Wrestling Scholar

SWINfan is also probably one of those guys that doesn't believe in Sasquatch either.

Are you saying the late Razor Ramon"s Razors Edge finisher wasn't a real move. Or that Dick Murdock AKA Captain Rednecks Brain Buster us not real either.

Gable is going to cash in. Good for him. A lot more chances to see him wrestle on TV. He needs a signature move. Good guy or heel?

Disappointing day for Purdue. Another year without an All-American for Ersland. Has Ersland ever had an AA at Purdue? He puts some competitive dual teams up, but, just can't break through the ceiling. He's recruited some good talent, but where's that Ipwa tourney magic that he experienced under Gable? Hope he finds that someday.

Mark Hall who was an NCAA champion and 3 time NCAA finalist for Penn State has to be the ultimate middle school wrestler. As a 7th grader, his dad moved him to Florence, KY and he made the state finals but lost to the returning state champ. The following year, he moved to Apple Valley, MN and basically redshirted as he started as a 7th grader there. This time he won the state championship as a 7th grader and went on to win 6 Minnesota state championships. He had a high school record of 278 wins. Very extreme to wrestle high school for 7 years.

High school dual meets on average pay $70 -$85. Some Tournaments pay $175 to $250 and that can be contingent on how long or if its a big school or small school tournament or if its a long tournament and there are exceptions. In my experience, working two dual meets and a tournament, I would be happy walking away with $350. $75+75+200. I also reffed the 1A/2A state.

I would say 98% of the officials that i know and work with are ex-wrestlers with a varied and diverse level of wrestling accomplishments. Its a great way to stay and contribute to the sport and you get the best seat in the house.

Lucas Oil- 67000

I was seriously thinking about jumping in. Not sure how long I could last on the mat.

This was the first year and was a prototype, or you call it a pilot. I think this pilot was pretty awsome and its brand is going to grow. The whole concept is great, and Greg Hughes (Lutheran Coach) took an idea put into action. He put a lot of work and recruiting and wore a lot of hats to make this happen. Lets also thinks to the job the Coach Welliever and the Southmont staff did to make this happen. Agreeing with Hogleg, and the reason the idea so good it gives the small school kids a chance to shine. IMO, the IHSAA tournament is good, and not to get into the class wrestling argument, but the small school wrestler in Indiana is overlooked and mistreated. This give the kid a chance at a state title and an obtainable goal to be a state placer. Yes, this year we didnt have full participation, because just getting the word out or kids not buying in. In my opinion, the kids that won this tournament are State Champions. So what if it doesnt have the IHSAA stamp on it Yes they didn't face the whole population of 1A and 2A but these kids were the first to buy in participate. I think in future years you'll get a higher percentage participation. And it fills the big whole that the IHSAA leaves out and gives these small kids some visibility. Too bad it had to compete with Frosh/Soph state, but i think the whole concept is something wrestling community will eventually come to embrace.

Good point that's not super professional. On the flip side if the commentator got this excited and exclamatory about it, andthat this move was so big and strong, what did we miss seeing? I feel like i missed out on something.

Joe, never forgets anything. I try to stay away from bets on Indianamat, I suppose I dont have a high win %. But Tacos are the best. With that said, Im right 98% of the time, the other 10% of the time, I might be wrong.

Its good to see the General getting some extra cardio.

Darnit, I hate being wrong. Good point, you're correct it is two days.

At least there on different days

Id be pissed, and hope you come out OK. That's just wrong. If you don't get reimbursed, I would hope nobody would be crazy enough to suggest a Tripadvisor and YELP bad review of the Hotel and mention poor customer service, dangerous elevators and bed bugs. That would be wrong. This does remind me about 9 years ago, our team raised money and took our whole team to the state tournament and were staying at the Fairfield, and I was chaperoning kids. We had two kids get stuck on the elevator, so it wasn't a weight issue. I was walking by and the kids started screaming, one kid was about ready to cry. I went and told the front desk, and the lady desk didn't believe me that he elevator was stuck. After about 10 minutes of explaining, I finally convinced her it was stuck. Eventually, after a couple of hours they brought in a fire truck to get the elevator unstuck and get the kids out. The front desk wasn't happy and was pretty much blaming the kids. These two kids were one of he more squirrly kids on the team, but I dont think they did anything to elevator, but you never know. We were not charged $300 by Fairfield.

