WaltHarris

I am all for having more northern FS/GR tournaments! But that won't happen this year. It's too late for folks to schedule them at this point. All that we have done here is put the kids behind the eight-ball and eliminated most northern Indiana kids from not only wrestling in FS/GR State, but also eliminated most northern Indiana kids from being on Team Indiana at Fargo. The Team Indiana roster this summer will look like an All-Star list from the Indianapolis area because almost no one from northern Indiana will be able to wrestle at State and get those coveted slots. If the ISWA wanted to make a big public announcement in the fall about this new requirement then it might work. It would give clubs and kids time to plan. But to spring this upon people in February when there are no other options in the north is unreasonable in my estimation.

And it's not just Middle School Duals. If a kid in northern Indiana has any kind of a conflict with Penn on March 28 or Huntington North on April 18, then the ISWA won't allow them to wrestle at FS/GR State. If a kid has to take the SAT on one of those Saturdays, or has a brother getting married, or has an unexpected funeral to attend, or has family trip, or has a track meet on March 28 or April 18 in northern Indiana, then they cannot wrestle at FS/GR State. Like the idea. I'm a huge proponent for FS/GR. But this doesn't work.

I like the idea in principal, but in practice what the ISWA just said is "No wrestler from northern Indiana will be allowed to wrestle at Freestyle or Greco State!" Let me explain why. There are only two FS/GR events in the northern half of Indiana this year. Penn on March 28 and Iron Eagle (Huntington North) on April 18. If a wrestler places 1st or 2nd at Middle School State in a couple weeks, then they qualify to wrestle on the ISWA Middle School duals team on March 28 at Danville, IL in the USA Wrestling Middle School Duals. This means any kid on the MS ISWA team cannot go to Penn for FS/GR. The ISWA 2 event qualifier will have the exact opposite impact then what they hope for. It's going to decrease FS/GR participation even further. Any wrestler from northern Indiana will essentially need to drive 2-3 hours to Indy on a couple separate occasions to get 2 FS tournaments. Heck, even if you live in northern Indiana, Huntington can still be three hours from you. This is simply totally impractical and will hurt us even more. I hope the ISWA changes this swiftly.

Well, that depends on one's perspective. I have not read the current casebook in years, but I have been told the casebook today states something along the lines that once the wrestlers leave the mat area, the decision is final. An official cannot go back three weight classes later and reverse a call. Imop, we would have chaos if that was the case. However, back in 1990, I can't recall any rule to prevent an official from changing a decision 20 minutes later, which is exactly what he did.

This TF issue cuts deep for me. It reflects one of the most outrageous wrestling situations I’ve ever witnessed. It occurred over twenty years ago and it still bothers me today. Imop, it just seems totally unfair that a wrestler can be on the mat and NOT have a chance to win; yet that is exactly what happens with the TF defensive pin rule. Sectional championship match around 1990. The Tech Fall had only been existence a few years. And not all the rules were flushed around the TF. My 145 lbs wrestlers is losing 15-1 and about to get Tech Falled by the opponent. The opponent leans back too far and pins himself while near fall is being counted. Official calls and defensive fall and my 145 lbs wrester wins, gets his hand raised and walks off the mat and signs the bout card. After the 152 match, the opponent’s coach complains to the official and states the 2 pt near fall was earned but not awarded, so really the match was 17-1 and his kid should have won. Both of coaches and the official talk throughout the 152 match about the situation. 152 match ends and they had out the awards to my 145 wrestler and the other place winners. Then the official in question goes out and officiates the 160 match. After the 160 match and another set of awards, the 171 lbs kids are on the mat about to start. The official then calls both us coaches on the mat and orders us to bring back both 145 wrestlers. My wrestler had already showered and was dressed in street clothes. Once both 145 kids are back on the mat in street clothes, the official raises the opponent’s hand and just says you lost to my wrestler. Then the official takes the first place ribbon and plaquer from my wrestler. Official goes over to the table and changes the bout card. Then the official changes the plaque with a marker.

Why not just contact the Blubaugh's and see if Doug's old barn is available? If the kids are going to wrestle where animals defecate, at least we can do it in an Olympians barn that actually does hold some actual history.

