Way Too Early Preseason Ranking predictions for the Midsouth USAW League:

With most of the team score contributors from last season returning, Arlington and Wave sit in the top 2 spots. Although Arlington won the midsouth championships in 2021, Wave outscored Arlington at the TNAAU Region 4 championships giving them the Preseason number 1 ranking. 

Cougars start at #3, as they have some momentum coming into this season having traveled well last season and put a lot of effort into growing this offseason. Despite having less than 10 wrestlers at TNAAU Regions last year, they scored a commanding 10 points per wrestler (Team score / total wrestlers); the highest among the top 10 teams and best in the midsouth.

Elite Wrestling Academy comes in at #4. Bartlett Panther Youth combined with Elite last season when Bartlett Schools prohibited non-school functions on school premises due to COVID. With Bartlett’s youth program restarting, it is unclear at this point who will remain with Elite and who will go back to Bartlett. 

Houston Mustangs is now Midsouth Wrestling Club; they consolidated their Folkstyle and Freestyle clubs into the midsouth club. Midsouth Edges out Collierville to make the top 5. They are losing some key contributors this season so the margin between 5 & 6 is razor thin. 

Don’t count the Dragons of Collierville out; Although they didn’t make the top 5, they have also put forth effort to grow and stabilize the turnover at the youth head coaching level they have experienced the past 2 years. We could see a new top 5 after the Midsouth opener, Mayhem in Memphis, in mid-November.