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Slivka is one of the best big match wrestlers in Indiana history. He had wins over multiple top ranked high schoolers last year. And has beaten more of those guys this year. He just gets the job done. Slivka is a hammer on top and underrated on his feet. I’m unaware of any national ranked kids that Dickens has beat. Slivka has beaten a handful. With that said, that’s the reason that Slivka gets my nod. I’m using logic and facts. EMD fans are pumped for their guy. As they should be. Again, silly debate but a fun one. Obviously the Dickens win is fresh and 90 percent of EMD fans will give Dickens the nod. It is what it is. With all of that said, most posters on here have never won a title and will never have family member win a title. They will never know the joy or help put the work in to win a title. So.. when you get on here and say a KID will smoke another KID, it is kinda insulting to a family that actually put in the work, took the kid to privates, took the kid to academy, took the kid all over the USA, the money that was spent, the sleep that was missed, the days of work missed, the tudors that were payed for, getting up at 5:00am to help the kid work out and meal prep, the “vacation” time that was spent in the middle of Iowa. So before you go off running your mouth behind your anonymous screen name, be considerate of what people went through and know that they are prideful. Make your logical picks or homer picks, but you need to be respectful of other people’s sacrifices. Calm down cowboys. Just my two cents.

Also the trainers asked me if I was ok, and I replied that it wasn’t my head, I just landed on my neck weird. I never even had the thought of taking the match from him like that. I have too much respect for him and his father to ever do that.

Hands down Tom Brady... 6x Super Bowl Champion 4x Super Bowl MVP 3x NFL MVP 14x Pro Bowler 3x First Team All-Pro 2x Second Team All-Pro 2x NFL Offensive Player of the Year NEVER won an Indiana Wrestling State Championship...

Gil Journey

oh....... my ......... god ...... @Mattyb on

My two cents: these threads are pointless.

How has no one mentioned Craig Macke??

Congrats to all teams that participated in yesterday's event. It was very successful and was well ran. With that being said obviously congrats go to the Champions Center Grove and the runner up Jay County and 3rd place finisher Brownsburg as well. I want to recognize another team for what I feel sometimes gets over looked and goes without mentioning too often. At the end of the day the voice on the microphone announced that we would ask all teams to do their part in cleaning up their area. While myself and a couple other ISWA directors, board members and the president were collecting our equipment someone commented to the Perry Meridian team and coaches that we appreciated them cleaning up their area. They advised us they had already cleaned up their area and were cleaning up another area on their way out the door. Then after that was completed 2 kids from that team came to the ISWA President and myself and very politely & respectfully asked if there was anything else they could do to help us and thanked us for the day. Keep in mind these are MS kids showing the maturity and grace of what we would expect from most if not all of our HS age kids. Now this is where I should and would normally make a joke at the expense of @lewdwar but in this case I feel its best to just keep it classy and say thank you and you are doing a great job mentoring and leading those kids and it definitely is showing !!!! Respectfully, Jason Miller ISWA Kids Director

Mainly only D1 programs, big tourneys in all the other divisions; like NCAAs regional, and nationals do they use this, as well as the Big Conference tourneys (Big 10, BIG 12, ACC, MAC, PAC 12, ETC). The problem with having it in high school is that coaches already take officials to the table enough for "clarifications" of a rule, having video review will only extend matches longer and will stop the flow of the match some more...

The coaches vote has merit, but also comes with some negative affects. I know of coaches who said their AD did their voting and they never knew about it. I have had an AD(not currently an AD) that would change the coaches votes. Those are just two experiences I have heard. I think there should also be a way for coaches to only vote for officials they have seen within the past 3 years. Personally I like Blane's idea on advancing the best officials from sectional based on voting and such. The wrestlers that are wrestling the best advance, why not the officials that are officiating the best advance? Sectionals and such are basically "seeded" for officials so barring something horrific you should still get the better ones to go on.

