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Oct 2022 Letter from Casey Cunningham

creamery freak

Well-Known Member
Jul 26, 2014
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Penn State Wrestling Fans!!!!!!!!

One more tournament and the 2021-2022 season is over and we head into the 2022-2023 collegiate season. As of Monday, official practice has now started so it is time to give an end of summer and preseason update as we begin a new year. Carter Starocci will be competing on October 21 and 22nd in the U23 World Championship in Spain to conclude the 2022 season. He has been training hard and will be ready to win a World title in about 1 week. This will conclude what was a very successful year for Penn State Wrestling and the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club.

Since the NCAA tournament we have had guys from either the PSU team or the NLWC competing in the Bill Farrell Memorial in Iowa, Senior and Junior Nationals in Las Vegas, Senior World Team trials in Iowa, Final X in Oklahoma, U23 and U20 World Team Trials in Ohio, Final X in New York City, Senior Pan American Championship in Mexico, the U20 Pan American Championship in Mexico, a senior ranking tournament in Africa, the U20 World Championship in Bulgaria, acclimation camp in Germany, the Senior World Championship in Serbia, and we finish it off in Spain with the U23 World Championship. If it is hard to follow all of that it is understandable as the summers are fast and furious for all of us when you throw in camps and training, but it is all part of what makes this program what it is. Along with the 5 NCAA champions this year we had 4 World Finalists and 9 World Team Members at all age groups. We are very grateful that all these men and women trust us to help them achieve their goals and we look forward to many more medals going forward.

As has been mentioned in the past summer workouts are optional but because we always have people getting ready for different freestyle events throughout the summer, we have some type of training going on pretty much year-round that most of our college guys can take advantage of. We have a group of very committed guys that just work even when it is not the requirement. We are very excited about the group that will be representing Penn State this year. There are many factors that go into having a successful season, but these guys have set themselves up to have a very fun year.

There are also some new rules in regard to redshirts. Redshirts are guys who are on the team and do everything the team does but are not allowed to represent the University at events. We cannot pay for or coach them in tournaments when they are redshirting. The new rule this year though is that redshirts can compete in 5 team events without losing their redshirt status. This could potentially be very helpful if you have starters that are banged up or get sick etc as a wrestler redshirting can still keep that status but yet compete for the team on 5 occasions. Another new rule for first year Freshmen redshirts is that they cannot compete in the first semester unless it is a scheduled team event and they are using one of their five possible opportunities to compete. In the past guys would drive to local open tournaments and get a bunch of matches in that first semester but that is no longer allowed as a committee of coaches and administrators have decided that it would help the athletes academically to not compete first semester. We have found that when guys are competing they actually do better in school but that is the rule so we will work with it.

In closing, we were receiving emails and calls about why our schedule had not been released but wait no longer as it is now out there for everyone to see. The faculty senate must approve the schedules at Penn State, but they cannot approve it until the Big Ten gives us their portion of our schedule so sometimes it takes a little longer than people would like. With that being said we are one month away from our first home Match with Lock Haven to kick of the 2022-2023 season. Lock Haven always comes ready to scrap so our guys are excited to get out there and let it fly again. A couple other schedule highlights are we have a dual event before Christmas again and have 2 Bryce Jordan Center Duals. The dual event before Christmas is not in Florida but rather in New Orleans this year and will feature a lot of great match ups so it would be great to see a bunch of PSU fans down there. After Christmas we get into our Big Ten schedule, and like mentioned above we will host 2 of those matches in the Bryce Jordan Center so that more people have an opportunity to watch our guys compete. We have many exciting guys to watch so let’s make sure we sell out both of those matches and continue our streak of Rec Hall sell outs. We appreciate all of you and look forward to seeing you all very soon. Thank you for the continued support.



GO LIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Penn State Wrestling Fans!!!!!!!!

One more tournament and the 2021-2022 season is over and we head into the 2022-2023 collegiate season. As of Monday, official practice has now started so it is time to give an end of summer and preseason update as we begin a new year. Carter Starocci will be competing on October 21 and 22nd in the U23 World Championship in Spain to conclude the 2022 season. He has been training hard and will be ready to win a World title in about 1 week. This will conclude what was a very successful year for Penn State Wrestling and the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club.

Since the NCAA tournament we have had guys from either the PSU team or the NLWC competing in the Bill Farrell Memorial in Iowa, Senior and Junior Nationals in Las Vegas, Senior World Team trials in Iowa, Final X in Oklahoma, U23 and U20 World Team Trials in Ohio, Final X in New York City, Senior Pan American Championship in Mexico, the U20 Pan American Championship in Mexico, a senior ranking tournament in Africa, the U20 World Championship in Bulgaria, acclimation camp in Germany, the Senior World Championship in Serbia, and we finish it off in Spain with the U23 World Championship. If it is hard to follow all of that it is understandable as the summers are fast and furious for all of us when you throw in camps and training, but it is all part of what makes this program what it is. Along with the 5 NCAA champions this year we had 4 World Finalists and 9 World Team Members at all age groups. We are very grateful that all these men and women trust us to help them achieve their goals and we look forward to many more medals going forward.

As has been mentioned in the past summer workouts are optional but because we always have people getting ready for different freestyle events throughout the summer, we have some type of training going on pretty much year-round that most of our college guys can take advantage of. We have a group of very committed guys that just work even when it is not the requirement. We are very excited about the group that will be representing Penn State this year. There are many factors that go into having a successful season, but these guys have set themselves up to have a very fun year.

