Greg Ratliff

Doesn’t matter…. no excuses… he lost. Hats off to the winner of that match and his coaches!!! 

Bloomington Semi State 🤔

Someone beat me to it… but I was going to say “DJ RADNOVICH!”

D J RAAAANDOOOVICHHHH

If you are a wrestling fan that doesn't go to other IHSAA sports' championships, then you don't know how lucky we are. Every year I went to the gymnastics state finals, I would be so mad at how unprofessional the announcer was--mispronouncing names, giving NCAA basketball updates over the PA, making jokes about names being weird, and countless other things I've made myself forget. 
 
I asked Whitehead to "announce" a video of my mom's team receiving their state championship trophey, and he sent me back two versions of him belting out the jams.  What a great announcer, and what a great man for making the moment special. 
 
I'll include the video with Whitehead's audio, because my mom and sister make me really proud, and also to show that Whitehead is a complete badass who rages to make things great for people. His part starts at 4:15 in case the link doesn't take you there. 
 
 
 

On Facebook Kevin made it official that this state finals will be his last on the mic. Crazy to think an announcer has made such an impact on this sport, but he has literally become the voice of the sport. Thanks Kevin for being the voice of Indiana wrestling for 40+ years!
 

Can't beat a dead horse. What happened happened. The time was tight and the call was close either way. The harder thing to understand is why a stalemate was called after they had just came out of a scramble with 10 seconds to go?
 
The officials on that mat were good officials. No blame. Evansville semi-state is very unforgiving...
 
Both of the assistant coach's sons, Lane Deckard (2020 against Ben Dalton) and Cash Turner, had careers end in the same heart-breaking fashion

Me......two years ago when I couldn't purchase online tickets to watch the finals!!

Ryan Jankowski from SBSJ was 46-1 Semi-State champ in I believe 2014 he had defeated the champ from that year at 182 Damian Chambers (Edgewood) the year prior but lost Friday night to someone from Southridge or Southport pretty big upset in my opinion.

I will get to work scheduling wild card weekend if we can get 5 other schools in. 

12/9 we could host in Indy. (We can't schedule earlier than this because of football) 
 
Garrett doesn't look like they have anything
RC hosts a Super Dual
Peru doesn't look like they have anything
Angola doesn't look like they have anything
Glenn hosts a super dual
Southridge has the PAC (might be tough to move) 

Totally understand if coaches don't want to realign their schedules to make this work. We will host/ travel anywhere to earn a wildcard spot. 

12/2 we see Cascade, Owen Valley, and South Putnam. (Maybe Monrovia as well) 
We see Hamilton Heights the following week. 
 
If we can get a chunk of those 11-20 teams to see each other in early December it could help find the best 2 wild card teams. 

Can't beat a dead horse. What happened happened. The time was tight and the call was close either way. The harder thing to understand is why a stalemate was called after they had just came out of a scramble with 10 seconds to go?
 
The officials on that mat were good officials. No blame. Evansville semi-state is very unforgiving...
 
Both of the assistant coach's sons, Lane Deckard (2020 against Ben Dalton) and Cash Turner, had careers end in the same heart-breaking fashion

Can't beat a dead horse. What happened happened. The time was tight and the call was close either way. The harder thing to understand is why a stalemate was called after they had just came out of a scramble with 10 seconds to go?
 
The officials on that mat were good officials. No blame. Evansville semi-state is very unforgiving...
 
Both of the assistant coach's sons, Lane Deckard (2020 against Ben Dalton) and Cash Turner, had careers end in the same heart-breaking fashion

I know I am not the only one who enjoys this weekend the most in the state series.  For some, I know they expect to be here and at next week's slamdango for the precious metals.  Yet, I think a lot of wrestlers making it here for perhaps the first or the last times have to be gratified to see their hard work paying off.  Every lap, sprint, shark tank, four-hour drive, close loss and quick pin....the growing wrestler has endured so, so much on this uphill journey.  Some will reach a career highlight in the second round, while some will not.  Others, again, will expect to be here and will move on.  Yet, some expectations will be unmet.
 
