Ed Pendoski

Carmel

Carmel

Carmel

Carmel

Carmel

Carmel

Carmel notable matches last week. We will get one of our footballers back this week and hopefully have all 4 back in in two weeks. vs LN 106 Hooper over Carrender 7-5 132 Holman over Pettiford 9-0 220 Helt over Pettiford 5-4 vs Crown Point 106 Chundi over #7 Robertson 5-1 vs Roncalli 113 Githrow (ss #6) over Hooper 4-0 152 Davin over Page 14-8 160 Johnson over Smith 4-0 182 Hart over #1 Mahan 11-4 220 Heldt over Spears 3-0 285 Harris (ss #6) over Williams 5-3

Carmel

Carmel

Carmel

Carmel

Carmel

I can't believe this is happening. Let's go over a couple of facts here. Welchs leave Purdue with stubble for hair. They join the most attractive coaching staff in the Midwest at Carmel. They leave and are now bald. Humm? Our new staff has bald, hillbilly bowl, Clooney salt and pepper, afro, ginger and mullet. Can anyone really even try to top that?

CHS has a mat that we're looking to get rid of. It's older and has had it's share of use. Please conact me asap if you have a new home for this bad boy! Eddie Pendoski 317.701.1512 ependosk@ccs.k12.in.us

IU Coaches Mike Dixon and Isaac Jordan are both coming to our club practice tonight. 6:45-8:15 at CHS! We will open this practice up to the public for anyone with a current USA Card. Please enter door 21 and the wrestling room is upstairs behind the Freshman gym.

We are excited to have Indiana Native and new IU Coach Mike Dixon at our practice room tomorrow, Thursday, Sept. 6th 6:45-8:15. Carmel High School 520 E Main St. Carmel, IN 46033 Please enter door 21 and wrestling room is upstairs behind the Freshman Gym. We'd like to invite anyone with a current USA Card to come workout with us! Please contact us if you have any questions. ed.pendoski@carmelusawrestling.org

Here's a thought that hit my brain a couple years ago and I'd like to know what other's think. When a kid transfers school there's almost always three sides of the equation. Parents say, "The IHSAA should let a family do what's best for the kid" and if the school a kid leaves decides to protest, they're quick to say "that move was for an athletic transfer which is not allowed". The school that receives the transfer says, "What am I supposed to do if a kid just showes up?" My thought here isn't touching any of those statements. We've all heard enough on Indianamat about this. Here's my thought that I'd like to know what others think...... What is going to happen to wrestling in the long run as a whole if the number of state placing transfers continues? Is wrestling going to become similar to gymnastics over time? How are the small school/weaker programs going to keep up numbers of participants and quality of participants? What about coaching at a smaller/weaker program? Wouldn't it be more attractive place to coach if a potential state qualifier was in the room? Here is gymnastics program from last year: http://www.ihsaa.org/portals/0/Flip Book/2017-18/gym/index.html#?page=8 If we continue on the growth in number of transfers, what happens to the smaller/weaker schools? How long before the smaller/weaker schools start to drop the sport. Once that starts happening, I'm concerned it will happen with other schools quickly. Are the number of forfeits from 1a schools increasing or decreasing in the past 5 years? What happens when a school has 5 guys on a team, and no one to coach them? I'm the Lorax. I speak for the trees. Are we ruining the future of Indiana wrestling with the amount of transfers?....but everyone needs a thneed, right? If my daughter has a child that want to wrestle (of course I mean 30 yrs from now, after she gets her MBA, starts her own business, and then is allowed to date for the first time), will Indiana wrestling be a sport with 40 schools and the same 4 teams compete for a title?

This is exactly what I'm saying. And so did Riley. But if we look at the top 10 teams in the state tourney last year. Then look at the number of transfers to those programs. If those guys all stayed in their home school district. Can we agree that there's a better chance of them recruiting a 'Seth Riley' to continue/join our sport?

My old Polish brain is still confused. We both admit Sliga stayed in his home school (this one is measurable, his transcripts prove us right). We both agree that the guys in his room benefit from him not transferring to a power program (this on is not quite as measurable, but I'm assuming you don't think it hurt Riley by having Sliga say "come wrestle and you can come to an academy with me if you want). I'm assuming we both agree he had a successful high school career. We both agree that he supplemented his training while staying in his home school. Is that correct? But we also agree that most (if not all) of the guys on the thread about big transfers supplement their training somewhere else besides they home school, correct? Here's my opinion about the schools you mentioned (definitely not measurable). Because Bratcher and Duckworth and Cody Phillips did not leave and go to a power program they helped their small schools do this: 3rd Place Match - Ben Stewart (Cathedral) 41-2 won by decision over Luke Elliott (Eastbrook) 40-4 (Dec 7-4) and 3rd Place Match - Jack Eiteljorge (Carmel) 40-3 won by fall over Tucker Coffman (Union County) 43-8 (Fall 1:51) I'm confused on what you're saying because I read you say that Sliga had success and he included others with his success (in his home school). You said that he is a bad example because he supplemented his training elsewhere. But you also said that most (if not all) of the guys on the big transfers thread already supplements their training elsewhere? They why do they need to transfer at all when they would help the sport as a whole by increasing the popularity of wrestling in a small/weaker program and they can still be successful because they can supplement their training. My real question that comes from the start of this thread is that does having the strongest kids from small/weak programs transferring to power programs have a long term effect on our sport as a whole.

