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Last night we went to West Washington High School for a dual with them. They are a first year program and our coached by a young man, Dennis Tankersly, that I watched wrestle his way to a semi-state birth on another "new" program in Eastern Pekin back when I coached at Scottsburg. I want to say that I was very impressed by the atmosphere he is creating there at West Washington. Prob the best wrestling enviroment we have been in so far this season. His goal is to bring excitement back to the sport and I will say my wrestlers were excited about the introductions and how the meet went down. Hats off to doing it the right way, if your interested I posted a short vid to my snapchat story last night you can watch.

I can tell you as a father it’s been a joy raising our 4 boys. From having our oldest who died from a drug overdose for over 8 minutes before the Lord did a miracle down to our youngest Graham, there is nothing that means more than knowing all 4 love and serve the Lord. When my wife Cammie and I got the news Kyle had died in an overdose the first person we called was coach Read. The first person who poured into Kyles life when we flew him from Texas back to Indiana was coach Read. Micah who is on staff as our prayer pastor who went to state with Graham last year met weekly for prayer and bible study early in the morning with coach Read. It’s awesome having coaches like Bob Read and Ryan Rust and Travis Meister that cares more about a kid off the mat than on. All us coaches have a great opportunity to build character and integrity in these young men but we need to realize it starts with our own first. Love the fact we get the opportunity to pour into lives. By the way.....I don’t know a coach that hates losing and loves winning more than ours as well. God has been really good to the wrestling family for many years here in Plymouth. Blessings

Floyd Central High School is once again doing "Rage on The Stage" This is an idea that we took from some of the college programs around the country. We will be wrestling Bloomington South in our Schools auditorium. Floyd Central has a nationally recognized theater program and they help us put on a really god show with lights and music. This Year we will be wrestling the Bloomington South Panthers!! We have State Finals veteran official Kevin Hulsman to officiate and we have also landed the State Finals announcer Kevin Whitehead to announce this event. If your are in the Southern Indiana Area you should really come check out this event. We also plan on running Facebook live. So like our page here Floyd Central Facebook Page to watch. Dec. 13th Youth/Middle School 5pm JV 6:30pm Varsity Face Offs: 7:00pm

You can add stuff here http://indianamat.com/index.php?/wrestler_accomplishments.html/ Click the magic "Add New Accomplishment" button

When I bring in the cattle prod we drill at a very high pace.

I expanded it to regional this year

I am just hoping I get a Seymour Wrestling shirt this year.

He had been wrestling 82 so I leFt him our at 70 I saw he is entered at 70 in county so that will probably change. Same with boe at 26 in my head he should be 20 but he's been at 26 all year so that's where I put him

We did this as well. We did very little conditioning outside the room.

We have used our warm-up as a time to play a game like dodgeball or play handball. It's a fun way to get the team loose, excited, and clear their minds of whatever happened at school that day when they walk into the room. We have seen that our kids are more engaged, are less stressed about wrestling, and have a better sweat going into practice than they do with your traditional wrestling warm-up from jogging around the mats and stretching that can often become monotonous. Also adds a bit of competition right off the bat, especially when there is a push-up wager involved.

Live drilling is a little different than what we consider sparring. Sparring we go about 75% and always move through positions. Live Drilling is something I picked up when Reggie Wright was one of my coaches at IU. I thought they were miserable and would always prefer wrestling live, hence why we now incorporate them. You should be finishing at match speed but instead of simply cutting your opponent the guy getting takedown has to roll over and stand up. Same guy does takedowns the entire time. We usually go :30, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00, 1:30, 1:00, :30. The intensity is often dictated by how quickly the guy getting takedown gets up. Once one guy goes it is the other guys turn. We will do it where 1 guy does the entire pyramid then the other guy or where we alternate and each guy does the time. I hope this helps. It gives the feeling and conditioning of match speed but is also way lower risk of injury.