There are also some new rules in regard to redshirts. Redshirts are guys who are on the team and do everything the team does but are not allowed to represent the University at events. We cannot pay for or coach them in tournaments when they are redshirting. The new rule this year though is that redshirts can compete in 5 team events without losing their redshirt status. This could potentially be very helpful if you have starters that are banged up or get sick etc as a wrestler redshirting can still keep that status but yet compete for the team on 5 occasions. Another new rule for first year Freshmen redshirts is that they cannot compete in the first semester unless it is a scheduled team event and they are using one of their five possible opportunities to compete. In the past guys would drive to local open tournaments and get a bunch of matches in that first semester but that is no longer allowed as a committee of coaches and administrators have decided that it would help the athletes academically to not compete first semester. We have found that when guys are competing they actually do better in school but that is the rule so we will work with it.

In closing, we were receiving emails and calls about why our schedule had not been released but wait no longer as it is now out there for everyone to see. The faculty senate must approve the schedules at Penn State, but they cannot approve it until the Big Ten gives us their portion of our schedule so sometimes it takes a little longer than people would like. With that being said we are one month away from our first home Match with Lock Haven to kick of the 2022-2023 season. Lock Haven always comes ready to scrap so our guys are excited to get out there and let it fly again. A couple other schedule highlights are we have a dual event before Christmas again and have 2 Bryce Jordan Center Duals. The dual event before Christmas is not in Florida but rather in New Orleans this year and will feature a lot of great match ups so it would be great to see a bunch of PSU fans down there. After Christmas we get into our Big Ten schedule, and like mentioned above we will host 2 of those matches in the Bryce Jordan Center so that more people have an opportunity to watch our guys compete. We have many exciting guys to watch so let’s make sure we sell out both of those matches and continue our streak of Rec Hall sell outs. We appreciate all of you and look forward to seeing you all very soon. Thank you for the continued support.



GO LIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
See the bolded part. That is for those the complain every year about the schedule not being out when they would like it to be.
 
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Man, how many frequent flyer miles do you think Casey has? I knew of all the events he listed, of course, but seeing it all in one place really draws the dedication of our coaches into focus. No rest for the best!
 
So freshman on redshirt can’t go to open tournaments in the first semester unless the team is? That sucks.
 
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So freshman on redshirt can’t go to open tournaments in the first semester unless the team is? That sucks.
Yeah, I don't agree with the reasoning that came up with that rule, and apparently neither do our coaches. However, I expect several true freshman will go to the Black Knight tournament and can get as many as 6 matches that day. Since the NWCA All Start meet is two days after the Army tournament and in Texas I don't expect Starocci, Brooks, or Kerkvliet will wrestle there.
 
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the reasoning that came up with that rule
You disagree with the reasoning that first semester wrestlers shouldn't incur the financial burden of competing unattached?

That they should have the University's full support, if competing, is the reason, as I understand it.

I agree with this reasoning.
 
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You disagree with the reasoning that first semester wrestlers shouldn't incur the financial burden of competing unattached?

That they should have the University's full support, if competing, is the reason, as I understand it.

I agree with this reasoning.
So “financial burden” is now the reasoning? Do freshman on redshirt have less money in their first semester than their second semester?
 
You disagree with the reasoning that first semester wrestlers shouldn't incur the financial burden of competing unattached?

That they should have the University's full support, if competing, is the reason, as I understand it.

I agree with this reasoning.
Hmm, that is NOT my understanding of the rule. In the past if they had the money and the time they could compete in open tournaments. Because many don';t have that is the reason so few true frosh competed in those open tournaments. Now they have no choice and the reasoning was it helped them with their academics, but as Casey said in their experience wrestlers do better academically when they are competing.
 
You disagree with the reasoning that first semester wrestlers shouldn't incur the financial burden of competing unattached?

That they should have the University's full support, if competing, is the reason, as I understand it.

I agree with this reasoning.
I think Nova was talking (as Casey did) about the academic reasoning behind banning freshman from competing unattached in the first semester. Student athletes who couldn't compete unattached in tourneys for financial reasons simply didn't previously--so no harm there, really. The reasoning behind the rule to prevent that I believe is a notion that kids will have less to distract them from adjusting to college rigor--though I think Casey is probably right that kids with less free time will often hone the focus they need to succeed faster than those with more free time.
 
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Checked this morning, I renewed in April and good until next April. Oh well
Yeah, I can tell you for certain that Membership in the PSWC has nothing to do with being on Casey's distribution list. Did you check your spam folder?
 
Nova was talking (as Casey did) about the academic reasoning behind banning freshman from competing unattached
I understand Casey disagreed that competing unattached first semester was, from his experience, correlated to poorer academic performance.

There can be more than one reason.

In what other NCAA sports do student athletes compete outside of the official team competition on their own nickel during the NCAA season?
 
Every kid is different but I always did better academically during the college wrestling season. I attribute it to having to manage my time much closer and really focus on school in the limited time blocks available around practices, weight training, conditioning, etc. When you have lots of time available during the off-season, it's tempting to push schoolwork out and that just causes problems.

Having said that, your first semester at college is a different animal and I don't know that it's a horrible idea to limit school distractions for those freshmen who are redshirting. It is a very small shift back toward freshmen not being eligible to compete like the rule was many many decades ago. I would definitely not be a fan of moving further in that direction.
 
I believe the only true freshman PSU has that can contribute right away is Haines. Wouldn’t be shocked to see him attached for the New Oleans duals. And the. You’d have him available for 4 more attached events 2nd semester. Unless of course the plan is for him to go right away (hoping this is the case)
 
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