dawsdad

Awesome! Thanks everyone!

Indiana Outlaws is an another option , they run some practices in the off season at Columbus East .. 

Indiana Outlaws is an another option , they run some practices in the off season at Columbus East .. 

Contact Columbus East

There is no need for any more clarity. We are talking about KIDS and no need to go into any more detail.

Coach Trap (unsure on spelling) was always around Columbus East program and Outlaws teams. Great guy and could coach all the kids like they were his own. Unsure if he is still helping out, but his time and effort were always appreciated. 

I got 1 more. I never got to see him wrestle as his wrestling career was before my time. But I saw him in the early UFC days and fell in love with combat sports because of him. 
 
Kevin The Monster Randleman. Rest in Peace to the legend. 

I won't be shocked when someone points out errors. I compiled this with the signing list as mentioned before. Most likely missing guys on rosters. Ranking listed is from Wrestlestat.com
 
NCAA D2 Mens College Wrestlers:
 

 

I’m a little confused too. I’ll ask Nick unless someone responds before I do. 

Shout out to my friend Dustin Bentz, aka TripleB!!  Dude had a real scare last year, lost about 100 lbs and then decided to step up to the plate and compete at Folk State this year.  Still got it!  Matter of fact, props to all the dudes in this pic and all the masters division wrestlers still willing to go out and throw down! 👏👏👏.  Dustin, Sam’s has the 5 gal pale of flex-all on sale… haha.

IU has 3 Columbus East kids as starters

It’s college wrestling… nobody is ever 100 percent healthy. The kid is amazing and had reached the number one ranking in his class of all college wrestlers. I’m guess he’s had a few hiccups but know in my heart that he will be on top again before it’s all said and done. A lot of my middle schoolers wear shirts that say BeLEEve. I think they are on to something! 

Breyden Bailey with a big win over #2 ranked D2 133 Dillion Lucas of Central Oklahoma and Derek Blubaugh with a big win over #1 Ranked D2 197 Abney of Central Oklahoma ( rematch of last year’s NCAA championship finals) at the NCWA team duals in Louisville today . 

Shout out to Columbus East for believing in themselves by fighting for that vote-in spot and making the finals. Good program with tough kids who are always well coached.

By Blaze Lowery
 
Sicker Than a Hound Dog 
The Greyhounds of Indianapolis look to bounce back this weekend In Louisville at the NWCA National Duals after unfortunate turn of events recently at the Midwest Classic. Heading into the 43rd Midwest Classic, Indianapolis was ranked 4th in the nation with five returning national qualifiers, where they have now dropped to #12 as a team after some illness struck the team and kept them from performing at the level they anticipated.
 
Both #3 Logan Bailey and #11 Derek Blubaugh fall to illness early on, keeping them from wrestling the second day of the tournament. Bailey gave up a fall to #2 Gabe Johnson of Central Oklahoma and forfeited out the rest of the tournament. Likewise, Blubaugh took a tough a loss to Western Colorado’s Porter Fox, which has now pushed him down the rankings from #2 to #11 at his weight.

View full article

I believe that is part of Team Garcia’s and my points , To be great , you have to do great things . The program that we were apart of was built within by dedicated parents and wrestlers , we car pooled taking 6-12 wrestlers a hour away 3 times a week to get to wrestle Asa , Chad Red , Brayton and the list goes on , multiple state champs in the room every night , the other wrestlers did not care what size school you came from either you got better or you would pay the price … Those academy practices were worth every penny and minute spent doing them .. Every wrestler was there to push and get better …

I wouldn’t want to see any changes, I think the team State duals make a nice compromise. 
 
the only change that I could see being kind of cool is run a big school bracket and a small school bracket, the winner of each face off under the lights. call it whatever, something resembling the NFC and AFC in the Super Bowl. 
 
run it like that for a few years and if it’s not good, go back to the one size fits all bracket. 

This is a topic I have discussed with our coach exhaustively over the years. There really is no right or wrong answer, just what works best based on the personal goals of the wrestler. The only definitive answer that we have come up with is that there has to be more of a desire and true teamwork between wrestler, coaches, and family in the smaller school setting. My son had goals of going to state when he was in 5th/6th grade. We worked as a team to get him to the right training, learning the Olympic styles that lead to multiple trips with Team Indiana, and working with other coaches. There were always other coaches willing to help a kid that wanted to learn and wrestle like Jake O’Neil and Quinn Harris. We have worked out quite a bit when time allowed at the Warrior RTC. If you want a look at who was in that room, there are around 9 boys in the number 1-3 positions in a lot of the weight classes in the current Fort Wayne Semi State ranking. Many will be going to Gainbridge in a little while, hungry for better results than last year. Those kids traveled to GFC and to Super 32 together as well, constantly getting better for this season.  It definitely helps when you have some college kids around to help and wrestle, helping cement those goals that there is wrestling life beyond high school. When they went on a hiatus, we went to a different wrestling room in Indy. The biggest difference versus the bigger school is we had to do a lot more traveling. Sometimes our coaches went, a lot of times we had help from the others. The greatest thing about the wrestling world versus other sports I have been with, is that if the kid has the desire, there are people who will give of their time to help along the way. However, like everything else in life it has to start with the wrestler and their support team. The main question is how do you get the wrestler to not only have the right goal, but the willingness to do what it takes to achieve that goal. Yes, it is much easier to find opportunities in the bigger cities, but in the end isn’t wrestling the instrument to teach we get what we put into it?

