Tom Ryan, head coach of the defending national champion Wrustlebucks, was kind enough to sit down with Eleven Warriors to discuss everything from recruiting blue chip athletes to the difficulties of only 9.9. scholarships.
11W: In regards to recruiting, how far in advance do you start looking to fill holes in your lineup? Do you look once a guy is going into his senior year, or do you begin the process sooner than that?
Tom Ryan: There are so many variables in the recruiting process, but we highlight difference-makers that you see around the country early on. It’s easy to see the blue chippers. Guys that win Junior Nationals, Fargo, other titles like that really stand out. Another factor is assessing the talent and what year they graduate. We also factor in character components. We look at guys that are committed and then it boils down to weight classes that are needed. Our perfect timeline goes like this: the recruit signs with us, redshirts under the current starter at that weight class, and then steps into the lineup the following year. An example of that is Nathan Tomasello. He is going to graduate from Ohio State in 2018. The class of 2017 becomes really important at that weight class. We’re going to look at a guy in that class that is in that weight class. The ideal situation is we get a 125 in the class of 2017, he’ll redshirt under Nathan. Nathan graduates and the guy will step into the lineup with a year of college wrestling experience. A whole year of training in our system will help guys deal with the rigors of the Big Ten. It doesn’t always work out that way, but that is the ideal plan.
11W: One of the steps in the recruiting process is the official visit. From Ohio State’s standpoint, what does an official visit look like?
TR: The recruit is allowed on campus for no longer than 48 hours. They will typically come in on a Friday and we will have an understanding and relationship with the recruit during our recruiting process. They’ll meet with somebody in academics. We will have a student-athlete shadowing them during their visit. They’ll have meetings with Gene Smith. They’ll sometimes have meetings with Urban Meyer. We’ll show them a typical dorm room. Sometimes they’ll attend a class. We really try to paint the picture of what being at Ohio State will be like for them. Since it’s a 48 hour visit, they’ll typically go to a football game with their family members. We’ll have a couple of meals with them over that time period and have various people at those meals that are allowed to be there. We have a meeting with anybody on campus that will be able to help them. There are so many different layers of people that fall into that category from the trainers, doctors, strength coaches, academic advisors. Really, if we feel like the person will be an important part in the student-athlete’s time here, we’ll bring them into a room to sit down with the recruit and his family. That’s kind of what a recruiting weekend would look like.
11W: In terms of the recruiting process, is that something that you handle on your own? I know that you have a few coaches on staff, so do you break it down and handle the heavyweight recruiting yourself and Jaggers handles the middleweights while Rosselli looks at lightweights?
TR: We are all involved in recruiting and finding the talent. We have an online system that we use to find the talent and then we contact their coach. From there, we send the information to J Jaggers. He’s in charge of a lot of the recruiting. He looks at their grades, test scores, and what kind of a student they are. He shares that information with us in our staff meetings and we may tweak it as a team. J is our main guy as far as recruiting. I’ll isolate maybe 15-20 guys that I’ll focus on and hone in on. Then the funnel starts to narrow because we have 9.9 scholarships over a five year period. The average number that we have each year is just two scholarships. At a place like Ohio State, you get three or four kids on that money with a few preferred walk-ons that are good students. These are the guys that can help us improve and practice and contribute however they can. We have guys that step up every year, not just the big name guys. Jaggers is mostly in charge of that aspect, but we all work together to get the job done.
11W: You mentioned being handcuffed by the low number of scholarships. Is it unheard of that someone may get a full scholarship?
TR: It’s not very often. There are a few guys that come out that we have given the full scholarship to. We help with tuition or we help with room and board. Money management is critical. If your money is mismanaged and you have a stud coming out in a weight class you need and you can’t offer a scholarship, that’s a colossal problem. You can recruit somebody, think he’s a 125 lber and find out that he’s really going to be a 141-pounder. The 9.9 scholarships makes it a team effort. It’s a tough situation, but it’s the same thing everybody else is dealing with. We’re on a level playing field with Iowa and Penn State because they only get 9.9 scholarships as well. We all have this issue.
11W: Looking further down the line, some guys opt to make a verbal commitment and some don’t. I know you can’t go into specifics, but once a guy have verballed, do you pump the breaks a little bit and let him be, or do you maintain contact?
