tigercoach1

What a bummer! I moved away, but it was still nice to get to see the kids I used to coach wrestle. You think they could at least periscope it.

The only one's I don't remember are the 2 guys without the singlets. From top right...Joe Jr., Josh Burton, Dave Moore, Scott Anderson. Second Row: Rick McCarthy, St. X 189lbs (forgot name), Ian Horn, Chris Dunn, Jason Talbot, Sean McCarthy, Dean Williams. Bottom Row: Joe Sr., Justin Schoenfelder, Tom Watson, Mark Sprowl, Michael Kidd, Dan Carmen and Coach Anderson, Though you mentioned Tendai...it would have been nice to have on the team, I imagine since it was summer after his senior year he was probably already playing football for the Cards. Rhodes would have been great to have on the team as well.

You go first eville...I can fill in the blanks.

I mentioned doing the Fargo Nationals in 96'. Here is a pic one of my teammates sent me today from the team...a ton of state titles in that group. Love to see this happen again.

After my Sophomore year in 96' I went to Cadet/Junior Nationals with team KY. We had a week long camp the week before with about 20-25 of us. Coach ran some great practices and had us all pretty comfortable wrestling freestyle by the end of the week. The room was loaded with all the best wrestlers in Kentucky. I believe there was about 10 guys in the room that had won at least one state title, some had 2, 3 and 4 titles. I will never forget going to the camp or the experience of going to nationals...there is no other tournament like it. One of the best wrestling experiences I ever had. Obviously the resources to put something like that on is great, but wrestling in the state has improved so much I imagine the results would be pretty impressive, especially if you could get the wrestlers together for a week to prepare. For all the serious wrestlers out there, I highly recommend making the trip to Fargo.

Kentucky has grown tremendously and will continue to get better. I lived in KY, coached middle school and moved the summer after my kids 6th grade year for my job. My son had good success in KY. He placed at MS state his 5th grade year and I think he had as good of chance to win MS state his 6th grade year as until he broke his arm a few weeks before regions. He is now a freshman up here in Northeast Ohio wrestling for a school that is Div 1 and in my opinion the toughest district in the state(had 7 state champs from their district). He did well for his freshman year....he was 15-3 (until he got mono...the kid can't stay healthy). He was not varsity on his team, he was a back up behind another kid who did qualify for the state tournament. There is 5 other kids just in his weight class...most of which have been wrestling since Kindergarten to 2nd grade. It is just a different culture when it comes to wrestling. For example, I was at a Cavaliers game and the guy behind me saw the shirt my kid was wearing from the youth club team. He was a coach of a youth program in Maple Heights (Cleveland) and we started talking wrestling. I told him my oldest started wrestling in the 3rd grade, and his response was "my kid got started late too." I never realized 3rd grade was late. My youngest who is in Kindergarten wrestles for a youth club that is K-6 and has over 80 kids! Their wrestling room, which is at my oldest sons high school is a full gym fully matted wall to wall with wall mats and a separate weight room just for the wrestlers and yes, its a public school. Just about every Saturday during the wrestling season and some weekdays the cover of the sports page has a picture of wrestling...not basketball. My wife asked about filling out NCAA brackets at her work, (where just about all the guys used to wrestle) and several of them have never filled out a NCAA bracket!! Really!?!?! For what its worth, us KY boys could kick some butt in basketball up here. We used to compete in Cincinnati all the time when we were in KY, and after living in Ohio for nearly 3 years now, I would not use Cincy as the sample for Ohio talent. 12 of the 14 weight classes at Div 1 state were won by Northeast Ohio kids...I believe only 1 Cincy kid took home a state title. The talent is just much deeper up here. So many more kids wrestle and so many more schools have programs and just about all of them have youth programs. I agree with MPire in regards to certain elite wrestlers could compete at the highest level in Ohio....its just filling in the gaps between those top kids and that next tier. I was at the KY state tourney this year and went to my kids district the week after and feel I have a fair comparison to where the talent is at. I am getting long winded...With that said, KY has grown tons ever since I wrestled in the 90's and is ultimately going in the right direction. There are new youth and high school programs every year and more wrestlers and more experienced coaches. If it continues the path, 10-15 years from now Kentucky could be funneling kids into division 1 colleges everywhere. Keep up the great work coaches and wrestlers...keep raising the bar!

Not sure if I am looking at the bracket right, but it looks like Jarvis and Rusch would likely meet in the 2nd round at state. That would be a very tough second round match.

Was Rusch not at 160?

Does anyone have the results? What happened in the Jarvis/Hitchings match?

Really?? Nobody posting results?

Congratulations John!! I saw you wrestled Mentor in the Semi's. That is where Ben will be going to high school in a couple years. Kind of crazy. Keep doing a great job. We're all proud of ya! - Coach Thomas

Sorry to hear it Josh. You did a great job with the program and were definitely running things the right way. I know those wrestlers are definitely going to miss you as well. Thank you for all your help!!!! I will keep an ear out of anyone who may be interested. Take care...Thomas

DW, I have to agree with Stan as well. This is coach Watson from Fern Creek and I booked 16 certified referees for the youth state tournament last year because we felt very strongly that these kids deserved the same officiating the MS and HS kids receive. There was not a single referee out there that was not certified. This has been discussed at youth meetings and I know Stan and Kyle both feel strongly that these events should be officiated by certified referees. No worries. Stan and Kyle have both worked very hard for youth wrestling and their work is keeping youth wrestling going in the right direction for Kentucky. I just hope more and more coaches get involved going forward.

What were the team results?

The real question is how do you get the coaches who disagree actually take the time to have their opinions heard at one of the youth meetings? I was at the spring meeting when some of these decisions were brought to the table and almost all the votes were 100%. So I am curious who actually disagrees, and why weren't they at the meeting. Its simple, if you care, take the time to get involved with the process. There will be another meeting in the spring and in the fall. It is a STATE coaches meeting and all Kentucky coaches are invited. Its like not voting in an election and then compaining about the President. If you are a parent, talk to your coach and express your concerns and make sure they go to represent your team. If you don't take the time to have your opinion heard at the meeting, don't get on the internet and criticize everyone who did take the time to go. Especially just weeks before the tournament. The spring and fall meetings are the time and the place to voice your concerns or complaints, not the internet. Hope all the coaches make it to the spring meeting and help Kentucky wrestling continue to go in the right direction.