MattM

Nice coverage of Big 10's gentlemen.

Several former Indiana wrestlers are not doing to bad.  However, I concur its disappointing to see the showing of both IU and PU this year.

Yes, that would be the same one.

I hate they moved Bellator to the MTV2 network from Fox Sports Midwest, since I don't have it.  They have had two different events at 4th Street Louisville in the past.  The organization is not quite the UFC, but does have some solid fighters and is worth attending for the price.

"Verbal Commitment"  = He is agreeing to go there at this point which allows IU to pencil him for now.  In a few years IU can then take that information and use it to focus on looking into recruits since they can already slot Boston in at whatever weight they think he will be at that point.  Verbal is not an official agreement and it doesn't mean they are or even can offer him an official scholarship yet.  I believe through his contacting them and talking they could at least say a scholarship could be help for him upon that time, but with nothing officially that can be signed nothing is written in stone.  The actual guaranteed offer will not come until he would be able to sign an official letter of intent at a later time in high school.  It just helps both side feel more relaxed about the future process.  A verbal is also not binding so if needed Boston could opt out of it and decide to seek out other school options.

aka what Schlatter did

Lets just hope if that's the case he has better NCAA results than when Schlatter did it.

Unfortunately it again the same weekend as NHSCA Nationals.  So Indiana end up splitting the talent between these two events.  Flowrestling in just its second year has probably established it as the premier tournament for lower classmen to get exposure at since they have no age division splits.  Currently Senior Nationals still has prestige on it side and draws many of the nations top seniors.  The other NHSCA National events draw some good kids but I believe FloNational all ages in one bracket style is slowly sucking many away from it.  Both events have some pro's and con's depending on who you are.  However, one thing is for certain if you can survive the meat grinder of even event and place you beat some very tough competition.

I kind of see where they are coming from. This would prevent something like the Killer Bee's old swap-a-roo.

Hey now the ref never saw it!

Kentucky basketball offers middle school kids....wait I guess if I'm talking Kentucky basketball legal doesn't come into it.

;D  At one point it used to.

Can they legally (in terms of NCAA Violation) even talk to him?

I believe at that age range the athlete just initiate the conversations with schools and its legit rather than the schools seeking out and contacting the athlete/parents.  NCAA rules if I remember right have more to do with coaches contacting athletes than the other way around.  It may also be slightly different when we are talking about basketball/football compared to the other sports, as well.

May be a little early, but if that is where he is certain he wants to go I guess its his families choice.  It's only a verbal commitment so that slightly different than actually signing the written deal which doesn't happen until much later.

I REALLY wish they would drop the "coaches fight" aspect of the show. They should just pay top notch trainers and coaches to come in and coach. Why not hire guys like Matt Hume, Greg Jackson, Erik Paulson, Bustamante etc etcetc? I think you'd get a more professional atmosphere and athletes taking it seriously.

They would if it wasn't for the extra ratings point they get for having the coaches arguments each week. 

All I'm concerned about is seeing the decision made with wrestling coaches input in mind.  Regardless, of the outcome this seems like a much better idea than having most principals who have virtually no clue on how the state tournament runs and most ADs who just have a small bit of insight into the tournament be a major voice without know what the coaches think.

I love this comment

"We're going to survey the principals and athletic directors to see how they feel about it," said Faulkens.

Now I know this should be the logical thing to do since they run the schools.  But in reality does it make much sense to have these people be the main decision makers for wrestling.  Principals run the schools they don't study the details of how all the sports work let along the details of a state tournaments series for the smaller sports.  While much more involved than the principals the AD are not going to put in a huge amount study into the subject either.  Other than what the wrestling coach or the IHSAA suggests to them most wont be informed enough to make the best decision for their schools team.  Heck if the IHSAA is presenting the information and posing the questions they easily can present things in a way that only leads to the decision they want to hear anyways.   If this is really the case I hope the wrestling coaches out there have the tact needed to make a decent case for what their team needs to both the principal and AD.  If not the decision will be made by a bunch of people who do not understand enough to make a proper decision one way or the other.  

http://www.bjpenn.com/profiles/blogs/chris-lytle-fought-at-ufc-127?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bjpenndotcom+%28BJPENN.COM+NEWS+BLOGS%29

Take some guts.  Not sure if it was necessary since he had been preforming well enough that the UFC wouldn't drop him over that issue.  But if he wanted to get one more fight in before retirement while still in shape that may explain why he stayed in it.  Would hate to see him hang it up though with how well he has been preforming.

I've been informed that the Pingleton family of Greencastle had two brothers with 150+ and still has two more talented brothers left to add to that total.

Helps to have that amount of borthers (5) all wrestler.  Then its a bonus when so many end up having standout careers.  I would say the Tsirtsis clan would be getting near the top of the list after Jason finishes up his senior year.

To me the solution to improving the attrition rate is to improve the youth tournament experience. If I had a vote, I'd say that splitting sessions (AM/PM) for the young kids and the older kids would improve the experience substantially for the kids and the families.

