ArmyofOne

Since no one is coming to the defense of Austin Bethel, it looks like I will...
 
1st point- The injury time was due to a medical condition that Austin has struggled with for 4 years. It is a huge accomplishment that he has been able to continue to compete when after his freshman year it was thought he would never wrestle again. The injury stoppage was MY call to check on the health of MY wrestler. I will not comment any further due to confidentiality.  
 
2nd point- We used ALL of our injury time so that we would not stop the match again. If we had to stop again, we would have defaulted the match. We, Mt. Vernon, do not win that way. We do not break rules or take dives to win matches. 
 
3rd point- The two stoppages AFTER the injury time were due to blood time. That is not on myself or Austin. The official saw it and HAS to stop the match to tend to the blood issue. If anyone watched Ripple's match with Henson, we were on the unfortunate end of that blood time...and we are not complaining about that nor would we be had we lost. 
 
4th point- As to the remarks on his conditioning...I invite you to come watch our running, swimming, and live sessions and ask you to see who goes the hardest, the longest. Austin is in great shape and many don't see that due to his style of getting pins early in matches. For the record, he had Cooper pretty close to pinned (if not pinned) 3 times in the first period. Had that call happened, like it should have, this post would not exist. 
 
Lastly- Neither Austin, the ref, or myself broke any rules during this match. It gets under MY skin that anyone would take a shot at a kid like this. This senior deserved his chance to finish the match even if it was on one leg. We are proud of Austin and all of his accomplishments. He became the FIRST wrestler in our school's history to qualify for state 4 times! That is what I will take away from this weekend and that is worthy of praise, not criticism. 
 
Congrats Austin & Wade!! You guys make MV proud!!
 
Tim Alcorn
Mt. Vernon Head Wrestling Coach
 
Y2, 
I respectfully ask that this post be haulted before it takes any turns for the worse. I know people are entitled to their opinion, but I think this week leading up to the state finals should positively focused on the kids. 

Track has this incorrect. Bethel wins by pin.

It's just Red being Red. Good luck Nebraska, you'll need it.

Great representation.

For the third consecutive season, the Mudflap has got his dirty paws on the state finals draws and is willing to release a sneak preview to tide all you boringly coiffed commoners over until 5pm...
 
But you'll have to ask nicely.. I'll be releasing hints throughout the afternoon.
 
 
Here's the first hint...
 
Roses are RED. violets are FREE, and under the lights this 132 final you will SEE.
 
Match of Friday night at 132- Molloy and Rumph

Thank you maligned for explaining the seeding process for this event.  I just thought that for the money these teams are paying that the committee could take the extra 15 minutes to seed the remaining 4 teams so there is no way for people to debate over a teams bracket placement or put the beer and wings down for a second and take in to consideration other factors such as geography and opponents teams have already faced when looking at your 4 unseeded teams to at least try and make the experience worth while for the kids involved.  Cause at the end of the day isn't that what this is all supposed to be about, high school kids and growing the sport? 
As for my hashtags making me appear bitter, I appreciate your concern.  Let me assure you that I am not a father, mother, brother or sister of any kid involved in this program.  My only ties to it are that I attended the school and continue to follow the team because I enjoy the sport.  I just hate to see a group of boys that have come up through the youth program together have a "teammate" put himself above the team.  Plenty of wrestlers have come through this state with college and olympic goals and they didn't put themselves above their team and coaches.  Would MV win the Team State title with that one extra wrestler?  Probably not.  But having that caliber of a wrestler standing beside them, fighting with them everyday during the season might just give some of those kids a little extra motivation to keep pushing to get better as a team.  Thats what high school sports is supposed to be about.

I guess you can say Mount Vernon got Konrathed.  Without their top stud, all star, all American, college/olympic bound (yet hasn't won state) they get no love in the south.  Yes, he was a major piece in what made that team but I've got to wonder if they would have been given more consideration or a better draw had he been a part of the team.  Would they have been moved to a different bracket to face teams that they haven't already seen this season had they had their "champ"?  Now MV gets to pay their $175 team fee and well over $1400 in hotel costs to travel over 5 hours to wrestle two teams that they've already wrestled, one which they could travel 30 minutes to wrestle and waste 2 pts on their team schedule for the season. 
As an unseeded team you would think that they could at least be placed into a bracket with teams that they haven't already faced.
#daddysboy #quitter

138 lbs. - Dixon (Ev. Reitz) #4 seed took out Weddle in first round and then Crowl in the second round. He is state bound!

There are 4 regional winners in the tourney. 2 on one side and 2 on the other. Blind draw is the only fair way to do it.This draw was tough Egli and Hudkins!!! May be the match of the day!!! 120 will be fun to watch!

Great day of wrestling. My only complaint about the tournament was the LONG breaks in between rounds. I understand the need, but it seemed silly that so many 2 hour plus breaks existed in between some wrestlers matches. Also, I thought it was unfortunate that red and his father did not decide to bump up and take the challenge. The match would have been one for the ages, and although I believe lee would win, the match would allow two of the pound for pound best wrestlers in the state and maybe in state history to challenge one another. At the point the match would have occured, the dual was decisively over. It would not have made any difference in the dual. Nothing against the kid, but I believe that to be the best you must beat the best. These two kids are the best, and it would have gotten a lot of attention and gained both kids a national competition quality opponent. There are wrestlers around the country that travel thousands of miles to get quality competition, with an opponent like lee in front of you, you've got to take it.

