Ed Pendoski

Wait!  We only have 7.  With football playing as long as they typically do here, it's hard to compete before Thanksgiving.

We have always thought that weeknight dual meets are good for the program.  It's easy for everyone involved....kids on team, student body/grandma/neighbors/etc to come watch.

We are definitely going away from the marathon day stuff too.  We shortened our schedule quite a bit over the last couple years.  We like knowing that we compete on Wed. and Saturdays.  I

Carmel has 8 

What a great room this weekend.  Both Riley McClurg and Jack Dechow did a great job working with all the guys and put in some great stuff and the last session was tough as nails.

Thanks again for Riley and Dechow for spending a Saturday with the guys.  

bump

This Wednesday, May, 13th at 6:45 we will have Camden Eppert as our guest clinician.  Camden is currently an assistant coach at Wabash College

Brief bio on Camden:

Camden Eppert joins the Little Giant wrestling staff after spending the last four years as a member of the Purdue University wrestling team. During his career (2010-14), Eppert won 65 matches at 125 pounds, twice qualified for the NCAA Championships, and four times was named Academic All-Big Ten Conference.
 
Eppert graduated from Purdue in 2014, earning a bachelor of science degree while majoring in Public Health Promotions. During his tenure in West Lafayette, IN, he was a three-time All-Academic honoree by the National Wrestling Coaches Association, a team captain as a junior and senior, and was named Outstanding Freshman in 2011.
 
As a senior in 2013-14, Eppert ranked fifth on the Boilermakers with 16 wins and was the 125-pound representative in 13 of 14 dual meets. As a junior, he posted a career-best 23 wins, including a 6-2 record in Big Ten dual meets. Over his last two seasons, Eppert was a combined 12 matches over .500 and won nearly 60 percent of his matches.
 
Eppert made his first NCAA Championship appearance as a freshman in 2011, following a fifth-place finish at the Big Ten Championships. He followed up with another NCAA berth in 2012, knocking off a pair of nationally ranked opponents during the meet.  

After qualifying for his second NCAA tourney Camden is quoted as saying, "I'm still scared of Pendoski...he's just so strong and powerful"

In addition to his successes on the mat, Eppert was a member of the Boilermaker Athletic Council, the John R. Wooden Leadership Institute, and was granted membership in Mortar Board, the national college senior honor society.
 
Born in Noblesville, IN, Eppert graduated in 2009 from Highland High School in Anderson, IN, winning IHSAA state titles in 2007 (103 pounds) and 2009 (119 pounds) to go with a 155-13 (.923) career record. 

The other night I was getting ready to have some before bed TV time with EVP. She noticed from the .4 seconds that she caught CNN that they were covering what was happening in Baltimore.  Of course that was long enough for her to start asking about why there are people starting fires.

Now, try to explain that one to your 7 yr old daughter!

Now I will be the first to admit that I don't know much about what happened in Baltimore, but from the little I've heard it's because there was a death and it was done by a policeman.

I also am under the impression that there was a peaceful protest, but turned into full blown riot.

Someone died in Baltimore.  That's tragic.

People were pissed off about it and started rioting.  That's tragic.

What happened was wrong, and the over-reaction was wrong in Baltimore.

I am far from the guy who is going to enter any of the arguments going on this week about Indiana wrestling.  I have opinions about all of them, but I'm not overly passionate about any of them.

What I am passionate about is Indiana wrestling and it's need to stay together as one organization and for all of us to work with our one organization.  

I promise you that the ISWA has pissed me off severely in the my career by dumb decisions that have been made.  I still believe that we have the best state organization in America.  It's the best in the country because we have one group.  We do not have AAU, MYWAY, USA, etc.

I do feel passionate enough to say that I think the freestyle state qualifier was wrong.  I also think not 100% enforcing the rules is wrong.  I also think if they would have enforced the rule 100% it would have been wrong.

I can't think of any other outcome that the ISWA could have made here besides those three choices.  

Maybe they chose the path that, at this moment, they thought was the best.  Maybe it is the best choice?  Maybe it's the worst choice?  

I do know that the ISWA is a large group of people that have only made decisions that they thought, at that time, was best for Indiana wrestling.

