leggin89

Hahaha Nick!!! Wasn't really meaning me

Vega, kieth, Davison, cook, Hernandez........ just keeps going

Sadly Portage (Vega and if you are saying Eric Keith), Chesterton (Davisons), and Valpo (Cook) are in Porter County

A pretty good amount of finals matches were streamed and then archived on TrackWrestling.

It would be awesome to get a Podcast or chat transcript of this!

Pretty sure it would have to be PPV and would be rated NC-17.

I bet that 90% of the coaches involved in the re-alignment committee will not respond, they will just sit behind closed doors. I was not aware of any meeting or conversation that they had with our head coach to ask on suggestion or opinions.

We had a conversation at the sectional seeding meeting about it. Don't know where you were.

I find it funny that the Duneland Conference has half their teams in 1 sectional, another has 2 teams, and Portage and Merrillville are in a sectional by themselves.

Can you explain why that is funny?  We were in the Laporte Sectional until 4 years ago.  At that point it was Chesterton, Laporte, Michigan City, and ourselves.

Voila!

If I was doing Lake County it would be:

106: Shawn Hollis

113: Jacob Maldonado (or Andres Moreno)

120: Tylor Triana

126: Michael DLP

132: Jeremiah Reitz

138: Brendan Black

145: Jason Crary

152: Noah LaMore

160: Oszkar Kasch

170: Zack Fattore

182: Tyjonn Lockett

195: A.J. Fowler

220: Justin Akers

285: Brandon Streck

That is just what I would put down at least.

My Porter County Lineup:

106: Ty Haskins (though Tolin went further in the tournament)

113: Brock Peele

120: Colin Poynter

126: Ian Dembowski

132: Jack Tolin (based on last result)

138: Kris Rumph

145: Kasper McIntosh

152: Greg Lichtenberger

160: Diego Lemley

170: Ismael Cornejo

182: Lucas Davison

195: Andrew Davison

220: Eli Pokorney

285: Givoni Murillo

Here is the issue with wrestling down to 8 on Saturday.  Typically you would want to be the most fresh for a match that would put you on the podium.  That is the reason that I am okay with how Mark and Southport put the tournament on.  Few things here and there that could've been better, but all in all a cool tournament.  Sorry that I had the TrackCast kits at UIndy and we did not stream the entire event.  Hopefully using the TrackCast system, fo free, on the second day helped people around the state see what this event was and what it could become.

Hopefully they find a new announcer next year, the dude was insufferable.

If possible adding one or two more qualifier location may help with the long day of wrestling and travel time.  It may mean cutting back on how many actually qualify for state, but it could help draw in some more competition too since their travel and cost would be lowered.  Obviously finding the locations, officials, and support is a big part of adding more.

With it being a first year tournament, I think it is more about needing to get more mats than more qualifiers.  I know that Fort Wayne is not the preferred location (even for me) after spending all day at a Semi State, but the venue is actually quite nice for running something like this.  Or at least that is what I thought.  I thought that having 16 and 32 man brackets helps our sport, as that gives the athletes the ability to get some quality matches all in the same day, rather than having to go down to Frosh-Soph state and have only wrestled 1-3 times max at the qualifier.  Maybe I am wrong on this, and you can certainly tell me I am.

Could be the weekend before semi-state.  I know we sent around 10 kids to this and almost all of them were JV or lost in Sectionals.  I also realize this takes a venue and people to work it.  Maybe it can be combined with a local youth tournament in order to combine resources. 

All and all thank you to whoever has put effort towards this.

This was offered to a local club for Sunday, but the event decided that they could not do it for valid reasons.  They brought me and the rest of my volunteers (TrackGopher) in February 3rd to run the tournament.  I have/had many people offer to assist for next year as it definitely will help my club with money.  I already run a tournament the week before, so unless everyone wants to come to Portage for the event, I will not be running it the week prior for next year.

I had the pleasure of asking Faulkens last year at ECC about this.  He told me I was wrong and then Y2 sent me that above information and I showed him and then he said "oh, must have missed that meeting".

110 is correct.

8,296 is the capacity for ECC based on USA Today and Wiki.  I agree, I don't think we got near that number last year.  But nonetheless a great crowd.

They say the score at the end of the match very faintly.  13-12 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/sports/ct-ptb-wrestling-notes-st-0131-20170130-story.html

You might know the guy in the middle of the picture as well!  I've heard he is pretty good.

This past weekend did have a hold up during the break but did not have anything to do with pairings I was told. John Bogner has been there 17 seasons and attested that Wadkins has handled ridiculous things Saturday morning with no problems.

So, using track probably would've been a nightmare come whistle time.

Track was used.  Live scoring is only a small part of the TW system.  The brackets were being updated by John, just were not live for everyone (outside of the arena) to see.

To say the Calumet crew has experience which is "unmatched" is also a stretch.  Merrillville ran a semi-state (4x larger than a regional) for 30+ years like clockwork.  It would still be there if not for a disgruntled fire marshal.  Lake Central runs a great event every December at their place called the Harvest Classic.  There are other schools in the Region that know how to run a tournament and use the most current technology (TrackWrestling) to do so.