By STEVE KRAH stvkrh905@gmail.com There’s only so much time to prepare. That is one of many lessons sophomore Graham Calhoun has learned while competing for veteran head coach Bob Read and his staff as part of the Plymouth High School wrestling program. After going 44-5 and placing seventh at the IHSAA State Finals as a freshman 138-pounder in 2016-17, Calhoun is off to a strong start to the 2017-18 season. “We don’t want to waste a second of practice,” says Read, an Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Famer and Billy Thom Award winner who has produced 33 state qualifiers. He was hired at his alma mater in 1978 as a science teacher and wrestling assistant. He took over the Rockies matmen in 1981 and has been in that post ever since. Calhoun is the most recent of Read’s 14 state meet placers and an athlete driven to improve. “Graham is the kind of kid who looks to get better,” says Reed. “If he wants to stand on the top of the podium, he’s got to get better than what he is right now. Senior Gavin Banks (Graham’s drill partner) knows the same thing.” Tim Roahrig (1987), Josh Hutchens (1993 and 1994) have won state titles with Read in their corners. Hutchens was also third in 1992. Other state placers on Read’s watch include David Shook (second in 1983), Gabe Lopez (fourth in 1983), Jason Rudd (sixth in 1992), Kyle Condon (eighth in 1994), Matt Arvesen (fifth in 1999 and second in 2000), Dan Denaut (second in 1998), Damon Howe (fifth in 2010 and second in 2011) followed by Graham Calhoun in 2017. Says Graham of his daily workouts this season with Banks, “We go pretty hard in the room. We make each other better.” Graham has gotten bigger since last season and is certified at 152. “I’ve filled out and grew a couple inches to 5-foot-9 1/2,” says Graham, who is focused this season on “trusting the process.” That means listening to his coaches as they push all Plymouth wrestlers toward constant improvement. “If it’s a Thursday or a Friday and I’m four or five pounds over, I can’t just use that practice to cut weight. I’ve got to get better.” Read, who was a state qualifier in his senior year at Plymouth (1973) and grappled four years at Western Michigan University, sees in Graham Calhoun a young man who is learning to operate with controlled intensity. “He’s a pretty even-keeled kid — win or lose,” says Read. “He doesn’t like to lose. But the last two years when he gets a chance to face someone who beat him before he usually turns the tide.” Graham did just that against Munster’s Cody Crary last season. He lost to Crary at the Plymouth Super Dual then bested him in the East Chicago Semistate “ticket” round. “He’s a competitor,” says Read. “Sometimes it’s difficult to teach that to somebody. He doesn’t fear the fact that the kid has beaten him. He absorbs that challenge. It’s fun to watch him. He can get pretty intense in the midst of a match.” Curbing his emotions is something Graham has been working on. “I’ve been working on keeping composure the mat,” says Calhoun, who carries a 3.6 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale. “That’s helped a lot. I watch these college guys and no matter what the score is, no matter what the position is they’re always composed and in-control. “In wrestling, there’s a lot to get prepared for mentally and physically. Before a match, I put headphones on and clear everything out. I stay calm. I don’t get too fired up. I want to stay ready and mentally prepared. Sometimes I find myself getting too pumped up for a match. I look to find a good balance.” Graham has been in the sport since age 4. “My dad tried to get me to quit when I first started I was so bad,” says Graham, the youngest of Jim and Cammie Calhoun’s four sons (Kyle, Josh and Micah are older). “I got pinned every time I went on the mat. But I didn’t quit and I still liked it. So Graham just stayed with it and kept getting better and did let the fact he was born with one kidney stop him. “It doesn’t really bother me,” says Graham. “I just can’t drink any dark pop or caffeine. I go for annual check-ups.” All his work helped Graham explode onto the high school wrestling scene a year ago and followed brother Micah’s lead all the way to the big stage in Indianapolis. Micah Calhoun was 43-4 and a state qualifier in 2017 as senior 160-pounder. “I’ve learned everything from him — spiritually, mentally, physically, wrestling-wise,” says Graham of Micah. The mat means a great deal to Graham. But it’s not the thing. There is his faith and his family. “Wrestling is a big part of my life, but Jesus is definitely the biggest part of my life,” says Graham. “I’m a Christian and I love Jesus with all my heart. I do everything to glorify Him.” Jim Calhoun, a Rochester native, attended Central Bible College in Missouri and wrestled for the University of Missouri, is senior pastor at Word of Truth Plymouth. Read counts Jim and Micah Calhoun as volunteers on a coaching staff that features former Bremen High School head coach and former Bremen grappler Travis Meister. “I don’t even need to be in the room, I know the kids are going hard,” says Read. “Those guys have made it easy for me. “I seek that wise counsel that the Bible talks about. I try to surround myself with those guys and it’s paid off over the years. “I wish I could tell you every decision I’ve made wrestling-wise is a correct decision and that every kid I’ve coach I’ve treated fairly and uprightly. I’ve made mistakes all over the place. But I hope that in the years that I’ve coached I’ve poured into more people in a positive way.” In his decades of coaching, Read has had wrestlers live with him and his family, which includes wife Karen, daughters Lane and Cari and son Matt, a state qualifier wrestler for Plymouth in 2003. Read’s bailed wrestlers out of jail. He’s helped them deal with divorce and the loss of loved ones. “As a coach, it’s more than wrestling,” says Read. “For me and my staff, it’s a ministry. That’s why we get along so well. “My faith is really important to me.” Read keeps a list of people who have qualities or characteristics that he seeks when he needs help in life. Using examples from the Bible, he looks for those who are like Paul (“somebody who is going to pour into you and teach you what it’s like to be the man of character”), Barnabas (“a guy who walks with people because they are in the same season in life”) and Timothy (“someone who you pour into”). His father James is one of those people on his list. “Not many men don’t have cracks some place,” says Read. “My dad is a man that doesn’t have cracks.” James Read, 89, are partners in a business — J.B. Fish. When Bob retired from the class room in 2014, he and his father started raising fish in a 14,000-gallon tank. At first, it was striped bass and now it’s tilapia. “We raise our own brood — from eggs to selling them live,” says Read. “They start out in aquariums, we move them along and they finish in larger tanks. We sell them at a pound 3/4 or bigger. It takes about 11 months to finish them out.” Read and his coaches show their wrestlers plenty of finishing moves and insist that everybody develops go-to maneuvers that they trust and can execute. “When you’ve been at the sport as long as I have what happens is you see a go-to move for a bunch of kids,” says Read. “Then they develop counters and everybody is looking for that (move). They starred to fade away from that. That sits the archives for years then — all of a sudden — it starts coming back. “I’ll say ‘this is what we did years and years ago’ and bring out some old moves.” Why is it important to have a “bag of tricks”? “Not everybody has quick feet,” says Read. “I wrestled after college in a number of big tournaments and learned that I couldn’t move my feet fast enough to sprawl. But I could change levels and bump with my hips.” It’s a matter of identifying the wrestler’s capabilities. “I have a kid who’s extremely explosive so we’re going to give him stuff he can use,” says Read. “Most of are kids aren’t so we’ve got to come in tight and control things. “Our off-season and in-season weight program is important to us. We want to be strong enough that we can compete with people. We believe that if we’re not in great shape that we’re going to struggle so we work on being in great shape. Our kids know it and they work hard at it.” Like many teams are the state, Plymouth’s number are down a little bit. “I think it has something to do with where we’re at in society and it’s sad,” says Read. “It’s a great sport and there’s so many lessons to be learned.” Graham Calhoun continues to learn those learning those lessons. View full article

