TeamJesus316

I know if there are any first year coaches in high school that are involved in elementary wrestling also, there is a NFHS coaching education class scheduled for that day. I would love to come to the elementary school meeting, but am required to attend that NFHS meeting by my high school.

Any Elementary school tournaments announced yet? My team is in southeast kentucky with about 6 elementary kids.

When and Where are these tournaments?

Are these tournaments Freestyle format or folkstyle?

Oneida Baptist Insitute in Southeast Kentucky has a new elementary, middle school, and high school program.

Anyone have any open Jr. High Tournaments for this upcoming year? If so, when and where. Thank you. Coach Mendez

I think this is common sense. However you run into situations where a true stud does not make wt. and bumps up a wt. class(because the team has an opening) and he messes up that bracket. I like the tourneys where they ask for 2 or 3 kids that need to be split and go, no true seeding. Actually I would not mind if they blind drew all the tourneys except the region, since it is the one that really counts. If you dont make weight you should not be able to wrestle. Why are we allowing kids to not keep commitments, but still be allowed to compete. Coaches need to send in the roster, and if there is a scratch that is one thing, but if your kid doesnt make weight because he wasnt disciplined enough to do it, he should be dropped out of the tournament. About the online seeding, each team should either send their info in on the forum or email or fax the info to the tournament director. The director should then add it to the forum. That way everyone knows why wrestler A is seeded above wrestler B. If a kid gets hurt or scratched, there should be a twenty minute or so meeting at the conclusion of weighins to verify the seeds. This is what my school did and it worked out great. Dont allow the coaches to argue over seeds at that 20 minute meeting. Seed 1 alternate and bump him in and everyone else up one spot to fill it.

For the california tournaments, my high school used to run a 24 team tournament and it would get done between 9 and 10 at night, but they would break for like an hour or hour and a half between the last round of consolation and the first round of finals. There were pigtails, and if you lost in the pigtails, you went into a seperate consolation bracket and wrestled for 7th and 8th. They used between 5 and 7 mats in two gyms depending on how many mats they could get from surrounding schools. Finals were three mats, 1st/2nd on one, 3rd/4th on another, 5th/6th on the other. The finals would not move on in weight until all the matches for that weight were finished. Usually the tournaments that had problems with taking too long was because of: A. Booking problems. Inviting too many teams and assuming some of them would not have full teams. If they did have mostly full teams, the tournament would take forever. B. Seeding problems. Problems with not all teams sending in their rosters and seeding information and having to adjust the brackets after weighins, causing a late start. My high school one year tried doing the seeding meeting over the forum during the week prior to the tournament. It actually worked out great and got some great publicity for the tournament. Wrestlers knew who were seeded and then the final seeding meeting after weighins was just to verify that everyone made weight. Fans knew the matches to watch for. Just a suggestion. Having all the coaches post their wrestlers records and placings and common opponents on the forum.

Coming from California, Tournaments there routinely get over between 9 and 11 pm, especially if the tournament wants to give the finalists their proper resepct (1 mat finals for 1st/2nd and spotlight if it is available).

sorry phone number typo. 606-847-4111 ext 311. :-o

Oneida Baptist (new team this year) has set up a couple matches: Dual @ Wayne County 12/11 Tri Meet @ Oneida Baptist vs. McCreary Central and Letcher County Tri Meet @ McCreary Central vs. McCreary Central and Whitley County I am looking for more in our region if anyone is looking for a team to fill out a tri meet or tournament, let me know Coach Mendez teamjesus316@hotmail.com 606-847-9111 ext 311

What we would probably need to do is have two coaches correct? The rule just states that you cannot coach your own wrestlers in the off season. If there were two coaches, then technically, if one coach has a kid on the team, he would have to be coached by a different coach from a different school. Am I correct in this interpretation? I am in South East Kentucky, so it wouldnt apply to us since you are only looking for northern Kentucky, but if this got off the ground, we could make one with all the border states if possible: SE KY vs W. VA S KY vs Tenn W KY vs Missouri N KY vs Indiana and or Illinois From my understanding of the rule, we could do this if we had two head coaches, therefore, for example, I could could the McCreary County Kids in our area and the McCreary County Coach could coach the Oneida Baptist kids (just using two schools in the same area to give an example). What does everyone think?

Sorry, California guy here trying to adjust. :-D Are there any openings at the Trinity tournament?