I am sorry, but the Poopsie Collosium is a horrific venue for ANY athletic event. This is a really sorry deal. The number one issue is that fans cannot see multiple mats. This is taking a rusty, dull hacksaw to one's own kneecap. It is inexplicable.

Ancient wrestling was fake too: Document shows match was fixed LiveScience Published April 17, 2014 Who says only modern-day pro wrestling is fake? Researchers have deciphered a Greek document that shows an ancient wrestling match was fixed. The document, which has a date on it that corresponds to the year A.D. 267, is a contract between two teenagers who had reached the final bout of a prestigious series of games in Egypt. This is the first time that a written contract between two athletes to fix a match has been found from the ancient world. In the contract, the father of a wrestler named Nicantinous agrees to pay a bribe to the guarantors (likely the trainers) of another wrestler named Demetrius. Both wrestlers were set to compete in the final wrestling match of the 138th Great Antinoeia, an important series of regional games held along with a religious festival in Antinopolis, in Egypt. They were in the boys' division, which was generally reserved for teenagers. [in Photos: Gladiators of the Roman Empire] The contract stipulates that Demetrius "when competing in the competition for the boy [wrestlers], to fall three times and yield," and in return would receive "three thousand eight hundred drachmas of silver of old coinage " There were no pins in this Greek style of wrestling, and the goal of the wrestlers was to throw the other to the ground three times. A wide array of holds and throws were used, a few of which look a bit like a body slam. The contract includes a clause that Demetrius is still to be paid if the judges realize the match is fixed and refuse to reward Nicantinous the win. If "the crown is reserved as sacred, (we) are not to institute proceedings against him about these things," the contract reads. It also says that if Demetrius reneges on the deal, and wins the match anyway, then "you are of necessity to pay as penalty to my [same] son on account of wrongdoing three talents of silver of old coinage without any delay or inventive argument." The translator of the text, Dominic Rathbone, a professor at King's College London, noted that 3,800 drachma was a relatively small amount of money about enough to buy a donkey, according to another papyrus. Moreover, the large sum Demetrius would forfeit if he were to back out of the deal suggests his trainers would have been paid additional money Rathbone said. The match fixing took place at an event honoring Antinous, the deceased male lover of the Emperor Hadrian (reign A.D. 117-138). After Antinous drowned in the Nile River nearby, the town of Antinopolis was founded in his honor, and he became a god, and statues of him were found throughout the Roman Empire. [Photos: The Secret Passageways of Hadrian's Villa] The games had been going on for more than a century by the time this contract was created, and brought benefits for the people of Antinopolis. For instance, "You get the visitors; you get the crowd; you get the trade; you get the prestige," Rathbone told Live Science. The contract was found at Oxyrhynchus, in Egypt, more than a century ago by an expedition led by archaeologists Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt. It was translated for the first time by Rathbone and published in the most recent volume of The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, an ongoing series that publishes papyri from this site. The transcription of the text was done by John Rea, a now-retired lecturer at the University of Oxford and Rathbone did the translation. The Egypt Exploration Society owns more than 500,000 papyrus fragments from this site, and they are now kept at the Sackler Library at Oxford. Why offer a bribe? In the modern world, scandals involving bribes to athletes, or athletic officials, often revolve around gambling or attempts to reward a medal to athletes from a particular country. The winners of ancient games would sometimes be paid sizable amounts of money, or receive lifetime pensions from their hometown, Rathbone said. However, he noted, there was no prize at all for coming in second. "In ancient competitions, coming first is the one and only thing no silver, no bronze," Rathbone said. Additionally, the cost of training athletes was considerable. Athletes from wealthy families could pay their own way, but athletes from less-well-off backgrounds could find themselves in debt to their trainers. "The trainer is going to pay for your food, your accommodations and so on for your training, so you end up in debt to him," Rathbone said. In this winner-takes-all situation, both sides may have decided to curb their risks by making a deal to fix the match, Rathbone said. "If you were confident you would win, normally you would go for it," he said. "If you're not sure you would win, maybe you're cutting your risk by saying, 'At least I get the bribe,'" Rathbone said. Why write up a contract? But researchers still wonder, why did the guarantors for the athletes create a written contract recording the agreement? "That's the really bizarre thing; isn't it?" Rathbone said, noting that if either side reneged on the deal, it would be hard to take the matter to court. He has also noted oddities in the way the contract was drawn up. "It doesn't look as though they've actually gone as far as getting a scribe with legal knowledge to do this for them, which makes you wonder if it's a bit of an empty thing," Rathbone said. "It's not really likely that either side is going to [seek recourse] if the other defaults." Although this is the only known contract recording a bribe between ancient athletes, there are references in ancient sources indicating that bribery in athletic competitions was not unusual. By the time of the Roman empire, bribery in athletic competitions was getting more prevalent as the events became more lucrative, Rathbone said. "There are sources [indicating] that things had got a bit worse in the Roman Empire when there were more games and when there were more financial rewards, particularly these municipal pensions," Rathbone said. These pensions consisted of payments that an athlete's hometown awarded to winners and could continue for the rest of their life.

