How To Pick A College To Wrestle For
A little over a month ago I wrote a post on how decide if you want to wrestle in college or not. So if you haven't read that one you can read it here. This is a follow up to that post if you have decided that you want to wrestle in college (or play any sport).
First off, I want to say, not everyone needs to or should go to college. Your life is way more important than a sport, so if wrestling is the only reason you want to go to college, I would strongly urge you to consider, at minimum, taking a year off from school to work and figure out what you want to do with your life. Having been a college coach for a short three years I have seen too many athletes that have no idea why they are in school other than for their sport. And what usually happens, is they end up leaving school with a pile of debt and no degree. I don't think I need to explain why that is problematic.
Now that I got that out of the way. There are about a million factors that can go into picking a school to compete for, so I am not going to cover them all. I could write a book about all the stupid ways to pick a school, like prestige, or how pretty the campus is, or how good looking the girls are, or what the party scene is like. For now though, I am going to focus on what I believe to be the two most vital things to consider when picking a school to wrestle for.
1. Pick a college you can afford
My viewpoint here may not be very popular, but I don't care. It needs to be said. The rate that 18-22 years olds are going into student loan debt is astronomical. Many of my friends from college have upwards of a hundred thousand dollars or more in student loan debt. And now, instead of having the freedom to start at the bottom in a career they love, in many cases they are being forced to take jobs that they do not like, because they pay more. They are finding out the hard way that Sallie Mae doesn't give a crap how little money you make or how many great friends you made in 4 years. She wants her money. So those people don't get to pick where 20-50% of their paycheck goes every month. Those students loans already made that choice for them 4 years ago.
So, how do you pick a college you can afford? The biggest thing here is for parents to inject themselves into the situation. You aren't helping your kid by allowing them to go to any school they want regardless of cost. This is real life. And in real life you have to make decisions based on reality not some fairy tail notion that you will "figure it out". If your kid wants to go to a school that costs a hundred thousand dollars over 4 years and you can't pay for that (with actual money), your kid needs to pick a cheaper school! Student loans are NOT free money. For some of you kids in college, it may not feel like it right now, but you have to pay those back! You aren't GM. The government is not going bail you out.
The point is, parents get involved and kids be realistic about where you want to go to school. A state school or a community college degree carries the same weight in the marketplace as a degree from a private liberal arts college, no matter what the admissions counsellors there tell you. So get your head screwed on and make a smart decision on where you go to school, not an emotional one.
2. Pick a college with a great Head Coach
This part of the decision making process probably won't be as controversial. I think everyone wants to compete for a great Head Coach. So real question is, What is a great Head Coach? and How can I tell?
A great Head Coach is someone who cares deeply about his athletes. One of my philosophies as a coach is that the athletes that are currently on my team are more important than the athletes that are not yet on my team. That means that once you are on my team, I treat you better than I did when I was recruiting you. If you go on a campus visit and the coach you are with blows off a guy on his team, because he is with you (the recruit), that is not someone you want to wrestle for. That coach is showing that he cares more about you before you are on his team than he will after you have signed your tuition check.
In business this concept is called "under-promise and over-deliver". It is a long term way of thinking. A poor businessman or salesman will always be looking for the "next sale" and they will not take care of the customers they already have. Where a good businessman will treat his current customers far better than he treats prospective customers. You want to compete for someone who under-promises and over-delivers.
Other than observing how the coach interacts with his wrestlers during your visit, the best way to find out if a coach truly cares about his wrestlers is to ask the guys that are currently on the team. When you go on an overnight visit ask your host some tough questions. Some example questions would be: What are some things you don't like about Coach X? or What is Coach X like when he gets angry? or How does Coach X treat you after you have a bad match?
The answers to these questions will help you discern whether the Head Coach is transactional (bad) or transformational (good).
If you can find these two things in the college you choose to wrestle for, you have already made a better decision than the vast majority of college athletes. When you are 50 years old you won't remember what the student-to-professor ratio was or what your college was ranked on some list somewhere. You will however, remember how the coach affected your life and you for darn sure will remember how much you paid for it if it is still stealing money from your paycheck.
