gsmith58

As most of us on here know Indiana wrestling is on the rise... but this is really cool. Maybe our best year as a state ever?!?!?
 
Naia--- Indiana tech finished 4th in the country with 2 national champs (coached by Indiana natives)
 
D3 --- Wabash is currently tied for 1st!! With guys in the finals
 
D2 --- Uindy currently in 6th with 2 in the finals. Still in the hunt for a team trophy. (Also coached by indiana natives)
 
Really neat to see our In-State teams have such success.
 

Sheesh, my poor kid is going to graduate at 17...bad parenting haha

Commentating is so much harder than it looks, specially with wrestling where action can go from 0 to 100 so you don't have a lot of time to introduce concepts/info/etc.. since it gets interrupted by the action.
 
I've done commentating this year for Bellarmine University's home meets and the first dual was a giant wakeup call.

They were for the most part the same guys that have been doing it for a few years.  Personally, I think they somewhere between good and great.  It's generally guys that know wrestling pretty well and have enthusiasm.  Are they perfect?  No.  

But I have watched streamed events with no sound and that's not good.  If you disagree, all you have to do is Mute the broadcasters and listen that way.  I have listened to events where there are volunteers running the TW software and we hear all of their conversations.  What guys they like, what they ate, a chat with a random friend/fan who walks up to the table to say hello, etc.  That can be incredibly annoying.  

As for those that comment on what's happening on other mats, again I'm good with that.  Several times Saturday, a certain mat would fail to have sound for extended periods of time.  To hear crowd noise and a little about what was going on, I could listen to an adjacent mat.  I didn't notice a situation where they were ignoring the action on their mat while talking about another.  It could have happened occasionally, but would have been brief.  

All in all, for whatever was paid, it's a pretty big bargain IMO.  Not perfect, but could be MUCH worse and it has gotten better over the last few years.  

My only problem with the Finals broadcast was on the production side.  The crowd noise was too loud and the broadcasters mics were too low, especially Blake Maurer's.  To hear Maurer and Goebel clearly, I had to turn it up much louder than necessary and that could have been fixed with the production, likely mic adjustments in the truck.  The Missouri snafu, wasn't big on its own.  But I guess combine that with the arena mistakes of wrong names and at least one on screen graphic error, it probably does look a bit amateurish.  But so is HS Wrestling!   Better attention to detail, ESPECIALLY in arena should be a given.  But all in all, I think Indiana has a lot to be proud of with its State Tournament.  

Couple things to address about the announcers.
 
First, the Bally(formerly Fox) broadcast Greg Rakeshaw does wrestling once a year. Knowing the collegiate wrestling scene is not in his wheelhouse. Obviously someone with knowledge corrected him with the Missouri thing. While the coverage is not the Big Ten student produced event, it is not an ESPN event either. They do a great job with the production and let the wrestling people do their jobs, which is what they should. Blake and coach Goebel do awesome for people who do it once a year. The others are fillers and know just enough to keep things going. I'm sure the other state finals events have just as many mistakes.
 
The matside announcers are not professionals at all. Having someone talking is way better than not having someone there or listening to what the table workers ate for breakfast. It's a long day sitting there, talking to yourself and trying to stay engaged. As with any of us, there will be mistakes made and since they are not professionals they will say things we don't agree with. If you are picking out a few things here and there out of 10 hours of sitting on the mic, I think they are doing great. Do you always agree with what a commentator says on an NFL or NBA broadcast, NO. It shouldn't be any different now.
 
If you want professionals on the call you will need to pay the money to have them there. I'm sure Flo would send a whole crew for the right price or you might be able to clone Mike, which might be cheaper...but scarier.

There are simply too many to list.  This tournament is a fantastic indicator for who you will see in Indy the following year.  

Why could they not do a whole weekend pass for like 25-30 bucks?

Pacers website isn’t used to this amount of traffic 😂

Why would they not be capable of selling tickets on their platform?

Let’s all stop trying and take turns. I’ll go first! 😂

Vest over Bohn was a good match. Bohn came out strong and got the first takedown. Second period, Vest on bottom  gets the escape, Bohn takedown, Vest escape, Bohn up 4-2. Third period Bohn chooses bottom and gets put on his back. Vest didn't get him pinned, but the 3 put him up 5-4 for the win. 

That match was worth the price of the Ticket alone and all the frustration of getting in the building this morning.  
 
Tharpe was amazing and went out fighting… you couldn’t help but root for that kid.  What an epic match!

Ocampo gave Jendreas some fits early before succumbing to Jendreas's pressure.  I think she has a great chance to be a boys' state champ sometime in the next three years.

Per the rules they should get a pound on the second consecutive day of competition. But, I’m not holding my breath we are following the rules because someone thinks there is a different way to interpret the rule. It’s clear cut, there is no other interpretation to it.

Every tournament my son ever wrestled in Columbia City involved snow. Is there a polar vortex that converges there? 
 
Oh, and, my son thanks you...

You can't count Ashton twice.

With 7 from EC and 6 from FW that doesn't leave much for EV and NC. 

With 7 from EC and 6 from FW that doesn't leave much for EV and NC. 

With 7 from EC and 6 from FW that doesn't leave much for EV and NC. 

Someone Irish, perhaps.

Who's gonna stop me?

You can't count Ashton twice.

No, it leaves too much, gimme 8 from EC.

With 7 from EC and 6 from FW that doesn't leave much for EV and NC. 

We may have an Oliver Wilson vs Anfernee Oliver mix. Does Hicks wrestle 113 and 145?