Justin Ratliff

With a 3-0 Dual Meet Record Seymour Middle School captures the 2016-17 Tri-County Wrestling Championship.
 
Seymour MS 72 Columbus Northside MS 37
Seymour MS 70 Jennings County MS 33
Seymour MS 66 Columbus Central MS 54

I will be taking Asher to watch the Big 10's.  Who else will be there?

I will be taking Asher to watch the Big 10's.  Who else will be there?

Didn't do anything to my butt.  I just think Jr. High is Jr. High and in a time when there's a lot of chest thumping and big egos...suggesting a 13 year old would place with 17-18 year olds, serves no good purpose.  I know a few high schoolers who got their priorities screwed up by reading their rankings too often.  Jr. High kids will have their day, but the less publicity at a young age, the better.  I feel the same about comparing High School wrestlers to Big Ten wrestlers.  Wait until they are in the college room and deserve/have earned that conversation.  Just my opinion, since you asked.  If Reiser and I were talking in person, it would be different, but saying on here that a JH kid is good enough to place in HS, when there are tons of hard working HS kids who lost in the ticket round or before...kinda slaps them in the face, as well as puffs up the JH kid unnecessarily.   

Rooks bros at Evansville. Graham had lost to Blake Mulkey 4 times in the last 12 months, to boot nobody really gave Cayden a shot. Mills has spent the better part of 2 years as the #1 ranked wrestler in the state. 

The rise of academies are doing quite a bit for Indiana wrestling. The Region and Maurer Coughlin have their strongholds in their part of the states as well as the several in Central Indiana. The level of competition over the past years at the MS state tournament has been pretty incredible. Seeing a bunch of wrestlers ready to compete at the high school level at early ages is helping Indiana wrestling rise to another level.
 
Thanks to those that put this on. It is always a fun tournament to coach at and be a part of.
 
As mentioned, some qualifiers would be nice in areas around the state. The though of getting home at midnight or later for several people with school the next day is rough. Any schools/clubs/teams interested in piecing these together to help all involved?

I know of a decent size gym at a relatively accessible southern location that could probably host a qualifier. We'll just go ahead and take a Regional too so that the mats can be set up for it.

http://www.courierpress.com/story/sports/high-school/2017/02/09/lee-brothers-cementing-mater-dei-wrestling-legacy/97656604/
 
 

TripleB has an elbow fetish.

Maybe not if the entire state entry fee is paid at the qualifier level by all competitors. Having qualifiers could draw in more competitors due to:
 
The initial shorter drive and less initial travel investment.
 
The more reasonable competition level with a shot to get a state seed rather than risk a random draw.
 
A the qualifier allows more prestige from being a state qualifier.
 
If there is enough draw at the qualifiers at the full state entry fee then their should be the same money coming in as before to state, as well as, the funding for the qualifier locations too. It may not inscrease the final bottom line any but they maybe happy with the same final take-in win a far shorter and more organized day at state for everyone.

I'm going to call it like I tell a kid that's pissed saying he wasn't pinned. If you don't want to be pinned don't put yourself in a position to leave it up to someone else, stay off your back.
 
Same in this situation, if you don't want to take a chance getting a stalling call don't head backwards, circle in or don't stop attacking.
 
Didn't see this match, but I also know we have gotten away from calling kids for backing up as much. I remember times when kids got hit for stalling for backing up out of the small circle and believe that is still the rule, just not called as much.

Should MS wrestlers ever use them NO.
 
Is is against MS wrestling rules?  Well there isn't any actual MS governing body and rule set in Indiana, so most MS programs just adopt a modified version of the HS rules.  So the issue of plastics being illegal would be unclear.  As far as it being illegal for ISWA Middle School State that would specifically point to the rules that governing body, and USA Wrestling, has in place for all youth athletes.
 
But again should they use them to make cut weight NO.  Should MS and Elementary wrestlers be cutting lots of weight in any way. Again NO.  If a few days of better portion control (not starving) and hard wrestling workouts don't get them real close to weight then that's probably not the weight class they need to be wrestling.  Sure they may have to run a little that morning to get off the last few tenths of a pound, but no to the extent of using plastics or any similar item to get there.  Really this is about the same logic that should be applied to most HS age wrestlers too.  
 
I get other kids may do it, and I also get that some of them end up being great wrestlers despite how they made weight, but if you really look at both side there are just as many stories of wrestlers not having success after a hard weight cut, or hating the sport due to constantly having to make weight using these type of methods.  It's MS work on improving the technique, getting mat time, and learning from your mistakes.  Get them educated early on healthy dieting, portion control, and self-restraint.  Don't go down the road that will developing a negative attitude towards what it take to make weight class.  Constantly cutting weight each year using extreme measures is one of the biggest negatives wrestlers will say about the sport, and I would guess a leading cause  for "burn-out."  And don't self create yet another excuse for the wrestler (like lack of energy from cutting) for why you weren't able to beat a tough opponent.

