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To echo Sells, great work EVERYONE... Thank you cbg. I am obviously biased but it appears that the Ironman is indeed synonymous with Blackman. Knowing there were proms and ACT's this weekend, along with wrestlers playing their second or third sport of the year, our numbers were awesome. Most of them probably don't read the boards but I want to recognize the ladies behind the scenes that make this event not only successful, but possible. YOU ALL ARE AMAZING. Shout out to Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama, and Virginia.. we enjoyed having you. Special thanks to John Salter for making sure every kid was able to wrestle, even though it meant starting late. We know that's not how you roll! To the TWF, 32 Ironman winners.. kudos. And finally, the refs. You all did a great job. No one will ever be happy... Thanks for stepping up! See you all next year!!!

The stadium really looks great after a real good cleaning. Looks like the school finally took the County Mayor's advise (retired Maryville Fire Chief) to use a bigger hose.

Ben, No one is questioning that you have the authority to put restrictions into who can go to Fargo, I’m just questioning why the world you would put in the restriction that UWW and Regional AA’s have to apply for an excemption. THEY SHOULD BE AUTOMATIC QUALIFIERS LIKE THEY ARE IN ALMOST ALL OF THE STATES. USA doesnt count them against your numbers so they have earned their right to go to Fargo. And these are the kids that TN desperately needs to go to represent us Fargo so we should be encouraging them to go. This was a power play by you and it is wrong and bad for the growth of the sport and TN wrestling. And, I say this as someone who son has attended both SE and TWF state the past 8 years and who is planning on attending both again this year so this doesn’t apply to me. I’m speaking out because this excemption requirement on our best kids is wrong and bad for TN wrestling. If you take our top 20 kids, their schedules are jam packed and if they need to skip SE or TWF STATE so be it. You should be working the phones communicating with those kids and parents encouraging and finding a way to get all 20 of them to Fargo. That is what TN wrestling needs, not these darn hoops that you have put in place these kids have to jump through.

All states get 45 automatic qualifiers for Fargo. But, any wrestler that places top 4 at one of the regionals will not count against the 45 automatic qualifiers for their state. States can also only send 4 kid in any given weight class per division. Having said that for the last few years, TN is only averaging about a dozen or so kids that go to Fargo each year so we are no where near our limit. So I get why so many people are frustrated that we have requirements that wrestlers must meet before the TWF will allow them to go to fargo. Almost all of the states, have some sort of requirements in place for Fargo and vast majority do require that you attend their state freestyle/Greco tournament and a lot require that you even have to place. I get why states including TN have these requirements in place as they can use it as a carrot to drive attendance to their own event and their regional, which is good as it builds the sport. And, realistically the TWF requirement is actually really simple. Just attend the TFW State and go to the SE Regionals. You don’t have to even place in either event, as long as you attend both of those events then you will permitted by TWF to go to Fargo. Now I do have a major issue with TWF requiring kids that place top 4 at one of the regionals or UWW top 8 to still have to request for an excemption in writing from Bowers. That is completely Assine and counterproductive to building wrestling in this state. Any kid that is good enough to place at top 4 at one of the regional or actually place at UWW, the TWF should be begging them to go to Fargo to represent TN. This is the whole reason why USA Wrestling let’s those kids go to Fargo without counting against the state number. They want to encourage the best of the best to go to Fargo and so should TN. Again, it is assine that any kid that places at one of those tourneys has to apply to go to Fargo especially when our numbers to Fargo are so pathetically low. I get that if a kid has to skip the TWF state tourney cause of injury or family issue like a sisters wedding and who then doesn’t place top 4 at SE why the TWF woukd have request an exemption to goto Fargo. That makes sense to me, but requiring our very best to do so also makes zero sense to me. One other thing I will clarify too, all of the regionals are open tournaments. The TWF can not prevent any wrestler from attending any of the regionals including SE.. this is straight from the USA WRESTLING website. CADET & JUNIOR REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: BOTH DIVISIONS are open to ALL wrestlers that meet the necessary age requirements from any state. . KIDS REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (Intermediate, Novice & Schoolboy/girl) PARTICIPATION IS OPEN TO WRESTLERS FROM ANY STATE. So you don’t have to attend the TWF STATE TOURNAMENT TO wrestle at SE regionals.

There are no “real” qualifications for SE’s....just sign up online, like most every other tourney. As for exemptions....Ben and crew are terrific with them. Yes, everyone prefers that you participate in the state tourneys...yes, it’s great if you can....but, each state has a certain number of spots, at various weight classes. That said, I have never heard of Ben denying any kid wanting to go...mainly because we never have enough kids going. Finally, and this is just my opinion.....I will never get why HS parents spend a lot of money to go to Fargo, when their son has no business out there. Chase did not compete in the Fr/Gr State tourney’s, but we competed at SE Regionals and NC qualifier...Chase finished 5th in Fr and Gr at SE’s, and 5th and 7ish in NC. Ben gave Chase an exemption with no problems....we opted not to spend the money for Fargo, though....cane up with a calf injury. If you can’t win or runner-up TN, and can’t place top 4 at SE or any of the numerous qualifiers around the SE....you are wasting money...stay home and keep training. I never could get all that money spent, just to watch your kid go 2 and out. That said, my advice is to not get so bent out of shape about this....go wrestle where YOU, and your coach, think YOUR kid should wrestle/train to prepare for Fargo....then, when the time comes, shoot and email to Ben....if there are spots open, you will get the exemption...pretty simple and very easy.