1oldwrestler

After 12 years of being involved in wrestling in the state of Indiana, the Franklin family is saying thanks for the memories.  Two boys and over 215 career IHSAA (between them) victories later we are bowing out and thanking the sport for all it has taught us.  Jack made it to Banker's this year which was a special moment for all of us.  For those of you that remember Jack's older brother, Andy (3x NHC Champ - 2008, 2009 & 2010), he is in his second year of law school at IU (Bloomington) and in the top 20% of his class.  Jack is headed to Ball State this Fall.  As for me, I hope the aging process slows to a normal pace as it feels I've aged 25 years during the times I lived and died with my sons these past 12 years.  Homestead HS, where Jack and Andy attended, is in great hands with Coaches Devaux, Stockman and Oberlin.  Viva Indiana wrestling!

More than one person on this thread said that our champs would "hold their own" in ohio and illinois. What is the definition of holding one's own?  (Insert joke here) But seriously, how many of our champs would be champs in Ohio and Illinois? And Im talking about putting our champs in the large school class of both those states.  Is holding our own is measured by how many of our champs would double as champs or how many of our champs would place in the top four. Im just curious what people think.

Here is my current issue. I have several wrestlers on my team that are currently playing football. They keep aproaching me to open up the room for preseason technique practices because many of them are seniors and almost all of them are dedicated to wrestling over football. Doing what I thought was the right thing i asked our football coach if he cared if these kids came up and worked out occasionally as long as it did not interfere with football. I got the answer i didn't want to hear. He said he doesnt want them doing anything not football related. Obviously he doesn't want them to get hurt but these kids are wanting to learn some new techniques before their season kicks off. What kind of injuries have we really seen going through technique training? Football has the entire summer to prepare. Wrestling has only a couple weeks once football is over. Thoughts or ideas on how to approach this issue?

You are kinda screwed depending on the size of your school and I'm guessing you're 4a or better from the way your fball coach is talking to you.  As Karl stated, you can talk him and explain technique but that will more than likely be an exercise in futility.  Football is king and coaches know it. 

Weird... They have a couple State champs headed their way in about 10 years. It will be a shame if they can't win a conference title also.

I like your line of thinking and believe you should bring that up at the next school board meeting!!

You are a proper jackass...

Where's the "like" button when you need it?

I don't think of it as an "eye for an eye" approach, I think if as protecting kids from a very dangerous sport.  I loved football as a kid, I just don't want my kids playing it now that there is so much known about how bad it is for kid's brains.  I know there are some people who play who never see the affects, but there is a disturbing number of kids who are going to have trouble later in life.

Take the time to look at a simplified presentation of a study by Purdue (will have to click next at top of page) and tell me it is good for kids to play football - http://www.purdue.edu/differencemakers/nauman.html

Don't have time to read your posted report.  What I will say is that kids that play pee wee and h.s. football, imo, will have no more lasting effects (especially conscussion related) than any other sport.  I have coached pee wee footbal and I don't think I ever saw a kid get hit so hard that he suffered a concussion.  I know that it happens at that level, I just never saw it.  The little guys that can uncoil and deliver a devastating hit are few and far between.  At the h.s. level the number of big hits increases but still is miniscule compared to the big hits that occur at the next levels.  Telling kids not to go out for football at the pre-college level due to health concerns, is silly, IMO.

What do you think of discouraging wrestlers ( or all kids ) from playing football?

The old eye for an eye approachprobably wont get you very far.  Football is the "it" sport in Indiana and most states. Some would argue basketball here but the popularity of the nfl, imo, makes football Americas pastime. I love football but hate when h.s. football coaches actively tell kids not to go out for football. I find it ignorant and if they simply said nothing pro or con re wrestling it would be better.

I  was recently speaking with someone in a bit of the know at HHS and it appears HHS is going the independent route and not joining the SAC (primary reason being the splitting of the gate) the season after next.  Don't have any idea what Carroll will be doing but can't imagine they will join the SAC either.  Will be interesting to see the benefits and the drawbacks. 

The gym tends to be a little fuller for bball games as well.

Being a strong wrestling community is nice but I think you may be giving that factor a bit too much weight when I look at one of your top two teams.  You got one of the top two right but the other, I would argue, might not even be in the top 5  but for that (IMO) overrated fabled past.  I would be more inclined to put PM into your Top 5. 

1old, I personally would rank payton,brown, sanders ahead of emmitt. I would guess most 'experts' would have emmitt in the middle of any top 10 list even though he holds the record.

