base

Why does the northern part of the state begin their season so much earlier than the middle/southern portion of the state? Should the central/southern portion move their season up to coincide with the northern schools?

Some programs have coaches that work with certain wrestlers with a style that more closely resembles theirs, or allows them to coach to their strengths. You apparently work with a youth wrestling group...I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere along the way there was at least one wrestler that you didn't personally coach. Your son seems to have turned out alright, so why choose a public forum to bash a coach? Whether you intended it or not, you made a bold claim about that coaches program -- a program you are no longer a part of. Mr Richards, I am guessing the source of all of your boo points is that although it is clear you are a fan of the sport, your online persona is that the world and the sun and everything else revolves around your son and your associated wrestling program. It does not. The sport is bigger than anynone wrestler, family, coach, or team. Cheer your son on in his senior year, be thankful for the good memories, don't throw around bold claims about his team that are going to only put a target on his back. Don't obsess about his ranking. Kick back, just relax and enjoy the ride. Don't celebrate his accomplishments before they happen. I hope your son has a great final year, and you find the willpower to do more reading and a little less typing.

Do you paint your belly with your school's colors? You are a true "super-fan"!

Whatever your opinion is personally on holding kids back in the 8th grade -- it is a family decision. When it comes to parenting, you can ask 100 sets of parents their opinion on how they would handle a situation and likely get close to 100 different answers. Wrestling-wise, the only year where it would make a difference is their senior year. Otherwise, they may be a year ahead of their peers in the same grade, but they will still be competing in the 14-18 year old range. In the case of the Lowell boys, the father has stated that they will be 18 years old when they graduate (as the majority of HS seniors throughout the US) will be. So my opinion is let it go, people. Maybe you couldn't imagine holding your 8th grader back a year for any reason -- they can and have decided to do so. This may work out positively for wrestling and negatively for social/personal reasons. Or, it may be a positive for social/personal/maturity reasons, and work out negatively for wrestling. Who knows!? <removed opinion re: middle school state>

My wife's sister's friend's second cousin Cletus never finished school beyond the 8th Grade. He will be enrolling as a freshman at Hickentucky High School next season. He is now 34 years old and would like to wrestle. Will he need to shave his full beard (picture Dan Haggarty), and is he allowed to have a back pocket sewn into his singlet to hold his chained billfold between matches?

You don't think Devon Jackson may go up to 138? I realize he just competed at the Super32 @ 132 lbs, but considering he wrestled at 135 last year, I was thinking he may go 138 for his senior campaign and wrestle stronger/healthier than possibly cutting to 132 all year.

Not much Yorktown or Bellmont on there. And you have 2 Yorktown wreslers @ 126 right now

I have to slightly disagree. Brooks and Jackson are I believe both lifelong wrestlers. In their case (and in the case of most other lifelong/beast wrestlers) the cage fighting/MMA may elevate their skills even more especially on that national level. However, I think there are still far too many wrestlers who would be better served at the high school and middle school level learning and drilling the basics. I've seen countless "good" wrestlers lose matches because they couldn't get deep and finish a double-leg takedown......or spend the entire 3rd period down a point and stuck on the bottom because they can't execute a standup. Give me a kid that has a great double-leg, half-nelson, standup, sprawl and a breakdown of his/her choice -- and I think they will have a lot of success on the mat.

Wow, Kyle's got crazy-good skills. You know, like nunchuku skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills. Obviously this Connor Weight character has none But seriously, Kyle Walters versus The Lawrence ..... too close to call?

Mini-Hinkel?

Boilermangler? Purdue 'Pete'rson?

Most of the head coaches are well-known. I'm curious about those guys behind the head coaches... Who are some of the state's best technicians? Maybe they are a head coach, maybe an assistant, maybe they run their own program

Neace let his emotions overtake his gameplan this week Should have beat that guy and kept his team's winning streak alive.

The Early Bird Gets the Worm Shaft

Wrestling Mat Zamboni !!! Genius or Madness...you decide?!?

Not much love there for Northern Indiana, and NONE for the southern boys!

Believe me, I am not slighting him! I think Phillips is an incredible wrestler, my comment was referring to the fact thatnif you look at the super32 bracket and are not familiar with him, you might look at the nationally ranked guys and "overlook" him. I think some opponents may be in for a surprise when they are matched with him.

Although wrestlers may move around weight classes yet before the tournament -- right now, in the 126 lb weight class, they have registered wrestlers with national rankings of: RANK-WT NAME STATE 12 - 120 GARY WAYNE HARDING OK 1 - 126 JOEY DANCE VA 2 - 126 ROSSI BRUNO FL 4 - 126 NATHAN KRAISSER MD 6 - 126 ANTHONY ASHNAULT NJ 7 - 126 ZAIN RETHERFORD PA 9 - 126 DEAN HEIL OH 10 - 126 COREY KEENER PA 12 - 126 RANDY CRUZ PA 16 - 132 CHRIS CATON NC 20 - 132 GARRISON WHITE NC 14 - 138 SHAWN SPEARMAN PA That is one STUD weightclass! Not sure how in the world someone ranked @ 138 is going to make 126 lbs but who knows? At any rate, this is a great chance for Cody to show everyone what a stud he is. After a couple of tough losses last year at semistate and state, I feel like he's kind of dropped under the radar. I think he has a great chance to upset some of these highly ranked kids and vault back into the national rankings himself.

