indypharmd

i could imagine the smaller enrollment schools really being upset competing with Chatard, Roncalli, Cathedral and Mater Dei when the intent was to get rid of a power differential based upon enrollment...

SHS

Will be interesting. Ben is driven. If anywhere it is possible to do both, then Iowa would be the place. The relationship between football and wrestling is extremely good in Iowa City. The linebacker corp is pretty deep and if he gets bigger, then playing EDGE comes into play. Iowa rotates its DL and to a degree, the LBs, so he may not be taking every snap when he gets to that point. I imagine we will see him first on special teams for football... The football training table is dope. Iowa spends the most $$ out of any B1G program on food/nutrition. Ben at a lean, mean 245 lbs will be very scary...

A few thoughts... I grew up in Wabash County and my wife in Fulton County and have raised my family in Purplesburg. We chose not move back north after college because of job opportunities and when we had kids, the educational opportunities that exist in Brownsburg Community School Corporation vs. what the wife and I had in the late 80's up north. Some of the student athletes who attended Brownsburg HS when their siblings attended an other HCC rival have spoken volumes about how those opportunities in educaton were best for those kids... Almost every single football visit my son took his junior year, the football staff spoke to him/us about wrestling almost more than football in all cases. They recognize the grind, discipline, etc. it takes to be an elite wrestler while being a P5 football recruit. He visited multiple footballs camps and even met the Red Cobra contingent at an exit in Iowa City following a football camp to catch a ride to Lincoln, NE for a week of wrestling camp during summer football workouts... While being a multi sport athlete, you have to continue to train for wrestling while practicing football, track, baseball, CC, etc. You can't just pick it up in season... That requires A LOT of sacrifice of time, effort, etc. How many are willing to do that? How many coaches of those other sports are willing to at least look the other way while the wrestler still trains? And if the coach doesn't like it, are the parents and student athlete willing to continue with their plan/goals? (experienced this) One of my son's future #SWARM23 classmates is a guy some may have heard of... Name is Ben Kueter - 4x Iowa State Champ, U20 World Champion, etc. He drives from Iowa City to Sebolt's Academy a few times a week. Check the distance if interested... And he plays baseball. Iowa's high school association has it set so that kids can do FOUR (4) sports seasons - as track and field is in the spring and baseball follows it into the summer and some of their best athletes are 3 or 4 sport kids and those coaches acknowledge that sometimes you need to let those elite athletes participate/train concurrently. Another walk-on classmate played basketball for his high school and wrestled AND made their state tournament! Another young man you will hear more about in the future, Aaron Graves - gatorade player of the year, 1000 career basketball points and 4th at state in wrestling - he will be a B1G DL of the year and likely a 1st rd draft pick in the future. Some would say this is easy for someone from Purplesburg to say, but the training he did consisted of private sessions with C-Red outside of normal team or academy practices because of other time committments... I guess what I'm trying to say is something along the lines of if you want something bad enough, are you willing to put the time and sacrifices into trying to achieve it...? Class wrestling probably would help a few things - maybe shortening up the tournament series length by a week or two, shortening distances for driving to the regional/ss weekend, too.

how many rooms at the Purdue Union would be available during that time frame?

The finals were available through about Monday on Track/Flo. Then, they weren't. On the IHSAA TV web page, there's a link to purchase the downloadable version of the finals with intros, matches and interviews. I imagine there is a timeline that has to be met before the matches are available again on Track/Flo. (The matches show on the Track profile page, but not available when clicking on that link over to the file on Flo...)

Now if the finals move to Mackey, then the southern semi state needs to be in B town!

good analogies... the upper weights usually play football to break it up a little but the low and middle weights may not do anything else except for wrestling training year around. The mental grind is understated for sure!

I don't know if "main cog" would be the description I'd use vs. complementary cog. The academy training in the youth level likely predominates but in high school age groups there's more of a symbiosis... The other aspect is the fact due to population density, these wrestlers' families often have choices for school attendance that doesn't involve long driving distances from their homes to a school or academy... So, the high school academic programs and the high school coach have to be able to meet the needs of the student athlete to achieve all their goals... To attribute causation to academies for these high school programs' successes likely isn't sufficient.

One difference is the fact that kids that go to CIA/Contenders/Red Cobra disperse through central Indiana pretty well or least through Marion, Hamilton, Hancock, Boone, Hendricks and Johnson counties. Cathedral and CIA/Outlaws have been pretty tight over the years, too...

