourth grade when this incredible senior class that I mentioned in my previous post were sixth graders. My son had been with another kids club and we wanted to have him go with another club with more open wrestlers for practice partners. A friend of mine at a kids club meet wanted me to watched a kid who he said was one of the most intense wrestlers he had seen. That was a young Phillip Henes who was probably in about the third or fourth grade then. My friend was right. I started watching the team and I saw many of these seniors as STA members in local kids tournaments. I saw from the results page how well this group along with Neil Cisper, Andy Hurla and others did in their kids club wrestling with the STA club.
We made the choice to switch my son to the STA club and we have never regreted that choice. He was thrown around a lot by this senior class of wrestlers. He really took his lumps in that wrestling room but he became a better wrestler. When it came time to make his choice two years ago he decided exactly how you described it on staying with his teammates from his STA club. He knew that it would make it harder for him to break into the varsity lineup but he also knew it would make him a better high school wrestler to be in that Aquinas wrestling room just like it made him better to be in the STA kids practice room.
He was never recruited by the Aquinas high school wrestling staff or other parents. He did not have to be recruited.
