Since Christmas, we competed 4 weekends in a row. We finished weekend #4 by wrestling 4 duals. We were the only CAA team to wrestle 4 duals at the CAA duals. The other teams wrestled 2 or 3 duals respectively. I hope the guys use the 4 duals in about 7 hours to understand they can compete multiple times in one day. We wrestled the same 10 guys in each dual. Those 10 guys did something difficult to do. I hope they gain confidence, despite the losses, for having competed.
We did not compete this week. Thus, the guys got a short break from making weight. We also let them individualize their training more than normal. I felt the guys needed a mental break from hearing me and doing what they were told to do. I hope the individualized training, they choose what they did, helped them in a few areas. I hope they got refreshed mentally. I also hope they learn to take ownership in their own development. Sometimes a coaches’ prodding is a good thing, but at other times it needs to fall upon oneself. For example, it is good for the guys to self-review, self-reflect, learn to push oneself, have the knowledge to know what needs to be fixed, and have the ability to fix their own deficiencies.
Ty Knepp had 2 falls at the CAA duals. Thus, our pin total now stands at 22. We actually have more, but those occurred in Open competitions that we are not counting as official pins for the Mason Pin Club. My hope is we will add many more pins to the total. Currently, Jake Kettler leads the team with 7 pins. Despite missing 25% of the season, Ty Knepp sits in 2nd place with 5 pins. I hope the race between these two heats up as we near the end of the season.
For those of you who like social media, I hope you have found our face book page. I am somewhat challenged in this area, but I think you can find it at https://www.facebook.com/pages/George-Mason-Wrestling/294043250620551.
We also have a twitter account. We are about 200 followers shy of 1,000. Hopefully, if you are not following us on twitter, you will in the future. Our twitter can be found at https://twitter.com/GMUWrestling.
Our athletic department site is http://www.gomason.com. Our university site is http://www.gmu.edu.
I know that is lots to remember. We hope to eventually bring all of this together in one main website. We are fortunate to have some alums currently preparing an all in one website. The website is http://www.gmuwrestling.com
We will be on the road this week. We will compete at VMI on Wednesday. Although I have never been to VMI, I have heard the atmosphere is great at VMI. The VMI Cadets should be out in force. Hopefully we will hear lots of booing as opposed to cheering. Then, on Saturday, we will be at Bucknell at Noon and Franklin & Marshall at 7pm.