MattM

Not seeing him winning the WTT, but who knows strange things happen.  At any rate if it keeps him in shape and helps inspire others then its worth the effort.

Sound's live a very moving service.  Very nice of the school to come together and make it happen.  It shows how much Trever meant was to those involved.  God Bless.

GSP has been very good over the last few years of not getting himself in danger and continuing to score points.  But, going to be hard to stay in safe positions most of the fight against a motivated Anderson Silva.  Plus as I mentioned if a different post to put on the weight and get used to the weight class the right way GSP would want a long time to prepare and I'd almost want a tune up fight if he could get the right opponent.  So making the actual fight date a little harder to figure out.  Be easier of Silva would drop down to a catch weight but I'm not sure if that possible or if he would want to if it was.

Diego looked chunky in his last fight after moving up in weight.  I would hope he would turn more of that into muscle if he is planning on staying in that division.

It's been a few years since Matts really put together a seires of wins against some tough competition.  I'd look for him to be ready for this fight if he is planning on sticking around the UFC for awhile longer.

 I know that North Carolina's team state format uses conference results to determine the teams that are in the tournament.  

If we went the Conference route I wouldn't mind seeing it be based on Conference Dual match standing (winner of each and a few at large bids) than on a individual tournament result.  That would make it more of a team event than what we have currently.  A benifit would be we wouldn't have to move the conference tournaments to make this happen.  The brawback being teams would need to fit in matches against their conference opponents earlier in the season. Also their would be the factor of conferences having teams from more that one class if we went to a multi-class system for the team event.

I would hope if the ISWCA is serious about doing the event that they will do a study on how other state dual events are ran.  Plus find out any issue to look out for along the way based on running that system.  I think studying how other states have developed, especially those that have risen quickly in talent over the last 10 years, is a great way to see what options we should consider taking with our entire state program.

Article on Vega's hiring

 

http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/high-school/wrestling/article_5b39806e-da18-59c4-88dd-9f759dee68a6.html

I see he will be brining Galka in as an assistant.

and now 2 at IU.

Give or take a red-shirt maybe?

Also of note Greg Warren will be in Indianapolis in two weeks the same weekend as freestyle state.

Nice show last time he was in state at Bloomington.  I e-mailed him before that some of the wrestling community would be in the crowd and he threw in some extra jokes for us.  He's a very personable guy to talk to about the sport too.

Thats not murder.  The point is that being dead set against something and then giving your blessing to something is logically inconsistant

Those tricky people at the IHSAA setting up a back story to plead legally insane to avoid the criminal charge.   ;D

If we agree to class it (which I don't have a problem with) - how about the smallest several classes only have say 10 weight classes to fill.  These would have to be a compromise - taken from the 14 that exist - and passed by the coaches association. 

 

That would make it more competitive - even at the lowest levels of the tournament for the small schools.

 

Kind of like 8 or 6 man football teams.

 

It has to be an all in tournament - or let anyone in who petitions to get in.  Say by a certain date.  Whether it has classes or not.

 

This idea has some merit for the smaller schools, but may present a few problems.

Not sure modifying the current weight classes for this type of event would be allowed under the current wrestling rules.

The other issue would be the fact that each of the small school would be different in terms of where there kids are weight wise.  So, their may not be a perfect set of 10 weight classes all small school would agree upon.

Another significant change was made in Rule 2-1-3, which now makes the boundary line inbounds and, thus, expands the wrestling area.

A whole 2 inches isn't really a revolutionaly chyange in the boundary lines other than a small percentage of pin calls. 

If they wanted to really adjust the boundaries in a significant way make it more like the college out of bounds takedown rules.  Not going to solve all of the problem of wrestlers riding the line, but it would help.   

Heck I'm all for a step out rule being put in place in Folkstyle as long as a warning or two occurs first as to prevent any acidental steps outs by the offensive wrestlers during a scamble.

