gameface

Added Cole Thomas today.

Isham Peace with Walton Verona has moved out of state. He will be greatly missed by all of us in Northern Kentucky. A great wrestler and a even better young man off the mat. Look forward to seeing him as a State Champ in South Carolina next year. Also I seen my good buddy Blue Fletcher is with Lawrence County Bulldogs and Kolby Koepp has transferred to Paducah Tillman. Raneys and Jenkins have sent their boys to Union County. A lot of toolboxes in the state getting new hammers!!! Good luck to all these young men at their new homes.

We need to have the Coaches association formally request to use track mat-side/video . If they deny it, ask them to provide an equal coverage that they provided Football and Basketball. If they chose not to, then maybe we see what options are out there that defines prejudice or discrimination against wrestling. Title 9 is just right around the corner with all the success female wrestlers are having in other states and the lack of support by the KHSAA. I’m sure the females wrestling not getting the support they deserve would be an interesting topic in a legal field for some of these parents looking for scholarships in the future. Lack of coverage could hurt these athletes in pursuing college scholarships.

Agreed 100%. There’s a financial winfall for KHSAA with no ownership to it. They could let A college media program do it and sell a connection/coverage fee to cover costs. The girls and boys basketball has great coverage during the games, post and pre game. Not to mention the video they put together for the finals. The had it edited within hours and up on Rupps big screen for the finals!

what’s it going to take to get coverage for HS State?

OLIVIA MESSERLY U15 50kg World Champion!!! Incredible work!

It’s now officially Tuesday!! Olivia wrestles at 4 am this morning. Her Mom is going to try and Facebook live it under AddiLivMesserly. Go get It Liv!!!

Brandon “Dutch” Cornett dubbed my son Cole Thomas “Gameface” back when he was 5 and when Dutch and Mason Smith were with the Darkside RAIDERS!!! I figured I’d make that my forum name because I appreciated his friendship and outlook on my son. I am Darren Thomas with the Ryle Raider program.

Congratulations to so many of the Kentucky girls that represented Kentucky in Texas!! Olivia Messerly is the 15U Champion at 50Kg. Lauren walton takes 3rd in the same bracket!! Addison Messerly, Olivia Messerly and Lauren Walton all won their brackets on Saturday and became All Americans. Great job girls!

Where did you see this or hear this. Nothing in their site or yappi.

Haha!! I’m glad to hand it off. It was a awesome trip the last 2 years and I enjoyed the friendships I made all over the State. Just don’t blow up your wife’s SUV and have to buy her a new one to get home!!

How is this list looking for the Dual teams. I’m courious how many came down from Northern Kentucky to wrestle off?

All star division you are allowed 3 members of your team from attached states. That comes from the head coach. We are just honored they considered Cole.

Our mailing address is Walton!! I only own Black, Gray and Orange!!! Plus I’m only coming to see Mrs. Dutch anyways and to fish off your brothers yacht!!

Where did you see Cole Thomas registered for Team Indiana? Cole was asked to wrestle for IndianaMat All Stars at Disney Duals. If it weren’t for us already purchasing airline tickets and plans with Dutch and his wife at their new house in Florida for spring break, we would have loved to wrestle with Team Kentucky. Some amazing kids on the team and always great competition. Sorry to be missing it to hang with DUTCH!!!!

I can tell you we’ve gone to USA events and when there wasn’t enough participants for a age group or weight group, the brackets were written it and combined. I’ve seen them offer the award for the weight/age class that had only 1 kid in it but then moved the kid at weigh ins into another bracket. Why can’t a wrestler that wants to wrestle and their class has no other wrestler, bump up in weight and age to compete? Maybe Jon Carr can weigh in from a Ky USA standpoint?

So in the past when there wasn’t enough wrestlers for a weight class or age group, why was it allowed to combine? These were sanctioned USA tournaments. I thought it was up to the tournament director discretion to allow combined classes. I think we’d rather have the wrestlers competing if their willing to bump up in weight or age group than not competing at all. IMO I know we have at least 6-10 wanting to compete for the triple crown but don’t want to come down to wrestle a 2 man round robin.

We’ve all been doing this for several years and I enjoy reading all the comments from people all over the state that have the same love and passion for this sport as I do. However, name one time, anyone on the committee has commented or taking part in a discussion with this group or the coaches association to find out what the wrestling community really wants and how it can be accomplished. We all know that Mike Barren runs the KHSAA wrestling and Julian Tackett runs all of KHSAA. And we know that there is a wrestling committee. But talking with one of the coaches on the committee, he stated nothing was changing unless those 2 in charge want it to change. So let’s talk about how do we get the mindset changed. What about a spring meeting for Q&A in Frankfurt with the coaches on the committee and heads of KHSAA? Or a advocate for the wrestling community that can come back and discuss what can and can’t be done for this sport with us. What do they do for Basketball and Football differently than they do for wrestling? Lastly, When the coaches are told that the mats are being left on the floor in their current location for the finals match. How closed minded is that. It took the coaches just doing 10 minutes worth of work to break down the floor and five these athletes and fans a finals mat. The wrestlers are doing their part. We seen exciting matches and the talent level continues to grow.

Off season tournaments need to invest in better awards and actually post the pictures of what they are when they post the event flier. If you watch the NuWay tournaments, everyone goes for the awards. This creates more numbers and better competition. Also Spatola has put together nice awards, belts in the past and now shields. Kids want trophies and big awards. Parents want trophies and big award. Little 1/2 dollar medals with generic print does not create excitement when they can cross the river to Ohio, Indiana or West Virginia and get huge awards and loaded brackets for just a couple $$ more at the entry fee. People in this sport don’t mind spending the money if they see the value!!

They need to open up registration and wrestlers list to public. We have twice went to events where there was a 3 man round robin combining 2 weight classes. You won’t get commitments from coaches until they can see the list and connect with other teams and talk them into bringing more kids/better competition. Look what happened with the FS/Greco State last year. The secrets cost them competitors. IMO

We will have a few going from Ryle.

Broadbent has worked well for our middle school and youth but as some have stated, it has little to no concessions, the parking and the entry is horrible for the fans, access to the stands are from the competition floor only. Even with security, it is a logistic headache. No place for staging or warm up mats unless it’s out on the floor similar to horse park. Freedom Hall seems like the best option as long as parking and re entry is worked out to allow people to come and go freely. Plenty of hotels. Main highways from every part of the state leading in and out, and hotel and restaurants everywhere for the teams and fans.

That looks like a smart pick next year at one of the top of list. He is a beast. You guys need to bottle up some of that air and soil down in Union County and sell it!!

I’d say contacting Julien Tackett or Mike Barron directly. If they offer it televised or streamed for Basketball, then that should used by the wrestling association to ask for transparency and equality. Just like Girls State Wrestling, I’m sure they will pick it up this year, since they didn’t last month and the association put it on, if they’re not wanting issues with title 9 lawsuits from parents with girls.

Chris Duke, now that the dust has settled in the horse park, who is the champion and who picked the most winners? Looked like Dr. Baker or LCalum had a lot of winners!