This week, USA Wrestling held its annual “Let’s Shoot Ourselves In The Foot Tournament” also known as Folkstyle Nationals. Call me old and out of touch. Fine. But I can’t help think USAW is just being so reckless. Why would an organization that is supposed to promote Freestyle and Greco schedule a national folkstyle championship right in the middle of FS/GR season? Do they just not want us to be competitive as a nation anymore in FS/GR? Or is it USAW just loves the boo-ya’s money so much they can’t help themselves? Yeah, I get it. FS/GR ain’t ‘merican enough for the boo-ya’s. Hence, we must have two major folkstyle tournaments this weekend, with the other being Flonationals. FS/GR came from the Europeans and Russian, so it must be the tool of Satan for ‘mericans. Look, I don’t hate folkstyle. But I do want us to keep kids developing in FS/GR because it makes them more well-rounded wrestlers.

The Race to Nowhere in Youth Sports Posted In Coaching, Problems in Youth Sports, Sports Parenting http://changingthegameproject.com/the-race-to-nowhere-in-youth-sports/ “My 4th grader tried to play basketball and soccer last year,” a mom recently told me as we sat around the dinner table after one of my speaking engagements. “It was a nightmare. My son kept getting yelled at by both coaches as we left one game early to race to a game in the other sport. He hated it.” “I know,” said another. “My 10 year old daughter’s soccer coach told her she had to pick one sport, and start doing additional private training on the side, or he would give away her spot on the team.” So goes the all too common narrative for American youth these days, an adult driven, hyper competitive race to the top in both academics and athletics that serves the needs of the adults, but rarely the kids. As movies such as “The Race to Nowhere” and recent articles such as this one from the Washington Post point out, while the race has a few winners, the course is littered with the scarred psyches of its participants. We have a generation of children that have been pushed to achieve parental dreams instead of their own, and prodded to do more, more, more and better, better, better. The pressure and anxiety is stealing one thing our kids will never get back; their childhood. The movie and article mentioned above, as well as the book The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids, highlight the dangerous path we have led our children down in academics. We are leading them down a similar path in sports as well. Empty benchThe path is a race to nowhere, and it does not produce better athletes. It produces bitter athletes who get hurt, burnout, and quit sports altogether. As I said to my wife recently, the hardest thing about raising two kids these days, when it comes to sports, is that the vast majority of the parents are leading their kids down the wrong path, but not intentionally or because they want to harm their kids. They love their kids, but the social pressure to follow that path is incredible. Even though my wife and I were collegiate athletes, and I spend everyday reading the research, and studying the latest science on the subject, the pressure is immense. The social pressure is like having a conversation with a pathological liar; he is so good at lying that even when you know the truth, you start to doubt it. Yet that is the sport path many parents are following. The reason? FEAR! We are so scared that if we do not have our child specialize, if we do not get the extra coaching, or give up our entire family life for youth sports, our child will get left behind. Even though nearly every single parent I speak to tells me that in their gut they have this feeling that running their child ragged is not helpful, they do not see an alternative. Another kid will take his place. He won’t get to play for the best coach. “I know he wants to go on the family camping trip,” they say, “but he will just have to miss it again, or the other kids will get ahead of him.” This system sucks. It sucks for parents, many of whom do not have the time and resources to keep one child in such a system, never mind multiple athletes. There are no more family trips or dinners, no time or money to take a vacation. It causes parents untold stress and anxiety, as they are made to feel guilty by coaches and their peers if they don’t step in line with everyone else. “You are cheating your kid out of a scholarship” they are told, “They may never get this chance again.” It sucks for coaches who want to develop athletes for long term excellence, instead of short term success. The best coaches used to be able to develop not only better athletes, but better people, yet it is getting hard to be that type of coach. There are so many coaches who have walked away from sports because while they encourage kids to play multiple sports, other unscrupulous coaches scoop those kids up, and tell them “if you really want to be a player, you need to play one sport year round. That other club is short changing your kid, they are not competitive.” The coach who does it right gives his kids a season off, and next thing you know he no longer has