Y2CJ41

I'd suggest being more specific as to what you consider a shoulder "injury." Something to the effect of missing practice or competition would be a good gauge. 

Ranking Date: 01/13/2016

Ranking Entity: IndianaMat

Ranking Type: Power Poll

Class: All

1. Warren Central

2. Brownsburg

Click here to view the team ranking

Brought to you by EI Sports

By JEREMY HINES

Thehines7@gmail.com

Matthew McKinney approaches academics with the same ferociousness he has when he steps on the mat for a wrestling match.

“Academics is just another competition for me,” McKinney said. “Whether it’s in the classroom or on the mat, I want to be the best at everything I do.”

McKinney is currently ranked No. 15 out of his class of 791 seniors at Warren Central High School. His grade point average is 3.97.

“I really take a lot of pride in my academics,” McKinney said.

He also takes pride in his wrestling. He is currently ranked fourth in the state at 138 pounds. He is a two-time state qualifier. He advanced to state his freshman year at 106 pounds and again the next season at 120 pounds.

McKinney believes he outworks anyone he steps across the mat against. He religiously goes into school early three times a week and either runs or swims. He also stays late after practices and puts in extra conditioning. That hard work has paid off when it comes to the long, three period matches.

“I really pride myself on being able to go six minutes as hard as possible and wearing on my opponent with heavy hand fighting,” McKinney said.

The practice room at Warren Central is full of practice partners for McKinney. If he wants to work on speed and agility, he faces Warren’s 126 pounder Joel McGhee (ranked No. 6). If he needs to work against stronger opponents, he goes up against Trent Pruitt (ranked No. 4 at 152 pounds). If he’s looking to get as much work in as possible, he has a host of partners he can go against.

“We have around 70 guys at practice and we have three mats going on,” McKinney said. “That gives me a lot of partners to push me. For sure that’s an advantage because you never run out of guys to wrestle. When you’re wrestling live, there is always a fresh guy to come in and keep pushing you.”

The Warrior team is absolutely loaded this season. Warren Central has ranked wrestlers in 10 of the 14 weight classes. Jim Tonte took over the program this season, after having a very successful career at the helm of Perry Meridian’s program.

One thing McKinney noticed right away about Tonte’s coaching style, is that he wanted the team to have a good chemistry.

“The biggest difference between last year and this year is that we are a lot closer as a team,” McKinney said. “We hang out outside of wrestling. We have more of a team atmosphere. Coach Tonte stresses team bonding. We’ve gone to the movies together, had hang out sessions. And, a lot of us have been together for four years now so we are naturally close.”

Brownsburg defeated Warren Central in the team state championship this year. That doesn’t sit well with the senior Warriors.

“We have to give props to Brownsburg,” McKinney said. “They really brought it to us. It was very humbling for our team, but we’re excited for our second chance. Our goal is to win the state championship. I want to win it with my team and individually. We feel we are good enough, and that goal is always on our mind. We break every practice with a ‘Blue Rings’ chant for the blue medal you get when you win state.”

McKinney did not qualify for state last season. He was beaten in the ticket round of semistate. But this year he feels he can see a lot of improvement.

“I’ve faced seven ranked guys and lost just one,” he said. “I’m right there with the top guys. It gives me confidence to know I can go out and beat anyone in front of me. Last year Nick Lee beat me. He took me down, cut me, took me down, cut me and then pinned me real quick. This year I went the distance with him. The score still wasn’t what I wanted, but I can tell I’ve improved.”

Coach Tonte said at the beginning of the season some people wanted McKinney to wrestle at 132 pounds this year.

“Matthew spent so much time in the weight room every day that he eventually filled out and made it to be a true 138,” Tonte said.

Tonte said it was probably a difficult transition for McKinney to have a new coach for his senior year.

“I’ll be honest,” Tonte said. “It was probably somewhat tough for him. He had a competitive match with one of the kids I coached last year and I know it was probably really tough on him to know I was coming in to be his coach. But he has responded very well and he realizes we care about him. He’ll run through a wall for us. He’s responded to everything we are doing.”

