YOUTHCOACH16

Yes it's on trackwrestling. We are not running the tournament through track but copying the bout sheets after they are turned in. We are going to try to score the semis and finals live so people at home can watch the dashboard live scoring. Its not the ideal situation so let us know if there are any errors.

Good luck to you bro. Dont be getting all sentimental on me. I cant believe this is your Blaikes last year. It seems just like yesterday we were in that tiny room at Central and the boys were 100 lbs smaller. I have a picture somewhere of my Blake and either Jonathan or Blaike with their first kids state championship. Ill get a copy to you once I find it. See you at the cow palace.

I usually dont post about our matches but I want clear the air. Powell has been injured the whole year and wrestled last week against Mccallie when he probably shouldnt have. He hasnt even practiced live since the Cleveland duals. The move against Cbhs was a completley illegal move and the right call 100% without doubt. Powells father went down to the rail and told the coaches to pull him. It had no bearing on the team score as we were pretty much out of it. The coaches contrary to popular belief on here are stand up guys and their only concern was protecting their young freshman wrestler. He did not compete the rest of the weekend even against our rival McCallie and Im not certain of his staus for the remainder of the year. Houston tweaked the injury that had been bothering him for the last few weeks against Brentwood Academy. He had to take an injury time out in that match due to this. We as fans and Houston himself were wanting to see that rematch as well but it was safer to let him sit even if that meant possibly losing to our biggest rival. As far as the call at the end at 126 lbs, I think it was a horrible call as well but I dont think the opposing team has the choice in the matter but I could be wrong. I have never in all my years of being involved in the sport seen an opposing team talk the ref into not taking points away. Heck if that was the case every team there was guilty of it this weekend because we all know there were bad calls the entire tournament. In all honesty we went to the dual with the hopes of winning it all. We came up short the first night and everything else after that was kind of anti-climatic. There is no win at all costs mentality in this program because if that was the case we would have wrestled Powell and Houston against McCallie and not inserted a jv guy in at 138 to get him a match.

I have never complained about refs in my life but the refs in the Baylor vs cbhs match were the worst I have ever seen. Make no mistake cbhs dominated the match but I have pulled people out of the stands at youth tournaments to ref that did better. To make matters worse they would rotate in the middle of the match. We went from one Guy who literally let the bottom man curl up for two periods and then back up the rest of the time to a Guy who called three stalling calls in 2 minutes when our Guy kept building up only to be broken down. Then we get another Guy who lets Our opponent lay on his stomach and grab our wrist and hold it without even trying to build up for the entire match to avoid the pin. Lets not even mention the penalty points for tapping someone in the forehead twice and on and on. I miss the Chattanooga refs that's for sure. Like I said cbhs outwrestled Baylor so I'm not blaiming the refs but these wrestlers deserve better

We had a great time and will definitley be back. We got some great advice on a place for dinner Saturday night. Thanks again for everyones help. Good luck to the Bro's this weekend. Well, good luck in all your matches except one. lol

I dont think he was there. Who could sit in the coaches room and listen to everyone laughing about him and not speak up?

A big thank you to everyone in Memphis involved with running this tournament. Everything went well and the wrestling was top notch. From the facilities and hospitality, to all the workers and volunteers I thought it was a great success and hopefully we can use this to grow our relations with our bothers in the west. Im disappointed Truthsquad didnt take me up on my invitation for a sit down discussion but atleast we all had some good laughs discussing him in the hospitaity room and coaches meeting. Truthsquad, this is the last time I will acknowledge anything you say unless you contact me directly. Again, I am going to clarify a few points you are wrong on. Why you have a fascination with the McCalie state tournament years ago I have no idea. First off it was a split state tournament that year. We had a pee wee and a big kids state. There were barley over 300 kids in the tournament at McCallie so there was no need for more than 6 mats. If there was a need we would have put down more mats in the gym right next to the one we used. The floor was not crowded at all as it was the only time were were able to keep people in the stands. In fact there was no 8 mat rule until we combined the pee wee and big kids state tournaments. If that perfectly ran tournament bothers you so much why arent you complaining about the one this past weekend? Memphis only used 6 mats instead of the "required" 8 for a top 100. ( Disclaimer.., Memphis did not need 8 mats and the tournament ran perfetly on 6 ) Why are you not crying about that? The reason you arent is because you just have an axe to grind with Chattanooga. McCallie was chosen to host the tournament over your school years ago and it still bothers you. As far as your comments to captainchaos, it makes no sense to think we are going to travel outside our city when we have a tournament here in our own town. We do travel everytime there is a top 100, no matter if its in Pigeon Forge, Heritage, Mt Juliet or Memphis we will be there but the rest of the time we have to support our own teams and wrestlers. If we dont support our own teams then our region will start lagging behind and I can assure you thats not going to happen. If you would tell us your name or team maybe we could verify all of this supporting you do but until then you arent going to get much credit from the wrestling circles. By the way... I thought it was really odd you didnt even come to the tournament this weekend but you started all this complaing about everyone supporting it. Its even more cowadly that your team was there but you were not. Hmmm... getting pretty warm on guessing who you are arent I ?

