KY vs The world

[Mpire 76]

Just sounded good since another state started a similar thread trying to pat its own back . One poster from Moe really rubbed me the wrong way by saying no kid in ky was nationally ranked , I guess he meant by himself oddly enough his own kid was in a class at Swowca that was won by a kid who was nationally ranked this year Kevin Cooper .

As for comparing some others who came from oh saying they have wrestled no one well at least 5 of their state champs and dozens of their top placers have lost to them or places behind them in HS tournys including their OW who bumped last yr to avoid the match at Swowca just like theY year before in freestyle Greco petitioning on rather than wrestling to avoid a loss .

I thought Fahy Stephen Cooper Carr and Austin were all ranked and I don't see how Brock or Yenter wouldn't be and I thought Jude was ranked also . Guess you have to be ranked by Ohio guys in order to count , USA wrestling is more reputable than most I would go by them first before some Northern Ohio ran propaganda page . Regardless of how exotically egocentricly weird the ranker is .

If they want to pick on some kids who have been off the Matt for months and have had some problems then that shows how scared they are an how mad they are about being shown up for years , how MADD will they be when Austin humiliates everyone in their state in a year or so .

Funny he's actually ticked off some clown saying he wouldn't make it out of districts in oh he would hav been 95 or 82 and no one in oh scored on him last yr.and only 1 kid made it past the second per .

Yenter beat Byrd Cooper beat a bunch of good kids as did Faust and OH is much deeper but since they are concerned with picking on people to feel good about themselves i will pick on them Their are a whole lot of state champs an placers in oh that have lost to a kid they are bent on downing much more than they will ever have in the win column , and they are about to get the beating of their lives at Swowca next yr of thy all do not run their prima donnas like in the past , I don't have to dance around words .no one likes me anyway lol

[Bluesdad 73]

Kentuckys wrestling is catching up with Ohio very fast. I've watched some high school (including the whole state tournament) but mostly I deal with middle school and youth. My son is a 8 yr old 2nd grader and the only time he has wrestled in the state of Kentucky is middle school(which he finished 4th in his region) and the youth state tournament. He has not lost in the state of Ohio in youth tournaments. We have wrestled from Cleveland to Bidwell to New Lexington so we have wrestled all around the state. He has wrestled all the top kids in his weight class (65lbs) from Ohio. He has had one close match in Ohio and that was to a kid named Cody Mathews. His coach told me he hadn't lost this year. Blue won 8-4 in a match that was actually closer than the scores seems. But my point is this. People always say Ky kids can't compete with OH kids. I say bull crap. We here at Johnson Central have 2 kids that travel 3, 4, and 5 hours to states such as PA, WV, OH, TN, VA and so on every weekend to compete with the best youth kids out there. Guess what they do compete and compete quite well. So I think Ky is catching up to the other states around us very quickly and they know it. Blues youth record is 42-3 with is only loses coming to a PA state champ(3-6), a OK state champ(3-5), a WV state champ(12-9) crazy match. So KY kids can and will compete with the best kids in the country IMO.

[Mpire 76]

I agree ,congrats to your kid an team they sound like studs and you seem to know what needs to be done to make help make your kid a champion , train and wrestle the best comp you can and if you can't train more do what it takes

[Bluesdad 73]

Thanks. Yeah it's a lot of time, money, and travel but in the end I believe it will all be worth it. To be the best you have to wrestle the best and thats what we try to do. Are there going to be any camps up your way this summer? Are your boys going to be helping at any of the summer camps? Your kids are studs and I love watching them wrestling. JJ Jude and Sam Preston work with my boys a lot and it's making them better and coach Matneys not a bad coach to learn from he does great with them.

[Mpire 76]

Jude is jacked up and the Preston kid was impressive thats a good mix , not sure it's possible they help some they work with the kids I train in the off season ,

[2yankees3 2]

I agree. Kentucky wrestling is coming fast. We are in southern ky, so we go south and wrestle in a lot of 16-32 man brackets to get mat time. My 7 year old is 47-9 this season and 4 loses are wreslting an age group up and a weight class. He was state champ here in his second full year. He won the aau youth regional in tennessee last weekend and they will not allow hin to wrestle in their state tournament this saturday because he wrestled in kentucky's. He also was asked to tryout for their elementary dual team on sunday, but some coaches have complained and now he isnt going to be able to. Pretty upset about this because they have taken my money since december 3 and first said he was eligible. We are hoping to go train with the Meyers after school is out and are goning to the youth nationals later this month and hoping to wrestle some of the coaches that are doing the complaing. We also have a 50, 90, and 95 that can wrestle with anyone. Travis sullivan and his dad have helped greatly with our young kids. My son hits everthing from a peterson to a syracuse in matches. Cant wait to see some of these OH wrestlers on the mat. After all, Ky wrestling is 2nd rate and we have no chance of beating these guys.

