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Coach_Mazurek

Gorillas
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    8
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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Carroll County
  • School
    I love the General

Coach_Mazurek's Achievements

Infant Gorilla

Infant Gorilla (1/15)

3

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  1. Bill is spot on... We always like to attend SBR FS/GR... It is a nicely run tournament which does not take up your whole day... See you in the am.
  2. Our annual enrollment for Carroll (Flora) High School is capped at ~650 students and we typically have ~500 enrollments total year over year, so we truly are a small 1A school. The wrestling program is growing and it really takes involvement by more than one individual on several levels. Our school and club programs are fortunate to have more than one coach on the staff and they are all helping promote the sport and recruit others. The Carroll Varsity Football Coach encourages the team members to wrestle and that also helps us to grow. We are very thankful that he really understands how wrestling helps the development of all football players and continually stresses the importance of participation in our program. Another key is that our Club coach took it upon himself to donate a huge amount of his time, to host several recruiting sessions for HS, MS and Club to promote our program and increase awareness. His approach to engaging students during lunches and encouraging them to try the sport has helped tremendously. In addition, he encouraged elementary school parents to consider our club program as an alternative to other after school child care options and that was absolutely huge. We now have over 35 kids in club and the program is growing daily. Coach Nieman suggested encouraging kids to attend camps and I totally agree. We are also taking our kids to the Regional Training Centers across the state and that helps as well. Take them to a college event to build team unity... Purdue had a really nice event for the youth programs this year for their dual vs. Penn State and our kids loved it. I have always been a big believer of wrestling in the off-season in ISWA/USA Wrestling Folkstyle, Freestyle and Greco events and that is another great way for kids to become involved.
  3. I have always been against the idea of class wrestling and voted that I am still against it. I really do understand why folks can be tempted toward the possibility of adapting our state to class wrestling.This subject is surely intriguing to anyone who is involved with any of the smaller school systems in the state. Classes are common to almost all IHSAA sports and it is hard not to argue with the fact that most schools with high enrollment numbers typically have the most competitive programs.Other states have class wrestling, so why not do the same in Indiana as they have over the line in Illinois, Michigan etc.?? Raised in da region, I was first coached by John Pimentel at Hammond Scott / Morton before moving on to Merrillville and was very fortunate to have been coached by the late Tom Cameron.These were really huge programs and I grew up thinking I would never feel that class wrestling should exist anywhere, let alone in Indiana. I always loved how our system was set up. At this point in my life, I have to admit, class wrestling actually started to really sound good to me as I coached our small varsity squad at Carroll (Flora) this year. For us, it was an accomplishment to have a full roster this year and begin building our foundation for a stronger program as we move forward. Growing up in wrestling programs which were among the largest in the state and now having the opportunity to be coaching at a small 1A school, has made this subject more important to me now than ever before. The bottom line is, in wrestling, if you truly desire to reach the pinnacle of the sport, you have to win against all competitors, from anywhere in the world. Wrestling in Indiana prepares you to become a champion anywhere and adapting the state to classes would diminish the amount of top quality wrestlers our state produces. I do believe the IHSWCA team state class championship has its place, is good for the sport and it would be great if it was expanded to a statewide playoff series of duals to include even more teams. That being said though, the unique legacy we have in Indiana with the IHSAA Individual State Championship Tournament series should remain unchanged forever.
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