If you count prep work, JT#1 ran from July 11th of 2024 through April 14th of 2025, for the 2024-2025 collegiate wrestling season. I don't want to think of all the hours I put in to this season, cause if I do, it may discourage me from doing it again.
Physically I attended 15 events this year.
8 DI
1 DII
3 DIII
2 NAIA/1 NJCAA
1 Women's
Wanted to attend more, but work is not easy to get off & the good ol' winter weather kept me from about 3 other events. A family emergency from another.
I wrote 228 articles this year.
74 DI (33%)
45 DII (20%)
49 DIII (21%)
29 NAIA (13%)
NJCAA (7%)
OTHER (6%)
Not as evenly distributed as I wanted to be, but considering that many other publications are usually between 90% to 99% DI, I don't feel that bad.
Readership wise, I seem to be stuck on an average of 25,000 readers per month. I think that's where I'm at and where I'm going to stay. December was my best month this season, at 31,668 readers. Would I like to have a lot more? Sure. I'd love to be pulling in 100,000 readers a month or even 50,000 readers a month. Yet, honestly I'm pretty happy with the average of 25K. I'm a one man show that operates on a budget that can't afford a shoe-string.
For right now I'm going to take a much needed break from wrestling. I don't know anyone who is more passionate about this sport than I am, but even I need to get away from it for a while. Going to increase my gym time. I got my bench press up to 405 lbs, but also ballooned up to 242 lbs to accomplish that goal. I'm at about 230 lbs now & hope by Fall to be down to something like 210 or so. Maybe even a solid 200. Who knows? I know that in losing weight, I don't want to lose too much strength. Right now I can still go in and do three sets of 315, 3 to 5 times. I want to maintain at least that much strength. (When I was at 242 & consuming 300 grams of protein a day, I was doing 315 8-11 times.)
Going to be watching a lot of college baseball the next couple of months. While not near as fixated with baseball as I am with wrestling, it is my second favorite sport and I enjoy it a lot.
AS TO NEXT SEASON?
My life at the current time is pending. There are a lot of things that could happen & depending on what happens, my life could go in a lot of directions. Things could stay the same. They could also go in a direction that causes me to have even less from time than what I do now. This year, I was mainly only able to attend wrestling events on the weekends. A lot of my prep work and writing happened on the weekends. I'd do what I could before & after my shoot job.
There's a chance that things could go in a direction that gives me more free time. If that's the case, I hope to increase the number of live events I go to by at least double. The only thing I know for sure that I'm going to right now in '25-'26, will be the NCAA DIII championships in Cedar Rapids.
I've invested in a new computer, I've been exploring doing more video & youtube, maybe even my own podcast. I don't think JT#1 is going to grow with only the written word. I think if I want JT#1 to ever get bigger than the 25,000 readers I have per month, I'm going to have to start getting more visuals.
I've talked with Coach Bettinson of St. Ambrose, Coach Kearney of St Mary & Aiden Reeves of Grand View. I want to see if I can't figure out the whole computer to computer interview thing. I also have an actual video camera, that if time permits I'd like to put into use next year.
As always, thanks for being a fan. I originally started out writing this stuff & keeping it to myself. Then Dan McCool of the Des Moines Register said that others might be interested in what I had to say too. I figured being a nobody from itty bitty Sigourney, Iowa, who would? Never did get around to buying that dinner I owed McCool on that bet, but I'm glad he won it.
Thanks again.
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