I saw the movie tonight and I will see it again. One thing to keep in mind when you read this is that I know Mark Schultz and knew Dave Schultz and John DuPont. I had been on the farm and in the mansion a couple of times. I'm not asking anyone to agree nor am I looking for a debate. It's just my take on it and maybe a little history.
 
What it isn't...it isn't Rocky or Vision Quest or Rudy (he was offside by the way), or Remember the Titans. It's not a film that is going to draw a lot of people to wrestling. It's a dark drama BASED on a true story with complex characters and situations that ended in the murder of one of our greatest wrestlers and maybe wrestling's greatest ambassador.
 
It's not 100% factual. One of the biggest liberties they took was having Mark and Dave living on the farm at the same time. They never did. Mark was there first and then left. Dave came later and stayed too long.
 
They combined some time. It's hard to tell this story in 2 hours so they combined and skipped some years. For example in the movie it appears Dave was murdered shortly after the 1988 Olympics when in reality he was killed in 1996.
 
 
 
What it is...
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Ruffalo as Dave Schultz, Steve Carell as John DuPont and Channing Tatum as Mark Schultz had their characters down pat.
 
Ruffalo-the first time I saw him walk in this movie it almost made me cry. It WAS Dave's walk. If I would have seen it from behind I would have sworn it was Dave. He had his mannerisms down as well. The only thing he didn't capture was Dave's sense of humor. Dave could come up with a one liner out of the blue and make you laugh. More about Dave later.
 
Carell-He portrayed DuPont as the creep he really was. when the Team Trials were held in Philadelphia he would invite the referees out to the farm. I would liken it to having an audience with the Pope except that would be an insult to every catholic on the planet.
 
Tatum-He walked like Mark as well. I always thought Mark was a brooder and I think Tatum got that right.
 
Real wrestlers-lots of real wrestling people including Reece and Jordin Humphrey. Their dad Jim Humphrey was the coach at Foxcatcher in the late 80's and our 88 Olympic coach. He left well before Dave's murder.
 
The sets-very realistic. The scenes on the farm especially. What they used as the exterior shot of the mansion was not real. The internal rooms were like I remember them. One building they didn't show was the Carriage House. DuPont had a collection of antique carriages and wagons. He had one from Gone With The Wind, a Wells Fargo Stage Coach and Cinderella like carriage. The security system alone was like $50,000.
The Farm itself had like 17 houses on it. You could hunt deer there and fish. There were fire hydrants. He really did have an army tank.
There is a scene when Dave is in an office at the Farm where there are headshot pictures of wrestlers. I remember those being there and I think he had some of them in the mansion as well.
The singlets, the warm ups, even the bags were just like the Foxcatcher equipment issue. I had a t-shirt at one time and polo shirt. I burned them both shortly after Dave was killed.
 
A little about DuPont. I can't begin to describe what a creep he was. Each time I was around him I felt like I needed a shower. No one ever said no to John DuPont. On Black Monday he lost something like $13 million. The story in the movie about his mother paying a kid to be his friend is supposedly true. I had heard several times even before he shot Dave. DuPont did do some good with his money. USAW started the National Teams program which our top 3 guys in each weight get a stipend. There are a lot of stories about DuPont, but I have already wasted enough time on him.
 
Mark Schultz was a 3 x NCAA Champion and also  a 3x World Champion (1-Olympic and 2 Worlds). He was a physical specimen. One of the most athletic things I ever saw him do was after a loss and off the mat. He lost to the Russian in the finals of the World Cup in Toledo Ohio, walked out the back door of the arena and threw his plaque about 30 or 40 yards right in the middle of the Maumee River. I told him about it a couple of years ago and he said he remembered that. He also told me that he very proudly does not have any 2nd place awards in his possession. He threw all of them away. A 2nd place Big 8 medal is somewhere on top of Gallagher-Iba Arena. Mark is an emotional complex individual. I hope he finds peace someday.
 
Dave Schultz was one of my heroes even though we were born 4 months apart and I refereed some of his matches. He had a charisma about him that is difficult to describe. I NEVER heard anyone say they didn't like Dave. I saw him get standing ovations in other countries when he placed 2nd or 3rd. He learned to speak Russian on his own and he was more famous there than here. The Bulgarians, the Iranians, the Koreans...everyone loved him. I believe he was our best technician without (by far) being our best athlete.
When our National Anthem is played at a wrestling event, I say a silent prayer and then I think of Dave Schultz....not once in a while, but every single time.
 
The movie was tough to watch. Especially the end. I remember where I was and how I heard Dave was shot. I couldn't believe it then and I still can't. I believe Dave's murder held us back as a country. I think Dave would have been our national coach and we have flourished under him no matter what the rules.
 
If you are a wrestler I encourage to google videos of Dave and Mark wrestling. they were a joy to watch.
 
Tom Clark

Or vice versa!

The Yorktown HS wrestling team would like to thank Coach Alcorn, and his staff, for a very well run Turkey Classic duals event.  We enjoyed opening our season up in southern Indiana, and the hospitality was outstanding at Mt. Vernon HS.
 
Best Wishes,
Coach McCormick