Archer GA Ranked #5

[rlwest40]

Archer, GA is now ranked #5 by USA Wrestling Magazine and #7 by AWN

 

1/03/14 USA Wrestling Magazine/National Wrestling Coaches Assoc./Cliff Keen

Archer GA #5

Brandon FL #8

Robinson VA #38

South Dade FL #43

 

I feel like there are several other teams in the southeast that could easily be on this list but without traveling and getting the exposure it will never happen. How did Archer climb to #5 so quickly, especially without ANY nationally ranked individuals on their team? They traveled to 5 different states each year the past couple years to get exposure and compete with other prestigious programs. Traveling pays off and should not be restricted.

 

In case you didn't know, Archer is a new school that opened just four years ago in 2009 in heavily populated Gwinnett County, Georgia, roughly 840,000 people and the home of Compound Wrestling and The Wrestling Academy. When this school opened 'permissive transfers' were allowed to help populate the new school, many coaches took advantage of this opportunity. The wrestling program loaded a young but very talented team that had been training and traveling together for many years at a nearby training center. After losing Milhoff to Collins Hill his sophomore year and the rest of the recruits reached the high school level they began traveling and climbing the rankings.

 

Back to the point of this post, traveling pays off. Only 4 teams in the southeast made the top 50 and I strongly believe several others could be in there if they had the exposure.

[Sommers]

Agreed. Wasn't Russell another who could have gone either way? Sure was something to see last season when Milhoff and Russell made the finals at the Super 32!!

 

After Ramos left, Stephen's distractions and Archer tapping into CH's pipeline, what a major change in dynamics down there

 

Ga is doing more out of state travel though with the GSSAA allowing that

[CoachJones]

They didn't just travel and all of a sudden they gained the national ranking... they beat a very solid OH team of recent along with competing against tough nationally ranked teams along the way.

 

And the WRESTLING ACADEMY is where most of these young men have been training(if not all)... Dustin Kawa is doing great things there!!

 

I think many of the TN teams are catching on.. it is just a process that takes time, which once again I feel many teams are now putting in.

[rlwest40]

A new program climbing to #5 in the country in two years is sudden. They traveled to five states per year for the past two years to see ranked teams, they improved each time they traveled to the point of gaining a #5 ranking by being more and more successful out of state against ranked teams and eventually beating a highly ranked team. Apparently I should have made that more clear in my post, I didn't mean to insinuate that traveling alone would boost your team's rankings. Obviously the more you travel the more you improve and the more successful you will be on your next trip. My point was and still is, traveling out of state is very beneficial to the sport and should not be restricted. I used Archer as an example of a successful local team.

[durdon]

It doesn't start at the High School level.  Ga started 8 years ago sending teams to every major national tournament at the Elementary and Middle school level and that is what is paying off for them today.  Most of those kids that are on Archer today were on the Minion teams from a few years ago..   TN wrestling has got to get more organized and start sending multiple teams to all of the major duals and we need to start encouraging our young wrestlers to get out on the national circuit now if we want to start producing the caliber of kids that we now see in Ga High school.  And, we have to change the rules to let our high school kids wrestle more and teams travel more so that they can get the exposure they need to get to the next level.

[CoachJones]

Durdon.. you hit the nail on the head...It is the offseason.. And as I stated many of the teams in TN are getting on board with this.. a rise in the USA wrestling numbers... along with the Duals we have begun to put together thru AAU and High school teams traveling too in the offseason has helped. We still need to duplicate the efforts but it is building.

 

Archer is a NEW school, NOT new kids to wrestling. They have been putting in the time for many years!

 

a NEW wrestling program is a team like Clinton TN... they just started last season and have some talent but not national level talent.. You take them out of state and you get dominated, that will not fair to well on the kids (just one example)

 

Last Point: You can add in a few additional out of state trips for the High school and that will help some, but why do we always use the excuse of changing the rules??? that's like saying, huh my kid would be winning matches it they would give us 3 points for takedowns... It just takes more dedication and putting the correct people in place in a program to help build it up... finding the best youth coach or finding the best club coach that is willing to travel etc... Those coaches in GA are sending their kids to the WRESTLING ACADEMY... and the ACADEMY is doing their job to make this kids the BEST.. hard work is paying off...

[rlwest40]

I agree with both of you, a lot of the same things were discussed in another thread. I've said many times that it starts at the youth level, but at the same time we can't take our kids all over the country for several years just to stop traveling once they get in high school. Sometimes its good to change rules that hurt more than help. Like I said before, every team can't handle the same amount of competition but we shouldn't restrict those who can.

Edited January 11, 2014 by rlwest40

[durdon]

Case in point, looking at Philo electric, the toughest middle school invitational in the country I count 6 ga teams and was actually surprised to see 1 TN team there as Father Ryan has their club team up there this weekend. People wonder how Farher Ryan produces year after year, well it's because they send their middle school club team out on the national circuit. I am primarily concerned about middle school wrestling because I have a 6th grader and it drives me nuts that there is all the Ga kids my son wrestles with that get all of these opportunies to wrestle in these big tourneys that he doesn't.