I'd love to see a survey on the amount of time the Principals and AD's attended wrestling athletic functions or made it a point to talk to their wrestling coaches (not the coaches approaching them) about this matter before voting in the IHSAA survey.  Not asking to much to stop into a home meet or two, stop at the start or end of a practice, or just show up at sectionals (or state if someone makes it) to support your team.  While some principals and AD are with congratulating for their wrestling involvement,  I would say many have made little effort to support or even understand the sport.  Yet, they get a large voice in the decision and IHSAA seems to devalue the coaches portion.

I'm not sure that school can participate in a school sanctioned event such as this sepertate from the state series to determine a team state champion without the IHSAA approval.  The IHSAA has the right to drop any school from the state tournament series that does not follow by their by-laws.  I would assume starting a seperate state tournament from there would be among those violations.    You would need to use some awful fancy wording and scratch the IHSAA's back just right and they may work it out on some level.  Anyone think its kind of strange they would suddenly throw a fit over the individual state coaches trophy, but now are OK with a separate coaches association ran team state tournament.  Seems like the real possibility they would actually approve would be after the end of the season "all-star" type contest or a USA Wrestling as a club vs club event.  But, I do agree if something could be created it would help to show the top teams for that season.

Though he had one heck of a run I'd say Hughes getting to the end of his carrer as far as being an effective fighter.  I would say Dana would be looking to put him in fights against up and coming guys as a gatekeeper to the top rankings.  Not sure if the UFC has plans for Hughes as a title hunter again unless he absolutely runs through some of the guys they throw at him.  While he could probably do some damage against some veteran fighters like Royce I'm not sure it would be worth the UFC making that fight, especially in Brazil.  I agree as legendary guys go those two sure are up there.  I'm actually suprised they have let Randy hold on as long as he has.  I would have put him in full retirement two fights ago, but he keeps proving he can at least stay in tough fights against top competition.

Beat Kyle Dake to take the title.  He won 3-1 1-2 1-0 and was also named outstanding wrestler.  Info and video link found on front page of themat.com

They had Ultimate Brazil back in the late1990s.  Guess, Royce should have jumped on that one when he was still somewhat in his prime.  Several other porminate Brazilians made that card.

There were a couple on Amazon.com that were a little cheaper than the one I got.  

Correction 1 used and one collectible copy left on Amazon.  After Littlejohn's comments I decided it was worth picking a copy up for myself.

Speaking of Indiana Wrestling History here a nice video from legendary wrestler and former IU coach Dough Blubaugh.  He makes reference to an interesting story regarding Indiana High School wrestling history.  Years after his legendary win he ran into Habibi's son during one of his son's high school wrestling meets in New Albany, Indiana.

http://www.flowrestling.org/coverage/238477-Doug-Blubaugh-Series/video/472588-Habibi

I believe this is the correct video.  If not it's another one listed on the sidebar.

Possibly a $55 copy of basically Echoes of the Elder or the Belmont Wrestling Directory?  Hope you asked the seller about it.  Could be a nice find if it goes into detail about historical information.

He's 44 so its going to be hard to find an opponent that works for him.  He hasn't fought since 2007 and that was against an aging Sakuraba.  Hasn't fought in the UFC since 2006 in his lose to Hughes aside from that hasn't fought int he UFC regularly since the early 90's. 

You would assume they would need to find a somewhat big name to fight him for such a big Brazilan show and have him near the top of the card.  Not sure you would want to discredit him by putting him in as an opening round fight against some random newcomer. 

If he loses it tarnish the final image of a UFC legend at him hometown show.  I don't think Dana wants to have him go out that way.  If he beats a young talent then that guys stock drops dramatically, but Dana still have no real use for promoting Gracie after that.  So either way Gracie would probably be done with the UFC. 

