Stanford coach Chris Ayres has publicly made a plea with the wrestling community to hold back Aden Valencia and three other All-Americans from getting absorbed by the exotic price tag in the ongoing transfer portal season. This comes with just two weeks left for wrestlers weighing their final transfer moves.
The Cardinals had an exceptional season, soaring to sixth place in the NCAA D1 championships with a 7-6 overall record, alongside the big upset Aden Valencia delivered through his victory over Penn State’s Shayne Van Ness.
Amid the celebrations, the Cardinals now see themselves at a critical juncture, as many of their top wrestlers have entered the portal, where rival programs have already put forth lucrative sums, upto $200K. Taking to his social media, Ayres mentioned that being underbudgeted renders them helpless in retaining wrestlers, who, despite stellar offers, would otherwise want to stay back just for the brotherhood they share.
“They love Stanford and don’t want to go, but would be fools if they didn’t enter the portal to find out the real numbers…their market value. Of the top 10 teams, we are the only team without a transfer on our roster, and I’m guessing this could include most of the top 20. Culture matters,” he said.
He then appealed to the entire wrestling community to reach out with ideas and plans to help level up their budget game, and also welcomed suggestions that would help him get in touch with the right people.
He added that it would be unfair to judge the wrestlers wanting to enter the portal, as it’s natural for young athletes to explore the market and check what their talent is worth.
Throughout his post, Ayres highlighted that the culture at Stanford thrives on developing not just great wrestlers but also great human beings. He wrote with extreme optimism about winning several national championships if a group with the likes of Valencia and others remained at Stanford.
Aden Valencia Talks about Committing to Stanford
NCAA champion Aden Valencia, during a recent interview, spoke about staying with Stanford for the upcoming season, as a degree with the Stanford tag would open a whirlpool of opportunities that would help him grow when wrestling ages for good.
“Yeah, I’m not going anywhere; the Stanford degree is the most important thing to me, and that’s part of the reason why I came to Stanford, because I wanted a career outside wrestling and when it’s all set and done, I’ll still have a lot of other things I would wanna do and so getting that Stanford degree would really be life changing for me,” he said (3:54)
The transfer portals are underway, and universities and coaches are scrambling through the available rosters to pick the very best wrestler to represent their teams in the upcoming season. Favorable names from Stanford have already made the entry, including Tyler Knox, Hunter Garvin, and Nico Provo, all of whom got the All-American honors this past season.
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