Justin Ratliff

Congratulations. I look forward to watching them wrestle.

I have to say this was one of the most enjoyable events I have ever worked on any level. The folks from the Lynx Wrestling Club, the Tourism Bureau, and Belterra Casino truly made this a great event for everyone involved. The atmosphere, the awards, the finals presentation, were all first class.  I believe this will help grow wrestling not only in the area, but as this event continues to grow, it will grow wrestling in the state as well.
 
Tyson Skinner this event would not have happened with you. With that being said, I have probably worked with hundreds of Tournament Directors throughout the years and you are certainly one of them 
 
I am already looking forward to next year.
 
Tom Clark

Just getting a chance to sit down and relax after the inagural Saturday Night Slams in Vevay.  The Lynx Wrestling Club asked me to be tourney director and help them set there first ever tourney up with the blessing of their Tourism Board.  This tourney was a huge hit with everyone in attendance.  We initially planned for a outdoor tourney but weather didn't want to allow that to happen and Belterra Casino in the 24th hour stepped forward to allow us to host in their ballroom and it was a blessing in disguise.  The Casino was blown away by the event and they were blown away by the positive feedback they recieved from the wrestlers, parents and coaches in attendance.  We had a few hickups that any first year tourney will have but the amount of emails i have recieved post tourney have floored me.  Coach Jackson and Coach Richards did a helluva job in spearheading this idea.  I was lucky enough to get 8 great officials and Tom Clark haha.  The DJ and announcer we had did a tremendous job.  So much So that Mark Durham was toying with the idea of bringing them on board for Indy nationals next year.  Durham, once again showed how trackwrestling has become a important fixture in tourney management and was awesome in setting everything up and training all of our volunteers.  One email in paticular I recieved really blew me away and part of me thinks its just someone showing some love but not being 100% serious.
 
"Thanks for an awesome tournament! That was a lot of fun… reminded me of Flo Nationals except better!"
 
That sets the bar pretty high for next year but we will sit down with Belterra Casino and see what we can make happen for next year.

Just a reminder to anyone owning a Usaw card...
 
Rebel Wrestling Foundation is working out Tuesdays and Thursdays 6:30pm-8:00pm. We have guys in the room training for schoolboy/cadet/junior duals, Fargo, etc. We obviously have Roncalli kids from all ages K-12, we have also had many athletes come in from surrounding schools to put some summer work in, we also have college guys in the room. On an average night there are 30+ guys of all ages K-College... Take advantage of this opportunity! Summer wrestling makes winter champions
 
It's a great room... Our club room is free of cost currently through the summer (June, July, August)... until we have registration and sign ups in September for the new Usaw calendar year.
 
Hope to see some guys Tuesday and Thursday nights... Roncalli High School, wrestling facility is connected to the bubble
 
 
Roncalli High School
3300 Prague Road
Indianapolis, IN 46227

For those that don't know, TMWC is the top freestyle wrestling club in the United States.  They finished 2nd IN THE WORLD at the club world cup in Iran.  And Reece Humphrey is its new coach.  Tremendous, tremendous honor.

Season will be over on January 29th.  You mean June 29th, right?

It looked contingent on the lift.  I wonder if a PD will be called if they have the arm trapped but pick the heel to take their opponent to the mat?  The head could still hit the mat from that position as well.

No need to lift them if you have the arm anyways.  A well placed and setup heel spike will do the trick every time.

Thank you to all that attended last night, it was a great introduction to what we are trying to establish.  At this point we have 8 teams from the south and we have 11 teams from the north divisions that have expressed interest.  If you do not contact me I will not be able to confirm or share information through email.  We are keeping this open until the June meeting.  At this meeting we will finalize all teams entered and start to get items ironed out.  If you are still interested and would like to be involved please email or call with questions.  Looking forward to a great organization with a strong structure.
 
Thanks,
 
Ryan Williams
bgwc2014@gmail.com

Awesome meeting last night and lots of great input. Thanks for all that you have done up to this point Ryan. Any teams on the border line, don't hesitate to reach out to Ryan, this league is going to be top notch!

The NCAA limits wrestling programs at 9.9 athletic scholarships.  With 10 weight classes, that means no schools can possibly give their whole roster full rides.  International corruption played a bigger role in wrestling almost getting dropped from the Olympics rather than my paranoid/isolationist view that people who know wrestling should make decisions about wrestling.  
 
I have no involvement with football. I'm not going to go to Gridiron Digest and tell them how they should try to get Sectionals seeded and fix the success multiplier.  They would call me an idiot and tell me that they are working on it.
 
But thank you, LongBlackLine and casualwrestlingfan.  You have managed to bring together some members here who were disagreeing about other topics.

Joe,
 
The traffic you get on here is great.  There's no need to increase it just for the sake of increasing it.  The site is easy enough to find for those who are interested in finding it.  Your members are knowledgeable and passionate about wrestling.  I don't think most of us want football fans coming here trying to solve all our problems like we are clueless about our own sport.

Just to clear the air.....I am Danny Lane screen name DLane. I lived in Avon, IN for about 10 years where my boys wrestled for Avon and Contenders. I currently live in Brandon, FL, where my oldest currently wrestles. So that everyone knows, I am NOT Big Dan Teague who's avator once said he was from Seffner, FL (which is the town north of Brandon) LOL
 
But on a side note is the ISWA has its act together way better then FAWA or FL AAU.

The digests are just messageboards, we are way more than that.

You don't say much friend but when you do it's to the point and I salute you for it.

