Ah, the life of a redshirt freshman wrestler.

Bus trips to tournaments? Forget about it.

Paid hotel rooms? You wish.

An extra year of NCAA eligibility? OK, you can have that.

What about two open tournament first-place finishes in the final tournament of the year? Check that one off, too.

Ohio’s 10 redshirt freshmen competed in their final open competition of the year — the Ashland University Eagle Open — this weekend. Two of them, Matt Reedy (149-pound) and Tommy Weinkam (165-pound), walked away with a gold medal to cap a season in which they and their fellow redshirts combined for a 91-55 record.

Brushing aside any stigma associated with the term “redshirt”, both Reedy and Weinkam agreed that their future college wrestling careers have benefitted from the 2007-08 season.

“It’s a big step up from high school. You get some experience under your belt,” said Reedy, who led all redshirt freshmen with 19 wins this season.

“I’m going to be more mentally tough,” Weinkam said. “I broke down in a couple matches this year, but I don’t think I’m going to break next year.”

Despite all the talk of the future, these Bobcats managed to find some success in the here and now. Reedy defeated teammate Michael Fennell in the 149-pound championship match, and Weinkam cruised to an 8-0 decision in his championship bout to snag their spots at the top of the podium. The group accumulated three first-place finishes with Darrin Boing (141-pound) picking up the first at the Cleveland State Open in December in addition to Reedy’s and Weinkam’s victories this weekend.

The wins at Ashland felt like a fitting finish to the season, Reedy said.

“It’s satisfying to see that the work I’m putting in the (practice) room is paying off,” he said.

From the perspective of Ohio coach Joel Greenlee and the rest of the varsity squad, Greenlee said they take pride in the accomplishments of their redshirt freshmen.

“Matt Reedy didn’t do it by himself. Tommy Weinkam didn’t do it by himself,” Greenlee said. “It’s exciting for everybody.”

And it’s been a long road to get here.

Some wrestlers come into the college scene already prepared to be redshirted while others are obviously ready to perform at the varsity level. For those that come in between, Greenlee said it’s a process. He sits them down and talks not only about this season, but the future as well. For this year’s freshmen class, Greenlee said he decided to redshirt some of the newcomers knowing that it might hurt the team in the immediate future, but added that he’s more concerned with long-term success.

But not everybody was happy about it at first.

Reedy said he came to Ohio with the understanding he would be redshirted, but Weinkam said he came with intentions to start. At the beginning of the season, though, national qualifier Jake Frerichs was still in the picture at the 157-pound spot — the division Weinkam initially seemed likely to wrestle — before injuries took him out for the season. Even after that, sophomore Clay Tucker was there to take the position.

“I was ready to start, but (Greenlee) had different plans for me,” Weinkam said. “For the first half of the year, I was kind of sour and bitter about it.”

Part of Greenlee’s rationale was Weinkam’s continued growth. He wrestled at 149 pounds in high school, but had already outgrown that weight when he arrived in the fall. After wrestling the early season matches at 157 pounds, Weinkam has now moved up to the 165-pound division.

“That was probably the best thing for him,” Greenlee said. “If we would have locked him into a weight class, it probably would have hurt him.”

Even when Weinkam, who posted the best winning percentage of the redshirts with a 16-5 mark, became comfortable with his redshirt status, he still had a season of long road trips and empty wallets to look forward to.

According to NCAA regulations, wrestling redshirt freshmen cannot be accommodated by the team or university when they compete. Greenlee can give his redshirts information on available tournaments, but they have to pay their own entry fees and travel expenses. Even when the varsity team participated in the same meet, such as the Southern Scuffle in North Carolina on Dec. 29, the redshirts had to make the six-hour trip by themselves.

“It sucks,” Weinkam admitted with a laugh.

Because the coaches cannot provide an active voice on the sidelines at most of these open tournaments, the group supported one another, both instructively and emotionally, at one another’s matches. As the season progressed, Weinkam said the redshirts had developed a bond.

“It’s like we’re a part of the team, but we’re our own little team,” he said.

In the practice room, however, Reedy and Weinkam agreed that they felt like a part of the team as much as any of the varsity starters. The coaches made a conscious effort to treat all the wrestlers the same for most of the season, Greenlee said, but as the Mid-American Conference tournament approaches, their focus is starting to turn toward those who will be participating.

“It’s at the point in the season where you know who your 10 guys are,” Greenlee said. “We’ve got to start focusing on these 10 guys.”

The redshirts still have a role to play, though, as the starters prepare for the postseason.

“They push us to make them better,” Weinkam said. “And we’re getting better, too.”