***Sound the battle chords****

The 2009-2010 season is only 4-5 months away!! I, for one, am eagerly anticipating the NCAA season like never before. This season Jarrod Garnett of Virginia Tech, who earned Freshman of the Year in the ACC (ALL SPORTS) will return at 125. Additionally, Chris Diaz, who won many wrestle-back matches at NCAA's last winter (including beating Oklahoma State's Jamal Parks) will be back as a Junior (he has yet to redshirt) @ VT. A couple of seniors form '09 will be incoming freshman this fall @ WVU in Morgantown: It is very possible that both Brandon Loro & Anthony Curcio will vie for starting spots for the 'neers this fall.  2008 NJCAA (JUCO) National Champion, and former #1 ranked high schooler, Jamelle Jones will be back at Meremac ( MO) this winter to go after a second national  title. Three wrestlers from the Drexel roster have been prepping with RAW  241 for next season (Cimato, Baker, Booth). Jimmy Garrett, who has been at Rider and Del. St. will find a home this winter with Del Val (PA) as the 141 lb. hopeful. Jimmy has a resume in wrestling most could only dream of --- in high school he beat current Oklahoma starter Chris Notte several times; he beat eventual NCAA king Franklin Gomez in District finals by tech fall (when Gomez was at St. Agustine) ; he also has a win over eventual NCAA champion Jordan Burroughs of Nebraska in Region 8 finals, when Jordan was a sophomore at Winslow and Jimmy a junior at EHT.  After training consistently with RAW 241, Karim Sharif (Delaware) is preparing for his sendoff to the University of Virginia with new strategies for wrestling.  Eric Dunnet is back in full force and is anxiously awaiting his departure for Old Dominion University.  Dunnet just finished the rehabilitation phase after having surgery on a torn MCL and is in better shape than what lead him to the semi-finals of the NJ State tournament his senior year - he tore his MCL in the semis and wrestled in the finals anyway.  Michael Klosiewicz is looking forward to a fresh start after transferring out of the University of Rhode Island to Thiel College in PA - he is entering his sophomore year.

It isn't hard to see how next season at the college level won't be exciting and interesting from this side of town.

The magnatism of dreams that are set forth buy guys like Jordan Burroughs (undefeated last season and NCAA champ) & Darrion Caldwell (undefeated last season and NCAA O.W.) at NC State make 2010 nationals in Nebraska a low risk endeavor (if wrestling in March has ever been). Both wrestlers show tremendous promise for the upcoming season and ability to build onto their already stunning accolades. More importantly, both will work to develop into becoming, one day, a representative for the USA in World level competition.

Former two-time ASICS First Team member, Cody Gardner, will not return to Columbus and OSU, instead, he will be focusing on training and competing in freestyle. The weight class in freestyle is 211 as opposed to 197 for NCAA. This weight will, in my opinion, be a great way for Cody to develop skill-wise and train hard as opposed to "weight loss practices"...he will be able to hit the weights hard and train effectively. Sounds like a winner.

The two toughest conferences in college wrestling are the Big 10 (eleven teams) and Big 12 (five teams). Both conferences will be welcoming  red-shirt freshmen that we have been excited about unleashing on the college wrestling world. With the sphere of influence of guys like Caldwell and Burroughs, I suspect that Mario Mason and Alex Meade will be hoping to reach the level of those two stars of our sport. Mario will be at 149 for Minnesota and Alex will be at 157/165 for Oklahoma State. Both Alex and Mario were ASICS First teammers in HS, so anticipation of their college careers are being watched carefully. Some words of advice for these budding stars : DON'T REST ON YOUR LAURELS. I can't emphasize that enough. In order to find collegiate success (as Caldwell and Burroughs have) it will take many more days of absorbing all that they can, doing the extra things needed (e.g. functional training, nutrition) and sacrificing the life of the typical college student (who is only in school for academics - not a student/athlete) and doing what is atypical --- now is not the time to BLEND IN --- now is the time to separate yourself from the pack.