Not at all all. Please go back and look at all of my post. I typically stay positive, offer up solutions, and help our youth as much as I possibly can. Like Mr. Hatch and Triple B I spend countless hours, and tons of my own money to help as many kids as possible to be the best that they can be. And yes... I have a smoking hot wife that I choose to spend time away from to help our youth (she is the best). I do so expecting no payback or acknowledgement from the wrestling community. I can honestly say that I have never accepted a dime for any coaching or team leading that I have done.
 
With all of that said, I really appreciate what guys like JMill, Louis Rossbottom, Nick Hall, Danny Struck, and countless others do for our kids. As I stated above... I try to stay positive, but to have a nameless, faceless, troll ripping these great guys and their efforts gets under my skin.
 
Back to the topic.... Don't talk about it... Be about it. We know that certain people aren't happy. Now we need actions to right the ship. I was at state to talk to the higher members of the ISWA. The funny thing is that not one other person was there to do the same. If this is truly an issue that we all feel passionate enough about it, to write 16 pages on a message board... Then let's step out from behind our keyboards or phones and make things happen.
 
Matt Brewer

.
have Joe or anyone else submit his list of kids that wrestled this last wknd without having two verified qualifiers under their belt and we will talk.  I know for sure based on the results tabulated by the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse that there were no kids wrestling last weekend that did not have the qualifiers met.  anyone..............................................................................

Sorry, that number was from last year.  I'm not sure how many they kicked out but they definitely made phone calls to people informing them that they didn't have the qualifiers so they were checking.  There were also 36 Greco only wrestlers that didn't wrestle Freestyle so those were probably kids that didn't get the qualifiers in.
 
I'm don't think there was a grand conspiracy on this.  If some kids got in it was because it was missed.  Not because they were not checking.  They did not let kids wrestle because they were worried about numbers.  With Mother's Day and some schools having prom I'm sure the numbers were going to be lower than usual anyway.
 
I'm not sure what the big answer is for boosting Freestyle (I think Greco actually increased?).  I have my son in Freestyle and Greco.  He likes it better than playing baseball or soccer in the spring.  We make it work but our situation is different than others.  Kids are still going to wrestle at big Folkstyle tournaments out of state during Freestyle/Greco season.  I'm not sure you can change that now.  Pandora's box has been opened.  It would take a unified effort nationally with coaches, states, and organizations to change that.
 
Another thing I have thought of is that in Folkstyle there is a small percentage of wrestlers who even make it into a D1 program and actually wrestles for the team, not just a room guy.  There is even a smaller percentage of those wrestlers who make it internationally.  Maybe people are just playing the percentage and putting their effort into Folkstyle for that reason?
 
Obviously, America's preoccupation with Folkstyle affects us as a nation when it comes to the international styles in some respects.  Now with the prospects of MMA careers there is another blow to Freestyle/Greco in our country.  The situation is definitely something unique to our wrestling culture.

So this would be kind of like a conference league?  You would wrestle a dual at different schools on a Wednesday for 6 weeks or until every team wrestled each other, then have the championship after that? If you just did one dual through the week it would allow the JV kids to get some matches at the Wednesday dual as well.  Good idea!

US only qualifying 13 out of 18 weights for RIO shows that this is a national problem, USA Wrestling needs to be the leader in revolutionizing our Freestyle epidemic. I read this is the first time the US has failed to qualify a weight in Freestyle.

Sorry, that number was from last year.  I'm not sure how many they kicked out but they definitely made phone calls to people informing them that they didn't have the qualifiers so they were checking.  There were also 36 Greco only wrestlers that didn't wrestle Freestyle so those were probably kids that didn't get the qualifiers in.
 
I'm don't think there was a grand conspiracy on this.  If some kids got in it was because it was missed.  Not because they were not checking.  They did not let kids wrestle because they were worried about numbers.  With Mother's Day and some schools having prom I'm sure the numbers were going to be lower than usual anyway.
 
I'm not sure what the big answer is for boosting Freestyle (I think Greco actually increased?).  I have my son in Freestyle and Greco.  He likes it better than playing baseball or soccer in the spring.  We make it work but our situation is different than others.  Kids are still going to wrestle at big Folkstyle tournaments out of state during Freestyle/Greco season.  I'm not sure you can change that now.  Pandora's box has been opened.  It would take a unified effort nationally with coaches, states, and organizations to change that.
 
Another thing I have thought of is that in Folkstyle there is a small percentage of wrestlers who even make it into a D1 program and actually wrestles for the team, not just a room guy.  There is even a smaller percentage of those wrestlers who make it internationally.  Maybe people are just playing the percentage and putting their effort into Folkstyle for that reason?
 
Obviously, America's preoccupation with Folkstyle affects us as a nation when it comes to the international styles in some respects.  Now with the prospects of MMA careers there is another blow to Freestyle/Greco in our country.  The situation is definitely something unique to our wrestling culture.

Im just selling merch

This is nauseating.........

I have no vested interest in the ISWA. I'm not a Board Member. I am extremely frustrated that no matter what other people come up with as a suggestion, the 3 people you mentioned and a few others do whatever they can to shoot it down because it's not their suggestion nor does it benefit their kid or agenda.
I also believe that the people who are on the ISWA Board are good people. I know they are honest hard working people. Some have questioned their integrity which is way off base. I don't agree with every decision they have made, but I have never questioned their integrity.

Anybody know how the bidding for Fargo goes? A birdie told me that Louisville Ky is actively trying to get Cadet and Jr. Nationals to be moved to Louisville. This would be awesome. I know Louisville has bid for NCAA's at least once. 
 
So to all you old timers that are in the loop, does Louisville have a chance?