a team. And yes, most importantly, it sucks for the kids. Any sports scientist or psychologist will tell you that in order to pursue any achievement activity for the long term, children need ownership, enjoyment and intrinsic motivation. Without these three things, an athlete is very likely to quit. Children need first and foremost to enjoy their sport. This is the essence of being a child. Kids are focused in the present, and do not think of long term goals and ***NO NO NO***ions. But adults do. They see “the opportunities I never had” or “the coaching I wish I had” as they push their kids to their goals and not those of the kids. They forget to give their kids the one thing they did have: A CHILDHOOD! They forget to give them the ability to find things they are passionate about, instead of choosing for them. They forget that a far different path worked pretty darn well for them. So why this massive movement, one that defies all science and psychology, to change it? We need to wise up and find a better path. Parents, start demanding sports clubs and coaches that allow your kids to participate in many sports. You are the customers, you are paying the bills, so you might as well start buying a product worth paying for. You have science on your side, and you have Long Term Athletic Development best practices on your side. Your kids do not deserve or need participation medals and trophies, as some of you are so fond of saying, but they do deserve a better, more diverse youth sports experience. Coaches, you need to wise up as well. You are the gatekeepers of youth sports, the people whom play God, and decide who gets in, and who is kicked to the curb. You know the incredible influence of sport in your life, so stop denying it to so many others. Are you so worried about your coaching ability, or about the quality of the sport you love, to think that if you do not force kids to commit early they will leave? Please realize that if you are an amazing coach with your priorities in order, and you teach a beautiful game well, that kids will flock to you in droves, not because they have to, but because they want to! Every time you ask a 9 year old to choose one sport over another you are diminishing participation in the sport you love by 50%. WHY? To change this we must overcome the fear, the guilt and the shame. We are not bad parents if our kids don’t get into Harvard, and we are not bad parents if they do not get a scholarship to play sports in college. We should not feel shame or guilt every time our kid does not keep up with the Jones’s, because, when it comes to sports, the Jones’s are wrong. As this recent article from USA Lacrosse stated, college coaches are actually looking to multi sport athletes in recruiting. Why? Because they have an upside, they are better all around athletes, they are not done developing, and they are less likely to burnout. You cannot make a kid into something she is not by forcing them into a sport at a very young age, and pursuing your goals and not your child’s goals. Things like motivation, grit, genetics and enjoyment have too much say in the matter. What you can do, though, is rob a child of the opportunity to be a child, to play freely, to explore sports of interest, to learn to love sports and become active for life. Chances are great that your children will be done with sports by high school, as only a select few play in college and beyond. Even the elite players are done at an age when they have over half their life ahead of them. It is not athletic ability, but the lessons learned from sport that need to last a lifetime. Why not expose them to as many of those lifelong lessons as possible? Why not take a stand? Why don’t we stop being sheep, following the other sheep down a road to nowhere that both science and common sense tells us often ends badly? It is time to stop being scared, and stand up for your kids. Read a book on the subject, pass on this article to likeminded people, bring in a speaker to your club and school, but do something to galvanize people to act. There are more of us who want to do right by the kids than there are those whose egos and wallets have created our current path. We have just been too quite for too long. We have been afraid to speak up, and afraid to take a stand. We are far too willing to throw away our child’s present for some ill fated quest for a better future that rarely materializes, and is often filled with so much baggage that we would never wish for such a future for our kids. If you think your child will thank you for that, then you probably stopped reading while ago. But if you want to get off the road to nowhere in youth sports, and to stop feeling guilty about it, then please know you are not alone. Our voice is growing stronger everyday. We can create a new reality, with new expectations that put the athletes first. We can put our children on a road to somewhere, one paved with balanced childhoods, exploration, enjoyment, and yes, multiple sports. Someday our kids will thank us. - See more at: http://changingthegameproject.com/the-race-to-nowhere-in-youth-sports/#sthash.RbsiVImN.dpuf

