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By JEREMY HINES Thehines7@gmail.com Most wrestling stories don’t begin like K.J. Roudebush’s did. Then again, most wrestlers aren’t wired quite like the three-sport star from Tipton, either. Roudebush got into wrestling as a punishment, and because a household lamp was broken. “It’s really a funny story,” the Tipton senior said. “I was in fifth grade and my oldest brother was in college so my middle brother and I were downstairs wrestling around. Right when dad got home from work we were still wrestling and my brother and I had gotten mad at each other and one of my mom’s lamps got broken. My dad wasn’t happy. He said if we wanted to continue wrestling at home, we were going to join the wrestling team. I went to the wrestling team and I just fell in love with it.” Roudebush is currently ranked No. 10 in the state at 195 pounds. He lost in the ticket round last year at the New Castle semistate to current No. 1-ranked junior Silas Allred of Shenandoah. Roudebush doesn’t make excuses for that loss. “Silas is something special,” he said. “I went out on the mat and he just dominated me. I couldn’t do anything. I wasn’t tired or anything, he was just better than me.” This season Roudebush wants to go one step further than he did last year. He wants to advance to the state tournament. For Roudebush, wrestling is a part-time gig. Unlike most highly ranked Indiana wrestlers, Roudebush doesn’t wrestle in the offseason. Summers are for baseball and the fall is for his first love, football. Roudebush plays quarterback on Tipton’s offense and splits time between linebacker and defensive end on defense. “K.J. is in the top 10 of his class,” Tipton coach Mark Barker said. “He’s such an intelligent guy and he’s a leader in every sport he does. To me, he’s one of those exceptional people that don’t come along that often. If he focused solely on wrestling, I really think it would be hard for anyone to beat him. “But I like multi-sport athletes. The more sports you do the better you’ll become at all of them. That’s the way things have always been here at Tipton.” Currently Tipton has just seven wrestlers. For Roudebush, that’s perfectly fine. “Being on such a small team could really suck, but we get a lot more attention from the coaches,” Roudebush said. “Our individual time with the coaches is through the roof. We’ve never had a big team. I think the most I’ve seen here is 10 wrestlers. Because of that, we don’t win a lot of matches as a team, but when you look at our head-to-head and don’t count forfeits, we’ve won close to 40 duals. We also have a very close bond with each other. I wouldn’t trade that for a bigger program with more practice partners.” The Tipton team has adopted a philosophy through necessity. The goal is for every wrestler in the lineup to pin their opponent. If they do that, they have a shot at winning dual meets. “We know what we are up against going into the match,” Roudebush said. “Coach tells us we’re starting out down 24-0, or something like that. We know every single one of us have to pin in order for us to win. It’s awesome. All of a sudden, Bam! We pin everyone and pull off the surprise win. We love that challenge. When we get people on their backs, we keep them there.” In practice Roudebush alternatese from wrestling with the team’s heavyweight, sophomore Nate Morgan to wrestling with their 145-pounder Blake Hicks. “Nate is stronger than me and that makes me really focus on my technique,” Roudebush said. “Blake is a scrapper. He’s good on top and he can put the legs in. He has a mean crossface cradle and he’s tough. It helps me a lot getting to wrestle with guys with different body types and strengths.” Roudebush beat Elwood’s Jalen Morgan last year 5-2 to claim the sectional title. Morgan reversed that decision in regional, winning 3-2. That put Morgan on the opposite side of the semistate bracket as Allred. Morgan advanced to the championship match, losing to Allred but still advancing to state. Roudebush was eliminated in the second round. “I want to go one step further,” he said. “That’s all I’m worried about. We have a tough sectional. The regional is even harder and I think New Castle is arguably one of the most difficult semistates. My focus is on getting past the ticket round. I’m worried about each match in front of me because wrestling is a different kind of sport. Anyone can win. You have to be ready at all times.” View full article

KJ is a stand up kid whose obvious humility is genuine. This young man’s lack of overall mat time is counteracted by high level athleticism & physical strength, as well as a competive heart that don’t know “quit”. That same humble, yet confident approach to matches, personal interaction, etc., is also shared by the Tipton coaching staff. Silas and I had the opportunity to dialogue with those gentlemen at length last year, and have stayed in intermittent contact since. Great people all the way around. The Allred’s wish KJ and Tipton Wrestling best of luck the remainder of the season as they collectively push towards their goals.