Oh, how well we know this is an individual sport!  By this time, the wrestler has pushed their body and mind to their known limits in hopes of attaining success.  Many may not realize that during this pursuit, greatness has already been achieved.  Acts of perseverance, willingness, and respect for the sport and those who continue to carve legacies add up.  The discipline it takes to properly nourish the mind in the classroom and the body at the dinner table does build the toughness needed to get to this stage as well.
 
Clearly, the spirit of victory can be felt by flesh and blood and the pain of loss can likewise be as deeply known.   As exhilarating and stark the extremes may be for the wrestler, the coaches, parents and teammates have played a game or two of Chutes and Ladders themselves.  They will continue to venerate your name and deeds no matter the outcome.  May you continue to profit both in wrestling and in every facet of life from your priceless sacrifices.
 
 
 
 

6 out of his 5 losses?

My vote is for The Ultimate Warrior.  Raised in Crawfordsville, Indiana.  Went on to be a 2 time WWF intercontinental champ, and a 1 time WWE champ.   Hard to be 3 world titles !

I am following with the crowdedness. Appreciate the additional context. 
 
Glad to see that the 2 wild card vote-ins will be in December vs May. 
 
We are happy to host the first 5 schools out of the vote-in for a super dual. When the final placements come out I will reach out the numbers 11-15 to try and find a date in early December. 

Hosting our own Wildcard weekend in Indy. 

EMD vs The World

Maligned; ton of work that you graciously do for the sport/ state. Appreciate it big time!

Congratulations to Eli Hinshaw from Owen Valley for signing with Indianapolis. Projected to wrestle 197.
View full signing

Maligned; ton of work that you graciously do for the sport/ state. Appreciate it big time!

Maligned; ton of work that you graciously do for the sport/ state. Appreciate it big time!

Maligned; ton of work that you graciously do for the sport/ state. Appreciate it big time!

In the semi finals, Ward dislocated his elbow.  
 
It is a terrible ending to a great career for a great kid.

Hey , I want to start by saying thank you to lots of people.
 
I attended the Franklin site last weekend. One of my former coaches was there working all weekend. He once said to me "I don't know how much so and so is getting paid to do this, but it's not enough"
 
I'll tell you that number was probably $0.
 
We have a lot of people that help with a data driven formula, seeding, a rules/ selection committee, selecting/ assigning officials, securing mats, setting up LOTS of things, trackwrestling setup, awards, and now streaming the whole thing. If ANY of these people aren't there helping, I don't know now this tournament continues. It is a huge undertaking.
 
I won't say that the experience is perfect. But we keep aiming to make it better.
 
The goal is to always keep this tournament centrally located. The tournament was setup to sort of bring teams (the best teams is the goal) from all geographical locations. The 1A problem becomes that there aren't many 1A options in the Indianapolis area. And not many 1A options that can field 6 wrestling mats. 
 
Someone on the IHSWCA has continuously asked me to drop 1 and 2 back down to 8 teams. I have not wanted to do that for lots of reasons we have discussed over the years. That in itself limits venues we can go to. Which is why we have done fieldhouses the last two years.
 
We have several people that want the tournament all at one location, but that has been difficult to accommodate.
 
We have several that want the tournament all 4 separate locations. That also raises issues as we spread ourselves too thin with helpers. There's only so many volunteers you can ask for.
 
I do like to read on ways we can improve. I don't think everyone understands the logistics. 
 
I think the faceoff needs to be done before the finals That would be incredible.
As far as the spotlight finals or one match finals. Also a great idea! Brownsburg reached out last year to ask if they could do that, but that meant that the finalists had a double bye. It comes back to asking officials, and workers to stay longer.
 
So there are ways to improve and I'm always interested in hearing how you think we can improve. But it's not always as easy as people think.