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I am blocking this idiot I suggest the rest of CoachT posters do the same thing. Morons like this guy ruin message boards with these idiotic posts.

I'll go into the oven believing that Maclellan was the best site ever for a state tournament. I was excited that UTC still wrestled duals there, but I turned on a match and was immediately bummed out by the blue plastic bleachers and the renovation that sucked all the soul out of that old place in an attempt to modern it up. They've done the same thing to Topper Palace here, only our plastic is maroon. So anyway I started working on this poem. It's pretty long but I think you guys, especially you greybeards, can appreciate it. Indulge me. Let poetry be not lonely for a minute. Maclellan I It was the best of all the battlefields, no better locale to contest the state, six mats smothering that basketball floor, wooden bleachers rolled back to shape the space, four hundred forty eight hopeful wrestlers packed in like cord wood with antsy coaches, questing to find their place in the circle some supremely confident in their shot, some slightly cowed by the task’s magnitude, taking to day one like adventurers, some in fellowship with near intact teams, others seeking treasure in ones or twos, navigating the perilous, steep slope of the pitiless pull through tournament- knowing to lose that first or second match, would require swallowing the bitter pill of placing one’s fate in another’s hands. II Thursday night, culling began in earnest, a handful falling as those who prevailed over them in that long opening round fell themselves to the next wrestler they faced, taking their places in that grey limbo vacated by the first to come to grief one hundred twelve forlorn unfortunates a quarter lost in the initial wave, some enviously watching from the stands, others trudging to the student center to burn through their precious travel money assuaging their profound disheartenment with soft serve,burgers,fries,foosball and pool, no weigh ins anytime soon (if ever). III Their ranks would double on Friday morning, quarters losers in their defeat failing to keep the ones they’d vanquished in the fray, half of yesterday’s hopefuls no longer, taking fewer than twenty-four hours to cleave the roll of contenders in half. The good news for the half who still survived was that they were masters of their own fates, those in the semis driven by knowing that even if they lost their next contest, they’d wrestle two more matches for certain- And even if they fell in both of those, they’d still be on that final medal stand. IV And as the day ground mercilessly on, a hundred forty more were doomed to fall, twenty-eight in that most bitter of rounds- The blood round, in its fearsome infamy, winners finding the loftiest of joys, losers the most profound, biting sorrows. And as the sun set on Friday’s last match, just eighty-four of Thursday’s lot remained, three hundred sixty four warriors downed in roughly thirty hard, grueling hours. V Saturday morning found the floor reduced, much like the field of Thursday afternoon the floor level bleachers now all rolled out to encircle the two mats that remained, one for the fifth and sixth place contestants, the other to decide the bronze medal, both seats and spectators inching closer to what would eventually be one mat, full four hundred and twenty giving way to the twenty-eight stalwarts who remained, best of the best Tennessee could offer the only ones left to fight for the prize that so many others set out to claim little more than forty-eight hours past- Spectators no more consigned to on high, now a stone’s throw from the day’s principals, their energy swirling like some tempest- a fine phalanx of pristine excitement a modern day shield circle of support, enveloping the hopeful finalists a marvelously insane, eager wall assembled there with pure effusiveness awaiting the first whistle of the day, tribute worthy of this lot that remained. VI Everyone has their own stories to tell- Some of unhinged elation, some of woe, six minutes of sublime culmination Of this great quest that began ages past, not days, or months, but many years ago, only fitting in this last,old school way that this great crowd should witness only two, two alone, to me the most fitting fate, of these gallants who’d labored long and hard to reach this height, this place, this pinnacle. mine was, as Coleridge said of Xanadu, a miracle of sublime, rare delight, my second match in that chair of honor, that corner we all covet for our kids, and Justin Anderson, my gritty kid, mustering all his confidence and pluck commenced to putting a right #### whipping on a kid nobody thought he could beat- nailing him in a brutal body lock, the crowd’s clamor then so insanely loud that Coach Nelson and I did not hear it- the ref slapping the mat to end the bout, only knowing the match was indeed done when Justin rose in final victory, the thunder of those fine wooden bleachers muting any noise not intensely loud. VII A few years later this fine world moved on, and the state meet moved to another site, taking the one mat final in its train today we have four going at a time, the crowd actually moved farther out than closer to the action like before, an irony that brings me no delight. VIII The Mocs still wrestle duals in that old gym but now the bleachers are bereft of soul- blue plastic instead of the thund’ring wood that beat the rhythm to the victor’s song- lost to time like a Jedi’s lightsaber, as the age grows ever less elegant, a sign of constructive progress perhaps, a sure blow to romance and pageantry. IX Still the memories of that place abide Remembrances of combats indeed close, All eyes in that place trained on only two, As near the action as could be conceived, The rumble of the crowd so powerful To smother any sound that was too meek. A place where brawls were fought the proper way.

