Wrestling Dad

Kudos to Union County for narrowly pulling out a win in Nashville this weekend. Most of the best teams in Tennessee were present, including Bradley Central, Cleveland and Father Ryan. In addition there were teams from Kentucky, Wisconsin, South Carolina and Alabama. Very tough tournament and Kentucky was represented well. One question - Jayden Raney had a medical forfeit in the finals. Hope he is OK. By the way, his semifinal win was a big reason UC won the tournament. Also, the kid Jordyn Raney beat on the finals took 4th at the Ironman a couple of weeks ago. The Union County program continues to make the Bluegrass proud!

A humble congratulations to the Union County boys for crowning 3 champions and winning what I consider to be one of the toughest tournaments south of Pennsylvania and Ohio, The Evansville Mater Dei Christmas Tournament. Most of the toughest teams in Indiana participate in this tournament. In the past teams from Missouri, Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia have also participated. I don't have access to the tournament's history, but I cannot remember over the past 30 years a team from Kentucky winning this thing. Great performance by the boys from Union County, St. X and Trinity

In spite of the WWE type of hype dad cast over him, I would agree…the most dominant both in state and on a national level.

I am so glad you mentioned Rusty Parks (Woodford County) and Jim Ploesser of Hopkinsville. They both, like Robert Ervin, took teams out of state and competed against tough out of state competition. These are men who helped develop Kentucky wrestling. Thank you for mentioning them.

Can not agree more. So..,what are the practical steps to make that happen?

My personal opinion is that Little from Union is the most sure lock in the tournament. The kid he beat in the Mater Dei final, Sollars, just pinned his way through a tough Indiana state tournament. His only loses were to nationally ranked wrestlers at the Ironman. IMHO he is unbeatable in Kentucky. He will be on the mat less time than either Raney.

Years ago the state tournament was held at the Civic Center in Frankfurt, which was a bona fide stadium. It was well run and approximated the state tournaments in many other states. Since that time, in my humble opinion, the quality of the entire state tournaments series has gone downhill. The KHSAA seems to understand state tournament formats for major sports like football and basketball, but they show a complete lack of understanding of what the wrestling community would enjoy, and what would promote the sport. However, you may have to accept that this will fall on deaf ears. If you look back at previous years you will see the same threads on this Site over and over again. Most members of the wrestling committee, I think, have probably given up on the possibility of positive change.

Wonderful, thank you will any of the matches be accessible via live stream?

I thought in the past the large and small schools finished in a dual. I understand that they are technically in separate brackets, but it would’ve been fun to watch UC square off with Ryle.

Any interesting results. Individual matches? Did Ryle and Union wrestle? TrackWrestling only shows Small & Large school results. Why was Johnson Central assessed 2 team points? One a misconduct and one a coach. Don’t think I have seen that before.

EKU could host this.

Does anyone know the time schedule for each round?

Sean wrestled well. Tough seeds in both the championship and consi’s. Still, congratulations on a very good collegiate career! You represented Kentucky well!!!

Where was ATM? I thought he was in the field.

Here is a great quote I recently saw: People often believe arrogance is excessive confidence, but it's really a lack of confidence. Arrogant people are insecure, and often repel others. Truly confident people feel good about themselves and attract others to them. Arrogance is a self-defense tactic to disguise insecurities. ...How true.