bulldog-leader

Don't count on Yenter being there. Campbell's 1st team will be at the Fairfield Inv. on Fri/Sat especially after he just earned runner up at the GMVWC.

Boy you sure didn't get the point of my message. You are correct, not a good youth program. School and parents in this school district don't support wrestling. Still does not mean we stop trying. In my 9 years I had only 3 sets of parents show up regularly to wrestling events. Most of the parents didn't even see there kids place at the state tourney. Let alone help out with practice or transportation to youth or middle school tourneys. Bottom line. If not for allowing middle school kids to wrestle we would not have had any competitive wrestlers in the high school. They would have either quit while in middle school because of not getting any matches or not started until they were freshman. When answering questions like these don't think about eh top teams in the state think how it will affect the bottom 10% of the team in the state. If we lose these schools then it hurts our overall number of wrestlers in the state.

I don't think this is being to dramatic. After many years at a struggling school I can tell you firsthand. If middle school kids were not allowed to wrestle in high school events I would never have had a middle school kid on the team. For most of my 9 years at this school I was the only coach. I was unable to send middle school kids to middle school matches. I was finally able to find a way to get some of them to the middle school region and state the last 3 years. (Both times allowing them to go to the state tournament without a coach, obviously against school policy). My point is this. Big programs have no trouble getting wrestling matches for their middle school teams. Small schools and struggling schools don't have the resources to do this. The only way they can get middle school kids matches is by allowing them to wrestle high school. As for the comment about not all middle schools are allowed to compete in high school I would counter that not all high schools can compete in wrestling. That is just a silly argument to not allow middle school wrestlers the chance to wrestle high school.

Male did have a team. They had state qualifiers in 1977 and 1981

This was my second MS state tourney, and last (My son is now in high school) probably for a long time. I saw many of the same things. I have brought it up to some of the high school coaches. I'm not sure if i was one of these coaches, (it is hard when your own son is wrestling to keep cool) but I try to keep it under control at all times. The one recommendation I made was to educate our middle school coaches. Many of them are excellent technical coaches. However many of them are also young. We all went through the stage of being young and stupid, (to be more accurate inexperienced and excitable). Young coaches get their adrenaline pumping much faster than us old guys. I think that all middle school coaches should go to the rules interpretation meetings at the beginning of the year. I've attended these things for over 20 years, and believe they can be beneficial to our young coaches. I know in Nky we also have a coaches meeting afterwards. This can allow the middle school coaches to address the high school coaches with concerns and vice versa. Parents are another animal all together. The middle school coaches are the ones who need to educate and try and control the parents. This is again difficult because of the coaches being young themselves, and in most cases younger than the parents. An old experienced coach usually has an easier time of calming a parent than a young coach. Just a couple of suggestions to get the ball rolling.

naplesme: I will say this is both parties fault. Actually its a catch 22 (or a vicious cycle). The people who attend these elementary meetings are mostly the programs that have multiple coaches. The same can be said about the middle school meetings. While coaching at Holmes I had the same argument numerous times with the association. Coaches like us (who coach all levels) who cannot find parents to attend the matches let alone help coach are left out of the equation. I would make these recommendations. 1. coaches that coach on all levels try very hard to attend these meetings. I know its almost impossible. (I was never able to), but at least try to stay in touch with someone who is attending so you can send your concerns to the meetings. 2. Those who are at the meetings keep in mind the struggling programs. They are the ones who usually only have one coach. If we loose all or most of these programs the sport dies. I for one think having the regional and state tourneys at this time is a bad idea. You are alienating probably 5-10 small programs. Yeah they are the ones that have all their kids go 2 and out, but they still should be considered. I have seen these issues from both sides. (the haves and have nots) I started as a Have at Campbell, became a have not at Holmes and now a have again while my son wrestles for Campbell. I understand your plight Naplesme, keep fighting, I could no longer keep it up. Someone else needs to carry the flag for teams like yours.

speaking of t-shirts. My son and the two others that we brought did not recieve a t-shirt.

I was thinking the same thing PackAttack. I've coached my last 10 years in an urban school and have found that Urban kids find the uniform more unpleasing than rural or suburban kids. I also spent 15 years coaching in a rural area before that. I'm not sure why this is, but if this uniform was excepted then I think maybe more kids would participate. My suggestion would be allow this uniform in elementary and JV matches. When they become varsity (either in middle school or high school) they would be required to wear a singlet. This would help them get used to the idea of a singlet. Like most kids the embarrassment of a singlet wears off after awhile.

I think one way to improve the numbers would be to know where the remote weigh in sites are going to be much earlier. Even here in Nky I didn't know exactly when and where the remote weigh in was going to be until about 1 week before the match. If wrestlers and parents knew at least a month in advance i think more would show up. I know we would not have attended it there was not a remote weigh in. I couldn't make two trips to Lexington one on Friday just to weigh in and come back home. I think this should be one of the priorities for next year. Find out where and when the remote weigh ins will be held.

Is that the total amount of wreslters or total amount of wrestlers in brackets. What I mean is many wrestlers were in two brackets. Where they counted twice or only once.