Sorry, Shakmak. Did Fairmount (James Dean's old high school)? By "Tri", do you mean Tri-Central?

Does Shackamack have wrestling? Indiana school for Blind Deaf had a state qualifier, Y2?

I recall at least one from Howe Military Academy many years ago. Sorry, can't remember the boy's name. I don't have the Howe data to share. Just an old man's fading memory. I cannot recall any state qualifiers from these schools: Dugger, now Union City Lalamere Academy (no longer has wrestling) Michigan City Marquette Catholic ( no longer ha wrestling) Rising Sun Knox North Judson Central Noble

In another thread, Y2 mentioned that there are a number of Indiana schools who have never had a state qualifier. I found that a quite interesting. I've just never thought of that before. It shows how many of us simply take a state qualifier for granted. What schools in Indiana have yet to have a state qualifier?

I thought Tommy Forte showed a lot of class after the championship. Many have discussed the displays of poor sportsmanship by some wrestlers. The gloating. Or the stomping and gear tossing. It is not often two returning state champions wrestle for a second title against each other. Tommy showed a lot of class in the dignified way he handled himself in a heartbreaking situation for the kid. I don't know Tommy Forte. However, I always thought he was an excellent wrestler. I now also realize he (and the parents who raised him) are excellent human beings.

An incredible career for Cody! No doubt about it.

Wrestlers, soon your season and perhaps career will end. You may feel embarrassed you lost at regionals or semistate. You will even feel anger that someone else gets the ‘glory’ of being of being a state champion. Don’t be angry. Pity them. I have been involved with Indiana wrestling since the 50s as a kid. Most state champions have quite average lives after high school. Not all, but most. That doesn’t mean they are bad people. Rather that being a state champ at 17 was the only real highlight of their life. The most successful former wrestlers I know are kids who lost in the regional and semistate. The reason is those guys never stopped wrestling, at least in a mental way. They carried that mentality into adulthood. I know almost every state champion the last half century from my area of the state. A few are in prison. Most though are decent men. Nearly all of them are guys like myself (I wasn’t a champion) who lead very middle of the road lives. The former wrestlers I see and know who are saving people’s lives as doctors, are leaders in the community, make real differences in young people’s lives, are lofty income earners, are innovators, major business owners and high achievers… those folks are wrestles I saw lose their senior year in regionals or semistate. It is extraordinarily challenging to comprehend this as a high school wrestler, but will become plain as day when you are much older. Trust me.