I hope that decisions like this can never 'start a riot' and split Indiana into multiple organizations.  

I accidentally missed one of Coach Smiley's accomplishments:

Coach Smiley's accomplishments:

This Thursday, April 29th, we'll have Brian Smiley as our guest clinician.  

Coach Smiley's accomplishments:

It was a good room this weekend talking about a 'freestyle' mindset as we finish takedowns and wrestle on the mat!  Thanks to all for coming and spending a day in the room.

.....lots of fine print that needs to be signed before that offer is accepted. Must eat the big ugly and then defend my gut within 3 min after last bite...and I get to start with my lock...and I have unlimited time

There will be some of our elementary guys in the room this Wed along with some of Zionsville's.  

This Wednesday, April 22, our guest clinician will be Zionsville head coach Jared Williams.

Here are some of Coach Williams' accomplishments:

• 2002-2005: Head Coach, Avon High School Wrestling
• 2005-2011: Head Coach, Lawrence North High School Wrestling
• 3x Sectional Team Champion
• 1x HCC Conference Champion
• 4x MIC Conference Champion
• 2005 IHSAA Team State Runner-Up
• 2008 IHSAA Team State Wrestling Tournament Final-Four
• 2011 IHSAA Team State Runner-Up
• 2008 Indiana State Wrestling Coach of the Year
• Only coach to take 2 programs to the IHSAA Team State Championship Finals
• Never has beaten Coach Pendoski in a round of golf

It must be the Wabash education that comes up with that brilliance!  

Who uses 'bump' anymore?  Aren't you just supposed to post the same thing or bring up something meaningless to get your thread 'bumped' to the top?

We would like to congratulate the Trojans of Chesterton on claiming the World Championship of the World Cup this weekend.  I'm sure the trophy is on display in the main lobby of CHS for all of the town to notice.  good job

We would like to thank all that helped make the World Championship of the World Cup possible.  It was a great weekend of wrestling in Carmel.  Each day had 5 rounds in under 4 hours and some great individual and team matches.  

Special thanks to our officials and to Greenfield Central, Zionsville, Garrett for spending a couple days in the blue room.

We plan on having the dates of our next dual tourney soon.  

We are excited about this weekend's tourney series.  We've got a good group of teams and looks like a good weekend of freestyle duals.  

We have modified the schedule some to make travel easier  Please notice the start time change to noon.  Also, the top 3 teams in Sauturday's dual will qualify for the Sunday tournament.  Sunday will also have a noon start time

CARMEL USA WRESTLING

FREESTYLE DUALS FESTIVAL

Saturday/Sunday, April 11^th-12^th, 2015

LOCATION

Carmel High School Fieldhouse

520 East Main Street

Carmel IN 46032

Enter behind school – Entrance #21

Wrestling will begin promptly at 12:00

CONTACT

Ed Pendoski

Phone: 317-701-1512

E-mail: ependosk@ccs.k12.in.us  

ONE AGE DIVISION

  7^th to 12^th grade

A maximum of 8 teams will be permitted

A bracketed format will be used with a full consolation bracket

MODIFIED WEIGHTS

Grades 7-12

105, 115, 125, 135, 145, 155, 165, 180, 200, 285

CUSAWC starts today 6:45-8:15.  Our dues are $50 per month with a two month agreement required and it's monthly after that. 

We are excited about the addition of Cody Phillips to CUSAWC workouts!  Cody is a 2 X IHSAA State Champion and Flonationals runner up before wrestling for University of Minnesota.  Snow will keep him from being in the room today, but we look forward to him bringing his skills to our room.

Coach Hull, You're always welcome in our room!  

Wade will be the one that looks like a albino baby giraffe!  ha!

Coach Hull,

I am not a guy that would post what the Iranians or Russians usually have for their coaching lineage, but I have grown up coaching in NWI and now central Indiana.  

I was thinking more about not pissing off guys from areas like Calumet, Lake Station, or Indy west side can so I can make a our room look more attractive to future 'customers' of our club! ha!

Thank god for clubs. Clearly, none of these aforementioned guys' high school coaches are any good.

So true!

