backtothemat

2017 will be Bailey's year.

Konrath or not, EMD will be a contender next season.

http://nicathletics.com/players.aspx?playerId=1011

I'll add you to the list of people converted to a class wrestling supporter.
 
Glad to have you on board. You'll be getting our weekly class wrestling mailings now.

You know I sat and watched the match. I listened to adults jeer at a kid and chant Lee's name. I even listened to people from my son's team chant Lee's name and then say I don't know either one of them, but I just don't want Red to win. I watched this forum light up about wanting to see Red lose. Now we start a thread about humility. I wonder where the humility was in the crowd when the Lee chant started? I wonder where the humility was when people were screaming at Red Sr. as he was walking back to the locker room area after the match. How much jeering is an high school kid supposed to take from adults before he reacts to them? take a look at this definition from wikipedia and think about how true this might be.
 
"Crab mentality, sometimes referred to as crabs in the bucket, is a way of thinking best described by the phrase, "if I can't have it, neither can you." The metaphor refers to a bucket or pot of crabs. Individually, the crabs could easily escape from the pot, but instead they grab at each other in a useless "king of the hill" competition which prevents any from escaping and ensures their collective demise.[2][3][4] The analogy in human behavior is claimed to be that members of a group will attempt to negate or diminish the importance of any member who achieves success beyond the others, out of envy, spite, conspiracy, or competitive feelings, to halt their progress."

Gibson Southern is more like 700. No where near 1700.

Brought to you by EI Sports
 
By JEREMY HINES
Thehines7@gmail.com
 
Thirty-two years ago a spur of the moment idea by Kevin Whitehead resulted in a monumental change to the Indiana high school wrestling state finals.
 
Back then, Whitehead was a table helper at the finals. He had filled in occasionally on the microphone, announcing some matches for Homer Hawkins, the main announcer at the time. Whitehead thought something was missing going in to the finals. So, he grabbed a notebook and a pencil and went on the mat asking each wrestler for information about themselves.
 
"I was interested in finding out a little more about the kids," Whitehead said. "So I went kid-to-kid and asked them what year they were in school, what their records were, how many falls they had and such."
 
At the time, all of the wrestlers in the championship round were lined up across the mat and everyone's name was announced along with their opponent. The two would run across the mat and shake hands. That was it.
 
But now that Whitehead had all of this extra information scribbled down in his notebook, Hawkins asked if he would like to announce introductions.
 
"After I announced everyone, Homer looked at me with a smile and told me to keep the microphone and announce the championships," Whitehead said. "I haven't given it up since."
 
Now the introductions of the finalists are a large part of the finals. Whitehead announces each wrestler, and reads off their list of wrestling accomplishments as the wrestler joins his coaches under a spotlight. After one wrestler is announced, the spotlight moves to his opponent across the mat. Then, the two wrestlers meet at center circle and shake hands.
 
Whitehead has been the announcer at the state finals since 1984. He lives in Kentucky, but looks forward each year to his annual trip to Indianapolis for the finals.
 
During his time as the announcer for the finals, Whitehead said he has witnessed major changes in the state format.
 
"The tournament has gotten bigger in just about every way it can," Whitehead said. "There were fewer wrestlers when I started. When I first got involved the tournament had just expanded. When I was in school there were 12 weights and four wrestlers in each weight. There were 24 semifinal matches and that gave you the finalists and the consolations. After 48 matches, it was over.
 
"Now we hit match 48 by about 7:30 on Friday night."
 
Whitehead remembers when the finals moved to Market Square Arena and when the Friday night sessions were added. He has watched as the talent level in Indiana has gotten better, and interest in the sport has greatly increased.
 
"Wrestling has really grown in the state in terms of the caliber of wrestling, the number of matches, the fan interest and the amount of schools that are represented," Whitehead said. "Right now it sort of gets taken for granted that we have guys wrestling for, or going to wrestle for schools like Wisconsin, Michigan State, Nebraska and Penn State. That was unheard of not so many years ago. You might have one or two outstanding guys that would break the mold, but the quality of wrestling has increased multi-fold and that's very gratifying. That is the driving force as to why there were 33,000 people going there and watching it this year."
 
Whitehead has announced over 8,000 matches in his long career. He doesn't have a favorite match, but said the atmosphere this year at the state finals was great. He misses the old scoring system for the team title, and believes that created a big interest throughout the tournament.
 
That was what separated the great sessions from the average sessions," Whitehead said. "The team race was great when you had a few teams battling for the team title. That really hasn't happened since we went to the new format."
 