Tyrone Wilson used to have a sticker with his picture on it that he'd put in the book when he was starting out. It is a great idea for the newer or lesser known refs. It's also a reminder that when it comes time to vote to vote for that guy. For good or bad I know a lot of refs and even ask the senior ones who others are if I don't know. Coaches need to be a little more proactive to get the better refs to advance.

Sawyer Miller from South Adams 2012-2015 4th, 3rd, 2nd place finishes at state NAIA All-American x3 and NAIA 125 champ last year

The coach voting is an interesting system in practice. In theory it is smart. Coaches feedback is important and should be taken into consideration. But I have also noticed that I get votes from schools I didn’t even know existed. Any ranking (1-5) from a school/coach that hasn’t seen you officiate is a bad vote for a true assessment. I’ve also heard about refs getting repeated bad scores from the same coach for years that is holding a grudge. Just like wrestlers, officials get better with mat time and experience. If you are a coach still giving a good ref a 1 or a 2 because of a questionable call a decade ago, you are part of the problem. Same goes for if you are giving your buddy a 5 because he has been a great official in the past but maybe his officiating career is on the decline. Base rating off of how they officiate in the present, not the past, and don’t vote for someone you haven’t seen. I think I heard the NCAA had official evaluators, where some of the top older officials rank and assign the younger ones for major tournaments. I wonder if the IHSAA could get feedback from some of the heads of the associations or some of the more seasoned state level officials. Maybe they could also rank the eligible officials and that could be added to the score for evaluation. At the end of the day, the IHSAA’s goal is to crown a state champion—the best wrestler in the state. Shouldn’t we also be working to get the best crew of refs to help in that process? I don’t say this implying the guys there this weekend weren’t the best officials for the job. I know a handful of them and I’d agree they are some of the top officials, much better than myself currently--they are the ones I’ll go to to help get better. But this thread has brought up flaws with the process so I figured I’d offer my take on it and how to maybe improve it.

What if I told you I was BETTICH he deserves the title No foul play intended at any point

Brewer over Walker any day, he straight handled his partner last year and beat Donahue who is now a national prep champion... Kinda clueless on why anyone would say walker.

Slivka was hurt with a broken rib last year and still beat Donnell Washington who was nationally ranked, considered the best in the state at the time, and lets not forget he got 6th in the midlands this year at 174, there is not another Slivka than A game Slivka while under the lights.

Zack Davis Penn 9th-SQ 10th-6TH 11th- 2nd (Micic in Finals) 12th-2nd (Micic in Finals_ 4x Letterman at the Naval Academy 100+ wins Naval Academy 1x Ncaa Qualifier 4x Academic All American Currently Flying Jets for the Navy in Pensacola, FL

Eli and Jordan have only wrestled once that I recall. It was in middle school and Slivka a year older. Final score 1-0. Slivka. It would be a fun match in my opinion.

Dickens NOR slivka smoke either one. They are both great wrestlers. Dickens would control neutral game, slivka would control the top game. The kid was down by 5 to my buddy DJ at state and came back to win because of his brutal top game. It’s really a toss up. Dickens could win 5 and slivka could win 5 in 10 matches.

Slivka beat #2 in the nation and Penn State commit Trey Kibe at Disney Duals, and of course beat a seemingly unbeatable DJ Washington at state. Dickens is good, but I would choose Slivka to win that match without even thinking twice.

This seams like a silly topic to me. Why are we blaming the victim of an illegal move for wrestling later on if they feel like they can. Hears an idea, don't do the illegal move then you wont have a problem. Maybe its just the cop in me but penalizing the victim and rewarding the offender seams wrong.

