Leaderboard

In his last two years in high school, Carson only gave up offensive points to one person here in Indiana. That was the in that pretty rough match Friday night his junior season (it was bad). With that said, he’s pretty tough to score on. He wrestled very conservatively this year at state. Just wanted the title. But... I personally think Rypel was ranked number one in the nation for a reason and has to be favored. Just honored to have my son be mentioned in this conversation after he has moved on. He’s really doing well at Ohio. Coaches have expressed that they really like him and he’s doing better then they even thought he would. Him Slivka and Mosconni all should be wrestling at the Michigan State open the first week of November. Saw all of them last week and they are all doing great! Bottom line.. our studs are moving on to D1 and doing great. It would be cool if Slivka and Mosconni would clean their room tho!

The world's greatest football team is going to send us an autographed flag from the world's greatest football player- Khalil Mack. It said it is a laser autograph, but still pretty cool that the Chicago Bears are a sponsor! https://www.chicagobears.com

A couple ideas for youth programs 1. Get the parents together. Hold a cookout, or maybe during your youth practice have a coach take time to do a "parent clinic". Figure out who the most "likeable" parent is and ask them to be the ambassador for the other parents - do NOT pick the parent that wants to run everything but not many people like cause that will drive people away. The more the parents become friends, the more likely it is that their young wrestler will be back next season. If they enjoy spending time with each other, it's also more likely that one wrestler going to a weekend tourney in the spring will bring more along with them. 2. Early in the youth season get an inexpensive package of cool-looking clothes together and see if the parents will buy it or get sponsors to help cover costs where parents cant. When a little kid gets a "pro headgear" or "real wrestling shoes" they are now a real wrestler. If the tshirt you get them is super cool, it might be their favorite shirt they wear every other day to school and other kids see that stuff especially if a bunch of them are wearing them 3. Communicate! Let the parents know ahead of time what is coming up, what the kids are working on, etc. Seems like every other youth sport has practice on specific nights every week with a game on saturday. With youth wrestling, try to get with other clubs in your general area and set Monday, Thursday or whatever night as your "meet nights" where clubs can get together and do some round robin wrestling with no pressure just get a lot of matches against some new faces. Wednesday night is bad because that is youth night at many churches. Make those meet nights fun. Don't know if its possible, but try to get the screaming parents away from the mat and into the stands as much as possible so its more of a kid-friendly environment 4. Stress to the kids that the focus is not on winning, but trying the moves that they have been working on. As a parent, it doesn't get much more frustrating to practice double legs all week long, only to get to a match and watch your wrestler dance around and never try a double leg! Reward them for trying moves, not just for winning. In football we used to give helmet sticker awards - not sure what could work for wrestling but try to have someone (maybe the kids parents) keep a tally on how many times they attempt a move even if it doesn't work, then make a big deal out of the counts at the next practice - maybe ask the kids really trying to talk about what they were thinking and if the moves worked for them or not

I honestly believe what might appear as weaker depth below the top level guys is actually misleading. I think what we are seeing is that the top level guys are getting so much better and therefore the gap to the mid-level guys is simply becoming too much to over come. The sheer quantity of quality D1 talent that is now coming out of Indiana supports this theory.

That was his junior year at 195 against a sophomore Tonte. His senior year he decisioned Cam Jones. Tonte barely hit national rankings and Jones didn’t. Rypel is not teching a top 15 nationally ranked Brewer.

