Coaches and old-timers agree, it's not what a wrestler does in-season that dictates his success in February and March.

Rather, it's what that wrestler does from March to November that determines his fate.

In that case, Cole Dillman, Conestoga Valley's rising junior heavyweight, has taken a giant step toward becoming the Buckskins' next great grappler.

And the most famous wrestler in the Dillman household.

Jedd Dillman, a 2008 CV grad now attending York College, was a three-year starter, two-year captain, an L-L League runner-up and two-time sectional runner-up for the Bucks.

Cole Dillman capped an outstanding offseason in July, competing at the USAW National Freestyle Tournament.

In the annual gathering, held in Fargo, on the campus of North Dakota State University, Dillman placed third in the nation in the Cadet Division (15- and 16-year-olds), earning All-America status.

Quite a coup for the 6-foot-1, 260-pounder. Cole went 4-1 in pool competition and 1-1 in round robins before defeating Doug Vollaro of Florida, 1-0, 1-3, 1-0 to take third place.

Dillman's bronze medal effort finished an offseason that saw him place fourth in MAWA Eastern Nationals (the old Middle Atlantic AAUs).

He also wrestled, as a member of the Mechanicsburg High School team, at the Disney Duals in Orlando. There he won nine of 10 bouts.

In between all of that he found time to attend Bruce Baumgartner's heavyweight camp at Edinboro University, working on quickness and improving his offense.

"There were a lot of good guys there," said Dillman, enumerating the camp's more famous clinicians.

"(Olympic Greco champion) Rulon Gardner was there, (Olympians) Steve Mocco and Kerry McCoy.''

"When you have ... some of the world's best heavyweights teaching you how to wrestle the weight class, you can't do better than that," said Dillman's high school coach, Trent Turner. "He's really learned how ... to win the close (matches)."

The journey to Fargo began with a USAW qualifying tournament at Penn Trafford High School, where Dillman earned a berth in the Pennsylvania state tournament at Shippensburg University.

Winning the state championship punched Dillman's ticket for Fargo. It also earned him an invitation to participate in the USAW Greco-Roman tourney.

The Pennsylvania teams trained three days at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown, then shipped out for Fargo in a caravan of buses.

"We drove straight through," Dillman said. "When we got there, we got off the bus and went to practice right away. We were slow, smelly, stinky."

The trip home was worse, Dillman shared, as the team loaded up and pulled out right after his bronze-medal match. He never got a chance to shower.

Dillman went 2-2 in the Greco tournament but did not place, then waded into pool competition in the freestyle tourney.

He lost to Jeremy Brazil from Illinois (Brazil's only pool-match win), then defeated Ben Lanier of Georgia, Marcus Patterson of California, Max Kenegle of Oregon and Pa. teammate John Rizzo.

Advancing to round-robins, Dillman lost to Greg Kuhar of Ohio, 0-1, 2-0, 0-3, then defeated Kabe Fluaitt of Washington, 1-0, 2-0.

While Dillman was downing Vollaro, Kuhar lost the championship match to Donny Longendyke of Minnesota.

"He was a big kid," said Dillman of the Minnesotan, who also took third in Greco. "(He) reminded me of the Russian in Rocky IV. Blond, really tall and really big!"

Really big aptly describes Dillman's upside after improving from a 7-19 freshman campaign to 24-11 and finishing second in the L-L tournament this past year.

But the season ended abruptly as a fourth-place finish in the sectional tournament cost him a trip to districts.

"That's kind of the way heavyweights go," said Turner, who saw Dillman use that as incentive.

"I think that was a little fuel to the fire. He felt, 'If I invest more time, I can get farther next year.' It's exciting to see the potential he has.

"I'm quite excited for wrestling now," said Dillman, who will bank that excitement through football season while he plays offensive guard and defensive tackle for the Bucks.

"Last summer I did a little bit," he said. "This summer I wanted to get more involved. I've improved a lot from winter till now."

He's done it at the right time.

E-mail: dbyrne@lnpnews.com