PreparetoWin

We really enjoyed participating in this event. Great competition, ran very well! We can’t wait to come back next season. Thanks to Warren for hosting this event. Ty Olds Columbus East

1994 lol yes I'm old...not sure we got them then. I believe we were at Wheaton?? Was really great to build relationships with other wrestlers (back before internet). I really encourage these young men to take advantage of a great opportunity.

Kudos to Southport and those who ran the tourney. Enjoyed it. Only suggestion, as others had stated, would be to get to the medal rounds before sending us home. We were one of the unfortunates to be one and done. Outside of that job well done and we hope to be back next season!

Nice Medals...I dont remember getting medals for winning back in the old days.

What coach would say...I beat everyone in this field and I am taking a lower seed to someone who did not beat everyone in this field. There was something more to this story. If you beat everyone, you are higher seed. Plain and simple. I am not even sure how there was an argument made.

The Region is now anything West of Ft Wayne and anything north of Indy.

The "Pratice is just not Fun" is one that boggles my mind. I played 3 sports and hated practice in all 3 sports. It makes me wonder what these other sports are doing that kids are loving coming to practice to giggle and laugh for 2 1/2 hours? The worst thing is these 13-16 year old kids believe we've never heard all their excuses. Like we are going to believe it is really anything else then they just cant cut it. I just laugh at this point.

Do Merrillville wrestlers usually participate in this event?

With all due respect to Woods...you think last years Woods would beat this year Parris?? So Woods was better last year?? I am confused with this pick.

Some fans are idiots...but this is not exclusive to wrestling. I have been to almost every sport as a fan and have heard idiots booing. Football happens all the time, basketball seen it many times. Really in any sport where there is high intensity, fans will let it get the best of them.

This is why most rural area schools arent able to reload year in and year out, parochial or not. Top number are usually 20-25, while most seasons are 15-20. Now take into consideration grades, injuries, quitting and multiple kids at same weight class and you can see why having a pool of 25-40+ kids is a huge advantage.

Triple B and Tskin keep an extremely busy schedule at Madison. I own my own business and live 30 minutes from the school, so leaving at 2:30 and getting home at 6:30 during the week. Then Saturday tourneys and trying to make it to youth travel matches on Sunday and Middle School matches during the week. What Triple B forgot to mention is he coaches little kids club during the spring, Tskin coaches Older Kids Club and I help run the little league. Until last season I also ran 2 hour open mats on Sundays throughout the spring summer. This is how many hours you have to put in at a small rural school to be able to compete. Even with that in 5 years we still have yet to fill a full team. We hope the hard work that the coaches and volunteers are putting in at the grass roots will soon begin feeding into our HS program. But until you get youth numbers and kids taking advantage of off season, you can put in 80 hours a week and not see large gains especially at smaller schools.

haha interesting.

Just curious...why dont you run for President of the IHSWCA? You seem to have the answers and the strong voice?

I used to be a one class supporter..I wrestled at a larger school and coached at a larger school. Now I coach at a 2A school. If you believe that a small rural school has the same advantages as a school in a highly populated area then you are either insane or have never spent time in a rural school. You can have a competitive group of kids, but its highly unlikely you will be competitive year in and year out. The funny thing about Hickory Hoosiers you never hear about is how did they do the year after all those kids graduated? How did they do the next 10 years? 1. Limited pool of kids to choose from 2. Limited access to open mats and other competitors. (our closest would be :30 hour- :45 minutes away) 3. Limited competition opportunities. 4. The best athletes in the school are pulled between 3 different sports. 5. Limited resources. 6. This is not a wealthy community, families cant spend hundreds of dollars to send kids to camps and trips. There are so many more disadvantages as compared to metro city schools. These not only affect the team aspect but they also affect the individuals. These are not excuses, these are facts. 2 years ago we win Regionals this season we send no one to Regionals. Coaching hasnt changed, size hasnt changed...the difference is a large group of seniors graduate and now we have to rebuild. If a kid quits on our team we have a ff, if a kid gets injured we have a ff. Other schools have 30+ kids that they reload with, small schools dont have that luxury.