awood1

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. The coaches you mentioned had mentors / coaches before them that heavily impacted who they are and how they behave today. I still coach youth sports today and hate losing with a passion. But at the end of the day, the wins and championships aren't WHY I do it. I've done it long enough now to know that the biggest reward has nothing to do with competitive events but life skills. Nothing in my life makes me prouder than looking at the young men today that I was blessed to coach as kids and realizing any positive impact that I had in "who" they are today. Seeing them as coaches, teachers, sons, husbands, fathers and community members brings a sense of pride that is immeasurable. I'm glad that I've lived long enough to see it come full circle. It has brought a sense of perspective and a respect for the mentors and coaches that impacted my life that I wouldn't have thought possible had I not lived it.

My kids are well versed in what is acceptable language and what is appropriate where. They were also taught that you shouldn't ignore unacceptable behavior simply because "everybody's doing it" or it is awkward to correct. The post your original response was directed to described the broadcast as "definitely not kid friendly". Only ignorance would believe that HS kids don't curse BUT it is a reasonable expectation by any responsible adult that any kid can understand the context of being broadcast across the world wide web and considering that ANYONE could be listening. A simple reminder should be all that's neccessary to correct the situation. Pretending that everyone that may be listening to a HS wrestling match should be accepting of foul language as part of it is ignoring the problem and failing the kids in question. If you let it go as "just what kids do", then you have no expectation of anything better out of them. It may not be comfortable, but I think the kids deserve to be told when they're f'in up. *Even this forum has *corrective measures" for inappropriate language....for a reason.

Nice strawman argument, but I'd rather stay on topic. When I'm standing behind your kid in line at concessions, with pre-schoolers or grandparents, and he/she is dropping f bombs. Don't be shocked when I do your job of parenting for you.

There's some solid parenting. Just don't be a snowflake when someone takes the role of raising your kids and tells them to watch their language and shut their pinhole later when they're talking like a truck driver in public

HAHA after 3 decades of ref bashing, awood2 jumps in and steals my thunder!! All those years of hanging over the rail telling refs that everything from their eyesight to their hairline was fading, but none as fast their officiating skills! Awood2 makes a simple observation that kids (dare I say athletes) deserve a certain level of consistency and BAM!! Pandemonium ensues and the topic goes viral!! I had to cut dreadlocks mat side to butt hurt as many people! Tubcutter would be proud.

...and this doesn't help. What is posted above is a snippet of an article that mentions the "racial" incident. What is left out is that this incident happened at an "event" after a tournament where a group of officials had assembled. The ref in question apparently put a finger in the chest of a black ref and used a "racially insensitive" term to which the black referee responded to with whooping his arse. Of course this all gets reported and BOTH parties were sentenced to 1 year suspensions, of which both were overturned on appeal. Does any of this sound vaguely familiar to anyone? Co-workers involved in an after hours function involving alcohol, testosterone and poor judgement making bad decisions? Anyone? Am I the only one for which this describes most of my nighttime existence through my 20's? (Thank God my 20's were before cell phones!) So the guy may very well be a bag-o-hammers. Maybe hes not the fella you want holding the whistle in a championship bout. But it appears that he knows the rules and were enforcing them (albeit the timing is in question). It's just WAY to simplistic though to "fill in the blanks" on the details in such a way that makes this a racial issue between the official and the wrestler. IMHO I have found that the absolute best way to handle questions re: the rules is to A.) Know them and B.) Abide by them. IF the coach and/or (in my opinion to a lesser degree) wrestler would have know the rules and abided by them, this most likely would never have been an issue. Interesting side note: The original report / tweet posted to Twitter by SNJ Today News sports director Mike Frankel was followed by the description of "Epitome of a team player" and went on to celebrate the wrestlers commitment and his subsequent victory in OT to help his team win. Soon after, the twitter-verse made it a racial issue to the point that the reporter had to issue a formal public apology for not "framing" the "incident" as a racial issue and admonishing the referee for his actions (aka. enforcing the rules). I seldom by in to the over arching conspiracy theories that the "media" is purposely creating news intended to draw a racial wedge between us all. But in this case it is obvious that what was originally reported as a celebration of an athletes perceived sacrifice for his team has since been manufactured in to a racially motivated hate crime. And as for the "dumb" rule itself, you may be right! In a sport desperate to stay relevant on a national and global stage, fussing over hair styles may need to be looked at differently but I certainly wouldn't want the change to come as a knee jerk reaction to accusations of racism. The NFL ruled that dreads (see Edgerrin James) that extended out of the helmet would be regarded as part of the equipment and as such could be USED in the act of making a tackle. Is wrestling prepared to respond when the racial overtones start rolling in from kids being taken down by the dreads (or their mullets!). I thought the initial post was spot on in bringing the issue forward for discussion in hopes of ever repeating it!

