TheGenerealsDad

I just think its funny it is being implied he would have been a "typical rural kid". There are 10 people in the United States this year that were NCAA wrestling champions and he was one of them. I don't think him or Howe were ever going to be a typical anything. A typical kid from New York City doesn't win an NCAA championship either. I just think its dumb to say someone can't do something because they didn't grow up in the situation you did or can't overcome disadvantages with work and some luck. Nobody ever thought a kid born in Nigeria would ever grow up to be the president of the United States either - JUST KIDDING.

I think it is asking a lot for a kid who is dedicated enough to become a national champion to also have a personality that can be enjoyed by the masses after winning their match. I was more amazed at the composure they showed speaking to a national audience and not coming off bad than anything. Most 18 - 22 year old kids couldn't do that, and in my opinion all the extra time in the wrestling room tends to make wrestlers just a little strange anyway. ESPN is paying the announcers to try to keep it entertaining, but for most people the action on the mat should be more than enough.

The Eastern thread also reminded me of the Cutler criticism by a bunch of ignorant fans who believed what they wanted to believe instead of the truth - that Cutler was hurt and couldn't play because of an injury. In this case, I don't think people know what they are commenting on but want to think it is a coach who quit. Why would you jump to that conclusion unless you already wanted to? The coach seems like a stand up guy who has been around a long time. If I read the thread right, someone said he would have 7 forfeits. If I do my math right, if every kid pinned his opponent he could possibly tie. Why not give another team a chance under those circumstances?

Not sure what movie everyone else saw, but I thought this movie was terrible. It had wrestling in it, but other than that I can't see why anyone would want to watch it. It was very close to "after school special" quality, but with a little young adult material so you wouldn't immediately think that. It could have been good if someone would have known what they were doing, but clearly they didn't. I laughed because it was so bad more than a few times. I think I like wrestling a lot, but even that is not enough to watch this. Save yourself a couple hours and clean your room or something.

Who is coaching at Indian Creek? Two kids ranked nationally from such a small school is incredible.

"New buildings and and any construction money comes from a different fund than where teacher salary and benefits come from. Indiana would not allow schools to transer funds so many schools had an excess in the building fund but were short in the General fund, which is where teacher salary money is located. Indiana is trying to change the out of date fund rules so that schools can move funds to where they need them." That makes a lot of sense and I hope it is changed. I think to the general public who see their tax money being spent on unnecessary building projects it leaves a bad impression and little understanding why there isn't money to keep teachers and coaches. There are clearly cases where schools need to build, but from what I have seen most building projects are a way for superintendents to pad their resume without the district's best intentions in mind. It makes it appear as if money is being mishandled and not a good investment in the overall system in my opinion. I would gladly swap money spent on that stuff to be used to keep teachers.

I guess it depends on how you define education. I would call it cutting teachers or books. I am assuming you are lumping in sports with that. Either way, I take the view that sometimes when times are tough sacrifices have to be made, at least outside of government. I believe it unfair to use tax money for unnecessary "education" and then look for sympathy when you go broke. Its not the teacher's fault or the students fault, but it is a reality of life. It is unfortunate, but in many cases a situation that could have been better handled. I expect organizations who receive taxes to be good stewards of that money. If they have been then they deserve sympathy, if not go talk to someone else. I just hear too many examples of wasted money. If its not unnecessary buildings, it is football coaches who get paid to change light bulbs or study hall teachers who are kept because it is too hard to let them go.

Ok. What about the rest of Michigan? I will go a step further though and really let you know how I feel about it. How many school systems haven't blown a large amount of money on unnecessary expenditures in the last 5 years. I have seen more than a few schools building new gyms and performing arts centers that were not necessary and not education related. One Indiana school I know of just built a new high school and added a second swimming pool and are now cutting freshman and junior high sports. Now that the money is short, those bad decisions are coming back to bite some schools in the back side. I hate to see educators lose jobs or kids get less of an education, but sometimes bad decisions by administrators lead to bad times for teachers and students also. I am sure all schools are suffering whether in republican or democratic states, but I really don't believe school administrators are used to making cost based decisions like a business does everyday either. If it were up to me, sports would be the first thing to see cuts as they are a part of the education experience but not the real job of a school. Maybe they are doing the best they can in tough times, and it might just be time to pay the fiddler.

It's funny the far right is getting blamed for this. I live in Michigan which is ruled by democrats from Detroit and Governor Jennifer Granholm and they are cutting education as well. It's called a recession. Government is going to cut education before they cut their bureaucracies or limit the size of government. Open your eyes a little, it isn't just happening in Indiana.

I think it was originally planned to be an ISWA event and changed to Border Wars because it was going to be easier to handle the medals, score boards, etc by going through the Border Wars people with MYWAY's help. I don't believe you need a card of any kind for the border war tournaments either which opens it up to anyone. It was a very well ran tournament typical of the MYWAY tournaments.

