Justin Ratliff

From what I've seen before, with most uniform changes the IHSAA usually gives school a two year grace period before it's mandatory. This would allow the ADs to budget around the changes. I'm not sure where the IHSAA stands in this issue, but if it does become a change I'm sure team will have time to adjust. Or more likely I could see it being a secondary option along with the singlet, rather than a requirement.
 
I'd like to see if offering secondary uniform option at the elementary and middle would work in drawing some more participants. If it get more kids over any initial reservations enough so we can get them hooked on the sport, then a switch to a singlet in HS may not be as big of a issue.

middle School and elementary are not held to IHSAA standards so they can do whatever they want

Overall it was a very good tournament for the Indiana kids. Many of them wrestled very well against the top kids in the country. One thing I was impressed with is that there were very few pins from the first whistle. 
 
We tied our most placers from last year with 5 and even had some good success in the middle school and elementary divisions.

By JEREMY HINES
Thehines7@gmail.com
 
Alara Boyd firmly believes that she can compete with any female wrestler in the world. That confidence has Boyd, a sophomore at Yorktown High School, setting her sights on winning a gold medal at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
 
“I for sure feel I’m there, skill-wise, with anyone in the world,” Boyd said. “I want to be a world champion. But more than that, I want to win the Olympics in 2020. I know what I have to do to get there. I have to keep working. I have to keep practicing and I have to keep improving.”
 
The idea of Boyd wrestling in the Olympics is not a far-fetched one by any means. Boyd recently earned a bronze medal at the World Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia. Her lone loss came at the hands of Japanese gold medalist Atena Kodama, who tech-falled her opponent in the gold medal match.
 
“I took a few shots I shouldn’t have taken against Japan,” Boyd said. “They put me on the shot clock and I started to get a little anxious. That really hurt me.”
 
Boyd bounced back to win the bronze medal, defeating Canada’s Kirti Saxena 8-1.
 
“My family and friends were super excited for me,” Boyd said. “When I got back they were all telling me how proud they were of me. I thought I wrestled well, but I want to win the world championships next time.”
 
Boyd is a first-year cadet. She has two more years in the division.
 
Boyd began wrestling when she was 4-years-old. She fell in love with the sport right off. Her dad, Jimmy Boyd, was her coach.
 
As with most female wrestlers in Indiana, the majority of Boyd’s opponents are boys. Her practice partners are all seasoned veterans. Yorktown’s Christian Hunt, Josh Stephenson and Alex Barr all take turns wrestling Boyd at practice.
 
Boyd has had success against the guys. Last year, as a freshman, she posted a winning record for the Tigers. She wrestled at 132, 138 and even 145 in some meets.
 
In 2015 Boyd won the ISWA Freestyle and Greco Roman state championships, wrestling against a field of all male competitors.
 
“Alara is very, very physical, even by the boys’ standard,” Yorktown assistant coach Kenny O’Brien said. “She’s very strong. She’s fantastic from an underhook. Her physicality is overwhelming at times. She’s extremely good on top in freestyle and she has one of the best leg laces in the world.”
 
O’Brien also attributes some of Boyd’s success to her fight. It doesn’t matter who is in front of her, she will fight for the victory.
 
“Her toughness and her fight are her best attributes,” O’Brien said. “If a girl or a guy hits her, she’s hitting back. She doesn’t back down from anyone. She’ll never back down from anyone. She’ll get right in their face and hit them back if they mess with her.”
 
Boyd’s trip to Tblisi, Georgia was her first endeavor outside of the United States.
 
“Things were a lot different there,” she said. “The people were overall pretty friendly. They live a lot differently than we do here. They don’t have all the luxuries we have, but it was neat to experience their culture. You see what they have went through, and you see all of the hard working people over there. It was neat to experience.”
 
Boyd is currently undecided on whether she will wrestle for Yorktown during the high school season or concentrate more on training for the Olympics. She said she will most likely still wrestle for the school.
 
In addition to be an Olympic hopeful, Boyd also wants to wrestle in college. Although she’s undecided on what she wants to study. Currently she’s leaning toward dentistry.
 
Click here to view the article

You also bring in to it a judgement call by the official what if I pick you to your back in a front head is that not offensive?

He got about as much air time on tv as the Mongolian coaches got for their display. Not enough for him and too much for them.

Tomorrow will be the kickoff of our biggest project to date. Can't exactly reveal what it is, but it is something that many have been asking for. Can't wait to get it started and hopefully have at least a good portion done before the season starts.
 
We'll provide updates throughout the process along with dropping hints of what this really is.

Zach Errett just refereed the 59kg final!!
 
Hopefully tomorrow we will have some wrestlers in there as well

His LEGACY should not be questioned by anyone. Only 2 career losses, both as underclassman and both to number 1 ranked wrestlers in the country. There hasn't been anyone in the state of Indiana (I'm pretty sure) that had to wrestle two #1ranked national wrestlers in the state tournament for their only two career losses... Not Angel, not Blake, not Lance, not Alex and definitely not Drake....let's face it Indiana hasn't had many #1 ranked kids. His LEGACY is not based on number of state title, career wins or career pins... His legacy is solidified on who he is, how he conducted himself, how he won and how he lost. How many Indiana kids TF'd their way to the finals at nationals? His legacy allows him to stand shoulder to shoulder with every name mentioned.
 
Just thoughts on his legacy.

Aaron Pico isnt very good. He only has one state title.

None of those guys were top 5 in their weight nationally in high school.

