Dwilly

Josh Hutchens from Plymouth often gets overlooked. Not sure what he did after HS?

Anyone taking a team to this camp in Richmond?

What are the age groups for all of the RTCs? Do they vary?

That was a very cool way to start the finals. Going to be fun to watch him the next 3 years.

Glad to hear the injured wrestler is doing fine. ISWA Team State is a very long day for us coaches & our kids. It is a long weekend for the ISWA volunteers. Thank you guys for putting on a great tournament despite the weather curve ball. Also unbelievable how you were able to get the Parade of Champions put together in such a short amount of time. It went great. Congrats to all teams. Did I mention I need a nap?

Matt In no way was this directed at you, and I possibly need to change some wording. I respect all you & everyone who donates their time have done for this sport, and hope the conversation we had clears this up. Also all teams are allowed 2 wild cards. I have no problem with wild cards. Most teams need them. We need them. That is not my reference at all. Dustin Wilson

Matt I have no problem with the current format if a team NEEDS kids. I do have a problem with certain schools that are large enough to fill 2 teams, yet drop their own kids to bring in "ringers". That is not the intent of the rule. That is an injustice to those kids that pay dues to that local club, and could easily fill that spot. Our kids know when teams are assembled with kids outside of a certain district. If they want to form a allstar team & travel do that instead.

I don't think it hurt it as much as people think. Like I said, many lost jobs in these towns depleted population. There goes your fanbase. Also technology has not helped. Back in the 80s I still remember getting up to change the channel, and there were few "hit" shows on. Now we all have 10 shows DVRd, and 300 stations to click thru, not to mention Ipads, Xbox, PS4, etc. Causes are many fold, but the reality is times just changed. There was a time those gyms were full every night, but class basketball is not why they are empty.

They are not filled. At times they are if there is a big game or big recruit, but most of these gyms are in small manufacturing towns where weekend games were local entertainment for many years The closing of factories resulting in the loss of jobs hindering growth has heavily impacted these towns. People leave with the jobs; thus, leaving empty gyms. I grew up going to games in the 80s, and can tell you Marion, Muncie, Anderson, Richmond,etc gyms were packed back then. 8 out of 10 years thru the 80s an NCC Conference team played in the single class state championship game,and won 4 times. it was a different time. That said, there are some fairly large football stadiums throughout the state as well. (& NO I am not comparing these to other states like Texas or Ohio). I have yet to see these stadiums full for any game.

Witnessed this as well. He needs to learn how to lose with some class, and hopefully that will be a learning experience for him. He can look for a great example from the Warren Central 152 lber. After a very controversial back & forth match that saw a eye cut and a slam, he took his loss with grace & exited the area without incident. Some great matches at this tourney.

Loved watching Parris last year. Why no Fargo for Rypel?

Kid works his tail off, and stayed positive after tough losses in arguably the toughest sectional & regional the state offers. Congrats Jordan! Let's get 1 more.

Jordan Vaughn from Franklin Central has a solid chance of making it to the semi finals at 132.

I remember a 4 from Ft Wayne up 7-2, and spladdleing a 1 from Merrilville on Friday. Just wrestle. Who cares if the brackets changed? I think that same 4 from Ft Wayne went on to beat the 1 from Evansville too.

The announcer at the New Castle semi state is fantastic.

