I believe Hunter regressed his last two years. What a shame.

The coaches are on the mat every day rolling with these guys. they pick up habits based on what their coach provides to them as an opponent in practice every day. Hand fighting is a big part of wrestling today and our big guys aren't getting to practice that very much in my opinion, that wasn't something that CJH excelled at. Additionally, CJH was/is a very methodical wrestler. His style doesn't force the guys to be more aggressive and creative to attack when the wrestle him. And since there isn't very much depth in the upper weights, they aren't being pushed enough ... in my opinion. I played devil's advocate since day 1 when Haught signed the contract. Took some heat for it too which is fine. And I don't think that blame lays solely at the feet of CJH. But coaches absolutely matter in getting these guys better, especially when depth is limited and the coach is the primary source of competition.

Did he improve a bunch with different coaching or if it's just two more years helped him nearly become an AA. Two years ago when he looked pretty rough, I said it then there was no tomorrow for him at VT with Jimmy coming on strong. Now, he seemed like he might be better prepared this year. Was bummed for the Big Cat when he tweaked his knee in his last match.

Pretty much same result even a little less compared to this year RD12 2-2. He has been a model of consistency throughout his career IMO. I guess you could say it might be different had he won.

the 2 best wins of his career. Huge Catka fan (awesome family too), watched him through HS. Watched most of his matches this year - he looked better to me. Could it just have been just a change of scenery? Maybe. And yes he obviously hurt that leg in that R12 match. A bit different of a match - he did secure the first TD and had the lead only he gave up a TD w/15 secs left (unfortunately familiar) - but instead of giving up he fought hard & got an escape at the buzzer to send it to SV - giving up that TD about a min in. Felt bad for him - wanted him to win & AA. So close. ** Edited by 133966Hokie at 3/24/2026, 6:49:52 PM

Went to the Rutgers vs VT dual at Jersey Mike's and one of the Rutgers fans commented on Catka's physique as a true athletic heavy and I agreed. Little did I know..... The thread really isn't about any one opportunity or individual. I just do not see many examples of wrestlers trending up over their careers. They are the exception rather than the rule. I would not characterize this last season for Catka as a huge step forward, he admittedly did look better and had a nice run at NCAA's. The change probably did some good for him. Very few guys that do not AA get there in the last year or two. Certainly seems to be the case these days versus days of past. Thus, my suggestion that the high schoolers are coming along well before setting foot on a college mat more so than in the past. I mean McF, Carter, Mekhi, Henson, Seidel, Dance, Gaj were all good from the get go. I would like to see some examples of guys that didn't qualify or were 20+ ranked and then went on to "develop" into AA by their senior year.

Completely get your stance that they mostly come out HS ready to roll or make slight / slow improvement along the way. Kasper and Macchaivello both went through pretty big transformations to make big progress. Kasper was a middling (at best) / lanky 184 and went to work hard one year to put on muscle to become a pretty good HWT as a Jr (beat Walz at Moss match) and then took 3rd as a Sr. Macc didn't win a st title until his Sr yr in HS and had a losing record as a 174 guy before going on a two year bulk up campaign where he beat ZZ once as a Jr and then took Haught for the Natty. Flyer, I guess I'm proving your point... two rare exceptions vs lots of guys who are near AA their entire career

And thank you for the data to support. Macch's improvement is particularly impressive given his jumps in weight class. But yes, that was my main point, some cases of big jumps in development exist, but it seems there are many more that plateau and never really improve year-over-year and it seems there are a lot of guys coming out of high school blazing away and are already "developed" and ready from the get go, more noticeable recently anyway. I guess I was just wondering how much development factors in versus uber talented.

Always enjoy rolling with you on here!