TR: We like to maintain contact. I follow other sports, especially college basketball and college football. Those sports see a lot more of the flipping of recruits than wrestling. Very rarely do you see a guy in wrestling flip from one school to another. It does happen, but not that often. Once we are allowed to call or text a recruit, we start to build that relationship with them. Kyle Snyder, for example, committed on New Year’s Day of his junior year. We did everything within the rules to communicate with him. We want to maintain and continue to build our relationship as long as it’s within the rules.
11W: Does that hold true for guys that you’ve had your eye on and have verballed to another school?
TR: We do. That just shows some of the challenges in recruiting. Let’s say there’s a guy that we have our eye on and we want badly. If that guy is teetering a bit, but our number two guy really loves us, we’re in a bit of a bind. How long do you wait for number one? It’s proof of the saying ‘one in the hand or two in the bush.’ We don’t have a crystal ball, so it depends on us and how long we’re willing to wait for the top guy because then we could start seeing the number two, three, four guys lose interest and move on. It’s challenging.
11W: A lot of the guys you’ve brought in lately have had a great deal of freestyle wrestling experience. Is that an emphasis in your recruiting, or is it more of a coincidence?
TR: I think the people that have a strong freestyle background have more of an interest in us because of our strong freestyle program (the Ohio Regional Training Center that practices with Ohio State and is the home to former Buckeyes Reece Humphrey, Logan Stieber, JD Bergman, and other non-Buckeyes with Olympic aspirations). You look at the Jordan brothers, who don’t have a huge freestyle background. We knew they’d have great college careers because they understand wrestling. For us, when you see someone win Junior Nationals like Nathan, like Kyle, like Ke-Shawn (Hayes), you get a sense that these guys are committed to the sport and that they are willing to put their skills up against anybody at any time. That’s important for us, especially if you look at our schedule.
11W: In talking about emphasis, Ohio is one of the top high school wrestling states in the country. Do you find that, as a staff, you like to put your emphasis on the Buckeye state or do you not like to limit your focus?
TR: Last year, we won the NCAA tournament and seven out of the ten guys were from Ohio. I think there will always be a focus on Ohio because the state’s pedigree is so good and because it’s cheaper for in-state tuition. We will always have a nucleus of Ohio guys, but Kyle Snyder is from Maryland. Myles Martin, Ke-Shawn Hayes are also not from Ohio. We do a bit of cherry-picking if an out of state guy is the right guy for us.
11W: Since you only have ten spots in the lineup this may be a little bit different, but the football team has a pipeline with schools like Glenville. Is that something that you think is even a possibility in the sport of wrestling?
TR: I think so. You look at schools like St. Paris Graham, St. Ed, and Massillon Perry that have been consistently the top schools in the state. When we get guys from those schools, we hope that they have a great experience here. A lot of the top coaches try not to get too involved. They don’t want to steer a kid in one direction and if it doesn’t work, that kid may come back and say ‘well you said I should go there.’ I’ve noticed a lot of the elite coaches don’t steer that much. We’ve done well with St. Ed. Perry has sent us Nick Heflin (NCAA runner-up and 3 time All-American) and now Jose (Rodriguez). We’ve gotten a lot of the guys we wanted from Graham. It is challenging to monopolize because of the number of programs in the area and the number of programs that come into the state to get Ohio guys. It’s hard to convince a guy to walk on here when another school is offering a scholarship, but some do. Guys like Ryan Harris. Ryan was a four time state placer and two time state champ. We signed him to a really small scholarship when he had other big offers. He chose to be a Buckeye. He is really going to be a contributor to our team.
11W: With high school wrestling season about to start, are you able to discuss some of the guys you’re recruiting?
TR: I can mention them, but that’s about it. I can’t say anything about their talent or their style of wrestling (because of NCAA regulations).
We are absolutely looking at Mark Hall (5 time state champion from powerhouse Apple Valley, Minnesota and the No. 1 recruit in the country). We are looking at Luke Pletcher (Pletcher, who has given Ohio State a verbal commitment, is a two time Pennsylvania state champion and three time finalist for Latrobe HS). We really have our eye on those guys, and some others as well.