Cleveland, Cleveland JV, Cleveland middle school, McCallie, HCWC. Nothing else is relevant.

Exactly what I was thinking while reading that except the drop to 1A does not ease the pain like 3 down to 2. Elite 1A teams can play in the 2A league right to the top. '16 Dresden '22 McKenzie, & that '19 or so Lake County team could have won gold in 2A as well. It don't work that way in 3A There are several entire 1A Regions wouldn't have what Union City has within it's boundaries. But it is what it is.

At KO......Buford brought 9...just pointing that out. At the Kansas City Stampede.....Buford had 10 and finished 2nd.......Baylor 3rd....but they only had 11.

Ok......with all the team bashing that been going on I thought I'd try to bring some humor to CoachT. Wrestler's and coaches are funny......so I thought I'd a couple of stories and hope some of you would have some to also share. Story #1: We used to travel up to the Cleveland Duals on the Friday before the duals, and even started squeezing in a match with Baylor the night before a few times. I was typically a chaperone and would be put in a room with 4 wrestlers. One trip Coach Ramos said I have a special assignment for you, and put me in a room with 4 of the studs. I generally slept in the floor and by the door in my sleeping bag. The next day I overheard one of the studs talking to Coach Ramos and telling him he didn't want me in the room anymore. Coach Ramos asked if there was a problem; the kid replied that I snored and he couldn't get out the door. Cliff asked why he needed to get out the door and the kid replied "well we were supposed to meet up with the wrestlerettes for Bible study." Cliff said "After curfew!!.....That's exactly why he was in your room....now go try not to get beat." Story #2: I was at the high school one day in wrestling office and chatting with Coach Ramos. He said hold on, I gotta make a call. He picks up the phone and as he's asking the person what they're doing and as they respond he turns white as a ghost and says hang up I'll call you back. I asked him if everything was ok. He said "I hope so." I think I said "What??" The he said "That was Kyle.....Kyle Maynard and I asked him what he was doing and he said he was driving" Now if you don't know who Kyle Maynard is he was wrestler that was a quadruple congenital amputee. He didn't have full arms or legs. He did have stumps for arms and he had to use both to hold a phone. This was before Bluetooth or phones integrated with the car. So you can get the mental image of what Coach Ramos was imagining. Coach looked at me and said....."I hope I didn't just kill Kyle" Story #3: Coach Ramos asked me to get the middle schoolers used to traveling and put a team together and take to them to an away tournament. So I get a pretty good group of kids together for a tournament in Pigeon Forge. Actually a really good group....9 kids would go on to be future state placers and 4 of those wrestled in college.....2 played football in college. As we walk in a local man stops me and asks me who are these rednecks from Georgia. Mind you this guy was wearing overalls, Carhartt shirt with cutoff sleeves, muddy boots, and a straw hat...... On this same trip....we got snowed in and had to check back into the Econo Lodge there in Pigeon Forge. Later that evening when I'm thinking I'll never do this again; the front desk calls. The nice woman asks if I still have 14 wrestlers with me. I said yes and I think they're in their rooms. She says no they're naked in the indoor pool and that's ok since we're the only ones in the hotel, but could they please get the pool furniture out of the pool..... Alright....lets hear your funnies...

Sure-The points descend. The coaches vote for 12 teams. Say they vote Cleveland 1st-They get 12 points. McCallie is voted second-they get 11, and so on, down to the 12th team on their list, who gets one point. If all eleven coaches voted a team first, they'd get 132 points, hence the power ranking. One week for instance everyone voted summit third, so they got 110 points. Hope that makes sense. If my math ever gets wonky it's probably because I'm an English teacher and as far from the left side of my brain as is possible. I always defer to Joe Blair when the math gets crazy.

When my oldest brother wrestled at Hixson and they got a new coach.....Gordon Connell. They were going out for a conditioning run. My brother though it would funny to jump in the ditch and hide in a culvert until the team was coming back. He didn't think anyone would notice as he blended back in on the return. Coach Connell made him wrestle every person on the team.......and then the coach.

we get it, you've said the same thing no less than 15 times, cleveland wont mercy rule (that isnt a thing in wrestling) summit. summit is good but cleveland is better. you want to bet someone and you approve the message. we get it

You can't expect kids to hang around after school for 2 and a half hours until practice starts, nothing good can come from that. Most kids are not in position to ride a bus home, walk or get a ride and then make it back to school at 6. So no that won't work.