You guys are probably still spent from the weekend, so I thought I would help a little with the results I could find for college: Friday Chad Red pins Mitch McKee (Minnesota) in 3:53. If Mitch McKee never sees another Indiana wrestler, that will probably be alright with him. Brayton Lee tech falls Christian Miller (Nebraska) 23-8 Mason Parris earns a 10-1 major over Jon Spaulding (Edinboro) Garrett Pepple loses in a 7-3 decision to Drew Marten (Central Mich) Cayden Rooks earns a 12-2 major over Wade Cummings (Chattanooga) Graham Rooks loses 12-8 to Tanner Smith (Chattanooga) Diego Lemly gets pinned by Hunter Fortner (Chattanooga) in 4;16 Nick Willham loses in a 14-4 major to Rodney Jones (Chattanooga) Rudy Streck loses a 6-3 decision to Grayson Walthall (Chattanooga) Sunday Nick Lee earns a 7-3 decision over Salvatore Profaci (American) Bonus Cross Over Content Could be college. Could be high school. Is both. Matt Lee enters the Mat Town II tournament as a high school senior and takes home third at 157. After beating Jonrocco Kazalas (Binghamton) 11-3 in the round of 16 he lost to red-shirt junior Elijah Cleary (Ohio State) 8-1. On the back side he had consecutive wins over Benny Baker (Finger Lakes) by a score of 16-3, Garrett Fisk (Maryland) 3-2, and Wyatt McCarthy (Rider) 4-3 before receiving third in a no contest victory of number 1 seed Jon Ross (Lock Haven).

Yes!!! Perfect post from this dude! Going hard after his own teams fan base and alumni. Now he has insulted or pissed off 100 percent of the Indiana wrestling community. Dude is a savage.

Coaches, If you are a member of the NWCA your varsity athletes can be nominated as Scholar All-Americans. This award is sponsored by the NWCA and the United States Marine Corps. Go to NWCAonline.com, sign in and in the members portal, click on the Scholar All-American Form link on the top of the left side menu. Your athletes will receive a certificate.The eligibility requirements: 1) 3.5 Individual Grade Point Average (Based on a 4.0 Scale) 2) Either Fall Semester or Cumulative GPA3) Athlete must be a 2019-20 Varsity Letter winner4) Submissions due by 11:59 pm ET on March 31. E-mail me at dcloud@smcsc.com if you have any questions. Dave Cloud Indiana NWCA Representative

Coaches, I just received this link today, so I apologize for the short deadline--Feb 28, Friday. This award is for JUNIORS and SENIORS only. It only takes a few minutes to fill out the form. You need to provide a short narrative of why your think this member of your team deserves the nomination. You may nominate more than one member of your team. You may also nominate letter winners for Academic All-American recognition. That information is contained in a separate topic on the high school forum page. Use the link below to reach the nomination site for the Leadership and Character award. Please contact me if you have any questions. Dave Cloud-Indiana Representative National Wrestling Coaches Association https://mailchi.mp/9dbcd6db0b16/nwca-usmc-announce-scholastic-scholar-all-american-award-330763?e=a3a7dc443a

1 of the best posts I've ever seen on here and this honestly should be something all of us live by..

Also, think about this. Wrestling would not be the first sport to get replay review ok'd by the IHSAA. Rembember, were not a priority Just imagine if wrestling had video review and basketball and football didn't. Football and basketball coaches would freak out and demand video review because wrestling had it. Wrestling and basketball are the poster childs and take leads and no way would wrestling get it first. So if basketball and football got review approved by IHSAA, then possibly the IHSAA would be forced to consider review for wrestling. This is just like wrestle backs. Were not going to get wrestle backs approved by the IHSAA until basketball or football get wrestle backs. We cant have our own special need until basket ball gets to try it out 1st. .

I think it would generally help, but not the panacea you think. But I think to do correctly you would have to implement this across the whole state for the whole season, and you just cant bring it out for the sate finals. I don't think right to change the rules for the state tournament. The problem with that is to do this, ever high school would have to invest in some live camera system and video system that can be replayed. You're going to have to add an additional volunteer person for each table at every meet that had video skills and probably a tech person. There would be additional cost for each school to invest in a system that would meet a certain standard. Also, maybe the refs might need some training. It just would make an administrative nightmare to implement this on a widespread scale.

Alex Dolly Aaron Stevenson Braden Atwood

Warren Central has 7 middle school state placers coming in next year.