[crazyotto 381]

I read the board that contained the OH vs KY thread. You should have posted there. Certainly KY is coming along, but to think KY (outside of a few select wrestlers) can compete with OH is borderline delusional. It was suggested on the other board to refer to Baum's Page. Look at how the Kentucky teams do in these tournaments. Outside of Coaches Classic and maybe GMV tourney, the other events are quite weak by OH standards. The OH teams placing ahead of KY teams are non factors at the state level. Some of those OH teams that placed ahead of KY teams scored no points and/or sent no wrestlers to the state tournament. KY teams are losing to weak OH teams. I do not mean to belittle KY wrestling, I am just stating fact. If memory serves, KY teams did not cross the river until recently. Keep it up, take your lumps and grow! Look to attend bigger and better events. Brecksville Holiday and Medina come to mind as strong OH events. Do well at these and then we will talk. Moeller is closer to home. They host a great duals tourney. St X and Trinity have gone.

[Bluesdad 73]

Yes as a whole Ky is still weaker than OH. But my point is if Ky took a (because I not have a better word) All-star team up to Oh with Ky cream of the crop wrestlers Ky would hang with them. I would love to put a full team together and do just this. I'm taking Blue to the Vipet Pit, Tournamentof Champions, and the cliff keen tourney in Oklahoma coming up. There we will see how he is progressing. But last year Blue wrestled the kid( Hartley kid) that placed 2nd in his age and weight division at the Tournament of Champions. He pinned him in the 2nd period at Bidwell Oh. So yes OH is still ahead of Ky as a whole but not at the top levels of the sport IMO.

[Mpire 76]

As has been stated the depth is much greater but there have been Ky kids doing well in OH , of course my personal beef was with a few blasting my kids I know why they comment they know kids have been off the Matt and wish to hit someone when they are down because that's the only way they can beat certain kids who have shown them up, I doubt any Norther Oh people care about Ky it's obviously the SW guys who are ticked at having been outdone by Northern Oh and some kids who came to ky .

To say a kid wouldn't make it out of districts is a mistake Austin has never not made it out of districts since 1 st grade same for Steph an both are the only two to win jr high dist every yr ,

Of course they would not be the weight they were in ky that was not thee choice as falsely reported they were not allowed to drop because they did not make weight or get the chance to rather although Steph did but it was before he was allowed to , they should do away with how they do weight very in ky it's unfair and hold kid back making matchup a unfair at times .

Can't post on yappi and didn't do anything to get banned except reply to a dirty pm by a hater .

Noticed They are still on aCollica kick Stephen beat him at every level grade school jr high and HS and he beat and places higher than Newhouse an Bright . As for the rankings comments ky kids are ranked and Stephen was voted # 1 125 lb wrestler in OH last yr and just because someone crosses the river doesn't mean they forget how to wrestle , and josh Lowe smoothing with the haters and dropping kids from his rankings is a joke ,he simply has a chance to blast two kids from Cincy who showed him and his buddies up and gave the SW some hope you know it and everyone in oh Does as well we did it first and better and set the bar .

Of course the current moe clique has a chip on its shoulder having been whipping dogs for the boys for yrs their fab fresh haven't lives up to their expectation or Stephen and Austin will end up where none of them could a 4 timer who dominate Oh Ed's is down next yr bet they still beat moe it's in their psyche ,

Don't know what they mean about puberty and me hiding kids steph wrestled HS for two yrs in oh 93 and 4 I think h wrestled all grades all kids and Austim wrestled open tournys in summer in HS div for yrs he beat two moe kids as an 7th grader over summer one yr

Regardless I'm beating a dead horse myself they seem bent on attacking us when I compliment all who deserve it and yeah I think it's funny their ow ran from Steph last yt at Swowca and still lost to a no ranked kid , that's one of Moes greatest guess , now I'm thinking Austin ends up better than any kid in Cincy ever he knocks out 4 even in ky but at a big weight and he will beat everyone in oh by his jr yr easily just as he did in jr high and jr high in oh is one div,

Ignorant for them to attack him as for his development he has gotten much stronger since the end of the season he would be a contender at 195 in oh next yr without ?