I am coaching at a school that is a 6th-12th grade boarding school. The question I have, if anyone knows, is can a wrestler who is in 7th or 8th grade compete for both the high school and junior high? Are there any rules regarding this? Trying to figure this out so I can schedule matches so everyone can wrestle some. Coach Mendez

Is that first week of competition for scrimmages or official matches?

Does the regular season start earlier or just practice? From what I have seen about regular matches, which is when the wrestlers first actually have to make weight, it is the same as every other state. Matches start at the end of November, beginning of Decemeber.

So we are gonna punish the kids because there are a few bad coaches? That sounds unacceptable and also out of line of the educational goals of the schools we are involved with. What do you do with a school that hasnt had a team and they get someone at their school who wants to coach? Kentucky forces them to either bend over backwards to find someone else who has a clue and then has to at least be trained on what they high school coach wants them to be taught or put the kids under the supervision of someone who doesnt have a clue. That is irresponsible. The schools themselves tell kids they have to go to summer school and do school year around. Basketball is a bad example to compare wrestling to. You can play basketball and improve without the use of a supervising coach. Wrestling, you have to have a mat and the supervision of someone who knows what they are doing. THIS HAS TO BE THE NUMBER ONE THING THAT THE KENTUCKY COACHES ASSOCIATION SHOULD BE FIGHTING FOR. IF NOT, THEY DO NOT REPRESENT THE COACHES OR WHATS BEST FOR THE KIDS IN KENTUCKY.

I think the first thing that has to change is the rule about not being able to coach your high school wrestlers year around. All the toughest teams and states in the US wrestle year around. I do not agree with forcing kids to wrestle year around, but I believe it is a big mistake to not offer it year around. Just my thoughts though.

Ok I understand now. I was not aware that the season began earlier in Kentucky than everywhere else. I just dont want to be in a state that goes against the rules. I have experienced it in another state I lived in and it made for the state to be worse off since they were not willing to wrestle out of state from what I understood (they were having a dual on wednesday, a dual on thursday and a two day tournament during the certification time and getting an extra pound allowance for each day of competition and then saying they made the official weight and were using rubber suits and this was just a couple years ago).

I believe we need to go by what the national rule is. I have been to states where they break the national rule and make their own rule it only hurts the state. In trying to get wrestling to grow, you have to follow a standard that is above your own. The National Federation makes the rules and on weight classes so that all states have an even playing field, so that when they come together to compete at tournaments like Reno TOC, Ironman, Beast of the East, no one state is at a disadvantage or advantage. It would do alot of damage to border schools in my opinion. In the two or three weeks between where the national rule is and where Kentucky is wanting to amend it in their favor, we will have kids going up and down just to stay in one weight class. For example, if the weight gets changed at Christmas, you will have a kid making 127 in Kentucky, then after the break, say a school goes to a tournament in Ohio, now they have to make 125, then the next week there is a dual and a tournament in Kentucky so now they can make 127, then the following week they have to make 125 again. I think this idea, though it may be in the best interest of the kids in Kentucky, it is not in the best interest of the sport growing in Kentucky. If we do this, what is to keep us a coaches, from breaking the Body Fat/Water weight program that is mandatory nationwide starting this season? What is to keep us from readjusting all the weights so we can fill teams that are not the same as other states? I think this could have a snowball effect of looking out for whats easiest for us in Kentucky. Just my thoughts though.

Do we even have the authority to do this? This is a national high school rule. How would that affect wrestling out of state during that time period?

They should develop a point system where each team sends in their schedule at the beginning of the season. There should be a board consisting of one representative from each region that ranks toughness of schedule. Then at the end of the season, all regional finalists (if you take 3rd or 4th in the region you are not one of the top couple guys at that weight) send in their records and tournament placings. Each tournament is worth so many points. The person with the highest point total is number 1, next is number 2, etc. If you put it all into a computer, it would not be that difficult. The hardest part would be ranking the tournments that each team goes to. Head to heads would count in close point totals. Something like this would rate what you did this year as the number one priority. It would also not penalize someone who is a first year wrestler, since he has no returning state or regional placings. We could use this for the rankings during the season and everyone would know exactly where they stand all season long. I have seen it work at sectional tournaments in california which are made up from anywhere between 75-125 schools. Coach Mendez Oneida Baptist

So 2 day tournaments dont require making weight on the second day? What about states? Is that the same way also?

So if my team attends a two day tournament and has to make weight for the second day, does that count as 2 regular contests or just 1 still?

Can someone explain what is defined as a regular contest for me? Is a tournament a regular contest or a dual? Any help is appreciated. Lewis Mendez