Congratulations to Alara Boyd from Yorktown for signing with McKendree. She is projected to wrestle 143. View full signing

Let me first say I in no way am putting down anybody in particular or acting like I’m the role model cause I’m the furthest from perfect, but I really think coaches need to take a step back and look in the mirror and realize our wrestlers watch our lives more than they listen to our words. I’ve been blessed at Plymouth to coach with coaches that in many years have impacted hundreds of lives. I’ve never heard a foul word out of their mouth nor is any wrestler aloud to use profanity. Their goal is always create young men of integrity first and champions in life then champions on the mat. I’m amazed when I see and hear coaches and athletes cuss back and forth.....see wrestlers yell at refs.....throw things in anger and nothing is done. On a positive I’ve watched people I respect and look up to like coach Snyder get in wrestlers faces yet put his arm around them and build them up....coach Harper from little kids to high schoolers speak life into his kids yet in their face. I don’t know a man in the world that loves winning more than coach Read or a man that hates to lose more than him but you ask anyone that’s gone through his program in 30 plus years and you will hear nothing but the utmost respect because of the integrity he walks in. Coaches your integrity is the most 8mportant part of your job with the kids we have in front of us. Impact lives. As our coach always says....”Do the right thing simply because it’s the right thing to do”. Your reputation is what others think of you but your character is what people see and you really are. It’s time coaches we lead from the front!

Jared Timberman 0-1 New Pal and WAB gave #2 ranked Canone of Wartburg a good battle losing 7-3.

If the coach had him weigh-in with the 182's then I don't believe you can go 170 even though you are that light. If you weigh-in with the 170's then you can wrestling at 170 or 182. But I don't know what the weigh-in circumstance was.

Brett Johnson 157 2-1 Marian. Studied abroad in Spain the first semester so this was his first 3 matches of the season.

106 Alex Cottey (Perry Meridian) over Evan Dickey (Indianapolis Cathedral) (Fall 0:41) 113 Zeke Seltzer (Indianapolis Cathedral) over Andrew Haggerty (Perry Meridian) (TF 23-8 5:14) 120 James Sturgis (Perry Meridian) over Luke Gonzalez (Indianapolis Cathedral) (Dec 8-1) 126 Lukasz Walendzak (Indianapolis Cathedral) over Cotter Anthony (Perry Meridian) (Fall 1:35) 132 Logan Bailey (Indianapolis Cathedral) over Ridge Cavallero (Perry Meridian) (TF 15-0 3:18) 138 Gabe Smith (Perry Meridian) over Andrew Wilson (Indianapolis Cathedral) (Dec 9-7) 145 Alex Mosconi (Indianapolis Cathedral) over Aiden Warren (Perry Meridian) (TB-1 6-1) 152 Elliott Rodgers (Indianapolis Cathedral) over Sam Fair (Perry Meridian) (Dec 9-5) 160 Jordan Slivka (Indianapolis Cathedral) over Noah Baker (Perry Meridian) (Dec 9-4) 170 Danny Brady (Indianapolis Cathedral) over Unknown (For.) 182 Brooks Davis (Perry Meridian) over Tyler Wagner (Indianapolis Cathedral) (Dec 4-1) 195 Jacob Huffman (Indianapolis Cathedral) over TYLER GOODALL (Perry Meridian) (Dec 5-2) 220 Austin Lane (Perry Meridian) over Luke Adams (Indianapolis Cathedral) (MD 13-5) 285 David Guhl (Indianapolis Cathedral) over Sam Jones (Perry Meridian) (Dec 12-5)

If I were to guess, the costs would increase significantly. Things like facility rental would double, they would need to pay for hotels for most of the refs, administrators would need to be there earlier, etc. The facility rental would be a very big expense.