I've mention several times that tournament with traditionally big numbers needs to go to this system.  This would make the event run so much smoother for wrestlers and fans alike.  Imagine still having a large bracket but it being less crowded,  less wait in between matches, less stress on the organizers, and in the end the event still racks in all the money they would with the old system.  that beats the fire code violation, almost 2 hours between matches, and still there until after dark situation that happens in many events today.  You want kids and parents coming back they want an experience they can enjoy on saturdays not a long hot day in a confusing madhouse.

Lytle lost a decision, but his fight was awarded fight of the night and both fighters received a $75,00.00 bonus. After being around Chris as he helped coach the New Pal Dragone team this year, I just wanted to say that he is a great guy,very down to earth and a very positive influence on our kids.

He needs to change his name to Chris "Fight of the Night " Lytle.  He has won the award like 5 times plus a few Knockout and Submission of the night awards too.  That may be more bonus wins than any other UFC fighter has had.

What, no love for the Rebels?  They only lost two duals all season, both to Perry.  They wrestled the Falcions really tough, much better showing than LN in the finals!

Sorry was meaning no disrespect for leaving a talented Roncolli team off the list. Just didn't see the reason to list all of the team placement possibilities when the purpose was to point out CP by performance on the day may not have been solid enough to garner them one of the top medals on the day.  CP was a stellar team all year, but again didn't preform as they needed to on Saturday to show they were outright one of the top 2 or even top 3 teams in the state as the article eluded they deserved to be.

She would be disappointed if I called her anything else.   ;D

 

Oddly enough, she pointed out to me last week that wrestling is the one sport that DOESN'T have to change for women (basketball, baseball, even gymnastics have differant "girl" rules)...so it's really odd that it took until now for it to become something other than a "man's" sport? Martial arts have had women divisions for years?

The difference in official national rules is actually the reason usually given for not allowing boys to participate in sports like gymnastics or volleyball.  If that is a legitimate argument or not for not allowing them to participate what allowing girls to cross over to boys sports is an issue no one as fully tackled as of yet.

Roach has not lost in 2 years in indiana wrestling sims has several losses this year and last and roach beat sims last year. I  do think if the match did go we would be talking about a different team state champ but rules are rules and CP should learn them.

I have no doubt Roach could beat Sims at 160, but by how much is up for guessing.  The issue is Roach wasn't allowed to move up to that weight class via the rules.  As many have pointed out if Roach wrestles 145 or 152 the team score would have mostly likely played out almost exactly the same based on matchups.  So, by that rational CP doesn't beat MD,  MD lost to LN, who lost to PM.  Making a good case for CP not being one of the top two or maybe even top three teams in the state on that day.  So, Coach Vlink's argument in that respect doesn't hold much water.  While CP may have been one of the best teams all year during the season they were just not able to put it together Saturday.

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/02/25/3429816/too-short-for-football-she-stands.html  Here is a story about the chick that has changed my mind about girls wrestling.  I would probably still be a knuckle dragging chauvinist had I not met her 5 years ago.  She is now the 1st ever California Girl's State Wrestling 122lb. State Champion. 

 

Wave of the future boys...ready or not.

 

The leader of the feminist movement really love it when you refer to an example of female making progress in a man's world as a "chick!"  ;D

That article sounded like complaining to me even though he said he wasn't complaining.  There is always a runner up and life ain't fair.  

While I agree it would be nice to seed the event I do think CP ended up where they were suppose to on that day.  Even with the Roach mess up their is a good chance they still lost to MD.  MD then lost to LN.  LN then lost to PM.  So basically on the day it could be argued that CP was the 4th best team on the day behind at least 1st Perry, 2nd Lawrence North, and 3rd Mater Dei.  That doesn't even account for a talented Penn on the other side of the bracket that gave PM a very close match.  While CP had a great team this year they just were not able to put enough together to win the team title on Saturday.  On the other side of things Lawrence North was able to put everything together and exceed most people expectation and beat MD to make the finals.

I think plenty of people have said that by getting rid of the current flawed system, it would force coaches to come up with a better system that would potentially allow ALL schools to have a shot at a team state title as well as being profitable to the IHSAA.  By keeping the current system, there is the distinct possibility that many schools and the IHSAA would not look to fix anything.  If you support this line of thinking, eliminating the current system is crucial to 'fixing' the team dual state tournament.

Well if they remove team state we should have plenty of time over the next 15 years to come up with a better plan for it.  It may take that long before the IHSAA can be convince to bringing back something they took away because some said it wasn't worth having.

When was the last time GSP finished a fight?  

He did TKO Penn a few years back and Matt Serra not to long before that.  Since he only fights around twice a year that isn't to long ago in his fight career I guess.  I would content while Fitch is a solid fighter, but he is right that Fitch doesn't finish a lot of his big name competition.  Fitch does beat most of the big name competition he faces though and that's the goal.