what high school success tranfers into badger success?

[stp]

A strong will. 

Makes the right decision on and off the mat.

[hammen]

Well then that's a team without Andrew Howe, Travis Rutt, Tyler Graff. Looks like a national champion and a some AA's in there. I know most of our staff would agree with this. Donny agreed with this - he'll take a hard worker/grinder like Andrew Howe any day over a Darrion Caldwell. I'm sure the Brands at Iowa would agree as well just based on knowing a little about them and watching how their team trains.

[billymurphy]

The scoring at the national championships is heavily weighted to the wrestlers who medal. Thus, the Graff, Kemp, Pritzlaff, and Howe type blue chip recruits are absolutely necessary if your team wants to contend for a national title. However, having a good dual meet team for the fans is important too and as Brandvold mentioned, because of the scholarship situation, you have to pick up successful in state recruits to fill out the roster.  And that is why having Brandvold on the staff is so important. Brandvold is able to recognize the top high school wrestlers in Wisconsin each year and has been successful recruiting them.  Barry has missed out on a lot of top Wisconsin recruits because he never had a guy on the staff who closely followed Wisconsin high school wrestling.  On a side note, Ben Askren also closely follows Wisconsin wrestling so he would be a great benefit to the Badgers when his MMA career ends, if that door ever opens.