boomer

Eastside has a very solid 170 pounder in Laik Minnick. And speaking of freshman, they have a solid HWT in Chase Leeper that went undefeated in the Super Dual last weekend. Defeated Vince Yoder in the process and just lost a close match to SemiState #7 Dakota Ault 6-4. Gonna surprise some upper classmen.

Josh Reyes from West Noble is a freshman. Went back and forth with both Malachi and Nick.

A couple notables from the NECC super duels that I saw. Seth Burns , Eastside,  beats Ryan Rasler SS#2  22-21 in a shootout. Seth also lost to Zach Burrell 15-12. Not sure if Ryan and Zach met up this weekend or not . Also saw SS#4 at 132, Austin Moore beat SS#4 at 138 ,Joe leazier  at 138 by 1 point.

Seeding meetings are gonna be fun too

Do those kids realize they aren't supposed to lose to others like that? It totally screws up the rankings!

Some people make it seem so easy to build a program, to get numbers, and then ultimately have success.
 
A youth program is a great start, but you MUST retain those kids or else the youth program is worthless. The biggest thing that will scare off kids is pushing them to go to events too early. I would only push beginner tournaments, friendship meets, etc if anything early on. Tournaments are scary and not fun if you aren't ready for them.
 
Here are some suggestions for the high school level.
If you aren't in the building one good way is to go to lunch and sit down with the kids and recruit them that way. Have your wrestlers point you towards kids that they think would help the team.
 
Talk to the football/cross county/soccer teams, especially the middle school and freshman teams near the end of their seasons. Hopefully you can get a respected coach to say wrestling is good also, that NEVER hurts.
 
Good old fashioned bribery never hurts. Tell the current wrestlers that if they get one new kid to come out next year and he stays out you'll do X for the kid that go the new guy out. X could be some cool gear, pizza party, or anything else that the kids would eat up.
 
Promote the sport by doing things like a float in a holiday parade or setting up a booth at a festival. 
 
Another great way to promote the sport at the school is give the kids lots of different wrestling shirts. Things for perfect attendance, being on the honor roll, 20 wins, wrestler of the week, etc. That way the kids are wearing them and others are constantly seeing it.

I guess the first thing that comes to mind as I sift through these posts is "perspective."  Just who are you in relation to the issue?  Are you a coach, a grandfather of a wrestler, an ex-wrestler, a current high school wrestler?  If you are a coach, you will likely understand the dynamics of a small school better than most, as compared to a large school. (i.e. - lesser resources to work with, smaller coaching staff, fewer drill partners in the practice room, smaller gene pool of athletes to pull from, etc)  I would also caution that the vantage point of a "teacher-coach" is much, much different than that of a "lay coach."  I have been both.  I was a lay coach for 18 years before becoming a teacher for the past 10 years.  Even as a lay coach, I had no idea about the dynamics and inter-workings surrounding the students and their available resources during the school day and on the athletic field.
 
If we want to grow actual wrestling in our state, class wrestling is the way to go.  It offers fair and equitable opportunities to all who participate across the state.  We should class Indiana wrestling for the very same reasons we now class Indiana football, Indiana baseball, etc...   The days of Hickory HS and the movie Hoosiers is long gone.  Community and school dynamics have changed drastically in recent decades.  
 
Class wrestling works in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois to name just a few, and it would work tremendously in Indiana.  I don't think anyone can say that the class system has hurt wrestling in any of these other states that surround us.
 
So back to perspective...  just who should have the final say on this topic, since so many people are divided on the issue?  The fan in the stands who doesn't have a singlet on?  The IHSAA who only seems to care about money and self-preservation?  Or should the schools/teams who are the ones in the trenches have the final say-so?
 
I think this point has been made before, but I will mention it again.  If there is no use for "class anything", then let's do away with class football in Indiana.  It's 11 vs 11 right?  Them there small schools should be able to hang with Warren Central and Ben Davis on the gridiron.  While we are at it, let's do away with DI, DII and DIII classifications at the collegiate level!  Those DIII wrestlers need to quit making excuses and man up against Penn State, Oklahoma State and Iowa!  That's a fair assessment isn't it?
 
There are classifications of all kinds in our society's infrastructure in the name of "fair play."  It is time Indiana class its high school wrestling season to offer more equitable opportunities to kids from varying communities and school districts across the state and to grow the sport as a whole.  Mark my words... if we implement class wrestling, our numbers and overall strength of the sport will sky rocket across the state!
 
Coach McCormick
 
 

I was watching that match and there was no lose of control. When they gave the escape point i was just as baffled as you. In my opinion it was a bad call, again there is just no consistency in the calls that are made between refs.

No way is that an escape. Way too many ref wrong decisions deciding matches. I started a post after semi state about an official and post was taken down. These kids work way too hard to get this far only to be screwed. We need more consistency, and better definition of how matches are going to be called!!

I was watching that match and there was no lose of control. When they gave the escape point i was just as baffled as you. In my opinion it was a bad call, again there is just no consistency in the calls that are made between refs.

I was watching that match and there was no lose of control. When they gave the escape point i was just as baffled as you. In my opinion it was a bad call, again there is just no consistency in the calls that are made between refs.