One of Whitehead's best memories from the finals came in the 80s. The weather was exceptionally bad and the finals got bumped from Market Square to the New Castle Fieldhouse.
 
"They had to wrestle it all on one day," Whitehead said. "It started early and ran late. The crowd was huge and New Castle was absolutely packed. When it was over, we all knew we can through a tough time with the weather for wrestling. We had this sense of community afterwards."
 
As far as announcing, Whitehead said when he calls out for the wrestlers to clear the mat for the second time, that's when things start to get serious. He says he doesn't have any go-to catch phrases from behind the microphone, but he does love the unique names. He prints the finals brackets off as soon as they are available and practices how he will say the names.
 
Whitehead wrestled for Franklin Central in the early 1970s. He never got past regional but was a Marion County runner-up and a sectional runner-up.
 
He retired from the Kroger Corporation after a long career spent in packaging development. He lives in Louisville now and spends time golfing with his son when he gets a chance, working around the house and tending to his vinyl record collection.
 
"I have a 45 vinyl collection with about 3,000 records," Whitehead said. "I started collecting in the 60s, but I really started in earnest when I found a great Goodwill Store near Indiana State University. At the time, vinyl was junk. But now it's very collectible."
 
Whitehead said he has no intentions of quitting his announcing gig at the state finals. He plans on announcing for as long as he's allowed to do so.

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Noah Warren has one sweet mullet

The final Team State qualifying scores will be posted by Joe shortly on the qualifying scores thread (a summary of qualifiers and vote-in candidates is now posted).
 
I wanted to give a big-time shout out to the volunteers who worked many hours to collect and organize all the data necessary to make the qualifying scoring process accurate and timely:
 
-Nick Strub (one of the original researchers/planners behind the qualifying scoring process...has worked countless hours over the past 5 seasons on related projects)
-Bruce Wood (has managed data all 5 years we've done it, including the dozens of hours necessary to do it the first couple years before Track)
-Dane Fuelling (also worked many hours all 5 years on this, plus works many hours on the seeding process)
-Brandon Razo (finished tracking data for us even though he moved out of state a couple weeks ago)
-Paul Soos (professional data analyst...has worked tirelessly to streamline our process)
 
Thanks, guys!

2017 will be Bailey's year.

2017 will be Bailey's year.

How about the motor on Samuels? He gets beat on for five plus minutes by the beast, comes back fresh as a daisy and scores a takedown? His conditioning is phenomenal.

It's a family decision, IMO. Others will have their opinions either way but it all comes down to the wrestler's decision. In Jake's case, he made the decision himself. He shadowed at MC and it's an hour up to Chicago from Lowell so his school days for 4yrs have been: up at 5:15am (up at 4:45am on morning practice days) and back home at 8pm at night, every night. I assumed and totally expected him to say "thanks but no thanks" after his shadow day. I made him go through a typical day of getting up early and coming home late, etc. so he would know what it was going to be like for 4yrs. I figured after the shadow day it would be put to bed. The first thing that came out of his mouth when I picked him up was "that's where I am going, that's my school". There was absolutely no pulling or tugging from me or my wife, he made that decision on his own and we love the decision he made. It's not for everyone but it was best for him. We love our friends in Indiana and we spent all of his formative years in wrestling in Indiana and we wrestled a lot in Illinois and all across the country. As for the actual wrestling part of it? Jake would have been fine if he stayed in IN or went elsewhere because of the nature of our sport, it's all about national tournaments and who you are competing against and defeating/staying close with. Jake's coach at MC is a 4x AA and an NCAA D1 National Champion. He coached at Overtime for 11yrs, he coached Andrew Howe, Alex Tsirtsis, Angel Escobedo, etc. and is probably one of the best technicians in the country. With that said, Bobby Howard at Lowell is also a great technician and Jake would have succeeded under him as well plus Jake has always been an RWA kid, working with Tsirtsis, Hawkins, and the gang for years. There are so many people involved in the success of a wrestler, it's just not black/white on any decision to attend a school. One of the many aspects that I loved about IL was the culture for wrestling and the dual team series. We are going to Dual Team State this weekend and after coaching 3 straight undefeated middle school teams at Lowell, the team aspect of our sport really appealed to me personally and for Jake. Being ranked nationally at #12 is a thrill and I wish there was some way for IN to bring back the dual team series in the IHSAA. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't include my wife in this conversation. She is a South Side of Chicago girl, grown up and raised in IL. MC was very important from the faith-side of it (we are catholic), it's a big deal for her son to go to a school like MC and it may mean nothing to most people but it meant a lot to her and her family...but she still left the decision up to Jake. She was like me, she never thought he'd be able to keep a strict regimented schedule of getting up so early every day and getting home late, etc. 
I could go on but it's safe to say that we love our friends/wrestlers in Indiana and we also love the decision Jake made by going to MC. I hope this answers your question. 