Brownsburg is happy to announce we will be adding Brian Smiley to our staff! Brian was a State Champion and 4-year letter winner at Indiana University. Incredible credentials, but we are most excited because we have seen him in action as a coach and it’s impressive! Snyder

I 100% agree. This is something the coaching staff I’m apart of has been doing for the 3 years I’ve been there. We have kept pretty solid and steady numbers for a small 2a school. We had a kid last year as a state placer that wasn’t so good as a freshman and sophomore and had a decent junior year and by his senior year he only had two losses going into state. Granted it’s pretty rare for that to happen but It’s helped us tremendously because it’s giving those kids that aren’t so good as freshman and sophomores hope. If this kid can do that why can’t I? I think we were blessed with that situation and I understand that doesn’t happen at every school but it goes to show that coaches need to stick with those lower tier wrestlers and coach them up. If we want them to stick with the sport we need to give them reasons to stay. I had the chance to take our team to Disney this year and I don’t even know where to start with the benefits that it provided us. I didn’t have a roster of 14 studs but many of the kids were Jv guys. Give kids opportunities like this if possible! Something teenagers are really good at is talking. When they tell their friends that they got to go to Disney to wrestle it’s going to bring more guys out. I have heard that there are going to be numerous new guys in our room this year which excites me.

Here is what I also see from successful programs (in all sports) is the coaching from the bottom up approach. All programs are going to a few studs. The better programs have 10 or so studs. Guess what???... those are the easiest kids to coach. I see coaches coaching from the top down. Meaning... they spend the majority of time with their suds. Those kids are self motivated, and many times know more than their high school coaches. The successful coaches spend more time with their marginal kids and make them good. This not only builds depth, but makes those kids feel more important to the team. This results in retention, and the strengthening of the program. Show more love to the lesser kids. Let them know that they are a HUGE part of the program, and they are needed. That's another great way to keep kids around. Here is something that the vast majority can relate to: As a youth football coach, I was lucky to have my teams in the "super bowl" every season. All teams have a fairly even draft. All teams have two or three studs. The daddy ball coaches spend the whole practice focusing on their own kids and letting junior and his best buddy run the ball in every practice and every game. The other kids "get" to stand on the line and block. That leads to kids hating youth football and angry parents. Where as the successful youth coaches convince the kids that line play is the most important part of the game (which it is). They also find something that each kid does well, and makes them feel that each kid is the very best at doing that particular thing. The daddy ball coaches just "hide" the weaker kids and focus on junior and the other studs. If a kid is not a striper, give them the rock once a game! Put your studs on the line for a play or two. Let them put their hand in the dirt and help get the "lesser" players a few yards. That approach leads to happy well rounded players and happy parents. Every kid will want to play the following year. The kids will play hard for each other and the wins will come. I truly think that many of us can do a better job of developing our "lesser" wrestlers, and letting them know and feel how important that they are to the team. Let dem studs "put their hands in the dirt". Let them take a little time to build up the 2nd or 3rd tier guys. By doing a better job of this (coaching from the bottom up) we will grow depth and keep kids out. Oh.. by the way... Once the individual tourney starts.... go ahead and play daddy ball, with your best 14!!!!

Love the way some of the local Ohio tournaments divide their tournaments into experience for the younger kids. Example is that they may run 1-2 year experience Pee-Wee - Novice from 8 am til 11 am and then run everyone else 12-4. 1st and 2nd year wrestlers may also wrestle in the experienced division if they so choose. It is a very interesting concept.

We keep getting these post about the competition. I think we are missing the real reason, that kids are not sticking with the sport. See my post above (about what to do to make kids like wrestling practices better). Look at the responses…. You have two current kids and a recent grad who is trying to help build a program at Ben Davis. We not losing kids because the year round kids are beating them . We are losing kids because they do not enjoy workouts, and feel as they don't other don't share the same feelings and experiences as they do. They are not coming together as a brotherhood. "Why get you teeth kicked in everyday at practice for no reason?!!!" That is what the kids that are walking away are saying. I'm just telling you. You want to keep kids??? Give them reason to show up and show out. As far as going two and out every weekend to start. My son went his whole first year and most of his second year before he won a match. He cared some, but liked the other kids at club and wanted to be with them. We didn't really care about the losses. He stuck with it and ended up with a pretty great career. And..... he beat most of the kids that beat him when he started, along the way. His best buddy started a year after he did and won just about every tourney (right out the gate). He went on and was a 4 time state qualifier. With that said, different kids will take different paths. Both kids had highs and lows. But... they were always there for each other. That's a huge reason neither gave up. As far as being humiliated... why would you be humiliated from getting beat in a game or wrestling match. The fact that the kid went all out and will work to close the gap should be what we focus on (not trying to find someone easy to beat). Too much is being put on wins and loses. Not enough being focused on becoming a hard worker, good teammate, and baddass (win or lose). Yes.. badass. If a kid makes it through a wrestling season... They need to be told that they are a badass. Its OK to lose matches. Make it fun and surround the program with like minded positive people. That's how we stop it.

