Oct. 20, 2009

As we are well into our morning practice portion of preseason, many of us are now missing September. At the time our once-a-day practices in September seemed tough, but are now just a vague memory we wished we had back.

We've been getting up to lift from 6:50-8 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday now for the past two weeks and I feel like its already paying off. Along with afternoon practices, starting at 3:30, most all of us are starting to feel the aches and pains of what wrestling season should really feel like. Give it another two weeks or so and we will all be used to these aches and pains and should be feeling good and ready to start competing.

Next, week we begin establishing each weight class's starter and the ladder of wrestlers after that. It will probably be a stressful time for some, especially the freshman because of their lack of understanding how things are done around here. These wrestle-offs will be very competitive because we have only 10 weight classes with a roster of about 30 wrestlers. After the starter is established the other twenty wrestlers should have a good idea of the things they need to work on to get better to enable them to get into the starting line-up.

The chemistry in the room seems to be as good as I have ever seen it. I already feel like this is the best group of guys I have had to opportunity to be a part of in my time here at Cleveland State. Everyone is showing up on time, working hard, motivating each other, attending athletic events together, and taking part in some community service. So if all goes to plan this season we will get better and build off of an already great preseason and hopefully have a few EWL champs and NCAA All-Americans.

As November approaches we will continue to elevate out training so that we will be well prepared for the competition portion of our season. November should be a very interesting month with two big open tournaments at Eastern Michigan and Michigan State along with three competitive dual meets against Ohio State, Eastern Michigan, and John Carrol.