GMSCoach

Couldn't think of a better team to bring in for the finale! Thanks Hobart!

"Bad teams" that can't fill all weight classes...does that make them a BAD team...they may have quality guys without a full roster.

Underwood will be wrestling for Coach Maldonado at Calumet College in Whiting, Indiana

Money

Money plays a big part.....overnight stay is what hurt us. We loved coming because it was great competition but our school isn't exactly willing to bleed money. On the other hand team state we coulda swung the school to financially back lol 

eyyyyy good idea! 

Ready to leave for a tourney...kid went down to the locker room showers to...uh...shower...locked him in there..BY MISTAKE!...set the alarm and left...not noticing...figure he is one of the bundled up at the back of the bus...wrong guy....team swears he is there....we leave.  He gets out...setting off alarms...calls us and says "I can drive and meet you there" we say "AWESOME...see you there"...meanwhile...room is locked...can't get his shoes or anything else including car keys.  We left a semi state qualifier locked IN the shower...THEN locked OUT of the room.  Needless to say...he had a pretty good excuse for missing weigh-ins.
 
 

Gonna lift........

No 6a teams have played yet. So.... not quite half.

Here's mine (last year when I did HS)
 
3:30 - 5:30/6 HS everyday
Club Youth - 6:00 - 7:30 2-3 days a week
Saturday HS super duals, etc
Sunday Youth Tourney
 
This year I'm doing MS so it has left me w/ Saturdays open but later weeknights b/c of Jr High Duals. We wrestle 2 duals a week, usually Tues/Thurs
 
 
So Mon/Wed/Fri Jr High practice 330 - 500, Duals on Tues Thurs, 
 
Youth practice on Wed and any open Tues I have, I still go to some HS on Saturdays, Youth on Sundays. And I find Double B mat time on Friday nights, either driving 30 - 45 minutes after MS practice or bringing in a few MS kids and one of our other Youth coaches to work with him. 
 
What's not built into those times are waiting for parents, writing newspaper articles, away matches, etc etc. 
 
Saturday making the 6 hour round trip drive to Evansville, Sunday the 7 hour round trip drive to New Castle.
 
And I commute 45-60 minutes one way to work everyday.
 
How the Mrs hasn't left me yet is beyond me!!!
 
My daughter asked me the other day why everything has to revolve around wrestling. I looked at her and said b/c I owe my life to wrestling and I owe everything that I have become as a man to this sport. I wouldn't change a thing! 
 
And Madison isn't even that good, I can't imagine what the better programs do. Well they probably have more than 3-4 people doing everything, but still.

This is quite a long post, so if you plan to go with the "too long; didn't read" choice, I respect your wishes.
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Joe Caprino, Mike Reiser, and especially Chad Hollenbaugh were making some great points near the end of the East Chicago Semistate Hangout  internet broadcast.  On one hand, they discussed the issue of many wrestlers from great teams coming into the semistate with double-digit losses.   As many know, those guys mentioned are wrestling brutal schedules, often against national level talent that prepares them for the rigors of the postseason.  So, it should come as no shock to see a few less higher winning percentages belonging to individual wrestlers at state.  Chad also alluded to coaching philosophy and discussed what the coaches from our best Region teams might have to do to get kids to peak at the right times, whether it is backing off a bit or leaner harder on particular kids.

When discussing Crown Point and the legacy of Coach Vlink, our IM team brought up how many thought they would fall off a bit this year, presumably through graduation losses.    However, they have been not only a solid team, but are getting their individuals through the postseason individual tourney and within striking distance of state.placements.    Apparently, their youth program has become a bedrock of sorts, but I want to ask how do coaches find the time and additional personnel needed to run a consistent youth program?

If I were guessing for the easiest answer, having strong alumni back in the room to pass along their knowledge and to be the benchmark makes the most sense.  The effect of giving back is seen prominently throughout the northern part of the state with the successes of programs such as Elkharts Central and Memorial, which are ran by alumni almost completely, and Prairie Heights, who also are fortunate enough to have many of their alumni as immediate family members or blood relatives of their current wrestlers.  

