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?

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.

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.

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.

OK, time to give ATM his due! Mizzou vs Virginia tied 15-15 and comes down to the heavyweight match. ATM’s win keeps Missouri unbeaten. Nice job! Congratulations!

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.

Is this you, Chris? LOL

Seriously? Gotta admit you were right about Sammy, and WVU was clearly not satisfied with him as a head coach. And our congratulations and deep admiration for joining the Jack LaLanne fitness club for geezers! What a remarkable achievement, which we are all dazzled and amazed at! Seriously? We are all absolutely laughing out loud. It seems to me your most impressive athletic feat as a quinquagenarian (look it up), is your ability to pat yourself on the back so repetitively. You must hold the world record for at least that!!! We are all amazed, all right. depperschmidt, I would agree with your assessment, and we will now all sit back and listen to the explosion. It is that absurdity that actually amuses me enough to keep reading this forum.

Really good job to both the kids and the coaches. I really agree we should support and appreciate the time commitment these coaches (and parents) make to get the kids to these tournaments. Kentucky showed well!!!! 11th place in the senior division is really outstanding, particularly since we didn't throw hundreds of kids at the tournament, as some states do. Great, great job. Now, underclassmen, wrestle freestyle, greco, sambo, folkstyle, any style you can, any time you can get on a mat. Year round wrestling, if possible, and you will be a different wrestler next school year.

Note that future Mizzou heavyweight Zack Elam from Missouri won at 220 in the Pittsburgh Classic (Dapper Dan). Competition on the way...

I cannot disagree with your comments. Perhaps he should have been an assistant for a longer period of time to adjust to the differing role. But you have a good point.

I was very disappointed in my Mizzou Tigers. Funk can be very effective against average wrestlers, but physically strong and technically solid wrestlers like you see at Penn State and Ohio State will almost always win the day. Zahid Valencia is a great example. His single switched off to a double, he controlled hips and he elevated. Mizzou seemed to be so in love with funk they were beat by great basics. I also thought their conditioning was a bit suspect. For high school wrestlers who want to excel, pay attention to the little things PS & OSU do. They don't shoot a single or double then put their heads on the mat. I once heard a very good coach say, "the best counter to funk is elevation". Sadly, in both of his losses Sean Fausz, late in the match, took shots where his head was down on the mat. He gave up points and back points both times. I also thought his lack of matches this year cost him in conditioning. Mizzou will need to go back to basics to compete at nationals. And maybe wrestle Big 10 schools during the regular season to get ready for the grind.

How about Zeke Moisey from West Virginia? Trashed on this thread for losing in his conference finals. He is now an NCAA Division 1 All American. That included a win over Kyle Norstrem of Virginia Tech. He is now a COLLEGE All-American! Good for him, good for Sammy.

However, give the kid credit. He did win 3 matches last year at the MAC championships (3-1) to take 3rd and qualify for the NCAA's.

Making Campbell County proud!!!! Good luck at the big show!