piscis1956

Mendez v. Bartlett
Speechless! Insane defense and scrambling from JM! 
 

Lucas Davidson of Chesterton and Jesse Mendez -CP in the finals!  A good day for NWI wrestling. Let’s add to our national championship count for The Region and Indiana.  

Thanks a million, it is a good after season event 

So, has a decision been made?

Always loved going to Muncie Central Fieldhouse or Wigwam in Anderson, New Castle . Those places was packed to the rafters for games . 

Or they come right into practice yelling at the coach when they don’t have a clue as to what is going on. 

The first annual IndianaMat MessageBoard Hall of Fame class has been announced. Since this Hall of Fame is run by crooked media members we modified the rules right before the announcement. We are inducting three people posthumously and four via the vote-in process. Don’t be surprised if we change the rules again next year. Before we get into the inductees here are some of the general guidelines we have for this honor.
1. No admins or staff
2. Can only go in under ONE name
3. Been an active member for 5 years
4. Innovative and fun
5. All in fun
 
We start the inductees with three people who left an impact on the board and have unfortunately passed away. The first one is grecoref aka Tom Clark. He came to Indiana from his native Ohio and became a full blown Hoosier. On the mat he was a very accomplished referee making his way to the state finals and also to a little tournament called the Olympics. On the board he was known to provide valuable information, sarcasm, wit, and humor. He was a friend to all and a great personality to have on the board.
 
Our second inductee is The Ancient Elder aka Dick Neal. Mr. Neal was likely the greatest Indiana wrestling historian ever. In the days of paper brackets and snail mail, he acquired everything he could possibly get his hands on to incorporate into his Indiana wrestling book. On the board he always answered the historical questions and reminded us of the best wrestlers and matches of the years gone by.
 
The last one to be inducted posthumously is Perseverance aka Eric Allred. Allred has a great story of overcoming adversity and making his life right. He was a huge fan of his son Silas and very knowledgeable about the sport and the kids Silas wrestled with. His passion for the sport and supporting others is very much missed.
 
The currently active members are characters to say the least and have had a fun and important impact on our lively messageboard. It is only fitting that MattyB and Team Garcia are inducted at the same time. Both came on the board at the same time to wreak havoc and promote #TheCounty and mainly the “young guns” of Avon. They have continued to this day due to having sons still involved in wrestling or in the case of Garcia, just loving to stir the pot.
 
The steel factory in da region kept RegionRat1 off the board for a few years, but he made a comeback this season. While he has stayed relatively anonymous he always loves to promote da region in his very unique regioneese. Most outside of da region likely believe the way he types is how they speak there, and they aren’t wrong. 
 
Last, but not least is the lightning rod they call General Heavy Handz. Of the current inductees he leads the league in most “vacations” from IndianaMat. Luckily for him, Mike talks Joe into letting him come back EVERY SINGLE TIME! He is never shy about promoting the SAC and his beloved Snider Panthers.

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Don’t think too far ahead! Lol

Yes! Mr Allred was a very dynamic man. He lived an amazing life and his journey and words of wisdom made an impact on many of us in our wrestling community. Mr Allred was wise beyond his years. He counseled me on multiple occasions and his words were from somewhere not of this earth. He was a very spiritual man who meant every word he said. 
 
He is and always will be missed by us all. I will be rooting hard for his son this weekend!!! 

As stated previously this hall of fame is ran by crooked media folks who don't care. All rules are as valuable as the napkin they were written on.

It’s generally easier to make varsity at a small school I suppose.  You can participate in other sports and still make the wrestling team.
 
Not arguing your point, just offering a possible answer your last question.

Congratulations to this year's inductees
 
 

Why have so many kids that would have attended a smaller school ended up at Crown Point, Brownsburg, or Center Grove recently? If practice partners, schedule, coaching, and other factors didn't matter they should have stayed at their small schools and been stars.

Not sure how wrestlebacks would make it less exciting.  Even with wrestlebacks, there would be a “ticket round”.
 
That said, I agree that life surely isn’t fair.

Zach, you’ve made a lot of good points for which many on this board agrees with you whole heartedly.  And then there are others who consider your stated opinions to be heresy.  And then there are others whose opinions vary at all levels in between.  This topic has been debated on IndianaMat ad nauseum, which is why all the comments about the dead horse.
 
