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Jcjcjc

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    Jcjcjc reacted to Y2CJ41 for a article, #MondayMatness with Steve Krah: It’s all about family for Smith/Banks bunch, Plymouth Rockies   
    By STEVE KRAH
    stvkrh905@gmail.com
     
    Family.
     
    It’s a word that appears on T-shirts.
     
    Teams shout it as they break huddles.
     
    It’s a closeness and a bond they’re building as they work together.
     
    Plymouth High School head wrestling coach Travis Smith has taken his blended brood of a wife, four boys and a girl and added the members of the Rockies program.
     
    “We’re like a big family,” says Travis. “I don’t know how many kids stay at my house on a regular basis.
     
    “I’ve raised my sons to be very loyal to each other. We don’t fight and bicker as a family. I discipline as needed. They don’t argue with each other. I don’t allow that.
     
    “Because of the family environment we’ve had the privilege of being involved in together we welcome everybody else.”
     
    It’s a welcoming atmosphere.
     
    “We draw people to us as a family,” says Travis. “That’s why kids want to be around because of security, safety and they know they can trust us.
     
    “We’re going to ride and die with them everyday.”
     
    After a few years as a volunteer under Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Famer Bob Read, Smith took over and 2022-23 is his third season in charge at Plymouth.
     
    Travis is married to Cortney Smith.
     
    “She’s the glue,” says her husband.
     
    Their family includes Gavin Banks (22), Dominic Smith (19), Caydn Smith (16), Wesley Smith (16) and Angel Smith (13).
     
    Gavin Banks (Class of 2018) and Dominic Smith (Class of 2021) are former Plymouth wrestlers, Rockies assistant coaches and Lincoln Junior High head coach and assistant respectively.
     
    Caydn Smith (152 pounds) and Wesley Smith (145) are juniors on the PHS squad.
     
    Angel Smith is an eighth grader who will help launch girls high school wrestling at Plymouth in 2023-24.
     
    Caydn and Wesley appreciate the close atmosphere of Plymouth wrestling.
     
    Says Caydn, “We try to create strong bonds with everybody on the team.”
     
    Says Wesley, “We all motivate each other. Nobody (outside the team) really sees that side and what we have to do to prepare for matches. Having those guys in the room are big supporters.”
     
    Travis Smith started at Valparaiso High School and finished at North Judson-San Pierre Junior/Senior High School, grappling for the Bluejays and graduating in 2001.
     
    “I was mediocre in school,” says Travis. “When I became a grown man and started training for (Mixed Martial Arts) and Jiu-Jitsu I got the opportunity to train with a lot of good wrestlers. That’s how I ended up being able to pass that on.”
     
    The owner of Hybrid Combat Club — an MMA gym in Plymouth that teaches Brazlian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai and houses the Hybrid Wrestling Club — has witnessed a mat progression in his family.
     
    “Gavin was the rough draft,” says Travis of the son he adopted when the boy was very young. “Gavin and Dominic didn’t get the resources that Caydn, Wesley and Angel have.
     
    “(Caydn and Wesley) have been able to piggyback off the mistakes we made coming up together. I didn’t have a lot of experience when I was younger so I had to grow with them as a coach.”
     
    With 85, Banks is in the top 10 on the Rockies all-time career wins list.
     
    “My dad and I watched a lot of YouTube and I wrestled a lot of club matches,” says Gavin of his experience in learning the sport. “A lot of it came from at-home work.”
     
    Gavin assesses his younger brothers.
     
    “Wesley and Caydn are very knowledgeable, technical wrestlers,” says Gavin. “Wesley is more savvy when it comes to wrestling. He’s stingy and hard to score on. Caydn is a strong, athletic kid who can do a lot.”
     
    Gavin says having a large arsenal is helpful, but the successful wrestlers have go-to moves.
     
    “Being great at a few things is much better (than being OK at many),” says Gavin.
     
    Dominic has learned that the fluidity of Jiu-Jitsu moves translate well to wrestling.
     
    A club, junior high and high school wrestler at Plymouth, Dominic had Read as head coach his first three seasons and his dad took over his senior year.
     
    It was his “one-more mentality” that Dominic appreciated about Read.
     
    “Uno Mas. He said it all the time,” says Dominic. “You’ve always got one more.”
     
    He says it was a dream to wrestle for his father.
     
    “He’s a great coach,” says Dominic.
     
    He recalls Gavin as a wrestler.
     