First off, I want to say, not everyone needs to or should go to college. Your life is way more important than a sport, so if wrestling is the only reason you want to go to college, I would strongly urge you to consider, at minimum, taking a year off from school to work and figure out what you want to do with your life. Having been a college coach for a short three years I have seen too many athletes that have no idea why they are in school other than for their sport. And what usually happens, is they end up leaving school with a pile of debt and no degree. I don't think I need to explain why that is problematic.
Now that I got that out of the way. There are about a million factors that can go into picking a school to compete for, so I am not going to cover them all. I could write a book about all the stupid ways to pick a school, like prestige, or how pretty the campus is, or how good looking the girls are, or what the party scene is like. For now though, I am going to focus on what I believe to be the two most vital things to consider when picking a school to wrestle for.
1. Pick a college you can afford
My viewpoint here may not be very popular, but I don't care. It needs to be said. The rate that 18-22 years olds are going into student loan debt is astronomical. Many of my friends from college have upwards of a hundred thousand dollars or more in student loan debt. And now, instead of having the freedom to start at the bottom in a career they love, in many cases they are being forced to take jobs that they do not like, because they pay more. They are finding out the hard way that Sallie Mae doesn't give a crap how little money you make or how many great friends you made in 4 years. She wants her money. So those people don't get to pick where 20-50% of their paycheck goes every month. Those students loans already made that choice for them 4 years ago.
So, how do you pick a college you can afford? The biggest thing here is for parents to inject themselves into the situation. You aren't helping your kid by allowing them to go to any school they want regardless of cost. This is real life. And in real life you have to make decisions based on reality not some fairy tail notion that you will "figure it out". If your kid wants to go to a school that costs a hundred thousand dollars over 4 years and you can't pay for that (with actual money), your kid needs to pick a cheaper school! Student loans are NOT free money. For some of you kids in college, it may not feel like it right now, but you have to pay those back! You aren't GM. The government is not going bail you out.
The point is, parents get involved and kids be realistic about where you want to go to school. A state school or a community college degree carries the same weight in the marketplace as a degree from a private liberal arts college, no matter what the admissions counsellors there tell you. So get your head screwed on and make a smart decision on where you go to school, not an emotional one.
2. Pick a college with a great Head Coach
This part of the decision making process probably won't be as controversial. I think everyone wants to compete for a great Head Coach. So real question is, What is a great Head Coach? and How can I tell?
A great Head Coach is someone who cares deeply about his athletes. One of my philosophies as a coach is that the athletes that are currently on my team are more important than the athletes that are not yet on my team. That means that once you are on my team, I treat you better than I did when I was recruiting you. If you go on a campus visit and the coach you are with blows off a guy on his team, because he is with you (the recruit), that is not someone you want to wrestle for. That coach is showing that he cares more about you before you are on his team than he will after you have signed your tuition check.
In business this concept is called "under-promise and over-deliver". It is a long term way of thinking. A poor businessman or salesman will always be looking for the "next sale" and they will not take care of the customers they already have. Where a good businessman will treat his current customers far better than he treats prospective customers. You want to compete for someone who under-promises and over-delivers.
Other than observing how the coach interacts with his wrestlers during your visit, the best way to find out if a coach truly cares about his wrestlers is to ask the guys that are currently on the team. When you go on an overnight visit ask your host some tough questions. Some example questions would be: What are some things you don't like about Coach X? or What is Coach X like when he gets angry? or How does Coach X treat you after you have a bad match?
The answers to these questions will help you discern whether the Head Coach is transactional (bad) or transformational (good).
If you can find these two things in the college you choose to wrestle for, you have already made a better decision than the vast majority of college athletes. When you are 50 years old you won't remember what the student-to-professor ratio was or what your college was ranked on some list somewhere. You will however, remember how the coach affected your life and you for darn sure will remember how much you paid for it if it is still stealing money from your paycheck.
Comments
Post a Comment