I know up here in Nky. We had ours done by the St. E. Sports Medicine. They did the assesment for free. At least neither our kids or our school had a fee. It is also able to be done by your athletic trainer or nurse at your school. The only cost is the hydration strips.

Just curious. At the registration it asks for Wt class. Jr. doesn't plan on losing wt. but does he wrestle what he weighs at weigh in or what he registered for? He weighs about 137 so could be 135 or 140 depends on the day. :-D

What about one in the NKy area?

Ok where can we find this information? What exactly can a coach do and what exactly can he not do? I know that I violated whatever the rules were while coaching at Holmes. Mostly because I was not informed about them nor really worried about them. (No one was watching what I was doing at such a low level school) However I am now going to return to Campbell and coach my son. I'm pretty sure I have NO restriction about my son. I can't imagine that I would not be allowed to coach my own son. However what about his buddies? This year his buddies are still in middle school but next year they will be high school kids. Like many of you have stated this is ridiculous. How do you allow a untrained or at the very best undertrained person sit in the corner of a wrestling match in the off season? My next question what is the ramifications if this rule is violated? I fully understand what Dinubus was saying and agree. But most wrestling coaches are not like football coaches. Many of them are fanatical, and would require off season training, and limit the kids ability to play other sports. I don't think wresting coaches (at least in Ky) are like this.

Join the club. When Jim Trosper was at Holmes I heard that he wanted his football kids in the weigh lifting room and not the wrestling room. I was also told by my athletic director a similar thing. He said to me if you get to many football players out then they won't have a weigh lifting program. (It was the 1st negative thing I had heard from our athletic director about wrestling in the 9 years I was there.) This is one of the reasons I finally resigned from Holmes as the head coach. This was even after 2 of my wrestlers went out for the football team their senior year and started (This was after much encouragement on my part) As for Trosper he was a Boone County graduate. When he played football for Boone County the Head football coach said the same thing to his players. It killed the team at Boone County. I still find it hard to believe that such a statement would ever be tolerated at Conner. If you remember Stellman is still the athletic director at Conner. Not only was the one of the assistant wrestling coaches at Conner, but is one of Wayne Badida's buddies. With the wrestling tradition at Conner, I wouldn't count on this stying true for long, if the word gets out about this statement.

This one is right up my alley: I struggled with this decision a long time. I remember when my father coached me in baseball. I wasn't the best kid on the team but good enough to start and then be replaced in late innings. However when my father (who was the assistant coach) had to take the head coaching duties in absence of the head coach I usually didn't play that game. He feared that the other parents would think he was playing favoritism. When my son started getting interested in wrestling I was already the head coach at Holmes. He was not going to attend Holmes, we live in Campbell Co. The first few years 4-6 I only worked with him at home. His middle school coach worked with him at practice (even though I attended them). It was difficult because I had coached his middle school coach years before. I also was unable to attend many of his matches because of my obligations to my high school team. I became more active his 7th grade year with his training, but still unable to attend many matches. At region he was a 4th seed and won the tourney. I was able to attend that tourney and sat in his corner with his coach. When he won in the finals his coach said to me "he only wrestles this good when you are here". That sealed it for me. This year (his 8th grade year) I was fully involved with his training at practice and such, and became one of the assistant coaches. He had a fairly successful year placing 6th. I believe now he is kind of lost without me in his corner. Next year when he moves to the high school coach Bankemper has already told me that I am more than welcome to come and coach (Since I had began my coaching career under him). One one the most important rules that I have given myself is this. Once we reach the driveway at home I am no longer his coach. I don't initiate any conversations about his matches. (However I have parked on the street a few times so continue a conversation :-D) If he wants to talk about what happened once we get inside I try to be more positive and more fatherly. He doesn't know about this rule that I have given myself. But it seems to have worked. The best way to do this is get support from other fathers who coached their sons. I was lucky in that I was able to call coach Bankemper and ask him how he and his son Corey worked things out. I took that information and tried to apply it to our situations. I also asked other coaches and how they handled it. Everyone has a different way to approach a situation but getting ideas and support always helps. I will say this however as a father sitting in the corner in a close match you will second guess yourself more if it is your kid. I told the other coaches to never leave me alone in the corner with my son. I just wanted someone to say that the decisions I made were the right ones. Even though with other kids I wouldn't hesitate to make the same decision. Hope this answers your question.

Does anyone have any results or know where we can find them?

Thanks We attended last year. NO card was needed. Was a nice tourney for the middle school, don't know much about the high school competition. They used 2 gyms last year so that it would go faster. I hope we have more Campbell boys showing up this year. There were only a handful last year.

Is this the one at Amelia High School? What time are weigh ins and what are the weight classes. I would like to take my son and his freinds. He is a middle school kid. If you can get me this info I would be gratefull.

