.02

With school coming to a close and several RTC's being canceled recently, could those of you who will continue to run RTC's throughout late May, June and July please post.

Thanks!

Seems like more changes than usual.  Do others agree?  Or does this seem typical?

31 minutes ago, Jayruss said:

I hope he doesn’t get poached from Indiana. 

Why would he leave IN?  We are one of the few states with a single class system where he can be 'THE' State Champ.  Plus he has the chance to join the rare air of a 4x IN State Champ.

The kid on the left is way bigger than the kid on the right. (Same hair, new tattoo- looking for the Roy Boy Award???)

In all seriousness, can you remind me the weight class difference? 

The point is well taken, maturity matters.  And it continues... take a look at David Taylor through the years:

Just behaving so nobody has to ban me I learn slowly...turning over a new leaf.

33 minutes ago, ttwo0603 said:

Culver schedule next year has several events with high quality opponents. A trip to Ohio and Detroit will definitely have top level talent. 

Sounds good- which tournaments did they swap out?  Exciting to see some out of state competition.  That seems to be a challenge in IN.  Lots of kids in Da Region see good competition, but often it is against each other multiple times.  Are there other schools getting out of state competition? I think one of the things about IHSWCA Team State that is nice is seeing schools from other parts of the state too.  Are there restrictions on travel distance?  I felt like we had some kids not competing in IN for that very reason.

I'm pretty new to using this site, but it seems the following might be helpful.

Question to ask yourself:

Is what I'm about to post something I would like feedback from the community on/ information for the whole community or am I making a personal attack/ asking an individual a question?

1st type: Starting or commenting in a thread is the place for you.

2nd type: Try using the message feature.... There is a feature on this site that allows users to sent a 'personal message'.  You just click on the person and then choose- the little envelope icon. It's easy

(PS- This is a test.  If you pass, I'll get the hate mail in my inbox if you don't appreciate help with manners.  If you fail you'll post your message here.  Good luck.)

29 minutes ago, 1prouddad said:

Just finished second at FloNationals. Reached the finals with a controversial(depending on ones own view) win over Rumph. 

True (on both counts).  Even if he'd finished 3rd or 4th it would have been impressive.  Question still remains- Ready for IN State Finals?  It might be argued that he finally got some challenging matches and started raising his level.  Also not sure of what he did to prepare for Flo?  RTC's with more practice partners?  Some wrestling academy?  He has 'plymouth' on Flo Nationals.... 

I am just arguing that a tough schedule (even one with some losses- quality losses) like some champs and runner up finishers from schools like Avon, Portage, Cathedral, Brownsburg have will help hone your skills for the tight matches in the State Finals.  Most schools in Da Region and <Pound Sign>TheCounty (to site a couple of examples) are pushing the level of competition all the time and they are ready for the tight matches down the stretch.

Fasten the seat belts.  I feel like I was on this ride before. Lock-down and erase seems to be the answer.  Surely we will all forget about this sooner or later... won't we?

49 minutes ago, doublelegkilla said:

I think Manzona Bryant takes next year state championship at 138

Talented kid no doubt.  Questionable if his schedule is tough enough. Trackwrestling (I had trouble finding any info on FloArena for some reason) shows his HS record this year- almost every match during the regular schedule is a first period fall.  Hard to compete at a high level 'all of a sudden' at state when you are hitting kids from schools who've really run up against top notch opponents all year. 

4 minutes ago, oldfat119 said:

Angel talked about this in his interview on the Takedown podcast,  7 IN guys in the bloodround this year would have scored a lot of points for PU or IN

A serious question remains...how well is the talent developed?  Who has progressed more Lee or Red?  Do we think they'd have fared as well if they were in the IN or Boiler room?  I'd like to think so, but not sure.  Building the whole package is a huge coaching task BEYOND the recruiting.  It's why some kids will pick up an leave their home state.

I'm pretty sure if you put Ohio State keeping all the Ohio talent, Penn State keeping all of the Pennsylvania talent, Iowa keeping all the Iowa talent and Rutgers keeping all of the NJ talent, it would change the article.

Also, while this is a nice sentiment, it is not a realistic picture of the recruiting landscape.  Top tier schools will always compete for top talent from other states.  Sure solid wrestling states have a base built by in-state kids but they are still competing nationally for kids.

On 4/12/2018 at 11:32 AM, brickfor6 said:

Just because the weather is nice we will still be wrestling!

Well, looks like we've taken care of that problem.  Feels just like wrestling season outside!!!

2 minutes ago, nkraus said:

eyyyyy good idea! 

