As we start the 2020-21 school year, I thought it would be appropriate to recap a bit, and more importantly, to pass along what we currently know about our upcoming season!
It is hard to believe that almost 5 months ago to the day, we shut down our training facility on campus -- abruptly ending the 2019-20 season. Not only did we miss our NCAA championship tournament, we also missed recognizing this team and last year's senior class. Unfortunately, we won't get the championship back nor will those athletes get relief from the NCAA to get that season back. However, we WILL find a date hopefully in the near future to pull together last year's team and especially those graduating seniors. It is important for us to recognize these young men. Even if it takes until next spring, we are going to make it happen.
Going forward, we have not been back in Lied Recreation Center -- our training facility -- since March 13, and as a coaching staff we have yet to conduct a team workout. Our entire team and staff will go through Covid testing on Sunday, August 23, followed by a reintegration protocol based on each individual's test status. If everything goes well, we are expecting to get back into Lied on Monday, August 31. It will be nice to train as a team again!
As I mentioned in my Cyclone RTC newsletter earlier this summer, our guys were able to train and are still training at an off-campus site near Ames. They put together a very impressive 7-week stretch from mid-June until late July. It was an optional training opportunity but it was very well attended and I think each and every one of our incoming freshmen made it in for the majority of those workouts.
A special shout out to all of those who made it possible for our student athletes to train this summer.
Moving forward, we have some catching up to do from a technical standpoint and we will get to work on that starting in September. At this point, we will not start our 2020-21 competition season until Jan. 1. That is the plan today, and we hope it holds true. So this year will be a much shorter season, as the NCAA championships will still take place in St. Louis during the third weekend of March as usual.
We will be working to put together a schedule for January and February that will include mostly conference dual meets. We will not host any opens. We do not know what crowd capacity will be yet at our home matches in Hilton. The next month and the outcome of the football season will steer a lot of those decisions. I can tell you from my desk, I would take a January to late March season in a heartbeat right now considering all we have endured. Fingers crossed.
USA Wrestling is planning to host the U23 Freestyle National Championships in late October. So if that stays on the calendar, we will send many of our athletes to that event. It is tentatively scheduled to take place in the Cleveland, OH area. Besides that, I plan on scheduling some intrasquad events on campus. I have always liked a big roster and this year is no exception. A big roster will allow us the opportunity to put on singlets to face multiple teammates in intrasquad matches during November and December. I think it is important to give guys a real feel before we move into our short season.
Off-campus recruiting and bringing recruits on campus for official visits also ceased in March and we are still in that dead period -- tentatively until Sept 30, 2020. I anticipate that date getting extended so stay tuned. Despite that, we got three great verbal commitments from the rising senior class. We will sign them in November, along with what we believe will be some additional exciting new Cyclones.
IN closing, I will be sure to update you often this semester. I am guessing things will continue to change weekly and I want to keep this great fan base in the LOOP!
Click HERE for a link to our current team roster, and note that we might add one or two more yet this semester. Like I said, I like a big roster and the ability to give our guys a lot of different styles and training partners, especially in times like these when we are not allowed to compete out of our wrestling room.
Thanks for your support and Go Cyclones.
Coach Dresser
It is hard to believe that almost 5 months ago to the day, we shut down our training facility on campus -- abruptly ending the 2019-20 season. Not only did we miss our NCAA championship tournament, we also missed recognizing this team and last year's senior class. Unfortunately, we won't get the championship back nor will those athletes get relief from the NCAA to get that season back. However, we WILL find a date hopefully in the near future to pull together last year's team and especially those graduating seniors. It is important for us to recognize these young men. Even if it takes until next spring, we are going to make it happen.
Going forward, we have not been back in Lied Recreation Center -- our training facility -- since March 13, and as a coaching staff we have yet to conduct a team workout. Our entire team and staff will go through Covid testing on Sunday, August 23, followed by a reintegration protocol based on each individual's test status. If everything goes well, we are expecting to get back into Lied on Monday, August 31. It will be nice to train as a team again!
As I mentioned in my Cyclone RTC newsletter earlier this summer, our guys were able to train and are still training at an off-campus site near Ames. They put together a very impressive 7-week stretch from mid-June until late July. It was an optional training opportunity but it was very well attended and I think each and every one of our incoming freshmen made it in for the majority of those workouts.
A special shout out to all of those who made it possible for our student athletes to train this summer.
Moving forward, we have some catching up to do from a technical standpoint and we will get to work on that starting in September. At this point, we will not start our 2020-21 competition season until Jan. 1. That is the plan today, and we hope it holds true. So this year will be a much shorter season, as the NCAA championships will still take place in St. Louis during the third weekend of March as usual.
We will be working to put together a schedule for January and February that will include mostly conference dual meets. We will not host any opens. We do not know what crowd capacity will be yet at our home matches in Hilton. The next month and the outcome of the football season will steer a lot of those decisions. I can tell you from my desk, I would take a January to late March season in a heartbeat right now considering all we have endured. Fingers crossed.
USA Wrestling is planning to host the U23 Freestyle National Championships in late October. So if that stays on the calendar, we will send many of our athletes to that event. It is tentatively scheduled to take place in the Cleveland, OH area. Besides that, I plan on scheduling some intrasquad events on campus. I have always liked a big roster and this year is no exception. A big roster will allow us the opportunity to put on singlets to face multiple teammates in intrasquad matches during November and December. I think it is important to give guys a real feel before we move into our short season.
Off-campus recruiting and bringing recruits on campus for official visits also ceased in March and we are still in that dead period -- tentatively until Sept 30, 2020. I anticipate that date getting extended so stay tuned. Despite that, we got three great verbal commitments from the rising senior class. We will sign them in November, along with what we believe will be some additional exciting new Cyclones.
IN closing, I will be sure to update you often this semester. I am guessing things will continue to change weekly and I want to keep this great fan base in the LOOP!
Click HERE for a link to our current team roster, and note that we might add one or two more yet this semester. Like I said, I like a big roster and the ability to give our guys a lot of different styles and training partners, especially in times like these when we are not allowed to compete out of our wrestling room.
Thanks for your support and Go Cyclones.
Coach Dresser