There might be answers if we first had consensus that this is truly an issue that if not address, will have a negative impact on the future of our sport in our state. I'm the Lorax. I speak for the trees! One suggestion that I've brought up with the coaches association is starting an Ethic Committee. We should probably have a different name for it. If there was a committee inside the coaches association that people could bring up situations happening. The committee could then investigate. If it's nothing, then nothing is done. If it finds out misdoings then it can make it public. Another big benefit of having an Ethics Committee could be to promote great things happening in our sport. In the Carmel vs Warren dual a couple years ago we had a match on the JV mat. Both kids had autism. Might have been one of the greatest matches I've ever seen (with a score of like 19-17 and 8 lead changes. It was pretty special).

I'm still confused, because to me it sounds like you're using examples that top kids transfering to 'power programs' is not good for the future of Indiana wrestling as a whole. It didn't matter that Sliga stayed at Fishers. If he would have transferred to a power school, he would have had a similar career. And by staying at Fishers, he brought another Fishers kid's level up. I think that says two things. It says that you can still be successful without transfering to a power school. It also says that staying within your feeder program increases the chance of another athlete's development/enjoyment of the sport that might not happen otherwise. You also brought up 3 other guys that did the exact same thing. They stayed in their feeder system, helped grow their home school, and still had very successful careers. Not sure if you could say HSE was not a power program. They were quite competitive in Austin's years.

Maybe I'm not reading correctly. The way I'm reading this, it sounds like you are giving examples of kids don't need to transfer from smaller/weaker programs and that there are benefits to kids staying local. Would you agree that Sliga staying at Fishers played a part in Seth Riley's success and if Sliga didn't transfer that part of Riley's success was there because Sliga stayed in his feeder program's high school?

I wish I knew the moderator well enough to control this conversation thread! hehe The theory i'm trying to bring up is the long term ramifications of quality transfers going to power programs and the result it will have on the smaller/weaker schools over time. We hope that the room at CIA helped Sliga improve his game in the time he was there, and you are absolutely correct that Sliga introduced Seth Riley to our room also. Again, we hope we helped supplement his training too! But doesn't this help make the statement of spreading out the growth of our sport in many schools is better? If Sliga would have wrestled for a different school than Fishers, do you really believe that Seth Riley qualifies for state? Wouldn't this be a quality thing for wrestling as a whole? If we look at the list of transfers on the other thread. How many of the names listed attend an academy similar to Sliga? I'm the Lorax. I speak for the trees. If families "do whats best for their kids" and transfer from smaller/weaker programs, is that going to be the demise of smaller/weaker schools to drop their programs. What has happened to our failing public schools since they started open enrollment? Can we use that number and an example of what could happen to wrestling programs in our state? I really like this anaolgy. If i could invent a machine that could instantly fix broken arms with no pain whatsoever. The only downfall is that this machine cost $700 trillion dollars to make. If somone's kid broke their arm, I would say, "I bet that hurts like hell" because there's not chance I would be in favor of ruining America's economy to make a machine that would make a kids broken arm go away.....but if my daughter broke her arm you can bet your ass I think its a good investment!

A phrase I say to our team often is "just because someone says something adamantly, doesn't make their opinion more correct". I could see why people have this opinion too. Cody Phillips, Michael Duckworth, and Mitch Sliga are guys that are examples of wrestlers that stayed in the district of their local feeder system. They stayed in their dirstrict, used the tools that they had available, and had pretty successful careers in high school. One opinion on this would be if you don't take the easier path (transfer to a district with the 'perfect partners/coaches' then they would be more prepared for difficult situations in matches/life...but that is a different conversation that I hope doesn't take over this thread. In my conversations with other coaches is usually about what happens to the state as a whole if a portion of transfers to the a power team continues? I can see the discrepancies of my gymnastics analogy. Gymnastics has many hurdles in front of them. It is a very expensive sport and takes up a large chunk of space in a school building, and it is very hard to find a coach....but I do feel like wrestling has it's own hurdles in front of them. I'm pretty sure that no one knows what will happen to the smaller/weaker programs if quality guys continue to transfer to the 'power programs'. My hope of this discussion is that are we really looking at the future of our sport at the high school level? Should we pay attention to possible long term ramifications? I'm the Lorax. I speak for the trees!

This is exactly the hypothetical situation I'm talking about. "I'm doing what's best for my kid". But is it going to end high school wrestling as we know it because we are going to become a club when the numbers are so low?