McKinney is a two-sport athlete at Warren Central. He is the kicker and backup punter for the Warrior football team. He says football is a sport he does for fun, but he really enjoys being part of the program.

After high school McKinney would like to wrestle collegiately. He is not sure what he wants to study or where he wants to attend.

“Matthew is just one of those kids that you don’t ever have to worry about his future,” Tonte said. “His future is open for whatever he wants to do. He has a great drive, a great family and you can tell he has really been raised well. He will succeed at whatever it is he sets out to do.”

For now, he is setting out to win the 138 pound weight class in Banker’s Life Fieldhouse.

Click here to view the article

Zadylak beat Mosser from AC 2-0 this weekend. He will have to be on his game to beat guys like Miller and Curtis just in his regional. Right now he's probably the 3rd best in his regional. That means he will draw into Demien, Streeter/Shearer, or possibly Herring. None of those are easy matches.

By STEVE KRAH

stvkrh905@gmail.com

Plenty of practice and coaching reminders gave Jimtown High School wrestlers to succeed during a recent grueling stretch.

The Jimmies placed 11th out of 32 teams in the 37th annual Al Smith Classic, held Dec. 29-30 at Mishawaka. Jimtown junior Kenny Kerrn took top honors at 145 pounds.

On Saturday, Jan. 2, the Jimmies finished second out of 12 squads in the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association State Duals at Fort Wayne’s Memorial Coliseum. Jimtown edged Yorktown 31-30 in the semifinals before bowing 46-23 to Bellmont in the Class 3A finals.

Jimtown head coach Mark Kerrn and his staff got the Jimmies ready for the tough week with quality mat time the week after Christmas and through visualization and confidence-building drills.

Repetition in practice and time spent in the high school off-season at tournaments, camps and Indiana State Wrestling Association Regional Training Center sessions at Jimtown, Penn and Mishawaka continues to get the Jimmies ready for whatever they face during a match.

“We work a lot in practice on situations,” Mark Kerrn said. “It’s about knowing what the score is and (getting an extra point or avoiding giving one up). We’ve been making good decisions.”

Kerrn constantly talks about the effort it takes to be a Jimmie wrestler and the family bond that is being built though the shared hard work.

“A lot of kids sacrificed (in the State Duals, especially against Yorktown),” Mark Kerrn said. “They were getting thrown in against better wrestlers, but they were unselfish.”

In giving Yorktown its first-ever loss in State Duals competition in an event began in 2012-13, Jimtown got pin victories from sophomore Hunter Whitman (113), Kenny Kerrn (145) and senior Ben Davis (182), a major decision victory from junior Dalton Heintzberger (170) and decision triumphs from freshman Matt Gimson (120), senior Jarod Hayes (195) and junior Nick Mammolenti (heavyweight).

The Jimmies yielded two pins to the Tigers, but no other “bonus” points (four for a major decision, five of a technical fall or six for a pin or forfeit).

Mammolenti won 4-3 in overtime and freshman Hunter Watts (106) took the final match to overtime before losing 9-6 while giving up no extra points and helping Jimtown to a narrow win.

“Going in I knew I had to win to give us (a chance to win) the match,” Mammolenti.

After he was penalized for a fleeing — a call he disagreed with — the Jimmie heavyweight got fired up even more.

“That really made me motivated to take (Yorktown’s Jacob Rhoades) down,” Mammolenti said. “I got up and turned around and shot at him and I don’t think he expected it. Then he was hurt. I just had to ride him out for another three seconds and it was over.”

Mammolenti credits his progression in the sport to all the coaches who train with him in practice. Among those are Paul Bachtel, a state champion for Concord in 197x and a longtime Jimtown assistant.

“If I can do anything on him, I can do anything on anybody,” Mammolenti said.

Also contributing to Jimtown’s 2A runner-up finish were freshman Connor Gimson (126), senior Greden Kelley (132), senior Cole Watson (138), senior John Windowmaker (152), freshman Tyler Norment (160), freshman Aaron Martinez (also at 170) and junior Caleb Fowler (220).