10 years? C'mon now, I remember bitchin' about having to take my 2yr old out of Conseco when it was -2deg outside between sessions.....that 2 year old turns 26 this year!?!

Thanks fellas for the assistance! Exactly what I was hoping for! I think I'll stick around for awhile and re-familiarize myself with the IN wrestling landscape, this time as an old-timer, former parent, has been, never was! It will take awhile to get back up to speed with the names but it may be worth a trip to MSA? Conseco? Whatever the F they're calling it these days, some March to see some good wrestling!

No, seriously!! It's been awhile and I can't recall the guys name but there used to be a ref in da 'region that was doing research on islet cells at Northwestern. Any of you old dudes know who I'm talking about? Can you help me out with a name?

Not sure of the attendance #'s at either but Chase Akers from North Posey in '93 was pretty small (grown since then). I know at the time that he was the 1st athlete to make it to a state tournament for the school in any sport.

As a numbers geek, I like to see what the raw data tells me, without regard for extenuating factors, first. Start with the "all things equal" data and see what it tells us. So in the data below, I compared each states population with # of NCAA entries and arrived at a ratio. So if a State A contained 5% of the overall US population, it would be reasonable to expect that they would comprise 5% of the entries to the NCAA tnmt (about 16-17guys). This would be reflected in a ratio # of "1". If State A had 10% of the entries, the ratio would be "2" If State A had 2.5% of the entries, the ratio would be ".5" State B is a much smaller state and represents only .25% of the overall US population, it would be reasonable to expect that they would comprise .25% of the entries to the NCAA tnmt. (about 1 guy) This would be reflected in a ratio # of "1". If State B had .5% of the entries, the ratio would be "2" If State B had .125% of the entries, the ratio would be ".5" The table is sorted by the ratio number. It seems useful as a starting point because if a state like CA has 13 qualifiers and a state like SD has 4, it's easy to say WOOHOO CA has more, so it MUST be better! When you consider the populations though, you can see that basically the probability of a kid in SD being an NCAA qualifier is about 14x's greater (4.66 vs. .33) As a state that comprises 11.91% of the overall population, to achieve a 1.0 ratio CA should represent 39 of the 330 NCAA entries. [table] Abbrv % of US NCAA entries % of NCAA field Ratio PA 4.06% 63 19.09% 4.70 IA 0.97% 15 4.55% 4.69 SD 0.26% 4 1.21% 4.66 ND 0.21% 2 0.61% 2.89 NJ 2.81% 24 7.27% 2.59 OH 3.69% 30 9.09% 2.46 MT 0.32% 2 0.61% 1.89 MN 1.70% 10 3.03% 1.78 OK 1.20% 7 2.12% 1.77 CO 1.61% 9 2.73% 1.69 WY 0.18% 1 0.30% 1.68 MO 1.91% 10 3.03% 1.59 IL 4.10% 21 6.36% 1.55 MI 3.16% 16 4.85% 1.53 WI 1.82% 9 2.73% 1.50 HI 0.43% 2 0.61% 1.41 VA 2.56% 11 3.33% 1.30 ID 0.51% 2 0.61% 1.19 DE 0.29% 1 0.30% 1.04 UT 0.88% 3 0.91% 1.03 WV 0.59% 2 0.61% 1.03 IN 2.07% 7 2.12% 1.02 MD 1.85% 6 1.82% 0.98 NY 6.19% 20 6.06% 0.98 OR 1.22% 3 0.91% 0.75 KS 0.91% 2 0.61% 0.67 WA 2.15% 4 1.21% 0.56 CT 1.14% 2 0.61% 0.53 NE 0.58% 1 0.30% 0.52 NC 3.05% 5 1.52% 0.50 GA 3.10% 4 1.21% 0.39 NV 0.86% 1 0.30% 0.35 CA 11.91% 13 3.94% 0.33 FL 6.01% 6 1.82% 0.30 MA 2.09% 2 0.61% 0.29 SC 1.48% 1 0.30% 0.20 AL 1.53% 1 0.30% 0.20 TX 8.04% 4 1.21% 0.15 AK 0.23% 0 0.00% 0.00 AR 0.93% 0 0.00% 0.00 AZ 2.04% 0 0.00% 0.00 KY 1.39% 0 0.00% 0.00 LA 1.45% 0 0.00% 0.00 ME 0.42% 0 0.00% 0.00 MS 0.95% 0 0.00% 0.00 NH 0.42% 0 0.00% 0.00 NM 0.66% 0 0.00% 0.00 RI 0.34% 0 0.00% 0.00 TN 2.03% 0 0.00% 0.00 VT 0.20% 0 0.00% 0.00 [/table]

