The NHSCA Nationals take place at the Virginia Beach Convention Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia, a venue that has 36 wrestling mats on the floor The NHSCA High School Nationals has been a major event on the wrestling calendar for a quarter-century. This weekend, the 2015 NHSCA Nationals will welcome thousands of high school mat stars in separate competitions for seniors, juniors, sophomores, freshmen and middle-school athletes. In addition to wrestling action, there are seminars for high school coaches, and a college recruiting fair.
Now in its 26th edition, the NHSCA can certainly brag about the sheer size of its High School Nationals ... as well as the quality of the participating wrestlers who have gone on to achieve greatness beyond high school. Over the years, many NHSCA High School Nationals participants have become NCAA champions and All-Americans, as well as US Olympic team members. According to the organization's website, NHSCA High School Nationals alumni comprise an average of 15 of the 20 NCAA Division I National Wrestling Championship finalists each year. On average, seven of the ten wrestlers crowned champs at each NCAA D1 championship were once NHSCA participants. At the 2014 NCAAs, for example, 55 of the 80 wrestlers who earned All-American honors competed at the NHSCA Nationals while they were in high school. Among the all-time greats who have taken to the mat at the NHSCA High School Nationals include Olympic gold medalists Jordan Burroughs, Jake Varner, Cael Sanderson and Brandon Slay, as well as NCAA champs Stephen Abas, Kyle Dake, Ed Ruth, Tommy Rowlands, Donny Pritzlaff and Steve Mocco.
Meet the creator of the NHSCA Nationals
The father of this mega-mat event is Bob Ferraro, founder and CEO of the National High School Coaches Association, which started as an organization to provide high school wrestlers with the opportunity to test themselves against the best grapplers from beyond their state borders in folkstyle competition, and now provides competitive activities and a wide range of support services to coaches and high school athletes in additional sports besides wrestling.
Bob Ferraro"Before his senior year of high school, I sought out a tournament that would prep him for college competition. I actually had to invent the tournament -- the Senior Nationals."
The birth of a major amateur wrestling event
The event, named the Senior Nationals, was created for high school seniors looking to take on same-age wrestlers from across the nation. At first, the Senior Nationals required participants to be state champs. As Ferrero described that initial event, "You could register by mail or in person -- realize this was before the Internet," according to Ferraro. "Only 55 wrestlers entered by mail, so we had no real idea of how many participants to expect. Over 200 wrestlers registered in person. Participants represented 39 states."
One aspect launched from that very first year: college coaches came to the Senior Nationals to see potential recruits in action.
Another ongoing tradition of the Senior Nationals -- seeking coach input -- was established in its second year. "We asked participating coaches for ideas to make the event better," said Ferraro. "We're still doing that, seeking changes to make it better every year. For example, we expanded the eligibility to allow state runners-up to compete. We later started allowing prep school wrestlers into the event. We also started adding divisions to what had been known as the Senior Nationals, creating the Junior Nationals, then the Sophomore Nationals, the Freshman Nationals, and now a Middle-School division."
"From this wrestling event, we launched the National High School Coaches Association," Ferraro continued. "We branched out into other sports. Right now, we include 22 sports, and communicate with 400,000 high school coaches and 60,000 administrators."
"We took the model that has worked well for us with our wrestling events, and expanded it to include other sports. We started adding services, such as insurance and certification, which coaches had requested."
"Coaches feel a sense of ownership. Our philosophy is to provide programs at little or no cost, thanks to obtaining sponsorships. We're a non-profit organization, offering programs and services that benefit coaches and schools. For example, we came up with coaches' insurance for all sports. This is unlimited liability insurance, to protect a coach, his family and his assets. Coaches had expressed a need for insurance that wasn't readily available."
