sasquatch

I love this sport and the kids that participate. I assist a team in an urban area. It has become increasingling more difficult to get kids to come out and stay out. For many the complaint is it is just too hard. They can walk from the wrestling room to the basketball floor and find a completely different regimen. I am the "old guy" in the room and old school. The head coach and I are challenged about how we can make it more fun yet still prepare them properly for the battles they will face. I try to articulate to the kids that once they leave that employers etc. are not going to "create" environments where they can't expect the school or employer to diminish the hard work that is required to succeed. After all I believe our higher calling is to help mold better men, college students, husbands, fathers, employee's and future business owners. On the other hand we are confident if we can keep an athlete out that by his junior year we have a really good chance to make a highly competitive wrestler out of him.

Just venting some and asking how others are striking a reasonable balance of preparing young men properly and keeping them engaged.

Indiana is blessed with many great coaches. One of the most overlooked is Al Hartman of South Bend Clay. He produces year in and year out. He is a hall of fame coach. He consistently develops strong teams abd fine young men under challenging urban circumstances with no real feeder system or a corporation that embraces the sport.

I was notified that Ryan Stahl transferred from Elkhart Memorial to......Mishawaka. I can see they are looking for another good recruiting season.

The responses to this subject are really curious. First of all, if you think this discussion topic is irrelevant and tiresome, WHY are you posting on it? Why don't you get over it? Most of us who either coach or have made a significant investment in the lives of all the young wrestlers we work with go way beyond their performance on the mat. I in no way implied the CP wrestlers were not getting life lessons along the way. It was simply my strong belief that it should be carried over after the match.

It has become obvious that the virtuous convictions and principles most of us feel seperate wrestling from all other sports is not as prevalent as most would think. And no, it just isn't about shaking someone's hand.

Too many of our kids do not have a home or surroundings where the basic tenets of respect are taught and reinforced. I am not a schoolteacher, but I know most of the head coaches are in the buildings in one capacity or another. I am in the building during the wrestling season and it confirms the "horror stories" of disrespect they seem to experience everyday.

I don't like to see an opportunity lost for a young man to learn about  principles of common courtesy, respect and a reasonable level of sportsmanship that seems to be disappearing in our society.

When this came up of not shaking hands when my son was wrestling for CP I didn't agree with it then. But as I watched over the years and seen the other teams doing it I understood why. In almost halve of the matches I watched the sincerity in the handshake isn't there so if that is your example of respect I don't want my kid to have it. To me respect could be a varsity player giving his spot up to a fellow team mate who as worked just as hard as you for 4 years but couldn't make the starting lineup. I seen this senior give another senior his spot so that he could wrestle one varsity match. To me that showing respect for later in life. Thank you Coach Vlink and all his ast. coaches you have made us proud.

                                             Don Szymborski

The sincerity of the handshake would be your own child's, not his opponent.

I hope that the original poster was joking

 

Sasquatch, do me a favor. Watch any college wrestling meet, and tell me how many times any wrestler shakes an opposing coaches hand. It rarely, if ever happens.

 

 

I think it's borderline rude to shake the opposing coaches hand after a match at a dual meet. The coaches are trying to do there job, maybe they want to give there athlete some last minute instructions before they go to the mat, maybe they need to talk to there kid after coming off the mat to correct him on a certain tecnique, maybe they need to talk to there assistants, maybe they need to look in the rule book for something, etc.

 

At your average dual, you shake hand during intros, before the start of each match, at the conclusion of each match, and and the conclusion of the dual. At what point, in your opinion, does it get excesssive?

 

What other sport is it considered "sportsmanship" to shake the opposing coaches hand during the course of competition?

 

I could go on and on giving you reasons why shaking the other coaches hand is pointless, but you'll never get it.

 

And please trust me on this, I personally know Vlink, Rodriguez, and the rest off the C.P coaching staff, and they would never intentionally turn there back on a kid like you described.

 

Trapjaw- First of all, I agree that the activity in a dual meet can be excessive. My observations and comments were not about a dual meet, but the individual state finals! Most of the kids that wrestle at any level in our state will not go on to wrestle in college. I hope by that time they, with the nurturing of their parents and coaches  will  themselves be , respectful young adults. However, too many of our kids do not have a home or surroundings where the basic tenets of respect are taught and reinforced. I am not a schoolteacher, but I know most of the head coaches are in the buildings in one capacity or another. I am in the building during the wrestling season and it affirms the "horror stories" of disrespect they share with me.

 

I don't like to see an opportunity lost for a young man to learn about a principle that seems to be disappearing in our society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All football and basketball players must be the most disrespectful people on earth, they only shake hands after the game.  I think they should shake hands after each play with not only the players, but the coaches.

Y2- you are a genius! Yeah, even in my "region" football players and basketball players  line up and SHAKE hands with the players and coaches after the game. What a novel idea...

Maybe I was sleeping during the finals and missed some bad sportsmanship displayed by the Crown Point wrestlers. These boys are a class act and to insinuate that they are anything but, is UNEXCUSABLE!!! How dare you word your post in a way that makes these boys sound like thugs who can't display appropriate behavior. Just because you may not agree with not shaking hands, it doesn't give you the right to say that their coaches are not teaching them to be great people and  are not offering them YOUR version of a complete package. These boys are some of the BEST young men that I have had the great pleasure to be around and the CP coaches are great leaders and terrific role models to these young men. Congrats again to the entire Crown Point team and coaches.

Clive- you seem a bit paranoid. Read the post. I was impressed with the wrestlers performance, focus and preparation and congratulated them for it. Refer back to X card...this is a discussion board.I have every right to make an observation. Nobody insinuated anything about the young men. Nothing was said about them being thugs who cannot display good behavior. There were 224 wrestlers competing at Conseco. The only wrestlers not to shake the opposing coaches hand were from Crown point. I am fairly certain the boys do not make that decision on their own. If you aren't tired of the disrespect shown by alot of todays youth to adults and feel that missing an opportunity to display respect is a good example, especially in front of a fieldhouse full of young, impressionable, future wrestlers, you have every right to submit a post about it.

I was very impressed with the Crown point wrestlers this weekend. To a man they were all extremely prepared and focused, which is a testament to their hard work and their  coaching staff.

However, I am sick of watching only ONE school the entire weekend not demonstrate a modicum of sportsmanship at the State finals. I know that there has been talk on the site ad nauseum about shaking hands and how many times is necessary and all that baloney. However, we are at the Stae Finals! Not once did a Crown point wrestler shake an opposing coaches hand at the conclusion of a match. Every single Crown Point opponent in victory or defeat came over and shook the Crown point coaches hand. They even went so far as to leave John Grey from cathedral "out in the cold" during introductions. After every single pairing was announced the wrestlers went across the mat and shook the opposing coaches hand. Grey crossed the mat only to see the backs of the Bulldogs coaches walking away.

The sport of wrestling teaches more life lessons than any other sport, in my opinion. It also gives coaches the opportunity to coach them up on what it means to be great people in addition to being great wrestlers. I am sick of hearing from CP coaches when they get out of the region to wrestle and tell me when I ask them why their wrestler didn't shake my hand that " we don't do that in the region!" Well, every other "region" school did it this weekend.

CP coaches- wake up! Give your kids the "complete package" that wrestling offers and not just your arrogant version.

Congrats to the bulldog wrestlers.

Al Hartman of South Bend Clay just recorded his 350th win. In a inner city public school district that doesn't exactly embrace it's athletics,unless it is basketball, Al continues to turn out a quality product.

Should be a great tournament. When looking at recent Mishawaka results I don't see Trent Reinhol wrestling. Is he injured?