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| Coach Jim Heffernan will be in the chat room Wednesday, Feb. 17, starting at Noon CT. |
Chat with Illinois Head Wrestling Coach Jim Heffernan as his team enters the home stretch of the season. The Illini wrap up the regular season Thursday with a home bout against Purdue before preparing for the Big Ten Tournament in Ann Arbor, Mich., the first weekend in March. Send in your questions today for Wednesday's (live at Noon CT) chat.
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| Moderator: Hey everybody, thanks for the great questions so far. Coach Heffernan is just finishing up some organizational stuff for this week's activites, so we'll get started soon. Keep the questions coming! |
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| Fred - Glen Ellyn: What was/is the thinking in reshirting Jimmy Kennedy and moving him up to 141. |
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Jim Heffernan: We decided to move jimmy up this year because 133 was a real struggle for him. Having two guys - Kennedy and Prater at 141 - we decided to redshirt Jimmy for a couple of reason, it will give him a season to grow into the weight class, and we will have bothe he and prater in the line-up next year. |
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| Jim Comfort (Watertown, NY): Jimbo,
If you need a laundry boy for the NCAA tournament I would be happy to fill the role provided you take care of transportation, lodging, and a ticket. Think about it.
-James |
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Jim Heffernan: There is nobody I know I could count on more than you James. Welcome back from Afghanistan, we are all very proud of what you do for us. I'll keep you in mind! |
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| Moderator: Sorry for the delay, we had some technical difficulties. Back to the regularly scheduled chat! |
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| Duane (Fairview Heights, IL): Will you be using Thursdays match against Purdue as a recruiting tool for IHSA wrestling finalists? Do you believe your wrestlers will be excited knowing that your program is on display to some of the best recruits in the state? Good luck against Purdue! Go Illini! |
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Jim Heffernan: Yes, we consider all our matches recruiting tools to some extent. The Big Ten does our scheduling and this just happens to be the weekend we were scheduled to wrestle Purdue. Rather than having it on Friday or Saturday night with the state tournament going on, this makes the most sense. With all the wrestling people in town it should make for a great atmosphere, which should certainly help get our guys excited. |
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| Adam (Bloomington): I heard there is a special event going on Thursday with the meet. Is attendance free for all fans? Is there anything else different happening? |
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Jim Heffernan: The dual vs. Purdue Thursday night is free admission, and the first 1,000 people get free food. It will also be senior night, so we will honor our seniors just before the start of the dual. |
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| Mike (Chicago): Who is the toughest wrestler you ever faced? |
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Jim Heffernan: That is a hard question - I have wrestled a lot of really good people through my competitive years. The toughest guy I faced was probably in college - Nate Carr or Kenny Monday. I wrestled Carr three times as a freshman. He was a senior and physically too much for me at that time. In practice, Coach Gable gave me more than a few beatings. I also had the opportunity to workout with Lee Kemp on a couple of occasions as well as David Schultz. Those are the guys I would consider the toughest. |
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| Phil (Urbana): How did you get started wrestling? Did you play any other sports? |
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Jim Heffernan: I got started in third grade because my older brother got talked into going out for the team. At the grade school we attended, our wrestling coach needed a heavyweight and my older brother was the biggest kid on the football team. Our Coach (Dale Smith) spoke to my father about getting him out for the wrestling team and explained it would be good for his football career, so my dad made him go out. My older brother told my father he wasn't going to go unless I went with him, so they dragged me to practice and that is how I got started. Prior to that day, I had never seen or heard of wrestling. I did participate in other sports - played football through my freshman year in high school and played baseball through age 16. Following my sophomore year in high school, I started to wrestle all summer, so it made it difficult to continue with any other sports. I would encourage anyone to participate in a number of sports. My feeling is that it makes you a better all-around athlete. |
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| Laura (Chicago): What are our chances at the Big Ten meet? |
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Jim Heffernan: We are about to find out! The Big Ten is always extremely competitive, but I think we will be ready to compete well. Hopefully we will qualify a lot of guys and get through injury-free. |
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| Jerry (Urbana): Coach, I saw the story on John Lockhart in the Daily Illini last week and really enjoyed it. How hard is it to find a heavyweight like Lockhart? Seems like a lot of guys with size like him end up playing football. |