37-19 Irish

I say we add wild cards. Pick up a couple super studs and tell the kids that has been wrestling all year sorry you’re just not good enough we found someone to take your spot.

As the Ben Davis guy who has been around a long, long time I will try to give you a couple. Don't get me wrong, they sound like excuses and I don't like excuses much. And, none of this is personal, hopefully my comments aren't construed as being a shot at anyone. Some comments i won't make in this forum as it isn't the right forum. However, there is my list, top of my head. 1. Resources - many programs develop talent by charging their kids $ every month or kids go to a "pay to play" facility like CIA, Red Cobra, Contenders, etc... In a lot of cases, we have kids who can't afford shoes, the sport fee or don't even know where they are staying tonight. Now, add on the cost of a USA card, tournaments, etc... and that is money our families need to spend elsewhere. Sure, we fund raise, but you can't cover costs for 50+ kids in a youth program to develop them in wrestling the way we would like. By the way, very few of our kids have a great support system. I can't imagine, as a 16 year old kid trying to cut weight, get to a Saturday practice, pay for a sport fee, new shoes, etc... without any parental support 2. All of the BD families from my era and later have moved to Avon, Brownsburg, Plainfield, Danvile, etc... i.. And, no families move into Ben Davis. Everyone is heading out West over the last 15 years, ncluding my family. I know I have coached a dozen or so kids in Junior High that have gone on to be successful at the state level in other programs. Good for those families for getting themselves into what they see as better situations personally. 3. I think BD has a remarkable amount of kids that start as Sophomores and Juniors. Sounds great to have bodies in the room, but wrestling in the MIC, Marion County and the same Sectional as Avon (you), Brownsburg and Plainfield - 90- percent of the time these kids just can't compete with someone who has had 4+ years of experience get frustrated and quit. And, how hard is it to sell this story "If you bust your butt, give everything you can you might win half of your matches" and "to be the most competitive you can, you need to learn how to eat right and maybe watch what you eat a little". They can't because they don't have quality food in the house. 4. The sport has no "middle class" anymore, there are elite wrestlers and everyone else. We all know the sport is hard - if you are getting beat up all the time it isn't fun, if it isn't fun you quit (unless you are an idiot like me and wired differently). We have a lot of great kids in this state who do well nationally. So, I am a 3rd year kid who has grown up wrestling some of the many studs on the WestSide and Marion County and I get pounded every time, I get discouraged. I get discouraged and just don't love the sport the way I need to love it to get better - I could have been a good wrestler, not elite, but good, maybe a Semi-State or even a State qualifier, but I can't get out of sectionals. I tihnk it was 2 years ago at the Avon Sectional at 106, 3 of those kids placed in the top 7 at state and I believe 3 others from MIC and Marion County placed as well. 5. I can keep going, but will conclude with this... I would rather build better young men (as I am sure we all do). It has taken me a while to admit that winning isn't as important to me as making someone successful at life (and this statement in no way makes me think that the previous 2 statements are exclusive, I am a better person, employee, boss, etc.... for being a wrestler). At some point, we are trying to get kids to graduate because we are now their parents. I could throw in a bunch of stats, but they don't change the situation. I would love to be singled out in a post about our wrestling, not the lack of our wrestling, but that isn't where we are at right now. Don't misinterpret any of this, I want to beat everyone. I don't want to lose. but, spend a few months inside the program and you will see it isn't just a numbers game. For better or worse, I am BD wrestling - as are a group of guys that I am proud to coach along side who also fight the daily battle to keep this program together and moving forward. Brett Nabb BD 1987 and 20 years coaching wrestling in Wayne Township

I'd love to see a Matt Lee match followed by an Eli Dickens match under the lights. Nothing like two same-team matches in a row with two great kids involved. Those two boys are awesome.