A Shortened Season May Not Be Such A Bad Thing

 The BIG 10 recently announced that what would other wise be a 13 game season will be condensed down to an 8 game season (plus playoffs) because of Covid-19 for football.  The EIWA has already made plans to start competition on January 1st, a full two months later than the normal start date of November 3rd.  One can imagine that the other conferences in wrestling will follow in suit. 

This will accumulate to about eight to ten less duals per team & most likely will cancel all of the beginning of the season opens.  Cliff Keen Las Vegas, Reno, The Midlands & the Southern Scuffle all pushed back, thus possibly shortening the dual season even more.  This is all speculation at this point, trying to figure out how the 2020-2021 season will shape up.  

Regardless of how it is handled, one thing is for sure, the season will be shortened. 

Many are upset about this & one would figure as passionate as I am about the sport, I'd be one of them. In a way I am.  I love the sport & love following it.  November through March is an enjoyable time of the year for me.  Yet, there's also something I'm well aware of, that appeals to me about a shortened season. 

Collegiate wrestling is a grind.  We romanticize the sport as if the only thing that stands between you & what will either be ultimate success or failure is your work ethic.  Truth is there is a lot more to your success than how much you put in to it. Other factors that are equally as important that we often blatantly overlook. Health being one of them. 

If you pay attention to collegiate wrestling as closely as I do, one thing is undeniable about the NCAA tournament.  At the end of the year we are not always seeing the best eight guys per weight class on the award stand.  A lot of times what we're seeing is the healthiest.   Those among the elite who were able to avoid the knee or the elbow or the shoulder or the back injuries that kept them from wrestling at their best.   

Injuries still happened back when the season was shorter years ago & still will happen with a shortened season this year.  It won't completely obliterate them.  However, it will lessen them.  I can safely predict that 2020-2021 will see the least amount of injuries within many seasons.  

That's important because there have been way too many careers in collegiate wrestling that didn't pan out as good as they should have because of injuries.  Unfortunate, disappointing ends to careers that would have otherwise been rewarding and successful.  Wrestlers, wrestling a 1/5 as good as they should because of an injury.  

As I've watched a number of wrestlers in this predicament, I have often racked my brain as to what could be done to prevent such injuries? 

Better, smarter training? A deeper dive into Sports medicine studies?  

This no doubt will help.  

New rules & an emphasis within officiating to look for & stop more potentially dangerous positions?  

In collegiate wrestling matches, situations & positions often occur that put the elbow & knee joints in vicarious predicaments.  Shoulders & back muscles often become torqued & injured as well.  Not that I necessarily want to put even more pressure upon what is often a thankless job, but I wonder if officials could do more through a reevaluation of rules to prevent injuries.  I have no doubt of the negative backlash from fans that already feel that wrestling is restrictive enough as it is.  I am not blind to that. I simply want to think through and discuss options to keep our athletes healthy. 

Which is why I bring up the third option of a shortened season, which we will have in 2020-2021 any way.   

Is this the answer to keeping a majority of our wrestlers healthy?  

If you need examples of careers cut short or ending on a sour note do to injury, I have plenty.   I can think of fifteen off of the top of my head & I'll share four of the most notable for the end of this article. 

Troy Letters of Lehigh 

Letters took the wrestling world by storm his first three seasons of collegiate wrestling.  Winning three EIWA titles, he made the NCAA finals as a freshman, winning a title as a sophomore & finishing in third place as a junior.   By his senior year, he had severely injured his neck.  This caused him to miss a majority of the season, finish in fourth place at the EIWA's & go 1-2 at the NCAA tournament.  

Was a nearly sixth month season with 40+ matches per year to blame?  Would a shortened season have had a positive impact?  A fourth EIWA title? A second NCAA? 

Matt McDonough of Iowa 

Even though it ended on a sad note, many fans, including those who are not Hawkeye fans still concur that Matt McDonough is one of the best 125 lbs'ers of all time.  An NCAA champion as a freshman & as a junior, he finished as the NCAA runner-up in his sophomore season. 

Unfortunately a back injury got the best of him his senior year.  While he still wrestled competitively, it was more than apparent in seeing his matches that he wasn't nearly as effective as he had been in prior seasons.  The back injury severely limited his mobility & kept him from executing his normal techniques.  

While still having a respectable BIG 10 tournament, at the NCAA's the back injury caught up with him.  He lost in the quarter-finals & then in the R12 match he lost to a wrestler that he had pinned twice previously.  Had it not been for the back injury, both of those matches most likely would have resulted in victory. 

Would a shortened season have prevented that back injury for McDonough? 

Josh Kindig of Oklahoma State 

Kindig made the NCAA finals as a junior in 2014 where he lost in over-time.  As a senior in 2015, he was 13-1 when he sustained an injury that would eventually end his career.  He sat out nearly an entire month, forfeiting all matches at the BIG 12's & going 0-2 at the NCAA tournament.  

That season Drake Houdashelt of Missouri won the NCAA title. He had one loss on the entire season & that was to Kindig. 

Would a shortened season have favored Kindig? 

Mike Pucillo of Ohio State 

The former Buckeye had a great first three years of his career.  After a sixth place finish at the NCAA's as a freshman he won the NCAA title as a sophomore & finished as the NCAA runner-up as a junior.  This also included a BIG 10 title.

His senior year he suffered an injury to his hand that prevented him from using it.  At the NCAA tournament he lost two matches that he otherwise would have won.  

Can't help but wonder if a shortened season would have been beneficial. 


Are there more?  Absolutely.  Tons more examples.  Jesse Delgado of Illinois, Roger Kish of Minnesota, I could go on forever.  


And maybe a shortened season isn't the answer here.  Maybe something else is.  I provided other suggestions, maybe there are some I haven't thought of yet.  

I'd hate to think that the overall consensus is, "injuries are a part of the sport, deal with & accept it."  

I would like to think that we're above that barbaric response & that we care more about our athletes & their health. 

Not sure if a shortened season is the answer here or not, but I do think it is worth the discussion.