Coach Peck

17 years ago.....that was just a few years after we started the thing.

I agree with you across the board.

1 Adkins Lafayette Jefferson 30-6 Beat Kidwell from West Lafayette 2 Kidwell West Lafayette26-3 Lost 1st round Semi-State 3. HartDelphi 8-3 Lost 2nd round Semi-State 4. Krintz West Lafayette45-0 Lost 1st round Semi-State I do not think it is seeded correctly, but if it is not and Krintz should be #1 then he will win the Sectional. If it is mis-seeded and Krintz wins the Sectional the guy that got the raw deal is Adkins of Jeff because he will go into the Regional as a third placer instead of a 2nd placer. Just my thoughts No....I have done this for quite awhile and I have never heard that...not ever. Before they threw the Semi-State one in there things went much more smoothly, and normally fairly. The Semi-State criteria was put in to deal with a situation that had already happened, and happens very rarely. Johnny makes Semi-State at 106 one year and then is a 126 pounder the next year. How is that even relevant?

This was in the Sectional..not a Dual Meet. The Sectional score was not close, but things did deterioate very quickly in this match due to a official that was extremely poor for everine all day long. With about 30 seconds left he penalized Gross for stalling which would have DQed him because of other penalties on the chart. When he figured out what he had done he did not say that he was taking it off. Instead he claimed he never made the call. Gross was ahead by 1 or 2 points with about 5 seconds left. When the referee blew his whistle Jeremy charged to try to get a takedown. The gym was loud and the buzzer was hard to hear, but the Official should havehas a clue that the match was over. He let it go probably 5-10 seconds past the buzzer. We got a takedown but it was clearly after the buzzer. Before the Official stopped them Grosses brother came out of the stands to the mat. People from the stands and benches poored onto the mat. It took awhile for order to be restored. When thigns got sorted out the people in charge decided to clear the gym before the heavyweights wrestled. The only people whio were supposed tostay were the scorers. timrers, school Officials, the Official, and the two heavyweights. It took awhile, but they cleared the gym, except there were two people sitting in the bleachers. They happened to be my Mom and Dad. I saw Shenandoahs AD go to them and have a conversation then motion for the Sheriff's deputy, who was working that day, to come up there. There was another short conversationa and then the AD and the Deputy returned to the floor and we finnished the Sectional. Later, I found out that the AD had told my DAd that everyone needed to leave the gym, but my Dad told him that he had paid his money and that he was staying. The AD said that he would have to have the Deputy remove them if they did not leave (my Mom wanted to go, but she stayed with my Dad). My Dad repeated his earlier statement (quite calmly according to my Mom). The AD motioned for the Deputy and told the Deputy that he needed to remove my Mom and Dad from the gym. My Dad looked at the Deputy and told him that he was not going anywhere. The AD looked at the Deputy and the Deputy told the AD, "This is Mr. Peckinpaugh he can stay." They left my Mom and Dad alone to watch the heavyweight match which they had paid to watch.

I love it when some parent complains about the "Big Shot" from Ohio. I let them go on awhile and then I say, "Are you aware that he offciiated at the Olympics?" Normally that shuts them up, but I did have one person say, "Well, he should stay at the Olympics." I have never had anyone say it, but I think a good comeback to my Olympics question would be...."What did he officiate.......curling?"

About thirty years ago a referee has just called a pin on a heavyweight (not from NC) who had made a mistake and went to his back. The Official and the kids get up as the Official all of a sudden bear hugged and lifted by the heavyweight who was pinned. The Official did know what was going on and, of course, was immediatley concerned. before He knew it he had spun around and set back to his feet. He saw what was happening as the heavyweight turned back around just in time to bear hug his own father who was running onto the mat to go after the Official. Thiings got settled down and later the Official thanked the wrestler.

It can be a bit hard to find.

The IHSAA has published the Sectional Lists and Tournament Information, for this year, where it is always posted...in the "Winter Bulletin" on the IHSAA website.

I am sure you are right Joe...It as been a few years. He as only moved up one spot in my system. As long as I have been out of High School I have moved to where i tell them i was a three time State champ......it was so long ago no one can remember of find the etchings on the cave wall.

I want to congratualte former New Castle Wrestler Tom Allen on being selected as Indiana University's new Football Coach. Tom wrestled here at New Castle in the mid 80's and placed third in the State. He was a great competitor and always did things the right way....not much has changed in those areas. He will take IU Football to a new level.

Thanks. I knew it wes in that range.

I believe Mater Dei has the longest consecutive Dual winning streak in Indiana. I am not totally sure of the number, but I think it was around 130.

Great story. Thanks for posting it AJ!!

Easy idea....take stalling out of the penalty chart so that Officials are not concerned about placing themselves in a position to disqualify someone. It could be warning, stall-1pt, stall-1pt and choice of position and repeat until the match ends.

