(Photo – Samantha Seaba)
It’s a taboo topic to talk about publicly in the realm of high school sports – recruiting.
Does it happen? Does it not happen? How do the rules get skirted around? Is there money involved?
These are questions that are getting asked more and more as we enter an era of high school sports in Iowa where it has never been easier to move schools without penalty, regardless if it’s public to private, private to public, private to private, and now public to public. Many transfers in Iowa have received immediate eligibility to play varsity sports thanks to an option where administrators at the departing school district and the receiving school district can sign off on a waiver allowing the student-athlete to be immediately eligible. This has led to a psuedo-free market of high sports across Iowa.
And how’s the reaction to this new freedom of movement from parents and supporters?
Poor. Really, really poor.
Throughout the last couple of wrestling seasons, I have had to deal with the fallout from said supporters when covering Clarion-Goldfield-Dows wrestling, as the program has received an influx of talent that had settled in Clarion to compete for the Cowboys, while also continuing training at Team Valley Wrestling Club. The comments on our stations Facebook page whenever we provide coverage on the program from surrounding communities have been snarky, demeaning and simply embarrassing. It’s led me to a couple of talking points/realizations:
1. This isn’t a new issue in High School Wrestling in Iowa
Athlete movement and wrestling in the state of Iowa have been synonymous with one another for over 2 decades now. Current Iowa Hawkeye 141-pounder Kale Peterson moved from West Fork High School in Sheffield to Greene County High School in Jefferson in 2021 thanks to his connection to the Sebolt Wrestling Club. Jacob and Evan Frost hail from Louisiana, but moved to the Des Moines metro before their senior seasons and competed for Dowling Catholic, and now compete at 149 pounds and 133 pounds for Iowa State. Iowa State freshman 125 pounder Christian Castillo wrestled for Ames High in 2024-25 after moving in from Arizona, with Castillo winning the 3A 126 title en route to a 43-0 season. Current Iowa Hawkeye 197-pounder Brody Sampson wrestled his freshman and sophomore year for hometown Collins-Maxwell, before transferring to Ballard High School in nearby Huxley, placing 3rd and runner-up his junior and senior seasons.
There’s also plenty of current wrestlers in high school wrestling who have switched high schools in their careers: Urijah Courter placed 3rd at 106 as a freshman at Nevada before winning a state title at West Marshall in 2025 and is currently unbeaten in 2026, is perhaps the best current example.
Along with conversations I’ve had with people who have been around the sport far longer than I have, the great programs in Iowa High School Wrestling have cherry-picked wrestlers from lesser programs in the surrounding area for a long time.
2. Open-Enrollment has never been more encouraged
This is a topic that is more politically-driven with the State of Iowa’s new voucher system. Now that individual students are funded as opposed to the school itself, this has led to an arms-race to try to grow enrollment in schools as to try and avoid losing enrollment, and in turn, lose money in the school’s yearly budgets.
Never before did I think I would see school districts across the state openly pine on social media for parents outside of their school district to consider open-enrolling their kids into their district. It’s also not region-specific, it’s anywhere from the Des Moines metro, to the CRANDIC corridor, the Cedar Valley, to the Loess Hills, Sioux City metro and the Iowa Great Lakes. Everyone is pining for growth and that makes it even easier for athletes to enroll in a school with a more established athletic culture.
3. There are some very bitter people out there
This might be the biggest takeaway for me. As I stated at the start of this column, the comments on Facebook and X about “buying wins” and “buying championships” are immature and embarrassing, especially considering the comments are coming from grown adults who understand the consequences of actions. It’s an attempt to diminish what so many of these student-athletes have worked countless hours, days and months to achieve, only to be marginalized by someone behind a keyboard who’s still bitter he couldn’t beat the guy from Clarion at the conference tournament in 1978.
I can’t speak to what all fully goes into the decision for many of these families and the athletes decision to move to Clarion-Goldfield-Dows wrestling, but here’s what I can tell you.
They’re doing this to give their kids a chance at a better future, whether it’s continuing their wrestling careers, athletic careers in general, OR taking the lessons they learn on the mat and applying them to the future. These parents did NOT do it for the money (that’s if there even is any, and I’ve yet to see evidence that there is), they did it for their kids.
What’s so evil about that?
I used to be the kid that hated any kind of school – public or private – that took advantage of getting kids to come in from a different district to compete in athletics. But then, I met parents who were in that situation…and I got it. I understood it. There’s nothing malicious or arrogant involved for many of them, they want what’s best for their kids.
Maybe I’m naive enough to believe this will reach the audience I want this to reach, but if it does, I have just a simple message for you: Think before you comment.
You don’t know what goes into the decision these families made to send their kids to a different school and play for a program they feel their kids would be more successful in. So before you go and try to diminish the accomplishments of an all-around good group of kids, use your brain and common sense before firing off that Facebook post, X post or Instagram comment from your burner account.
Hey, at least I was nice enough to consider that some of these people have a brain and/or common sense.