Many wrestlers and coaches take advantage of the injury (time-out) rule. This is much more of a problem than the injury default situation. You can't tell a kid that he can't take injury time, even when it is very obvious, he's not injured, just tired. At some point, you must trust the integrity of the coaches and wrestlers, and sometimes the athlete, and more importantly, the adults in the situation, are not teaching and displaying it.

I understand there's coaches that abuse the rules but do we really this it's necessary to punish kids and that don't abuse it? I've had kids (in none DQ situations) Hit there head injury default be cause either a trainer wasn't there to check on the situation or the trainer need more time so injury time runs out and the default. once the trainer was able to give a full evaluation allow the kid to wrestle. The number one concern should be safety. Creating a rule like this with cause coaches and wrestlers to put safety aside and force wrestling even if they shouldn't just to not default the next match. The point should be for a wrestler not do an illegal move. I teach my wrestlers not to put the match in the refs hands. Part of that includes avoiding illegal moves. I understand bad calls are made and some coaches take advantage of the rules but once again I don't think we should punish those that don't do this or the illegal move is the correct call. Refs say in most coaches meaning that safety is a priority and I think it should be. Once again this is where there should always be medical staff to help make these decisions.

I was talking to someone from Center grove, they stated that they have a few in middle school that can beat the guys that they had at state. I do not know them, but I trust the guy that told me that.

Sure, if the “Other Slivka” is what you put in your pipe.

When a state qualifier is the 10th best guy on their team you know they're unreal.

Jacob Cottey - 3x State Qualifier, 2x Placer. ( 7th and 5th). Fargo All-American

If you are going to try and enforce this rule, there would be no comments on many of the topics.......

Think he’s from the 765 of Mean Streets of Muncie where 2019 Mr. Gorilla from . Maybe born in the same hospital, like Ball Hospital, year apart or so. There’s something in the White River up there that reproduces Mr. Gorillas Back 2 Back years . Just saying

As we're fighting for the good shaved ice, we also need to make sure that we throw lowering the price of the smoothies back to where they were last year on our list of demands. I am more than happy to buy 20 smoothies at five dollars a pop, but I just cannot do it with the price set at $7. Bankers Life can change a lot of things, but messing with our frozen snacks is crossing the line.

Then allow replays for bad calls by the refs. Just because a move is called illegal doesn't mean it actually was. I know kids that have losses matches from an "illegal move." This cost him when he was winning 10-0. After everything was done and the tournament was over the coach was still upset and showed him the video. The ref said he made the wrong call. Now this other kid wrestled the rest of the day fine... how do you make up for bad calls? Or questionable calls? I'm just saying that you shouldn't be Able to fake an injury and wrestle the rest of the day. That's cheap.

My Guess is the 2x State Champ would show up, DUH. This one is not even close. Even If the “other Slivka” shows up, (whoever the hell that is), still not close.

To be a state champion it takes a lot of skill, hard work, dedication, and some luck to not be injured or sick at the wrong time.

So I just looked over my school ratings. I had 28 schools give a rating. Out of those 28 schools, there were only 9 schools that I actually had any involvement with officiating either varsity or JV this season. If you don't know the official, then you shouldn't be giving them a rating.

Look long enough, I’m sure you’ll find one

On behalf of Silas, myself and the rest of our family....we want to bring awareness to how accommodating the IHSAA was for us this weekend. All of us (including myself) at times get so caught up in what we feel they do wrong as it pertains to wrestling, we can easily become blinded to the multitude of right they do. Mr. Faulkens seen to it we had All-Access passes, and we’re allowed in our regular seats at our convenience. That type of gesture deserves a lot of credit. Because in what is always an extremely exhausting weekend.....factoring my health, my wife having to carry my breathing machine and our youngest daughter, without their philanthropic gesture, this weekend would not have been possible for me. I also want to commend Jacob Laplace and the Mishawaka Coaching staff. They had a tremendous gameplan of counter wrestling by the edge of mat to slow Silas’ relentless pace. We have been friends and thought a lot of Jacob and family going all the way back to 6th grade. He and Silas were always summer teammates with the Outlaws and forged a bond that continues to this day. Wrestling Family can be an equal bond as blood at times, because there’s such an understanding of the sacrifice involved for wrestlers, coaches and parents. We have a lot of genuine love for many of the Caveman faithful. Specifically the Sandefur’s, Fogarty’s, Walker’s and of course the Laplace family. I’m extremely proud of Jacob’s effort. He wrestled Silas as well as ANYONE has the last 2 yrs. But more importantly....I’m proud of Jacob as a young man of faith. Indiana Tech stole a diamond in the ruff recruit! But Coach Pompei will undoubtedly help grow his solid foundation to achieve tremendous things at the next level. -The Allred’s