It is a slippery slope to answer questions about academy results.  In our opinion, Chertow is the greatest at promoting what he does...and anyone that has drove past a Chertow camp and won a big tourney, gets their name in the flyer as Chertow trained! ha!

In the couple academies that we've been associated with, we have had kids that trained with us A LOT and others that would just come and get some extra workouts in and for the most part, we had a good relationship with a kids and their 'home school' coaches.  Our philosophy has always been to help a wrestler to the best of our ability, but within the parameters of what his coach wants first and his parents want second. (it can get really difficult when a hs coach and parent disagree!)

This was a tough decision for the ISWA to make and you don't have to be a major player in the Indiana Wrestling scene to know that there would be 'pushback' from the member clubs of the organization for mandating local freestyle tourneys to qualify for freestyle state.

I've been involved with the ISWA for a while now and there have been decisions made by our organization that I thought were outstanding and some that I thought sucked eggs (please don't make me list them publicly! ha!).

Truth be told, the ISWA is a large and very mature wrestling organization.  I always love coming back from an out of state USA Wrestling tourney.  If you go to Central Regionals when it's held in MI, you'll appreciate how well our organization works.

The qualifiying process of two local tourneys to qualify for freestyle state was established to help grow freestyle opportunities.  I'm under the impression that a couple local clubs in different areas of the state are in the process of getting a freestyle tourney.  That's exactly what the ISWA was hoping would happen.  

The question of whether this was a good idea or not is still left to be decided.  I know in last weekends meeting I specifically brought up the question of whether this qualifying process is going to be evaluated and up for discussion in the future and it will be.  It might turn out to be something that was awesome and this is an outstanding decision made....or it could be awful and hurt the growth of freestyle opportunities.  Either way, our organization will make adjustments.

I sat through all the meetings in the past as freestyle season was shortened because more and more people wanted folkstyle tournaments and our organization acted accordingly.  Now our organization is trying to find a way to encourage freestyle opportunities.  

My reason for this post is to hopefully rally the troops to look at the ISWA as 'OUR' organization.  There have been decisions that have been made in the past that have totally pissed me off (again, please don't make me post this list either! ha!).  Other decisions I thought have been great.  I do feel that while our organization is far from perfect, is the best in the country.  

The worst thing we can do is "pick up my ball and go somewhere else".  I believe that the worst thing could happen to Indiana wrestling is if we had a pocket of Indiana that is AAU another pocket of Indiana that is USA Wrestling and another pocket that is MYWAY.  I am far passionate about all the things USA Wrestling does and it's effects on ISWA, but it's OUR organization and I feel that it is best for all of Indiana Wrestling if we act together.  

If you don't like what happens in the ISWA, then contact the office. You can send an email to your section rep and they can present it at the meeting if you cannot attend.  I think the webcast idea is awesome and I'd bet that the board would make that happen if there truly was an interest in that.

More importantly my hope is that we look at our organization as OURS and everyone does as much as they can to continue making it the best in the country.

Really?

There is a background story to the Vega vs Ramos matches too...but I won't make them public!

The Hesseltine vs Neagle matches were always a blast too. Our staff could never relax because Neagle would rip you head off if he headlocked you.

I remember sitting matside coaching Hesseltine at the state tournament knowing the Neagle had the EMD guy. We heard the crowd erupt as Tharp says, "hmmmm, sounds like a Neagle headlock. We've been there"

Bradbury vs Ramos was always fun.  Bradbury wrestled Ramos 13 times between his junior and senior year with the last one being in the state finals match.  Bradbury lost all 13 matches, but I believe that he was winning of those in the 3rd period.

We thought for sure that karma was on his side the 13th time, but Ramos did a great job finishing a match.....again.

We're pretty excited about our tourneys this weekend in Carmel.

On Satuday we expect close to 200 Carmel kids wrestling in the fieldhouse at the same time:

Carmel Varsity Triple Dual

Carmel Freshman Invite

All 3 of our middle schools and SMG (private school in Hamilton County) triple dual.

On Sunday CUSAWC is hosting the Dan Nelson CUSAWC Folkstyle tourney and the numbers are growing for that.