Injuries and Being Left In the Dark

It's no secret nor is there any argument that when it comes to sports, wrestling is different than the rest.  You have football, baseball, and basketball. You have the rest, and then you have wrestling.  In many ways we pride ourselves on these differences. We have no quarrels with our contrasts.  Yet, at least in the opinion of this writer, there are some ways we could stand to be a bit more similar.

It seems in any other sport, when an athlete is injured, it is very open. It's news and it's known. We may not be given the exact injury and all of the details that go with it, but we know what we need to know. Someone is under performing or not performing at all because they are injured. We don't have to guess or assume, we know because we're told.

In wrestling unless it happens out on the mat during a dual or a tournament where we can see it, it's a big secret. We're kept in the dark.

As fans we want to know why.  We want to make sense out of why the wrestlers we follow made All American last season and this season they've got a 500 record.  It gives explanation to the questions we have.

Years ago Cassio Pero of Illinois place 3rd at the BIG 10's and  made All American as a sophomore in  2005.  He didn't do as well the next two seasons. On the surface it seemed that he simply had a good run as a sophomore. If it weren't for inside information from a teammate's mom, that'd be the answer. Come to find out, the real answer for Pero's regression was that he had suffered a neck injury that severely hampered his performance.  Yet you won't find that in any official press releases or news articles.

Maybe it's none of our business.  Coaches have there reasons for keeping the information about injuries to themselves.

Yet, it doesn't happen in other sports.  We ask questions, we get answers. And that's the difference.

I for one would like to know why B.J. Clagon made All American as a freshman, came within a second of it last year as a junior and then this year as a senior fails to qualify for nationals the first time in his career.

I'd like to know why Javier Gasca a two time NCAA qualifier with a 21-10 record as a sophomore and a 26-9 record as a junior ends his senior season 12-14. 

I can assume that both Clagon and Gasca were injured this season, but I'd rather know than assume.