You have a good point Mike, and it seems like there's a trend for some top end talent moving to Illinois. The question is why the Illinois competition looks better or more provocative to these individuals so much to compensate for these kids commuting through the busy traffic? Is it better exposure, better competition, or possibly the travel limitations put on Indiana schools imposed by IHSAA? Are sure maligned has an analytical perspective on this.

#1 thing "Wrestle Backs" , lets take the luck of the draw out of the Indiana tournament.

If everybody doesn't want to drive to West Lafayette and enjoy Mackey, did anybody ever consider Valpo University's basketball field house. Never been there but it seats 5k. You might lose some capacity with wrestling mats, but should that be big enough.

The IHSAA Tennis tournament is more messed up then the wrestling tournament. They run it like a team tournament and only winners advance and they only let one singles player and one doubles team compete, not the whole team. The inequity is more noticeable as the better tennis teams come from very similar geographic locations, with the best players coming from the same sectional or same team sometimes. This was exceptionally agregious this year as the two best kids in the state this year were in the Lafayette sectional. The #1 ranked player lost a very close match to the #2 player in the state in the sectionals. The #2 player killed the rest of the field and won state easily. The #1 player's season was over. Again, this is because the IHSAA jams their basketball format and totally ignores the idiosyncracies of other sports. Just imagine the outrage is you had the two best wrestlers in the state wrestle in sectionals, and one could advance.

So if they could get four college mats, they could easily get four high school mats in there. Mackey has to be the best venue in the SS geographical area. Plenty of parking, adequate number of hotels and some good places to eat. It would be great except all the people in the Region and South Bend would complain about driving down I65 and crossing over the Eastern Zone.

I also moved to Indiana and questioned the wrestling format, especially no wrestle backs. It doesn't make sense. But as mentioned in earlier, the IHSAA is very adamant against wrestlebacks and will not change or adapt. But, Ill go into detail as the IHSAA reasoning for this. The IHSAA runs wants to stay true in all sports to their sectional, regional, semi-state state format. This format is more or less more conducive to basketball and football. One of the results is there are a lot of basketball, football and baseball teams that get bad draws and lose early in the tournament due to a more competitive area with more ranked teams. But these teams do not have a consolation opportunity or bracket to compensate for their earlier loss. And the IHSAA's most important objective is that the one best still wins the championship irrelevant of any bad draws to reach that point. So the IHSAA board who is made up of mostly ADs who were former Football, Basketball and baseball coaches feel that just as in other sports, the wrestler should not have the opportunity to compete in a consolation/or wrestleback format just like the team sports and this format ultimately decides the true champion. Note, many Indiana wrestling fans love the drama of the Friday night matches and call it a "Ticket round" where the results have heavy rewards and consequences being if you win you place, you lose you go home. Im my opinion this format is a disgrace and attacks the integrity of the sport. You compile a one class event where mathematically, Indiana is the most difficult state tournament to qualify and you have a great opportunity to showcase the states best talent, but the IHSAA wants to shorten the event and get the kids out. Its silly, and actually if they had another session and had wrestle backs, the IHSAA could charge more money. Ive done some research and have compiled a list below of states that do not have wrestlebacks for their state tournament. List of states without wrestle backs. 1. Indiana

Does Mackey have the floor space to put in 4 mats with room for table help? About 10 years ago, they hosted the Big 10s, did they have four or 3 college sized mats? Im sure Purdue could schedule the Mens and Girls basketball schedule around one Saturday in February for a little extra jack.

I thought that was the Taco place next to the High School. I guess that other Taco place next to the high school wins, and my geography loses. Where's Region Rat when you need him?

Im predicting EL Taco Real in East Chicago will be a big winner, I bet they sell at least a 100 more tacos from the traffic.