Wartburg Preview

1. The Knights look tough.

2. I wonder how much money they had to spend (Acedemic aid) to get that freshman class…I thought the ncaa was supposed to do something about this. LAX, AUG, WART, Ithaca, Del Val, Coe and many others would rather buy champions than make them!Any schmuck of a coach could win a national title w/ that kind of backing. This is B.S. and so is the entire qualifier system.

3. I’d do some homework rocket, I don’t think Ithaca, the team that had more ACADEMIC All-Americans than any team in the country last year, buys their champions

4. Coe once again led Division III in combined wrestling placement and academic standing (Clayton Rush is an academic AA) and you’ll really have to dig to find many better STUDENTS than LAX’s 3X champ, Dan Laurent.

5. Odd that a 3X Iowa state champ would go D-III.

6. […] preview Wartburg Preview|d3wrestle.com heck of a freshman class again i'll say this something is going on at these schools! […]

7. Kinda odd that they get a JUCO national champ there also it seems they get a lot of transfers to a school that can’t offer athletic scholarships to their student-athletes why would anybody in their right mind that could go DI come to a DIII school without a scholarship? I hope they investigate their alumni giving money to the school and how they are using that money because it looks like from the outside that the athletes could be getting more then what the public see.
   Just my two Cents

8. You better have some facts to back up some of those statements. I can only speak for Coe, but there is no academic money given there that is not earned or deserved. My son was a 2X Illinois State champ and Runner up one of the other years. His choice all along was to wrestle DIII despite the recruiting he got form DI. Did it ever cross your mind it just may be a preference? And as far as academics, here is a quote from a press release. “For the third-straight year, the Coe wrestling team has had the highest combined overall national championship placing and academic standing in wrestling. The Kohawks had the third highest GPA in the nation, while finishing fourth on the mat.
   2010 marked the third-straight year the Kohawks have held that honor, while they were the only team to finish in the top six in the nation on the mat and in the classroom. Williams had the highest team GPA at 3.543 for the third-straight year, while Ohio Northern edged Coe with a 3.484. The Kohawks had a combined GPA of 3.482.”

9. Is it really odd when his brother already attends the school (Carrington Banks)?! Also maybe the athlete wants to win a National Championship and be a part of a Championship team instead of “wrestling” D1…What would it mean to go to a mediocre or middle tier program and “wrestle” be a NQ multiple times b/c you don’t have training partners or a championship mentality among teammates? Rocket your assertion regarding “buying” anything is spurious, Coach Miller has grown many a champion and it would probably reflect better on you frankly if while disagreeing with a student-athletes choice in school, just wishing him well. Go Knights.

10. Kohawk is right, they picked a college because it FIT them better. They CHOSE Wartburg or whatever D3 college. Money isn’t everyone’s top priority for example, they may want a smaller class size, or they may have a friend already at the school or a brother (as in Bradley Banks case)…or maybe they want to be on a team that has a chance to win a National Title every year…that happens in D3 too.
    I do not know about all D3 schools, but I do for a fact that the Iowa Conference has financial aid audits on their athletic programs (conference wide). The audits are completed by an outside group through the conference commissioner’s office, so there you go.
    It is just a fact that some schools in ALL sports in All divisions are just better than others. Some work harder, some just flat out put in more time/effort into recruiting, some have better coaching than others, some have more fans, some have better traditions, some have better facilities. In Wartburg’s case they have one of the best coaching staff’s in the nation, not just D3 schools. If you have ever been in the Wartburg room you would know what I’m talking about. Coach Miller has positively impacted hundreds of student athletes on and off the mat. Ask any of his wrestlers, they’ll tell you that he’s made just as big of impact to their life after college as he did while they were wrestling. Maybe that’s why they CHOOSE a school like Wartburg?
    Did Wartburg get better after Miller arrived? Has Coe gotten better with Coach O? Cornell with Duroe? Concordia Mn with a coaching change? I could list many others but did all these schools just start handing out illegal aid or did they just start working harder in all phases of their program? That is great thing about this sport, the more time/effort you are willing to put in, the more you can achieve and that is what is going on with the best teams in All divisions….

11. I agree with D3fan there are a lot of reasons why student-athletes go to a college. I was talking to a guy just the other day that was talking about the Hawkeye club and how most of the backups in the Iowa room just want to say they wrestled for the Hawks. When he went to a D3 school and was a National finalist and is more proud of that then just wrestling for the name of a school. Some people could go somewhere be a backup for 3 years and wrestle one and never do anything or go to a smaller school and wrestle in the NCAAs for those four years.

12. I’m just guessing – but regarding the speculation about Cole Welter (the 3X Iowa champ alluded to above). He’s a heckuva baseball player and may have selected DIII so he could continue to compete in both sports – something that’s rarely done in today’s DI world. Again – I’m just speculating.

    BTW – Darned nice to have a member of the DIII wrestling hall of fame posting here.

13. Wartburg Wrestling has deep ties in their admissions office and also their financial aid office

14. Hey everyone, i wouldn’t get too worked up about what one fool (Rocket) says on here. Clearly he/she is just trying to bring down programs better than their own. Like every top D3 school in the nation has to be paying atheletes. ridiculous. Let’s just ignore it and go on discussing d3 wrestling in a positive light like it should be.