Of hear ya yoda. Payton oss my #1 but im incredibly biased admittedly.  I believe smith would have to.be top 3

I think TripleB is saying it does matter. With different rules it brings other varibles. Cy Young has the most wins in baseball history but no one would say he is the best pitcher of all time. Emmitt Smith has the most yards rushing but no one is saying he is greatest RB of all time.

Im no emmit smith guy (payton was  was my guy) but I think, based on the all time rushing record alone, you could easily argue smith WAS the greatest of all time.  You have to throw brown/simpson/payton/etc into the discussion but that rushing title carries a lot of weight, imo.

 

Yippee that means you can find more kids that want to go to the Grand River World Championships.

 

 

Just curious why you find it necessary to bash a nice opportunity for kids to get a bunch of matches under their belts over a two day period.

As long as the ref's can apply the OB rule consistently, should work fine.  Do the refs you have working the tourney have experience in the college ranks or have they had experience calling matches with the college OB rules?  If this is going to be the first foray for many of them calling it, it might get a little dicey but it's an off season tourney, who cares.  The results from these matches have no bearing on Sectional seedings anyway or any other seeds for regular season tourneys. 

Illinois, again, ran away with the most AA's in both divisions and styles (just looking at boys).  They had 71 AA's, more than doubling their closest competitiors, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin who both had 30 AA's.  Illinois had a staggering 13.8% of the AA's.  Indiana was just outside the top 10 at the 11th spot with 16 AA's (tied with MD and NJ).  Below are the numbers for the top 15 states:

State     # of AA's          State's Population

IL                  71                      12.88 Million

PA                  30                      12.76 Million

WI                  30                        5.72 Million

CA                  27                      38.04 Million

OH                27                        11.54 Million

MN                26                          5.37 Million

OK                25                          3.81 Million

IA                  18                        3.07 Million

UT                  18                        2.85 Million

OR                  17                        3.89 Million

IN                  16                        6.53 Million

MD                  16                        5.88 Million

NJ                  16                        8.86 Million

MI                  15                        9.88 Million

GA                  14                        9.91 Million

ID                    14                        1.59 Million

Not to start anything, but I heard from a pretty good source that Lee may not be in line up for EMD this year. May stay he for the he schooling and then compete in national events. This due to if he is at EMD then he has to travel with the team and thus lose out on his National accolades and training else where. I hope this is wrong as I would love to see his talent here. But whatever it may be, I wish h the best

Wow.  Glad J Tsirtsis/A Tsirtsis/Howe/Escobedo decided to wrestle in h.s. for their teams. Hope this is merely rumor.

Can you do this for the nhc? Would be nice as  its coming to an end in 2 years

To me, this is like saying that Babe Ruth wasn't as good as today's sluggers because the modern pitchers are more specialized and throw faster.  Or that Jim Brown isn't as good of a runner as today's RBs cause the defensive players weren't as big or fast.

 

WITHIN the period that he wrestled, Ellis was dominant like no other.  I can't think of a sport where old generation athletes are "better" than modern athletes.  I don't, however, think that takes away from their accomplishments.  If that were the case, you would have seen many other wrestlers from the 80s with 80% pinning percentages, but to my knowledge they don't exist.

I believe that if you were great in one era, you will be great an any other era.  If Lance Ellis were given the same training, nutrition and conditioning methods available to today's athlete, he would be dominant still.  That being said, my vote still goes to Jason Tsirtsis

When will this be available for audiobook download?   I think having the vocal readings may add to this one.

Written or read, I'm pretty sure the editing will take years to get through.

I vote Jason too, mainly because of how he handled Caldwell last year. Pretty impressive.

Jason will definitely get a few D1 titles under his name.

Health will be the key.

My vote goes to Jason Tsirtsis.

Profit sharing gates

Yeah, me either. I also dont think the sac ads/administrators are very excited to change their policies just to accommodate hhs/chs. Cant blame em. Id have the attitude as well thats "you wanna play in our sandbox, here are the rules. Not our fault your old sandbox mates kicked you out." 

I doubt either school will play socialist football

?  Sorry, not understanding your comment. 

I do what I can to bring the party

And you do it well!

Perry Meridan is a pretty good team but they are in the New Castle Semi State.

Ahh, it wouldn't be a true "insider party" without Mr. Wisejan making an appearence!  Maybe we can get some Hobbit references going.  C'mon, it'll be fun and it makes for fascinating reading!