 

Now Rob is more concerned about what's going on the high school level because he has a high level high school wrestler and his son is the prime example of why we have start not just letting our high school teams travel more but actively pushing them to do so. At high school level it's not just about experience it is more about exposure. Ethan West is one of the 30 to 40 wrestlers in this state that is good enough to wrestle at a high level college but probably won't get that opportunity because we are not allowing them to get the exposure they need in front of the college coaches that kids from Ga and other states are getting. Outside of our top 4 or 5 kids in this state (Debien, Oliver, etc) none of the rest of our kids are known by college coaches and they aren't going to take a chance on our kids without knowing how those kids will perform against national kids.

There is probably 20 to 40 kids in Ga that our top 20 to 40 can compete with that are going on to wrestle in college while ours aren't because we lock our kids in a box.

[Sommers]

Well, true, very true actually regarding a limited stage Tn vs Ga. Big choice.

 

K. Russell can be a reasonable test this weekend: and, after his second state championship combined with some upcoming post season success, West could easily land somewhere.

[cbg]

Case in point, looking at Philo electric, the toughest middle school invitational in the country I count 6 ga teams and was actually surprised to see 1 TN team there as Father Ryan has their club team up there this weekend. People wonder how Farher Ryan produces year after year, well it's because they send their middle school club team out on the national circuit. I am primarily concerned about middle school wrestling because I have a 6th grader and it drives me nuts that there is all the Ga kids my son wrestles with that get all of these opportunies to wrestle in these big tourneys that he doesn't.

 

Now Rob is more concerned about what's going on the high school level because he has a high level high school wrestler and his son is the prime example of why we have start not just letting our high school teams travel more but actively pushing them to do so. At high school level it's not just about experience it is more about exposure. Ethan West is one of the 30 to 40 wrestlers in this state that is good enough to wrestle at a high level college but probably won't get that opportunity because we are not allowing them to get the exposure they need in front of the college coaches that kids from Ga and other states are getting. Outside of our top 4 or 5 kids in this state (Debien, Oliver, etc) none of the rest of our kids are known by college coaches and they aren't going to take a chance on our kids without knowing how those kids will perform against national kids.

There is probably 20 to 40 kids in Ga that our top 20 to 40 can compete with that are going on to wrestle in college while ours aren't because we lock our kids in a box.

1.  Philo Electric Invitation:  Yes, this middle school tournament is considered by many to be the toughest in-season tournament in the country.  Nashville Catholic has been attending the tournament for 5+ years.  Nashville Catholic was forced to travel when local teams began refusing to wrestle them in duals or allow them in tournaments.  IMO, the local competition did NCW a favor by not wrestling them and forcing them to travel.  If you look at Nashville Catholics schedule they are in Ohio 2X, Kentucky, Georgia 2X & Missouri.  If teams are going to develop their own kids and not recruit the country you must expose the kids to the best competition.  NCW has also had some great coaching staffs with the likes of Raymond Dunning, Adam Kabolla & Vince Gioiella.

 

2.  When it comes to the high school travel schedule the TSSAA has a rule in place to keep student/athletes from missing school most every Friday for athletic purposes.  IMO, this is a good rule that is not being applied properly.  The rule should not limit travel when schools are not in session for things like the Christmas Holiday's and Spring Break.  Why not tweak the rule so that a team may travel over 300 miles one way only one time while school is in session but may travel over 300 miles one way as many times as they wish over the Christmas Holiday's or Spring Break?  The Tennessee High School Wrestling Coaches Association are the ones that must get this rule changed.  I am sure that both the basketball & baseball coaching associations would also back the proposal.   

[LBJ6]

Yes, Nashville Catholic is wrestling at Philo. However, if you look at their lineup, most of the good kids are not theirs. They have Christian Salter, Trevor Rippy, Tommy Brackett, Michael Moultry, Grant Brace, and so on. Their lineup looks closer to Team Tennessee to me. At least half of the kids are from other teams.

[rlwest40]

Good point but my concern is more for the future of the sport in this state and the team aspect. Individuals can travel in the off season and get the individual exposure to gain a national ranking at national tournaments. That is, if they can find a place to train and high caliber training partners in the off-season to prepare for national tournaments. That is another weak area in TN.

 

My son is a senior and has already made his plans for college so any changes that are made if any won't effect him or me. He has had a little exposure and has been mentioned in the rankings the past few years and has had several offers from D1 D2 and D3 programs. He could have done much more and gained more exposure, higher ranking, more offers, etc but that's not what this is about. My opinions are not biased or selfish, just concerns from what I've seen over the many years. I'd like to see things improve and the sport grow in this area and opportunities for upcoming wrestlers in this state. There are many changes that could be made at the youth level all the way up to the high school level. We must give all of our wrestlers more opportunities to be successful and promote the sport in our state.

Edited January 11, 2014 by rlwest40