Starting a Middle School Team

[rjennings91]

Good morning all! For those of you that do not know me, my name is Randall Jennings. I have helped coach Coffee County high school for the last 7 years and started our AAU club 4 years ago. This year has been our largest year to date by far with 47 kids in our club. We are eager to continue to grow wrestling in our area and are wanting to start a middle school team next. I was just curious on the best route to go about doing this, I've heard arguments for AAU vs TMSSAA, when the season occurs, and other bumps I may hit along the way. Please feel free to email me if you would like jenningsr@k12coffee.net . Thanks for any help in advance and it is much appreciated!

Edited December 13, 2017 by ccman1

[Sommers]

Right under your nose... Reach out to HofF'er Pat Welsh of Tullahoma and their years of solid feeder development.

[HCWCCoachV]

I definitely think there are advantages to both AAU and TMSAA. Luckily here in Cleveland we are doing both and our season which ended this past saturday does not interfere with AAU unless you have kids wanting to travel out of state and to bigger, tougher tournaments. There is also rumor that they will be starting a TMSAA state duals tournament soon if enough teams are interested and commit to being there which has been the problem in the past because this can not be a club team it must be a true middle school team and there are so many different seasons for middle school wrestling here in Tennessee that it is hard to orchestrate. Unless TMSAA sets a start date and an end date that every school must follow which I think should be October-December then let the ones wrestle club that want to after that, it will be hard to organize a true duals state tournament. I would definitely check with the athletic director at the middle school as well as coaches and ADs at surrounding schools. You want to make sure that you have a conference to compete in first and foremost. Other than that there just has to be enough interest in your school but starting a program in my opinion will do nothing but grow interest in the school. 

[ArtusCimber]

We do the same. We wrestle a TMSAA schedule until Christmas and then go AAU after that.

[cbg]

I am far from being an advocate of AAU Middle School Wrestling but why would anyone want to compete in the TMSAA unless they are basically willing to announce that they are going to CHEAT?

1.  Each period is supposed to be 1.5 minutes (how many people follow this rule)

2.  Teams are only allowed to have 12 competition dates

3.  You have scheduled dates as to when practice may begin and end

You should be getting the picture that few successful teams that compete in TMSAA are even close to following all the rules.  By no means do I want to throw stones at anyone but it's next to impossible to follow all the TMSAA rules and have a successful program.  Most of the teams that compete in the TMSAA don't even know the rules.

[CoachKramer]

Randall you need to check with your administrators of your middle school.  Whether you go TMSAA or not depends on what the school says if you plan on doing it as an official middle school team.  You can form a middle school team out of your AAU club if you want to go that route as well and I would talk to tullahoma about that and about their AAU Middle school league

[rjennings91]

I appreciate all of your responses and input very much! I have been in contact with the administration over the last 2 years trying to continue to push for a new team, but to be honest I'm not sure they know the route they'd like to take either. But, I will take this new info and talk with them more and see what we can't get done. We currently have 10 middle school wrestlers competing for our club, but i think those extra matches before the AAU season could really help, plus I believe having a school team would only mean more numbers as mentioned previously. Again, thank you all!

[hollowman]

57 minutes ago, ccman1 said:

I appreciate all of your responses and input very much! I have been in contact with the administration over the last 2 years trying to continue to push for a new team, but to be honest I'm not sure they know the route they'd like to take either. But, I will take this new info and talk with them more and see what we can't get done. We currently have 10 middle school wrestlers competing for our club, but i think those extra matches before the AAU season could really help, plus I believe having a school team would only mean more numbers as mentioned previously. Again, thank you all!

+1 on contacting Mr. Welsh in Tullahoma.  A wealth of knowledge and experience over a long career as a volunteer youth coach.  I'm certain he'll be glad to be of assistance.  Did you wrestle for Al Morris while he was in Manchester?  He's right down the road from you too.  If so, he could possibly be of assistance.  BTW, it's noble of you to take on this responsibility of giving to the youth there in Manchester.  No greater individual sport than wrestling.  Best of luck to you!