Updated list: Added Nate Boston @ 106 Added Cody Phillips at aruguably the toughest weight class of the tournament @ 126

Mine: 125 - J Brooks 133 - M Todd 141 - Ch Carroll 149 - J Tsirtsis 157 - D Jackson 165 - K Johnson 174 - C Mullins 184 - T Willis 197 - M Sliga 285 - K Berry had a tough time with the 157-174 classes

OK, you are head coach at a local university that provides a good education. You can only recruit from within Indiana. There are no redshirt seasons. Let's say you want to field the best possible team 4 years from now and make a run at your conference championship (so will be filled exclusively by this year's Indiana HS wrestlers). Who are you going to recruit, and what spot will they fill in 4 years (2015-16)? Will one of the freshman phenoms be the best available choice in 4 years? Weight classes you will have to fill are: 125 133 141 149 157 165 174 184 197 285

Indiana has some really strong lighterweight wrestlers graduating this year. Ayersman has already committed to Purdue, and you list Phillips, Petrov and Todd (all about the same size) as possible Boilermaker recruits. Out of those 3, which one would you go after and why (given that Ayresman will already be on the team and likely competing at one of the same weight classes, and also Quiroga/Eppert each have a couple more years at the lower weights)

Thanks, he was listed under OH, so I missed him.

Super 32 Challenge October 29-30 Greensboro, North Carolina This tournament is still a ways off, but the registration is filling up and the brackets for this thing are LOADED! They have a cutoff of the first 1425 entries (they can add an additional 75). Several Indiana entrants so far in the High School Division (there is also a Middle School division limited to 400 wrestlers but that's not open for registration until 9/25). Note that these wrestlers all have until 10/23 to change their weight class from what they originally declared. Indiana's Lineup: Wt. First Name Last Name Qual Regional Place State Place Grade HS State Prev S32 Hs 106 NATE BOSTON 1 2011-103-1 10 Lawrence North IN Hs 106 HAYDEN LEE qualifier NP 10 Garrett IN Hs 106 NICK LEE qualifier NP 0 Mater Dei IN Hs 106 ADAM OYLER NP 9 Lawrenceburg IN Hs 113 JARRED BROOKS NP 2011-112-2 12 Warsaw Community IN Hs 113 SCHUYLER PHILLIPS qualifier 1 11 Yorktown IN Hs 113 ALONZO SHEPHERD qualifier NP 2011-112-8 12 Jeffersonville High School IN Hs 120 PAUL PETROV 1 2011-112-4 12 Hanover Central IN Hs 120 EVAN SMILEY NP 9 Cathedral IN Hs 126 CODY PHILLIPS 1 2011-112-3 12 Union County IN Hs 132 JOSHUA FARRELL 1 2010-103-6 11 Greenfield Central IN Hs 132 TOMMY FORTE NP 9 mishawaka IN Hs 132 CAMERON HALSTED 2 12 Crown Point IN Hs 132 DEVON JACKSON 1 2011-135-2 12 Yorktown High School IN Hs 132 ANTHONY MCHUGH qualifier 3 11 Culver Military Academy IN Hs 132 NEAL MOLLOY 1 2011-130-1 0 John Molloy IN Hs 138 LOGAN HUNT NP 10 new palestine high-school IN Hs 138 JOE KELLY NP 12 Chesterton IN Hs 138 JASON TSIRTSIS NP 2011-140-1 12 Crown Point HS IN 2010-140-2 Hs 145 ISAIAH BRADLEY NP 2010-135-5 11 Muncie Southsie H.S. IN Hs 145 BLAKE RUEGER 1 2011-140-5 12 F.J. Reitz High School IN Hs 152 JESSE GOODNIGHT qualifier NP 12 Kokomo IN Hs 152 BRIAN HARVEY NP 2011-130-5 12 Cathedral IN Hs 152 LUKE KRIECH NP 11 Franklin Community HS IN Hs 160 AUSTIN NEIBARGER qualifier NP 11 Hamilton Southeastern IN Hs 170 DAMON ALBERTSON NP 12 Roncalli IN Hs 182 DOMINIC FIMBIANTI qualifier NP 12 Munster High School IN Hs 182 TOBY KIRTS qualifier NP 12 Brown County High IN Hs 182 LUKE SCHAEFFER qualifier 2 12 Westfield IN Hs 195 MITCH SLIGA 1 2011-189-3 11 Fishers HS IN