Flo and Hokiesports suggest he was only on the Hokie wrestling squad his senior year and I can find no information prior to that to evaluate if that was improvement from previous years or if he just had a spectacular NCAAT that year. His W/L record that year did not suggest he would be expected to AA so 6th was a good result. ** Edited by Hokie Flyer at 3/25/2026, 7:08:03 AM

He was a fantastic story of development over his career. This is just based off memory, but from what I recall he did not even make the state tournament in high school until his senior year where I think he finished third or so. He was very athletic and you could see promise even as a freshman as he could get to the legs of just about anybody but just couldn't finish. Despite that promise, I think he only had a couple wins as a freshman and not sure he ever qualified for nationals until his senior year. And he went into NCAAs his senior year unseeded (that was before they seeded the entire bracket) and pulled off a couple huge upsets against Iowa and Penn State to make the semis before finishing sixth. Really great story.

What about Haught actually?! Probably Gus & Sal as well.

Haught was a multi AA but yes he eventually got to the finals so that is not a bad example. Gus and Sal IIRC were pretty good all the way through and then finally broke podium. So technically improved last year, but not quite the big jump. I remember Sal wrestled his ass off with the heart of a lion and we were all stunned when he did it. Decent examples for a good run last NCAA, but that was 10 years ago......my post was also about the recent times where it seems more and more freshman are making podium right out of high school. This year was insane. Across the board the incoming recruits are battle ready. Now Beans seemed to make a 5+ increase in ranking every year over his career IIRC. That is a good example of development. ** Edited by Hokie Flyer at 3/24/2026, 7:18:15 PM

The bracket also. Getting hot for one weekend with the right bracket can make all the difference. Look at Caleb Campos from American at 184. Finished 4th. Beat the 23, lost to the 7, beat the 25, beat the 15, beat the 20, MFF over the 7, lost to the 2. Best win was over the 15, but the bracket broke great for him and he took advantage of it. Does that mean American developed him better than F&M did with James Conway who had to face the 2 after being upset on the top side? Maybe. But, so much goes into being an AA that I don’t think you can judge a wrestler’s development just based on one weekend. Eddie had a bad weekend. But, 3 years ago, he and Cooper Flynn kept beating each other in the room. I didn’t see Eddie developing into a 2 seed at that point. Then he AAs twice and was the 2 seed and raised expectations. He’s not a worse wrestler because he didn’t AA. Just had a bad weekend. I thought Sasso and Gaj were over seeded after great ACC tournaments. Sonny had a tough couple of days. Gaj killed it and his bracket did him no favors. The kid absolutely crushed it. If you’d told me only one would AA, I would have put money on Sasso getting it done. My opinions about their floors and ceilings haven’t changed. Never get too high or too low (some PSU fans are already calling Blaze a bust). Could they AA next year? Absolutely. And I’ll be rooting for them to do it. But, they could also have bad weekends and that won’t make me think they haven’t developed. It is such a weird sport where almost everyone is judged on one weekend in March. I agree with you on the development aspect, but it is hard to judge when it is largely based on that weekend. Just my thoughts.

Speaking from personal experience, any development I achieved was from the competition in the room. When you wrestle against Brandon Glover, Mike Grandstaff, Bob Bowman every day you advance your skills. When I was at Tech, our coach was a great guy but more of a manager. Our big guys, need better people in the room to push them.

change drills. His heart was with the soccer team.

but in my time at VT, there was very little technique taught in the room. I don't have any memory of him or Johnny Aikens (or the assistant who replaced Johnny ... drawing a blank on his name) working directly with me ... which would have been helpful as my neutral game needed a lot of work.

Few decades off!

We have seen a massive influx in young talent as a result of what I would consider a revolution in youth coaching. It wasn’t always the case that freshman had major impacts on the collegiate wrestling landscape. It is taking a bit of time for these philosophies and techniques to fully penetrate college coaching staffs but where it does you see huge leaps year over year. IE Okie state where DJ Hamiti took a huge leap as well as Wyatt Hendrickson the season after transferring. I fully believe we have a problem at upper weight coaching.

