Couple of questions

[CaneinBatonRouge]

I will be heading to Chattanooga in September for a wedding. My son wrestles, but is only in the 7th grade this coming year. UTC is a school I've kind of taken notice of recently as I've already started looking for potential schools for my son.(can you really start too early?) My son has made straight As for his whole academic career thus far.

Can I get a tour of their wrestling facilities and campus? How accessible do you think Eslinger would be?(I'd really like his opinion on what my son must accomplish since he wrestles in Louisiana, to be recognized on a national level by college coaches). Would any of this be against NCAA rules?

[Spider]

If he keeps getting straight A's, you may be setting your sights too low. Nothing against UTC, but he may be Ivy League material. Don't limit his possibilities by geography and don't let wrestling overshadow academics (if I may be so bold as to offer my opinion).

[CaneinBatonRouge]

I'm here for opinions spider. Not really setting sights low, this just seems to be a chance for me to see a decent program and what it entails while I'm there for the wedding. Coach Eslinger also impressed me somewhat in his press conference.
Others on my list(so far that is) include Campbell, Davidson, Gardner-Webb, Columbia, Cornell, Brown,Duke, UVA, and North Carolina. As you can see, I seem to have an east coast lean. Can't really explain why, I just do. These are really the only ones I've checked so far. There's many more to come as he progresses academically the next few years.
One other thing, NOTHING will ever overshadow his academics. He has done karate, football, baseball and wrestling. Homework always comes first. If it's not finished, then no sports. Bad grades = no sports(that includes Cs on tests, C=average, my kid is not average)

[Spider]

You're doin' good. Good luck.

[WrestlingTerp]

It can't hurt to expose your son to various campuses early on, as well as getting a feel for them yourself. We dragged our daughter to schools just so she could begin to get an idea of the type and size of school she seemed more inclined to attend large, medium, small; city, suburban, rural, etc. Helped to narrow down the large number of colleges and universities there are to choose from.

Visiting schools during your travels is a good idea. Informal walk arounds can give you a feel and you can always track down the wrestling room and take a look around.

Contact the coach, just to make sure it is even legal for your son to have contacts. After 9th grade they are considered "recruitable" student-athletes. You might consider having him attend wrestling camps at some of the schools you are thinking of. It gives him a chance so spend several days at the school and interact with the coaching staffs. Again, we did that a bit with our daughter and lacrosse.

[ideamark]

Excellent advice from my colleagues Spider and Terp...

I was lucky enough to have a father whose business was serving libraries, and our family would get to visit colleges in the Midwest and South on some of his business trips during the summer. It really helped give me an idea of what I might want to look for in a college in terms of programs available, as well as the "look and feel" of the campus and community, what the people were like, etc.

I think these college trips also reinforced the idea in my head that striving to go to college is important, and helped develop a lifelong love of learning.

Even though your son is just entering seventh grade, it'll be in his long-run best interests to be exposed to various schools now and in the coming years... before that frantic rush senior year of trying to do campus visits and all that. At least he'll have a good idea of what he should be looking for, what questions he should be asking.

It would be a wonderful bonus if he were able to see wrestling rooms and meet with coaches. However, I would consider that to be a BONUS, a cherry on top of the sundae. (Again, to mirror my friend Steve's (Terp) advice, double-check with the program to make sure that contact at this age doesn't hurt his eligibility.)

Your son sounds like a treasure. Continue to nurture his love of learning, and his desire to try various sports and other activities. It will not only make him an even more attractive recruitment candidate at ANY school (yes, even Ivy League), but also make him a better man in the long run.

Best wishes,
Mark

[CaneinBatonRouge]

Thanks for the replies guys. And just so you don't feel slighted Terp, Maryland is on my list also, I just forgot to put it. Being a Hurricane fan, I have come to recognize the caliber of academics in the ACC.
Starting this year, we will start going to more of the "national" tournaments. After going to regionals in Atlanta this past May, I realized just how more opportunity to face top notch competition, match after match, that this affords him. He finished fourth there, but fell apart his last two matches mentally. He wasn't used to not being able to dominate his competition. We've talked about this the past couple of months. He knows now, that he can't win them all(for now). And that the only way to get better, is to train hard and wrestle people better than him.
I'm going to use these tournaments, not only as a means of introducing him to the national level of competition, but also as a means to broaden his horizons, by visiting various schools along the way. Next summer, we'll also plan for a camp somewhere. We went to Rob Hermann's camp in Pensacola this year. Next year we'll do it again, and looking at possibly the Oklahoma State camp.
Currently I use US News rankings for academics when looking at schools. Are there any other sites that are better?

[mhs189]

UVA and cornell are too really good programs especially if going into the med field. It's never too early to start looking for teams for your son to wrestle for. Make sure he keeps his grades up and continues to train hard. In terms of being nationally recognized, you havta take him to national events. (Tulsa Nationals, Reno Worlds, War at the Shore, OTC, Fargo, Asics/Brute national events, Southeast regionals) and make sure you send his results in to USAWrestling Magazine to get him ranked and nationally recognized

[WrestlingTerp]

Cane:

Just make sure your son has fun! I've seen too many kids burn out over the years. Wrestling can be such a grind on a kid, especially now that they compete year-round. The demands at the Div I level are now so great that guys don't last who don't love wrestling. And, as you'll read from others, remember there isn't that much money available for wrestling so there isn't a pot of gold scholarship-wise.

And no worries about forgetting Maryland. I'm still a bit ticked off at them for what happened to my daughter.

You'd think a possible third generation Terp (my father taught at Maryland for 40 years too), with a 4.61 weighted GPA in all AP and GT classes, a straight A high school graduate from a very good school, who took 8 AP exams and would have received 26 semester hours of credit for them at Maryland, was accepted into their top honors program, whose father has been very active on campus for 30 years, would have been offered a bit of academic scholarship money.

Especially when other kids from her same high school were offered Presidential and other academic scholarships, but weren't even in the top 10% of the class and don't have the legacy she does.

She was offered enough money at a great, rising private university in North Carolina that the cost to go there is almost the same or less than Maryland. And it is next door to Stardust to boot!!!

The US News rankings can serve as a useful barometer, but there are so many great colleges and universities in the country that the "fit" for the student is most important for their future success. There are other rankings too, Princeton Review just came out with theirs. And there is an interesting series of books on most schools called "College Prowler: Off the Record" that interviews students at the specific school. Might be worth getting when the choice is narrowed down a bit.