<p>My friends son is a good wrestler and a good but not stellar student at a top
HS. Are there particular schools-Div 2 or 3-which are keen on recruiting wrestlers? Thanks.</p>
<p>Lots. How good a wrestler is he? He should start contacting coaches (I assume he is finishing junior year). D3 will not give athletic scholarships, but athletes may get a big boost in admissions at some places. Wrestling sites, like intermatwrestle.com, have lists of all the wrestling programs. He can look at their location, type of school, and quality of team. Narrow down the list, then go the the sites of the colleges, look at their rosters and see how the wrestlers compare to his accomplishments in high school. The higher he is above the typical wrestler in the program, the more desirable he will be to the coach. How much difference this makes varies widely from one college to the next.</p>
<p>Within each college, the importance of recruiting at his projected weight class will depend on who they have on the team and committed to come. So a college could be very interested in wrestling, like your son, but not go after him because they are already deep at his weight. Only the coach will know.</p>
<p>Something to think about. If he gets in a college largely due to wrestling, but he is a weaker student than most, it may be quite difficult to keep up academically while devoting hours each day to his sport. </p>
<p>If he is an outstanding wrestler, potential D1 level, then he will start hearing from coaches at the start of recruiting season in July.</p>
<p>Both my sons were wrestlers and, although neither one did or will wrestle in college, we did consider Muehlenberg (Allantown, PA) and Gettysburg. We know someone from our HS who is now at Gettysburg wrestling and doing quite well. He was definitely not a scholar but is holding his own.</p>
<p>IMO, for some of the D3 smaller schools, sometimes it's less about getting a stellar wrestler and more about filling out the roster.</p>
<p>I am a wrestler and got recruited by some schools to wrestle. I will be wrestling for a top academic school next year. Unless your a top wrestler who has placed in a national tournament or multiple state champion, I wouldn't be expecting to get a scholarship. There aren't many D-1 schools for wrestling and a lot of them aren't fully funded with the maximum 9.9 scholarships. There are many teams in D-III and most give out good academic scholarships or need-based fin. aid. I would tell the friend to make a list of schools that he would enjoy going to and than contact the coaches of the school.</p>
<p>I agree with VeryHappy. Of the 8 senior on my son's wrestling team, only one wrestled in college and he was most definitely not the best. He was the one who most wanted it and contacted the coaches of any school he was interested in. I don't think it helped him get in though</p>
<p>My son received letters of interest from many schools. You must have placed at least at the state level for these. I can't exactly recall the names of the smaller ones, but I'm not sure he would have needed the wrestling boost for any of them. He didn't want to wrestle in college unless he needed it to get in. The only place he would have used that "hook" for was Notre Dame, but they didn't have a wrestling team.</p>
<p>Thanks for the leads. My friend does not need a scholarship; the son would happily wrestle in college. He is not state ranked, just a very good wrestler-not the star of the team.</p>