The crew at Calumet offers a no nonsense type feeling when running a tournament.  They take care of their core values for the sport without the fluff that could come along with it.  The AD and all the administrators at Calumet are some of the nicest people I have had the pleasure of working with.  If you need something from them, they will be willing to help you to the best of their ability.

Lake Central does run a heck of an event in the Harvest Classic. But I will be honest, I don't see Josh Morgan at LC saying he wants to host Regionals (I am not talking for him, just would not want it if I were him). Rarely do teams jump up and down to want to run these types of tournaments when they find out how much work it is.  Just look over at Merrillville, last year at ECC Dave Maldonado was in an awesome mood, because his day did not start at 3 AM to get ready for hosting the event.  Wadkins does/did an awesome job, and it really is a shame that the IHSAA is taking it away from him (without giving any type of justification or even just coming out and telling him).

Also, from a fan's perspective, I agree the extra elbow room is nice at Calumet.  However, from most seats you can only see one side of the scoreboard, and at most, two sides.  This can make it difficult for fans trying to follow scoring on 3 mats.  There are also sight line issues where the mat closest to you is partially blocked when you're sitting in the upper bleachers.  In addition, parking at Calumet is also a nightmare.

From a fan's prospective, you know what you are getting.  It is spacious, but there are some issues with seeing the scoreboards, sure.  The nice thing was that 3 sides of the scoreboard were on, one had Mat 1 and 2 sides had Mat 2.  Mat 3 had a standalone scoreboard on the table that allowed everyone in the gym to see.

Same issues will happen anywhere.  This is one of the things that you will learn, gyms were built for basketball, we just try to make them work as best as possible for us.

I would have to say Fred Joseph and Adam Alaniz.  They even have a duo name Fradam

Sadly the bromance of Fradam broke up.

Fred is our Assistant AD at the High School

Nobody lie to yourselves.  It did not matter what Wadkins did regarding running the tournament, Merrillville lost their Semi-State and the IHSAA made a deal with Janis and Amy (that they will get the Sectional and Regional when the IHSAA realigns teams next year).  #conspiracytheory 

I do know that Calumet was the last of the 4 Northwest Indiana sectionals to be finished on Saturday.  LaPorte was done at 2:15pm.  Crown Point was done at 3:15pm.  East Chicago was done at 3:45pm.  Calumet was done at 4:45pm.  

 

Calumet was also the only Region sectional to not use TrackWrestling at the scorers tables at matside.  They were using paper bout cards and running the results to a central computer who was entering them into TrackWrestling.  It seems most everyone else in the state uses TrackWrestling to score the bouts live at the tables.

 

These two factors could have something to do with it.

The caterer for the event was late delivering the refs and admins their food, though the refs were the real reason especially that Ray Pettit guy (don't ban me for calling out a ref!  It was an ongoing joke that he was the reason).  That is why we took that 2 hour break.

And the funniest of all, Calumet was the only sectional in the state I believe to not live score.  While they had the person with the most amount of experience running live scored events (on TW) at the school all day.  Now everyone who uses the Stats program gets to put all of that info in post meet.

I understand there is basically no reason for our varsity to wrestle "bad" teams even if they are in our conference so it's ok for JV or varsity 2 to wrestle. But I don't like when we wrestle 5 of our "studs" and then list it as a JV win. I feel that's just trying to belittle the other team. But I am an old school I guess. Lol

If you want to talk about this, you can certainly come talk to me about it. I am probably the least likely person on our staff to want to belittle someone. We have valid reasons (at least by what is happening with rankings and the genius scores in practice) and I apologize if you think I would ever belittle someone. I will be more than happy to explain my decisions on how I enter results if you just ask in person.

Something I say to the other referees I'm working with from time to time.

 

"We are going to start the day with 4 referees. The instant the first whistle blows everyone in the building becomes a referee. They will be able to see pins better than us, determine who is stalling and know the exact moment control is gained or lost. The only difference is they aren't going to step in and work a few matches for you when you need to use the restroom or get something to eat."

There are a few assistant coaches that I know that would happily step in for you GrecoRef, and could!  Me being one of them.  The issue for me was that advancing to Varsity tournaments was not happening as quickly as I would have liked because people knew who I was and thought I had a bias against teams.  Now in reality, I saw a red and a green wrestler.  I do not care if I coached a kid for 10 years, knew the family, or it was the first time ever seeing the person.  Now the issue is I enjoy coaching the team I have more than I used to enjoy officiating.  Though that is not to say if I moved away from NWI/Chicagoland area, that I would not ever want to officiate again.

Rumph v. Black.  (Saw each other the entire postseason last year)

Poynter v. Triana. (''")

Harvest, (could have been) Al Smith, (could have been) Garry Burkhart, then the entire state series it could happen as Portage and Hobart are in the same Sectional.

I was starting a discussion on underclassman that are really good but might be in a loaded weight class or projected not to complete for the four state spots out of each weight class..