"If you have been around wrestling for awhile, and know what you are talking about then don't waste your time arguing with those saying free/greco are a waste, or not worth your time." That is a great way to approach a discussion. There are a lot of reasons that free-style could easily be avoided with very little detriment and possibly some benefits in my opinion. I wrestled a lot of free-style growing up and it sounds like a lot of the same problems exist now that existed 30 years ago. I haven't been around it much recently, but with a young wrestler it is sometimes hard to find referees at tournaments who know the folkstyle rules. I am only guessing that the younger volunteer referees are not as familiar with the free-style rules. Safety would be my main concern with young referees. I am not sure what you couldn't teach a kid to use in folkstyle as a coach that would make such a huge difference just because it is free-style. The only thing that comes to mind are despiration moves at the end of matches you are losing and need 5 points - those should be taught in folkstyle anyway. If I am wrong on that enlighten me. Looking for moves you can't run in folkstyle, but help you in folkstyle. I see a lot of people saying wrestling is wrestling, so why not stick with what you will use for sure in high school and college? How many wrestlers make it to the olympic level where they need to wrestle free-style to compete against the best in the world? Wrestling has only been around since the beginning of time. Why can't an organization come up with rules that remain constant or have only minor changes periodically? Is it to benefit the administration's wrestlers or to better the sport? Just a few of my issues and why I would pick a folkstyle tournament for a young kid if there was a choice.

Y2 - you always seem to take the high ground and I respect your ability to stay out of the name calling during arguments. I disagree with you about class wrestling, but think we can have a reasonable discussion on recruiting. D1 recruits based on national success - we agree on that. D2 and D3 recruits on state placement - I would even give you that. But if a kid wants to wrestle at a D2 or D3 school, wouldn't they get a real shot at doing so just by contacting the coach and saying they want to wrestle there? I think it would be better to choose the right school at that level based on academic reasons anyway and then if they have a program and you think you can compete tell them you want to wrestle for them. I hope that is why even some of the D1 wrestlers are choosing the school they attend. There probably isn't enough scholarship money involved to offset out of state tuition to a D1 school to justify it unless you have placed very high at nationals and now we are talking about the exception rather than the rule. I guess my argument is that it doesn't matter much if you are recruited or not to a D2 or D3 school. You will either make the team / wrestle college varsity or you won't based on ability - it is not going to matter if you placed at state in either a class or true champ state system. I read an earlier post that you think it will increase interest. I don't think that is really arguable since it hasn't happened. You have your opinion and it might be valid. I think as a spectator, it would decrease my interest personally unless my school were going to state. What I think we have seen at the current team state is a handful of teams that have a chance to make it with very little turn over from year to year. Would that not happen in the small school division? It seems like it could increase the interest at a few more schools in the state, but probably not many. I think having the great spectator turnout in the current system where dads take their kids to see a true state champion achieve that goal in front of thousands under the lights is the better way to go personally. Just my thought. Love your site. Thanks for the work that goes into it.

I think it sounds easier for Indiana to start moving toward HYWAY than to ask the ISWA to implement all the advantages that MYWAY has. I am not part of MYWAY, I only am familiar with how well organized it is and think it could help Indiana wrestling. Cards in Michigan for MYWAY are $15 for the season also compared to the $30 or $40 USA wrestling card for ISWA. When HYWAY takes over ( I think it is only a matter of time ) you will wonder why it took so long. Do a little research on HYWAY and / or MYWAY and see what you think.

I grew up in Indiana and now live in Michigan and have a son wrestling in the MYWAY tournaments. I didn't believe our club president when he told me how much better and more organized MYWAY tournaments are than ISWA tournaments until I went to a couple and then tried an ISWA tournament again. There is a huge difference not just in the scheduling of tournaments into regions, but in how efficiently ran the tournaments are. There are ever increasing numbers of clubs from northern Indiana crossing the line each week to wrestle in the MYWAY tournaments because they know they will get done much sooner than the ISWA tournaments and get just as many matches. The main reason for this is mat side pairings. I am suprised every tournament does not do this. Don't get me wrong, I am sure some ISWA tournaments do but in my opinion they all should. They also split the age groups into morning and afternoon sessions with the younger kids starting early and the older kids starting at 1PM. That gets us out of the tournaments around 2pm with my son being a younger and being in a very large weight class. They have made moves recently to make the tournament more evenly split between the morning and afternoon sessions which is helping speed it up even more. MYWAY also offers satellite weigh-ins near our school (rotates between schools) every Saturday so we don't have to show up on Sunday morning until around 9 am. I hope HYWAY takes off in Indiana and adopts the way MYWAY runs. I think you would all find it much better. I have heard parents saying they will never go to another tournament in Indiana after they have gotten use to the MYWAY structure. I am very close to agreeing - I would only go to ISWA after the MYWAY state tournament if we decide to get some extra tournaments in. Michigan has very few free-style tournaments - about 1 in the whole state per weekend from what I have seen.

It does, and I think they make kids from small schools drive horse and buggies or walk without shoes if they want to practice with someone outside their district. Lucky kid.

Hope I don't get this topic banned by asking this, but isn't the high school Howe attended a small school? Pretty impressive for any freshman to win a Big 10 championship period, but with all the insurmountable negatives a small school athlete in Indiana faces makes it just absolutely incredible. The way I think the reasoning goes, he should not have been allowed to go D1.

In tribute to the banner pronouncing this site the nation's best primary wrestling source, I was curious if there are others on the board who might also be the nation's best primary something or other. I would consider myself a world class smart a**, does anyone else lay claim to nation's best primary smart a**? I also have pondered if this is the world's best primary wrestling source. If it is, is the creator selling himself short or is he interested only in national and not world domination? Please have a sense of humor.