Let me start with saying we have many great ambassadors in this state for youth wrestling, and wrestling in general. In no way is this to be taken as critisism for how we do things; however, it is an observation on how something very successful was done. What we need in this sport is encouragement of all levels of wrestlers; thus, leading to growing numbers at all of our tourneys. Some kids are really advanced, and some are not regardless of years experience. What is disouraging to some is to come to weekend tourneys that have 12-16 kids in a weight class, which necessitates elementary aged kids wrestling 6-8 times with full wrestlebacks, and not leaving until dinner time. A recommendation is to start running some tournaments with 8 man brackets. This weekend we attended the Spartan Rumble in Danville, Illinois. They had 700 wrestlers. Tourney started at 9:30, and they were pulling tape off the mats at 3pm. We drove an hour & half, and I was home by 5:45. They ran all 8 man brackets with blocked weights & staged all kids by division. What this also does is gives all of our kids confidence they have a chance to place. I am not saying all kids should place(i.e. get a trophy, medal, Etc.), but giving kids confidence leads to them sticking around & enjoying the sport. Wrestling 6-8 times to place 4th, 5th, or 6th doesn't do that in my opinion. Many times getting a taste of success can encourage kids with confidence, and that can give them motivation to not only stick with the sport, but work harder to get to that next level. We all know how how much hard work it takes to be successful at this sport. Not only for the wrestlers, but the time commitment, financial, and emotional obligations of the parents. The above example proves that reducing bracket sizes can speed up tournament. All our parents were shocked & ecstatic it ran so fast with a completely packed gym...700 wrestlers. BTW, shockingly they did not use Trackwrestling for matches. Good old fashioned bout sheets. Just my 2 cents. Thanks everyone for all you do for this sport.

Great write-up. In 1993 I attended a camp, and had he privelage of spending time with Ed Giese. Ed was a top 3 114.5 wrester for the USA in the 80s, and I knew he had wrestled with Foxcatcher. I asked him about his career, and wrestling for Foxcatcher. He wasn't with Foxcatcher at that time anymore, but was really uneasy & elusive about why he wasn't. He really didn't want to discuss Foxcatcher at all. I was a 17 year old kid, and all I knew was Foxcatcher was an elite talented team. The one thing I do remember is he mentioned how controlling it was there, although I do no recall him mentioning DuPont by name. When the tragedy occured int 1996 I immediatly thought of those conversations with Ed.

This sounds like a quote from Jason himself. Congrats to Jason, and I am sure that he would, without question tell everyone Alex is his biggest fan and with his father(amongst others a close 3rd) are the greatest assets to this title.

Hummel was in my conference, so I got to see him wrestle a few times a year. I always said there should be a 220, and if there was he would have won a couple titles imo. That said, he wouldn't be throwing Gelen, and for that reason I give the nod to Gelen. He takes all others though. I also think Gelen could go up to HWT & win last 2 years.

Mr. Whitehead I have a good friend who works for the NBC affiliate in Dayton... WDTN, and he also does Wright State athletics announcing. His first question when I told him I was going to the state tournament was "is the same guy doing the announcing? He is one of my favorite sports voices I've heard." I mention this because his only experience was the couple of state tournament I was lucky enough to compete in that he attended in the early 90s. 20 years later your announcing still resonates, and it is awesome to hear every year. You are our Tom Carnegie.

Awesome weekend for what sounds to be a great kid. My comment was certainly not intended to take ANYTHING away from Blake's fantastic weekend. I wish him the best of luck throughout his career, and do find it amazing regardless of where he lives that he wrestled Sunday at all...let alone finish 2nd.

Either you missed the semi-final match between these two, or you are just slow. This match wasn't remotely close. Micic better in every aspect. Micic beats him at any open tournament, state tournament, national tournament. I don't have a dog in this fight, but did watch the match subjectively. Micic on another level than the rest right now.

Robinson had the same reaction he would if he had just went to the mailbox to get the mail..."just another day." That is awesome.

This guy has ZERO logic. Snoopy is saying they live elsewhere, and its expensive to stay an extra night, pay for food & entry on top of that when you live elsewhere. Have you missed the fact that Rypel goes to Cathedral? He has slept in his own bed all weekend. No hotel fees, etc. It does make it just a tad more convenient on local families trying to do this...just sayin. The word TAD was sarcasm. All of that said, that is awesome he competed Sunday regardless. Congrats on a good weekend to this young man.

Hah. Oh yeah, I had to cut weight after 1 or 2 initial weigh ins. I think you got 3.