So for all you people who say Joey avoids competition I have a little story to tell you. This is not my story it’s what Scott Green told me personally…he is the assistant wrestling coach at West Point now and was the coach at Wyoming Sym for many years. I do not think my sons coach would lie to me about what he said. The year we wrestled Sym at Lake Norman..before our match with Sym…Coach Green said he walked up to Joey and gave Joey 3 options to pick from.. 1- have a competitive match with his 3rd string guys. 2- get beat pretty good by some starters and a mixed group of kids. 3- get beat really bad by his starters. Coach Green said he gave all public schools this option because he didn’t feel like most public schools were ready for them. He said Joey was the first and only public school coach to look him in the eye and tell him “I WANT IT ALL”! We lost every match!! lol People l can say what they want but I can promise you that Joey is not scared to put his team on the mat and wrestle!!

Dobbyns to the finals!

Father Ryan is very good. I would like to wrestle again with both teams having access to their full lineups. I think the matchups would probably be different in a second dual. Tanner is a beast. Love that kid. I know him well.

thank you for your apology. next time maybe take a step back think of what you’re about to joke about is appropriate. and clarify something you’re not certain of before throwing jokes around about it. whether you’re talking about me or Corker, you should never be singling out and bringing individual kids into these boards. they can see this you know. i’m sure Corker’s kid doesn’t want to see some guy online talking about how he never met any expectations as a wrestler.

Love this!

it’s funny people care so little about what he’s saying that he has to log into another account to engage with himself so he doesn’t feel left out.

Said it before, ill Say it again….same person

Have you been paying attention? He was just talking about HCWC kids getting throttled...... whats the difference? You never answer the previous question.... who are you? What program?

Post the match ups.... you seem very knowledgeable

It’s not hard to see what happened here. Cleveland released their schedule in October and had LHP scheduled for Jan 6th. At the time of scheduling, LHP had holes at 106,190-285. Bosken had done the math, and thought Cleveland was going to beat them and lay claim that they are the premier program in the SE. They probably already had billboard space purchased on I-75. LHP had other plans and picked up several kids from Illinois, Virginia, and Connecticut. The writing was really on the wall after Cleveland underperformed at the Powerade. The only kids who placed for Cleveland were the move-ins. The lifelong HCWC kids got waxed. LHP finished 81 points ahead of Cleveland. At that point, Bosken recalculated the math and told Coach Knox they had zero shot. Their streak of beating up East Hamilton, McMinnville, and Sale Creek was in jeopardy. Cleveland has won 200 dual meets in a row but hasn’t faced a top 50 opponent during that streak. It is, and always has been, about their image. I do think I will yell down over the railing Saturday morning and inquire. Maybe they will reimburse me for my plane ticket to Orlando. I was heading down to watch Tennessee's best wrestle before I heard the news.

Not really a mic drop......Jefferson is a 3A team and Woodland a 5A team from Georgia a state with 7 classification levels for sports. Both considered a small schools. If you want to see what go anywhere and wrestle anyone looks like....go take a peek at this schedule and the results: http://www.collinshillwrestling.com/events.aspx?sid=459&team=v Yea...I know it's old.....but that's what take on anyone looks like. Dang even the Cleveland Duals are in there....

I hope he shows up at State Duals, and you guys get to meet.

have you been dropped on your head? Buford was missing 144-Gavin Pope he's one of the top ranked kids in Georgia and lost to Nate Askew 1-0 this season and finished 4th at KC Stampede, so pretty sure he would have gotten good points and their 285-Butler is also ranked in Georgia and won Archer tourney and Southern Slam and was 1 round from placing at KC Stampede. He's for sure getting points at Knockout which means they wouldn't have needed anything from the 126-132 or 175 weight class and they most likely win KO. So not sure where you get your information that was all they had LOL. Also South Dade was missing 2 wrestlers at 126 and 165, any of those weights score anything they most likely also beat Cleveland. Listen, you all CANNOT control who all shows up to wrestle, but please don't tout something like that and also go on to say Buford had no one else worth bringing and at least look it up before doing so!

I’m a Huntingdon alum, Huntingdon should never go back to 1A again BUT we know how that works . Peabody either , and i’m going to add Mckenzie as well, if your school has a multi million indoor facility you don’t belong in 1A. If your town has a Lowe’s and Walmart, should not be in 1A .. with the exception of Humboldt, I actually believe there dwindling numbers lol.

I believe so also! I think it should be Cleveland, Father Ryan, McCallie, Baylor, Summit, Soddy Daisy, Brentwood, Christian Brothers, Dobyns Bennett, Nolensville, Halls, Bradley

That is all they had. The others were not worth bringing. Like I said, they are a much better traditional team than a dual team.

