Kyle Slifka is trading in his football cleats for wrestling shoes this year.

The senior from Cresco had been torn between football and wrestling throughout his career at Iowa State, but decided to join the ISU wrestling team after spending four years on the practice squad of the ISU football team.

“It took a lot of thinking about it,” Slifka said. “The more I thought about it, I like the game of football, but I really missed wrestling and I figured I’d want to use up my last year of eligibility for NCAA’s [in wrestling].”

Slifka was a three-time state qualifier for Crestwood High School, placing third at 215 pounds in 2005 and winning the state championship at heavyweight in 2006 as a senior. He was also a two-way starter at running back and linebacker for two years on the football team, where he managed to earn all-district honors in both seasons.

His success in both sports created a whirlwind of recruiting recognition.

“It was a really hard decision whether to play football or wrestle,” Slifka said. “I went ahead with football and played that, but it was a hard decision to commit to either wrestling or football. It’s just one of those things you have to do in life  – you have to make a choice – so I went with football.”

Since making his decision to play football in college, Slifka had put wrestling on the shelf, despite his still-flickering passion for the sport.

Last year, Slifka began making visits to the ISU wrestling office, building rapport with coach Kevin Jackson and the members of his staff.

“I always knew he had a background in wrestling, I knew he was a state champion, I knew that his passion and love for wrestling probably never changed,” Jackson said.

After the NCAA Championships in Omaha, Neb., Slifka approached Jackson and expressed interest to make the transition to the wrestling team for his fifth year of athletic eligibility. Jackson was anything but reluctant to bring Slifka aboard and welcomed the heavyweight to the team almost immediately.

“He’s a big, strong guy. In a sport like this, you’re always looking for big bodies to help you train and those types of things,” Jackson said. “He’s got a goal to start on our team and to make our team and to perform on our team, so I was happy to welcome him on the team.”

Second-year football coach Paul Rhoads had been in communication with Jackson about the possibility of Slifka joining the wrestling team before the switch was made, and ultimately felt it was the right thing for Slifka to do as an athlete.

“I actually had a conversation with Kevin Jackson about that and they were needing a practice wrestler a year ago, and now it looks like he’s got a chance to maybe even compete for the heavyweight position or be the heavyweight wrestler,” Rhoads said. “I think it gives Kyle a chance to compete at the Division I level which he probably didn’t have in the sport of football.”

Slifka had already began building friendships with some of the wrestlers since he first set foot on campus, helping make his reception to the team a very positive one once the move was official.

“I got to know him and we actually had to sit next to each other in one of our classes and we were always talking about wrestling, and he loves the sport,” said senior Jon Reader. “I think we should have been doing a little more math homework, but we were talking about wrestling constantly. He’s just a great guy on and off the mat.”

For years, Reader had been trying to convince Slifka to join the wrestling team after discovering the passion they shared for the sport. Slifka’s subtle hints at making the switch made it anything but surprising to Reader when Slifka made the move official.

“He was always hinting about coming out and wrestling around or wanting to run a stadium on a Saturday or something like that,” Reader said. “I was like, ‘Man, you’ve got to come out, you’re a wrestler, you’re a competitor, you’re an athlete; come out and join the team,’ and he did.”

Slifka has experienced some key differences in the style of competition between the two sports, but doesn’t think the adjustments will be too much for him to handle.

“With football, you’re training your body to go hard for an hour and you’ve got 40 seconds between each break. Between each break you go hard for 10 seconds and you do that for a full hour. With wrestling, you just go all out for seven minutes and get it over with,” Slifka said. “So it’s a lot more higher intensity training with wrestling just because you go the whole seven minutes.”

Jackson sees potential in Slifka because of his abilities and constant improvement. He believes Slifka’s natural abilities and dedication to the sport as well as the team gives him somewhat of an advantage compared to the three other heavyweights on the team.

“He’s big, he’s strong, he’s explosive, he’s powerful, and you really want those qualities as a heavyweight,” Jackson said. “You don’t get those all the time, and for him to have those abilities could definitely give him an advantage over a couple of our other guys who might be in the room who might not possess that natural size or strength or power and speed. He’s got some natural abilities that make him good.”

However, Jackson was quick to point out that he has room for improvement, and that being able to adapt to the technical and tactical skills that Jackson and his staff are teaching would make Slifka an even better wrestler.

“He has to be able to go out and get a takedown and defend the takedown and get off the bottom,” Jackson said. “I think if he’s able to do that and he brings the right mental attitude to the match, he’s going to be someone that you don’t want to wrestle [as an opponent].”