The majority of the music in Roadhouse was from Jeff Healey. An excellent guitar player with a particular handicap. Name the handicap?

Parent or student, coach or wrestler, official or table help, you will always find someone that disagrees with you whatever the topic. Simple answer is, only one person has control over how they act after winning a state championship and I leave that totally up to them. As long as they are not directly belittling their opponent (which I don't ever recall seeing) then I am all for it. I can feel for the kid that "loses it" and celebrates like a whack-job as it tells me that they are truly excited about the win and are realizing the benefit of, for many, a life's work. There won't be many other life events that rival winning a state championship. The first time you become a father some dudes sit in the chair and wait for the kid. I ran down the halls, crying like a baby, cheering like a school girl, and handing out cigars. Hell I remember Pat Day getting ***potty mouth*** for hugging his opponent!? Some people wake up with urine on their corn flakes and your never going to make them happy. ???

And a toothbrush a teethbrush?

It's easy to feel like you are getting the short end of the stick when your last. Assuming they still draw for starting weight at duals in IN? Saw something new last week at Divisions here though. It's a 16 man bracket, 2 day tnmt. (necessary as they have full wrestle backs w/ the 5 match limit). So on day 2 they wrestled all of the consolation matches on 4 mats. Then for the finals they used 2 mats, starting at the top on 1, the bottom on the other. So 1st matches were 106 on Mat 1, HVYs on Mat2, 112s on Mat 1, 220's on Mat2 and so on. There was some grumbling about the championships should have everyone's full attention but as it played out there was seldom "action" on both mats. A few occasions where wrestlers from the same school were on both mats, but by in large it kept the energy of the gym "up" most of the time. When there was blood time or coaches talking at the table people weren't sitting on their hands trying to stay awake. Wouldn't want to see it in a State Finals, but think it's a good idea for most other tnmts.

Hey fellas, I get on and read once in awhile and follow the progress through the state tnmt., but I have purposely kept my pie hole shut over recent years as I am no longer an IN resident and simply a fan from afar. Since relocating to CA I have been involved in wrestling as a parent, fan and cheap labor official at MS meets. None of which qualifies me for more than a free Gatorade at the snack bar. I still carry a tremendous respect for IN HS wrestling and a new appreciation for what you have that others don't. Don't get me wrong, some things are better in CA, some are worse and some are just different. I know as an IN resident I was involved in numerous discussions about other states and what they did differant, often times relating to "success" or performance at national meets. The best I can tell after experiencing IN and CA is that the simplest answer is probably the correct one, it's a numbers game. I struggled to comprehend it before experiencing it, but CA is HUGE! 1 in every 8 US citizens lives in CA....let that sink in. That means that even if all things were equal random numbers would put at least 1 CA kid on the podium at every national tournament! Don't get me wrong, there are good programs, coaches, etc. throughout the state but as best as I can tell they are the result of the same things that make great programs in IN. Great coaches, strong youth programs, community support and a few dozen kids willing to work their asses off. Anyway, to the question! I know there used to be an "ask the official" forum, but I don't see it now so I will ask it here. Does anyone have access to or can point me in the direction of the process for an official to qualify for state? A simple link to the written procedures would be great. Obviously this is a topic of discussion for a reason. As it stands in CA, as kids advance through the state tnmt. series, it is left to the site to hire the officials. No qualifications other than being on the schools speed dial and being available. It's not a problem in most places, but again the state is HUGE and it only takes one or 2 bad apples to make it a major topic. I know that previously (I am assuming still?) that there was a procedure of 2 sectionals to qualify for a regional, 2 regionals to qualify for a Semi-state, etc. along with some grading formula along the way. Thanks in advance for any assistance. We are still 2 weeks out from the state finals here and it's the only time that anyone says "I am excited to go to Bakersfield!!" (inside joke, if you've been there you know what I mean). :

