raidercoach

I had a college teammate who was stalled out in OT in the Ohio state finals..so it does happen there too. Growing up near Ohio, we wrestled about half our matches across the river and stalling was completely different over there. If you were on top and weren’t turning the bottom guy, you were called for stalling. I knew I had about 15-20 seconds to turn the kid or else I was going to get hit so you had to kick them out.

Great list. Although, Dave should get some extra credit for rocking that sweet stache his senior year.

I think you can make a case that both N Boston and M Lee are right. You may think the refs may have made what they interpret is the right call based on their interpretation of that particular rule. However, you can also think the refs misinterpreted the rule and shouldn't have called it. To me that's a bad call for a couple of reasons. First, even the rule Nathan Boston is referencing to justify the call is open to subjectivity. It doesn't appear at all that the top wrestler "grasps the heel". The heel ended up pinned against the butt from a scramble, not by the top wrestler "grasping" it. Also, the intent of any stalling rule should be to simply promote action and to punish those who aren't actively trying to better their position. From the video, it appears the top wrestler is actively wrestling and the bottom wrestler appears to be doing little to get out at the time the call was made. Even if you believe the rule is clearly defined, which in this case I would argue it is not based on the aforementioned point, the ref still has the choice to call it or not. No one wants to see a state title determined by the refs unless it is clearly obvious. I doubt anyone would have been upset if they just let them go to overtime. One of my best friends growing up, Tom Storms, was a 2 time defending state champ and got stalled out in the finals his senior year. As much as I hated it for him, he was clearly stalling/backing up after being warned many times prior. Its hard to tell from this video, but it doesn't appear the refs gave any warning prior to making the call. Had that happened, I might feel a little different.

This is the attitude we need for change. There is absolutely NO reason for us to accept our state tournament to be held in a high school gym. We need to be flexible on dates, locations, and do whatever it takes to make the state tournament a bigger event than it is now. Money shouldn’t be an excuse either. If that’s the problem, I know many people that would be willing to help out financially. I love the sport of wrestling. I have a 5 year old son who I am torn on introducing to the sport. Part of me thinks he’d benefit from what everyone who has ever wrestled learned from the sport. Then part of me thinks his time might be better invested in other sports that are more supported by our state. The support wrestling gets in this state is pathetic. A middle school basketball team gets more support than most top high school wrestling teams. And we wonder why kids don’t want to wrestle. We should never accept hosting our state tournament in a high school gym. That’s a complete insult to the kids and demonstrates a failure by the adults making decisions. I watched videos from last year’s state finals and felt really bad for those kids. The fact our state tournament is held in a high school gym just highlights our pathetic leadership at the state level. I don’t know any of the people in charge, but anyone who is involved with planning our state tournament at a high school gym should be ashamed of themselves. I guarantee I could get 5 buddies and a few weeks of planning and we could plan a better tournament than what we have now.

Best Careers: Dave Ritchey, Joe Carr Jr, Brock Irvin, Harrison Courtney, Issac Knable, Austin Myers Most Dominant Season: Dave Barnes Best Post-High School Careers: Dominic Black, Dave Barnes, Kyle Ruschell

I agree that for an individual’s overall development, having a single state tournament probably doesn’t mean anything. However, it means a lot to the credibility of the state youth association. It’s the one tournament where the state comes together and showcases kids from all over. Take away the allure of it being a “state championship” and you’ll end up with a bunch of small regional tournaments that accomplishes very little to get the best kids from all over the state to attend.

I think the state needs to maintain a single recognized youth state championship, so what it’s called does matter. A long time ago before the youth association was created, there were multiple so called “state championships” across the state which resulted in essentially having no real state championship.

Wouldn’t this just make the first tournament a qualifier? I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, but basically your proposal is creating an open regional tournament then a state tournament with qualifiers. I think it would be hard to call the first tournament a “state championship”.

I’m confused by this logic. Aren’t the youth state brackets separated by age groups? Hence, any 8th grader wrestling a 5th grader would be relatively close in age. If that’s the case one of those kids is likely in the wrong grade. Youth wrestling has always paired kids up by age as close as they’ll ever be in any time of their lives competing. I really don’t see how that’s unfair. If a kid is able to wrestle up in the middle school ranks as a youth aged kid, why take away his/her opportunity to compete at youth state if they chose to? I’ve never understood how that benefits anyone.

I always felt Memorial Coliseum would be ideal. Centrally located, plenty of hotels around LEXINGTON, seems to be the right size, and seating is set up way better than Alltech. Alltech is an absolute dump and it’s embarrassing to the state that we have our state tournament on essentially a dirt floor.

Ha...pretty sure you had the closest match with Tommy that year, including a win he had over an Ohio state champ that year at GMVWA.

I’m sure there were brackets with more, but our 112 bracket in 1991 had 5 (Pat White, Mike Lee, Brandon Wilkens, Greg Woodring, and Vernon Jackson).

Matt Lee won Districts 5 times back when we had Districts and Regionals, which is essentially what’s called Regionals now. He would have won Regionals 5 times but broke his collar bone in the first round of Regionals his Freshman year.

Your opinion of "match avoidance" is very flawed. You could make a case that any wrestler that ever cut a pound is "match avoiding". I mean according to your logic, why "run form a challenge"? Just wrestle your natural weight, hell bump up and wrestle heavier kids for the "challenge". The goal is to put yourself in the best position to win, for the individual and for the team. Whether it is managing weight to get to the optimal weight class or doing what you are accusing the Ryle coaches of doing, its all for the purpose of putting yourself in the best position to win. I assure you no one is "teaching his wrestler to run from a challenge" and anything Vega got from a seed standpoint, he earned.

Really surprised by this response. Trying to draw comparisons to an ADULT losing his cool, cussing, and threatening another adult in front of kids to bumping a kid up during a dual meet for seeding strategy makes no sense. Even if that was the reason for moving Vega up for the dual, doing that is perfectly within the rules at every state, at every level of wrestling and is in no way poor sportsmanship. What this coach did is specifically forbidden in the rules, poor sportsmanship, and horrible behavior in front of kids. Coaches bump wrestlers up in dual meets all the time for many reasons....it is perfectly acceptable and within the rules. Trying to justify the behavior of the coach's reaction to this is idiotic. He messed up and was dealt with appropriately.