I can't speak for Crown Point, as I am not personally familiar with them and their routines, but one of the most important things I can recall from memory in my youth club years was the strong bonds that the parents had with one another, their kids and the kids of other parents in the club, and 100% support and trust of the coaches.    I was always traveling in some other parent's vehicle going to tournaments, as my own home situation did not come with the same support enjoyed by others on my team.    The parents on our team went along with our coaching staff's practice routines, schedule setting, and treatment of the kids as people.

Nevertheless, that unity allowed some of our club wrestlers to be competitive to a degree with some programs in our kids league that were turning out future NCAA champs and placers as well as Olympians.  However, the harm that a lack of togetherness brings reared its head in those times as well.  We had a head coaching change made at our club and some parents did not agree with it.  Infighting between supporters and detractors of the new head coach caused the team to splinter and for kids to seek other more stable clubs where they could thrive.  The same high school team that our club fed into went from having four complete strings of wrestlers (similar to what Penn has been fielding) to today failing to produce a fourteen-person roster.  Demographical and economic concerns factor in to a degree over a twenty-plus year time span, but they cannot be said to be solely representative causes for the team’s lack of numbers.

Several other region teams have great and knowledgeable coaches and a few dedicated wrestlers, but are struggling to field full squads for events and to prevent dwindling numbers as the season continues.   From my personal experience of helping coach a team, I would say that parent involvement past the point of rooting for their own kids or a teammate of their own kids is not happening in some places as it once did.  In fact, I have met parents who had rude and vulgar complaints for coaches coming out of the stands during events and ones who become offended if coaches dared to question why their kid is missing practices during the time school is in session and especially in the holiday season.  However, they refuse offers to come to practice themselves and contribute.  Others will not cooperate in getting physical forms in for their kids, even if offered financial assistance to do so.   

Conversely,  in other places where I have coached in recent times, some parents, perhaps even without kids on the team, would communicate with other team parents and feed kids on all-day Saturday meets.  This happened at a boarding school where these same parents would sometimes drive hours and hours to see our team wrestle, even if it was a single dual on a weeknight.  The Brownsburg people seem to be doing a lot of public relations work that is not often seen in wrestling.  Many other teams have booster club involvement, but that does not happen easily, as I have found out in the past.

What else can be done to help underachieving teams who want to be competitive get that way?
 

Our DAC bylaws state that only a dual that is wrestled first round of the tournament will be counted as a conference dual.  That is why we lost.  You will never hear an ounce of regret from the coaching staff or our kids, our job and goal is not to win DAC titles, it is to win State and National titles.  That is just what we signed up for.  And maybe that is arrogant, but that is us.

You got to LOVE that we will be interrupting basketball warm-ups, to celebrate WRESTLING.

It is all about work ethic.  If you are working year round on top of everything else you will be more successful.  If you only bust it for wrestling it is much more difficult.  I was fortunate to qualify for state my senior year being a seasonal wrestler (I wrestled year round until my freshman year).  I have thought about the added success summer work would've given me, but now as a coach it is a point that I am able to coach from and teach my kids what level of commitment is required to succeed at something.  I guess what I'm saying is that you can be a top dog either way, both require a tremendous amount of work and commitment, one way spreads it out over the year and the other condenses it into crazy madness and God given ability.  If I had to choose again, I would spread it out.

I can tell you that my oldest son used to be an in season wrestler only. He found success as a youth and middle school wrestler because of his athleticism but quickly realized his freshman year that it takes more than in season work to be successful. He nearly quit after his freshman year but decided that he'd do a little more in the spring and got a little better. His sophomore year, he began to get quite a bit better, but suffered a loss at semi state in a match he was winning with 17 seconds left. It was at that moment he decided to dedicate his offseason time to wrestling. He continued to play football because he loved the sport but replaced football camps with wrestling camps and competed in offseason tournaments. He made wrestling his focus and played football for fun. His Junior year was a turning point and he upset some guys to get 3rd at state. He made it his mission this past offseason to win a state title, but played football in the fall. It was really a nice mental break during the fall and he had a lot of fun with his friends.
 
The moral of the story is an athlete can compete in other sports, but if he/she wants to compete at the state level, he/she is going to have to put in some serious wrestling-focused work in the offseason.
 
To respond to your question: it's probably unlikely to expect to make it out of semi state as an in-season wrestler. The upper weights can be exceptions with a big, athletic kid, but generally speaking, semistate qualifier.