lpd096

I know one thing...that trip to Tennessee last year was one for the ages...it is a GREAT time! Congratulations to both Gold and Blue teams from Indiana! I wish we could have went down again!!! haha

Brandi, you always do an excellent job! Keep up the great work!

Wow! What a great weekend for Indiana Wrestling!

I saw Chad Red win it all in a great match and I also saw Drew Hughes come up just a hair short of winning a National Title. Nate Cleveland (Lowell) won a National Title at 215lbs for the Juniors and from what I saw, Indiana had All-Americans everywhere!

At 80lb Novice: Tucker (3rd), Rypel (5th), and Crary (6th) reached All-American status. This division had 7 state champs and a total of 45 kids in the bracket! Great job, boys!

Lowell's Lucas Finger earned 8th place at Intermediate 50lbs; Way to go, Lucas!

Bloomington's Griffin Schermer reached the medals stand as well. Great job!

I know there are a lot more but this is who I personally saw in action.

Indiana wrestling is on its way up!  :)

Don't you have homework to do? GET BUSY!!

...when you finish watch this Youth video from Illinois!

http://vimeo.com/3720963

*note: Make sure you keep the mouse-pointer on the screen to see it.

What sticks out to me during this match was the expression on Zadick's face. It was 7-2 and Metcalf went down and the camera angle was low so it showed Zadick and Brands in the background...the expression on Zadick's face was priceless. I am a HAWKEYE fan but that was priceless...it was a total look of "SHOCK" and "DISMAY" like "what in the he** is going on!" I remember thinking the exact the same thing!!!!

A Headlock in the finals? Wow...that was nice.

I can't remember the last time I was so upset with an official. The obligatory stall call with 8 seconds to go was a complete and utter joke! I would have rather the official NOT call stalling at all, that way he would have been consistent. There was nothing different from period 1, 2, or the final 8 seconds...why call stalling then? That official will feel like crap after he watches the tape...as well he should. Andrew came forward for 3 periods and one stall call with 8 seconds to go! Give me a break...I haven't yelled at the T.V. for a long time but I was going off on that one! (Yes, I am biased, I admit)

This is the NCAA finals and you could see how disgusted Andrew was after the match...

I have seen Andrew wrestle since before he entered high school and for anyone to believe that he is "boring' should look at his competition and see if it is "their" style that is slowing things down...the point about Andrew scoring takedowns leading up to the Morningstar match was a good one, Andrew has tremendous offense but its mighty difficult when a guy is backing up, blocking, and STALLING.

It is the responsibility of the OFFICIAL to recognize this and act on it.

If anyone would know, it would be YOU! LOL  :)

KRISPY-KREME, so smooth, so creamy! I have only had to loosen my gun-belt once in my career...the problem is, it was about 5 inches!!!!!

Sincerely,

The "glazed" hog

AJ: NICE!

I have a right to remain silent, anything I say can and will be used against me in an ISWA court of law. I have a right to an attorney, if I cannot afford one, a counselor will be appointed to me by the ISWA at no cost. If I choose to speak now without a counselor present, I will still have the right to cease discussions at anytime.

(LOL---an inside joke----Louis)

Crary, you are the DEVIL! LOL  :) :) :) :)

Lowell WC to North Newton HS.

They always run an efficient and friendly tournament.

http://www.nwitimes.com/articles/2009/03/17/sports/top_sports/docee87aabea92e977a8625757b001760cd.txt

Good luck to all of the home grown, Indiana kids going for a National Title in St. Louis this weekend!

Thanks Jeff! All of the kids in the LWC worked their butts off this season and I am so proud of the PARENTS for mentoring, guiding, and directing these kids! We all know that without parental support (driving, paying, and sacrificing) it is very difficult for the kids to gain a valuable skill set. That goes for any sport but in wresting, because of the tremendous demands physically and mentally, it is especially crucial.

We have a special set of parents that are incredible!

Kenny Hughes: YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!

Yes, I 2nd that, Brandi! Joey is a GREAT wrestler but an even better kid OFF of the mat!

Congrats Joey,  from Coach Tucker.

Congratulations to Kenny Hughes, Schoolboy 105 State Champ! Kenny has been knocking on the door for years earning 2nd and 3rd place finishes and he finally kicked the door down and won it all!

We are so proud of you, Kenny!!! Way to go!!!

Also, Congrats to Kurt Monix and Nate Cleveland, two more Lowell State Champs. Awesome job, boys!

In addition, a big pat on the back goes out to: Stevan Micic for winning Schoolboy 70 and Tommy Cash @ Schoolboy 77! Way to go, Tommy, that's Middle School State AND Folkstyle State; You took both! Great work!

---Coach Tucker

Here we go! I can see the direction that this is heading...

Remember, this post was regarding Trent McCormick.

Just a reminder...

P.S.

By the way, if Trent is 1/2 the man that Joe Willmann says he is, he is a Great Coach and an even better person! Good luck to ya, Coach!