I'm sure some #County folks would love to open their homes to some folks looking for a place to rest their weary heads... $350/night w/ breakfast sound reasonable?

The article that Anna Kayser did early in the season summarizes Brownsburg's rise when Darrick took over. The other element that tagged in when Darrick arrived was the decision of Brayton Lee choosing to stay home in Purplesburg vs going elsewhere to high school. Darrick's endorsement of kids attending academies AND his open practices is also a key point. The BCSC administrators are also great supporters of co-curricular activities and often attend regionals, SS, and state finals... I also wondered this weekend what Chesterton would have accomplished if the guys who went to elementary school would've stayed through HS...?

You're good @TeamGarcia! The thing I appreciate is that you and Brewer don't hide behind aliases on these boards and i've always appreciated your humor, especially if anyone has ever met you personally, they'd realize how much of a quiet, soft spoken chap you are! Saw Blaze at the finals working and it seemed liked he had some of the best seats in the house this weekend!

@Thor, not all Brownsburg posters brag. The number of students on free and reduced lunch programs, which is an indicator of socioeconomic conditions of school age kids, would really surprise you. It is nice to have a school system administrator that believes in funding curricular AND co-curricular activities. Brownsburg is a 4 star school and consistently ranks high in state standardized test scores which generates a lot of interest in moving to the area. My kids showed me a TikTok that's going around about Carmel high school, now that's really impressive...

Revin Dickman placed 8th at Ironman on 12/10, 2nd at Carnahan on 12/17 and 2nd at Brecksville on 12/30 - in 20 days... and then battle Rioux for 4 weekends straight. He definitely grew up fast his freshman year. Hockaday didn't place at Ironman on 12/10, 4th at Carnahan w/ losses to out of staters, sick for Brecksville, beats Goss and Sessa at team state and then rolls through the tournament with ice in his veins for the final two rounds...

EVSS 195 is brutal... dang...

The Covid year in Jasper was a nice atmosphere. Not sure what seating #'s there are...?

Maybe it was the Ford Center $15 popcorn and $25 hotdogs...

Brownsburg's traveled to Cleveland area 2x and Crown Point once this season for tournaments. a little travel closer to home shouldn't hurt, but won't matter to me anymore... send Purplesburg through to a sectional/regional that gets it to Ft Wayne to balance things out...

It's a shorter drive time to Ft Wayne, East Chicago and definitely New Castle than Evansville from Purplesburg...

just rewatched the video, it was 7 seconds on a roll tilt that Farmer caught him on. Final in the match was 8-2 Jones...

If Evansville hosts the state finals, would the southern semi state moved to an alternate location?

Thanks @Y2CJ41and Anna Kayser! Anna was able to tell his story (to date) so well. These two articles and Jeremy Hines's article from the '21-'22 season have been able to relate so much better than what social media does nowadays. The wrestling community in Indiana is tight and the relationships through Indiana wrestling will be treasured as these next four weeks draw to a close and the wrestling shoes are permanently traded in for cleats...

@ThorI don't believe any parents of current wrestlers have posted in this thread until my reply here. Mr. Garcia's sons have graduated and attend UIndy... Now, we could incite @Mattyb to get fired up on this thread... Ranking wrestlers is going to get more difficult in the future as the Crown Point and Brownsburg Bulldogs seek out of state opportunites and likely other teams will follow. These wrestlers will take losses against teams like Stillwater, Lake Highland Prep, Wyoming Seminary, Malvern Prep, Mt Carmel, Detroit Catholic, etc, etc. How will Mike rank some of those kids with a few losses, but placing, in IronMan, PowerAde, Cheesehead, etc. against nationally ranked competition vs. other Indiana wrestlers that have perfect records but haven't wrestled national level competition? Will be interesting to watch over the next few years for sure... Definitely wasn't expecting this forum to get this salty prior to Team State... The IronMan was truly a gauntlet. If you are so inclined and are a true HS wrestling aficionado, I'd recommend anyone to attend that two day bruiser -- incredible athletes with college coaches everywhere watching their current and future recruits. Pretty impressive. This was the first and last trip for the Joneses to the Ironman as we will be staking the homestead at Kinnick Stadium the next few years...

You can drop them by my house to keep them warm on Saturday Mr. H!