DLuther

Just my opinion but Damon Hummel is hands down the best wrestler in Rochester history. If 215 was a thing he is easily a two time champ.

Just my opinion but Damon Hummel is hands down the best wrestler in Rochester history. If 215 was a thing he is easily a two time champ.

Just my opinion but Damon Hummel is hands down the best wrestler in Rochester history. If 215 was a thing he is easily a two time champ.

its crazy when a school that is known for accepting transfers, starts contesting kids that wanna leave ...and actually block a kid who was gonna be a senior.
 and make him miss his senior year. 

You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave 🎶

Point scoring machine and nearly unstoppable on his feet.  One of the hardest working and most respectful kids you will ever find.

I just witnessed one of the greatest events in high school athletics. Last home meet of the season and there is special recognition for the seniors and their families. Just surviving high school is hard enough, and having a special night dedicated to them is the least anyone could do. New Prairie takes it to another level. The final dual is not in the gym, but in the auditorium. The wrestlers are under the lights and indeed on center stage. The acoustics are amazing. Every slam, grunt, groan, and slap bounces off the walls. There isn't a bad seat in the house. It was a really neat way to witness a wrestling match and gives all the wrestlers a special night that they will remember. Great job New Prairie!

That kid was an absolute animal, most impressive wrestler I've watched this year. 

I’d say that John Glenn has certainly done what it takes to earn one of those spots.

I’d say that John Glenn has certainly done what it takes to earn one of those spots.

I’d say that John Glenn has certainly done what it takes to earn one of those spots.

I’d say that John Glenn has certainly done what it takes to earn one of those spots.

I am glad that this topic was brought up on the forum. This was the first time since 1994 that I did not attend or coach in the State Finals, I got to see a true fans prospective sitting on my coach streaming on multiple computers and listening to commentators. There were many things I was happy to see and hear but saddened at other things as well. I will start with the things that made me upset as a fan:
 
Disappointing:
1. Some of the commentary during matches. A prime example is when a commentator saw a big lift and return to the mat and his exact words "Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ I have never seen such raw strength." 
2. As a commentator you don't have to agree with the officiating but to second guess a call of an official and blatantly disagree with that call is wrong. 
3. When discussing officials and talking about their background please have the knowledge before talking about them. Example: In the 106lb finals Mr. Henry Wilk who has been a part of Indiana wrestling for almost 60 years was called Henry Wills and a long time coach at Mishawaka. Coach Wilk was a State Champion at Mishawaka and a long time head Coach At Penn High School. 
4. The big board with wrong names and weight classes. These young men and women have worked extremely hard their entire lives and they deserve the proper recognition for their accomplishments. 
5. Camera work! I don't know if the support staff for cameras are volunteers or paid but please follow the match, many times you would be looking at nothing in the middle of the mat while the action was going on elsewhere. You never see that with football or basketball state championships. 
 
Positives:
1. Some knowledgeable commentators very well done. 
2. Waiting on all matches to be finished in a weight class to move on. 
3. Interviews with Champions!!!!!!!!
4. The podium back.
 
As a former assistant coach at Penn for 15 years I would be willing to volunteer my services to commentate  for the State Finals. But I would do my research on kids, coaches, and officials, before I ever step foot to the microphone. IHSAA please call me and I would pay my own way to be able to do this. 
 

I really love our state tournament, I do but the IHSAA MUST do better for our kids.  Some things that need to be addressed by our association...
 
1.  Our kids should not have to camp out in a storage area and required to use a service elevator to sit in nosebleed seats.  You should be able to sit with your family/school fans/etc or have seating for them closer to the floor.
2.  Bathrooms and showers should be made available...not the one stall bathrooms.  The locker rooms should be available at all sessions.  
3.  1 Session, 1 March of Champions on Friday.  Now that we know we can start it at 11am, we should do that instead of getting kids back to their hotels late on Friday night.
4.  The 1lb allowance on Saturday.  Mr. Faulkens was/is wrong in his interpretation.  The officials and our association should have stood up to him on that issue.
 
Just my thoughts...this tournament is supposed to be about the kids and, in numerous instances, it was not.
 
 

Congrats to Christian Carroll, Hunter Whitenack, and Jayden Lewis for their showing at state. 1st time NP has had 3 qualifiers, 1st time for a state champion. 10th place team points. A lot of young talent coming up. Get used to the COUGARS!

Any other head coaches graduate from Manchester University?  New Prairie and Rochester's head coaches both attended there and both schools got there first state champ tonight.

I got forwarded an email from a friend I used to coach with.  He emailed Mr. Faulkens to express concerns about 2 sessions, assigned seating, two parade of champions, warmups before weighins, etc.  
 
Personally, I hate dividing my team and coaches...it is a logistical nightmare to figure out what to do with everyone and how to get them where they need to be with 2 sessions.
 
Mt friend was told that we are doing this because it is what the coaches and wrestlers wanted.

Did I miss a survey or meeting?  I can't find a single coach that likes the new format.  Am i missing something?

Does this bother anybody else?  1-3 wrestlers per session gets you 2 wristbands unique to that session.  
 
If you have multiple wrestlers in a session, but no more than 3 then you only get 2 wristbands.  
 
So, lets say that the following athletes are all in the same session and prefer to be coached by:
 
Jimmy coached by : Josh and Mike
 
Jordy coached by:  Nick and Tyler
 
Johnny coached by: Tyler and Alex
 
That's 5 coaches listed, but only 2 bands available.
 
So we are saying that these assistant coaches who do work all year long, potentially cannot be a part of the most prestigious event.  It's not like they get paid a ton and they're away from their families for a few months out of the year.  Also, we are saying that even though Johnny is comfortable with these coaches and they've coached him all year long, he can only get these coaches today.  Sorry, we are going to do things differently once we get to state...ANYBODY else having this frustration?  

Look's like we should petition for next year to be a normal Friday night again. This has been a mess. The Friday morning has been really inconvenient for some parents & fans to even make it there. Those kids deserve a hype and packed crowd too. Just my thoughts.

In the genius rating are the smaller schools at a bigger disadvantage in the Crown point because the bigger schools are so dominant that eliminates any opportunity for them to qualify. Does that increase their regional rating? I would assume this will be the ec semi state break down for the next 5 years  

Interesting storyline this weekend - State #1 Christian Carroll could see State #3 Juan Grange from Penn in the semistate finals
 
Carroll leaves Penn, transfers to New Prairie and is blocked from competing for 1 year
Grange is a state champ who moves into Penn district and fills the spot vacated by Carroll
 
Carroll is undefeated on the season
Grange's only loss is to Brownsburg Hwt Leighton Jones at team state
 
I'm looking forward to the matchup and see whether or not Grange can slow down the Carroll train a bit. I'm guessing that this will be an emotionally charged match that Carroll has been looking forward to for a while. In the end, with two talented young men, I hope it's a great match and some of the drama can be put to rest

I’m just saying, y’all are getting triggered without even knowing what’s going on. All we know is there are two sessions, which they may be experimenting with so the first round doesn’t go til 11 pm. There’s been no mention of restrictions, just reserved seating, which we’ve been building to with the annual stampedes that happen. 

Late November there was a Fort Wayne officials / coaches meeting where Robert was in attendance and spoke about this topic.
Again this was in November, but my understanding at that moment he stated there would be a normal parade of champions despite the separate wrestling sessions (all weight classes for the parade). It was asked if wrestlers in the different session would again have to stay behind at the hotel during the other session and he stated no, not this year because that presented a supervision issue with the wrestlers staying behind. 
It was also mentioned they would likely do the reserved seating again, but not have a capacity limit like last year...unless Marion county at that point has a restriction. 
 
 
 

Few years back the Moran brothers lost a year of eligibility when transferring to Portage from CP. I certainly do not know the entire story of what happened, I was coaching during that time at Portage, and I was more upset that Jonathan lost his senior year because of the block.
 
I don’t know the story behind Penn and C. Carroll, but my view is if they want to move to another district, school or what have you let them. I don’t care what their reasoning is, a state title isn’t worth a kids future in my eyes. Why block a kid from success just to have your head get bigger. It could possibly hurt kids in the long run for scholarships and such just because you’re upset they didn’t want to wrestle for you. Just my opinion, don’t try to pick it apart because you won’t change my mind.
 
-TJ