Here’s the first problem - make a list of guys to consider. Look around on current tournaments including the ncaas. You might many of the coaches are not big dudes. I’ve got some theories on this. Big guys don’t usually stick around wrestling in the college rooms after they are done. I think it’s because most guys who are over 200 lbs aren’t usually in as good shape as the guy who weighs 160 lbs and getting tossed around by college athletes in the upper weights is brutal on a daily basis. One of my good friends wrestled 197 lbs in college (ncaa finalist in the 1990s) and he coached for a couple years after. He said it was like being in a car accident every day. So my theory is it’s a very thin talent pool and this is one of the reasons. Very few college programs maintain any dominance over the years in upper weights. If they do it’s because they have a Cael Sanderson or J Robinson in the room and those guys are unicorns who stayed in coaching after the careers. The talent pool in the upper weights is also very thin as many large athletes play football instead of going into wrestling rooms in college. So recruiting upper whgts is a needle in a haystack exercise for a lot of programs. So everyone who wants a new upper wght coach might want to make a list of candidates. That list is a lot shorter than looking for a lower wght coach. And the guys often don’t coach for a longtime as getting your ass kicked everyday by current D-1 heavies isn’t for the faint of heart.

Think outside the box, doesn't have to be a current NCAA coach (Frayer was in Med device sales if I recall and that seemed to work out) - Nick Gwiazdowski - volunteer coaching experience at cornell, retired about a year ago. - Mike Macchievello - Still competing but 31 years old. At Lehigh Valley RTC. - Jay Aiello - Ohio RTC athlete. From VA wrestled at UVA. 27 years old. Hasn't gotten close to making the national team as of late J'den Cox - Took over the Team USA Development program upon retirement about 2 years ago (U20/U17 National teams) - Hayden Zillmer - Minnesota RTC, 33/34. If he doesn't do well this year does he keep competing? - Trent Hillger - Minnesota RTC athlete, Lost to Wyatt Hendrickson, if he doesn't make the national team does he hang it up? He's doing camps on the side. - Kollin Moore - Ohio RTC Coach, believe he's done competing Moral of the story, pick a program that does better than us at HWT. Check their RTC program and find somebody who might hang it up after this freestyle season. There is a good chance they're a big reason for the success of upper weights at their current program and a salaried coaching position is financially more stable than a resident RTC position. Also, maybe the answer is simply getting a resident athlete?

Heavyweight recruits have been elite tweeners which doesn’t always translate to college. Catka and Jimmy were phenomenal high schoolers. Watch their matches. They were great. And still are. Catka completely transformed his body and got huge. But, he had to change how he wrestled as a result. He was very aggressive and offensive in high school. When his body changed, he didn’t wrestle like that anymore. Still loved him, but it definitely affected him in my opinion. Jimmy is still the same guy, but he is smaller than most of the top guys. I think he has to decide if he wants to wrestle the same way or if he wants to get bigger and be able to be as strong as the top guys. I don’t know what the right answer is. I do know that everyone was backtracking on their criticism of Haught after ACCs. Now we are back to criticizing him. The only guy I see out there that would be a home run hire would be Trent. I absolutely love him. But, his pack pride probably runs too deep to get him to Blacksburg. I think we are getting some good heavyweights in the room. I think that will make a big difference. Better partners will make a bigger difference than replacing Haught. I like him as a coach. Just my thoughts.

184, 197 & HWT all AA. Not highly ranked recruits - & Carroll up&down but was rejuvenated there after transferring-in. He was clearly ready for the NCAAT & had a solid run to AA. Of course Trent would be extraordinary.

