In collegiate sports there is a way for athletes to gain experience without competing in a limited number of games: by redshirting a year.

The concept of redshirting a year means that athletes can earn a fifth year of eligibility if they sit out a year and compete in a limited number of their team’s games, but a redshirting athlete can still participate in his or her team’s practices.

Freshman Braun Marquez, who is on track to redshirt this year, said redshirting so far this season has helped him in a lot of ways.

“It’s helped me develop my skills and stuff that I need to develop to jump from the high school level to the collegiate level,” Marquez said.

Athletes can earn a redshirt if they get injured in the beginning of the year and the injury takes them out over the rest of the season. Each sport has different guidelines on how many games of a season a person can appear in until he or she loses the ability to redshirt. In wrestling, redshirting wrestlers cannot appear in any of their team’s dual meets during the year they are planning to redshirt.

The NIU wrestling team has taken full advantage of the redshirting rule as 17 wrestlers on the roster have all sat out a year and redshirted at some point in their college career. That number does not take into account the six freshmen who are on track to redshirt during their freshman season at NIU. If those six wrestlers appear in any action before the MAC conference tournament their opportunity to redshirt may be gone.

Head coach Ryan Ludwig said there are a couple of reasons why coaches like to redshirt athletes.

“Well, typically what goes into a redshirt year is most times it’s gonna be a guy who’s a true freshman,” Ludwig said. “Who’s going to have to spend a year competing, training and developing…but when a freshman starts his career in a redshirt they [have to] maintain a competitive mindset because they could get the call-up into the varsity lineup at any time. But until that point, they have to stay hungry, keep training and developing their wrestling.”

Ludwig said there are a few things the coaching staff likes to see from wrestlers after their redshirt year.

“Well, what we like to see is them adapt to the Division I wrestling style,” Ludwig said. “The level of physicality, the level of endurance it takes to compete, and also getting matches at all the open tournament they can. We like them to get out there and compete.”

Redshirt sophomore Sam Bennett said having the year off has helped him during his career at NIU.

“It helps out a lot,” Bennett said. “The transition from high school to college is just so hard and you have to mature as a wrestler when you come in, you know? Wrestling upperclassman is tough. It really pays dividends down the line.”