Why Fall is the Best Time to Recruit New Wrestlers

One conversation. One meeting. One practice.

That's all it could take to recruit a new wrestler to the sport. Or to get a new family to get involved.

And this time of year offer a great opportunity for wrestlers, wrestling coaches, and parents to have those conversations or hold those meetings and practices. Encouraging newcomers to the sport helps grow the sport, creates/opens new relationships, and provides new opportunities for all involved.

"Many kids try wrestling because they are invited to a practice by a friend or by a coach," notes Mike Clayton, Manager of USA Wrestling's National Coaches Education Program.

Alan Pokorny, as the head wrestling coach at Nebraska's Bennington High School, says he is always looking for ways to get kids to come out for wrestling. Pokorny, the Nebraska USA Wrestling state chairman, is also a football coach, and he uses his connections with other football players and coaches to develop relationships and encourage football players to come out for wrestling. He starts the recruiting process at the junior high level.

"We talk about how much it helps their football skills and encourage them to give wrestling a try," Pokorny explains. "We also bring in a couple current high school wrestlers that are on the football team to tell the junior high kids about how wrestling helped them."

Wrestlers are a tight-knit group, but all wrestlers have friends outside the sport. You can use those relationships to recruit new wrestlers during the fall leading up to the wrestling season.

"Having a friend in wrestling can really help recruit other kids," Pokorny says. "Friends have similar interests and like to be together, so it’s easier to recruit friends of wrestlers."

Recruiting new wrestlers also provides a team with more than just depth, Clayton says. It often provides a link to families that are willing to help support the team at events, fundraisers, and more.

"New team members also require coaches to think about where to start the learning process for a brand new wrestler, which helps keep coaching skills sharp," Clayton adds.

Parents of wrestlers can also help recruit new families to the sport during the fall by talking with the parents and encouraging them to have their kids try the sport. Focus on the bond between wrestlers and families, the mental and physical development the sport offers, and the opportunity to be part of a team/club that is respected in the community. In fact, being involved in the community is a great way to indirectly recruit newcomers to the sport, whether it's wrestlers, parents, volunteers, or coaches.

Wrestlers and families from Bennington recently participated in a fundraiser to help build a military veterans memorial in the community. The team stays in front of the community by creating posters of the team that feature its match schedule and hanging those posters on the walls of businesses around town. Each kid in the club gets new T-shirts each year, so that by wearing those shirts around the community they bring awareness to the wrestling program. Each week, Pokorny sends high school team results, with comments, to the local newspaper.

"Our wrestling club stays involved in the community by donating to various organizations in different ways," Pokorny adds. "It's a great way to promote wrestling and recruit wrestlers by simply being involved."

One key point: when recruiting wrestlers, it’s more effective to focus on the positives of the sport rather than dismissing other sports, teams, or coaches. Even if the local basketball team or hockey team struggles, don't badmouth them to others in hopes of a kid joining wrestling.

"Young athletes and their parents seek connectedness with a like-minded community," says Dave Jacobson, a spokesperson with the non-profit Positive Coaching Alliance. "Some may be drawn to trying a new sport, others to the benefits of cross-training and still others to the sense of community they may perceive in talking with your program’s current and former athletes and their families."

If your program can convey its unique nature for athletes who may be feeling rootless or experiencing some other dissatisfaction—perhaps around playing time, rank or position on a team,or how the other sports programs are perceived in the broader community—then you have a good chance of providing them a potential “home” in terms of sports. Some ways you can convey that is through slogans, T-shirts, websites, social media, posters, bracelets, beanies, and other “swag” specifically designed to appeal to those athletes you want to attract.

"At the end of the day, though, your best advertisements are the current and former wrestlers who speak highly of your program and embody its ideals," Jacobsen says.

And of course, fall is when many current wrestlers start to train for the upcoming season. Take that preparation mindset a step further and try to recruit that friend, neighbor, classmate, teammate, or new kid or family in town, and encourage them to come out for wrestling too. It may just take one meeting, conversation or practice to make it happen.