BeastMode#31

Robert Miller LN state champ ('93?) had the best headlock I've seen.

Awesome! Great job Tsirtsis.

wow. Thats a good tune!

I heard rumors Jeff Jordan is moving to coach at a rural Kentucky school next year. He was interviewed in Urbana just hours after winning another "mythical" state title. Rumor has it he chucked his state title into the trash and almost let out a curse word. He said, I'm not proud of ever being only 1/3 of a champion. When asked about his son Micky and his fourth state title, Jordan responded, "what a joke, Micky didn't get more than thirty two, or thirty three percent of the respect he deserved.  They may as well put up partitions in between the mats like some gosh darn truck stop restroom."

Jordan went on to say that he is tired of wasting his time training kids that don't have opportunities to win in real state tournaments. Rumor has it, he will move shop this year to Possum Trot, Ky and hire David Taylor as an assistant coach.

 

It has also been rumored that Jim Jordan will no longer be defending his seat in congress. He is tired of winning a "district" championship every election year. A non-classed Senate bid is likely in his future.

Kentucky is classed, right?

Maybe he should move to Indiana.

I know I am a broken record with this topic, but Gil Journey (Perry Meridian) was 3rd, 2nd, 2nd.

+1

Some other candidates; Randy Baker, Joey Strausburg, Vinny, Kieffer bros.

Ohio had 10,989 attendees for the first round of their watered down state finals.

 

There are people on their forums asking for tickets....must be rough in a watered down tournament without true champions.

According to the US Census Bureau;

Indiana population 6.537 million

Illionois population 12.88 million.

Besides having a USA card, what other fees/dues are involved at the RTCs? Curious about Perry, Warren, Southport, Beech Grove as I would like to take a few little guys to one of these places to get some mat time. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

Andrew Todd Indiana School for the Deaf 24-7 made it to semi state this year. Tough kid, but ran into Cornelius Elliott first round.

Not sure if they have had a SQ, though.

Dan Bedoy went to Noll, right? State runner- up a few years ago.

Great catches for UINDY. Coach Warthan has got the Hounds rolling with these two recruits and Crume last year.

Congrats to Kelley on a great season.

Hello everyone ... this is Kevin Whitehead, and I must tell you that I've gotten quite a kick out of this trip down memory lane just as you have. Interestingly, you've listed most of my favorites, as well. The TJ HAYS phenomenon was simply the perfect intersection of hot wrestler with a rabid (Belmont) fan base; a can't miss combination. Jankowski and the echo from the Mater Dei folks was much the same ... it just never created quite the "wall of sound" that we had with TJ. The best combinations come from multi-syllabic names with long vowel sounds ... that's why names like Escobedo, Maldonado, and Weinzapfel were (and are) so great to work with. Hard consonants like Js and Ks are also good. The "growling R" sound in Radnovich worked so well because it seemed to mirror DJ's on-mat personality. Beyond the fan participation favorites (Hays was #1; Jankowski was #2), I think my personal favorites have probably been Rico Talamantes and Demetrius Jackson. Over 33 years, I'm sure I'm somewhere in excess of 5000 different wrestler names called out now, and there have been MANY great ones. It's been my honor and my pleasure to be entrusted with the state finals microphone all that time. Glad you all have enjoyed the ride with me! THANKS!

Good stuff. Thanks for the memories!

Didn't you used to announce New Castle Semi State?

Combatants get ready...

Winners go to state, loser go home...

I remember reading a post earlier in the year where people were talking about how much weight the wrestlers were cutting to be successful. The answer is none.  Tommy Cash wrestled his natural weight all year and most of the year was coming in underweight.  At one point his coach told him that his assignment was to gain some weight.  He never missed a meal and ate breakfast before every weigh in. I would love to see more kids do this.  The secret to success isn't getting better at cutting weight, its getting better at the weight you are at.

Just thought that this was worth noting.

Thanks for the info. Looking back on his tourney run, he looked significantly stronger than everyone he wrestled.

I think I heard Josh Farrell did the same thing his Junior year. He got stronger as the season went on instead of cutting all the time and avenged some early season losses during the state series.

Was 182 the first time someone has won state on a caution?

