gameface

Tomerlin is a beast. Bodenbender has been such a powerhouse for us this year and dominated in so many matches. Then we finally get to see what a Bodenbender looks like weighing 168! Wow he's an amazing young man. Look forward to seeing him on the HS podium for the next 4 years!!

Just like March Madness!! Who do you see in the finals. And if you want to add your winner and score. Let's have some fun and see who gets the most face offs correct once the dust settles in Louisville. Obviously some have favorites an bias so let it out!!! This is a great sport and these are some great kids. Best of luck to everyone chasing their dream.

He's exactly right on the face offs. We had every intention on doing them but with the number of kids we still had many brackets close in weight and 16 man full. Also with the first year of trying to run it all on track it did cost us some time. We tried making it up but it wasn't enough time. Some great information was gathered by things done right and things to improve on for next year. Should be a great 2018 State!

Your kidding right?? How about not being a jerk toward a kid. Nothing political about that. Just good old common sense!

I thought it was tasteless and disrespectful. And I don't consider myself politically correct but I do know when I talk about kids I don't bash them when 1 succeeds over the other. She didn't have the day she was hoping to have. And the little stud that did win it all wrestled great and earned his title! Leave it to a parent to cast a cloud!

I picked someone else other than Willis to win but I'm not hating on the kid. I thought he was an absolute beast and set the stage for a great finals the rest of the way. Keep in mind, these are young men that don't even have their drivers license yet. How can you have anything but respect and appreciation for what he and every other wrestler in that building put out on the mat our heavy went 1-2 and I still have so much respect for him just doing his best and putting it out there. CELEBRATE THE VICTORY!!

YES THE FOG MACHINES!! We took the fog machines to the All Star Event 2 years ago and set off all the fire alarms. We had 2 kids running them and they hammered it!! It was a lot of fun but me Dutch and Ranger got into a little trouble with the fire dept!! . I bet we could do it at the 2 tunnels with some color lighting at the mouth of the tunnel! That would be awesome for next year. I like the coach to wrestler ratio for Youth. All day the tables were radioing me for coaches and I kept announcing. But with clubs where they can't get any parents to step up, it's hard and I feel for them. Glad clubs like Holmes, Taylor Mill and Cov Cath have a good core or 2 coaches that try and build a solid youth program with none of their own children wrestling in it at times!

I agree with rjs4470, not enough people willing come down and help run a table for the benefit of their wrestler and the sport. But will sit in the stands and complain about the view. Believe it or not, 98% of the people on the floor had coaches bands that their coach gave to them. They are the adults that help out with the teams. Some teams have large number of kids and need extra help on mats coaching. Also the food was a huge issue, I agree. Even the overpriced horrible pizza we got for running it all weekend. And that was a slice if you were lucky. The Broadbent is the right venue for the youth and MS state. All the venues are overpriced food. Last year downtown Louisville ran out of food. So did the horse park 4 years ago. That is something we will have to work out with the venue for next year.

I'm confused by your response. None said anything about you volunteering or not volunteering. This was a direct comment about someone being negative toward River City (which I'm not a part of) for a decision the KSWA leadership (which I am apart of) to hold weigh ins on Sunday. So that more kids could wrestle in the state championships. For the benefit of the ones that either didn't want to or couldn't afford just to come down a day earlier for the sole purpose of weighing in. As for volunteers, I spent all day Sunday on the Microphone asking people to come down and help on the 24 table, 2 sessions. If you wanted to help and didn't, you might have not been there Sunday. It's OK. We got it done by some amazing People!

I second what twenhofelcoach stated. Duke puts a lot of thought, time and effort into these rankings for our enjoyment. I know the majority of us have enjoyed watching all of these great wrestlers over the years and I personally love seeing my sons name on that list every year. As for time away from his family, we that know his wife and boys KNOW they've enjoyed the time away from him too and consider it not nearly enough of a vacation!

How can anyone possibly say that Western Kentucky is overlooked? Union County has always been on top and have so much talent. Their names are all over MS and HS "opinion rankings". Johnson Central always has the big studs and some great wrestlers always in the rankings. Riley Johnson wrestled his tail off today and earned a spot in the finals. Great kid!! But don't put down another wrestler like the 6th grade girl from Ryle. She may not have wrestled her best but she is an amazing female wrestler in this buzz saw boy field along with the little hammer from CWA in Lauren Walton! Congratulations to all the wrestlers on a great year!