Your high school legacy should include all the things you've done during your time wrestling in high school. Why should his legacy be limited to when he only had a Mater Dei singlet on? What about all the times he repped Indiana and made us proud? When you are talking about the best wrestlers ever in our state's history, you have to include the other stuff. I guess going by your logic , Red, Alex Tsirtsis, and Ellis are all tied for 1st place because they never lost and won 4 titles, no way to break the tie. 
 
If only there was a way.
 
 
I agree with this 100% Nick isn't the best wrestler in Indiana history, but he deserves to be put up there with the best. Number of State titles don't tell the whole story. 
 
Jason also beat Cashe after he had lost to him earlier in the year. Talk about coming through when it mattered. Then after his senior year, beats NCAA champion Darrion Caldwell at the last chance Olympic qualifier. I guess that last one might not matter to some people because he didn't have his Crown Point singlet on.

8 wrestlers to be flag bearers
 
http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2016/August/05/Eight-wrestlers-are-flagbearers-for-Rio-Olympic-Games

Typical Big network tactic...lie to people to make them think they have power so you get the website hits

Well, Phelps will get to carry it for what will most likely be his last Olympics...until the clones come of age.

Lee vs. Storr was a great match, that toss for 4 then two trapped arm guts were CLUTCH. 
 
Nick Lee got a stopsign and an invite to Flo's Who's #! in October.

Lucas Davison (Chesterton) Cadet 182 Freestyle Runner-Up
 
He earned two All American honors on this Fargo trip. Nice week for this young man. His team mate is up next and brother will be up tomorrow to add more to the Chesterton collection.
 
(My wife seems to think I need to go to my sisters diaper for beverage party for our nephew so someone else may need to cover the rest of the nights results. I am reluctantly going under the pretext he becomes a wrestler)

Here's the Cadet list:
 
94 Alex Cottey
100 Danny Tolin 
100 Jacob Moran
106 Devon Casebolt 
113 Asa Garcia 
113 Brock Peele
120 Tyler Triana
120 Matt Lee
120 Brooks Hartz
120 Gavyn Doane
126 Camden Chatterton
126 Jared Clark
126 Carson Willis
132 Levi Miller
132 Brailen Harrington
132 Jack Servies
138 Brooks Davis 
138 Tristan Sellmer
138 Zach Melloh
145 Jack Eiteljorge
145 Jarod Miller
152 Oszkar Kasch
160 Cody Klettheimer
160 Jacob Atkins
170 Rockne Hurley
170 Kameron Fuller
170 Danny Acevedo
182 Lucas Davison 
195 Eli Pokorney
195 Jack Biddle
220 Kyle Cornwell
220 Jaden Sonner
285 Nathaniel McDonald
285 Brody Miskimon
285 Tate Johnson

I got some info about the Fargo trip for team Illinois. Here is what that I have been told:
 
Fees: $900 for one style and $1,100 for both.
$100 will secure the spot the rest of the money is due at camp.
 
Fees include: Training camp at the University of Illinois (mandatory), room and board (meals) at camp (in a dorm), bus travel to Fargo, lodging at the Days Inn, $20 a day for meals, entry fees, and gear (two shirts, shorts, two singlets, and gear bag). 
 
Fundraiser (the biggest difference in our trips): each wrestler is issued raffle tickets. Each ticket cost $20. Each ticket has four numbers. If your ticket matches the daily for drawing (Illinois lottery), then you get $100. Each ticket has 30 chances to win. This fundraiser greatly reduces the wrestlers total cost (in many cases).
 
I believe that if the ISWA can assign a board member or create a position for a person to recruit our studs, educate clubs and parents about Fargo, and help run a fundraiser, then we may be able to turn this around.

http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2016/June/22/Cadet-National-Duals-All-Tournament-Teams-named
 

Surely we could get sponsors for our teams to knock the price down.  When I wrestled in Mexico on a Team Indiana trip in the 90's I got some local sponsors to help pay part of the trip.  I also helped seal some driveways, helped do some roofing, etc. to pay for my trip.
 
I plan on taking some of our youth to USA Folkstyle Nationals this year and I will get some local sponsorships to help fund the trip to encourage parents to get their wrestler involved.  If I can do that with a small club surely we can do that with our state team for nationals, right?

This is a final call for teams interested in joining this league for the 2016-17 season.  If you are wanting to be apart you MUST have representation at our June meeting.  This meeting is June 29th at 6:00 PM at Gallagher's 2.  This meeting will last a few hours and we have some key topics to discuss to start to get the ball rolling for the fall.  Please if there are any questions please let me know. If you can not attend and cannot send a team representative we will assume you are not in for this year.   The reason for this is to get a set list together now and start scheduling.  
 
Thank you all for understanding and look forward to a great meeting on Wednesday.
 
Ryan Williams
bgwc2014@gmail.com
317-918-7897 

Former Jeffersonville wrestler and state runner up Renaldo Weekley won his first pro fight this past weekend at Colosseum Combat XXXV with a :30 knockout. He has been fighting amateur with a 8-1 record.

Congratulations to Asa Garcia and Gunnar Larson. They were both named to the NHSCA Academic All American Team. A total of 138 kids from 30 states and 13 different sports were named. 

Indiana Wrestling Royalty.... Coach Lance Ellis, will be our special guest this week in the room on Tuesday and Thursday night. Coach McClurg and Steven Bradley are out of town this week, but the room won't skip a beat with Coach Blackwell and the Roncalli staff.... We hope to see some IN wrestling killers of all ages in there scrapping, because summer wrestling makes winter champions!
 
The Clinch (over under body lock)... If anyone beats Coach Ellis in this position, then you can win an entry into "Ripleys Believe It or Not"