An easy way to do it:

Seed the TOP 4 in each bracket by last year's placings. Simple.

(e.g. if the bracket being seeded was a Novice division, last year's Novice placers would take precedence over Intermediate placers, etc. If both wrestlers placed "5th" in the Novice last year, go by team points they scored last year to break the tie and so on)

It would add on more time for the administrators, of course...and I know it would be a Pain but it is an option. You certainly couldn't have a seeding meeting, Oh lord! (talk about a mess! and the time it would take! and the policemen that would have to be in attendance to keep the fighting to a minimum!)  :) :)

Thanks!

I could have sworn I saw Drake's name listed on Trackwrestling for Novice 85? Did he get the flu?

--Coach Tucker

If they gave PM the title based on bad ears, I think Matt won it for them! LOL  :)

Congrats! Nice job!

I completely understand what you are saying Brandi; it was more food for thought with me, I am not 100 percent behind their format but it is interesting to look at and think about any improvements that we could make here in Indiana. Like I wrote earlier, there will always be bad draws, etc. all the way up through high school.

Another reason why Illinois succeeds with its format is the fact that they have nearly twice the wrestlers that we do here in Indiana...I couldn't imagine them attempting to have an OPEN state tournament! They would have 75-100 man brackets per weight/division. For them, it's really about logistics and efficiency.

-Shane

We had 30 MIDDLE SCHOOL and high school wrestlers getting after it in the room tonight.  

The nine schools represented were:

Lowell

Hanover Central

Rensselaer

The State Champs: Crown Point

Kankakee Valley

Merrillville

Hebron

Boone Grove

Mt. Carmel (IL)

Wednesday-6pm-LHS Wrestling Room-enter through door 17

An awesome room with a lot of great wrestling going on.  Lets pack it wall to wall for Coach Hawkins next week.  Coach Hawkins is a former State-Runner Up for Crown Point H.S. and is currently a coach for CIA Northwest.  Good Luck to everyone at Huntington this weekend!

Coach Willmann: NICE JOB TONIGHT! The RTC was AWESOME!!!

Thanks Coach Griffith...

Coach Willmann called me today to let me know and Coach Alessia emailed me too...I am so proud of our kids! They have worked very, very hard.

We have a few little tykes that are going to be MONSTERS! LOL

Unfortunately, I will not be at Huntington this weekend, I'll be back down in INDY for a family wedding. Coach Hughes and Coach Willmann will lead the Lowell contingent... :)

You can check on Trackwrestling right now and see the Illinois' state championships coming up this weekend. There are 24 qualifiers at the Novice and Senior (our schoolboy) divisions for each weight class. There are three (3) wrestlers that qualify for state from each of the 8 regional tournament sites that were held last weekend around the state of Illinois. Basically, the IKWF runs it like the IHSA and the IHSAA with their state series. It's actually a pretty nice way of doing things BUT...

I think the ISWA will not make as much money from this and I am not saying this as a negative. The ISWA needs to make money so they can have better programs, tournaments, etc. so I completely understand the need to put cash in the account.

The subject of having an easier route still exists with the Illinois' format though, the champs from the regional get a first round bye and the 2nd and 3rd placers wrestle the first round but there is still a chance to have a bad draw vs. a good draw. You will never get rid of that totally but it does level the playing field and you certainly don't have 4-5 good wrestlers in one side of the bracket and one good one on the other side with the Illinois format.

It's something to explore and I am sure the ISWA is pondering this and other improvements. I do know that our head coach, Joe Willmann, is an ISWA section director for our region up here and if I know him, he would put in to hold a regional qualifier tournament here at Lowell if we ever did go to something like that.

Its interesting to think about...

p.s. I think Wisconsin has a very similar format that Illinois has...and the reason I refer to Illinois so much is because we spend so much time over there wrestling...I like to follow the boys from Illinois that Jake has wrestled throughout the years.

Personally, I have always felt that if you win a state title as a first year kid in the division, that is an amazing accomplishment because of the talent out there! To do it consistently is just unreal...

You also have to consider the QUALITY in each bracket, etc. Some brackets will only have 1-2 kids who are stand-out wrestlers where other brackets may have 4-5. Also, since we don't seed our state tournament, the draw plays a HUGE part as well...if a kid has to face 2-3 real tough kids enroute to the finals and a kid on the other side walks to the finals without breaking a sweat, there is certainly an advantage. Like anything else, you really have to look beyond the end result and see what is really going on, etc.

As you can see, earning the title "State Champ" is a relative term. I think that hardcore wrestling folks understand this.

...just my 2 cents 

Brandi:

There is absolutely NO crying over donuts! I might smear powdered sugar on my uniform! Trust me, it's impossible to get out!  :)

You should have heard John and I: "Hey, look, Brandi doesn't look happy...oh, there she goes....hahahahaha" We laughed our butts off!

Good stuff! I love it!

(Don't worry Mr. Cash, we are just teasing her, she was fine!)

TyandKy:

Thanks buddy! If you are heading to Huntington next weekend, good luck to you and the boys!