Fahy ,Cooper ,Brock , Jayce , Yenter , Faust , Hamilton , and some others would all do well in Oh Jude with a few weeks of top caliber partners would do well I'm sure that's what athletes do in those situations .

Probably quite a few I missed a for all the ky teams didn't do well against oh teams that did poorly at state talk CC would have beaten a lot of teams at state that they might not at smaller tournys it's the nature of the sport top guns score big at big tournys ,

There are a few teams in Nky that can compete and a few outside of Nky that could compete in Oh not knocking off Ed's or graham but hanging with the average to slightly better teams and gaining i do think it's very possible for a few ky kids to do better than their Oh counterparts and I am sure of one who will and know one who did ,

My point is they seem to try to pay themselves on the back by knocking people who are improving ,take it as the compliment it really is they wouldn't be talking if they were not concerned after being 2 nd rate to Northern OH for so long some Cincy people need an ego boost let them feel confident it makes it that much easier to catch up to them I think some of the wins this yr ky kids had over some of the better Cincy kids woke them up a bit,

[Buckeye 20]

I read the board that contained the OH vs KY thread. You should have posted there. Certainly KY is coming along, but to think KY (outside of a few select wrestlers) can compete with OH is borderline delusional. It was suggested on the other board to refer to Baum's Page. Look at how the Kentucky teams do in these tournaments. Outside of Coaches Classic and maybe GMV tourney, the other events are quite weak by OH standards. The OH teams placing ahead of KY teams are non factors at the state level. Some of those OH teams that placed ahead of KY teams scored no points and/or sent no wrestlers to the state tournament. KY teams are losing to weak OH teams. I do not mean to belittle KY wrestling, I am just stating fact. If memory serves, KY teams did not cross the river until recently. Keep it up, take your lumps and grow! Look to attend bigger and better events. Brecksville Holiday and Medina come to mind as strong OH events. Do well at these and then we will talk. Moeller is closer to home. They host a great duals tourney. St X and Trinity have gone.

You are only partially correct. A team with 14 upper mediocre wrestlers can place higher at a weaker tournament than a team that scores a large number of points at the state tournament. You know as well as I do its not necessarily a team effort at state tournament. Its the number of wrestlers you qualify out of district tournament that are able to win matches at state tournament that decides how you do with state placement.

Mpire is correct big guns score big at big tourneys. Sorry Mpire I was typing when you posted.

[Mpire 76]

Yes and I was misstyping lol .

[crazyotto 381]

You are only partially correct. A team with 14 upper mediocre wrestlers can place higher at a weaker tournament than a team that scores a large number of points at the state tournament. You know as well as I do its not necessarily a team effort at state tournament. Its the number of wrestlers you qualify out of district tournament that are able to win matches at state tournament that decides how you do with state placement.

Mpire is correct big guns score big at big tourneys. Sorry Mpire I was typing when you posted.

True enough, a few big guns can skew the team results just as having a team of solid wrestlers can win a dual but lay an egg at the state tournament. At state duals Massillon Perry lost a close one to Moeller, however they far outpaced Moeller at state with multiple champs. As for individual events, I looked up the info on Baum's and all I gotta say is a$$ whippin by the OH teams in mediocre tourneys. Moeller duals were the only team event I knew of and it was real ugly for Trinity and St X. Those team lost matches by 50, 60 points. This happened two years in a row. Someone in another discussion noted that those teams were w/out some guys due to football. Must've been the entire team. Hey, I took note of the KY kids that did well in OH. Cooper would be near the top. Yenter would place as high as 2nd. Fahy would hold his own, top six. The Myers kids, in shape would be tough. Stephen wins at 38, 1st or 2nd at 45, 2nd at 52. Austin top four at 95 and 220, quite a feat for a freshman! I am only looking at DI as that is where my focus usually is. Looking at all divisions: KY all stars vs OH DI, looks to be 12-2 OH. DII somewhere between 10-4 and 12-2. DIII looks to be much better, possibly a win for KY 8-6 in matches won. OH all stars vs KY all stars is no closer than 12-2, possible shut out. OH all stars is comprised of a line up fully stocked with nationally ranked wrestlers. Nine are ranked top 5, 13 are top 10. One resides outside the top ten, Suvak from St Eds. Some weights have multiple representation. So, at 120 Yenter gets #1 DiCamillo. Fahy will test his luck against top 3 Nate Skonieczny. 45 finds top ten Collica while 52 has #1 Bo Jordan. Cooper and Myers can flip weights where Myers may beat Collica (did it before) and KY earns the split. The other KY hopeful would be Austin Myers. Does he go 82 and take on one of three top tens in Abounader, Evans, or Gresham? Does he go 95 and face top 20 in Suvak? Bump all the way to 220 and give it a go with top ten Meadows? Austin, surely is not afraid of anybody. He would gladly take the challenge of 82 and face all three in succession if the opportunity presented itself. I am not going to question his bravery. However, a freshman at a big boy class is a tough go. Talent wise he is overmatched by Gresham and Abounader. I don't wanna hear how he tooled anybody at open mats. We all know it is a whole new ballgame when the ref blows the whistle. I believe he has the talent to give Suvak a good match, but he would be giving up too much weight. Same goes for top ten Meadows, though Meadows is too much regardless of weight. So, after further consideration I think a match score of 13-1 with tons of bonus points sounds about right. Stephen Myers over Collica in a great match, possible bonus. The other weights not mentioned? No wrestler outside top five nationally resides here. Final score something like 66-5. Yenter gets majored, Fahy decisioned, S Myers tf Collica, Cooper pinned (sorry this is a no brainer), Austin loses by decision, the others are all bonus.