Incredibly mature.  It's definitely tougher to make a logical argument then to make a comment like that isn't it? Hilarious.

Mature enough not to waste my time making the same argument over and over with a guy who has a couple years experience as an assistant HS coach (at one small and one big school so now he knows what's best for Indiana wrestling). Please spare me the Findlay talk...

I want the opinions of the expert wrestlers from Indiana. The guys who know there stuff and have NO BIAS here.

Because they all know what it is like to coach at a small school and big school right?

Waiting for an expert to respond...

The same way we need to only have one weight class....right? I think we are hurting the kids by having multiple weight classes and if those little guys would just work hard they would be able to compete with Big Wes and Gelen.

Lol

We need some EXPERTS to weigh in on this (not you or I). Guys who have wrestled competitively nationally (with all due respect, please don't try to include yourself in this group).

So, if Tsirtsis, Escobedo, Maurer, Caughlin, Quiroga, Eppert, Wright,  Humphreys, Hassemans, Howe, Schafer, IU/PU coach, Micic (not MCAJCK), Hernandez, or any other experienced wrestlers are on this board please weigh in on class wrestling.

If and only if I got some legit reasons from these guys would I even begin to consider class wrestling helping Indiana wrestling.

Edgewood is in the middle of the pack in terms of enrollment. They are at 144th in terms of enrollment of about 310 teams. If we had a two class system they would be a BIG school.

How do you expect Edgewood to compete with the top 100 schools (by population)?

We need at least 5-6 classes to make it fair and get everyone to state.

(Sarcasm)

To help grow the spot where it is dying at the small school level.

Like Edgewood?

I know this has been discussed in detail here and I hate to open a can of worms, but I feel it is appropriate.  Its only a matter of time before the topic comes up again.

 

First off, congratulations to all the kids who just finished up a tough season.  Every kid who stepped onto the mat and wrestled their butt off the past couple of months should be proud of what they just accomplished, regardless of their record or status. 

 

I was lucky enough to have been in attendance for the consolations and the finals this past year and they were simply amazing.  Although I am a few years removed from the sport and don’t know any names of the kids and am now a ‘casual fan’, it was an awesome experience.  Indiana wrestling has a gift that might be the greatest finals presentation in the country.  While I could be picky and offer up some ideas to make the presentation a little bit more spectator friendly, it is fantastic overall and appears to blow other states finals presentation out of the water.  The aura of the entire thing: the lights down, the spotlight, introductions, replays on the jumbotrons, the crowd of almost 11 thousand people completely focused on ONE MATCH. 

 

All of this would be ruined with class wrestling, if we were crowning two or three champions simultaneously.  It would be almost impossible, too time consuming, and simply boring- if we introduced the finalists two or three times in the way that we do.  We couldn’t turn down the lights, have an awards presentation, or a single spot light like we do and the crowds attention would be split between multiple matches. For example here are other states finals:

 

Take a look at Matt Mcdonough win his 3rd HS state title in Iowa at 3A. 2 other matches going on. YAWN

 

 

Illinois 1A state champs win titles while half the crowd is focused on other matches, not paying attention.  Kid at 2:25 wins a title, while it sounds like the entire crowd is focused on the other mat yelling “TWOOO!”

 

 

Lets watch Mr. Jaggers win his 4th state title in Ohio and the announcers even say how they feel sorry for the other kid who won a title on the other mat because nobody pays attention to him at 5:40

 

Announcer  “Poor guy on mat #2 nobody who just won a title, nobody even knows he exists”

 

 

You get the point.  Bottom line is we have something special, that is our finals in our state.  An opportunity for kids to wrestle in the event of a lifetime.  For the record, I don’t care how many NCAA all Americans Indiana high school wrestling produces.  I don’t care how many NCAA titles we take home, nor do I care if we are a  “first tier wrestling state”. I don’t care about some random guys subjective rankings on flowrestling if we are in the “top 10” state in the country.  So for those of you who argue and contend class wrestling will make us more competitive with the other more prestigious wrestling states, which may or may not be true.  Why do we care so much where we are in relation to other states?  Why do we even care how many NCAA Americans/champions we produce? 

