crosstownrivals Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 I don't know what is going on but a lot of the South Bend schools are forfeiting a bunch of weight classes. I read in the paper that Washington and St. Joe combined had NINE forfeits in 14 weight classes. I know Riley is forfeiting 103-119. Whats the deal coaches? What a bad showing for the NIC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockies62 Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 Even with those forfeits Riley is still 12-4 just saying.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikev Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 Ask Brad Harper at Penn how to avoid this. I beleive he will say start a kids program, run it with enthusiasm, staff it with good coaches and parents who work hard to keep kids interested, and most of all, be a class act. Parents and kids will flock to you because they enjoy it and have fun. These kids will then turn into high schoolers who still want to be a part of what he has made a local dynasty. I truly feel that about any school can get to a similar point if you have a coach who not only cares about his high school team, but also the young kids. Not everyone has the amount of kids Harper does for sure, but I can assure every school has kids who could wrestle that aren't. Alot of them because they didn't get exposed to it till 7th grade, and in some cases, 9th grade. Gotta start them young and keep them interested. Not saying that it's an easy thing to do, but it is doable if you recruit people to help out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kullerySBR Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 Riley just had some overweight kids & some injuries, they will be back on track! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pin2win1 Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 mikev, don't ask harper yet, his elementary kids have yet to even make it out of JR high because harper has not been there that long. lets see how those kids do in a couple years, and how many stay around. My guess, is that they will be great, and they will stay around. But hey, let's not jump the gun just yet. Now, Snyder probably has half the kids that penn has, and has been running the same program that Harper has been running, but for many more years than harper. The only difference is that Penn's enrollment is about twice as big as Mishawaka's so Penn's program looks more impressive. But I would be willing to say percentage wise they are the same when it comes to getting th wrestlers out. That being said, i think the SB schools put alot more emphasis in other sports than wrestling. Riley during this time is a swimming school that has had some wrestling success at times, Clay and Washington are more Basketball schools, Adams, not so sure what they are. But SB St. Joe has never in my memory had a good wrestling team, and I don't think they have ever filled a full line up in my lifetime. I guess unlike the other sports, they don't have the money to recruit when it comes to wrestling ;-) So i am not surprised that they have numerous forfeits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFlatt Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 Riley wrestled 14 tonight against Adams tonight- a 58-18 victory for Riley, A kid's program is a difficult task in South Bend for several reasons- the student mobilty rate is over 40%- the kids don't stay in one place- they constantly move around. Also, the coaches don't know where the athletes will go to school with all the magnet programs, Early College, etc. no one want to put in a lot of effort training someone else's athletes. It's a difficult place to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pin2win1 Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 Good point, bflatt, south bend schools are at a disadvantage when it comes to sports like wrestling. I would guess the only possible way to have a kids program would be to have a joint program with all the schools, but that would be really interesting with coaches trying to persuade the students to go to a certain hs later on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFlatt Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 Adams had 14 too!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbarnett Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 Riley wrestled 14 tonight against Adams tonight- a 58-18 victory for Riley, A kid's program is a difficult task in South Bend for several reasons- the student mobilty rate is over 40%- the kids don't stay in one place- they constantly move around. Also, the coaches don't know where the athletes will go to school with all the magnet programs, Early College, etc. no one want to put in a lot of effort training someone else's athletes. It's a difficult place to work. Well said, and we appreciate the coaches who put in the time to make it work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikev Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 Good point, bflatt, south bend schools are at a disadvantage when it comes to sports like wrestling. I would guess the only possible way to have a kids program would be to have a joint program with all the schools, but that would be really interesting with coaches trying to persuade the students to go to a certain hs later on. a joint program for sure is the way to go......harpers penn program isn't just for penn kids......they come from all over......and they are welcomed in no matter where they are from......it isn't about just training the penn kids......it's about promoting the sport to everyone......they do it well and that is in part why they are so successful.......pin2win1, my hat goes off to the mishawaka program also.....they do it right there too and like you said, with half as many kids........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimtown 138 Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 a joint program for sure is the way to go......harpers penn program isn't just for penn kids......they come from all over......and they are welcomed in no matter where they are from......it isn't about just training the penn kids......it's about promoting the sport to everyone......they do it well and that is in part why they are so successful.......pin2win1, my hat goes off to the mishawaka program also.....they do it right there too and like you said, with half as many kids........ Memorial kids, Jimtown kids... ;D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarlHungus Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 I would say that wrestling is a bright spot for the school corporation. Riley and Clay are consistently very good to excellent. If you compare them to other urban school systems around the state, South Bend is clearly on top. Marian and St. Joe being fairly non-competitive is harder to explain but I do think there have been a lot of coaching changes at those schools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Hartman Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 The original post- What?? South Bend Schools a bad representation for the NIC?? Current records Riley 12-4 Adams 12-4 Wash 4-3 Clay 12-0. How is that a negative for the NIC. Riley and Clay have been in the state ranking on and off for years. It is hard to be on the same level as Mish and Penn, they are state contenders each year. Last year Clay placed 3rd in the Mish sectional- they defeated 5 teams that won their sectionals and beat 2 teams that were in the Team state finals including the State Runner-up. It is hard to fill full teams because of grades, discipline problems, and kids quitting because "it's too hard". Not to mention the lack of parental support for our athletes. It is hard for many of the kids to even get a ride home from a meet, or to a practice or a Saturday morning weigh-in. I am not complaining there are many schools that would love to have our numbers out for wrestling. But please don't attack the South Bend Schools as a negative for the NIC- thats not very realistic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ekocottonball Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 South Bend Schools suffer at wrestling because the city is now Gary-East. South Bend is basically a crime and drug riddled town. It has one of the worst crime indexes in the US. The only thing that is keeping SB afloat at all is Notre Dame. Look at the last names of many of the Mishawaka and Penn kids. Many of those names were on SB wrestling teams 20 years ago. Anyone with a brain and the natural instinct of human survival has got out of SB. For crying out loud, a poor woman got shot through her office window at work in downtown South Bend two days ago! Btw, I lived in SB for nearly 50 years and still reside within the SB school corp. I give the SB coaches a ton of credit... they have just the most challenging situation one can imagine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ekocottonball Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 Adams- The program has been down for quite awhile. They are showing signs of life again, which is good. Clay- Out of all the South Bend schools, Clay probably has the kids with the best home life. That does help, slightly. NOT all of them, but more than most South Bend schools. Al Hartman is a solid coach and has been making something out of nothing for a long time. Marian- I just don't know about them. They seem to have more kids out this year than the past year seasons. Former Mishawaka wrestler Adam Sandefeur coached there for a few years and worked hard to turn their program around. However, it just never happened. Mishawaka- With all the kids from Jimtown, Nappanee, South Bend and Elkhart on their team, how could they not succeed! Look, Mishawaka is still the top dog in the NIC and kids (even ones who don't live there) will gravitate towards their program until some local team knocks them down a few years in a row. And Synder is a great and very tough coach. Penn- Penn might be that local team. Harper is just amazing. His team this year is excellent. But in several years they are just going to be outrageous. Watch the little Penn kids in the future. St. Joe- They haven't fielded a full team in years. The haven't been the same since Hurley stopped coaching there about a decade ago. Riley- Flatt has several outstanding kids each year. As a team, though, they have too many line up holes to compete with Mishawaka. They do a very good job with what they have. They are probably better than most people think. Washington- Their biggest problem is lack of feeder system. Riley and Clay have a nominal feeder system (nothing like Penn or Mishawaka). It at least identifies a few stand out kids to the high school coaches. Washington does not have much organization in that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H1N1 Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 Worst thing that ever happened to South Bend wrestling was the IHSAA introduction of the super-sectional in 2003. Before that there were two local sectionals. 1- @ Mishawaka: SB Adams, SB Riley, Mish. Marian, Mishawaka, Penn 2- @ South Bend LaSalle: SB Clay, SB LaSalle, SB St. Joe, SB Washington (LaSalle HS closed several years ago.) Every year a variety of teams & kids won the SB sectional and advanced. Now with the super-sectional at Mishawaka containing 9 teams, forget it. Mishawaka & Penn grab 1st & 2nd place in almost every weightclass. That leaves 2 remaining slots for Laville, Mish. Marian, SB Adams, SB Clay, SB St. Joe, SB Riley, SB Washington to fight over. It is a recipe for exactly how to kill wrestling in South Bend. To me, this is EXACTLY why we need class wrestling in the INDIVIDUAL state tourney series, even before class wrestling comes to team state. Kids won't go out just to get pounded by large 5A schools, which results in many forfeits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awood2 Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 I am little taken back by the tone of the post! I have wrestled the South Bend schools in high school, I have refereed the matches, and I have had the pleasure of getting to know the coaches responsible for the programs. Miller, Scruggs, Hartman, and others put their heart and soul into these kids/programs. I know that scores and pictures of champions get put in the paper, but... Miller and Scruggs are class acts. These guys produce men (and women) with character. Scruggs coached the first and only girl wrestler I know of in HS in our area at LaSalle. Hartman and Scruggs both spend their summers driving kids all of the state looking for mat time. Give these guys some credit. Don't think for a second that I have forgotten Flatt. This guy goes all year long. He has run the South Bend club, he brings in the cultural exchange teams, and he works closely with the referees association in St. Joe/Elkhart counties. Scruggs, Hartman, and Flatt are all regulars at the annual coaches panel meeting for the St. Joe Officials Assoc. These guys put in as much time, give them their due respect > andrewdcm 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts