War is the norm. Peace is anomaly.Justafan wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 4:01 pm There is some irony to this line of thought. We are all in agreement that our real strength was at the beginning and end of our lineup. We are also in agreement that the area of 165-184 was the real weakness. As to the latter, we had a 2X NJ State Champion, a 2X New York State Champion, a 2X PA State Champion and a National Prep 6,3,1,2 on the roster, not to mention a 2X PA State Champion who is no longer with the program. It seems that a lack of recruiting of highly credentialed wrestlers in those weights was not a problem. Unfortunately, there are always other factors that are beyond our control in play.
The same can be said for State Champions. For top teams, they all have State Champions, few will go onto All-American or National Champions. They are the anomalies. We are getting few anomalies in that weight class range.
The recruiting is good. The translation to performance at collegiate level is both on athlete and coaching. Why is it working for lightweights and heavy? Why not the middles? Hopefully a younger athlete like Labriola around can close that gap for any wrestlers in room or coming to room.
Again, I hit on it about US Open and now Olympic Trials. LVWC is not getting the elite athletes. I rather see them spend the money on a single athlete who can make a Finals than 6 athletes who lose in the 1st or 2nd round at US Open and Olympic Trials. Having more elite athletes takes the eco-cluster of wrestling in the Lehigh Valley to a higher level.
Interesting that Darian will be the Olympian, but representing Puerto Rico. Hopefully he does well and helps elevate the LVWC brand.
All these issues are fine tuning to the new environment of college wrestling. What it takes to be Top 10 is a hell of a lot different than what it takes to be 11-20.
No different for hospital systems. LVHN was nothing when ASH was created. Now Lehigh Valley has two hospital systems in LVHN and St. Luke's that are Top 40 caliber. The effort was put in to always be expanding and improving the medical-eco cluster of the region. DeSales bought in early and added Physician's Assistant Programs and other allied health. LVHN partnered with U of South Florida to have satellite medical school. Now Lehigh has College of Health, probably wrong format, but emerging as a woke health policy culture there, rather than clinical medical research or medical engineering whereby in 10-20 years it could emerge as a Medical School. The only missing part in Lehigh Valley is no College of Pharmacy which would have been a much better choice at Lehigh than a College of Health Population. With Lehigh's strength in biology, chemistry, biochemistry, and chemical engineering, Lehigh could have established a College of Pharmacy that would be immediately competitive and in the greater pharm-eco cluster of NJ and eastern PA. Wilkes did it way ahead of Lehigh.
The greatest hurdle is that Lehigh at top level lacks long-term strategic thinking. It hires weak Presidents with lack of vision and who are there just to collect a paycheck in a progression from Dean, Provost and then find a Presidency. The university board is weak with wrong amalgamation of membership that do little to nothing from a long-term strategic perspective of Lehigh, Lehigh Valley and the role of tertiary education and contribution of research to the greater community, nation and world.
Pat is caught dead in the middle with an AD who has stayed on too long. Lehigh as an institution continues to hold onto the residential undergraduate collegiate model. It engages in only incremental add on to show that it is doing something, but not something strategic and game changing of keeping the slide of Lehigh in academic output and reputation as a research university. Athletics Department follows the same model. Pat incrementally gets money, but as many of you point out, it will take a different mindset for a Top 10 NCAA Program. The same is true for Lehigh Lacrosse Program. It can crack Top 20, but it does not have the firepower of resources to compete for a Top 10. Lehigh football not even in the ballpark for FCS.
So hopefully we all get a little bit of what we want going forward out the university. Pat is under resourced. It is the premier program in athletics at Lehigh. Support of the administration at the top to acknowledge we will strive to be a Top 10 team in Wrestling. Add preferred special admission class and set the minimum standard to meet for an elite athlete to come to Lehigh. Raise the money for NIL. Utilize grad transfers. Just because they come does not mean they start. Everyone has to earn their spot every year. Generally, the grad transfers who have come did start because they had the mindset that if they came they would start. They made it happen and they have been very useful in past whether Peppleman, Martinez, Samuelson, Hyman, Goldstein. It used to be rare, but it is a new era in NCAA where you have to take advantage of grad transfers in any sport.