It most certainly IS like the battered wife syndrome! Would coaches be so inclined to default IF they had wrestle backs? Would they be forced to find loopholes if the idiotic travel rules were not in place? Is there a better solution than having Varsity individuals at risk during the concurrent dual tnmt? ANY relationship is based on compromise. When one side ignores the other, it becomes and adversarial relationship. In that case, the one that hits the hardest appears to "win". The IHSAA has ALWAYS felt comfortable as an adversary to wrestling and shows no desire to have any other form of relationship. Again, you are making excuses for their loooong history of ignoring anything that wrestling has ever done to establish a healthy, working relationship of compromise that would actually promote the sport and offer opportunities for kids. The IHSAA's only advancements have been $ driven and ignored the wishes of the coaches and athletes.

This is the mentality of battered wifes that say, "IF I cleaned the house better, and folded his laundry right, and didn't nag him so much about being unemployed...MAYBE he will stop beating me!" B.S. The IHSAA and their cronies could care less and to "play nice" to them would be to fold up the tent and go away. F'em...that's my two cents. ;D

AMEN!!

You are correct and I apologize more not being clear(er) on the first post. (fat fingers, tiny keyboard, slow typing = minimal clarity). The point in mentioning lacrosse is to point out that they (as girls in wrestling have done) was focused on doing what they could within the world they live in. People whining about what the IHSAA does or doesn't do or allow is the easy way out. Stop cursing the darkness and turn on a light! When people draw the "boys can't play volleyball and that's not fair" I want to puke. As soon as a guy insists on fair and equal opportunities to play volleyball, I am right behind him! Where would this discussion be now if no girls were wrestling, but the board was full of girls whining about the fact that there was no girls wrestling? Sad part is that in this case it is the female wrestlers that "manned up" and forced the issue for what they want....an opportunity to wrestle. http://www.maxpreps.com/m/article.aspx?articleid=80163fdd-76c7-4a7e-9bc9-243b6f93aca5

As the kids say STFUB ROFLMFAO

Good redirect back to the original question...good or bad? A few posts earlier coverage in the Indy Star was questioned. From my POV, every kid that circled the mats on Friday night is to be admired and celebrated. They all have done work and made sacrifices that few of their peers can comprehend. The fact that only 1 appeared in the newspaper is a shame but the real question is, "How many photographs from Friday night appeared in the Indy Star previously?" My take would be that if it was less than 12, it's good for wrestling. Hoping next year it's 30 photos covering 50 kids? (yup, I am greedy and want wrestling to grow). :-)

There it is, the ignorance that ignores reality. She IS one of the top athletes <120lbs regardless of gender. I am not ignoring any other sport. Show me the state qualifiers in any athletic endeavor that are <120lbs. It's obvious that there are none in football and basketball and you will be hard pressed to find any golfers, swimmers, track athletes that are that size. If you put every athlete in IN <120lbs in a room how could she NOT be considered one of the best?

Sorry the written word is difficult for you to decipher. I will try to keep it simple. For you to keep insisting that I called a weight "weak" makes it obvious that reading comprehension never was a strength for you. 79-10 is the record of an outstanding athlete. (<--that's a PERIOD!!) How's that?

Reading comprehension..SMH. I said, don't give me that lame "not at my school" (or IHSAA sanctioned). If boy's have a sincere desire to compete at Volleyball, find a way and stop whining. Go sign up for girls volleyball and softball and force the issue until you are satisfied. That's what female wrestlers have done? As I pointed out, lacrosse continues to thrive without support of most schools and the IHSAA. Your right, fair is fair and I would support any boy that pushed the issue with volleyball. Softball is a differant story. Despite the desperate attempts to call men's softball competetive, any man playing softball started by playing baseball and settled for the watered down recreational opportinity softball offered after their dream of making it to the big leagues died.