Guys, I see enough political vomit on my Facebook feed, to the point of it being almost non-readable.  Please please please keep it off of here, it's my only escape!
 
Talk about the athletes, the politics of the decision, anything but pro- and anti- <*insert your choice Trump/Obama *>

Not all schools (even some 6A schools) have a gym large enough to host a Sectional.  And not all programs have the parent and administrative support to run it effectively.  I think the benefits of a "hometown crowd" are fairly offset by the challenges of hosting it.

The real wrestling season starts this weekend with everyone's post season record of 0-0.
May you wrestle to the highest level you are capable of and free of any injury or illness.
I have seen great wrestlers choke and not get out of sectionals. Some have missed weight and done.
I also have seen .500 wrestlers catch fire and make it down to state.
It is your time to shine.
It would be neat to have a big bracket board that starts with all the sectionals and end up with the final sixteen at State Finals. Why should March Madness be the only one to have it?
Maybe some high tech fellow fan could put it together and post here.
It would really show how huge of an accomplishment getting to state in our one class system.

Top 25 Indiana M.S Leader Board would be great. You might be one of the few knowledgeable enough for that age group to put this together.
It would be something for the young kids to shoot for as they come up through the ranks.
That said, I am really proud of the overall rise of Indiana Wrestling. Thanks to everyone helping the cause.

Chris Davis (Floyd Central) was one of the officials at the HHC tournament this weekend. He is an outstanding official.  Very decisive with his calls, knows the rules, controls the wrestlers, table help and keeps the match moving.  We travel a lot with our schedule and see officials from all corners of the state.  In my opinion, he is already one of the best out there, and I believe he is a first year official.  He is a great addition to southern Indiana officiating.
 
 

35 Indiana wrestlers competed this weekend at Tulsa Nationals, with 11 of them placing.  This tournament is said to be the toughest youth tournament in the country.  Definitely up there with Super 32, Ohio Tournament of Champions, and USA Nationals.  This tournament only places top 6.
 
Sam Rioux-- 6U-37lbs-5th place
Nate Rioux-- 10U-55lbs-5th place
Revin Dickman-- 10U-58lbs- CHAMPION
Seth Syra-- 10U-61lbs-6th place
KT Nelson-- 12U-84lbs-5th place
Brody Baumann-- 12U-88lbs-6th place
John Purdy-- 12U-100lbs-6th place
Jesse Mendez-- 15U-97lbs- CHAMPION
Blake Boarman-- 15U-110lbs-6th place  (Moran defeated Boarman 3-1 in semi finals)
Jacob Moran-- 15U-110lbs-3rd place
Scott Fitts-- 15U-137lbs-6th place

My wife's is usually around state weekend too. Her gift is usually that I leave her at home.

Well, we are seeing some things that we thought would happen and we can always make adjustments but we now have 102 girls in this tourney. When this tourney reaches the state next week we should have 8 girls in each bracket but a couple like 88lbs and HWT they have 3 in each. My idea from the beginning wasn't to exclude but include as may girls as possible. I am glad to see that we are filling up 182 and 195 and 220 and HWT that tells me some girls want a chance at this and I am glad for them. It has to start somewhere as anything does. We have worked hard to get here and really covered a lot of territory. We can always go to 7 weight classes but at this point I am glad we included any and every girl that had a dream to wrestle no matter what their weight was. Coach Myers IHSGW 

Its a tough line to balance. The goal should be to convince them that its good for them and they can be apart of something special. It can be hard if you're at a small school and team successes are few and far between. I know we use the goals of the Team State Duals to keep kids out. It could be a difficult thing for some schools but try and find an attainable goal for the team and make them feel like an integral part to that plan. 
 
These are things we have done in this situation and have had some success in keeping kids out. 
 
That being said we have also gone the other way done everything we could and they just don't react at some point you have to be able to realize you did all you could and its not worth you're time to pursue it any more. 

Masa and Valencia are redshirt freshman - a few years ago dare was a local wrasler at that weight who placed second as a true fresh in the big dance -,maybe we gonna get another one

I think that our middle schools should try it. There is no doubt that we could get more middle schoolers to wrestle, if they do not have to wear singlets. I think that I will be pushing for this at the middle school level in my area. I think that we should start at that level here in Indiana. This little change could get more athletes out and grow our sport. My son would have many of his super athletic friends over on the weekend. They would goof around, put singlets on, and wrestle on our home mat. Those same friends would not put singlets on and wrestle at school. Some kids are just funny about that stuff at that age. Seems like when they get to high school, they lose that modesty and don't care. By then its hard to get them to get involved with our demanding sport (too hard).

Looks like their state organization is making a move to allow fight shorts and compression shirts.
 
http://khsaa.org/110316-wrestling-will-experiment-with-new-rule/

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1185367
 
Finally!