I would take Mendez over Garcia

I agree having a match forfeited under the lights would not be good for the sport. I think different circumstances can allow for things to happen (like wrestlers competing after an injury) The spectators don’t hear the conversations on the mat (with the coaches and trainers and wrestler) and they don’t get to what goes on behind the scenes.

I hate to see any wrestler injured, but here is my thoughts on the matter. Was the injury caused on an illegal move? If yes, and that wrestler injury defaults out of that match but can wrestle later after taking a Tylenol or something of that nature I’m fine with it, I’d rather see a match rather than a forfeit at state. If something is broke then I totally agree with the wrestler not going, but if something is strained and he can wrestle through it later then so be it. It happened with my brother and Tyler Willis in the finals in 2010. Willis was injured on an illegal move in the semis, you could see he was in a lot of pain and couldn’t continue. So Willis injury defaulted and won the match due to the illegal move. He went on to wrestle in the finals against my brother. He wasn’t himself for sure, but I commend him for going out there and trying, and fighting through the pain. I’d HATE to see a match forfeited under the lights.

This is a very tricky question (thread) to reply to. In my humble opinion I don't know that there is a correct answer to the originally stated question. There are so many factors that go into competing at all collegiate levels. Does it count if a wrestler started DI and then transferred or stepped away from the sport after a year or two? One could respectfully debate the fact that some wrestlers take non-traditional paths into their college experiences now days. Additionally, many wrestlers arrive at their college choice only to find that it wasn't what they expected; or the coach who recruited them has now taken a different job; or academics trip them up; or an injury derails their college wrestling experience. There are numerous factors that play out as an 18 year-old embarks on a college wrestling journey. There can be many pitfalls along the way... as is there can be many rewards to be had if a little grit is demonstrated. With athlete retention in mind I believe more wrestlers (and their parents) could do a better job of 1)researching a variety of schools before making a final selection; 2)working on their time management skills in MS and HS to better ensure "life success" in college; and 3)realizing that wrestling at any collegiate level is very grueling. As they say... "it's a job." You have to love the sport, be willing to navigate set-backs, and have the ability to keep your eye on the ball. In getting back to the original topic, DI wrestling isn't for everyone. It is absolutely best-practice for an athlete (and his/her parents) to be realistic in what level of collegiate wrestling they want to take part in. A productive and fulfilling wrestling experience can be had at all collegiate levels depending on what the student-athlete is after. As a reminder... it is college... so some level of academic achievement should be placed into the equation. A wrestler at a DIII college studying pre-med is obviously a different situation than a wrestler navigating the rigors of a Big Ten program and schedule. Two different scenarios... two different goals in mind... both are to be applauded. I tip my hat to any young man or young lady that finishes 4+ years of collegiate wrestling at any level and walks away with memories, achievements, and a college degree.

Someone has mentioned to me that it is possible to reach an NCAA tournament, any division, quicker than it is our own State Tournament. If this is indeed true, then we should seriously look at our system to correct this flaw. I will reference a very good young Official here by the name of Eric McGill. He is doing numerous college matches at the Division 1 level. Surely if he has a weekend open to do any level of our tournament, why in the world would we pass? If there are other high level officials available as well, let’s get them involved too. We know some of our better guys are getting up in age and they are constantly preaching that we are at a shortage. I agree we have to recruit young guys to get more involved, but let’s think outside the box too and recruit some experienced guys at the higher level as well. Thoughts?