Totally agree with this post, and this is why I would like to see the wrestling community undergo a shift in mindset toward mat time at the youth level and away from crowning champions. Heck, you could even do pooled groups, wrestle round-robin, and still give the undefeated kid a medal at the end of the day...but allowing the struggling kids to wrestle other struggling kids is important for retention, growth, and learning of the sport overall. It is just as important as having the gifted kids wrestle other gifted kids...even if it's just one match out of the day.

This may seem dumb... but, put a decent sound system in the room and let the kids play their music during practice (no matter how bad you think it is). It’s a little thing, but I swear it will keep kids out. Also... have a fellowship talk once a week. Give the kids a good story and / or share something that will inspire them. Let the kids chime in and share feelings. Knowing that others feel the same, and are going through the same things helps to grow a brotherhood. That bond keeps kids around. Anything to make kids actually enjoy being at practice.

To the retention point it would seem to me 2 to 5 youth athletes a year could be doable. I can think of a couple things that might help. I've noticed in multiple setting (clubs, camps, rooms, academies, tourneys, duals) that the lesser kids don't get the attention that the more experienced and gifted kids get. Hardly insightful, but I think its important if were talking about a handful of kids. I am not saying they are being ignored and getting no attention. What I am saying is they and their parents need 'way more' encouragement and 'way more' attention than the better more experienced kids. I know that is not natural in any sport, but I can't think of many sports that can be more difficult and "humiliating" for beginners and their parents. I can't tell you how many times I have had to talk first and second year (and sometime later) parents off the cliff during a tourney because some up and coming academy wizard took down, cut, took down, cut, etc, etc. their 11 year old beginner son. Its darn hard for everyone those first couple of years. That in itself does not encourage retention.

As terrible as Evansville is who would want to live in Da Region?

Training at a Club 365 a year is a MUST. Gotta move to Indy and join Red Cobra or Evansville and join MCWC

Not sure if there are year by year totals or not. I would say 60-70% retention rate would be great, especially when we see that we almost have the same total participants ever year. Just keeping two more kids a year if you start at 10 kids in 1st grade would be HUGE when you get to high school. If you think about it now, if a school starts with 10 1st graders after their 8th grade year they will still have 10 kids in that grade out for wrestling while 35 other have tried and quit. If you keep one more kid each year you'll have 12 kids that have been in it multiple years rather than 5 that have multiple years and 5 first year kids.

Your first step, and I mean this sincerely, is to attend the Scholastic Leadership Academy as part of the IHSWCA Fall Clinic. Coach Pete Jacobsen will cover a range of topics designed to help build your program, deal with parents and make wrestling special in your school. Pete turned around a program and made it into a power in New York. You will come away from this event as a better coach.

There are way more non-year rounders than there are that wrestle year round. In order for the sport to thrive those that do not wrestle year round need to be there. If not we will become like gymnastics with about 20 teams. Today kids are almost being forced to be one sport athletes. They have to choose whether to be average at multiple sports or good at one. Guys like Mason Parris are an anomaly. Only two of our state champions this year were multi-sport kids(Keys and Fowler) this past year and by my rough calculation only four runner-ups played another sport(Fielden, Willhelm, Aiken, and Cartwright). Our top end talent is as good as it has ever been. Our next tier guys who are 3-5th placers are likely better than they have been in the past, however past that I think our talent levels are down in terms of quantity more than anything.