In the days of this portal you have to recruit over other guys even if they are starters. If you aren’t in the conversation to win a NC then you’re replaceable with someone who is
HS Recruiting News
- Thread starter DEWrestlingFan
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Hate to add insult to injury haha, but with the talk of Penn State this week, figured I’d mention it. Two high school kids made the semi finals at Senior Nationals today. Lilledahl did so by beating Brandon Courtney former NCAA Finalist, Mirasola did so beating Max Dean former NCAA Champion… both are committed to Penn State. Pretty wild the level of talent coming out of high school right now.
No insulting entry they’re both good kids. Bradon Thompson beat one of them twice this summer and Cody Merrell tech the other one you’re right so lotta good high school kids we have some coming. Also, may the games Begin.
Thompson beat Connor Mirasola twice, the guy who beat Dean today
Merrill tech'd his less accomplished twin brother Cole
Lilledahl beat Spratley after Spratley beat Bassett & Forrest back to back
Merrill tech'd his less accomplished twin brother Cole
Lilledahl beat Spratley after Spratley beat Bassett & Forrest back to back
Spratley also beat Volk in that bracket. Was a crazy disparity between the routes.
that's pretty crazy he stopped wrestling for years being who his dad is. do we know why? how long did he stop and when did he come back?
Came back last year and has done a great job getting back to the top . He needed a break
Forrest beat Volk. Then Spratley beat Forrest before falling to Lilledahl in the best of 3 finals.
2025 is looking close to done…
2025
(3) LaDarion Lockett
Kaden Purler
Beau Hickman
Ethan Teague
Ishmael Guerrero
(49) De'Alcapon Veazy (182)
Vince Bouzakis
William Henckel
2026
Jax Forrest
Bo Bassett
Michael Mocco
(37) Travis Grace
(38) Joseph Jeter
2027
Ignacio Villasenor
2025
(3) LaDarion Lockett
Kaden Purler
Beau Hickman
Ethan Teague
Ishmael Guerrero
(49) De'Alcapon Veazy (182)
Vince Bouzakis
William Henckel
2026
Jax Forrest
Bo Bassett
Michael Mocco
(37) Travis Grace
(38) Joseph Jeter
2027
Ignacio Villasenor
Just going off of what people in the thread have reported.
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Just read this article about Cody Merrill's little brother Coby. Coby decided to stay at his local high school this year instead of making the drive to Gilroy. Cody is still at Gilroy. Coby, the little brother is ranked 2nd in the state at HWT but may drop down to 215 for states. If so, he may run into his older brother Cody. Pretty crazy. They are actually both ranked in the nation by Flo. Cody 1st, and Coby 8th. Coby is only a sophmore this year.
www.sbsun.com
CIF State runner-up wrestler Coby Merrill close to making his debut for North High
The IE resident was a virtual student at Gilroy last season but, now a sophomore, he decided against the long commutes and to compete for his local school.
www.sbsun.com
FWIW - it doesn’t matter to me, I’m just trying to keep an aggregated list of prospects, targets, and commitments…
Whoever PFB is using has Lockett at #3 as well.
My preference is overall PFP or Grad class ranking.
It brings up an interesting point - who’s rankings should we go by?
OSU Wrestling: Son of Eric Guerrero, Ishmael, Commits to Cowboys
Ishmael is OSU's second class of 2025 commitment this week.
pistolsfiringblog.com
Recruiting the kids hasn't been the issue in Stillwater. Some close the program think bringing in Coleman will help with the product come March. It will be interesting to watch the next few years
FWIW - it doesn’t matter to me, I’m just trying to keep an aggregated list of prospects, targets, and commitments…
Whoever PFB is using has Lockett at #3 as well.
My preference is overall PFP or Grad class ranking.
It brings up an interesting point - who’s rankings should we go by?
OSU Wrestling: Son of Eric Guerrero, Ishmael, Commits to Cowboys
Ishmael is OSU's second class of 2025 commitment this week.pistolsfiringblog.com
Oh I wasn't being critical! I'm sorry if that's how it came across.
I think @smalls103 does the best job with high school rankings on MatScouts, and his track record over the last decade has proven that out.
I am excited about the early season results. Izzak was brought in and beat (not a close match) a guy that has beaten him three times in his carreer. The freshmen and other transfers seem to be progressing very well too.
Agree, Willie’s rankings are constructed with much more knowledge than Flo’s imo. Flo rankings are just more easily available and updated more often.
Veazy will be very soon
Can you explain the difference between us taking guys like Teague, Hickman and Purler instead of Jordan, Sommer etc? Is it as simple as projected weights or are we just evaluating them as higher level targets?
He is
Jordan chose to leave because of spratly, and didn’t want to wait out the two-year period to see where they were at the rest was explain last week
They only have so much scholarship money, so they get as many main targets as possible. It’s hard when you get down to guys Sommers who are really good…too good to walk on and someone else will use a high amount of their spend on them. You’ve spent your budget on guys like Merrill and don’t have enough left.