His calm demeanor is impressive!

i owe everyone on this message board an apology. I looked selfish and ungrateful last night. Being frustrated is no reason to act the way I did. I apologize and appreciate the support through out my careere. Thank you

My take on the match -- Both nearfalls were equally quick in my mind, but I really feel like at the worst they would cancel each other out. So, I would say they were called consistently which is all I ever ask of a referee.
 
As for the post-match celebration -- I don't fault Chad Red Jr one bit. Sure, he did "flee the mat" but it was to run and show appreciation to his hometown section (and family) which was going nuts. In a normal dual meet, maybe a ref calls something, but in this case, absolutely no way. He might be a little more "Terrell Owens" and less "Barry Sanders" in his celebration techniques, and you may have an opinion on which of those you prefer. But completing a career with a classic match like that, I don't doubt that the adrenaline was pumping and it was all in good fun and not directed at the other wrestler.
 
The one thing I did see that I didn't like was New Palestine's assistant coach looking up a the Mater Dei crowd and giving them a "Shhhhh".  Don't see how you can blame a hometown crowd for cheering wildly for their native son.  Again, I don't mind celebration at all, but see no reason in that moment to feel like you have to grandstand to the (very worthy) opponent -- should have focused on celebrating Chad rather than denigrating fans.
 
I'm happy I was there to witness one of the most exciting matches I've seen.  I hope both of these young men adapt to college life, studies, and wrestling and continue to achieve high levels of success in the pursuit of their dreams.

I have no gripe with the officiating of this match. Please remember that an official has to make his calls in the moment. He does not have the luxury of stopping the match & going to the video. The biggest thing to remember is that on any close call, there is no way to satisfy everyone. Any close call is going to have those that agree & those that don't.
 
Next, I don't want to get caught up into how someone celebrates. Whether an athlete's celebration is disrespectful to his opponent or not is a matter of opinion. And as the old saying goes - opinions are like a$$holes, everyone has one & they all stink.
 
Lastly, I would like to discuss what actually matters - the wrestling we were privileged to see. IMO (& many of you will believe it stinks) Lee appeared the better wrestler on their feet. He got to Red's legs multiple times & actually had 2-3 scoring opportunities that he missed. I believe there was at least 2 times were he had the takedown 99% complete & relaxed ever so slightly & that was all Red needed to prevent the finish. Red, IMO, was clearly the better wrestler on the mat. His 3rd period ride of Lee & Lee's inability to ride Red was the difference. Lee will have to improve this part of his game against top level competition to truly succeed at the college level. Saying that I have complete confidence that he will be able to, especially given his college coach will be Cael Sanderson.

11.  "Haircut worked for Rick Springfield in 1982, it works for me now."
10.  Argues over what "Da Region's" boundaries are and are not.
9.  Criticizes Donald Trump for "having too small of an ego."
8.  Utters "Da Region" every third sentence.
7.  Orange-colored tan.
6.  If the family has three wrestling brothers or more separated by at least three years, each went to a different high school.
5.  Speaks Rat Pidgin English fluently.
4.  Slings gratuitous slurs toward Ft. Wayne semistate wrestlers.
3.  Their "Lavoris" smells oddly of garlic and horseradish.
2.  Can't count to 21 without removing pants.
 
And the number one way to identify a Region wrestling fan:  "It ain't a real Team State title unless a Region team won it, DUH!"
 
...I await your snappy comebacks.
 
XOX,
Hook
 
 

lee/red--  last name has three letters
konrath-- seven letters
 
lee/red = weakness
 
konrath has already beaten both of them.  rematch:  i'll take paul "the blonde bomber" konrath over both...second period tech fall.

285 has a win over mammolenti at al smith. Torres is 1-1 with Bailey this year. I think they will be in the mix also

Early in the video, the ref stopped the action and talked to both of them before the restart.  If the ref was warning both of them about the aggressive "heavy hands", then the DQ is definitely warranted.  

23.5 ????? where did you go to school ????  156.5 minus 133.5 = 23 . I can see you must of attended school in the Region . 

Good call

I might have to have wrestle-offs this year for Team Gorilla!

I thought about this some more and it makes total sense. Coaches already make a ton of money for coaching and they are probably teachers which means they are in the high roller category so they really should pay for their first day also.