Sport Family

In reference to all the hoopla about true weight classes and true state champions at the youth level, some people have brought up some good points and many others ridiculous. Seems that too many parents are so worried about their child losing or not being viewed by their own adult friends as a winner has driven some to point fingers at others. Raidercoach is the only one that has said numerous times that this is for the kids. I can remember a few years back the youth state tournament being held at Fern Creek High School. The tournament was handled nicely but the kids did not walk into that venue and have that little bit of WOW factor as walking into Alltech or Frankfort for that matter. If a coach is sending in false weights then that is totally on him/her and should be dealt with accordingly. Most of us know throughout the season which kids are close to ours in weight in our own region. If a coach needs to fudge a childs weight for glory then maybe he/she is not that good of a coach afterall. I like the idea of all kids wrestling regionals and advancing to state regardless of wins and losses. At this age many of the kids are far more superior than others and that is totally okay. There are more parents that leave tournaments feeling like losers and winners than kids. If singling out kids at the elementary levels is the answer, then how would people feel about that applying to other sports? Maybe we should suggest to all the local baseball organizations to do away with T-Ball. If the 4,5, or 6 year old can't hit a live pitch then baseball is not gonna be his/her sport. All kids deserve the opportunity to grow and us as adults have to learn to accept the losing and winning as easy as they do. Our job as parents and coaches is not to drive our kids to reach goals that we could or couldn't, but to teach them how to be an adult as we watch them grow. And just so you know, my child has wrestled up in weight most of the season and done quite well. There are a few kids that are 10-15 lbs lighter than him that he can't handle. IMO weight is not quite as important as most make it out. For example, Bobby Bryant from Trinity won the 285 lb class. He weighs 220 lbs.

Where is Josh Lewis, or Tyler Grimm, or Dylan Harbolt on this list?

Thank you I-pinned-em-all for an adult response. I agree that Hitchings has done a lot for the sport especially at the middle school level. I have been around a lot of youth sports and will continue to be and I can tell you that I have never seen as much confidence in a group of young kids as I did in the Fern Creek Optimist/Club team. Mark, Jeff Branch and the other coaches and parents that helped taught some kids to wrestle that did not have an athletic bone in their body. Some of these kids still compete at the high school level and are very competitive but otherwise would have never played or enjoyed a sport in high school. If Trinity does happen to win state next year, Seneca (Trent) will say it is a conspiracy and everybody in the stands except the Trinity faithful will BOOOO. Thanks again for being positive about these tapping problems and the ref problems. I hope their is a solution and nobody is pointing fingers at any certain teams or individuals.

Donnell Davis got injured in his first match with Harbolt from Trinity. They both went to the mat extremely hard and neither one got a hand out to stop the fall. Davis jammed his shoulder very bad and it might require surgery but he wrestled two more matches after in a extreme amount of pain. Harbolt got a mild concussion and was not cleared to wrestle on Friday even though he said he felt fine. It was a very tough break for Davis being a senior but Harbolt is only a freshman. Davis wrestled his last two with heart because his arm was shot.

Jordan Lewis went 2 and out his freshman year.

But you should be equally disgusted that 2 of your kids were intentionally punished in the consolation rounds. Both kids should have won their matches and the calls made against Trinity was appalling and disgusting. If your kid, or any other kid deserves to win they should. But winning is a two way street 100% of the time. 4 examples is 4 too many in my opinion. Well since you know this for a fact then obviously you can prove it and two wrongs don't make a right. You need to report these individuals immediately. What do feel is the right thing to do?

If you look at the state finals matches, most of the kids were not seniors. I believe that if you were not in the top 8 or 10 teams then your chances are not real good. Most of the top teams are returning some good quality wrestlers. Good luck to all but Larue, Union, Fern Creek, Trinity, Woodford, Seneca, and North Hardin will continue to be tough.