‘Communication Is Key’: What Once Looked Like a 165-Pound Logjam Has Turned into Three Strong Weights for the Pokes

STILLWATER — The Cowboys this offseason brought in three transfer wrestlers who all wrestled at the same weight last season, and now they’re all in the Pokes’ lineup.

Dean Hamiti Jr, Cameron Amine and Caleb Fish were all NCAA qualifiers at 165 pounds, which made all of them picking OSU out of the transfer portal a little intriguing. But when Oklahoma State takes the mat against Virginia Tech on Thursday, all three will likely wrestle — with Fish at 157, Amine at 165 and Hamiti up at 174. What went into OSU being able to grab three guys from one weight? New coach David Taylor said communication played a big role.

“We want to have a plan always,” Taylor said. “We’re never of the approach of, ‘Hey, we’ll just figure it out, and it’ll work itself out.’ That’s the communication that gets miscommunicated and creates some issues. I think there’s always a plan. Nothing that we do is without a plan. We’re pretty thought out in those ways, and if you looked at the roster, we needed some more depth, some more competition. Once they got in, you kind of figure out where guys want to go and we communicate and they all spread out.

“Obviously now they’re all in the lineup and doing well. So I think communication is key. As a head coach, gotta communicate with your staff, you gotta communicate with the athletes — like, constantly. Any lack of communication, that would be a fault of mine.”

The initial plan going into the year was for Fish, a three-time NCAA qualifier at Michigan State, to redshirt. That would allow for Amine, a three-time All-American at Michigan, to finish out his eligibility. But Teague Travis, OSU’s starter at 157 pounds, suffered a season-ending injury in the Cowboys’ Nov. 17 dual against Oregon State. So, Fish worked his way down and made his Cowboy debut at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. Fish ended up placing third in Vegas.

“Communication was a big thing,” Fish said. “We’ve all been talking, and we all kind of knew where we were gonna go. That was a big thing. I was redshirting — I was redshirting. I pulled my redshirt to wrestle Cliff Keen. So, DJ and Cam, they were going to be at 65 and 74, and I was just excited for some good rivalry and practice partners. …

“We talked through it a little bit. Something that stuck with me was, ‘Why not get it this year?’ … I don’t like sitting and watching very much, so it wasn’t hard to pull (the redshirt).”

So far, so good for the Pokes. Fish followed his third-place finish in Vegas with a 6-0 win against Carter Schubert in the Bedlam dual. Fish comes into this week ranked 12th at the weight.

Amine, meanwhile, is up to No. 6 at 165 pounds after a tough schedule to open the year. He finished second in Vegas, falling to now-No. 3 Peyton Hall in sudden victory. Taylor’s coaching appears to be helping Amine, as he has three bonus-point victories this season, which already matches a career-high for a season.

Then there’s Hamiti, who moved up to 174 and has looked about as good as anyone in OSU’s lineup to this point. He’s ranked third nationally after winning the Cliff Keen. He’s 10-0 on the season.

So, what once was a wonder from the outside of, ‘How is this going to work?’ has quickly turned into a strong stretch of weights for the Cowboys.

“I think we kind of knew that DJ was going up (to 174),” Amine said. “I mean, I could’ve gotten bigger, but I’ve been trying to get bigger now. But just knowing DJ was going up, Caleb was supposed to redshirt at first, and then me staying at 165, communication was big. Just kind of seeing where our heads were at, Coach Taylor was. And then I’ve talked to Caleb and DJ about it and just kind of put our two cents into it, and it all worked out.”