 

We are always going to disagree here.
You may see the lack of wrestlebacks as exciting but I see Henderson vs Haines in the ticket round, with only one of them going, as an abomination. Both wrestlers have put in the work and are the bad draws, but blind luck of the draw combined with the lack of wrestlebacks means that the question of the top 4 semistate wrestlers on the day is not even considered. And it easily could be.
Add a round of wrestlebacks to semistate and qualifying gets harder. You have to win 3 matches instead of 2 to qualify, and the third will always be against someone out of your pod who has already won 2 matches. Add wrestlebacks to the State Finals and you need to win 2 matches to place instead of 1. That is way more exciting to me. If you really want exciting, watch the blood round at Fargo or Super32 or NCAAs.
Wrestlebacks would make Indiana HS wrestling better.
 

The difference is at a bigger school if a kid wants to be varsity there is a decent chance he has to give up other sports to achieve that. At a small school you can be varsity much easier and don't have to give up other sports to keep your spot. This is one of those areas where the separation starts to occur, especially at weights 150lbs and below.

Then let me rephrase my question. In what way is it more beneficial to the success of an athlete participating in a non-classed individual sport at a small school competing in the state tournament?

At a small school, this decision doesn't just affect the individual. It affects the entire athletic program. And if we wrestling coaches at small schools promote to our kids that they should focus on wrestling and with the other teams, whatever happens happens...then that's just not being a good teammate from an athletic department perspective. And even if you can convince me that it is OK to just look out for your sport, what happens if all of the wrestling kids agree with me that they should focus on being as good as possible at one sport, and that sport isn't wrestling? Answer: the wrestling team will fold and there won't be wrestling anymore at Culver Community. I don't want that for wrestling and I don't want that for any of our programs.

So large schools also worry about not having a baseball team because the wrestlers are all focusing on wrestling instead of baseball (or ____ spring/fall sport)?
 
My son is an example I can use. He isn't "finding something else they (he) can be doing other than grinding." He is pitching and catching for the baseball team and working hard at it. He will actually be going in a week or two early to start work with the varsity baseball team before his middle school team practices fully begin. It's baseball season, so I owe it to him and the baseball team to allow him to give that season his full attention, just like he was able to give the wrestling season his full attention.
 
What are some of the benefits of wrestling for a small school?

Everything you are saying is correct...however, at a small school, it is difficult in good conscience to truly push kids to wrestle to get better in the spring. They are busy making sure our baseball, softball, track, and golf teams are as competitive as possible. How would I feel if the baseball coach was leveraging the wrestlers to start tuning their arms up in January? It would p*@# me off. And of course big schools also share athletes. However, if the wrestlers at small schools focus on one sport, the other sports don't do poorly - they cease to exist. Small schools are playing a differnt game. That's why team sports are classed. There is no difference for individual sports. Everyone has to block another individual in football. Everyone has to mark another individual in soccer. You get where I am going here.

An individual kid doesn’t have much say in his team’s schedule, and I doubt too many schools make out their schedule with one kid in mind.   So I don’t think a kid can make the decision to “prove it” at Al Smith or other in season tournaments.  They can at out of season tournaments though.

Many states have tried some sort of champions tournament and they all have failed. It would be the same thing as us running state back two weeks later and asking everyone to "prove it" with their title runs. I would guess there are around 100 wrestlers who would love a redo on their state finals and to improve their placement or get revenge for a loss they took.
 
If a kid wants to prove he's the best in a classed state he will prove it at events during the season such as Al Smith, Mooresville, and others, prove it at ISWA events, or go out and place high at national events. 
 
Why aren't we having Rochester, Delta, and Floyd Central wrestle Crown Point after team state? Do we want to crown them champions, but then the next week say... "well you aren't really the champion?" How asinine is that?

Zach, you’ve made a lot of good points for which many on this board agrees with you whole heartedly.  And then there are others who consider your stated opinions to be heresy.  And then there are others whose opinions vary at all levels in between.  This topic has been debated on IndianaMat ad nauseum, which is why all the comments about the dead horse.
 
 

Zach, you’ve made a lot of good points for which many on this board agrees with you whole heartedly.  And then there are others who consider your stated opinions to be heresy.  And then there are others whose opinions vary at all levels in between.  This topic has been debated on IndianaMat ad nauseum, which is why all the comments about the dead horse.