I grew Up in Indian, going to every state championship since 4th grade(1996) until I moved to Nebraska in 2008. For 2009-2010 season I was excited to go watch the Nebraska state wrestling finals.... until I got there. The finals had 4 mats wrestling( 1 for each class), and I asked a few spectators what mat was for 1st and 2nd? They replied with all 4 mats are wrestling for a state title at the same weight-class. Then the awards in between each weight-class took foreveeeer. As for the competition, it seemed completely watered down. I went into this not having an opinion one way or the other about class wrestling, but I never went back to the Nebraska state finals as it was like any other "ordinary" tournament. Id say winning a Nebraska state title is about like winning an Indiana Semi-state! Nothing to laugh about but not the same as winning an IHSAA state wrestling title. I'm happy to say that I moved back to Indiana in 2016 and have been to every IHSAA state championship since. It is simply the best! The only thing I would change about the individual IHSAA Wrestling tournament is to have full wrestle backs for 3rd place starting at sectionals.
 
 
Nebraska Class A (big class)Finals 5-pins 2-techfalls 1-MD 1-OT
Nebraska Class B Finals 4-pins 0-techfalls  2-MD  0-OT
Nebraska Class C Finals 1-pins 3-techfalls  2-MD 1-OT
Nebraska Class D (Smallest class) Finals 1-pin 0-techfalls 1-MD  1-OT
56 state champions crowned...….. The matches from the smallest schools were the most competitive.
 
 
 
 
 
 

SAW (Simmons Academy of Wrestling is 1hr22m from Angola,IN) according to Google Maps.  The guy that runs the academy is Nick Simmons, Olympian (had to beat Henry Cejudo, prior Olympic Gold medalist to make the team).
 
Fort Wayne has several academies also now.  You can find them quickly with Google.

Sean Galligar, Columbus East, started wrestling in 9th grade, no experience whatsoever.  Didn’t win a single match his freshman year at the JV level.  Placed 3rd as a Senior 285 lber.

I agree with Team Garcia on almost all points of his post .  My son wrestled at a current 3A school (there were only 3 classes then ) he wrestled the best teams in the state (current 4 a)  , it was a great experience and helped develop him. When you drive all over the country to these national meets to wrestle the best kids and different styles , why would we want to water down one of the country’s best high school wrestling tournaments?  Wrestlers at their core work to be their best , I guess do you drive out of your way to avoid a hard tournament or do you go to a hard tournament to be your best ? Growing the sport is very important but not to the point of ruining its core values .. 
 
Team Garcia , I am a fan of your tournament of champions , I believe Ohio does that with the individual champs correct  ? 

I believe that is part of Team Garcia’s and my points , To be great , you have to do great things . The program that we were apart of was built within by dedicated parents and wrestlers , we car pooled taking 6-12 wrestlers a hour away 3 times a week to get to wrestle Asa , Chad Red , Brayton and the list goes on , multiple state champs in the room every night , the other wrestlers did not care what size school you came from either you got better or you would pay the price … Those academy practices were worth every penny and minute spent doing them .. Every wrestler was there to push and get better …

I believe that is part of Team Garcia’s and my points , To be great , you have to do great things . The program that we were apart of was built within by dedicated parents and wrestlers , we car pooled taking 6-12 wrestlers a hour away 3 times a week to get to wrestle Asa , Chad Red , Brayton and the list goes on , multiple state champs in the room every night , the other wrestlers did not care what size school you came from either you got better or you would pay the price … Those academy practices were worth every penny and minute spent doing them .. Every wrestler was there to push and get better …

But is it really watering down? The top schools are still going to be the top schools. Nine of the top ten scoring teams at the state finals last season were all 4A or 3A with a 2A coming in tenth off of the strength of two wrestlers (one of whom transferred in from a 4A school). Immediately behind that 2A team were three more 4A/3A teams with a single 1A team finishing 14th with one wrestler winning and more 4A/3A teams following behind. As it stands, the 1A and 2A teams are never going to beat out the top nine teams ever, and one wrestler winning a title and scoring 26.0 points is not indicative of a 1A team overall being competitive, it just means that wrestler alone is. It’s the same story year after year. Give 1A/2A their own class to bring more involvement and spotlight and I guarantee you we’d end up becoming more competitive as a state overall. Everyone wouldn’t want to just flock to Brownsburg, Crown Point, or Perry to win a championship, they’d stay where they are and they’d be more willing to go out of state to compete at these bigger tournaments with the confidence boost.