    “The big thing that everybody remembers is how natural he was,” says Dominic. “He was always so calm. He never had a worry in the world. He was always ready. We was never going to quit.
     
    “He was always present in a match.”
     
    Dominic says each brother has wrestled with this own style.
     
    “Caydn’s a very, very nasty wrestler,” says Dominic. “He doesn’t care who you are he’s going to press you. Overall, the kid is just mean.
     
    “Wesley is a very, very technical wrestler. He’s always in good position. He’s always ready for anything coming at him.”
     
    Caydn describes his strengths as a wrestler.
     
    “I can just go,” says Caydn. “My cardio is really solid.”
     
    Caydn subscribes to the idea of less is more.
     
    “Perfect a few moves and stick to those,” says Caydn. “Just find different ways to hit those moves.”
     
    Wesley talks about his stinginess and mat approach.
     
    “I don’t give up a lot of points,” says Wesley. “I don’t give up on my position. Some kids don’t know when to bail and when to fight for position.”
     
    Angel started grappling about the time she started school.
     
    “I was born into wrestling and I was always at tournaments with my brothers so I thought I should try it,” says Angel. “I started when I was very young and I’m glad I did because it progressively did get harder.
     
    “My brothers are very good at teaching a bunch of stuff on my feet. Wesley’s very technical on his feet. A lot of stuff that I do I’ve implemented from Wesley.”
     
    Angel takes the quote “Don’t Quit - if you re already in pain, already hurt — get a reward” and uses it to drive her.
     
    “I’ve always thought of that during very tough matches,” says Angel. “When I’m beat up and I feel broke. Getting a reward after that is the greatest feeling.”
     
    Mishawaka’s 32-team Al Smith Classic which concluded on Dec. 30 saw Plymouth junior Anthony Popi (285) come in second. Wesley Smith placed third at 145 and Caydn Smith lost in the “ticket” round at 152.
     
    In the Northern Lakes Conference meet Saturday, Jan. 14 at Goshen, top Rockies placers were Wesley Smith (36-1) first at 145, Popi (34-2) at 285, Caydn Smith (30-6) second at 160, sophomore Christopher Firebaugh (26-10) third 132, junior Alonzo Chantea (21-8) fourth 113, junior Seth Wright (22-8) fourth 138 and senior Matthew McCrum (22-9) fourth at 182.
     
    The Rockies host the Plymouth Sectional Jan. 28. The IHSAA tournament continues with the Penn Regional Feb. 4 and East Chicago Semistate Feb. 11 and concludes with the State Finals Feb. 17-18 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
  2. Like
    Jcjcjc reacted to Y2CJ41 for a article, #MondayMatness: Portage heavyweight Dancy making up for lost mat time   
    By STEVE KRAH
    stvkrh905@gmail.com
     
    Some are introduced to wrestling as toddlers and go on to enjoy plenty of success. Others come to the mat for the first time as teenagers and shine in the circle.
     
    The second scenario describes Damari Dancy, a 17-year-old senior heavyweight at Portage High School.
     
    After winning the Portage Sectional title Feb. 1, Dancy goes to the Feb. 8 Hobart Regional at 27-2 in just his second full season as a wrestler.
     
    A basketball player as an eighth grader, Dancy went out for that sport his freshmen and sophomore years of high school (2016-17 and 2017-18) and was cut each time.
     
    The second cut ushered in his introduction to a new way of life.
     
    “I went across the hall to the wrestling room,” says Dancy. “They accepted me.”
     
    A few weeks later, he was competing in his first-ever wrestling event — the junior varsity Duneland Athletic Conference tournament — and suffering a season-ending broken wrist.
     
    “My mom didn’t want me to wrestle after that,” says Damari, the son of Rachel Hawkins and the fourth of eight children (five boys, three girls).
     
    But that was not the end of wrestling for Dancy. He spent that winter watching his friends compete and practice. He was there at Lake Central for the Harvest Classic taking in all the quality competition.
     
    “That’s when I fell in love with it,” says Dancy.
     
    When he was healed, Dancy began training. He went to the freestyle/Greco-Roman state tournament and went a combined 0-4. He told his coaches he was not going to stop and began working on wrestling year-round.
     
    As a Portage junior, Dancy took part in the Harvest Classic. There he faced Hobart junior Mark Mummey.
     
    “I took him down the first time,” says Dancy. “Then he took me straight to my back and pinned me.”
     
