Eifert talks about the Cornell "Grey-Shirt" experience
This blog entry was written by 2009 Mason High School graduate Craig Eifert. Eifert, who was a 3x Division 2 state champion and Senior National All-American last spring, will be a true freshman next fall at Cornell University but is currently living and training in Ithaca, NY as he defers his enrollment to next fall.
9/16/2009
Man Seeking Woman: Hello, my name is
Craig Eifert. I’m 5’ 10” with an athletic build.
My Hobbies include sipping iced tea while
playing a lovely game of croquet and singing.
(I’ve been called the songbird of my
generation). To hear one of my songs click
here.
I’ve been living and training in Ithaca, New
York for 3 weeks now and the experience
has been great. I’d like to start by
enlightening everyone on process I’m going
through at this time. Ivy league schools,
like Cornell, don’t allow students to take an
athletic redshirt year. It has something to
do with them being academic institutions
(blah blah blah). So what I did, along with a
handful of other incoming wrestlers and
Cam Simaz a couple years ago, is defer my
enrollment to Cornell for a year, take a
couple classes at the community college
and train with the Finger Lakes Wrestling
Club. This means I have the opportunity to
train under Jordan Leen, Clint Wattenberg,
Mitch Clark, and Matt Azevedo at the
Friedman Center as long as it’s not with the
team. Technically, I’m not part of the
Cornell Wrestling Team or a Cornell student
in order for this “grey-shirt” thing to work.
Training has been going excellent so far. I feel like training with Clint (Wattenberg) and Jordan (Leen) has benefitted me so much already that I can’t wait to look back at this point next summer and laugh at how bad I am right now. They work really hard to help us make that transition into wrestling at the college level. Clint may be the most thorough person I’ve ever met when it comes to drilling and positioning on shots. Just like Osterman and Waldo said in their blogs, drilling is a lot different than in high school. It’s a lot more about quality than quantity because every tiny piece of a move has to be close to perfect. Jordan Leen has been unbelievable to work with as well. He is incredibly knowledgeable and being a taller, lanky guy himself is predisposed to being able to help me in some of my biggest problem areas. Off the mats we have been running the football stadium and up some of the massive hills all over Cornell’s campus as well as spending time in the weight room. I’m looking forward very much to wrestling in open tournaments in the coming months.
When I’m not working out you can usually find me in the kitchen or sweating and panting up the hills around campus in my bikes lowest gear at a turtle’s pace. I’ve never missed driving a car so much! Cooking all my meals for myself has been an adventure as well. The first time I prepped and cooked bbq chicken for myself I was so excited I threw my hands up in the air like ♫ “oh hot damn, this is my jam” ♫.
I have 1 part time job to bring in a little money but I still have no idea what I want to do as a career or major in at Cornell. “When I was a kid, when I was a little boy, I wanted to be a Tyrannosaurus Rex more than anything in the world. I made my arms short and I roamed the back yard and I chased the neighborhood cats. I growled and roared and everybody knew me and was afraid. Then one day my dad said ‘stop being a (expletive) dinosaur and get a job.’ (Movie-Stepbrothers)” I’m sure I’ll find something that I like almost as much as being a dinosaur soon.
If you’d like to follow Cornell Wrestling (we are expecting big things this season) you can click here and go to our website. You can see our schedule, roster and also take a tour of the Friedman Wrestling Center. It truly is one of the best training facilities in the country. I can’t wait to see my face on their wall of All Americans. If you’d like to ask me anything else my email address is craigeifert@gmail.com. I’d love to answer any of your questions and I’ll try to procrastinate less with that than I did with writing this blog. (Sorry Tony).
GO BIG RED!!!
Michigan Grappler would like to thank Craig for providing this entry to the Welcome to College Blog and wish him luck as he pursues his goals at Cornell.
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When I’m not working out you can usually find me in the kitchen or sweating and panting up the hills around campus in my bikes lowest gear at a turtle’s pace. I’ve never missed driving a car so much!
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Eifert, shown here in the state finals last year, is the 2nd big Michigan recruit in recent years to sign with Cornell and defer enrollment. The 1st was 2007 grad Cam Simaz, who was an NCAA All-American last year as a true freshman for the Big Red.