You have me at a loss for words. Here I have traveled all the way to Memphis and brought as many of my kids that would come and you are questioning me? Why are you not wondering where the Nashville and Memphis wrestlers are? You have over 2 million people in those two cities and you expect a town of 300,00 to be the bulk of your tournament. As far as your idiotic comments go let me straighten you out yet again. This is the first top 100 tournament you have ever had, so how have we not supported you? Why do you say I "sometimes" bring kids when I have been to every top 100 tournament there has ever been? Your comment about Chattanooga hosting state tournaments is also a joke. We have held one state tournament in all the years we have been in the Aau. If anybody is geting the short end of the stick it is us. We are more centrally located for the majority of the wrestling population (knoxville, Chattanooga and Nashville) than anywhere. The year McCallie hosted the tournament it was a split state tournament. They only hosted the pee wee age groups and they had more than enough mats. It was absolutley the best state tournamnet ever. Its started on time, was over early, had great seating and viewing and an incredible hospitality room which based on your complaints of the Pigeon Forge tournament is so important for you. As far as you coming to Chattanooga to wrestle you dont do it to support us you do it because its where the best competetion and best tournaments are. The reason we dont come to your local weekend tournaments is because we have our own every weekend and we are going to support our local teams first. I dont think thats a hard concept to understand. I could go on and on but not only did I do a sattelite weigh in for your tournament in Chattanooga but now Im having to go through the brackets and fix all the double entires and kids wrestling in two weights and age groups from your region. Being such a stickler for the rules that you are Im suprised you didnt catch that. So while you are at home resting Ill fix it for you like you expect us to fix your wrestling problems as well. Im pretty sure I figured out who you are so I will be sure to find you tomorrow and we can continue our discussion since Im sure you will continue to hind behind your screen name and complain about all the people who try to make a difference.

I am going to break this down for you as simple as possible. Each region was divided up to get the numbers as equal as possible. This weeks top 100 is for region 4&5 together. I would ask the question "where are own wrestlers at" before I complained about wrestlers 6 hours away in a pending ice storm. Chattanooga and Knoxville are sending 100 times more wrestlers than they received from Memphis for their top 100 tournaments. Where are all the Memphis and west Nashville wrestlers? Why are they not supporting your own tournament? Chattanooga can't bring any middle school age kids because their league just started and they are ineligible until their season is over due to stupid tmssaa rules. Also it appears there is some middle school state duals in Nashville that hurt your numbers. I will be there this weekend. Please come introduce yourself and we can discuss some of your ideas and complaints.

Each region has one top 100 tournament except for region 4 &5 which are combined this year. Next year there will be 5 top 100 tournaments. When I said I havent seen any Memphis kids I meant at the Chattanooga top 100 or the Pigeon Forge top 100. I understand its a long way to travel for you guys but its also the same for people traveling to your area as well. They are apprehensive due to the lack of numbers. Our local non top 100 tournaments usually have 300 kids and thats without a middle school division. We have to work together to make this work and hopefully we can do so. I was hoping you guys would get more support from the other regions on this tournament and I had no idea region 4 & 5 would have such low numbers. My parents are wanting to back out but I think I have convinced them not to as I feel its important to support you all out west to make our state stronger. While the overall numbers are very low there are some very quality wrestlers from your side of the state and we look forward to competing against them. I do hope you will do your best to get the kids as many matches as possible. Since the numbers are this small hopefully we can do round robins even on 5 man weight classes. I noticed some weights with 1 or two wrestlers. What we have done in that situation is to combine weights in a round robin format. You have to have a true place winner for each weight for the top 100 points but you can combine two weights in a round robin and just count their wins against kids in their own weights for the true placings for that weight class. Im sure you guys all well equipted to handle this so dont take my suggestions the wrong way. Ive just assured my parents their kids would get plenty of matches so Im trying to avoid any problems.

