Appreciate all this perspective

by Domer99, John Wesley Powell's Expedition Island, Friday, April 10, 2026, 07:54 (9 days ago) @ domer.mq

Matty's too but I've known some of his background already.

The athletics element has changed the equation for us, and really for me in a great way. We fell into wrestling as a sport because my son was cut from the middle school basketball team due to his size (despite the fact that he was starting over other kids on his club team).

It was a great, but extremely tough, lesson to learn early in life...things aren't fair. And it's how you respond to this adversity. The wrestling coach invited him to come to the team. His original goal was to be the starter...and wound up finishing 5th in state. He fell in love with the sport. No dads giving preferential treatment to sons. A clear link to input and performance. The most fair and equitable way to determine a roster spot. It became an obsession for him.

Fast forward to today and the topic at hand. He's a junior and is finally starting to break into national rankings (not at the top but just general recognition). So, we've started the process slowly. Focused on high academic caliber D-3 schools. We did this somewhat intentionally. Other friends went right to D-1 schools, with camps and visits, but with the portal and changing NIL there are way less spots than there used to be for high school prospects. Now those families are having to backtrack and find smaller schools that might have room.

From our POV, if we could secure some D-3 interest and he has a great summer and senior season then it's easier to move up the chain then down. ND would have been a dream school (for me) but not having a wrestling program has forced me to be way more objective about this and how we handle the process. Not sure if we are doing it the right way but he's having fun (well, not loving the increased academic rigor of junior year) and should be on track to follow his dream.