15. The only fools are the people trying to say that none of this has anything to do w/ deep backing from financial aid and admissions depts. I’d bet the farm on the fact that these kids aren’t paying a lick to attend and it would be interesting to see the transcripts that got them there. They kids we recruit pay full tuition to come and wrestle for us. I would love to see any of the aforementioned institutions do the same and repeat that success. Do you people think that the same two schools dominating the national tournament for the last 20 years is because the coaches are just that good! Gimme a break! Sorry to offend anyone…just calling it like i see it.

16. Sorry to tell you rocket, but in my experience everyone in the iiac pays an awful lot of money to go to school. I do not know a single person who “doesnt pay a lick” to go to school. Some of the smartest people I have met receive academic scholarships that still don’t bring tuition w/in reach of the state schools. It may be hard for you to believe where you come from, but in Iowa (midwest) there are a lot of young men that just like to wrestle, and are willing to pay a high tuition to wrestle as well as get a great education… Sorry to ruin your distorted view… just calling it like it is.

17. This was posted on the forum.
    Last three years data – AA’s/NQ’sm = %

    Last three years data – AA’s/NQ’s
    Centennial: 8/33 = 24%

    OAC: 10/33 = 30%

    Midwest (-DV): 10/33 (took out bids DV took with them) = 30%

    Great Lakes: 49/77 = 64%

    IIAC: 64/99 = 65%

    So what you east coasters are saying is that with the number of guys you’re taking now that can’t AA, you want to take even lower placers and have your percentages drop even more? I don’t get your logic. I understand that qualifiers with more bodies at nationals will have more AAs, but percentages don’t lie. And as for not paying tuition…tell that to my bank account…or have you now backed off from LAX, Ithaca, Del Valley, and Coe?

18. Either Wartburg or Augusburg have been national champs for the last 16 years not 20.

    If you look at D1 over the last 16 yrs only 3 teams have won a championship Iowa/Okla State/Minnesota…. Brands, Smith and Robinson must be cheating… Or maybe they are great coaches that have built dominant programs.

19. “Either Wartburg or Augusburg have been national champs for the last 16 years not 20. If you look at D1 over the last 16 yrs only 3 teams have won a championship Iowa/Okla State/Minnesota…. Brands, Smith and Robinson must be cheating… Or maybe they are great coaches that have built dominant programs.”

    Awesome post. –What really makes it good is that there was no rebuttal from these turds.

20. i think rocket is trying to make this a lot more complicated than it really is. Yes, i’m sure not all the wrestlers do not have to pay full tuition. But with private schools the financial aid can help a family out depending on their house income. There is also more opportunity for things such as grants. It has nothing to do with boosters, or any other form of outside funds. I know that Wartburg has a great booster club, but i doubt the boosters are able to pay for a $33,000 tuition a year (like your stating). What your saying is that Wartburg is doing illegal funding right? Don’t you think the NCAA would have done something about this awhile ago if that were the case? If you think there is something shady going on, then go ahead and file a complaint to the NCAA. Do some investigating. It sounds like you have some jealousy issues.
    This is why Wartburg and Augsburg have had success. They have determination, hard work, and the desire to win! Plus the tradition both schools have, and the great coaches they both have. I’m pretty sure that Leroy Garner never placed in high school but ended up winning a national title somehow. Things like that don’t just happen because the coaching is mediocre. I think your under estimating the coaching side of this whole discussion.
    These schools get good kids because these kids want to compete for a national championship. They want success in the classroom as well. There is more one on one attention at a smaller school. I also think that i heard that Wartburg has a 100% graduation rate for kids that wrestle for 4 years or something crazy like that. There isn’t one D1 school that can make that claim.

21. “Wartburg College added to its recent third-place finish at the 2010 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships by putting six members of the 2009-10 team on the National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III Scholar-Athlete awards list.

    Junior 125-pounder Mark Kist of Eagle Grove, junior 157-pounder Adam Weber of Gilbertville, junior 141-pounder Chris Sandy of Spirit Lake, sophomore 184-pounder Ben Scott of Adel, sophomore 157/165 pounder Michael Sandy of Spirit Lake, and sophomore 149/157-pounder Jesse Froehner of Cedar Falls were each selected to the team. The Knights’ total was the most for any Iowa Conference school.

    Head coach Jim Miller’s program has had at least one individual on the honors list each year since 1993. This year’s six awards equal 2007-08 for the most in one year.

    Prior to the championship finals, Weber was recognized as the first recipient of the Elite 88 Award for Division III wrestling. The Elite 88, an award founded by the NCAA, recognizes the true essence of the student-athlete by honoring the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level in his or her sport, while also achieving the highest academic standard among his or her peers. The Elite 88 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s 88 championships.”

    Thought I would post this article from July 30, 2010. It can be found on the Wartburg Wrestling Website. Seems that the athletes put a lot of time in the classroom as well on the mat. That is why they are called student-athletes and choose DIII programs.

22. I attended Wartburg and I can assure you that academics take precedent over athletics. I think that Wartburg treats all students equally and has no need or desire risk NCAA violations. It is an honor to represent Wartburg (I played basketball when they were NAIA)and with it comes a first class education. I would suspect all the flack from Rocket and others is to initiate conflict and maybe even an attempt at good natured humor. I also suspect he or she has never worn a jock strap.

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