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When I first heard that our two state wrestling organizations, the TWF(USA) and TNAAU were going to go head to head I’ll be honest I wasn’t happy. I would much prefer that we had unity between both organizations and that they were working together for the betterment of wrestling in Tennessee. But over the past week, I’ve changed my mind and I now think these two organizations need to start competing against each other if we are ever going to be able to build a strong freestyle and Greco tradition in this state. This is kind of long winded but if you read below you will see why I now feel this way. For the past decade, both organizations have had an agreement in place not to compete against each other so that the TNAAU would concentrate solely on Folkstyle in TN and TWF would concerntrate soley on Freestyle/Greco and neither organization would go into the others seasons and they would support each other. And I had heard that had the TWF President Ben Bowers not announced in a private call to the TWF BOARD two weeks ago that starting this fall, the TWF would start running USA Folkstyle youth tournaments statewide in an attempt to try to take out the TNAAU organization, we would still have the unity between both organizations. I don’t blame TNAAU for deciding to start competing with the TWF IN FR/gr events this spring now at all. I 100% support them taking a stand. I’m still flabbergasted and aghast at the stupidly of the leadership of the TWF in trying to launch this Initiative to take out the TNAAU. The TNAAU over the past decade has put 10 of thousands of volunteer hours by hundreds of people with one sole purpose of selfishly improving wrestling in the state of TENNESSEE. The volunteer work that Barnett, Bates, Hernandez, Sutherland, Bosken, Kremmerer, Salter, Teaster, Kramer, isabell, Elsea, etc has been nothing short of miraculous. Today, the TNAAU is one of the most financially strong, extremely well run youth and middle school wrestling organizations in the US and most importantly they have the support of the entire wrestling community in the state including all of our high school coaches. The TWF on the other hand is completely broke, extremely poorly run with a tremendous amount of infighting and most importantly their current President at the head of the organization he has become a lightening rod so the TWF has alienated the entire wrestling community in the state and all of their customers. Crazy Issues like not being able to provide Ref’s at the TWF State Tourney which is there premier event and having to get high school wrestlers to ref other matches between their own matches they were wrestling is just one of many examples of the sad state that the TWF is in today. And, not all of this falls 100% on current leadership as the TFW had major issues before current President and vice President took over and the TFW was in almost as bad of shape then as it is today. So the reality is that this no “compete agreement” between the TFW and TNAAU while it prevented the organizations from fighting, it has actually been extremely detrimental to growth and development of wrestling in this state. That agreement has allowed an extremely poorly run organization to have zero competition to force them to improve to control all freestyle/Greco activities in our state. They have over the past decade done such a poor job of running those events that it now dramatically impacting the growth and development of our high school wrestlers and TN high school wrestling in general. This is even more impactful today as popularity of USA Freestyle/Greco has exponentially grown over the past 6 years and it will continue to be even more important in the years moving forward. Today, TN is extremely competitive at the YOUTH and Middle school level nationally but we are losing ground as the kids get into high school. WHY?? I personally believe that competing in FS/GR is the most important thing a high school wrestler can do in the off season to continue growing as a wrestler. Our TN kids haven’t been able to do that because the TWF offerings for fr/gr events have been so weak. So ive changed my mind, I now think its great that the TNAAU is getting into FR/Gr game. They are going to run better tournaments and provide real competition to the TWF. The TWF will either colllapse or they will improve. This is the beauty of competition. Just look at their first fr/gr tournament the TNAAU will run. They will have 3 man mechanics something that’ I’m not sure has ever been seen in TN and they are doing a free coaches clinic that day. This first event is being hosted by the strongest high school program in the state right now and has the full support of 8 of the top high school programs in the state. The TNAAU’s first tournament will end up being more competitive and bigger than any fr/gr tournament that’s ever been held in Tennessee. The TNAAU is also going to be offering free technique camps statewide. The TNAAU can do this because they have money, they are extremely organized, they have access to attract all of the youth kids who most probably aren’t even aware that fr/gr exist and they are just extremely good at hosting and promoting tournaments. I have no idea what the future holds for fr/gr and growth of our Hs wrestlers but I think that competition between these organizations is a really good thing!