 

I thought this was just for underclassman ? It is not a Ihsaa event so the one could participate..

 

I don't know if they have/are cleared to wrestle Ihsaa events this year or not ..

It is not an IHSAA event.  This is being sanctioned through USAW, I believe.  Both Littell and Jake Moran would be underclassman.  Now the being cleared for IHSAA events, I cannot say.

The coaches will hate eachother even more before the first whistle!

There is a list based on IndianaMat Rankings by the one and only OTR219

State Rank/Semi State Rank

106:

Ty Haskins NR/3rd

Martin Cruz NR/5th

Danny Tolin NR/6th

113:

Brock Peele 11/3

Jacob Maldonado NR/5th

Sebastian Cortez NR/8th

120:

Colin Poynter 5/1

Skyler Gomez NR/7

Kaellin Kelly NR/8

126:

Michael DeLaPeña 4/1 (Forgot this guy on the first one. I blame Paul)

Ian Dembowski 15/5

132:

Jack Tolin 8/2

Miguel Prado 14/4

Ahzsur Ursery NR/5

138:

Kris Rumph 3/2

Aaron Griggs NR/8

145:

Kasper McIntosh 1/2

Malik Hoover 10/4

Mario Traficanti 14/3

152:

Noah Lamore 11/4

Greg Lictenberger NR/5

Quinn Kaurich NR/7

160:

Oszkar Kasch 4/1

Diego Lemley 6/2

Drake Guerrero 11/3

Mike Lichtenberger NR/7

170:

Ismael Cornejo 11/4

Cade Girgenti NR/8

182:

Lucas Davison 3/1

Jeremy Torres 9/2

Joey Szydlo NR/4

Tyjonn Lockett NR/5

Ethan Potosky NR/6

195:

Andrew Davison 3/1

Aaron Corralez 14/3

Anthony Maceo NR/7

220:

Justin Akers 5/2

Eli Pokorney 7/1

Andrew Vander Woude NR/4

Chester Swopes NR/5

285:

Brandon Streck 10/2

Gio Murillo 15/3

Michael Foster NR/6

We moved to a morning of Seeding Meeting for DAC.

This year's event was certainly the best run and most spacious venue we have had.  What I can tell you is there are a few things that I know I was hearing as a coach. 

Mark Durham and TrackGopher were brought in late and had asked to TrackCast the event, but event administrators said no.  They cited that the year that we streamed (2 years ago @ Ball State) that we had taken a huge hit to the attendance of the event and they were not interested in streaming again.  The rebuttal to this was that two years ago the entire northern part of the state was under emergency conditions for snow and ice, so teams like Penn did not have their typical crowd.  They said they might revisit it next year as they did not remember that their was a snow emergency at the time.   Trackcast was something that we all have discussed here regarding it not being a money loss, but a moneymaker as the people who were going to come will and those that were not would not and have that opportunity.  

I know that last year's turning people away at the door certainly did not help attendance this year.  And honestly, from where I was sitting it appeared that we had about 1/2 the amount in attendance this year as last year.  I know of at least 10 Portage fans that did not make the trip because of last years overcrowding fiasco.  While I also know that there were issues with it being so close to Christmas, last year certainly could not have helped an average fan to want to risk driving hours away to risk not being allowed entrance.  I thought that TrackCast would actually help the IHSWCA as it would have brought in more money to the event.  Maybe I am wrong.

Bathroom Situation and Team Lounge!  This in my mind was the biggest positive we had.  With renting the extra expo center we were able to have more restrooms which last year we all know kind of sucked.  So thanks for that!  The team lounge was a very nice touch.  We had the ability to have food at the event without taking precious floor space (like last year) in the expo center.  So that was also a very nice upgrade with renting more room.

ISWA's clocks:  I know there were a few issues with the clocks not being correct or not starting.  Honestly this is more of an interest for me because I feel like renting actual TW clocks would benefit the event as it would then look like a first class event.  The TW clocks sync exactly with each TW computer and you do not have to worry about the visual clock (ISWA's in this case) not starting/stopping or displaying incorrect information from the TW computer.  The IHSAA rents these clocks for their events and I believe that it has made incorrect data entry (which there were a match or two incorrectly put in as results) almost nonexistent.  Again, this clock topic is not something I really think was bad, just that I think renting these clocks would allow for smoother operation of the event.  I know that a few Indiana schools have TW Clocks (Elkhart Memorial, Bloomington South, Carmel for sure) and I am sure there are a few that I am not aware of.

I thank the IHSWCA for this years event.  I believe that every year you are doing better with regards to running this tournament, but there is always room for improvement.  We have moved further into the Y2 concept of if you want to make it the Super Bowl, then we have to treat it like the Super Bowl.  I think a few things that I mentioned above would continue to push this event further forward.

you sure about that? just a glance at the brackets IL kids with high seeds that didn't qualify for state but did well at the harvest last year

 

 

isn't this is the second or third year they've seeded this way?

100% sure that it is done that way. You would know that if you looked at the 120 bracket.

The IL guys have a state tournament too, btw.