[grappler-of-old 44]

I'm not sure what you consider recently, but I know that many of the Nky schools have been attending Cincy Tourneys for years. Maybe not the top tourneys such as SWOCA or GMV. CC has been to the Fairfield Tourney since the late 80's early 90's. (At least 20 years), and use to compete in the Moeller duals. Ryle has been to cincy since the school was built in the mid 90's. Conner attended several for years all the way back to the early 80's maybe earlier. Simon has been going to the GMV going back to the mid to late 90's. (They stopped going for a few years and got back in this year).

I'm sure Scott went to some of the cincy tourneys when Dave Madding was their coach in the 80's-90's.

I don't believe that a Ky all star team could be an all division OH all star team. Ky wrestling is still young compared to OH. Ky wrestling 1st was sanctionid in 1966 (first 2 state tourneys were not sanctioned 64,65).

Ohio had their 1st state tourney in 1938 and went to 2 division in 1971 and 3 in 1976. (I did some homework)

That gives Ohio a 26 year head start.

To be honest it is only recently that most of the wrestling teams in KY actually have coaches that know wrestling. By that I mean coaches that have wrestled before. In My day I know at least half the teams in KY (At this time KY only had about 50 teams total) had coaches that never wrestled before, or had any background in wrestling.

Ky is making great strids in improving, maybe not compatable to NOh but we are catching up with SWOh. Maybe in another 10 years we will be on equal terms with SWOH.

[rideemout 16]

Well said GOO as always

[Mpire 76]

I'm not going to disagree with you at all you know your stuff except Stephen has beaten Newhouse Collica both in HS as well as beaten bright Byrd aand ward historically and placed ahead of them in same class in HS but he would need a couple months on the Matt to do that ,

As for Austin he would wrestle them all he actually wants to wrestle Abounader and has trained with Chaz Korb and many other top OH kids I agree with you pretty much it would be intersting seeing what Brock would do and some of the others may surprise some of OHs best fall apart at times I have seen it Bo is incredible as is Heil and without bragging Stephen has the natural ability that has been backed with a lot o good training and wrestling over the years it's a shame kids get older and think they know everything lol I haven't seen many kids with his natural ability if any in all honesty I was impressed with Brock . Bright is an athlete but Squire and Ward were an are boring as heck Bo is a wrestlers wrestler a workhorse .

I wouldn't say Austin would beat the best in Oh in any of those weights but he could beat them and I would say without any question I would not trade places with them if I were Austin none of them have come close to doing what he has done at this stage of the game Gresham Never even won or placed second at jr high state Austin was a runner up 2 timer and ow and had much more impressive wins in grade school Jr high and now as an underclass men and Freshman state champ . Not so sure Yenter gets beat as bad as you think he could hang particularly if he had been in a room with Stephen and Faust all yr .