What are some names that would do good here? Fitzgerald Caine (Upperman) Akins (WV) Tabor (Bledsoe) Samber (Stone)

If GP loses it won't be because they beat a bad team 101-18! They are a VERY talented team with alot of depth. I wasn't there but I doubt they pressed the entire game or had their starters in most of the second half. If they did then they shouldn't have and you can complain! In most cases like this the bench comes in early and stays most of the game. And if you put your bench in are you supposed to tell the girls that work their butt every single day in practice that they aren't supposed to go out there and play the game? Sometimes the talent gap on the floor can't be changed. You can change to zone defense and you can stop pressing but you can't tell your girls to not score the ball or ask them to let the other team score! Would you rather them hold the ball at half court for 2 quarters of the game?? If that is what you guys are saying then why doesn't the other team just forfeit after the first quarter? Now if the team pressed the entire game or left their starters in that is a different story.

Cleveland Raiders have a real good team. I guarantee it. I think Cleveland Raiders and Summit Spartans both are better than McCallie Tornadoes. I am Captain Guru and I approve this message.

Actually that is an error on my part. Cleveland had 131. Sorry. I'm an English teacher. What can I say?

Oak Ridge’s isn’t, at least. It’s completely empty.

I think Captain Obvious's little brother has a screw loose. I guarantee it

Im taking Halls over Bradley

Maaaaaaan, don’t you think that it’s about time for some new material, bruh? I’m afraid this shtick has about run its course, Holmes.

Another, coaching MS this year and this kid (first year wrestler) is in the finals. He says am I going to get a medal? I say well only if you win the finals (he would have gotten a medal for second). I say you want that medal? He says "yes sir, yes sir I do". Well that ref blows the wrestle and I've never seen a better blast double from a first year kid, level change, elevation, and a slam. Level of absolute aggression was off the charts. I really got a good laugh out of that.

Alcoa Tornado beat Austin Roadrunners almost by a mercy rule this time. Last time Austin Roadrunners barely beat Alcoa Tornado. That means Alcoa Tornado is a better basketball team than Austin Roadrunners. However, in football Alcoa Tornado are a lot better than Austin Roadrunner and will mercy rule them almost every single year. Alcoa Tornado is a real good school. I am Captain Guru and I approve this message.

Tied up? You mean working in the building, serving the school community? Building relationships and being available for any school day emergencies, or top priorities? It used to be that sometimes to get a good assistant, you might have to let them work at a nearby elementary or middle school, while trying to secure a spot for them in the building the next year. Seasoned head coaches and admin know how important it is to have coaches in the building, visible, and working directly with students. There is also a nation-wide, state-wide, and Knox county teacher shortage. By looking at the job boards, there is a significant shortage at Central High. It would be shameful for any administrator to hire a head football coach and not require him to be in the building. I have to believe that CHS will require Lane to be in the building in at least a classified or job-embedded role. If he has any sense of how to run a program, he will try to find certified coaches to bring in and be on the ground with him in the building. So much happens during the school day. That community deserves a coach and a coaching staff that know coaching football doesn’t simply mean practice and game day. It’s so much more.

Football OR Basketball......Alcoa Got them birds number!!

Just image a school that only has one gym and it rains/lightening outside in the fall. You have Football, volleyball, & girls soccer in season. Both basketball teams always trying to get in extra work when they can. It's terrible

true, but there's only 13 kids on a bball team. A healthy football program has well over 100 kids.

Updated now.

The rule is called defense!

Out of curiosity who and where is the 135 consecutive found? What I do know is while my son was there we lost to Wyoming Sem at Lake Norman duals his freshman year and we lost to Baylor at the Cleveland duals his sophomore year. As for Jefferson Co Ga I know we wrestled them two years in a row and beat them both years at the Smoky Mountain duals. As for Camden…it was either last year or the year before that Cleveland traveled to Ga to wrestle them but I am unsure the outcome of that as my son had already graduated. I guess the point I’m making is that they do travel to big tournaments to wrestle…just not a full team which I agree with. Some kids are just not ready for that level of competition. Just my opinion on that tho.

"The Cleveland High School boys wrestling team has won 135 consecutive dual matches".........sounds like someone needs to go look for a little competition.....like maybe The Clash.....Powerade Final Four Duals.....invite Buford or Camden County up from Georgia.

Is that Nathan Cottrell's grand daddy?

“Jealousy is the purest form of flattery”

DB takes Bradley IMO

Maliki Brooks from Union City is the best player I have seen all year from any classification. He has to be a candidate.

I’ve watched TN football a long time. I think your more accurate when mention 5/7 years ago. However, the population has changed. Not sure the last time a major D1 football player has come out of our region (east of Knoxville). I played against DB 20 years ago, those teams were far more talented than the teams today. If I remember correctly there were 3 D1 athletes on the team I played against that went to ACC schools. No team east of Knoxville could compete with Oakland, Knox West, CPA etc…..it’s not a bad thing. Great young men, that will be great leaders in the community etc…they’re just not D1 football players. The size is also a pretty irrelevant measure, look at Alcoa. You either have to be a large population center or have folks to move to play at your school to be elite. The exception can be the smaller city schools that pull from 10k student county systems, but only compete in 3A, 4A etc..