Which volunteer were you today? As much BS that KSWA took for not having same day weigh ins for the people that didn't want or couldn't afford to stay the extra night in the hotel, I thought they did a great job with over 1200 kids in a one day tournament. Secondly, the River City team did an amazing job running the KSWA youth and Middle school tournaments. Total class acts! 1st year running the whole tournament on Track, 24 mat surfaces. Great Job KSWA and River City. Maybe Hammerhead 213 should join Basketball. In and out of the gym in a hour!

Thank you!! I have to say that Union County and McCracken looked great today. It was awesome that how it aligned we had Union in the last dual. It was exciting. Union County, Coach Carr and Coach Irvin are acts and hosted a great day!

State Duals are this weekend and Youth and Middle School is next weekend.

Here's my hammers that I'm putting in the finals. Good luck to all that are going to state and remember, anyone can be beat on any given day! 70 Spaulding* vs Vega 75 Moore* vs Messerly 80 Thomas* vs Peace 86 Chapman* vs Kinley 92 Grandstaff* vs Herron 98 Hanson* vs Grandstaff 105 Lee* vs Preston 113 Adams* vs Cowan 121 Tom KC* vs Wittry 130 Little* vs Conner 140 Carr* vs Giannone 152 Duke* vs Rodriguez 168 Bodenbender* vs Tomerlin 190 Russell* vs Leicht 240 Walley* vs Arthur * indicates winner.

You gotta get your predictions in before Ranger does his. This is just for fun from your objective opinion.

You'd still need a criteria to qualify for the event. Post season works best with Districts being the qualifier. We just need to find a venue that is the happy medium for both the West and East sided of our state. Johnson and Union are staples in Kentucky wrestling and should be there with the NKY teams, Louisville and Lexington area.

I'm just glad to see atleast 7 teams make it down. Although Union County are some of the best host in the state and set the standard on many things, I can't help but think how much better this could be if we could do a shared venue with HS and get a larger facility and share the cost. 8 mats and stands filled with all the best kids in the state and their fans!!

Coach Carr, are these the teams that we should expect to see at State Duals?

That's half way for a vacation!! They should alternate State Duals between Louisville and Lexington. Would seem easier to get teams to travel to these 2 major cities with hotels, restaurants. Also this seems to be the center of our state.

In my opinion, The problem with doing same day weigh ins for almost a 1000 wrestlers is that it takes time to enter these into track or mat magic to create brackets. Then when creating brackets using the 10% and not having kids from the same team or region wrestle against each other the 1st round, you have to manually change these around. Their are so many senerios to take into consideration. If you want a true youth Championships, we need to follow the blueprint Ohio is using. Qualify kids in specific weight classes and have those weights entered by a referee or someone that won't cheat the weights. But even if you qualify these wrestlers, you will have less at state and they will still need to weigh in the morning of. Unfortantly we just don't have the numbers.

Union County!!

I love the rankings and appreciate the time and effort Duke puts into it. Like Ranger did the past several years, someone stepped up and grabbed the torch. Without these rankings, there's not much discussion about Middle School wrestling. It is just a vessel to help get the names out of some promising wrestlers working hard. In a sport that doesn't give participation ribbons and gives you bloody noses, the kids that get ranked do enjoy the shout out. As for Rangers kid being ranked 1st all year, it has been done because he's a coaches kid. Duke didn't want his Dad sad!!(insert sarcasm) Little Ranger is a hit man dressed up like a 75 lb choir boy!!!

Ryle wrestlers I know of: Kyle Ruschell, TJ Ruschell-(Wisconsin), Mason Reed (Mich. St.), Conner Coyle (Naval Academy) Michael Osborne (Air Force Academy), Bryan Peace (Princeton) Jake Bradford, Court Mace, Gus Adams( Lindsay Wilson), Logan Erdman (Campbellsville) Jake Erdman (Thomas More),

I've looked everywhere to try and find what schools in Kentucky have placed the most wrestlers into College wrestling. NAIA to D1 in the last 20 years. Who better to ask but the experts! Please share your knowledge. This should be fun!