Be careful how you store wrestling mats. Even for a single night. Parents want feds to probe Georgia teen's death in freak gym mat accident Published September 05, 2013 The parents of a south Georgia teen found dead inside a rolled-up wrestling mat in a high school gym want federal authorities to reopen a case that had been declared an accident, the family's attorney said Wednesday. Sheriff's investigators had decided after months of investigation that 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson died in a freak accident after he was found stuck upside down Jan. 11 in the rolled-up mat, which was propped upright behind bleachers at his Valdosta high school. Family attorney Chevene King said Wednesday that a new autopsy by a private pathologist has concluded the boy died from an apparently non-accidental blow to the neck. Johnson's parents had reported the teen missing when he didn't return from school Jan. 10. Sheriff Chris Prine in Lowndes County has previously said he suspected Johnson became trapped while trying to retrieve a shoe that fell into the center of the large rolled mat. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation medical examiner concluded the youth died from positional asphyxia, his body stuck in a position in which he couldn't breathe. But the teen's parents, Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson, hired Dr. William R. Anderson to provide a second opinion after a judge agreed in May to exhume the body. The pathologist performed his own autopsy in June and presented a four-page report of his findings Aug. 15. Anderson's report said he detected hemorrhaging on the right side of Johnson's neck. The pathologist concluded the teenager had died from blunt force trauma near his carotid artery and that the fatal blow appeared to be "non-accidental." King said the findings appear consistent with a possible assault. Anastasia Roe, the teen's aunt, said at the time of his death that her nephew was a good student who ran track and played football. She said he was the life of the party, but reserved when he met new people. She said information that the family received from the school and the sheriff's office about how the teen was found was inconsistent, and that lead to some in the community to ask questions. "First we heard he was on the floor near the mat, then we hear he was wrapped in the mat," she said. "It's suspicious." The parents' attorney also said copies of the autopsy's findings had been sent to local authorities and to the U.S. attorney for Georgia's middle district and the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. GBI spokeswoman Sherry Lang said the agency stands by the findings of its initial autopsy but declined comment on specifics. The sheriff's office did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. King said Johnson's family doesn't expect either one to take an objective second look at the case. "We have really no recourse but to see whether or not the Justice Department or U.S. attorney's office would come in and reopen the investigation," King said. The Justice Department said in an emailed statement Wednesday it had reviewed the file of the state investigation of Johnson's death and "we do not see sufficient indication of a civil rights violation to authorize a civil rights investigation." However, the Justice Department said it was working with U.S. Attorney Michael Moore in Macon and "his office is continuing to monitor and evaluate this matter including the second autopsy report." The sheriff and his detectives spent nearly four months investigating Johnson's death before closing the case in early May. They said school security camera footage showed Johnson walk into the gym by himself at 1:09 p.m. on Jan. 10, the day before his body was found. There was a gym class afterward and basketball practice in the gym that evening. Nobody found Johnson's body until the next morning. The sheriff told The Valdosta Daily Times on May 3 that students who didn't have lockers kept personal belongings such as gym shoes on top of rolled-up wrestling mats left propped up behind the gym bleachers. Investigators found some of Johnson's books and one tennis shoe near the body and believe they tumbled from atop the mat when a gym coach frantically pulled it over trying to free Johnson after students spotted his feet. "We did everything we knew to do, and this is a tragic accident," Prine told the newspaper in May. "But that's all it was -- an accident." However, Prine also acknowledged in the same interview he waited to call the county coroner immediately, as required by Georgia law, because he feared the death would be leaked to the news media. And King said paramedics who saw body noted in a report that they spotted bruising along the right side of his neck, a detail he says authorities never explained. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/05/parents-want-feds-to-probe-georgia-teen-death-in-freak-gym-mat-accident/#ixzz2e1UpnS2X

Most importantly, the wrestling community has to collaboratively have the highest standards at our State events. I saw some pitiful displays of immaturity at Avon, especially by parents. ISWA has really cracked down over the years on abuse, tabbacco, aggressive behavior and baiting. I salute the ISWA for that. However, all of us coaches, parents, grandparents also need to hold those around us in the stands accountable. There was an incident where a parent came downstairs out of the stands in the main gym and berate a group of refs for probably 2 minutes. The guy was clueless (shouting folkstyle rules about stalling and locking hands) at the refs after a freestyle match his son lost. (Imop, this is another byproduct of the lack of attendance at local tourneys.) The same guy came back on the floor a couple minutes later accusing the refs of intentionally throwing the match against his son. It was lunacy at its apex. The kind of lunacy that makes you want to have a metal detector at the door. This guy looked normal, but the second he opened his mouth everyone on that gym floor could tell he was a scary nutcase. Later, a parent #1 in the coach’s box talk smack during and after a Novice match to the coach in the opposing corner. The guy was clearly gloating about his kid winning. Btw, his kid did not even end up placing. A fellow coach on the same team tried to get parent #1 to calm down but the guy insisted on being an arse to the point of say stuff as he walked away. He yelled, “He kicked your boy’s arse, I told you all he’d kick your arse!” Keep in mind, these were roughly ten year olds. There was also an incident where a parent of a schoolboy yelled repeatedly from the stands at the kids opponent, “We got your number. You will never beat ABCD again cause we got your number.” When other adults seated in the stands around him gave unfavorable looks for the poor sportsmanship, the parent said to us, “I don’t care what the f#@$ you think. ABCD is a national champion.” Keep in mind, this was the 5/6 place match. Go figure. Then the same parent started up again with his aggressive baiting of the probably 13 year old schoolboy. It was very frustrating to watch. ISWA and Avon did the best they could at the event. I just think the rest of us need to really be more quick to report to the police or ISWA when we see this type of behavior.