If we want or need a guy bad enough, we are never out of money
I’ve looked through the last few weeks of posts and I don’t really see a good explanation. Just that we did want this kid or that we didn’t want that kid. Nothing really deep on what makes kids like Purler and Hickman, priorities over other kids.
It’s more about whether the kid loves wrestling at that level. It’s going to always be an uphill battle for kids of this caliber to ever make the team so they pick the ones they fill really love the sport. And are going to give it everything they got to beat the odds I’m not going to say they’re only workout partners because we’ve seen it happen before but you can’t win. National titles or will be in contention hoping you can make 4 or 5 of them elite that’s the nicest way I can say it.
This how we have to be if want to beat PSU
how does this all work with the scholarship limits? Is it 9.9? Are you just talking NIL money to offset the scholarship value if the scholarship isn’t there?
Purler is a legacy. His dad wrestled for OSU in the 90s and runs a very successful wrestling academy in the Saint Louis area.
On Beau Hickman....
He beat Kody Routledge and Dee Lockett at freestyle state in 2022 and placed at Fargo. Had a poor showing at Elite 8 Duals, which is hurting his ranking, then didn't wrestle Fargo this past summer. Fully expect him to get back on the scene this summer and he's a very high upside guy. Turned down a bigger offer from OU to come to OSU.
Ethan Teague also very high upside.
In reality you'd love to take all of the top guys in state and from Kansas and Colorado and the whole region... hell we would all love to have Wyatt Hendrickson out of Kansas... unfortunately sometimes guys want to go wrestle and feel they have better opportunities to do that somewhere else. I hope they all have success when they aren't wrestling OSU guys. On the record thinking it's pretty goofy to put ceilings on wrestlers when they're 15-17 years old, but that's the system we live in. Keep good relationships with them and maybe they'll transfer in if the need changes.
He beat Kody Routledge and Dee Lockett at freestyle state in 2022 and placed at Fargo. Had a poor showing at Elite 8 Duals, which is hurting his ranking, then didn't wrestle Fargo this past summer. Fully expect him to get back on the scene this summer and he's a very high upside guy. Turned down a bigger offer from OU to come to OSU.
Ethan Teague also very high upside.
In reality you'd love to take all of the top guys in state and from Kansas and Colorado and the whole region... hell we would all love to have Wyatt Hendrickson out of Kansas... unfortunately sometimes guys want to go wrestle and feel they have better opportunities to do that somewhere else. I hope they all have success when they aren't wrestling OSU guys. On the record thinking it's pretty goofy to put ceilings on wrestlers when they're 15-17 years old, but that's the system we live in. Keep good relationships with them and maybe they'll transfer in if the need changes.
Thanks for the replies Lee. My post wasn’t meant as a rebuke of the decisions I was just looking for some context on how we ended up where we are commit wise.
Looking like it'll be another #1 class for 2025 and getting Merrill makes the 2024 class great.
CWC is doing a great job building relationships in state with youth wrestlers. Zo is establishing himself as one of the premier youth coaches in the country. Perry and Caldwell hit the pavement hard and kids love them and want to wrestle for them.
If the program can turn around this streak of bad luck we've hit the last few years then things will be cooking. The recruiting, club, and money are there. Facilities are almost ready. Plus there's a clear willingness to go into the portal and pull guys when needed.
As long as the NCAA doesn't nuke non-revenue men's sports, OSU will be competitive soon. I think 2025 has a ton of potential. Hell I think this team could be special but there's a lot up in the air with Spratley, Jamison, and Williams. If two of those guys plus Surber can make the podium with Plott, Daton, and Olejnik then it's a trophy team. The three young guys need to make big jumps and everybody needs to stay healthy. Penn State is cooking and overcoming that will be very difficult. But if it was easy everybody would do it.
I don't post here often but work has slowed down for Christmas.
Age does not seem to be a barrier now days. I’m as high on Merrill as any recruit we’ve had in recent years
Don’t be a stranger!
You could make the case that getting Guerrero was likely all along, so Sommer & Giddens were not as big of a need at the middleweights. And Teague helps there too.
I'm more curious about whether there's been a change in how the higher ranked recruits are evaluated. Routledge seems similar to Voinovich in HS. Ranked about the same, made the finals of some big tournaments, strong positionally with limited offense. I wonder if there's been a shift toward targeting higher upside recruits.
It would make sense that there has been a shift towards targeting higher upside recruits with Guerrero and Hickman as a good examples. I think both have a lot of upside and growth left. Looking at where Guerrero is currently after taking a few years off shows you a lot. I thought I heard that Hickman was sick during the elite 8 duals and that's why he wrestled so poorly, which ultimately hurt his ranking. Hickman is really good on his feet and has a really frame to add weight IMO. He could be a potential 157 in a couple more years. Both guys fill needs weight wise for us as well. Look at it as "Value Investing" buy low and ride the wave up instead of putting all your money on a guy who may have peaked early.
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