It's as bad some kids walking around with a hammer "I'm assuming they are considering themselves as a hammer" .... I just thought they had to go to work after the tournament.

Indianapolis City Wrestling Championships Indianapolis Washington High School 2215 West Washington Street Indianapolis, IN 46222 Teams include: Arlington, Arsenal Tech, Bishop Chatard, Broad Ripple, Cardinal Ritter, Cathedral, Crispus Attucks, Emmerich Manual, George Washington, Northwest, Scecina, and TC Howe.

No not oversensitive. Just old school. Doesnt bother me just dont like it.

If they are upset about it then maybe they should stay off their back.

We mostly just work on our bridging.

Just let the kids wrestle. We have had 15 matches so far this year and 6 were ff and most of those teams had kids at that weight. You don't ever dodge a match. Heck you can be 0-40 going into sectionals and earn your #1 ssed for regionals and so on. You should always want to wrestle the good kids. A good example is, Tommy's freshman year he was undefeated going into the finals match at semi state. He ended up losing to Nathan Boston 1-0. He came off the mat with a big grin. His coach says," Tommy, why are you so happy, you do know that you just lost, right?" Tommy responds with, " yep and that was fun!" Let the kids go out there and have fun. It's ok to lose. These kids are learning a lot more than wrestling from this sport. Personally I would rather my kids learn that anything can happen if you just go out there and try instead of your not good enought so why bother going out there.

If you're a person that would like to see class wrestling, you're probably the same person that likes participation trophies!

Completely agree. When the tide goes out- you can see who has been skinny dipping. Im a big believer in strength of schedules in any sport. Take Linton football for example, they beat up on weak 1A teams for years but could never win semi state. They finally dropped out of their conference and beefed up their schedule. And won State, finished runner up, and this year, two of their losses were to a state champ team and a runner up team. #ironsharpensiron

We started with 17 on the first day of practice. We currently have 6. reasons- 4 are ineligible with grades and have decided to stop showing up 3 had decided to quit to get jobs. (At the present time only 1 of them has a job) 1 has been expelled 1 quit because he still has to let his arm heal from when he broke it in the spring (odd considering he played the entire football season, starting both ways, without any padding on said arm) 1 quit after the first tourney saying it wasn't for him 1 decided to tell me he didn't care if I thought him wrestling in a tourney was important, he had dinner with his girlfriend and he was meeting her family, so that mattered more to him. plus I lost my manager because she was the aforementioned girlfriend plus my assistant has mono and hasn't been cleared to help. so yeah