    Dancy used the moment to fuel the rest of his season. He placed third at the Portage Sectional and third at the Hobart Regional, using a double-leg takedown to best Mummey 4-2 in overtime in the consolation match. He then finished fourth at the East Chicago Semistate and qualified for the IHSAA State Finals at 220. He was 21-13 for the 2018-19 season after being pinned on Friday night by North Montgomery junior Drew Webster, who went on to place fifth.
     
    That experience taught Dancy something.
     
    “I can actually do it,” says Dancy. “I can actually compete with the good guys. It helped me build my confidence.”
     
    “I’m not just some random guy. Guys have to practice everyday to watch out for me.”
     
    Portage head coach Andrew Bradbury saw the change in Dancy.
     
    “He was starting to believe he’s pretty good and holding himself to a high standard,” says Bradbury. “His technique is improving in all areas. He’s pretty technical, especially in the neutral position.”
     
    At 6-foot-2, Dancy has been carrying about 245 while competing in the 285 division as a senior.
     
    “I wrestle like a little guy,” says Dancy. “I go for ankle picks a lot. I go for a low single (leg takedown) and drive through. Once I’ve got the ankle, I don’t feel endangered. I’m really comfortable in that position.”
     
    While many heavyweight matches are of the 1-0 and 2-1 variety and full of underhooks, that’s not Dancy’s preference.
     
    “I feel more comfortable in high-scoring matches,” says Dancy. “I like to get at least two takedowns in the first period. If not, two takedowns in the second period.”
     
    Bradbury looks at Dancy and does not see a normal heavyweight. For one thing, he is among the team leaders in takedowns.
     
    “He’s more than capable of wrestling in that heavyweight style by pummeling in,” says Bradbury. “But he mostly uses a technical, shot-oriented style of wrestling.”
     
    “It’s a lot easier for him to lower his level and get in his shots. He does a good job of picking and choosing his shots. He does get into clinches or ties.”
     
    “Some of his best wrestling comes off his motion.”
     
    Dancy won a Greco-Roman state title in the summer.
     
    “It was positioning for me,” says Dancy. “I was creating positions with arm drags. I didn’t throw anybody.”
     
    He placed third in both the IndianaMat Hoosier Preseason Open and Preseason Nationals in Iowa and has used his quickness and agility to enjoy success in his last high school season. He has drawn some attention from college wrestling programs and has bumped up to heavyweight with that in mind.
     
    Damari lives with brother Dimonya Dancy and the two enjoy working on computers. Dancy would like to study computer since in college. Dancy has joined a program proud of its tradition and has become one of the team’s leaders, especially since so many talented wrestlers graduated after the 2018-19 season.
     
    “We needed somebody to step up,” says Bradbury, who tapped Dancy and Ty Haskins (who was a state qualifier at 120 in 2019 and a sectional champion at that weight in 2020) for the task. “We need them to help lead this team to where we need to be.”
     
    “We let Damari know we have high expectations and he needs to lead that. He took on the challenge.”
     
    “We lot of first-year varsity wrestlers at the beginning of the year. It was rough (Portage placed fourth in the Duneland Athletic Conference meet and it’s three dual losses came to powerhouses Crown Point, Chesterton and Merrillville). We feel like we can do some good things in the state series.”
     
    Leadership styles are not the same for Haskins and Dancy.
     
    “Ty, he’s the vocal guy,” says Dancy. “I try to do it by example. I’m not that vocal.”
     
    “Practices at the beginning of the year were so hard. They helped us build physical and mental strength. We know we can be good. We work everyday to get to that point.”
     
    Dancy often finds working out with sophomore Cory Hill (who placed third at sectional at 220) or assistant Montell Pace.
     
    “He goes all out and scrambles with low singles,” says Dancy of Pace. Assistants Kyle Keith and Mark Devyak tend to work more with the upper weights while Eric Keith and Jose Torres are with the smaller wrestlers.
     
    Pace is a Merrillville High School graduate. The rest of the staff went to Portage.
     
    Bradbury, a 1999 graduate, placed seventh in the state as a junior and was state runner-up as a senior — both at 119. He and 112-pounder Eric Keith were both members of the Indians’ state runners-up at the 1998 Team State Finals.
     
    “Tradition, it’s extremely important,” says Bradbury, who came back to Portage as an assistant in 2018-19 after serving as head wrestling coach at Seminole Ridge in Palm Beach County, Fla., a school built in 2006. “We’ve always expected to compete at a high level and be one of the best teams in the state.”
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