 

Our focus should not be on future athletic accomplishments of our wrestlers, but it should be about providing them with an opportunity RIGHT NOW to wrestle in an event of a lifetime.  Giving them an opportunity to do something they may never have the chance to do again.  Most of these kids are not going to wrestle D1 and are not going to be NCAA all Americans, nor should we expect them to be.  Majority of them are going to be done wrestling after high school, and that is 100% fine.  So lets not even think about the idea of taking this away from them because you want Indiana to have more NCAA all Americans.

 

If its not broken don’t fix it and if it is awesome, don’t even think about it.  Personally, I believe the idea of classing wrestling in our state is absurd.  It will ruin the finals experience that we have.  While it may or may not make us a “top tier state, producing more NCAA all Americans” I say who cares.  Of course I do hope Indiana does well at the next level -it’s ultimately a moot point.  It is tantamount to me rooting for Notre Dame football players to perform well in the NFL or IU basketball players in the NBA.  Currently, the system works, its awesome, and does more then enough to present kids opportunities to earn scholarships at the next level and it gives them an opportunity to do something great in a one of a kind finals presentation. 

 

If I remember correctly, the attendance for the finals was 10,800ish. Which was more than UFC 170 drew at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas-which contained a title fight. So these kids who earned the right to compete under lights in front of almost 11k fans undivided attention can truly say they competed in an event of a lifetime.  Why would we even consider changing it? 

 

Steven Salinas

Couldn't agree more.

Brace yourself though, the "participation medal" crowd is gonna bring the hate.

I am Brock Hudkins' mom and I want to start by saying that I believe it is pretty sad, especially this year it seems, that people like myself feel that they have to create an account to defend their wrestler.  I would like to let everyone know that Brock was fine and made weight without any issues on Friday night and had eaten lunch earlier that day. with that being said he is also known for getting really bad migraines.  He was fine at lunch time just a little of an upset stomach thinking it was nerves didn't say anything.  He then got a lot worse once he arrived at Bankers Life, and his coach had him looked at.  The doctor there at Bankers Life would not allow him to compete and recommended us taking him to the hospital to have him looked at, as he was becoming weaker by the minute.  Once we arrived at the ER we found out that he was dehydrated due to having the stomach flu (not nerves as he had thought) and the migraine.  They gave him IV fluids and meds to help calm his stomach, the migraine, and bring his bp back down to normal.  I am amazed at how people will assume some things with no knowledge or continue to make accusations even after it was stated that he made weight and was rushed to the hospital.  If Brock would have had his choice he would have been there at Bankers Life with all of his friends competing for what he has worked so hard for all season.  These boys are friends off the mat and do care about each other, they read these posts and some adults should think before they type.  Brock is doing much better and will be back next year with his friends competing.  Good Luck to all the boys who work so hard all year to get 6 minutes under the lights.

 

thanks,

Lisa

Glad he is doing better. Look forward to watching him next year. 

Bump

saw where he got first in the INDY Nationals...talk about staying at it.  finishes 2nd in state and turns around and wrestles a tournament the next day.  Great Job.

I saw that too and was thinking the same thing.

Congrats to Blake on a great season. He will be fun to watch the next two years.

Just wanted to say how proud I am of Brendon Kelley, wrestling did not come naturally to him but he loved the sport and had a goal of being a State Champ. He was willing to work year round giving up summer breaks and weekends to go to camps and clubs to get better. Just some insight 6th grade he placed 8th ISWA, 7th grade was 2 and out, MS State 5th , 8th runner up @ ISWA and finally won his 1st city championship. You guys know the rest. Just glad he got to learn hard work does pay off, thanks for the memories.

Awesome testament to hard work and perseverance!

Congrats Kelly!

I'm fine with that, but I don't feel like they left it all on the mat. I was hoping for something like the first match.

I tend to agree.

Just want to say a big thanks to all the athletes that competed this weekend. It doesn't matter where they are from, I appreciated everything each and every one of these young men brought to the mat. I would also like to congratulate all the champions and wish the best of luck to all of our seniors that have given us all some memories that we will never forget.

Great job young men and THANK YOU

Great Post.

Thank you wrestlers "for taking us human beings up to a better place of being", if only for a day or two! It was pretty ___  ____ glorious!

Vision Quest quote of the day.