Here is what I think has to happen...and it has happened in other sports such as Soccer. Someone (or a group) who has a passion for girl's/women's wrestling must decide that they are going to be the driving force and not stop until the job is done. This will not happen in a year or two.....it will have to be a long terms committment. The person/group needs to find a group of schools in close proximity that would be willing to have girl's Club Team that would compete against each other in a league sort of situation. As this is established then they would need to work to expand it until 50% of the IHSAA member schools are doing it. This is exactly what Soccer and some other sports have done. If you cannot get 50% of the member schools to have teams/clubs you would still increase the number of girls wrestling and have enough viable teams and individuals to have a legitimate State Championship event much like boy's/men's Volleyball currently has. I would add this as well....Gymnastics is actually below the level where they should be sanctioned and it might be that if girl's wrestling were to get a reasonable number of schools involved (more than Gymnastics) then tey might consider dropping one and adding the other. Most schools do not like Gymnastics becasue it cost too much. The IHSAA is very concerned about the balance of boys and girls sports Girls wrestling (if it had a decent number of teams participating) would make a nice pairing if gymnastics were dropped.

I am so sad. Tom (Coach Cook) was one of the finest men in Wrestling. I always enjoyed every time that our pathes would cross. He was a fine coach, and an awesome family man. My prayers are with his family at this time.

Antoine was awesome, but he was snakebit in the Semi-State. I do not know if I would say he is the best to never win State, b ut by far he was the best never to advance to the State.

I think I have it AJ. I will check tomorrow. Rex

Thanks for both the positive and the negative comments (I consider those constructive criticism). First, I know people always mention full mats. I am not justifying how we do it, but in reality the mat area the wrestlers in the fieldhouse wrestled on was at least 100 square feet larger than the area of a traditional "full mat", and the mat area for the upstairs mats is almost double the normal amount. In terms of awards...we have re-thought that over the years, and made upgrades. Maybe we need to look at that again. I am fairly pleased with weigh-ins and having a two pound allowance. We can get people through fast, there is no melay of people wanting to be the first one into weigh-ins, and because of the weight allowance I have absolutley no reservations telling someone, "maybe you should not have been "cutting weight" to use the two pound allowance" when their wrestler is over weight. We will start weigh-ins a bit earlier next year so we can get started sooner which I think will help. I did appreciate the level of competition that we had, and how most people were very nice and congenial. I think this is the first year that I have not had anyone act like an idiot and had to look them in the eye and tell them that either I could handle the problem or the police could and neither one would be good for them. I also am so appreciative of Mark Durham. His help has been a godsend. Many people do not know him, but he is one of those people who sees a job to be done, does it really well, and does not care who gets the credit. I also am appreciative of the women who came to me and said they would take care of Hospitality for the workers and Officials. My late wife, Bonnie, had always done that so it meant alot to me that they would volunteer. The Officials were amazing as well. i always marvel. as I am watching the event, at how well these guys do their job even after they have been on the mats for 10-12 hours. Some of them had officiated a Semi-State the day before and driven through the snow to get to New Castle. It is way more than just a pay check to them. Lastly....thanks to the wrestlers....you were all awesome!!!

I think the host site AD should have all of the info from the IHSAA. It is all there online because we have entered it.

In a match I was watching Saturday I saw a wrestler retyinng his shoes during the match with no penalty (the wrestler did have some sort of closure on his shoes, but it obviously was not working). I asked the Official (who is a top IHSAA Official) about this and he told me that they had been told that if the lacwes come untied during the match they cannot penalize the wrestler because either the Official missed it at the start of the match or the laces were actually secured when the match started and something happened to make them not secured. He likened it to a headgear that is fine at the start of a match and then becomes damaged. The "new" interpretation is just another in a long line of changing things as we go. I think it is correct though.....the laces should be tied and secured and not come untied or unsecured.

I am very proud of Coah Allen....always have been. He is one of the finest young men I have ever coached, and he is a great Husband and father as well as a darn good Football Coach.

Randy May and Jigger Smith were both pretty darn tough...I enjoyed seeing those matches.

Has anyone been to an "Iron Sharpens Iron Camp"? Are they well attended? Who have the Clinicans been?

Just some thoughts after reading all of the above: 1. Don't keep increasing the number of teams......how many teams do we need there to really determine the State Champion in each class? 2. Maybe do not fixate on having it all in one spot all day long. How about starting the competition in each class at separate High Schools with good sized gyms with decent views and then bringing the Final two or four teams to one central High School for the Finals. That way the fans from specific teams can follow their team while the "wrestling fan" can see all o fthe best teams in action when they move to the Finals location. In the metro Indy area there has to be the potential for this, and I am sure this would be possible at other places as well.