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Amateur Wrestling Reports

NEO A&M’s Joe Renfro Wins Prestigious Walter Hauck NJCAA Presidential Award for Coaching Excellence

Joe Renfro, the head coach at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, has been given the inaugural Walter Hauck NJCAA Coaches Association President of the Year Award.
The award was given by the NJCAA and honors winners for dedicated service, devotion and commitment to the NJCAA.
Hauck, who passed away in 2023, was a longtime coach at Westchester Community College in Valhalla, New York, and was the head coach of the NJCAA Bowling Coaches Association while holding jobs as head bowling coach, head golf coach and assistant athletic director.
Renfro has been the head record coach at NEO — located in Miami — since the 2013-14 season. He is also the athletic director at the junior college. He also actively serves the NJCAA Wrestling Coaches Association as President.
He said the school got a call the school to let him know of the honors — the first time he had heard of the award. “I’m definitely honored,” said Renfro, who lives in nearby Seneca, Missouri. “I honestly do believe there are a lot of coaches in the NJCAA that are more deserving than I am. There are guys that work tremendous hours and the pay isn’t great and they do everything they can for their sport and doing a good job of working hard.”
Renfro said the entire NEO A&M campus … more at … Owrestle.com/NEO-ams-joe-renfro-wins-prestigious-walter-hauck-njcaa-presidential-award-for-coaching-excellence

May 29, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Penn State wrestler Greg Kerkvliet announces return for 6th season

Yet another wrestler is returning to Penn State.
Greg Kerkvliet announced he is returning to the Nittany Lions for a sixth and final season via Instagram on Wednesday. 
Last season, Kerkvliet struck gold as he captured the 285-pound NCAA title after defeating Lucas Davidson in the NCAA Championships.
Kerkvliet is a four-time All-American and will join Carter Starocci on the list of wrestlers returning for another season.
After capturing his first NCAA Championship this season, Kerkvliet will get another crack at it. … more at … PSUcollegian.com/Penn-state-wrestler-greg-kerkvliet-announces-return-for-6th-season

May 29, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

DIVISION III AND THE TRANSFER PORTAL

This is the second of a two-part series about NIL and the transfer portal. Today’s focus is on Division III wrestlers. Read Part 1 here.

There are 443 wrestlers in the transfer portal as of May 14, 2024. 31 of those are Division III wrestlers, and two of the 31 were 2024 NCAA qualifiers. Compared to Division I, there are very few Division III wrestlers using the portal. One of the reasons for this is that DIII athletes have other options than the portal to talk to other schools. These three options are as follows:

  1. Fill out the DIII self-release form if the athlete wants to talk to another DIII school.
  2. Get a letter from the current school granting permission to speak with other schools.
  3. Withdraw from school, as unenrolled DIII athletes do not need permission to talk to other schools.

Another reason that there are fewer DIII athletes in the portal is that there are very few opportunities for Division III wrestlers to earn NIL money. There are not as many big money donors looking to buy athletes at the Division III level, so there is rarely a financial incentive for a successful DIII wrestler to transfer to another DIII school. This could change as NIL rules are clarified and DIII schools ramp up fundraising in the NIL era. Several Division III schools have collectives supporting them, but the numbers are small and often focused on a single sport (like Marietta Basketball’s Two Rivers Trust).

Wrestling is also different than some other sports in portal usage. There are over 1,100 DIII football players in the portal as of May 14th. That means there are 37 times as many football players in the portal even though there are only about 7.5 times as many football players as wrestlers overall in Division III. The ratio in men’s basketball is even greater with 21 times as many players as wrestlers in the portal even though there are only about 2.5 times as many basketball players.

Why are there so many more basketball and football players in the portal? One reason is playing time. With multiple entry tournaments and multi-dual events, most Division III wrestlers get to compete, no matter how far down they are on the depth chart. The fourth string 141 might wrestle 15+ matches while the fourth string right guard never gets in a game. Also, wrestling teams often have wrestle-offs where the athletes determine who starts with direct competition. In other sports, the coach decides who plays, and many players on the football and basketball bench are sure they would be playing more if the coach were smarter. The other reason for the number of basketball and football portal entries is the attention the portal gets in the media in those sports. Something like 40% of Division I basketball players are or were in the portal this year. Division III athletes see countless stories about transfer athletes and decide to give the portal a try. Many of them are holding onto the belief that a DI or DII scholarship is a possibility, even though they lack the stats or game video to warrant that level of attention.

Division III wrestlers will enter the portal for several reasons. … more at … D3wrestle.com/division-iii-and-the-transfer-portal

May 29, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment