aoberlin

This is tough. I'm a huge fan of Aurelio's, however, you have to do the original one in Homewood if you're going to do it right. I love Beggar's but may be in the minority there. Deep dish is not what most people from the Chicago-land area eat. It's a cool thing to get once or twice a year but not every time you get pizza.

Dang,  no proposal for adding wrestling backs to the state tournament.   At least we got next year to hope for, at least we got that going for us.   
"#wrestlebacks for the future". Never give in, never give up.

Dang, I was hoping for Evansville.

I would like to state that I worked at a Pizza King from the ages 16 - 21 and I can make a mean pie. Got some the other day. Nothing like a Royal Feast dipped in their cheese sauce. Delivering pizzas might have been my best job ever.

No but I can take his server down. Dude gets one lucky slide by over 20 years ago and it is now on his resume for life. He didn't even get a mat return from it.

We are good. I personally apologize to the General also for over reacting and making it public. It’s about the kids and I lost sight of that. 

Meh… it’s still a crap thing to do and basketball sucks.

Not sure your definition of hasty, but they have known this was coming since the All Star game shift was announced at the end of 2020.  

No but I can take his server down. Dude gets one lucky slide by over 20 years ago and it is now on his resume for life. He didn't even get a mat return from it.

No but I can take his server down. Dude gets one lucky slide by over 20 years ago and it is now on his resume for life. He didn't even get a mat return from it.

We are good. I personally apologize to the General also for over reacting and making it public. It’s about the kids and I lost sight of that. 

Ding! Ding! Ding! If one of your main argument against class wrestling is that it would water down the finals excitement, you might be valuing your own entertainment over what’s best for the kids who are *actually* competing.

I’m not talking about my school at all as far wanting more opportunities. My wrestlers have no excuses and they just need to take advantage of the opportunities in front of them and be more hungry and they will be fine. Creating that real hunger is what I am focusing on and the youth are the key.   My 100+ youth club fell off when CoVid hit and hasn’t opened back up because since then we haven’t had a real wrestling room and the public can’t go in. Which is one reason I started The Fort because I was locked out of the school for my youth programs. I have been head coach for 3 years and we have been 52-17 with 22 semi-state qualifiers. 2 x Sectional Champs and qualified all 14 to Regional 2 years in a row. One we get 2 or more super stars and we are in the mix.  (We had a couple very close this year) We have 0 move ins or transfers. Wrestling is a little bit of a fringe sport at my school and we get kids that don’t make the team in the main sports so I really need to change the culture. With that said we are the largest school to not have a qualifier this year. We are one of 3 big schools in Fort Wayne semi-state and we need to pull our weight. I understand all of that more than anyone else. 
 
I opened The Fort to get kids in front of local talent and bring national talent to the area because not enough kids were traveling for it. It is working and it is coming but it will not be overnight. Also I talk to coaches every day of the week and I never assume I have all the answers. 
 
My concern isn’t even this area so much yet…. It’s coming and I see how hard our youth in the area are working and I would like more opportunity for them. Evansville was insane this year at semi-state and when that truly starts happening here I don’t think that is the best thing for the kids.

No but I can take his server down. Dude gets one lucky slide by over 20 years ago and it is now on his resume for life. He didn't even get a mat return from it.

No but I can take his server down. Dude gets one lucky slide by over 20 years ago and it is now on his resume for life. He didn't even get a mat return from it.

We are good. I personally apologize to the General also for over reacting and making it public. It’s about the kids and I lost sight of that. 

We are good. I personally apologize to the General also for over reacting and making it public. It’s about the kids and I lost sight of that. 

The "40 County Area"

To be clear, I also am unaware of whatever may have been said between yourself and Mr. Oberlin, that is between the two of you.  I would like to meet Andy at some point also, I think we have crossed paths recently but we have never met.  I appreciate Andy's effort to increase the training and success of the NE Indiana area and I hope it continues to improve.

We are good. I personally apologize to the General also for over reacting and making it public. It’s about the kids and I lost sight of that. 

We are good. I personally apologize to the General also for over reacting and making it public. It’s about the kids and I lost sight of that. 

We are good. I personally apologize to the General also for over reacting and making it public. It’s about the kids and I lost sight of that. 

Also parts of East Central Indiana as well as Northwest & West Central Ohio! 

I want to personally apologize to Andy Oberlin from The Fort Wrestling Facility for the DM I sent him on the night after Semi-State.  I want to also apologize for insinuating Andy is biased.  I also would like to apologize to the entire forum for my coarse words.  I'm competitive but I don't want my competitive nature to alter my character.  I will do better going forward.

I have thought long and hard on this and hurts me dearly to admit it because I want to get under those lights sooner or later. But.... it's time we class Indiana High School wrestling. The skill level of wrestling has only increased and is only increasing across the board in Indiana.  We aren't being fair to our kids to say we don't want to class it because we enjoy the show so much. It's like we are enjoying watching a real live Hunger Game. As coaches and fans there is no difference between us not wanting to change to class wrestling than the IHSAA not giving us wrestlebacks. We know the IHSAA isn't going to do that. Then what should we do in order level the playing field a little more so our kids get more opportunities and we try to grow the sport at every school?
 
Bring on the hate.... but the kids need to come first.
 
Oh... and quit wearing jeans when you coach at the high school level.