Im not sure what recent means but. One near and dear to me. (because I coached him) Daniel Blevins (Holmes) 2003 weighed about 219 all year. Pinned Joe Berrows Central Hardin (3rd that year, state champion the next)in the quarter finals. Defeated Phillip Baker by pin after winning by 5. 2 weeks before regional tourney. Lost to him in Semi's in overtime. (questionable call). Also that year had put Zack Brewer (Paul Dunbar) on his back with a throw earlier in the year. He had 4 losses going into state that year 3 to Brewer. Fell apart after the semi-finals match at state, like many do after a devistating loss. finished 6th that year.

The question is this? What is the MOW? I believe it can be three things. 1. Is it the best wrestler that the state of KY offers? 2. The best wrestler at the tourney that day? 3. The kid that won by upsetting someone else? My opinion it should go to either the best the state offers or the kid who was the best wrestler at the state tourney. Usually this is the same person. This year I think you have three different 1. Would be obviously Harrison Courtney 2. Would be Justin Davis 3. Would be Luke Ervin.

One other thought. NO BACK FLIP BY A STATE CHAMPION. Has this tradition died. I believe it started with David Ritchie in the 80's.

Thought I might add what each did in Middle School State (in Parentheses) 103: Wade Willen University Heights 8--- (103 3rd place) Bryce Dean Sheldon Clark 7-------- (Did not wrestle) Isaac Hamlin Simon Kenton 8------- (103 6th place) Jeremy Burnham Christian County 8-(Did not Wrestle) Nathan Long South Oldham 8-------(103 2 wins) Logan Jones Cooper 7--------------(103 0 wins) Josh Conley Johnson Central 8------(103 1 win) David Sahms Fort Campbell 8-------(Did Not Wrestle) 112: Tevon Clay Franklin County 8-------(117 2nd place) Wade Holtsclaw John Hardin 8------(110 1st place) Joe Rupp Eastern 8-----------------(117 3rd place) 119: Caleb Canter Larue County 8-------(103 2nd place) Kevin Cooper Simon Kenton 8------(131 1st place) Mike Parris McCreary Central 8-----(Did not Wrestle) 125: Cody Johnson Holmes 8------------(Did not Wrestle) Kory Polley Christian County 8------(124 3rd Place) 130: Zack Troxell Wayne County 8------(131 3rd Place) 135: Lane Jones Cooper 8--------------(131 2nd Place) Hasaamnj Hart Franklin County 8---(131 1 Win) Jimmy Preston Johnson Central 8---(140 4th Place) 171: Soloman Vanover Whitley County 8-(185 1st Place) 189: Cody Resser Central Hardin 8-------(185 4th Place) Sam Vanover Whitley County 8-----(230 1st Place) BJ Carman Larue County 8----------(185 3rd Place) The Break Down Middle school wt classes 103 had 6 high school state qualifiers 131 had 4 high school state qualifiers 185 had 3 high school state qualifiers 117 had 2 high school state qualifiers 110 had 1 high school state qualifier 124 had 1 high school state qualifier 140 had 1 high school state qualifier 230 had 1 high school state qualifier 5 did not wrestle in the middle school state.

Are you kidding me Bear. Are you trying to say that Ryle, Campbell, and Simon Kenton should stay in the state of KY? What tougher tourneys could they find in KY that are tougher or as tough as the tourneys they attend in Ohio. Plus for them to get to any tourney in Ky that is close to this competition they need to travel at lest to Lex, or Lou, which is about a 2 hour drive for them. They can find an equal or better tourney just 1/2 hour away in Ohio. Who cares who the competition is, as long is it is legitimate competition. Maybe the problem with Johnson and Ft. Campbell is that they were truly not finding competition wherever they were going.

We in KY tried the no middle school kids allowed to wrestle high school. We did not allow middle schoolers to wrestle high school varsity for about 3 years (1997-1999) Not exactly sure of the dates. Here were the problems. 1. Many of the lower weight classes went unfilled. KY does not have a strong enough wrestling population to keep these wt. classes filled with high school wrestlers. 2. We lost wrestlers because of this rule. Many of the schools in Ky cannot support a middle school team. Either because of only one coach, no support, or just not enough wrestlers. There are still about a dozen teams, if not more, that have less than a dozen kids on their wrestling team, which include middle school wrestlers. These teams lost middle school wrestlers because the middle school wrestlers were unable to wrestle at all. As for the 5 match rule. What is the answer? There is no way we can run a 2 day tournament. Most of the schools would not allow the kids out of school for this event, and many of the schools travel 2+ hours to get there. hrvstrofsrrw: Yes your scenario is possible. To me wrestler B got the better end of the deal. He was able to participate all year as middle school varsity. Otherwise he would have been sitting watching wrestler A all year and never improving. Your situation gave 2 kids the opportunity to wrestle all year instead of just 1. And I can't help but think about the situation I was in when I coached. No middle school coach, no parental suppport, one middle school kid on the team (1st year wrestler). Got his butt whooped because he had to wrestle high school varsity (or not wrestle at all), went to middle school regional. (I broke school rules to allow this to happen, could have lost my job), he was successful and qualified for middle school state and was 2 and out. He is now still wrestling, (Actually this happened twice) and both have semi-sucessful seasons since.