Jimtown followed up the performance in Fort Wayne with a practice filled with a little fun as well as work. With a day off of classes, the Jimmies wore “crazy” singlets and had a dodgeball tournament before being put through drills by assistant coach Anthony Lewis.

“We try to break up the monotony as much as possible,” Lewis said. “We had just had a tough week — mental and physically.”

Lewis, who wrestled for uncle Darrick Snyder at Mishawaka and joined the Jimtown staff in 2012-13 to help the Jimmies place fifth at State Duals and get Nick Crume an individual state championship, said the season is a progression.

In early practices, coaches show wrestlers a large number of moves. As the season goes on, those moves are refined and a wrestler finds the combinations that works best for them. Practices become shorter, but more intense.

The constant is the attack mode.

“We try to push the pace and control the tempo in the match,” Lewis said. “Get the first takedown and then keep lighting the scoreboard up after that.”

Mark Kerrn asks his youth athletes to give it their all during workouts, but he knows that there’s more to life.

“We ask them everyday to touch the sign, just think about wrestling for two hours and then they go back to being a kid,” Mark Kerrn said. “It’s not wrestling 24/7.”

But the dedication needs to be there as Mark’s son will attest.

“You’ve got to love the sport of wrestling,” Kenny Kerrn said. “It’s an intense sport. You can’t dread it.”

After a 3-1 day at the West Noble Super Dual (the loss came against 2015-16 IHSWCA State Duals 1A winner Prairie Heights) on Saturday, Jan. 9, the Jimmies look forward to the Northern Indiana Conference tournament Saturday, Jan. 16 at Mishawaka (the first NIC meet since Jimtown, Bremen, Glenn and New Prairie joined the conference in 2015-16) and then the IHSAA state tournament series.

“The (Elkhart Sectional) is wide open,” Mark Kerrn said of the eight-team field. “There’s about five teams who could win. It just depends who is on that day.”

Click here to view the article

I'll pay for the Seymour banner, call me first. 812-867-5309

Hmm tried calling you, but I only got Jenny.

Are there results or brackets anywhere???

Probably in Kendalville.

I have a nice Carroll one I'll sell you.

That they do...

False a wrestler from Warren Central has 4.24 times the likelihood of qualifying for state in a 2 class breakdown and 6.71 times more likelihood of qualifying in a 3 class breakdown.

We just wrestled Culver Community this past weekend, and yes a person from a small team (2 kids) can make it to State. TR is one tough hombre!

No one has ever stated it CANNOT happen.

Q: Are all Indiana high school wrestling programs eligible?

 

--The IHSAA only counts the sectional scores of teams that have at least 3 wrestlers participating.  Therefore, only those schools who compete at sectional with at least 3 weights filled are considered toward Team State qualification and counted toward classification.

 

This should be at least 6 or more since it would take a 1A team having 5 returning state champions PLUS one or two more other wrestlers to even be in voting consideration.

Alas a few 1A coaches on the "Panel of Knowledge" do not want to face the fact that they wouldn't qualify if this were the case.

I mean "class wrestling" in the sense of people pushing to make it happen... They have been talking about this for years and nothing has ever came from it... Yet rather than try to compromise with a classed team dual and individual state tourney, they would rather stick with the my way or the highway type of thinking...

It's been around longer than 10 years. There was actually a proposal to the IHSAA in the late 1990's or early 2000's and possibly even earlier.

There is no "compromise" as you speak of. A compromise is meeting halfway, not what you are proposing. 

Ok well good luck with the change. I would take slight progress over the zero progress class wrestling has made over the last 10+ years...

"Class wrestling" has only been around for four years...and that is in a non IHSAA sense.

Ok but did you not admit the Carmel was an outlier from the 3A class? Then why don't we include their stats in the 1A class since they are an outlier on the opposite end of the spectrum?

 

I see where your coming from... But would you rather see slight progress towards your end game or none at all? Maybe by taking one small baby step and getting the IHSAA to take over the classed team state it will open their eyes to what classing the individual tourney would do... Because at this point in time, the same as it has been the last 10+ years, the IHSAA isn't going to make any big changes...

 

I'm just trying to meet in the middle here find a way that all parties can be happy...

