Since no one is coming to the defense of Austin Bethel, it looks like I will...
1st point- The injury time was due to a medical condition that Austin has struggled with for 4 years. It is a huge accomplishment that he has been able to continue to compete when after his freshman year it was thought he would never wrestle again. The injury stoppage was MY call to check on the health of MY wrestler. I will not comment any further due to confidentiality.
2nd point- We used ALL of our injury time so that we would not stop the match again. If we had to stop again, we would have defaulted the match. We, Mt. Vernon, do not win that way. We do not break rules or take dives to win matches.
3rd point- The two stoppages AFTER the injury time were due to blood time. That is not on myself or Austin. The official saw it and HAS to stop the match to tend to the blood issue. If anyone watched Ripple's match with Henson, we were on the unfortunate end of that blood time...and we are not complaining about that nor would we be had we lost.
4th point- As to the remarks on his conditioning...I invite you to come watch our running, swimming, and live sessions and ask you to see who goes the hardest, the longest. Austin is in great shape and many don't see that due to his style of getting pins early in matches. For the record, he had Cooper pretty close to pinned (if not pinned) 3 times in the first period. Had that call happened, like it should have, this post would not exist.
Lastly- Neither Austin, the ref, or myself broke any rules during this match. It gets under MY skin that anyone would take a shot at a kid like this. This senior deserved his chance to finish the match even if it was on one leg. We are proud of Austin and all of his accomplishments. He became the FIRST wrestler in our school's history to qualify for state 4 times! That is what I will take away from this weekend and that is worthy of praise, not criticism.
Congrats Austin & Wade!! You guys make MV proud!!
Tim Alcorn
Mt. Vernon Head Wrestling Coach
Y2,
I respectfully ask that this post be haulted before it takes any turns for the worse. I know people are entitled to their opinion, but I think this week leading up to the state finals should positively focused on the kids.