April 23: Four Points

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Rather than bore you with some mundane weather forecast and the skyrocketing price of gas here in the Central Pennsylvania metroplex (used incorrectly), I’d like to talk a bit about the Pennsylvania primary with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Actually, no I wouldn’t.

Gas: Still $3.55.
Temperature: Nice.

Darrion Caldwell definitely leaving Raleigh
One of the nation’s most exciting, if not THE most exciting, wrestlers will be shopping for a new home. Conversations with N.C. State’ stellar All-American have confirmed what several have been discussing on the message boards for a few weeks. He won’t be a member of the Wolf Pack next year. Caldwell will start shopping with or without a release. He wouldn’t go into exact details on why he was leaving N.C. State, but said he was out of there one way or the other. Football has long been the theory on why he was shopping, and Caldwell mentioned it as a factor, but not the ultimate one. Who’s on his shortlist? Rutgers, Nebraska and Ohio State.

Rutgers would provide Caldwell the most likely option to play football, since the size of the Big East doesn’t exactly measure up to the trees in the Big Ten and Big 12. Personally, I think the Big East is an overrated football conference as it is. I mean South Florida? Are you kidding me? Rutgers would give Caldwell his best shot to get to the gridiron at a program that’s had athletes do both sports, including former NCAA qualifier Ramel Meekins, who starred on the football field.

FYI, the picture’s from tech-fall.com and has been the subject of many “Caption This” threads on the various message boards around the country.

Have you bought one yet?
The gear section of Adam Frey’s web site is up and t-shirts are now being sold to help with medical costs and support for the Cornell sophomore. My column in W.I.N. Magazine this issue discussed on how Frey’s site (AdamFrey.us link is to the right as well), has provided the Pittsburgh native and Blair Academy (N.J.) alum some support and mental therapy during this trying time. Frey’s a funny kid and has kept his sense of humor throughout the entire situation.

Have you bought a shirt? They’re available in black and pink in a variety of sizes and really do go to a worthy cause. $15 bucks is more than reasonable. Buy it here.

I ordered mine today.

Another signing of note
Yesterday, we talked about the new program at CSU-Pueblo and its first recruiting class since re-instating the sport. Well today gave us another notable first … the first true signing (letter of intent) from Darton College.

Darton announced it was starting a wrestling program a year ago and for the first season (this past), the squad competed under the NCWA banner. The NCWA, or National Collegiate Wrestling Association, is a collection of wrestling clubs, non-varsity and varsity college teams that don’t compete under either the NCAA, NAIA or NJCAA. It’s an organization that has allowed wrestlers to continue competitive wrestling even if they didn’t go to a school which had a varsity program.

One thing the NCWA has also done is provide competition for teams just starting out or are in transitional phases. Newman University is in a provisional status from Division II from it’s move from the NAIA and cannot compete for a national title. So what do they do? They wrestle with the NCWA for the provisional period. Newberry College in South Carolina wrestled NCWA for its first year, getting its feet wet, before moving into full Division II status.

Darton College is a junior college and will compete with the two-year institutions under the guise of the NJCAA. All the signings from the JUCO’s come straight from the NJCAA site.

Long story short, Sam Spradlin of Georgia is the first reported signing for Darton, the only collegiate wrestling team in Georgia, as an NJCAA wrestling program. Spradlin’s pretty solid too. Georgia’s still missing a four-year program (notably Division I), but Darton’s moving things in the right direction.

Open-ended question for the wrestling fans
The NWCA All-Star Classic will be celebrating the event’s 43rd year this November. Several schools are putting together bid packages, and while that’s not exactly (well, not yet) open for publication, I can speak in hypotheticals.

So here’s a hypothetical. Where do you think the NWCA All-Star Classic should be hosted in November of 2008?

Kansas City, Mo. — with its proximity to the Big 12?
Columbus, Ohio — with a strong Ohio State team in Big 10 country?
St. Louis, Mo. — which would start and stop wrestling season in the same place?
Norfolk, Va. — which is a homer pick in every sense of the word, but it wouldn’t snow, it’s near the beach and it’s got a great arena for it (ok, enough). Oh, not to mention, I know the sound system very well.
Philadelphia, Pa. — Good wrestling area, perhaps at Penn or Drexel?

These are all just off the top of my head, but where do you want to see the All-Star this year? Respond below.

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Tags: Adam Frey, Darton College, Darrion Caldwell, All-Star Classic