& destroyed Hawks 17-5 - while Sasso fell apart, reverting to old bad habits & …. well never mind. On Carroll, he almost quit wrestling, transferred, withstood a couple of rough stretches during the season & had a heck of a NCAAT run to AA from the #18 seed - losing his first match & then reeling off 4 straight including a 17-8 drubbing of beloved Jimmy. Imo that is even better coaching to overcome, adapt & persevere. Oh yeah - & Neiterbach. Only losses at NCAAT was a close 6-8 to champ Max McEnelly & 0-5 to Sinclair who placed 3rd. Great coaching to get all 3 of them to AA. Incredible results! And compared to our guys… If he is a Wyoming guy - he probably stays - but your head is buried in the sand if we don’t augment CJH and adjust our HWT regimen. We’ve seen highly ranked HS recruits regress.

Evaluations on one weekend? Was he a bad coach NDI weekend? I doubt it, but Mullen beat Carroll and Sasso majored Novak (who was #4 at the time). And Bullock only lost 5-3. It sucks that Sasso and Mullen had bad weekends, but I don’t think it is fair to judge a coach off of one weekend, even if it was the most important weekend of the year. Mike Grey didn’t forget how to coach because Cornell had a horrible weekend. Just my opinion.

Some context/discussion. College wrestling is a bit “unfair” in that you are really judged on NCAAT results. AA is the goal - then Natty Champ obviously the ultimate prize. I think EV had a darn good year - just a rough weekend - actually a few bad seconds - MAMcG gifted him a point and victory to the semis & Eddie changed his escape plan & it cost him. I’ll bet EV would trade his ACC Champ this year (which is a great accomplishment) & his 2 other victories vs VRob this season for a win in the Blood Round this year vs. VRob to AA. I’ll bet he would even trade last year’s ACC Champ & victories vs VRob for VRob’s Natty last year. Do you think Jesse Mendez considers his season a success? I hope he does (I do) - but I doubt it. Not getting that 3-timer probably stings & people will remember Vega as the 141 Champ. Back to current Heavies. Do you really think Jimmy had a good year? Improving? I think Jimmy could be great & I’m pulling for him - lot has to come from within him & change - but again, we need to change something with the overall HWT regimen - including training partners & some coaching. Bolen regressed, Catka & Jimmy were both #1 HWT in their classes. Andy probably hit his ceiling. TJ… Lot of variables but don’t think you can just ignore coaching - coaching is involved in a lot of these variables. Love Haught - Great Hokie & good Coach - met him multiple times as well - his loss to MikeMach in NCAA Finals (after beating him 2/3 times that year was tough). I think it’s ok & fair to at least augment CJH/training partners & change up some things. Maybe at least consult w/some outsiders. Someone had a great post on here listing some creative thinking for some training partners/different perspectives. Sonny is a peculiar case. He looked great at the end of the year & ACCT. He changed his approach - setting up attacks vs letting guys get to his legs and looking to scramble- but he seemed to inexplicably revert back to that in most of NCAAT & it cost him imo. Good discussion - I personally feel we have a great opportunity next year - but if we go w/the status quo & approach at Heavies - we are going to fall short of our potential as a Team. I look forward to Sonny & Jimmy (& the rest of the squad) taking steps forward next season, hopefully jumping levels & becoming the best versions of themselves. Go Hokies!

The coaching and how much is on the wrestler? I don’t know the right answer. I will disagree about Bolen though. No insider knowledge, but I don’t think he regressed as much as he burnt out. I think he was ready to be done.

rotating in training partners throughout the season or every couple years really gives the team variety in training styles. If you are going against the same guys every day, then you really aren't being exposed to different styles and giving the opportunity to develop strategies or counters to styles where you might be a bad match up against. Some of our guys would do better to train against hyper aggressive guys, or really conservative guys, or goo on top/bottom guys. They say spice is the variety of life.

I don't think development is dead but you can tell by about year 2 or 3 if a guy has it or not. Trumble, Yonger, Hendrickson, Kerk, etc. are a different story so HWT may be an outlier. Year 2 seems to have a big jump over year 1 but after that we're looking at small gains that make a big difference. Not too many RS Soph's or juniors are taking the leap from NQ to AA.

Those qualities are not developed as much as innate... and they definitely aren't learned in the weight room