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RTC WEDNESDAY 6-7:30pm Enter through door 18 2211 E. 10th St. Hobart Indiana *MUST HAVE USAW CARD* Bobby Joe Maldonado Coach Maldonado will be coming in to show us some things this week. Maldonado wrestled for East Chicago Central where he was a 4x state qualifier. Before High School he was a Cadet freestyle all american placing 5th at nationals in 1997. The next year as a freshman at 103 pounds he placed 4th in the state. The next year at 119 pounds he was a state qualifier. As a junior he made it to the finals at 125, pushing his way past opponents with ease but ended up walking away as state runner-up. Senior year coming back to state, but ended up getting upset by Nick Hobbs from beech grove in an overtime battle. He went on to place 3rd. Over the 4 years compiling a record of 177-18. Maldonado went on to wrestle for the Wildcats at Northwestern University. He was a letter winner and took his success into coaching. Bobby Joe took a huge roll with his brother Timmy as they were the assistant coaches at Munster for a lot of their success. Bobby Joe coached former state champion in High school Eric McGill. After his time at Munster he coached along side with his brother once again, and legendary coach that is also his cousin, David Maldonado at Merrillville. Bobby Joe has coached all the Streck brothers, Jacob Coviacu, and other state caliber wrestlers during his time at Munster and Merrillville. Now he has taken over as the Head Coach of Calumet College of St.Joseph, where he is looking to build a program back up. Last RTC we had Coach Maldonado at we had a blast. We are excited to have him in the room, and hope to see you all there!

Culver Academies RTC getting after it tonight at 6:00 PM! They say training inside on a sunny nice day gives you twice the results. Just saying! Let's fill the RTC rooms Indiana! Enter George Steinbrenner Center. Locate indoor blue track and go upstairs. Wrestling room is located on west end of the building. State Champs, State Runner-Ups and State Placers will be getting after it tonight! -Coach Behling

So my son wrestled in Jeffersonville this weekend. During the final match of his freestyle bracket, I was under the assumption that he was losing. At the end of the match there was a scoring question that the other coach brought up. The ref explained why he awarded points the way he did, which actually put my son as the winner and later raised his hand. There was an uproar from the other side and the ref was starting to kick people out. My son walked off the mat and we started getting undressed. I looked over at the mat and saw someone apparently showing a replay of the match on their phone. The ref called my son over to wrestle again at the point where he called the match. I asked what was going on and the ref said he was wrong and didn’t score correctly. My question to him was, when was video replay allowed Matside and why he was allowing external influence to decide the match He didn’t give an answer only that he was wrong I’m not upset at the loss and neither is my sone, just concerned about the precedent that this ref started. I spoke with the “tournament director” about it afterwards and he didn’t agree with it, but did nothing about it when it occurred. I also heard that these refs (KYrefs) will be at freestyle state, which concerns me.

Great dual tournament. Only an hour away from Indy, too.

Some additional info regarding the tournament. Aside from a dominating performance by IN Gold.......the Blue team competed extremely well and captured 3rd place. Excluding the stand out performances......a couple others from the Gold team that deserve acknowledged, begins with Deters. The young man lost 1 match all weekend and really wrestled at a high level. Chundi did awesome filling in for Cottey. He arguably got one of the biggest wins in the final by knocking off Illinois 106 (1-0), in at that point....a tied dual. He was an octopus in the top position all 3rd period. Irrick showed incredible heart finishing his final bout. With about 30 seconds left in the match. He appeared to completely blow out his knee. The young man literally hopped back to the center, and painfully finished the match to ensure we only gave up 3, having to then be carried to the training table. Trainers on hand speculated complete tears of his ACL and MCL. Dorian Keys also suffered a likely ligament injury in his knee the day before. Landon Boe had a pretty major ankle break as well. Genuine prayers are appreciated for these warriors. On a final note......Kentucky’s top team is MUCH improved. They were pretty Fresh/Soph heavy as well. Not sure if the KY kids are traveling more or what, but they were hard nosed from top to bottom. And had a couple kids who are right there on that “elite” level. Was surprised, and very impressed by their upward trajectory as a state.