Each region has 1 top 100 tournament. I dont know how thats not fair. Why would it be fair to put more in the west when they have the least wrestlers centered geographically? We are just unfortunate our state is shaped the way it is and that Memphis doesnt traditionally have strong numbers. That being said its important we support each other to make this thing work. Even though I havent seen any Memphis kids this year in our top 100 tournaments we have had I am about to enter 12 Red Raiders. I tried to bring more but we have an ice storm coming and the Baylor vs McCallie match tomorrow night. Hopefully others will support the west in their tournament as well.

You did a lot of things right. Tournaments are never perfect. Especially when you have snow days and matches get pushed back and you lose Tssaa refs, ect.. I will let you post what your options and reasons were if you want. To me whatever issues there might have been were trivial at best and the tournament was as good as it could have been given your options.

Im not sure which region you are from but Im pretty sure its not mine. Contact me if you are serious about helping out and we can go from there. Its not a closed society. As I stated above in a factual comment not one single person attended the Fall meeting and it was posted on here, our website and your region director and the dates and times. All of our contact info is also on the website. If you feel you arent getting the help you need in your region then contact me and Ill see what I can do. As far as the person who wont he best match that you didnt feel deserved it please enlighten me. I think it may be you who is confused as to who the board members are. My son is in high school, Lauderdale, Don Elsea, Barnett, nor Kevin Wright had kids wrestling. Foreman has a son that age but he has a broken arm. Baucke wasnt there and he doesnt have a son that age. Wes Smith nor Shannon Sayne have kids that age nor did I see them at the tournament so I have no earthly idea who you are talking about. What age group and weight was it?

OK, this will be my last reply. You know how to contact me if you truly want to help. I posted and explained that all refs are paid the same and its in plain English for all to se right on the website. I think the East Hamilton coach told me he paid out close to $3,000 for the officials at his Top 100. The majority of which were Tssaa referee's. Your next error is when you say the regional directors are chosen. They are voted on by the coaches in each region. The board does not even attend those meetings and has "0" say so in who is a regional director. By the way.. the Deer stew and Deer chili were pretty good. lol

Again, your are severely mistaken. There are multiple tournaments going on each weekend even when there is a top 100. We had a tournament in Chattanooga at East Ridge this weekend in addition to the top 100 at Pigeon Forge. Thats funny you should mention the open meetings. We posted the date on here last year when everyone was complaining about the state tournament. We also posted it on the Tn Aau website. Every region director also knew when it was and could have told you as well if you had asked. Guess how many people showed up besides board members? Out of over 5,000 Aau members in Tennessee not one single person showed up to address any concerns or offer any feedback. Thats why its hard to take last minute criticisms with much validity. If you are truly wanting to help then join forces and actually do something. Walking up 10 minutes prior to the start of a tournament when everyone is in full panic mode and telling us how it should be done is not really helping matters.