On a side note I bieve Collica and some of the others actually ran up to avoid the Oh studs at lower weights he had lost to Stephen in grade school and jr High then in HS he did not place in Stephens class at state his freshman yr after loosing to him and someone else probably Gray or Bright . He avoided the minefield of studs at the lower weights and after Stephen went D3 an the two kids who were the top two in his class bumped and the rest went lower he didn't have much to beat in his class not hi fault and when he could have had a match with Ward at Swowca he bumped and when Stephen wrestled in Sandusky duals the beat kids forfeited an bumped not his fault either so people need to get a real grip on who runs as for Moeller duals you are right Stephen was part of that team that spanked trinity and everyone else the talk of the whole tournament the weeks before was the match between Stephen and Fahy Stephen a new AA and Fahy a state champ from Ky who had been in Stephan class at Fargo .

Fahy didn't show and I don't think he played football,

I think CC should be at Moe super duals before Trinity or X it would be nice to see who would beat the running away 145 lb Stephen or how they deal with a 195 lb Austin .

They would wet themselves and their biggest concern would be how they could get me thrown out Or barred

In order to take attention away from the fact they will lose to well ..... Me again lol.

[FalconWrestling 147]

I remember I was talking to Josh Lopez when we were both at Fargo (can't believe that was what 2 years ago?) and when I mentioned I had seen more top level Tennessee guys then Kentucky guys he went on a huge rant about how underrated Kentucky is and how we could destroy Tennessee. Hate to break it to everyone but outside of our top level guys like Kevin Cooper, John Fahy, Garth Yenter, Stephen Myers, Austin Myers, etc. We really can not hang with the Ohio teams. Now I will say that Kentucky is a lot closer to the middle of the pack then people give us credit for, not a lot of our guys really understand what it takes to get national exposure. The more guys we have go D1 the more respect we will gain. I am wrestling in college up in Ohio and guys on my team come from big name schools like St. Ed's and Walsh Jesuit. We have a couple state placers but a lot of state qualifiers on the team (we are only D3) and let me tell you the state qualifiers from Ohio would be state placers at the very least here in Kentucky. Joe Whalen was considered one of the best guys in Kentucky my senior year and I know a state qualifier from Ohio who beat him pretty soundly over the summer. If anybody remembers Fort Campbell's heavyweight from last year who was a couple of stupid mistakes away from being a state placer, I would like to inform you guys he didn't even make it past sectionals in PA. Kentucky is improving and I see great things in our future, and saying the whole state is full of scrubs is ridiculous. But we are still quite a ways behind the likes of Ohio and PA. Right now we should focus on catching up with Tennessee, which we are very close to doing.

[Tim Reynolds 7]

How many schools with wrestling in Ohio? Its somewhere near 500-600. How many in Kentucky? Isn't it 92?

That's the difference right there. Let's catch up to Tenn, or Indiana first and worry about the Buckeye state then.

[Mpire 76]

Good point but don't sell anyone short jump in the fire it works .

[grappler-of-old 44]

How many schools with wrestling in Ohio? Its somewhere near 500-600. How many in Kentucky? Isn't it 92?

That's the difference right there. Let's catch up to Tenn, or Indiana first and worry about the Buckeye state then.

I agree this here is a problem. We will never be able to reach that number, there are only 279 schools in KHSAA. (I counted them).

Kentucky's population is about 4,339,000.

Ohio's population is about 11,545,000

These population numbers alone show how difficult it will be to catch up with Ohio. The more kids that participate in a sport the better that sport gets. This does not mean that Ky can't catch up, but it will not be easy. That is the beauty of wrestling, it's an individual sport and any individual can succeed.

Mpire is correct in saying that jumping in the fire can make you better. You need to wrestle people better than yourself before you can get better. Kentucky has doubled the number of schools participating in KY in the last 25 years. If we can add another 50 schools in the next 10 years then that will only help our bid to catch up with Ohio.

[Buckeye 20]

First of all I wish our team could attend Moeller duals. Also not to hammer on a particular kid but Joe Whalen got beat pretty badly by one of Kentucky's best at Raider Rumble(sorry Joe).

Also it seams at least from my perspective that a large # of Ohio's best did do their best to avoid Stephen, just saying.

Depth wise we are not even close. But our top kids compete very well in any division in Ohio.

Also if you are going to put together an all class all star team in Ohio I would love to see that, if you could get that done you would be hard pressed to find more than 3 states that could actually go 500 with them.

[halfhalfhalf 121]

I agree with Mpire. I can tell you the reason KY is on the rise is the youth programs. Coming from TN the top programs like father Ryan, mccallie, Christian brothers, Soddy Daisy etc. are so dominate because of there youth programs. A lot of focus has been put on those and it is paying off with years of success at the high school level. That is why the listed schools have pulled away from the rest of the pack. It is also why KY is on the rise.