I've seen this idea floated before.  But nobody has really taken the time to get this up and running.  I feel like it could become an annual event that just rotated venues based on which teams make it into the top 12 and which don't.  But it will take someone willing to start it

17 minutes ago, nkraus said:

It was a cool tournament the last two years and I'll be sad to not be a part of it this year

I'd really encourage you to reach out to some of the other schools that were 'just out' of this tournament.  Especially ones that had it on the schedule and might now be out....  A super-dual of 6 'just missed' teams would offer some good competition at a key point in the year.  Doesn't have to be by class either....

3 hours ago, Fabio Jr. said:

Unfortunately this is the issue with our system.There is no perfect or purely objective solution.

True, true.  It is a challenge to use 'individual' tournament results to predict dual strength (at least at the margins).  I think the system used is an objective system that makes a measurement of the strength of returning kids.  It is very heard to measure depth. Even when they start ranking college teams and essentially know most of the line-up it is not always easy to predict outcomes of an actual dual.  Did anybody see Penn State beat Ohio State without Nolf and BECAUSE Cassar beats Moore???

I would love to see duals between some of these closely related schools.  Too bad our schedules are not flexible enough to add some in.

Can anyone left in the 126 (or coming up there) give Mendez SERIOUS competition?

35 minutes ago, Mattyb said:

I really don't see him in the 120s many more times if any. Maybe it will happen. But... my opinion is no.

Seems reasonable looking at him.  Projecting to college he looks like a 133/141.  Any thoughts on how he would have fared against the 132 crowd this year?  Does he have any matches v. Bryant or Mosconi? Not sure if either of them could still be @ 132 next year or not...

51 minutes ago, 3xStateChamp said:

I would say “Way Bigger” would be a better term for it . Just go through the Brownsburg RWO Topic and take a look at picture that Coach Synder posted and comeback here tell us what you think ? 

I saw that, I just haven't seen a picture of Mendez flexing like that  So by 'way bigger' I guess I am wondering if they should be predicted to be more than one weight class apart next year???  Seems like Mendez could easily mature and put on some weight/muscle.

Is 'way bigger' just comparing maturity when physically comparing and 8th and 11th grader?

On 4/14/2018 at 9:04 PM, Mattyb said:

Garcia is way bigger.

Didn't they wrestle 113 and 120 @ Flo Nationals?  So basically 120 and 126 lb weight classes.  Depending on growth/weight cuts I don't see an adjacent weight class as 'way bigger'.

Interested to see how kids grow and what weight classes end up looking like.  Some guys are grinders and will just pick a weight they feel good at regardless of competition, others will duck and cover for an 'easy road' to look for a title.  The most interesting weights seem to be in the 132-152 range. Below this there are usually lots of underclassmen in the placings and above 152 the underclassmen are fewer.  But in the middle there seem to be some packed weights and some with seniors creating 'vacancies'.

132# 5 returning state placers: 2,3,4,7,8

138# only 2 returning state placers: 5,7

145# 5 returning state placers: 1,3,5,7,8

152# only 3 returning state placers: 2,5(only loss to B. Lee, tough draw),6

Interested in peoples thoughts about how the 'vacancies' @ 138 and 152 might effect guys moving up vs staying where they were this year.  Who are the top guys in these weights to watch for?  Incoming freshman that could be in the mix?

Great Wrestling!  Officiating was as good as it gets (there are always questionable calls or we wouldn't need refs). Exciting to see how well IN represented!!!

36 minutes ago, Disco said:

Yea, that shaved ice guy, walking up and down the aisle all the time, gets real annoying.

Not as bad as the cotton candy guy @ Banker's Life

But as good as the wrestling is going to be we could probably eat cardboard and not notice!!!!

Just wanted to give a shout out to all of the wrestlers giving back to the wrestling community by sharing technique and rolling with guys in RWO's and RTC's!

Great to see those kids having great success (still in HS) giving back and encouraging other and also the college kids giving back to the next generation!!!

As I look through the list of RTC/RWO's the number and quality of different contributors to this is impressive.

I think the wrestling academies serve a purpose too, but I also think these open rooms with quality wrestling is the best way to keep growing our sport!

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS.

58 minutes ago, UncleJimmy said:

Yep, that's the one. My idea is to have it play at the end of the individual matches (if you're watching the stick people) instead of the "this match is over" square that pops up. That way the advertiser would get more eyeballs too as it could come up 8 times at the end of those individual matches instead of just one random time  after a set number of minutes on the larger screen. 

I thought that was my idea... and if you are watching video of a particular mat, then it plays the ad over the video.