Cheerleader

Again, thank you for sharing your expertise, strategies, and passion for the sport. I am truly humbled by your example and your commitment. Every wrestler that attends has an outstanding coaching staff at his home school. Yet, there is something extraordinary when champions from across the state wrestle in the same room. They generate an energy that you can almost feel (and definitely smell) in the room. It's not just "open-mat"--it's training to win, to persevere, to succeed. Thank you, once more, for this unique opportunity.

Thank you SO MUCH for providing this opportunity! It was exactly what we were looking for.

I like your criteria in determining toughest weight class--"There was nowhere to hide, no easy match. If you won, your next match was a high ranking, skilled, tough oppenent. If you lost, same thing." 126 fits that pretty well. Also the region match-ups at 126 made it even more challenging. That's my vote--126.

Most definitely not.

In order to determine true REGION strength, you might need to look at how many DIFFERENT schools in a region place, score, etc. If one really tough team dominates a region and then also dominates at state, that may not indicate that their REGION is the strongest, but that a particular team in the region is strong. (Maybe you did that; I haven't looked at it yet.) :-) I love the statistics. Thanks for calculating it all up and sharing!

I agree that if you look at the whole county, Oldham County wrestling may not seem as strong as in the past. However, Oldham County High School was the State Duals runner up this year. That's pretty good, right? Seems like they are more of a dual team than tournment team at this time. I think at State they only qualified 12 (not all 14), and then Emerson was injured and couldn't continue, so he could have scored more points for the team. So, that may be why they didn't end in the top 10. Also, I've heard the team was really young. Only 2 seniors will graduate. Next year, I think the team will have two seniors and a whole bunch of very talented and now more experienced juniors/sophomores. I wouldn't count them out just yet. Also, Oldham County has pretty good feeder programs run by experienced coaches at the elementary and middle school levels. If anything, I think it's just a building year for all the teams. But, only time will tell if they reach their potentials.

Maybe that will be the new forum contest--guess which mat finals will be wrestled on! :-)

Well . . . Except for the really awkward face-offs, seems like the finals met everyone's expectations! Good for us!

Wrestling is a sport where early training definitely pays off. The only down side is possible early burnout. It is really difficult for a kid to "take a year off" to try another sport and then come back at the same level. It can happen (Blanton), but he's an exception rather than the rule.

Oh I didn't know he might not wrestle.

No Emerson anywhere?

Do you think that would be a good idea?

As wrestling continues to improve in Kentucky, have they ever considered seeding the top 8 kids or so? We keep having number 1 kids having to meet in the quarters. I know it adds to the excitement and the way they do it now is technically "fair," but do we actually have the best two wrestlers in the finals? I'm curious to hear your opinions and possible suggestions.

170 Emerson has a shot, bigger bro of Emerson at 126

I don't think we should make too big a fuss about the medals. My son wisely told me, "It's not the medal, it's the memory that's important." (Don't you hate when they start developing integrity--then use it against you?)