Unfortunately, the guys past his UFC prime age wise and verses the hybrid techniques that have developed in MMA.  Dana should be using the hell of him in Brazil though.  Honer him by hyping the heck out of the guy who made the UFC into what it is today during the show, have him as the Master of Ceremonies, make him into the king of Brazil for the day, etc.......  However, using him as a fighter may not be the best move for anyone involves and Dana probably see's that.  There are several other very talented Brazilians to choose from.

Congrats Drake.

http://www.themat.com/section.php?section_id=3&page=showarticle&ArticleID=23496

In the last seven years there have been very few rule changes in greco and freestyle.  If you haven't learned the "new" rules by now, you won't learn them ever.  Folkstyle has more rule changes per year than the international styles.  Every year there are new illegal moves added and other rule tweaks to folkstyle.

True.  But, it always feels like Freestyle/Greco have larger structural changes in the rules that change the way points are scored and adjustment in how you have to gameplan the match to determine the winner.  Folkstyle occasionally has this, but its seems like more of there rule changes are tweeks that have less impact on methods of point scoring and on who wins the match.  I'm guessing those changes are what most people seem confused by.  Obviously, the other fact being coach, athletes, and parents taking the time to learn the general rules and though process behind Freestyle/Greco to start with.

I think some peoples motivations for these weight class changes are more to do with team goals than taking into account every individual.  But hey we don't have wrestle backs so why should we begin thinking more about the kids than ourselves.  

Not sure I'm clear on your last point.  For one I don't see the change in weight classes as having much to do with coaches views on individual vs. team success.

If it did however I think most coaches view of a team goal is the opposite of what I am interpreting from your statement.

To me taking into account "every individual" would mean what is best for the entire team rather than the best weigh class for one or two studs.

Also, to me focusing on the team goal would be for the sake of trying to reward the efforts of everyone wrestlers who put work into regardless of it they were a individual state champ or not.  This doesn't seem like a selfish goal for the coach to develop.  To me the coaches thinking more about themselves would be those who ignores ways to improve the entire tam and instead put all of his coaching methods into the development of his one or two studs.  Then blaming the rest of the kids for underachieving while at the same time claiming the state success of the one or two studs.  To me it seems focusing on team goals would benefit the most individuals on the team rather a system where no type of competition existed and coaches would be more inclined to focus on just the few over the many.

Track, golf, cross country, tennis, swimming, gymnastics

I believe out of that group tennis has a seperate team tournament to go along with the individual competition.    With the rest of the sports being scores in a tournament format of the state finals.  Other discrepancies exist since by the nature of the sports ogranization some can advance the entire team to the next level if they win while other only advance the individual athletes who qualified.

The one  way wrestling differs from most of this groups is in how placements determined.  Wrestling involvse  one contact  where the results of the match are dictated by the decisions of both athletes.  On the individual side of things this is only similar to tennis in that resect.  

Track, cross country, and swimming have more to to with an individual verses the time (and sometimes course) with just a small portion based on the decision of another competator.  Golf empahsis of you vs. the course than your competition.  Or gymnastics emphasis of you vs. the scoring criteria than your compeititon.    

So based on that throught process I would say the IHSAA is making a poor judgement by placing wrestling with any other sport in that group beside tennis.  True they are individual sports but the nature of those two sports are seperate from that of the rest and should be recognized as so when it comes to makeing any decision that effects all individual sports.

Looks like he moved up to HWT this year.  He's is a low stance to meet the competition head on and is very disproportional to his rounder competition.

Here a match vs. PA team powerhouse Central Dauphin's HWT

http://www.pawrvideo.com/coverage/238087-2011-Chambersburg-vs-Central-Dauphin-East/video/411647-285lb-Dawson-Peck-C-vs-Robert-Fitzkee-CDEast

For those of you that attend you will get a kick out of the Dawson Peck kid from PA....he was on last years roster....he is 6'8" and thin as a rail.

So we need to set up a match between him and Yorktown's Scott Neff, since they have very similar characteristics.