A quote I have tried to instill into my scheduling is: "to beat the best you have to go after the best"

[tigercoach1 1]

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!

[Mpire 76]

I know the jump in the fire comment is hard for some but I remember my kids first yr wrestling Cincy had a great club with coaches like Don Jones Germaine Lindsey Doug Howard , it was southwest all stars I always remember because it seemed weird my kids being on the same team as Orlando Scales at an early age they only let two kids on th team at each weight and our school coach who was a great guy told us our boys were not ready but I said heck with that they tried out and made it and we travelled around a bit and got beat up but it helped afterwards the boys wrestled a lot at Loveland and I always made Mu boys wrestle Kyle knabe he was and is a beast beatings every day but it forces you to improve , it gets costly but the same can be said for tournys not a great feeling watching one of your kids be the youngest In his class at Tulsa and go 1 n 2 , great feeling watching them place and win a couple yrs later . Kind of like the old saying fortune favors the bold get your feet wet learn what it takes and then go to work maybe do things a little different than the rest it may work .

I remember a kid tourny both my boys were way ahead in their matches both got caught and lost rarely did they both leave without a medal even back then but they did my wife was irate she thought a ref pinned Stephen to quick and he probably did but it I his right too , she almost got kicked out the next yr we were headed back she didn't want them to go I said it will be different they both won golds which was a big thing then ,

I always thought it funny when the older parents who had high a school or jr high kids laughed at grade school parents for getting amped I still do when it's your kid at that age it is what matters to you and it's that enthusiasm that leads to champions also think its funny My kids probably surpassed the kids of parents who made fun of us as far as high school and jr high goes , keep that enthusiasm and do not down youth parents or jr high parents who have it , my boys did have a great coach who was a great fan of my boys who crushed them ruthlessly a great youth coach Randolph Pine I remember Stephen winning grades school state and h coming to practice and rather than lump Stephen up he totallly beat the dog crap outta him it was awesome he said a grades school title didn't mean jack untill you get that HS title now whenever Stephen wasn't around Pine always talked him up but to his face he always pushed him and when he got those jr high and HS titles Pine congratulated him but was still fairly hard on him but outside of the room when Stephen isn't around you would think Pine thinks Stephen is Cael or something , not meaning to ramble just saying push them let them know they are doing good but keep them going for it as long as possible it will pay off , I am from ky Corbin originally I know Kentucky loves wrestling it will be a much bigger sport in the state one day perhaps it only needs some flair and color to make people watch no need to compare to oh they only pay themselves on the back for outdoing someone they should as goo said by numbers alone as a kid I also hated the oh is better than us smack that's why I spanked them all had my wife spank them an then had my kids do the same . It's only a river no magical boundary and go east and beat all the kids in PA then talk to me their is always a bigger dog somewhere .

[Mpire 76]

I like the D1 comment except the time line 10 or 15 yrs , give me 20 kids who want it I will give you 20 kids going D1 I had a foster son who never wrestled or stepped on a Matt untill after 8th grade and it was obvious to everyone he would have gotten a scholarship had he stayed with us maybe not D1 but who knows hanging out with studs rubs off on kids living the lifestyle makes it inevitable , that's where you catch up to or pass those ahead of you you don't just wrestle you love the lifestyle 24 7 make it second nature wrestling training healthy eating make it a life choice not just wrestling but what it takes to win At anything .

[Mike Frankrone 20]

I love Ky wrestling, but I can speak as far as middle school goes we have a ways to go before we can compete as a team against the top notch Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Penn, California, etc....! With the exception of a few of Kentucky's most elite our state champs as a whole were only as good as Illinois, Ohio 3rd string teams and Oregon, Texas 2nd string teams for example in the National Duals! Don't get it wrong I wanna beat them all, but the fact is we've wrestled the last 3 years at the national duals and when we went up against the 1st string state champ teams like Illinois for example we got thumped. I believe 76-3 last year against Illinois! There were some exceptions in the past that stand out in my mind who did exceptionally well in the tournament like Kevin Cooper, Logan Wedding, Brock Ervin, and few others i'm forgetting to mention. I think some people would be shocked on how some of our state champs were out skilled at this tournament. I can admit I was my 1st two years at the tournament. Like I said, I love Ky wrestling, and there's nothing more that I would to see than to go to national duals and kick everybody's ass! I hope I can come back to this thread March 25th and report some good news!