The first NHSCA Senior Nationals was held at the University of Pittsburgh. Over the years, it has been held in various locations, including Cleveland for a number of years before relocating to Virginia Beach. The Atlantic Ocean resort city was chosen because it offered a huge, uninterrupted space to accommodate dozens of mats, along with a wide range of guest accommodations, attractively priced because this time of year is still considered the off-season by hotels. ("We use 22 hotels to accommodate participants," said Ferraro.)
The 2015 NHSCA Nationals will feature separate competitions for each of the divisions -- Senior, Junior, Sophomore, Freshman, and Middle School -- in one single hall at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. However, as Ferraro points out, each division competes in a self-contained space, with a set number of mats surrounded by bleachers. "When you're down on the floor, it looks intimate," said Ferraro. "Helps make the event more appealing, more spectator-friendly."
A supersized mat event ... and more
By any measure, the 2015 NHSCA Nationals will be huge, considering the number of mats (36), participants (approximately 3,400 wrestlers), and states represented (48) ... not to mention registrations from a number of foreign countries. In addition, hundreds of individuals volunteer their time and expertise to help the event run smoothly, with financial support from sponsorships also being a critical factor to the Nationals' ongoing success.
The NHSCA Nationals is more than outstanding wrestling competition for high school and middle-school athletes. Throughout the event, there will be ten different clinics, conducted by Olympic and top college wrestlers, as well as respected coaches. For the 1,200 high school wrestling coaches that attend the Nationals, there will be seminars to help them become more effective in their jobs, making the three-day tournament an educational opportunity. In addition, there will be over 200 college wrestling coaches from NCAA Division I, II and III, as well as NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) colleges in attendance. Many coaches use the event as a convenient opportunity to watch large numbers of athletes in action against top-ranked competition, and meet with wrestlers at the recruiting fair. For student-athletes, the fair provides "one-stop shopping" convenience and a low-risk, time-efficient way to gather information about schools they may be considering, and gain an opportunity to speak directly with a member of each school's wrestling coaching staff on their "wish list".
Considering the quality of the competition and the number of colleges sending coaches, the NHSCA's Bob Ferraro shared a startling statistic: "For Junior Nationals, three-fourths of the participants will be going to colleges that do not offer wrestling."
Now, in some cases, that may be because a wrestler who has participated in multiple sports in high school choses to focus on a single sport in college -- football, for example. Other prep athletes may be entering academically rigorous academic programs and schools, and have decided in advance to focus all their attention on their studies. However, according to Ferraro, many past NHSCA Nationals participants end up at colleges without wrestling because, sadly, large numbers of colleges don't offer the sport.
Creating opportunities for wrestlers beyond high school
The Temple Wrestling Club finished its first season as a club undefeated (9-0) in league dual meets"We established the Temple Wrestling Club at Temple University, a school that did not have a wrestling program," said Ferraro. "The club, which was established in November 2014, now has 52 student-members in its first year -- without any active recruiting, I might add." Thanks to the generous financial support of Phil Richards as the donor and Temple board of trustees member, the club was able to take root.
"This success at Temple will serve as a model for other schools to establish wrestling club programs," said Ferraro. "We present the idea to schools, and provide students with a letter that's a roadmap of how set up a club at their schools. Student Activity Fees at colleges help provide basic funding for various programs for students, including wrestling clubs ... Club programs are driven by the students, not administrators, making them focused on the needs of the student-athlete wrestlers. School alumni can help generate funds to establish and sustain the wrestling club, as well as assist with infrastructure and other issues."
The NHSCA Nationals -- along with this new initiative to grow college wrestling by helping students establish wrestling clubs at their schools -- are all the product of hard work by event organizers and an army of hundreds of volunteers ... and the valued input from participating coaches. "Coaches have ownership of the event," said NHSCA founder Bob Ferraro. "We try to incorporate coaches' ideas to make the event better and better each year. We'd like to think it's kind of like running a good restaurant. We listen to the customers, and use their comments and suggestions, and that results in getting good reviews -- and return participants -- year after year."
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now