How is Carmel an outlier? They have 10 state qualifiers in the six years of data I am using. The average per team over that span is 7 for two class and 8.5 for three class. That is NOT an outlier. They are almost spot on for the averages.

Slight progress or major progress, what is better? We could conceivably affect 200-250 teams within a 3-5 year span by going to two classes. That makes a MAJOR impact on the sport.

Yeah it's always strange how they have "statistics" to back up their opinion but yet their "statistics" always add EMD to 3A and use a 3 class system when they are debating for a 2 class system...

 

Why don't we continue what we already have? A classed dual tourney and an unclassed individual tourney?

 

What is going to bring more kids into the room? When a school wins team state or when a single kid wins individual state?  I would venture to say a school would get much more publicity than an individual champion. Not to mention when the team wins all the kids get "rings" thus, giving more than just one individual, the experience of being a state champion. To me that will bring more new kids into wrestling rather than one of their friends winning state and getting a ring.

As stated earlier Mater Dei is an EXTREME example, they boost the 1A totals by 12% in a two class system and 23% in a 3 class system. In a 3 class system all other 1A schools have 125 state qualifiers, while Mater Dei has 37. I'll translate one school has 37, while the other 101 have 125 or just over an average of ONE! In a two class system the other 150 schools have an average of 1.58...while again Mater Dei has 37! That is almost 20 times the AVERAGE in two classes and 30 times the AVERAGE in three classes. 

Here is a little definition of mathematical outlier

http://www.mathwords.com/o/outlier.htm

Team success will help, but there are only a couple of those each year...that help would only affect at most 10 schools. On the individual side we have usually between 90-100 schools at state each year. Add in another class we could conceiveably see 150-180 schools(or more) at the state finals. Instead of reaching 10 schools we are now reaching over half the schools in the state. That also doesn't include the schools that would have a few kids come close to state which would also be affected.

I'd much rather affect 180 schools than 10 schools.

Fountain Central wrestled and beat Mt. Vernon Fortiville, not the Mt. Vernon from Ohio.

That one just needs deleted.

Also, how do I add wrestlers to my roster on my team page?

The Mount Vernon scores will be fixed.

Wrestlers are added by admins if they are on our watch lists for state and semi-state rankings.

It was the Chevrolet Indiana Prep Zone, but not sure if they are doing it any more.

I think it would be a step in the right direction if they streamed the matches like they did last year.

I don't know about the whole thing, but I know they have a weekly high school sports show that could highlight the event.

I'll answer a little bit

Both JV teams and out of state teams can help connect teams together. Basically what the calculation does is connect you to your opponents to their opponents, to their opponents, and so on. Say Carroll and Harrison both wrestle Culver, they can be connected that way. Also we can get connected because Carroll wrestled Mount Vernon, MV wrestled West Lafayette, and WL wrestled Harrison.

That is the basics of it and of course the more connections you get, the better the result.

Usually you can just tell by the smell...at least that's how I know I'm in "da region."

Rankings are updated

The point total will be about 10-14 points more this year as we are actually counting the first round matches.

I think less kids to state would help our state more.

 

What is the 1A vs 3A total record so far this year in the dual results data base?

151-50 3A wins over 1A teams

I'll bet you that the percent of state qualifiers by class corresponds within 4% +/- of the total student population of each class. It us usually pretty close to how it works out, which is what you would expect. Want to take me up on that bet?

True but I think kids still want to be the best of the best which single class answers. I'd like to see classed wrestling grow the sport. What would single class in addition hurt? Basically a battle of champions that would bring enthusiasm in another way. Like I said, I realize this is wanting my cake and eating it too by supporting both sides.

The kids will compete in whatever championship is in front of them. The same way they do it in the classed team sports. You don't see teams or kids saying "thus sucks we won 1A, I really want to see how we do against the 4A champs."

The single class addition has never worked.

Let us hope they do not fix something that is not broke.

Are you willing to take my bet?

You get all 1A wrestlers, I pick 50 3A wrestlers. Whoever gets the most state qualifiers wins. 

I'll put up $50 worth of IndianaMat gear, you can add a McDonald's value meal.