Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion High School Little guys playing football

Chanute Head Coach Andy Albright wrestled 140 pounds his senior year and is not very tall and he started at center on the off. line and nose tackle on the def. line for 4A State Champions Fort Scott High School in 1996

When I was Coaching at Andover, the year they won the 4A State Championship in Football, we also qualified the entire team for State and placed 3rd. I think out of the 22 postions on the Football Field, 13 were filled by wrestlers. Some of them were 126 and 132 pound wrestlers playing guard and nose tackle.

I think back to the 70's when Douglass High School won the State in Football over Hoxie. I watched that game and remember an awful lot of wrestling names from both teams.

I've always felt that the best hitters and defensive lineman were wrestlers, reguardless of size. Any Football coach who wants his players lifting weights instead wrestling is missing out on the best offseason conditioning possible. Put a good football player in the weight room and if he is not totally dedicated he will put the weights down when he is tired. Put him in the wrestling room and he will shove weight around, learn leverage and position and if he gets tired and tries to stop, someone will kick his but.

Back to the size issue. Obviously coaches want all the 200 pounders on the field, but in my years of coaching I found that the hard nosed wrestler at 140 to 160 will play like 220 and will make up for his size with what he has learned on the mats.

Great post and I agree totally, again, for me I am speaking of the 100-135 pound wrestler. I would take a 150-pound wrestler that is decent over a 175-pound football player that don't have the conditioning, balance, and knowledge of how to take someone down any day, especially on the defensive end. This raises another question. What aspects of wrestling help football players the most? I personally think it is the tackling and blocking parts. Knowing how to hit, and control is vital. It is also another way that I believe Greco for example can be of benefit.

While none of them wrestled, we have some Kansas boys that excelled in football while being small in stature. Gayle Sayers (this is a stretch because guys weren't as big back in the day), Steve Tasker (hall of fame nominee and noted as the greatest special teamer in NFL history), and Barry Sanders.

One that excelled in wrestling and football is Paola's Brian Shay (once held the NCAA record for most combined yards from scrimmage). This took some research but, his most recent playing height and weight was 5'8" 213 lbs. He was a state champ at 160 and was listed on the 1995 Wrestling USA all america team Honorable Mention. He also won a state title at 189, but I'm guessing that he was a pretty good football player at 160. This one is a stretch, but I would call him a "little guy."

I know there have been many more guys come through Kansas that mad a name for themselves in the Juco ranks. I was the radio man at Butler when Rudi Johnson ran amuck on defenses for 2 years.
He ran for 2224 yards with a 7.3 per-carry average in 1999, and gained 1603 yards with a 5.7 avg. in 1998. I was there when he was Named MVP of 1999 national JC championship game, rushing for 373 yards and scoring all 7 Butler TDs in 49-35 win over Dixie College (#1 rush defense in the nation!).

Gentleman,
Watch for the name Mitch Arnold for BC.
A very good athelete ,wrestles at 135 andwill start at cornerback. He is very good tailback,
has a chance to start on defense.

OOOOK, I'm watching for it.

if i remember rightly, Luke Zouzas was a pretty good cornerback for Salina South when he was in HS. He's obviously one of the exceptions though.

AJ Heckel from Ulysses fits into the little guy category but don't tell him that or you may be picking yourself up. he is a key part of their Football program which should contend closely for a championship, and his state level wrestling skill is already proven.

By what I remember he wrestled one year in middle school.

By reading the paper the other day it looks like Chapman's top 2 at the QB position will be Jon Arveson and Will Irvine, both good wrestlers in their own right.

Don't forget Desoto has a good football player in Neil Erisman.

speaking of sproles i believe he did wrestle in the kids club...

Mitch Arnold
6 tackles and 1 interception for BC.

Deshazer cornerback for Wichita West.

Okay...here's a better question! How many 5'8, 150 wrestlers have to shrink down from 5'11 180 on the football roster.........?

Madison King from Wamego who placed fourth at 125 his senior year also played football. He was actually team captain his senior year he had something like 5 fumble recovories, 5 or 6 blocked field goals and 2 interceptions and even got to run the ball a little.

not much of a lil guy but a wrestler, Nolan Kellerman (lawrence) Is a killer runnung back.

I heard on the radio last night that Weatherbee from TMP was their running back. Not bad for a 5ft. 4 in. wrestler. I know that TMP is not very good in football but they gave Abilene a run for their money until Weatherbee broke his leg during the game.

I just saw this on The Mat, read the article and must admit, I was impressed. Might be D3 but still impressive.

http://www.augsburg.edu/athletics/sportsnews/091305levesseur.html

Augsburg's Marcus LeVesseur named MIAC Football Player of the Week on offense

MINNEAPOLIS (9/13/05) -- Augsburg College football quarterback Marcus LeVesseur (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn./Bloomington Kennedy HS) was named Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Football Player of the Week on offense, it was announced on Monday.

In Saturday's season-opening 29-26 loss at Wartburg (Iowa), LeVesseur accounted for 378 of Augsburg's 404 yards of total offense. He moved from his starting wide receiver spot to quarterback after the first series and completed 24-of-35 passes for 242 yards, a touchdown and interception, while rushing for 136 yards on 22 carries with two touchdowns.

(rest of article at the above link)

Shelstien, my freshman year i was listed in the program at 5'5" 125 lbs...I was actually about 5'2" 95 lbs. Everybody knows football programs are exagerated. And being 5'2" 95 lbs I was almost killed while playing special teams against Onaga...or maybe Lebo...don't really remember. Anyways I got DESTROYED by a 6'2" 200 lbs MONSTER. little guys should just wrestle year round. really there is no better way to get better at wrestling than lifting and wrestling, and talking on the forums.