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Jim Heffernan: You are correct, heavyweights with the ability of Lockhart are difficult to find. We have had pretty good success at Illinois with our heavyweights - Lockhart, Wise and Roesler all have been very competitive nationally. A lot of them do have the opportunity to play football, but sometimes you get lucky and find guys who love wrestling. |
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| Kent (St. Joe): Coach Heff, how much will you enjoy seeing all of your former wrestlers who are now coaching at this weekend's state tournament? How important is it to have a built-in network like that among high school coaches? |
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Jim Heffernan: It truly is one of the most enjoyable things for me. It is always great to see those guys and makes for a fun weekend. I also get a lot of pleasure from listening to their frustrations and watching them stress out during the tournament. That way, at least I know that they understand what they put us through when they were student-athletes! |
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| Tad (Alton): It seems like every year I read about another school dropping wrestling. Is it because the popularity of the sport is fading with kids and therefore there aren't as many collegiate wrestlers, or is this all about economics? Is the future of NCAA wrestling in doubt? |
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Jim Heffernan: The sport continues to grow at the lower levels and that is what makes it most frustrating to wrestling people. The number of opportunities has declined at the collegiate level, unfortunately. I don't think the future of college wrestling is in doubt at this point - there are entirely too many success stories. My feeling is that college wrestling, much like all the "Olympic" sports at the Division I level are what college sports are supposed to be about - people competing for the love of their sport and getting an education at the same time. |
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| Verbal Kint (Los Angeles): Since some of our key guys have been out this year, do you see them changing weight classes? |
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Jim Heffernan: Some of our key guys have been out of the line-up this year for a number of reasons, some injuries, some redshirting. At this time, Kennedy will move to 141, Prater will move up to 149 and we will have the option to redshirt him or Eric Terrazas. With B.J. Futrell returning, 125 and 133 will be filled by him and Sam White - a decision that will be made later this spring or early summer. Tony Dallago will replace Dergo and Mario Gonzalez will replace Patrick Bond. |
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| Donny Kerabatsos: Assuming our guys are healthy next year, do you think it's our time to make some noise at Nationals? |
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Jim Heffernan: I am still not looking much past this year's NCAA tournament - we could do some great things this year with Dergo, Blanton, Bond, Prater and hopefully a couple of other guys. We will be more balanced next year to be sure, but we need to be more concerned about the task at hand this year before we start getting excited about next year's group. |
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| Mike (Naperville): How different is it to now be running the whole show now? Do you find yourself still talking to Mark or do you want to etch your own personality on the team? |
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Jim Heffernan: It is significantly different but going through everything for the first time, I wouldn't expect anything else. Mark has really kept his distance from everything to this point. I have spoken with him several times, but not specifically about our guys or team. He knows our guys and understands what is going on as much as anyone, but has chosen not to become too involved. |
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| Mark (Cleveland): Do you think we can open up those lines to St. Eds again? get some of that strong Ohio talent back at Illinois? |
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Jim Heffernan: We have tried to reopen the lines to St. Ed's this year by signing Jamie Clark. We will recruit Ohio hard and try to get more guys like Mark Jayne, Kyle Ott and Sam White in our program. |
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| Cauliflower Ear: How important is it to have the IHSA state championships at Assembly Hall? I remember driving a van full of my buddies down there to watch our friend compete in the finals back in 1973! |
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Jim Heffernan: The more we can get the best kids in the state on our campus for any reason is a very positive thing. To have the best guys experience success on our campus at the Assembly Hall is even better still. That way, their memories of Champaign are positive and hopefully it will make them more comfortable with being here and in turn want to continue their college careers here. |
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| Jimmy (Palatine): How is recruiting going? How is the state of Illinois this year in terms of guys who can be elite at the NCAA level? |
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Jim Heffernan: Recruiting has started off pretty well - we still need to add to our current class and will, but I think Jamie Clark, Jackson Morse and Jed Lightfoot have made for a good start to next year's class. |
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| Moderator: That's all that Coach Heff has time for today. Be sure to say hi to him after the Illini face Purdue Thursday night at Huff Hall or at the state tournament at Assembly Hall this weekend! |
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