Watts beat Streeter in ticket round.

Red beats #16 Welliever 7-2, Lee techs #3 Molley in just over 3 minutes. I would say he is healthy and ready for a shot at Red.

Good luck to everybody wrestling this weekend, it was an honor to be able to compete at fort wayne semi state 4 years. not everybody has that opportunity, cherish it and be proud of the accomplishment you have made so far, no matter if you advance or not, leave it on the mat and be proud to be apart of the best sport known to man. If you are a wrestler reading this remember, it doesn't matter how many losses you have had this season, or who it was too. It doesn't matter your rank, your school, your record, it matters who shows up for the first 6 minutes, leave it all on the mat. You have plenty of time to regroup and collect yourself for the next round. Wrestle with a clear mind, and a full heart. Good luck to all!

Carroll reg. at 132, You have Rhodes / Raypole in semis and winner gets Doster in the finals.

Carroll reg. at 132, You have Rhodes / Raypole in semis and winner gets Doster in the finals.

Well since there was all the talk about Carroll vs the SAC I looked and Carroll went 12-5 vs the SAC.  Carroll had 5 champs to the SAC'S 3. Carroll had 4 runner ups and the SAC had 2. Carroll had  3 3rd place finishers and the SAC had 6. Carroll had 1 4th and the SAC had 2. Carroll sent 13 and the SAC sends 18 from 4 teams. All and all a good day of wrestling.

Well since there was all the talk about Carroll vs the SAC I looked and Carroll went 12-5 vs the SAC.  Carroll had 5 champs to the SAC'S 3. Carroll had 4 runner ups and the SAC had 2. Carroll had  3 3rd place finishers and the SAC had 6. Carroll had 1 4th and the SAC had 2. Carroll sent 13 and the SAC sends 18 from 4 teams. All and all a good day of wrestling.

Jessie Lawson of Carroll via pinfall over Dakota Ault
Caleb Blevins of Carroll defeats Heath Ault by overtime decision

220 at Carrol
 
Maybe not the most big names, but a lot of solid wrestlers. Might not be the most top heavy, but it might be the deepest.  It has 8 maybe 9 wrestlers that I would say are "quality" if there was a way to quantify that.  The top 7 by win percentage go:
 
31-1
33-3
29-4
22-7
23-10
24-11
25-12
 
The 8-9 are:
10-6
16-14
 
This group has the SAC Champ (regional qualifier 2 years ago), the NECC 220 Champ (regional last year), NECC 285 Champ (also a state qualifier last year).  There is at least one other former regional qualifier in the group.  The 6 seed has defeated the past state qualifier this year.  The group as a whole has a lot of pretty even matches, should be a pretty interesting day for this weight.  Lots of solid evenly matched kids, lots of solid guys will be heading home.

When the top two guys are on the same side of the bracket at sectional it creates quite a domino affect throughout the rest of the state series.
 
The top two guys will finish 1st and 3rd at sectional. Thus the third placer gets a runner-up from the other sectional in the first round of regional. If he survives that match he then will have the 1st place guy in the semi-finals and thus they will again finish 1st and 3rd at regional.
 
I saw a kid last year get a top seed based solely on a record of something like 8-2 and it forced the top two guys to the bottom bracket. They finished 1st and 3rd. At regional the 3rd placer had a much tougher match by facing a sectional runner-up and saw the runner-up(a kid he had beaten) advance to semi-state over another opponent he beat during the season. It's hard to not feel for kids who do well only to be hurt by coaches with weak schedules and inflated records.

Are you sandbagging with your picks again. Not a single carroll kid winning. I see them winning at least 3 and in the fight for several more. Unless they decide to just not show because of all the SAC teams that are going to be there and they figure they cant win anyway. In all seriousness ross from eastside beat leazier 8-3 at conference.

You better get 1st or 2nd at Carroll at 132 or your going to have a tough regional.

You better get 1st or 2nd at Carroll at 132 or your going to have a tough regional.

Some notables from New Haven
 
 
113 Trevor Boyce 6-2 over Dane Martin and again 3-1 in overtime
 
 
113 Wyatt Miller 5-3 in overtime over Trevor Boyce
 
 
113 Geoffrey Davis over Wyatt Miller 9-0
 
 
120 Blaigh Rushing 4-0 over Sam Richard
 
 
126 Jack Franklin 1-0 over Kyle Davis
 
 
126 Kyle Davis pin :49 over Briar Goodwin
 
 
132 Owen Doster tf 16-1 over Chase Hissong
 
 
132 Drake Rhodes 3-2 over Owen Doster
 
 
138 Trace Manspeaker 5-2 over Mason Kern
 
 
145 Isaac Eicher all first period pins
 
 
152 Cody Van Ooyen 15-13 over Gage Delong
 
 
152 Cody Widner 6-0 over cody Van Ooyen
 
 
160 Nick Potter 10-2 over Scott Lentz
 
 
170 Tate Burns wins, improves to 25-1
 
 
182 Wyatt Clem wins with all pins
 
 
195 Isaiah Baumgartner 2-0 over Kirt Ohlemacher
 
 
220 John Isaacson 5-4 overtime over Trevor Brown