Ahawkeye

Hard to say that the Angel Escobedo, Alex Tsirtsis, Matt Coughlin and Blake Maurer era wasn't the most fun time to watch for Indiana wrestling.  

Nick Lee.  Pretty sure he scored bonus points in every single match that he won in his 3 years in Indiana.  Only two wrestlers to beat him were both ranked #1 in the nation at the time, and one is a world champ.
 
David McCubbins - untouchable in Indiana his last two years, really untouchable nationally as well, winning double titles at Fargo and being on a couple of greco world teams.  If not for injury he cruises to a second state title in '92
 
Matt Coughlin - fargo champ, senior nationals champ
 
Andy Schneider was as dominant a hvy as I've seen
 

Fire good!

Fire good!

We were close enough to feel the heat. 10 more of those and everyone would quit their complaining about the Ford Center meat locker. 

Done. A short essay, 358 words to be exact, letting them know my displeasure. Hopefully I get a response.
 
FYI, I did not use any vulgar language.

Agreed. We have had a few guys do well at NCAAs in the past few years, which is fantastic. It is always impressive to me to see the wrestlers PA turns out that go away to assorted colleges/universities and inevitably cross paths again to have a rematch of some high stakes PA high school match, but on the NCAA scene..happens quite often.

yeah, what they were talking about was hardest to win and they leaned heavily on the fact that we were one division. If you have a stud in your weight you can’t luck out and be in one of the other 3 divisions like in other states, you just don’t get to win that year.
 
if you think about it, states with 3-4 divisions have 2-3 wrestlers every year who wouldn’t be a state champ if there were no divisions.

Sorry I think PA would hurt us pretty bad. I'm not up on present day rankings but between PA and OH I think we'd win a few but not most.

So what's up with the back flips? Or lack there of? I say if a kid wins a state championship he should be able to do a back flip or 2 or 3 or 4 depending on how many he has won. Is there something that happened to make this change? I'm a pretty low key guy but come on let yhe kid have some fun.

Yes bout to head south to Casa de Mattyb very soon…. pesos will be very much appreciated. I can buy a car for $10 US down there! Mrs Mattyb goes Friday to relax after the grind…. so…. the sooner the better with that El Dinero! 
 
Im going down there soon. Going to sit on the beach for a while, then toss my passport. Planning on walking back to get some free insurance, phone, flight home and prepaid credit card!

Just go on Cash App that cash at $GFK1978, maybe slap a tip on it for all the information we done gave ya also.  
 
I accept EBT, Credit Card, Cash, Apple Pay, Pay Pal, Bally’s Chips, Ceasers Chips, Horse Shoe Chips, western union, bank transfers, Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, 1/2 dollars, all the Dead presidents, I can also make change for ya. @Mattyb does accepts pesos, I do not take pesos. 
 

I think Indy is good, unless they make it the permanent site for NBA all star game.

I’d love to see more of that, from more kids

So, I sit here at 4:40 am CST and I'm dead tired, but I can't sleep.  I've already made the drive back to NWI, so that drive from hell is behind me.  The hot dogs.  Pretty damn good.  The concession stand I used to buy my dogs made them to order, so, they were fresh.  They grilled them on something, they had a nice char, nice buns even without yoga pants, a good overall product.  Just one small gripe.  They were expensive.  $7 a pop for these bad boys.  Oh well.  7 slices of pizza outta 8.  Kinda a side note, I mentioned this in a reply, but I was told Hanover Central are looking into changing their hot dogs because of my review.  One day my friends, we will have the hot dogs we deserve at all wrestling meets across the great state of Indiana!  And, as always, thank you for reading.✌️✌️✌️

Great weekend of wrestling and extra special for me, as my son was able to coach his 2nd state champ in his hometown tonight! I just don't understand the empty seating mystery at the Ford tonight. I was told by text messages today from two different people that the wrestling was sold out tonight and was curious if I had gotten a ticket. They were unable to purchase tickets online, because of all tickets being sold out. So Ticketmaster must be playing games with the seating or someone is buying a lot of tickets and not coming. Plenty of seats at every session this weekend. What is going on???

"A bit cooler..." LOL. I didn't get the memo despite following this site for the last three months.  I have been to scores of wrestling events and hundreds of basketball games over the last 60 years and I have never been in an arena or fieldhouse that cold! I'm glad your seats were great and I hope they were in the section you requested.

On another note every single employee of the Ford Center that I came across was very nice and helpful. Some venues that I go to such as gainbridge or Lucas Oil that is not the case. Instead of helpful they are aggressive and abrasive. It truly was a nice change of pace to be able to talk to someone that didn't act like they had better things to do than help you out. And I mean that for every single employee that I encountered.

Was this the announcer's name? If so I think he dod a good job, the finals announcements like their career achievements could be said in order of importance and the semistate champion / semistate they came from could be cleaned up a little in my very unprofessional opinion. But I sure as heck couldn't do as good of a job, he is following an absolute legend so good job on him and I hope he continues to announce for State.

It was a special weekend at the Ford for me and my family as my son coached his 2nd State champ in 8 years of being a head coach. Congrats to Luke and his family and to all the Oriole wrestling family on his fantastic weekend. It was extra special in front of our hometown for probably the only time our city will host a wresting state championship weekend. It was a pleasant 10 minute drive 😀 The downside was that it had to be against another westside families wrestler that we respect and admire so very much. The ticket debacle was a nightmare! Not sure what happened or if we will ever find out the truth about #ticketgate2024. I do know people from the Ford and I spoke with the ticket office manager who said it was a ticketmaster problem. I feel we as fans of wrestling got totally hosed by ticketmaster again on paying high fees on tickets and then having to go pick them up at the ticket office. I was told there may be refunds issued on our fees. Not holding my breath on that. Did they set a limit on actual ticket sales? Was the unused seats part of the original plan by ticketmaster to not oversell? Which I don't understand. Why couldn't you purchase tickets online Saturday, because it showed it being a "sellout or unavailable" Many people I know in town didn't come because of the unavailable tickets. Event was promoted well in Evansville and I really expected more of a hometown crowd. I think the Ford Center did a fantastic job and I think everyone was mostly happy about our facility and accommodations for the event. There are many casual wrestling fans in southern IN that might not make a trip anymore to Indy every year that I expected to be at the Ford, but the crowd attendance showed differently. I truly believe that the ticketmaster problems, maybe weather a little bit, and maybe just economic reasons (household tight budgets) are all factors in the low attendance.

We told you guys coming in that it was a bit cooler than most venues. Seating was great in my opinion.

Not saying the ticket situation is right but if anyone here was in the IHSAA's shoes how would you handle next year's tickets? I say back to general admission.

Could IHSAA get Ticketmaster to set a hierarchy on seating like parents and coaches first all session tickets second and single session tickets third? Unlike what they did this year and left blank spaces for single session ticket buyers in premium spots? Or is that solely controlled by Ticketmaster?

Not saying the ticket situation is right but if anyone here was in the IHSAA's shoes how would you handle next year's tickets? I say back to general admission.