Im not sure where all the animosity is coming from. Tennessee wrestling has improved leaps and bounds from a quantity and quality standpoint. The tournaments are larger and better ran than ever. The top 100 series has been a great success in attracting the more talented kids from across the state and bordering states and Sundays duals were a great success as well. While I am a board member I am also a coach who is very passionate about what he does like Bosken and many others. I agree with many of the things you have complained about but there are always reasons things happen and your approach will be taken with more seriousness if handled in a proper and professional manner. We always need more volunteers so the best way is to go to your regional meeting and offer to help. If you arent happy with the leadership your regional director is providing then simply run against him or offer to assist him or her. If your fellow coaches feel you are better suited to do the job you will be chosen. We let your peers in your area chose who represents them. Im not privy as to why there were some variances on the guidelines for this tournament but I will find out from Don Barnett and Greg Foreman and have them reply or I will reply. I can assure you you wont find two people more dedicated to Tennessee wrestling than them. I personally do not like using Aau refs and dont for my tournaments but we have an abundance of quality officials in Chattanooga. That being said there are a few Aau refs I would chose any day over some Tssaa officials. As mush as it pains me to say it, we do have to train them somewhere and unfortunately thats always going to be at kids tournaments. I had a a couple of issues in the tournament with officiating and table workers that cost my kids some matches. I handled it the right way though and didn't blow it out of proportion and thats hard for me as Im too competitive at times. I think there may have been some issues with snow days and matches and tournaments being moved that took away the Tssaa refs this weekend. As many have already stated we have a shortage of Tssaa officials. You were wrong about it being a cost saving decision to use Aau refs. The refs are paid the same. In fact its posted on the Tennessee Aau website. You can click on the officials tab and click on pay schedule to see exactly what they are paid. As we move further and further into the electronic running of tournaments we are working through some kinks but if we dont do it we will never progress. A lot of the problem was last minute adjustments and additions that require changing the brackets and renumbering the whole tournament. I didn't think it was that much of an issue as we finished ahead of time if Im not mistaken. The last top 100 at east hamilton was the best tournament we have ever had as it was pretty much flawless. When you can run a 600 person tournament without any major issues you have accomplished something. There were some "bugs" in the system with track this week that caused a small delay in setting up each computer for each mat but other than that it ran perfectly once started. Like I said, I understand some of your issues and can agree to some extent but Im sure there were circumstances that caused whatever very minor problems there were. If you would like to pursue this further you can contact me and I would be glad to listen to your ideas and help explain why things were done the way they were. My contact info is on the Tn Aau website. One last note... On the way voting is handled for the best wrestlers and best match I can shed some light on that. We asked and asked for people to come vote and very few do. Those that do vote dont take it seriously and 90% of the time voted for their own wrestler regardless of if he was qualified for such an award. There were actual votes for kids for Ow who did not win the tournament. There were votes for best match for kids not in the finals. In one age group nobody even voted for best match and we had to go online and look at the results and chose the closest match in the finals. Some people voted for best match for matches that were 20 second pins. Its almost laughable to be honest. That being said, I have no idea which Aau board member you say voted multiple times for their own son. My son is in high school and none of the other board members had kids wrestling. Foreman is the only board member with a son that age and he is in a cast at the moment.

The kids match at 3:30 will be quite entertaining for anyone that can get down there early. It will feature some of Tennessee's best kids up to 120 lb middle schoolers going against some of Georgia's best from the Compound training facility. Almost all of these kids are state champions and several who have won championships on the national level.

Josh, give me a call. Do you still have my #?

Its not a true state wide all star team. Its mostly kids from a couple of clubs in the Chattanooga area that are trying to get it together. We will pick up a few kids to fill in the gaps. Ga is bringing their team from the Compound ran by Cliff Fretwell. We are hoping to get some even match ups and not really focused on trying to stack a team from all across the state. It will be a mixture of Youth and middle school ages. Coach Bosken has been in contact with the Compound and we are going to match the weights they are bringing.

The match will not be wrestled at the same time as the Utc vs Iowa match. It will be wrestled during one of the duals that day when Utc is sitting out. There were a lot of people wanting some youth wrestling on that day since many are bringing their whole teams up from Ga to watch Utc vs Iowa. Anytime you can get more people in the stands during a college match is a good thing. This should be a win win for everyone involved.

Shannon Sayne is the region rep for that area. His email is sesayne@yahoo. He can give you all the info for teams in that area.

This is the worst rule in the history of wrestling. A lot of these new style headgear all use velcro straps. Now you have exposed velcro that cuts and scratches your opponent and also the matches take longer because you are constantly having to adjust headgear after they come lose.

Dendy is an 8th grader

Jay Roberts is at McCallie now.

Tucker is a little stud. I think he will have a great year. I ran into cupcake Jr at the Baylor/McCallie game and I think he said Tucker would wrestle the weight right after Stevens so Im guessing 126-132?? Cupcake Jr looked good, I think this is going to be his year! As far as our line up there is no telling. We are kind of like Soddy in that we have a lot of good kids around the same weights. A lot will depend on if Tate is eligible or not. Blake is currently healthy or at least by his standards. He has some lingering pain from past surgeries but this is the first time in three years he hasnt been in a cast this time of year and is able to go through pre-season work outs. Between Tate, Brandon, Blake and Bryson they should fall in the 132-152 range but could flip flop who goes where pretty easily if needed. Mccallie will have Addison Cornell , James Westbrooks, Elsea, Griffin Davis, Connell, Hoodenpyle and Cook off the top of my head. They should be a pretty tough team.