Love the ‘State Championship Mat’ for the finals. However, things just get too backed up. If possible, it would be nice to have another second mat with a video camera also for finals matches. There were many kids who just didn’t know how to wrestle freestyle or Greco. More than I have ever seen. And I have been attending ISWA state since the beginning in the 80s. So many matches took longer because refs were having to instruct even high school age kids how to line up or provided detailed explanation of a call. Imop, the reason kids don’t understand freestyle or Greco is because they are not attending local tournaments. They are going out of state for folkstyle. I am not complaining about that, simply stating an opinion. Oddly, the numbers were up at State this year for freestyle and Greco. I think either freestyle and Greco are going to become nearly extinct like the minor style of Sambo, or creative people are going to have to find a way to get more kids wrestling in local tournaments.

The people from Avon did a great job. I think Avon parents, coaches and wrestlers all were a classy bunch. They did their best with some challenging situations. I salute the ISWA pairings staff for trying something different with the staggered start times. It did not work out. I am not sure why. Other states seems to have it work for them. But I am so HAPPY to see the ISWA break out of the old model and try something new. I’m sure plenty of lessons were learned for improvement for the next time. Mark Mundy does a great job running those officials for ISWA. There are many kids who will never know Mark, but old timers like me have watched that guy for forever sacrificing his own time, money and effort. Mark is about as genuinely good as they come.

One can put a bow on a turd. It's still a turd.

I think many of us who have been and will be involved with wrestling our entire life look at the good of the sport overall. The suggestions we make are based on the overall good of the wrestling community. The problem is we consistently have wrestling short timers with extraordinarily loud voices. These are many overzealous parents masquerading as coaches. They come into the sport of wrestling for ten years while their kid is involved and then leave. They have no interest in the overall sport of wrestling. They only want personal glory for their kid… the rest of the wrestling world be damned. Who cares about that local tourney, right? Screw those local people, my kid needs National attention!!!! It is a level of narcissism that most wrestling lifers are unaccustomed to dealing with because it is the antithesis of the unselfish nature of so many wrestling lifers who are coaches, officials and volunteers.

I am friends with a young man (young compared to me) named Chris who is 45 years old. He has two boys. Chris is financially successful. Chris only played high school football two seasons. As long as I’ve known Chris (about a decade) he has been crazy about football. Chris is the most convinced and determined parent I have ever met who believes his boys will be professional football players. Despite his lack of knowledge or relatively marginal experience with personally playing football, Chris believes he knows exactly how to build his two sons into football par excellence. He takes his sons all over the country, all year long, to attend ‘professional’ football camps like this one run by the Dallas Cowboys: https://www.footballcamps.com/default.asp?page=00 His boys probably don’t go more than 2-3 weeks without attending some kind of camp put on by some former Pro-Bowl person. Chris takes them to special academies for special training consistently. He home schools them which allows great freedom. Here is one academy they have attended: http://www.testfootballacademy.com/hs_youth_football_training.html Nothing like training a 13 year old for the NFL combine. Having watched his sons for years, I would be willing to bet a very large sum they will not be pro football players. Ever. Not even if the XFL was resurrected. My point: wrestling has now reached the same point that tennis and several other sports have. Without money, you might be screwed. And with money, a person can do plenty of damage to the sporty by inadvertently existing under false pretenses.

We also need to ask ourselves what will the future of wrestling be? Not in terms of fs, gr, folk, or some mma alternative. But in terms of what kind of kids will be able to find success. Will we be like tennis where only the children of the privilege has the resources to travel out of state or be in a famous academy can succeed? The destruction of the local tourney will only widen the gap.