RASSLER4LIFE

As many of you know Shenandoah lost a wrestler last year to mental illness. In his honor a scholarship was started thru our local community foundation. To reach our target so that his scholarship is self-sustaining we are having a 5K race in his name. We are using this platform to help put an end to the stigma against mental illness and to shed light on this subject so that another family doesn't have to endure such a tragedy. The race will be September 24th in New Castle. If you are interested in more info please feel free to reach out to me on here or possibly thru "Levi Black's Legacy" page on Facebook. Here is a link to sign up as well: http://www.signmeup.com/115565. Thank you!

Need a 102 and a 220 still.

Still looking!!

We are still in need of a 102 and a 220 for these duals. Should get 7-8 duals. PM me if interested!!

Looks like we are only in need of a 102 and a 220.

Do to some injuries and some last minute pull outs we are also in need of 102 & 185 lbers as well! Competitively fielded team looking to gain experience hit one of us by message on here. Thanks

Jacob Gray is nursing an injury.

There are so many factors that can deter kids from making some of the trips. Cost, location and shortened summer breaks all play a part in a kids choice, not including competing against other sports, baseball games and football camps going on plus the fact that freestyle and Greco seem to be dying in Indiana. Let's look at a choice between your high school team going to Disney versus the Jr Team Indiana going Oklahoma. Most are going to choose Disney with their friends and high school teammates over Oklahoma. I know I would. If the family chooses to go to Disney they can extend it a few days and enjoy vacation as well. The freestyle season in Indiana has taken a backseat to national folkstyle tournaments, whether individual or team. We did our 2 qualifiers and wrestled a total of 3 times spending $30 for entry fees, plus gas, food and gate fees driving over 200+ miles. In my mind the cost versus the reward wasn't worth the money, then we get to state and spend $35 plus all the above mentioned fees to not wrestle at all. It had been a few years since we had wrestled much freestyle so with the vast experience we gained in the 3 tournaments that we wrestled in(sarcasm) and the cost of team Indiana we opted to go to the Va Beach tournamnent, hit several local folkstyle summer duals with our high school team, will wrestle at the Grand River Rumble coming up in July plus camp at the end of June and spend just a little more than the cost of team Indiana. Kind of an easy decision in my house.

Outlaws Black wrestled tonight at 8 and won so they stay alive in the championship bracket.

Good ones!

I have to agree with Y2 on this. We have a young wrestler that is going to Iowa back to back weekends then to Illinois for the middle school duals starting on March 25th thru April 10th weekend. That being said that leaves him two dates that are fairly close to his home to get the freestyle tournaments in(within an hour and a half). That will give him one weekend off not including this coming weekend between now and freestyle state.We will try to petition for a waiver either way and hope common sense prevails.

I know that one match was labeled wrong, can't remember exact score but Black beat Hinderliter by 13-1 or so. Major but not a fall.

I can live with that!!

Yea, people going along with the 'new crowd'.

Going along with the crowd doesn't always make it the right choice.

It looks as this statistical document doesn't take into the account for juco's or NAIA wrestling. That might be where the other 1 percent comes from.

Y2, I am not saying that at all about those wrestlers so please don't put words in my mouth. At a small school, our program is growing but it is centered around a class, it will have many more peaks and valleys than a larger school thru out the years. We are strengthening our schedule little by little but not everyone on our team can compete at that high level. We are very young and if we continue to develop on the mat, stay together and hungry, I like our chances. We have wrestlers that compete outside our state and we will continue to support them in their effort. Not all can afford to travel outside our state to hit national tournaments and our club doesn't have enough financial support to offset some of those costs. Mine personally wrestled in Pa, Ohio, Ky, Illinois, Michigan and Va Beach and have been to "big time camps". We will compete and we will have more state qualifiers in the near future so hopefully our program continues to flourish. I think the class team state is great, I am really excited to compete in it. If we are lucky enough to place top 2 or 3, I think we will add several young athletes into our fold. Our future is bright as we are moving in the right direction.

Y2, we had a pep session and paraded our qualifier thru the halls this year with the band playing and all for his departure. We hope that it draws more interest in our sport, we hope having the opportunity to compete in the IHSWCA State duals adds to that interest as well. I just want mine to compete against everybody, one class, best of the best, that's me. I want our sport to grow, believe me. I beg kids to try it at the Jr high level, even while my oldest was at New Castle, bball was always king. I have been involved in wrestling since I was 12 years old minus a few years in my early 20s. I even officiated a couple of years to give back to the sport I love. Wrestling needs more love on a national level, TV exposure on channels like ESPN, it needs to be more fan friendly, college riding time can be confusing to a novice fan and the international styles are even worse. If you have to watch video to determine a winner, how can a novice fan keep up? Football is on fire, fan interest is at an all time high thus driving the interest up even at the local levels. Football has been classed most of my life so I know no different. I do realize a large school will stand a better chance of building a 6'4" 300lb line easier than a small school and have multiple athletes that run 4.5 40's. We would be lucky to produce one a decade, but you don't have to be an outstanding athlete to be a great wrestler.

Here is the cliff notes version since you must be new to the conversation. I have coached at a small school and a big school, they are worlds apart in many facets of athletics. On top of that I believe wrestling would grow at the small school level where it looks to be dying. We've had this discussion before, so no cliff notes version needed. Wrestling is an individual sport, something the IHSAA has agreed upon. In many facets, I agree that small schools and big schools vary, just the sheer numbers game alone sets that apart. I mean a school of 1500+ students should definitely be able to field a squad of 14 wrestlers but a student body of say 400 students, some of the kids that might be wrestlers at your school are now basketball players. So classing wrestling will not bring that basketball player over to wrestling. The sport is tough, practices are tough. You are gonna have an easier time finding 14 kids out if 1500 that can withstand those conditions, a school of 400 may not. So therefore do I soften practice to get 14 kids of different weight to fill a full team. Not gonna happen for my team. I would rather have 8 that will withstand those conditions and compete hard no matter who is in front of us. States with classes wrestling are battling the same issues we are. The sport is losing numbers period. Country wide not just Indiana. If class is the cure all to better sports then once basketball classed we would have seen a rise in attendance not less, our state would be producing even more NBA players. If a kid is really good at wrestling will he leave a small school, AKA transfer? I would likely send mine elsewhere and not keep him at a small school. it happens in basketball now. I just don't believe that classing the sport is the cure all.

Not trying to make it personal, just don't understand why you want class so desperately.

Yes Carroll, a school with over 2000+ students. Correct?

By the way Y2, since your school is a 2A in your proposed "class system", how many state qualifiers did you have this season in a one class system? I just can't figure out why you want a class system so bad.

I just want to give a big shout out to Alston Bane and all the wrestlers from Cathedral at state tonight. The Cathedral wrestlers and Alston paid tribute to my late son, who passed away in November. The Cathedral wrestlers wore green laces in their shoes, the green is to show support for mental health awareness and Alston wore green in his hair and on honored him on his warm-ups. I can't thank these young men enough for their show of support. It is much appreciated. Thanks again!

Look in the tournament section of the forum. There are already 2 listed. One in Mt Vernon and one in Oakland City, both in Indiana.

Can we expect updates today sometime or more than likely will it be tomorrow?