They could have shot worse and still won, they're going to rebound the miss. CA was the much better team, period. Fundamental basketball beat out a more talented (slightly) team again... no need to alert the media, it happens a lot. For one team to out rebound another by that margin, without a huge disparity in talent or size, just shows the impact that a coach really has... you can argue Jimmy's and joe's all you like, a disciplined team is tough to beat with athletes alone.

That was all facts. I was there 6 techs and kicked out kah Earning his 2nd tech on the bench... it doesn’t matter.. joe Anderson is not bad 11 is a shooter. Other than that respect the coach, but tons of teams in Memphis would kill Maryville that’s just facts.

While Durdon did give credit where credit is due, he DOES NOT speak for TNAAU. TNAAU has not made a decision to compete with TWF. Boskin is setting up those events, not TNAAU.

Couple of things bowers did not say they were doing folk style : the issue was about the iron man tournament TNAAU is not at war we are in discussion about certain issues this tournament and the clinics are not TNAAU events More and correct Info will be put out soon

After watching the championship, I have no doubt Fayetteville would have won had 20 not been injured. Humboldt is a terrible rebounding team. Now CA can go and compete against their own kind.

Let me do some research but I should be able to obtain that information pretty quickly.

GBs big 8th grader has already been invited to 3 camps 2 were in the top 10 last year and all have won National Championships.I think he came from the Blount area?? GB has 1 at NC (that started EVERY Sat this past year on Special teams).Has another with 3 D-1 offers SEC included.Big Bubba the 8th grader will be the best one we have had so far tho!

East would kill Maryville LOL!

In the past Alcoa's focus was the State Championship. If you could beat your cross town rival that was a plus. NOW, the focus is to stand toe to toe with Maryville and WIN the Rivalry. Win that and the rest will come!

Alcoa’s run over the last 15 years has been nothing short of incredible. They’ve won 12 state championships in 13 appearances. They have now won more state championships than any other program in TSSAA history. It just doesn’t appear that this will change anytime soon. Gary Rankin is now 425-75 in 500 career games coached and has won 14 state championships. I used to forecast that he would coach at Alcoa through his son’s senior year but honestly I do believe that in the back of his mind he knows that if he does it for 6 more years that there’s a great chance he could reach the 500 win plateau and also have 20 state championships. Alcoa would be well ahead of any other school in the state in Gold Balls if that were the case as well. I don’t mean that as an “insult” to Maryville by any means but their road on a yearly basis is much more difficult with Oakland, Whitehaven, Ravenwood, and a host of others who will be loaded year after year at the 6A level and more than capable of winning state championships.

Yes

I am 55 years old. Been keeping up with Maryville Rebels Football since I was 10 years old. I was not born when Knox Ramsey or Jim Cowboy Hill was playing at Maryville. Only player at Maryville I ever seen that made it to the NFL was Danny Spradlin. I think Carl Stewart was a practice player. There is no doubt in my mind if Aaron Douglas would have lived he would be playing NFL Football right now. To me it is amazing that Maryville has had all this success without a ton of High D1 athletes and NFL players. Amazing what great coaching can do. The truth is Maryville has never had a Peyton Manning or Eric Berry type player.

I watched the East vs Brentwood game and the Bearden vs Whitehaven game on replays. East isn't the same team with Dandridge being hurt and Lawson transferring away. Wiseman is a monster. The big center for Whitehaven could be really good if he comes to UT. Rick Barnes and his staff are great at player development. Brentwood is a scrappy team. As a Maryville fan who has watched Bearden the last few years. I think they can win the State Title. Ques Glover is a stud point guard. He is Jordan Bone like. Trent Stephney is good . Drew Pember is so versatile. Roman Robinson is a darn good shooter. Shamarcus Brown is very good inside but will find the going tough against Wiseman. Can't wait to see Bearden vs East. Not surprising that Fulton is playing for another State Title. I think Jody Wright is one of the best coaches in Tennessee. Fulton won't have near the talent Woodale has. Fulton is very scrappy.

If that happens then Knoxville will have more gold than Memphis in basketball. LOL!

I hope Fulton and Bearden bring home the gold.

Interested for sure.

I think this is a "if you build it, they will come" situation

Interested

Bump, looks like there will be 3 of us.

You've done gone full retard

Of course